Free is good, even if it costs a little...

I know, I know... another post about getting a good deal at the store?  YES!  We're doing our best to save as much money as we can these days... money is tight like whoa, and frankly, I don't wanna have to get a job now after finally getting to be a SAHM!  (I mean, I even made my whole family shave their heads so we could save on shampoo and hair products.  Just kidding.)  So when things are on sale, or better yet FREE, I'm all about that.  I do our main grocery shopping at Aldi because they have the best prices.  But they don't have everything ans sometimes better deals can be found elsewhere.  Kroger doubles/triples coupons. Target, Walgreens and CVS have their own store coupons you can stack with manufacturers coupons, and the latter two offer store 'bucks' that work same as cash.  Combining all those things helps a lot and some shopping trips are definitely better than others depending on what we need versus sales, available coupons, etc.

Yesterday, I ran around to Walgreens, Kroger and two (yes, 2!) CVS's looking for the deals/freebies I've seen listed on the Deal Blogs I read.  I was somewhat disappointed at Walgreens (again) as most of the stuff I read about/planned to get was gone or not the deal I saw listed.  Kroger was good... found what I needed, used coupons and saved a lot.  Not as much as the lady in front of me, though.*  And CVS was awesome, they have a Pampers deal going right now, where you buy a big box of diapers at $21.99, you get $10 ECB (basically store credit).  So, I used my coupons and got that deal along with a few others things and ended up getting a bunch of ECB which I used on another box of diapers (woo for stocking up on those boogers!).  The hardest part about those shopping trips is getting the kids in and out of the car and having them cooperate while I hunt and peck for specific items that correspond with the deals.  They can only take so much and then one or both of them start getting grumpy.

Today I hit up Target and decided to just make it fun.  If I didn't find the deals I was looking for, so what?  Let's just have a good time looking at stuff and being silly together!  Preston was great, one of his best shopping trips lately (guess my decision to just be easy worked!).  Callen, however, was tired and cranky, but as soon as I got him out of his seat and into the sling, he was asleep and fine!  I did end up finding nearly everything I was hoping for!  I got up to the checkout and the total was about $22.  After my coupons... $2.59.  The only reason it was THAT much is 'cause I picked up two packs of patriotic (July 4th) napkins for .50cents each, some Kai-Lan stickers for .74cents and an extra pack of Colored Pencils that were .88cents.  That's really all I paid for!  Everything else I got was FREE!  Here's a pic...


Aquafresh Kid's toothpaste, 2 Sobe LifeWaters, 2 bags of Snyder's Pretzels, a Wonka Bar, 2 packs of napkins, Bagel Bites, Papermate pens, Kai-Lan stickers, 2 packs of Bic pens, 2 boxes of Crayola markers and 1 box of Crayola Colored Pencils.

Coulda kept my whole transaction under a dollar if I hadn't of picked up the extra napkins and stickers at the last minute.  Haha.  Oh well!  Pretty happy with my score!


*The lady in front of me at Kroger yesterday totally showed me up.  She bought like 20 things of deodorant, 20 packs of Mentos, 5 bags of cheese and I dunno what else and her total after coupons was $1.24.  You go, lady!  But I dunno what you're gonna do with THAT much deodorant, I mean... really?  Please don't clear out the shelves, other people need deodorant too!  Hopefully she's giving them to charity or something. Heh.  And, lady, where did you get all those copies of the coupons? How many Sunday papers do you take?! 

Speaking of... if anyone takes the Sunday paper and doesn't use the coupons, I'll gladly take 'em off your hands!  I will gladly also give away the pet food coupons or other ones I don't use if you want/need 'em.

Mad props to the following sites for helping me save money (so I don't have to figure all this stuff out on my own!):
MyDallasMommy.com, HeyItsFree.net, Freebies4Mom.com, MoneySavingMom.com, DealSeekingMom.com, SheSaved.com and SavingsCentsWithSense.net.