Shoe buying time UGH!!

After spending $118.00 on 3 pair of shoes for my kids yesterday I was feeling pretty drained. Buying shoes for my kids always wears me down. One of mine has a narrow foot and the other has an extra wide foot. Unfortunately the best fitting shoes are Stride-Rite. I say unfortunately because we pay anywhere from $35.00 per pair to $55.00 per pair. You can probably guess, my kids only get 2 to 3 pair a season. Last year I found a sale and bought 4 pair of shoes for $20 each in 3 different sizes and thought I would have this season covered. I pulled out the shoes a couple of days ago, patting myself on the back for getting such a great deal, only to realize that my child had a growth spurt and two pair of shoes don't fit. UGH! So I pulled out the next pair and they fit good or so I thought. We went to the shoe store to find tennis shoes and the girl measured my childs feet and said, "These shoes are to small." I told her that we had just gotten those out from the closet. The sales girl looked at me and said, "I would wear these out then, because this child is not going to be in these long." Again I say UGH!

I walked out of that store with a $52.00 pair of tennis shoes for one child, that I hope last through the winter and one pair of shoes that were $49.00 for my other child and a 3rd pair for the future which cost $18.

My Buddies came in today

I went and picked up my buddies today. I got 48 Johnson Buddies bars and 3 bags of candy and paid just a little over $8. Yay, I love coupons!!

While I was at Kroger

I received some coupons last week for $3 off when you buy 3 Johnson items. We discovered on vacation last week that the whole family likes the Johnson Buddies bars. So while I was a Kroger the other day I had them order me 8 cases of them. Yes, I will be using all of my coupons and getting 48 Johnson Buddies for FREE! I will have to pay tax. The Buddies are .99 at Krogers and every three I buy I will get $3 off.

I figure if we use 1 a week I almost have a year supply.

Me Likie me some deals!!

Still Digitally Challenged

I hate to say, but, I am still digitally challenged and went to Kroger today. I am sorry to report that I do not have a picture of my load. The load this week probably would have covered the top of my freezer. My freezer is where all my pictures are taken. Here is the very looong list of things I got this week. Also this was broken up into 4 transaction because Krogers deal was buy 15 participating items receive $3 off bill. I broke up my transactions to get the most savings. Here we go:

2 Pepperidge Farm Goldfish
24 cans of Campbells soup
6 boxes of Nature Valley granola bars
4 lbs of I Can't Believe Its not Butter
1 bakery baguette
1 bag of fresh spinach
1 bag of sunflower seeds
1 bunch of celery
2 cucumbers
2 packs of Ball Park franks
2-2 liters of Diet Coke
1 Deli fried chicken
8 4 packs of Yoplait yogurt (shortcut discount as well)
1 Pillsbury crescent rolls
2 Jumbo packs of Huggies diapers (shortcut discount)
2 bags of Pillsbury frozen dinner rolls
1 bag of frozen Pillsbury biscuits
3 Johnson Buddies (FREE)
2 bottles of Greased Lightning
1 Kroger Sour Cream (FREE)
1 box of Chex Mix bars (.40 for 1 box) (shortcut discount)
1 pack of Kroger Oreo cookies
9 bags of Betty Crocker ready to make cookies
4 boxes of Bettery Crocker Supreme Brownie

I had coupons for just about everything I bought this week. I had so many coupons I handed a couple off to another shopper.

My total before coupons or discounts was $192.95

The Total I paid out of pocket $91.45

I had a total of $56.20 in coupons. I think that will pay for my next 5 renewals to the grocery game. I should have done a little better but I messed up one of my deals and forgot to use a coupon. My total would have been $4.50 cheaper if I had done everything correctly--UGH!

This is outrageously high for me but I was loading up on soups. I also bought two packs of diapers which shoot up a bill by themselves.

