Great day at Publix and Target

I decided to take the kids shopping today. I wanted to see what was left on seasonal clearance. The super Target had a lot left, but was still at 50% off. I bought some foil with some snowflakes on it for .49. Each were 80 sq ft and I had a $1 coupon. I paid $5.00 for 10 foils. They will be perfect for when J goes camping with his friends. I am also going to give some to my Mom. I gave my sister at least 10 sponges when she was here. They were the good ones too. I bought a pack of diapers, 2 boxes of swiss miss hot chocolate, 2 command hooks, 10 reynolds foils, 2 sets of utensils for the kids, a pack of 80 glad kitchen bags and some travel games. My total bill was $14.44, I saved over $48.

After that we went over to Publix. I bought 2 family size boxes of TGI Friday's appetizers, 1 box of coconut shrimp, 1 frozen pizza, 1 package of smithfield bacon, 5 scotch brite scrubbers, 2 scotch brite sponge wands, 24oz sour cream, 1 graham cracker crust, 1 package of taco rolls, and 1 bottle of Verdi. I spent a little over $20.

$20 at Publix?

I went shopping at Publix the other night and I thought I had it all figured out. I had rain checks, a gift card and even a $10 competitor's coupon to use. My total was $40.46 before coupons. I had to spend $40 to use the $10 coupon, so I was just at the limit. I bought 6 packages of boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1 pot roast, applesauce, celery, grape tomatoes and a few other things? I had $8 left on my gift card, so I ended up spending around $12 out of pocket.

Here is my idea for purchasing gift cards. I am going to buy an American Express gift card as long as there are no activation fees. With the gift card purchase at Publix, I will get a $10 Publix gift card. I am going to use the AE gift card to purchase $100 worth of Outback gift certificates so I can get the free $20 gift card from there. The nice thing about the Outback card is you can use them at Bonefish and Carrabba's also. I hope my plan works.

I am just recovering from Black Friday.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. My Husband's family came over for dinner on Wednesday, so I was home cooking all day. My SIL brought her camera equipment over to take pictures of my friend's children for their holiday card. My sister and her family stopped over, so I had my SIL take pictures of my Nieces (which turned out adorable). To top that, we each ordered free collages from Walgreens. After we cleaned up, I called another friend of mine to see if she wanted to go to CVS and Walgreens for their 3 day sale (Thurday-Sat.) Their systems turned over at midnight, so I wanted to be first in line. They had bendaroos on sale bogo at CVS, which is unheard of. I am going to keep one box for M and give another as a gift. I bought lotion, shampoo, conditioner, earphones, snuggies, and games. The cashiers at both places were so nice. The one at CVS was so impressed with the amount that I was saving and the ECB's I was getting in return. I probably spent $8 and got over $20 back. When we were at Walgreens we joked around about waiting 10 minutes for the Snuggies to go on sale, we said "I am sure there is not going to be a shortage of snuggies" a few minutes after we said that, these two women walked in and put about 20 snuggies in each of their carts?? I wish I was in their family, I would get a Snuggie for the Holidays lol. I didn't go shopping at Kmart this year on Thanksgiving. There wasn't anything I really wanted. I did go to Sweetbay in the morning because we needed a few things that were on sale. I also wanted to get my $10 coupon. On Thanksgiving we went to my parent's house and had a wonderful time. The food was good and it was nice and relaxing, especially since I didn't have to cook. It was nice to see the kids play together too. We left there around 9, I made my "calls" and J's Aunt met me at my house by 9:30. I had enough time to get some warm clothes on, pack a cooler and grab my ads. We met my sister at Wal-mart and she followed us to Toys R Us for her first Black Friday adventure. We both wanted this vanity that was originally priced at $70, on sale for $24.49. She wanted 3 of them and I wanted 1. After waiting in line for an hour and a half, the floodgates opened aka the TRU doors. People were cutting in line and the woman behind me was telling them off. She kept telling my sister to block them with her cart. I was thinking, don't bring us into this, we are not with you. My Aunt went straight to electronics because that is always the longest line. I found the vanities after being pointed in many directions. We even had a pile up, I bumped into my sister with the cart, and the man behind me was practically on my back. All of us just laughed. I grabbed all 4 vanities and headed to the back of the store for all of the other goodies. I could not believe how packed that place was. Now I know why I never shop TRU on Black Friday. We got a lot of great things. I also got 4 free boxes of the 64 count crayola crayons. After TRU we headed over to Walmart. We had all intentions on putting the items in our cart and checking out exactly at 5am. Well, they had people guarding the sale items, so we had to wait. While we were waiting we grabbed the price matching items. I bought a leapster game for my Niece, and some littlest pet shop dolls. My other friend and her Dad came around 4am and waited in line for the cheap bikes. She always gives bikes to the Angel Tree. This year the 20 inch bikes were only $29. That is a great deal. She had to wait in line and could not leave until they gave her the bike, so she called me and I shopped for her. I even brought her a drink lol. I also grabbed a few items she was going to buy the kids and put them in her cart. I didn't spend as much as I thought I would. I spent about $50 and got a lot of stuff. I am really happy with the $3 hoodies. I picked up a pair of PJ's for my friend to donate. After Walmart, we went to Target. There was nothing left. The guy in electronics sort of laughed at me when I asked if they had any of the drum sets left. I came home and went to sleep for a few hours and then woke up to take care of the kids. A few hours later, my crazy sister asked me to go to Macy's with her. WHAT?? She didn't get any sleep and now she wants to go shopping again, with all 4 kids. So we did. I was falling on my face and she was shopping away. She treated the kids to lunch and then the kids played at the mall. We went home and played some more and then my Husband came home. He made Chili the night before and put it in the crock pot for the next day. We knew I was not going to be cooking that night. I went to bed early and the next morning I was still so tired. He had to work, so the kids and I hung out around the house. Sunday we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese because they earned all of their stickers on their reward charts. We bought lunch at McDonalds using coupons, so the 4 of us ate for under $6. I had the tokens, so we didn't spend anything at CEC. We had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend.