I have had a heck of a time with groceries this week.  Yesterday, I went to the grocery store and when I got home I realized that the bag boy had left one of my bags out of my cart.  I was pretty angry about the whole thing since the teenagers were standing their chatting instead of working whilst I was being checked out.  Then today I send my husband to the grocery store for a few items that I had forgotten to get and a $25 limit.  Well he comes back with way more stuff than $25 can buy.  Lets just say it was like 5x’s more than he needed to spend.  So much for savings.  I’m over being mad with him over it, I just have to save more money in the next couple weeks to catch up to where I would have been had someone not gone on a shopping spree.

In fact you can, as me and my best friend found out today.  It all started about 11ish when she arrived at my house for our coffee date.  We try to have a coffee date once a week, hubby takes care of the p-nut for a couple hours and I get a much needed Starbucks caffeine/ just hanging out with my best friend fix.  So after she bought me coffee and a piece of their banana nut loaf [she owed me lunch, so I opted for coffee instead] and sat around chatting a bit we decided that we were going to take full advantage of my little slice of freedom away from the house and kids, so we went shopping!  Our first stop was our favorite store in the city, a discounted department brand type store, then we headed over to where we used to work to see old friend and for me to find p-nut some baby sunglasses.  After stirring up old memories we headed over to Sam’s.  Sam’s is like a Costco if you don’t know.  Well by this time we were pretty hungry.  As we were walking around and our tummy’s were growling we stumbled upon the most wonderful site…FREE SAMPLES!!!  Oh how I do love a free sample.  Well we didn’t just stop at one.  There were 4 old lady’s in a row each giving out different free samples.  There were slices of turkey meat, steak and cheese burritos, sausage patties, and chicken patties.  So we made our first round, and gobbled up every last bite of our freebie goodness.  When then decided we were still hungry, so we opted for a second round.  We walked around the aisle so it would look like we weren’t just there for the food, but in all actuallity I think we really were.  Anywho when we were coming up on the chicken patties for the second time, the old woman had magically disappeared and left her stand and free chicken patty samples unattended.  Well lets just say we helped ourselves.  With the chicken patty tray completely bare, and our tummys slightly full we decided to head to the check out.  Walking towards the exit I spot another unattended sample stand out of the corner of my eye.  I make a B-Line straight for it.  Bingo!  Ramen Noodles!  What a way to finish off our free meal.

So from today I got a grande caramel machiatto, a slice of banana nut loaf, a pair of baby boy sunglasses, and a lunch…what did I have to pay for all of this…only $3.50 and that was for the sunglasses for my baby boy.  How cool is that!

In other news, a good friend of mine for many many years, called me today out of the blue and so we should be attempting to hang out again soon.  So score one more on the friends front.

I also started preparing my garden to be planted in.  My mother helped me drain the pond [we are going to plant stuff in it instead of it having water in it, for fear that p-nut might fall in], and de-weed my little gardens so that they are already to be planted in.  I went ahead and put down the wildflower seeds in the garden that has really bad soil.  I didn’t want to waste money on good plants and they just die if I plant them over there.  The wildflowers will get probably as tall as me so I really don’t care if they grow or not I just didn’t want it to be bare or that I didn’t attempt to grow anything over there.  I can at least say I tried.  My mother also gave me some of her pansy’s and a butterfly bush that I planted near the door.  I can’t wait to get some more plants.  I hate walking outside to a bare flowerbed and empty hanging baskets.  As for the growing my own edibles, I was thinking of planting carrots and strawberries along with my parsley.  Those things I do know that I will eat and get lots of use out of.

Well that is all for today.

I did a little shopping today and found some really good deal. One in particular was such a good deal that I had to do the happy dance in the aisle when I found it.

How much do you think I paid for this ROXY track jacket?

The original price of this jacket in a department store is $52.00, at the discount store they sell it at $22.99, I bought it on clearance at $0.99!!! Yes, you did read it right, A DOLLAR for a super cute jacket. Here is the proof…
Some other items that I purchased were a tank top, some sleep bottoms, and a super cute purse all on clearance, nothing was over $10! Out of all the items that I bought I am absolutely in love with the purse and the $1 jacket! Whenever I watch makeover shows and they make people over for $100, I always feel that I can do so much better than that. I think I could put a whole outfit together for just $50. These people need to hire me because I am one frugal shopper. Everything I buy is always name brand but I never pay close to name brand prices.

Here are some my secrets for whenever I go shopping [shh! don’t tell anyone]:

• Always go to discount stores FIRST! [i.e. Ross, Marshall’s, T.J. Maxx, Outlet Malls]
• Go straight to the clearance section, or look for clearance tags only [even though it is already discounted at the discount store you have a better savings if you catch it on clearance…i.e. $1.00!]
• If you see something you really like, have the will power to wait until it goes on clearance, if you never catch it on clearance or the item is all gone the next time you check on it, then it just wasn’t ment to be…something better is probably waiting on you somewhere else.
• When it comes to basic household items, the Do$$ar store is your best friend [only the dollar stores that everything in the store is 1 dollar]

I have been shopping this way for so long that I can’t possibly pay full price for anything.  My husband gets mad when I put stuff back that I really like or want but isn’t on clearance.  I physically cannot bring myself to pay full price or full discounted price for it.  I look at it this way, if I have $20…do I want to buy one item for $20 or get 3 or 4 items for the same amount of money.  I always opt for the “more stuff for the buck” approach.  I have also come to find that if I do pay full price for something that it tears up in the same amount of time as an item that I purchased on clearance.  So what is the reasoning in paying full price for anything?
Do you have any frugal tips you wanna share?