Kroger Coupons

Kroger is pursuing me right now I think. Through the summer, the deals have not been that great so I have been saving my money and staying home. Kroger just can't stand me not spending money in their store. A couple of weeks ago they sent me coupons and again yesterday I received more coupons. Kroger is like a whining puppy dog standing outside my door in the rain and begging to come in. Every time I see coupons from them its as if they are saying in their best whining puppy dog voice, "Please, please, pleeese come to the store." I do love the coupons though. Here is a list of what I received:

$1 off any Kroger bar or shredded cheese
$1 off 1/2 gallon of Kroger o.j.
1 FREE Kroger yogurt
$1 off 1 lb of Kroger butter
$1 off Kroger biscuits
$1 off Kroger sour cream

Most of these coupons I probably will not use but I do like having them.

Sams Club deal today

Today I went to Sam's Club after being out of town for a week. I needed to pick up some bar towels for an art class I am teaching. I went back to the bin only to find one pack that was open and missing some towels and a bunch of towels laying in the bottom of the bin. Instantly I thought "DEAL FOR ME!" These towels cost $9.84 for 24 towels. I found an employee and asked if there were anymore towels in stock because I really needed them. I also told her if she didn't have anymore in stock I would take what was in the bottom of the bin if she gave me a discount. What is my motto? "If you don't ask you don't even have a chance at getting a discount." She saw a supervisor and got him involved. He looked and counted to make sure the pack was missing some. He said, "Yeah take them and you can have them for $8." This is not a great deal, but a deal is a deal.

I'm Back!

Yes I am back from a wonderful vacation. We went to Myrtle beach and laid around most of the week. I am sure you missed me, well at least Sherri missed me. We talked on the phone yesterday for 82 minutes. Oh my, what can two women talk on the phone that long about, since we talk to each other everyday? Deals, kids and all kinds of misc. stuff of course.

I did get a deal while I was gone and wanted to share with you. Listen up homeschoolers. I say, LISTEN UP HOMESCHOOLERS! This is for you. At the beach they have an aquarium called Ripleys Aquarium and admission is $21 per adult and $10 per children. I thought there must be a discount to be had somewhere. I took out my HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) teacher card and my local home school group card and headed for customer service. I pleaded my case that we are homeschoolers and would like a discount. Now remember my motto, repeat it with me. "If you dont ask you have no chance of getting a discount." Remember me saying this? Anyway I asked and here is what they did for us. My husband and I got in for FREE and the two kids got in for $10. It would have cost of $62 without our teacher card instead it cost us a total of $10. Now that is a deal!

How Do I Get Kroger Coupons?

A question has been asked, How do I get Kroger coupons? You know, I really don't know how I get Kroger coupons. I am signed up to shortcuts and I am also signed up for P & G eSaver . These two websites are wonderful. You sign up at each site and then you can load coupons onto your Kroger card. I love these sites and let me tell you why. If you have a coupon loaded onto your Kroger card and you also have a manufacturer coupon in your hand you can use both on one item. I have gotten Yoplait yogurt before for .40 a 4 pack. I don't know if Kroger sends coupons through that or not. I think Kroger sends coupons to people that do alot of shopping there. I only started getting coupons in the last few months. I have a friend who hardly ever gets coupons from Krogers and she shops there as much as I do or even more. This is basically a long post just to say I don't know how I get coupons from Krogers.

If anyone knows how the Kroger system works or has a comment on Kroger coupons please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you.

Preparing for vacation!

I am so ready to get back to the beach this year. Besides the hurricane hitting just South of where we will be staying I think we will have a great time. If you remember a couple of posts back I was stressing out about using disposable cameras, since my point and shoot camera broke, and I am to poor to afford my hearts desire. Well I have a solution. Its called the Nikon N50, it is my old reliable film camera. Yes I said film. This camera is to the 90's as the D80 is to today. My N50 was top of the line in like 1994. To my surprise you can still buy film! This film thing lead to my trip to CVS this week. I checked my camera bag and to my surprise I had no film. Here is my CVS deal

8 rolls of CVS film 4.99 x 2
1 disposable underwater camera
1 blood tester 9.99
2 Colgate toothpaste 2.99 x 2
4 Goodys headache powder 1.78 x 4
1 Covergirl lip stick 5.99

I did 4 transactions
I used my $2 off $10 coupon for each transaction.
2 Colgate $1 coupons

I paid a total of $7.50 OOP for everything. I do not have any ECB's to roll for next time. This is o.k. since I got all the film I needed for less that what the camera cost by itself.