Why Spend $150 When You Can Get It All for $30? ;-)

My Walgreens haul, with the exception of the Christmas clearance item (I might use it as a Secret Santa gift next year and I don't want anyone to see!) and the Tyelnol filler.

Ahh, it's days like these when the constant clipping, weekly ad-scouring, coupon collecting, and  careful calculating all pay off! I heart Kroger and Walgreens. Really do.

So earlier in the week I got my act together and managed to venture out to Kroger (kidless, thanks to my sweet husband) and may I say how much easier it is to score great deals when you go on a Monday when everything is still in stock? Definitely a bonus! I snagged $100 worth of groceries for $30, which included several freebies- Land O Lakes margarine, Shedds Country Crock, Quaker Rice Cakes (actually made $0.75 on that one) and Kens Lite Accents Salad Spray. I also was able to get some things needed for my pregnant self- Fiber One and Nature Valley granola bars for $1/box, Lean Cuisine Meals (love these for my lunches) for $1.35 each, and Tylenol for $1/box. Oh, and fruit snacks for the kids (okay, and for me too), and dixie napkins. And some ice cream...also for the kids....yeah...

Next I hit Walgreens and my total before coupons was $49.89, and I ended up paying $2.44. I should have paid less, but I didn't plan it well. Nearly everything was free after coupons- 6 Garnier Fructis products, 2 Glade Lasting Impressions, Gillette Fusion Gamer Razor ($0.99 after coupons and RRs), Edge shaving cream ($0.99 after coupons and RRs), and a cute little Christmas item that was on clearance for $1.24. I paid with $10 in RRs from last week, but the total was less than that, so the register beeped. I threw in the closest little item I could find as a filler, which ended up being $1.99 (but it was a purse-sized Tylenol, which I kinda needed) so it pushed my total to $2.44. But I got back $5 in RRs, so it was all good.

The house smells great, the pantry is well-stocked, and my hair has never looked better. This is truly the way to thrive in a lousy economy.

Check back soon for my long-promised series of posts about how I got started couponing and my system for staying on top of the deals and keeping it all organized (well, kind of).