How'd my Marsh pan out?

You remember the My Marsh promotion this week?  Spend $25 on certain P&G items (proctor and gamble) get a $10 coupon for next weeks shopping???  AWESOME!

Transaction #1:
2 Tide 2X $5.99 each
4 Pantene Shampoo and Conditioners $2.99 each
1 Old Spice mens bodywash/shampoo $3
$26.94 total
Q's:
-$2 Tide
-$2 Tide
-$3 wyb 2 pantene
-$3 wyb 2 pantene
-$2 old spice body wash

Total $14.94 plus tax ($16.83 total).  And I earned a $10 my marsh coupon off my next shopping trip. 

Transaction #2:
3 Tide 2X laundry detergent $5.99 each
3 Old Spice mens bodywash/shampoo combo $3 each
$26.97 total
Q's:
-$2 tide
-$2 tide
-$2 tide
-$2 old spice body wash
-$2 old spice body wash
-$2 old spice body wash

$14.97 before tax ($16.86 with tax) and I earned another $10 reward for next week.

What I really needed was the laundry soap.  But had I just bought the 5 laundry soaps I would have spent $20 after my mq's and earned a $10 reward for next week.  As it was, I stocked up on a few things that we weren't so low on, spent $30 out of pocket and earned $20 for next week.  Basically- both scenarios were $10 out of pocket to me (after the rewards).  THAT is what I think is key to couponing.  Knowing how to utilize the 'buy XX earn XX' sales and combining them with coupons to save big time.  My 'old self' would have said 'that's silly to spend $25 on something when all I need is one $6 laundry soap- see I just saved $19'.  But my 'new self' knows that having cheap items that we use anyway stocked up saves us a ton of money in the long run.  And it eliminates the 'oh no we've run out of laundry detergent' panic- because in my house there is ALWAYS more : )