If you will recall, I had planned to not shop much in the month of November. One of the reason was to continue reducing down our stockpile in addition to not wanting to leave a lot of food in our refrigerator while we were away. So it was starting to look a little bare around here and we had already plan to do a major shopping trip the first of December.

I was super excited to find out that Starbuck’s K-cup were going to be on an awesome sale at Harris Teeter this week, Matt was even more excited than I was!  The deal was part of “stock up” where you must buy 5 or more of an item to get the best price. 5 10 cup packs of Starbuck K cup for $25 is a good deal to begin with but I also had enough coupons for 10 boxes.. After looking over the ad, I planned to also purchase the 24 packs of water along with some can vegetables and cheese as well.  I love Harris Teeter an even after my problems today, they still are my favorite store. The problems started at check out, I am very careful to watch all my coupons but the computer can sometimes not always be kind. The first problem that was an easy fix with a manager key is that it said I had too many coupons. The store policy is that they will double up to 20 coupons a day. I actually only had 13 coupons to double but I had around 10 coupons that were valued at $1.50 or more and would not double. I guess the computer does not recognize the difference.  Next as my receipt was printing, I realized that my waters had not rang up at the EVIC price, this can only be corrected at the service desk. I was disappointed but it happens so I stopped by the desk.   Matt did make the comment that it seems that we had spent a lot for a trip and our saving was not adding up. I started looking over the receipt and realized that only 5 of my packs of K cups had rang up at the correct price. Luckily we were less than 5 minutes from the store so we turned around and headed back to the service desk. They were already aware of the problem but it still took around 15 minutes to get my $12 refund back to me. I am so glad that I was using cash this day because it makes all the changes and refunds much easier!

Next we stopped at JC Penny’s to return a pair of boots, I order over Thanksgiving. I have wide feet and fat calves  so finding boots to fit is near impossible. I tried on around 20 pair in the store now of which fit the way I wanted. I did find 2 pair of boots that I really liked that were available with wide calves, so I purchased both to be shipped to my house. UPDATE: One pair arrived and does not fit!  I guess I will stick to the short ugly ones I have!

After grabbing some lunch, we headed to Costco where we need to purchase lots of fruits and vegetables in  addition to milk, eggs, bacon, cream cheese, etc.  You get the idea and after spending over $400 you would think this would be the end to my grocery shopping. Not so, I also had to go to Aldi to pick up turkey and backing supplies.  Even Aldi did not get my order right today. I was charged for 3 rugs instead of 2 but caught the mistake before leaving the store so I was able to get a cash refund as well.

We currently have $15 left in our grocery budget for the month, which will certainly be used to purchase last-minute party supplies for school and home.  As you can tell, today was not the easiest shopping day and I am so glad that I have no plans to shop for groceries again until after Christmas!  Matt mostly likely will be making the trip to pick up items as they are needed!

I have been able to get in some extra shopping over the past couple of days, so I thought I would share with you. I was able to pick up several items, including Lunchables to use in the girls lunches as they head back to school. Stocking up on these at $1.00 each is much better for us than the $2.85 a day for lunch at school. I am sure that as the year goes on we will be back to packing our own lunch combo but these are definitely worth the convenience at the stock up price.

Magic Mart– Not sure how wide spread this store is but I found some awesome deals yesterday with no coupons.
Hunt Pudding packs- $0.88
Lays Stax (Blue containers)  Barbecue or Sour Cream/Onion $0.88
Reese Peanut Butter 8 packs $1.03

Walmart–  I hate this store but need to pick up a birthday gift and decided to use some coupons while I was there.
Notebook Paper- $0.75 each- Not the best price but much cheaper than $1.59 which is the regular price.
Lunchables $1.00 each
Suave Kid’s Shampoo- $1.50 each, printable coupon $1.00 off so $0.50 each (I got two)
Mitchum Deodorant-$2.97-  $2.00 off coupon paid $0.97.  This is one of the few items I remain brand loyal to so I try to always buy at less than $1.00
Hawaiian Punch- $1.98- coupon for $1.00 off so I picked up two for $0.98 each
Minute Maid Juice- half gallon on sale 4 for $5, two $1.00 off 2 coupons and submitted to get a Walmart gift card $5.  I will update when I actually receive this gift card.  Even without the gift card less than $1 each.

