Grocery shopping trip to restock produce and bread

Went to Wal-Mart for a few items on the list and pretty happy with my purchases.  I did not have many coupons because most of it was produce.  Spent right at $60 on my gift card and still have right at $5 remaining on it.  This included Christmas 4x6 pictures and gluten-free items which cost a little more.  We have been working on a Pantry Challenge to eat up most of the random items to help make it easier to replace with better items.  I have been reading the blog 100 Days of Real Food and really like the information.  My goal this year is to replace the not so healthy items with foods without GMOs and the extra dyes.  The new Wal-Mart near our house is pretty nice.  I must say I have never really liked Wal-Mart because they seemed dirty inside, dark, and dingy.  This one is still really new and looks nice.  The employees have been pleasant and helpful when asking a question for a product.  I sure hope it stays like that because it really has been convenient to shop.  I am even starting to watch and debate on some of the price matching because I have heard it is not difficult to do.

Pantry Challenge January 2014: Day 8

I can sure tell we have been working through our pantry goods which is exciting!  We are slowly getting the pantry more organized since it is now not overstocked.  The picture below is from yesterday's challenge, day 8.

This morning, I had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up a few basic needs including breads, fruits, and vegetables.  The most exciting is I had a Wal-Mart gift card that still has about $5 remaining on it and through this challenge we have spent approximately $90 on groceries and household goods within a two week period!  Since it is on the gift card also, it is not effecting our regular budget which is severely helping us to payday on the 20th!  From reviewing our budget from December it shows we spent over $600 on groceries!  I know it could be partially due to Christmas, but it could have been from just truly over spending.  It feels so good to get back on track!

Last Week of School!

Jakob went to a birthday party on Sunday at Main Event.  He had a blast playing with his friends.  After the party, we came home for quick bite to eat and then went to the playground.  Jakob had too much energy still and we were trying to wear him out some more!  I took pictures of everyone bowling, but thought the picture of Jakob and Sara (not the birthday girl) was precious! I sure hope some of Jakob's friends will email or call me this summer since I left my information for the parents.

I planted flowers in the front flower bed on Sunday morning.  I started pretty early and finished around 9AM.  It sure has been hot in Texas this year and we are early in June.  The temperature sure makes it feel like July, not June!

I spent most of the day cleaning on Memorial Day.  It all started because we had found a nice track of ants in the kitchen!  I went to Wal-Mart (and remembered why I dislike Wal-Mart) and purchased a few of the grocery items we needed, cleaning supplies, and bug spray!

After school on Wednesday, I learned my final results of state mandated testing.  97% of my students passed and I was super excited!  All of my students who retook the test passed the test and they made leaps and bounds.  The last week of school I received letters from some of my eighth graders.  The letters were so sweet and they said things like, "You always said we could do it." Getting the results made it remind me of why I worked so hard in the first place!  I am so proud of my students!

Thursday was the last day of school for the kids and Friday was my last day for the year.  I had almost everything out of the classroom on Thursday and had to finish up a few things Friday morning.  I had some meetings and then we had a staff meeting at noon on Friday.  We had an awesome pot luck where I ate plenty including the best chocolate cheesecake!

Jakob had his ice skating lessons on Saturday and he did super yesterday! He skated back and forth and actually was getting faster!  He still is not building his knees too much, but got up on his own multiple times using the technique he learned from his instructors.  After ice skating lessons, Jakob and I went to Hobby Lobby.  We went to look for large plastic plants and boy was I surprised to find out how much they actually cost!  If I still really want one, I will have to watch for their weekly deals!

I started a scrapbook layout on Friday night and finished it on Saturday.  I am currently working on scrapping last years pool pictures using Coordinates Collections Oceanside kit.  I received the kit a long time ago but hadn't used it yet and it is perfect for all the pool and summer pictures!

Today I went to Kroger and picked up the sale items.  I spent $100.13 I saved $44 with coupons and $72 overall or 42%.  Overall, with what I purchased I was happy since I had sirloin steaks, produce, and other items on sale that now have us stocked for a good couple weeks.

