My First Black Friday

Well I made it though my first ever Black Friday! I didn't get up for the door buster deals, and instead walked casually into Walmart at 9am armed only with a shopping list and everyone else's Black Friday ads.

What can I say about Walmart on Black Friday? Well I haven't been there during the Door Buster hours, but by 9am it was a typical Walmart day. Isles packed with carts but people there just as friendly and helpful as always. Not overly so, but nothing like the horror stories I usually hear about.

The store was only missing two items from my list and as for the rest of them, only three things were actually bought for Walmart's price, the rest I was able to price match from Target, Best Buy and Kmart!

All in all I think I did fairly well for not getting up that early and only spending two hours from the time I left to the time I got home.

Retail Price: $219.97
Price Paid: $130.99

Run run as fast as you can...

Well it's 1am on Black Friday and already I can see how poor planning has cost me. I decided to hit the Kohls "door buster" deals online starting at 11pm MT. I picked out a King down alternative comforter for 24.99 (normally 119.99) and went about my shopping. By the time I got to check out (20 minutes later) my cart was conspicuously lighter and cheaper. Turns out my comforter got removed and rightfully so, since that particular item no longer existed!

Oh well live and learn I guess. In the end I bought 5 things ranging in retail price from 6.99 to 89.99 and after a 15% off coupon followed by a free shipping coupon, my total was only 65.01. Not as good as I'm sure some people will do later on today, but good enough for me sitting on my couch staying up only a little bit later than I normally would.

Now I get to go to bed not do the door buster deals and see how much I can take advantage of Walmart's price match policy (even on black Friday deals) at a reasonable time of day.

Wish me luck!

A Chance to get a free Magic Eraser!

For those of you who remember my obsession with Mr Clean Magic Erasers you can go here to learn about how you can share your stories of using a Magic Eraser in your house and get your very own mini eraser! You can bet I'll be there too!

This story brought to you by MSM

The benefits of a stockpile

In times like these when couponing for me becomes more second nature and I get by with no more than .80 for a box of name brand cereal, I like to remind myself why I work so hard to make that happen. Because let's face it if saving money this way was worth any measure of time and effort everyone would do it. Unlike many of you out there I have yet to have perfected any method for organization. I shop around an insane amount, tracking countless blogs and shopping sites and even *gasp* trying to come up with my own ideas at times. It's a lot of work, more than most sane people would spend and more than most of my fellow couponers will even consider spending.

Things are pretty tight this week and my grocery budget this week has gone from $100 to my personal savings or nothing. Normally I would be freaking out, but I look in my pantry and while I consider my stores to be lower than I like, I have 6 or more boxes of cereal (good because my kids insist on "combo" bowls with 2 or more kinds mixed in). It might seem that my milk stores are diminished but then I remember I have 2 more gallons waiting in the freezer if I can only time it right! And last but not least, I had a brief moment of fear when I saw how little paper towels were left on my counter, but I went into my storage and was overjoyed to see that I still have 2 and a half packages of paper towels and even more toilet paper! I can't even remember the last time I bought those.

Once again I have tangible proof of how good life can be, even when things are rough as long as you keep your stores up!