Bonding, Bickering, and Building Life Skills

Today the kids and I set out to pick up a few things and have a nice lunch together. Like most days with kids and plans it never goes quiet as planned. But overall we had a great day, nice lunch, and I hope I have placed another nugget of info and skills into their brains somewhere.

Over the last couple of weeks I have received some freebie offers in the mail or at the time of checkout. I have saved these coupons and I try to wait to get them all on the same day if possible to cut down on the cost of gas.  I also did my grocery shopping and actually did a little preparation today for some good shopping this week!

Today I picked up 2 birthday presents, 2 bags of Science Diet Dog Food, and a Victoria Secrets water bottle using the coupons I had.

The entire cost for these items was $4.16!  I had received a $10 off a $10 purchase at Kohl's when I did some shopping not too long ago and I was able to find the Leap Frog toy and Little Tykes truck on clearance 60% off. Those items would have ran me $29.17 but I only paid $1.29.  The Science Diet Dog food was on sale for $8.99 at PetSmart and I had a $5.00 off coupon for each bag (had to do 2 different transactions) and then I have a mail in rebate for both bags which end up being free. The Victoria Secret water bottle was $12.50 but I had received a $10.00 a $10.00 purchase so it actually ended up being $2.87. Not too shabby for a day out with the kids! Overall the cost of these items would have been $59.65 so I saved $55.49!!

While I was out in town I went "shopping" for coupons! Now I won't go far out of my way because then that is a waste of resources but if I am by a grocery store I will do a quick stop in to see what coupons they have in the store either via tear pad or pull coupons. (I know I am a dork but it does save lots of  money). This past week I went shopping and because of the sale they are having at Fry's I only spent $170.00 and saved $327!! There are other blogs out there that give some really great advice and I will try to provide some links to those later on. But for now this is how I do it!

My mess starts out looking like this.

With the sale at Fry's they are making all coupons a dollar and they are accepting competitor coupons I have to strike while the deals are good. I do cut coupons on items I may not normally buy but only if I would like to try the item I normally wouldn't because it is too expensive or if it is something we can try for free.  With Fry's they will let you "stack" coupons which means I can use a competitor coupon and a manufacturer coupon. So I try to find both and Target has great coupons on their website so I will print those out (on recycled paper, I will use the back of the sheets).  Here is an example below.

 So the Dog Food isn't on sale but with getting $4.00 off and then getting 3 cans of dog food with the third coupon, I can get a bag of dog food and 3 cans of dog food for about $3.99 or less! The second picture is for jello pudding. Right now it is on the buy 10 item combo and it is $.75 a box. With the target coupon they will make it a $1.00 off and then with the $1.25 coupon off it makes my 3 boxes of jello pudding FREE! I maybe wouldn't normally buy boxed pudding but why not get it free and it's a great snack!

I have another grocery trip lined up this week so I will share as I get the good deals! I have the kids help me out with the coupons even if it is just cutting them out in the hopes that they can see what a little hard work and preparation can save you.

If you hear of good ideas I always love to hear about them and I hope to pass the good deals along as well!