Remembering Why I Dislike Wal-Mart

I went to Wal-Mart earlier today for a few things.  Normally, I would have gone to Kroger.  However, Kroger is farther away and we needed a few cleaning supplies and bug spray!  Most of the items I bought were about the same price at Kroger and some of the produce was cheaper.  There were a few items I would have bought at Kroger with my coupons due to advertised specials and coupons that I did not buy at Wal-Mart because they were much more expensive.  My mom always joked about going to Wal-Mart in my hometown with the coupons I send her from our newspaper.  She always says the cashier reads every coupon before scanning.  I always laugh because when I go to Kroger or Target, they tend to scan them and only really read them if the computer beeps at them!  Well, today my cashier read every single coupon and was the slowest at scanning them into the register.  Then for my Silk Soy Milk, I had four coupons with my four items.  Two of the coupons were $1.00/1 and two of them were B1G1 coupons.  I was legit since the $1.00/1 coupons were taking off the items I still was buying and the other coupons made the other free.  I think the cashier figured I was trying to cheat the system and she verified it with another sales clerk.  Lastly, I printed a few coupons this morning from my printer.  It is low on ink, so you should have seen her reaction when she came across the one that printed this morning!

Wal-Mart: June 12th

I went to Wal-Mart with my mom on Friday. She always ends up purchasing things for my boys and she is working on learning the coupon game. Her newspaper does not get all the good coupons as I get with the Dallas/Fort Worth paper. She ended up saving about $5.00-$7.00 with the coupons I gave her. They did a trip about two weeks ago to her local Walgreens and she was shocked in how much they saved on that trip. She is hoping to retire soon and says she will have more time to keep up with all of the coupons! Maybe I can even get her to create a blog!

I only had a few random items we needed while she picked up her things.

Pokemon: Meet Ash (Level 2 Book) by Michael Teitelbaum $3.00

2 - Kraft Mac & Cheese $0.50

Downy Liquid Softner $4.26
-$1 off any Pringles $120 Savings Rebate Booklet

2% Great Value Milk 1 Gallon $1.98

Overall, I spent $9.74 and saved $1.00 with my coupon.

May 4th: Target, Kroger, & Wal-Mart

I headed to Target after dropping Jakob off to school. I was unable to take a picture of everything today from Target since some of it needed to be put away and some was left in the car for another load to bring up the 3 flights of stairs! From Target, I considered the above picture the best of products for price with coupons and savings! However, with coupons today from Target I saved over $36 in coupons!! My bill went from $70 to $33!!

Schick Intuition $6.99 (Sale price week 5/3-5/9)
-$4.00 Coupon

Schick Quattro Replacement Blades $8.27 (Sale price week 5/3-5/9)
-$4.00 Coupon
-$2.00 Super Target Coupon

(2) Purell Hand Sanitizer $1.37 each
-$0.55 Coupon
-$0.50 Coupon

Total After Store Savings: $69.71
Total Spent: $33.30
Total Saved: $36.41 or 52%

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My next stop was Kroger. I had to come home first and gather the coupons. We did not need much from Kroger and mainly went to get the specials. Healthy Choice and Marie Callendar's dinners were a great buy! No picture from Kroger today because by the time I got home, everything needed to go into the fridge or freezer quickly!

Total Before Savings and Coupons: $57.42
Total After Store Savings: $46.76
Total Spent: $31.39
Total Saved: $26.03 or 45%

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My last stop today was Wal-Mart. I really wanted to go in and get out really fast since I still had the Kroger groceries in the car. Since I was rushing, I forgot to grab yogurt for Jeff and one other item. Oh well, it did keep me to only going in there for the few things I really needed. My main item I needed was All laundry detergent and was shocked I would have spent less for it at Kroger! Kroger had it marked $4.82 which I figured was high since I was used to seeing it around $4.00. Turns out, Wal-Mart had it for $4.97. Oh well...still doing well today!

(2) All Laundry Detergent $4.97 each
-$2.00 Coupon
-$2.00 Coupon

Rimmel Mascara $5.97
-$5.97 FREE Coupon

Total After Store Savings: $18.74
Total Spent: $8.77
Total Saved: $9.97 or 53%

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Overall, it was worth gathering all the coupons and sorting them out. The Kroger ad is already on Southern Savers, so I will need to start looking through it and deciding what we need. Here are my overall savings for today.

Total Before Savings and Coupons: $145.87
Total After Store Savings: $135.21
Total Spent: $73.56
Total Saved: $72.31 or 50%