I actually went to Walmart

I took the kids to Walmart today. Ugh, I know, I HATE Walmart. It is dirty and the people are not helpful. In my mind Target and Fred Meyer are better somehow (although I am not so impressed with Target lately). I think in the last 7 years, I have been to Walmart less than 5 times and most of those were in New Mexico where the choice was Walmart or Kmart. At least they were clean there.

Each kid received a $10 gift card to Walmart at Christmas. I needed to buy wrapping paper for Littlebit's birthday, so I decided to take them there and let them spend there money. It was hard to find things for less than $10 that Lovey wanted. He was thrilled to pick out something by himself, but kept going to the $20 and $30 items. Finally he settled on a soccer ball, kite, glitter glue, and pipe cleaners. (He wants to make some hearts out of them for decoration.) Littlebit got a Nerf ball, Cinderella bouncy ball, and construction paper. I think the best part for them was they picked out what they wanted and paid for it themselves. When we got home they immediately went outside to play with the toys.

Great deals to start my day

I've been putting off my grocery shopping for a few days now, so I finally went this morning. I went to Target, Albertsons, and Safeway.

Safeway: I spent $10 and saved $8. They had eggs BOGO and Jello was $0.17.

Albertsons: I spent $37 and saved $43. They have the 10 for $15 after $5 off at the checkstand on Cheerios and other products. In my 10 items, I had 3 boxes of Cheerios. I used 3 $1 off coupons from the 6 week challenge and $1.50 off coupon from Albertsons. This made the cereal free. (These were the big boxes!) Buying 10 items also gave me a coupon for 20 box tops that I will donate to Lovey's school tomorrow. I also got a bag of tostitos chips for free with coupon. Taco salad will be on the menu this week, as well as tomatillos salsa from our CSA and tomatoes from the garden.

Target: Luvs family pack diapers were $15 dollars. I bought 2 and received a $5 gift card. I had $8 in coupons, but didn't notice until I was leaving that it rang up as $7.

Shopping is done for now. Food will be enjoyed by all and littlebit was in need of diapers.

Latest shopping deals

Staples: Elmer's glue: Free limit 2 Notebook Filler paper $0.09 Rite Aid: Befine skin care $-2.84 (I did have to fight for the coupon to work and the lady behind me was not happy, but I can't help that they only had one lane open. When she said she couldn't accept the coupon, I said I didn't want it, but she called up a manager to help run my gift card through (I took advantage of the prescription transfer coupon), the manager said to accept the coupon because it didn't specify the size. Target: Crayola 24 count crayons: $0.22 Crayola watercolors $0.47 after $1.50 coupon I received in the mail. Lovey was very happy with all of the new art supplies.

What a deal!

The past few weeks, I have been trying to use my coupons more effectively. I have always used coupons, but it was more a savings of a few cents here or a few cents there. Now I'm trying to save even more. Today I went to Rite-Aid because they had some good rebates with the P&G coupons that just came out. Here's what I got: 1 Oral-B Stages Toothpaste and Toothbrush ($1 off of 2 Q and $1 rebate off toothbrush) Herbal Essence Shampoo and Conditioner ($3 Q and $2 rebate) - with free mani/pedi offer Venus Razor ($2 Q and $5 rebate) Crest toothpaste with free floss and travel toothpaste ($.75 Q and $1.74 rebate) Oral B Pulsar ($1 Q and $4 rebate) I spent $22 oop and will receive $13.74 in rebates for a total of $8.26. If I hadn't used my coupons, rebates, and sale items my total would be $36.33. Not bad for one of my first tries at this and I get a free mani/pedi!