Free Soap, My Friends

I am not one of the frugal shopping ninjas like Bren, Sarah, or Carrie, but I do love a deal and I love the coupon game. My finest shopping hour this weekend was at CVS. First, I was thrilled to find the 99 cent bars of CVS soap that are paying $1 ecb each (they had the moisturizing ones at my store, but I think other types work too). This is good for the rest of October. Brenda clued me in to this deal, and I bought five, paid with ecb's and got all that money right back. And I did not take every bar that they had, because I am a proper lay-dee, I am. I left two bars. Then, THEN, I wandered back to the clearance shelf, and it was crammed with bags of Gold Emblem honey-wheat pretzel sticks--the thick kind. Now, I don't eat pretzels, but these were 13 cents a bag. THIRTEEN CENTS. I guess they were 90% off. So I took a few bags, and tried a pretzel right there in the store. It was delish! I bought 16 bags, STILL leaving several for my fellow shoppers. Go quick and see if your store has these on clearance. My kids love these, it turns out. Only Matt will not eat them, but he has a very specific snack ideology. I also got the two free-after-ecb's pumpkin pails. That was fun.

Then to Publix, where I could not resist the siren song of really cheap frozen chicken tenders. I had 5 coupons for $1 off the Fast Fixin's bogo, so I got six of those. They ended up being $2 each. I also got the bogo bags of candy, with coupons. The Mystery Penny Item was Publix toilet paper--woohoo! The sun will never set on my tp stockpile. Then I got a lot of produce and eggs and other non-coupon stuff. Spent $47.49, saved 39.18. The "spent" line was more than the "saved" line, which doesn't qualify me for the all-stars, but I was happy.

And Target, Target was delightful. I went at night with no kids, and I remembered that Target is my Safe Place. Nothing bad can happen to me there. So much great stuff is on clearance all over the store. I did some Xmas shopping--can't be too specific here--but go to the housewares/picture frame/kitchen section and look for some 75% off Thomas O'Brien kitchen stuff, and some really great accessories on the endcaps. Also, there is a Supertarget coupon for $1 off Archer Farms juice, and a lot of the AF juice is clearanced for $1.48 or so. Awesome selection of snack crackers at 50% off and cheaper. If you come to my house for cocktails in the next few months, I'll be serving CVS honey pretzels and Archer Farms Italian garlic crostini. I also bought a couple of lampshades, one of which works, but my lamp woes are the subject of a future post, no doubt. And if you are on my Christmas list, you are a lucky duck! Unless I decide to keep this stuff 'cause it's so CUTE.

Then, to round out the weekend of getting and spending, my excellent mother-in-law stopped at our house tonight, on her way home from a trip to Providence. For my December birthday, she gave me two of those Brooks Brothers Miracle shirts, one white and one black, to "beef up my professional wardrobe." I love her because she always gives presents early. And the shirts are really great--very flattering and classic. She came upon a buy-two-get-one sale at BB. It may be online too. That is her brand of frugality, and I love it.

And go check out Fiddledeedee to see some real Publix Super Duper shoppers.