Let's add another $15 in gift cards to that total (it's why we purchased more toilet paper and coffee), plus I used the $15 gift card that I got on my previous Target shopping trip...
Immediate savings with in-store sales and coupons: $41.04
+ $15 in new Target gift cards (which replaced the $15 I used on this order)
+ previously "earned" $15 Gift Card (so the money didn't come out-of-pocket)
= $71.04 TOTAL SAVINGS (& a years worth of toilet paper!)
Needless to say, I was on a bit of a savings "high" after that trip, and then I topped it off by going around town collecting my birthday freebies (and other freebies I'd been collecting but hadn't cashed in on yet). This included: a small meat sauce & spaghetti and a slice of strawberry cheesecake from Fazoli's, a bottle of Victoria's Secret Dream Angel's Heavenly lotion, a travel size (3 oz.) bottle of lotion from Bath & Body Works (free with ANY purchase - I spent $1.64 total), a tub of chocolate chip cookie dough from Papa Murphy's Pizza (free with a pizza purchase - which we were doing anyway), and a 24 oz. fruit smoothie from Keva Juice to close off the day...YUM! I still have a free dessert at Chili's and a free 2.5 oz. scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins to use if I so chose - Birthday Clubs and email promotions rock. :-)
OK, enough about all of the things that weren't supposed to have been the topic of today's post! I just couldn't help myself - I love sharing deals and I hope it makes you look around to see where you can find deals, cut corners, and get free stuff! :-)
I started this post by saying that I'm always looking for ways to save a few pennies here and there. One of the ways I do that is by looking for the Managers Special in the produce department. A while back I got a bag of oranges for $0.99 that I've been sending to work with Peter in his lunch. When I went to the grocery on Wednesday I knew I didn't have a lot left in our grocery budget for the month, so I wasn't planning on picking up any produce this week. However, I spied a $0.99 special in the mushroom section (and since I'm married to a man who loves mushrooms, I try to get these when I see them) and then I grabbed another $0.99 special on two small heads of lettuce.
Lettuce always seems to go bad in our house before we use it all (which is why I loved growing it fresh in the garden this summer - I only picked what I needed!), but these heads were smaller, and they also gave me dinner inspiration last night. I picked up a couple of avocados and some tomatoes and made soft tacos for dinner. Yum! :-)
How do you save money on your groceries? And does anyone have any great ideas about dried beans? I think they would be cheaper (we go through black beans in this house like nobody's business!), but I HATED soaking them when we were overseas (and they never really turned out anyway)...thoughts?!?!
Have a great week-end!
I was also pretty excited at Target yesterday. I had a $5 coupon for anything "baby" so I bought 2 boxes of Luvs diapers (for the twins....) and then got a $5 gift card too! I was quite pleased with myself. :)
ReplyDeleteI *heart* Target. Hope you had a fun day yesterday!
Blessings,
Joy
As far as beans go, you can boil dried beans for five minutes, let them soak an hour, rinse & change the water, then simmer them for another hour. I do this with pinto beans, and they cook all the way through - from dried to ready to eat in a little over two hours. I guess it would work with black beans or any other type as well. This has saved me many a night, because I NEVER think about soaking beans the day before...
ReplyDeleteSome great deals there! I wanted to share that I read a tip on keeping lettuce and it works really well. You bang the head of lettuce on the counter so the core comes out. You don't want to cut the core out or any of the lettuce if you can help it, because the "reaction" of the lettuce to the metal of the knife really does make the lettuce deteriorate quicker. Then you wet a paper towel and fold it in fourths or whatever size needed to be stuffed into the core hole. If the paper towel dries out, you rewet it. Then I wrap my whole lettuce head in aluminum foil. I've been amazed how long lettuce will last this way. And remember to just tear lettuce with one's hands or you can cut with a plastic utensil.
ReplyDeleteHope that helps,
Shirley