What a day!

Something about grocery shopping just gets me in a good mood...I love it! The only thing that makes it better is getting stuff for free..or close to it. I'm going to have to find some sort of fancy way to track my overall savings on a bi-weekly basis so that I can keep proving to myself that it IS worth it. Generally speaking, I buy generic..probably close to 90% of what I buy is generic because I rely alot on Aldi's. Since being gung-ho on this whole couponing thing I have realized that most of the time it is cheaper to buy the name brand with a coupon than it is to buy generic. Honestly, who woulda thought?!

Here are the TRUE deals that I got (atleast to me!) between Wal-Mart and Walgreens. Overall, for being a newbie I feel as if I did very well.

Okay...the only things that I got from Walgreen's that were a stellar deal would be the

(2) CoffeeMate 2/$3, $1.50/2 Q (.75 ea.) $1.5o OOP

(2) Windex 2/$3.79, $1 Q (.90 ea) 1.79 OOP

(2) Oral B Power Action TB, BOGO Q (2.75 ea) 5.50 OOP

5.50 in RR (from TB)

2.00 in RR (from Kellogg's cereal not pictured..after RR and Q [4] 1.50 ea)

Wal-Mart was pretty good overall..

(2) Johnson's Buddies soap, (2) $1 Q, .12 overage

(1) Nivea Men Shave Gel, $2 Q, .72 OOP

(2) Clean & Clear Face Wash, $2 Q, .06 OOP

(1) V8 Fusion Juice, $2 Q, .98 OOP

(2) Vlasic Pickles, (2) $1 Q, 2.06 OOP (eh..not the best deal..but I needed them.)

(2) Chex Mix, (2) $1 Q, 1.96 OOP (I coulda sworn that the price was 1.38 ea...but they rung up 1.98! GRRR!!!!)

(2) Totino's Pizza Rolls, price matched @ 2/$3 [originally 3.53 ea], $1 Q, $2 OOP

And I forgot...

Kashi Crackers, $2 Q, .78 OOP

I can say, that all in all I did a pretty good job! I got a little bummed at Walgreeen's because the Tampons that they had on sale were not the same ones that qualified for the rebate...so I didn't get them. Oh Well.

But...I got over $45 worth of stuff for $17 and change..plus $7.50 in RR AND a free Fruitista Freeze from Taco Bell..that was my "reward" for shopping hard! Not too shabby for my first try! :)

Now that I have all my shopping and putting away done, I have to get ready to be gone all weekend. We are grilling at my mom's tomorrow so I'm making potato salad and a pasta salad. Sometime Sunday I guess I will make the birthday cake for the swimming party. So much to do so little time! Oh the joys of summer!