Shopping Saturday - 01/14/2012

Little more shopping today.

1) Family Dollar - Went back there to pick up the other two packages of Stayfree products. Now if you saw my post the other day you know that purchased $6.30 worth of product and paid $2.80 utiziling store sale and Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coupons. Did the same thing again today. Although I forgot to put them in the picture!

Next Walgreens. Remember how I told you it's all about the math. Here's another example of that. I talked previously about having a $10.00 credit with Alice.com and how I could get a 24-pack of tissue paper for $8.65 as they had a coupon running. Well, here's where I do the math and decide which one I want to do. Now that $10.00 is free money however I know that in order to place an order there I have to order six items so that $10.00 is going to stay there for a little bit. Walgreens currently has Cottonelle 12-packs for $5.00/package or $.41/roll. Now remember I told you about getting the Loyalty cards from the beauty counters at Walgreens. I purchased 6 packs ($30.00) and automatically get 15% off each package which is $.75. Now we are down to $4.25. Walgreens also has $1/1 coupons in the monthly coupon books so now I am down to $3.25 per package or $.27/roll. Now I have added these 6 packs to my inventory and my stockpile and by the time I need to purchase tissue paper again, they will probably be on sale again.

Here's another way to look at it. Right now Cottonelle only has coupons up for the 18-count and 24-count packages. I check the prices at Wal-Mart and Krogers the last time I was in each and it still comes out a much better deal to purchase at Walgreens. Wal-Mart had a 24-count package for $10.76 and Krogers was $10.99. Doing the math, two packages (12 ct x 2 = 24 rolls) at $3.25/package, I still come out much better with a total cost of $6.50 from Walgreens which is still over $4 savings. When you visit stores you will get used to check prices on this and that while you are there. We'll talk more about that in the in my post about Loyality

Back to Shopping:

Next was a trip to Wal-Mart. Couple of points to make on this. I never do as well when I have to purchase cokes for the coke-a-holic and dog food. Have you seen the size of my Shephard? Anyway, I still use coupons and other things as I can. For example, Wal-Mart has their 24-packs of coke for $6.99. However, Wal-Mart will match anyone's prices. Target has cokes on sale for $6.29. I had the flyer with me and showed it to the cashier and she lowered the price to $6.29. The other higher priced item is the meat purchase I made. I chose the best product for the money as it is going to become jerky and it cost over $9.00 so that was a pricey purchase but then again, price the cost of good quality jerky and you will know where I am headed. I spent a total of $41.06 at Wal-Mart and that was after a price adjustment and $8.00 in coupons. Believe it out not, I will break out the $41.06 in a couple of different ways in my budget and you will see that I am still staying well within my budget even with a purchase of $41.06.

Final stop was DSW. Remember Spring Cleaning this past week was on cleaning out the closets and dresser drawers. It was time to purchase a new pair of shoes. Basic black. It's my most worn pair of shoes so I wanted to make certain and purchase a decent pair at the best possible price. I remembered that I had a $10 coupon in my binder that I received early last year for signing up with DSW so off to there I went. And, yes I went to the clearance items for my shoes. Original price of shoes was $59.94 but I received a discount of ($23.98) for 40% clearance discount then my coupon for ($10.00) so the shoes ended up costing $27.52. So I saved 55%. Remember, anything over 50% is the goal. Eventually we will get to saving 65% or better in total but we'll get to that in a slow steady process. Trust me, it can be done.

So, here the total shopping for the day, including the Christmas items from the previous post which were done first thing this morning.

Total Value

$49.71 - Walmart

$39.03 - Toys R Us

$31.80 - Walgreens

$63.53 - DSW

$184.07 TOTAL VALUE

After Sales & Coupons

$41.06 - Wal-Mart

$2.05 - Toys R Us

$21.03 - Walgreens

$27.52 - DSW

$91.66 Total Out of Pocket

Percentage Savings = 51%

Tomorrow I will show you how all of this fits into my budget. You do have a budget don't you? Tomorrow we will discuss the extreme importance of having a budget. You can't save without it.