Target– My favorite store!  I love the way they let you combine coupons. Read more about it here.
Sharpie Highlighters- 2 pack, $1.98 each, Mobile coupon for $1.00 off two. Ending up being $0.98
Scotch Tape- $1.02- Target Coupon for $1.00 off.
Post- It notes $0.99- Target coupon for $1.00 off
BIC mechanical pencils (8 count) $0.99 each, Target coupon for $1.00 off 2.
Skippy Peanut Butter Singles (6 pack) – $2.60- 30% off with cartwheel and $0.75 off 2 from newspaper.
Lunchables- Buy 5 get 5 free final price $0.75 each.
Light weight Gray jacket for Zach $5.00

CVS– I decided against working a $10 gift card deal this week. I am trying to save money for the beach and although the deals were good they were not rock bottom and honestly we didn’t need any so I just picked up the mandatory diet cokes and cereal.
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal- 2 for $4, with 1 ECB with the purchase of 2. I had two  $0.50 off one coupons, plus a $0.50 deposit into my saving star account. They ended up being $1 a box so my buy price.

The biggest reward I got this weekend is by catching in my Saving Star money. This is a simple app that is tied to your individual reward cards or can be used by scanning in Walmart receipts as well. I had $12.15 deposit in my checking account on Saturday from this!

I can honestly say that I enjoy shopping more at Target than CVS now!  The only thing that could make me like shopping Target anymore would be if it were physically closer to me!  Over the last several months I have been making it a habit to watch the Target ads and stop by any time I am in Winston.. On Thursday, we spent most of the day shopping and our first stop was Target. I am going to give a lot of details about this trip and also how anyone can combine all the promotions at Target to save even more money!

The final saving at Target to me is the simplest. You save an additional 5% of your bill after all other coupons by using a “Red Card”.  My red card is not a credit card but simply a card that is tied to my regular bank account. I use it only in Target and it works like a regular debit card although it usually takes about a week for it to post to my account. On our trip Thursday, I saved $4.53 by swiping this card instead of my regular debit card.

One of the biggest ways to save at Target is to combine sales with coupons. You are allowed to use 1 Target (store) coupon in addition to a manufactures coupon.  Target actually has 2 different types of coupons. First they have printable coupons from the website, in addition, they have mobile coupons which are texted to your phone. Although you can use both a manufactures coupon and a Target coupon on one item you can not use both a mobile coupon and a printed Target coupon on the same items.   On this trip, I purchased “Right Guard Deodorant” this was not on sale. The price was $3.34, I used a $2.00 off Target coupon and a $1.50 coupon from the newspaper for this item, which made it entirely FREE! I don’t think that Target allows overages but I can’t really tell from my receipt but FREE is still Free!  Target also puts out very different coupons than you generally see. For example I was able to purchase a roll of Scotch Tape and a pack of Post It notes  for $0.02 each by simply using the store coupon. Another advantage to the Target coupon is that some are for their house brand items, which are usually less expensive. For example, I purchased the house brand sunscreen and used $1.00 off store coupons.  I have really been surprised at how many coupons I find on their store brands.

Finally, in addition to use both a store and manufactures coupon, Target has a program called “Cartwheel”  This takes a little bit of work and planning but as you will see well worth the time in the long run.  To use the “cartwheel” you have to go to the Target website and sign up for the account, I used Facebook so it was simple. Cartwheel items are generally for a % off an item.  You are limited to 18 Cartwheel offers at a time but can easily remove and add. I always print my Cartwheel list from the site so it is a simple scan of a barcode in the store. On this trip, I took advantage of several of these offers including 20% of kids shoes, 30% off Nutty Poptarts, 25% off Swimwear, and 15% off Coopertone Sunscreen. I was able to combine the cartwheel and coupons to purchase the Poptarts for $0.66 a box and the sunscreen for $6.50 a bottle. The percentage of saving comes off the price of the item before coupons which is an advantage.

A final reason I like shopping Target is the convenience of having everything in one store!