Woot for Shopping Deals

I've been in need of some shopping motivation. The last months I've really been focusing on trying to get back into the swing of deal shopping.

This week was a good reminder of why I actually enjoy this shopping game (never mind the necessity party of doing it)!

First came Staples. I am the first to admit that if I let myself, I would be an office-supply junkie. I just love office stores. Don't ask. I don't know why. I just do. Any ways, I already shop at Staples because of their handy rewards program for empty ink cartridges. January they had some fantastic additional rebate offers that I decided to take advantage of. End result, I bought this:

for a grand total of $6.08 and I'll be getting back $39.96 in rebates. Ahem. Free ink anybody?

Then came CVS. Been slowly getting back into this game as well. Our stockpile had lasted us pretty well, but now we're beginning to have to pay full price for stuff, so I realized it was time to dive back in. With some EBCs I had from a few weeks ago, we snagged this:

for a grand total of $0.58! Which I had to put on my Discover card because I realized I failed to bring any cash. Go figure.

Grocery shopping has been definitely more challenging with my Blueberry around. Namely because she'll do OK with one maybe two stores in a day. But that's about her max. And not every day either. I generally try to just do a max of 2 days during the week where I have to take her for shopping (or appointments if those are in the "to do" list). Seems to work out best that way. So I've had to really pick and choose which stores to hit each week. Some days (like the Staples/CVS above, if Chris is home I'll run out and hit a few while she's napping). But then of course we have to factor in gas costs into everything now. Is it really worth going down to a store on the opposite end of town just for one deal? A lot of times not.

Making it work. Just having to learn balance and judicious decision making! (And utilizing my husband!)

Anyhoo...Dillons was the grocery store of the week this week. Chris has found that he's actually doing OK with most cereal again, so I've been stocking up on cereal deals for him (haven't bought cereal in a few years. The price was depressing.).

Total out of pocket: $38.76.

Not too bad, especially given that the toilet bowl cleaner was not at all on sale. But when one has to clean one's toilets and when one has not been deal shopping, one has to make sacrifices in price sometimes! (still haven't found a good home-made toilet cleaner that I actually like and feel like does the job).

Good reminder for me. It is truly worth the time and effort I put into the couponing/deal hunting/planning.