Shop, Shop, Shop

Walgreen's
So for the first time I actually had a successful Walgreen's trip. I never thought it would happen. The store was nearly empty. Derek was happy. The cashier was patient and very helpful. I found every single item on my list...
At first I thought I was in the twilight zone.
I ended up with four different transactions. Each Register Reward printed and I was able to roll them over to my next transaction. My scenario was modified from this one at Saving A Bundle. I had a higher value coupon than one listed for the Colgate but it had expired since I'd organized my q's for the trip and I had to dig another one out of my binder. I spent $5.74 including tax.

CVS
Giddy with success I went over to a new CVS that just opened in my shopping radius to check it out and get some more great deals. As soon as I walked in the door I nearly did a little heel click because they actually had mini carts with cars. Derek was way excited but I might have been more so. This is my new fave CVS.
They were all out of my Stove Top Stuffing though. It is on sale this week for .88 a box and I have some lovely coupons that would have scored me 5 boxes for a buck fifty. Yum. I should have asked when they planned to restock. I'll give them a call later. They were also out of the shave gel I was going to get Bryan and score some Extra Care Bucks with, but I did end up getting 3 free reach floss and two bottles of Head and Shoulders for $3.19. I also earned 2 Extra Care Bucks for my next trip.

Target
Last night I took the boys with me to Target. Bryan handled damage control with the little man while I shot around grabbing my coupon deals. My savings at this store are never what I want them to be. Usually because there is either some item I get that I don't have a coupon for or it just is a big ticket item (at least what I would call a big ticket item, you know like five bucks) and it throws my total. I get really upset about that. Last night it was the Charmin Moist Wipes for $4.99. Sigh. They never have good coupons for those things. I ended up with:
2 Degree men's deoderants, free after coupons
1 Kandoo wipes .42 (any one else looking forward to potty training in the near future?)
2 Girard's Caesar salad dressing 1.52
2 Cool-Whip 1.98 (sadly no q's for these)
2 Halls cough drops .19 (I'd found a BOGO tear pad at schnuck's a couple weeks ago. Sweet!)
1 dozen plastic Easter eggs .65
1 Charmin 4.99

I'd remembered reading an article about Target's coupons not always working like they should so I was watching closely as each q was scanned and I caught when one of the Target coupon's scanned for 0.00. The cashier told me that meant I was getting the product for free but I had to point out to her that then it would have listed the price of the item, not a bunch of 0's. She rescanned the coupon and I was credited my correct coupon savings of .50. So my total was $11.28. Minus the Charmin I would have paid more like $5 plus tax which would have made me much happier. *sigh* Still a good trip though.

Wal-mart
Right before Target I'd run into Wal-mart to price match my Toys R Us ad for Chutes and Ladders. On top of the matched sales price of $4.99 I had a $2 coupon so I got the game for $2.99 plus tax. I was hoping to score the Buzz Light Year Operation game that Wal-mart had for $5 and use my $3 off coupon and Hasbro rebate to score a game and a pizza for 2 bucks but they were all sold out. I'll have to try and check out another Wal-mart for that deal. I also grabbed some meat, black beans, tomato sauce, and maple syrup. Again the meat and syrup killed my total. I walked out paying $21.12. Good thing I only buy meat once or twice a month or my budget would be shot.

After my two day shopping spree I've spent $41.33. My weekly budget goal is $40. I'm hoping that adding regular trips to Walgreen's and CVS to earn RR and ECB will make my budget go farther. Especially since organic milk is $5 a gallon and the meat is pretty pricey as well. Don't even get me started on what happens when I walk into Costco...
It seems weird to me to post something private like a budget and my grocery list but I've seen the accountability of it working for some of my friends so I'm going to give it a try. I love insights on how to get good deals too and I wouldn't know what I do if others hadn't shared their experience with me.