Adventures in Couponing: Target Gold Mine!

And I'm back at it!  Someone recently, and accurately, labeled me a "Yo-Yo Couponer."  I go through spurts of getting great deals and making time to scout them out and go get them.  Then there's weeks where I can't be bothered and I don't want to do anything.  My husband has noticed that when I don't make the time to coupon, our grocery bill is definitely higher.  I'm taking those two things as signs that I really need to focus on it again.  It really does make a difference!

This week, I headed to Target three...yes, three...days in a row for some deals.  I need to learn to be patient and wait for a lot of the deals to be announced before just running there so I don't have to make all these trips.  Although each trip was worth it.  I want to highlight two of these trips (the other wasn't coupon based, just stuff we needed last minute).

Trip one:

 (from left to right)

1.  2 Carefree Panty Liners - on sale for 89 cents

     used one $1.00/1 coupon for one and a 50 cents/1 coupon for the other which made one free  

     and the other 39 cents!

2.  1 Bottle liners - $2.99 - no deal, just needed them

3.  1 Mail envelope - $1.64 - no deal, just needed it

4.  2 Papermate 10pk Pens - on sale in Back-to-School bins for $1.00 each

     used two $1.00/1 off coupons from Target.com - made them FREE!

5.  4 Rose Art 24 pk Crayons - on sale in Back-to-School department for 25 cents each

     used $1.00/3 RoseArt products from RP 7/29 - made all 4 of them FREE!

6.  2 Suave Kid's Body Wash - on sale for $1.79

     used two 75 cents/1 coupon and I think another coupon (can't find the deal now and I didn't keep   

     good notes - sorry!)

7.  4 Gerber Puffs bags (from registers) - 99 cents each

     used two $1.00/2 coupons - made them 50 cents each

8.  1 Heinz Apple Cider Vinegar - on sale for $1.17

     used $1.00/1 coupon - made it 17 cents!

Total Spent: $9.06

Total Saved: $10.35!

*sorry about the stuff I couldn't find.  I'll keep better notes next time.  This was from the week of 7/29

Trip two (made today!)

(from left to right)

1.  1 Stayfree 18pk Ultra Thin Pads - on sale for $2.89

     used $2.00/1 coupon from SS 7/22 and $1.00/1 Target coupon from mailer envelope - made them 

     FREE!  *I also heard there was a Target coupon in the PG from 7/29, but I didn't have it

2.  2 Scotch Tapes - on sale for 49 cents in Back-to-School bins

     used two 50 cents/1 coupons from Target.com - made them FREE!

3.  Colgate Kid's Toothpaste - on clearance for $1.86

     used $1.00/1 any Colgate toothpaste from Target mailer coupon - made it 86 cents!

4.  3 Papermate 10pk Pens - on sale for $1.00 in Back-to-School bins

     used three $1.00/1 Papermate coupons from Target.com (same as in first trip) - made all of them 

     FREE!

5.  2 Garnier Fruicis (one shampoo & one conditioner) - on sale for $2.79 each

     used two $1.00/1 coupons from Coupons.com and two $1.00/1 coupons from Target.com - made 

     them 79 cents each!

Total Spent: $2.44

Total Saved: $13.40

This one is my favorite!!!

*Be sure to check out Target's new coupon policy - mainly that you can only use four of the same coupon in one trip.  And they no longer allow overages, so the coupon needs to be entered manually to be changed to the price.  For example, the 50 cent coupon for the tape needed to be entered manually by the cashier to make it 49 cents off.  Make sure you pay attention to that!

I'm excited to get back into couponing and really start saving some money.  I'll try to share here as often as I can and take better notes!

Letting Go

A lot of this going on around here...

I've gone into super-organize-and-go-through-everything mode.  It started with my house stuff.  Did some organizing/purging in my scrap room.  Got my kitchen pantry organized.  Need to go through Layla's toys/clothes and sell some stuff she's outgrown.  Then it moved onto moving forward with some projects and letting some go.

This has been on my mind for a while.  There are  few projects I've been doing that haven't really been amazingly fun to me.  They seem a little more daunting than exciting.  After some contemplation, I've decided to let some of them go so I can concentrate on what I really enjoy.

1. December Daily - I've done two December Daily's for the past two years.  If you haven't heard of this, it's a project that was created by Ali Edwards.  She does one each year and you can purchase kits and follow her process to help you create your own.  It's an album that chronicles each day in December to capture the holiday season.  Don't get me wrong, I do love the concept.  And I love my two albums I have.  Unfortunately, for me, it became more daunting.  I struggled to finish it and didn't enjoy the process based on what was going on in our lives.  So, I've decided to let it go.  Plus, with Project Life, I don't really think I need it.

2. One Little Word - this is another Ali Edwards project.  It's a year-long class at Big Picture Classes.  You choose a word for yourself that you want to focus on and incorporate into your life.  Then, you follow prompts each month to create pages that focus on the word and where you are with it.  The reason I'm letting this go is because it's not really speaking to me.  I chose a word: Strong.  And it's fine, but the project and the album isn't really speaking to me.  Seeing the message board for the class, it's really helping a lot of people and they're really enjoying it.  Me - not so much.  I guess it's just something that's not really for me.  I'm going to finish the album since I did start it, but not a ton of effort is going into it.  So I won't do it again.

3. Project Life - I AM NOT GIVING UP PROJECT LIFE!  I just wanted to emphasize where I am on it.  I LOVE this project!  I love collecting all the little things that would normally be forgotten soon after it's happened.  I love looking back at the past 6 months and realizing what we've done and where we've gone.  My husband flipped through my first album and loved looking back as well.  So, definitely moving forward with it.  However, as of right now, I'm not going to share my album.  It really became daunting to take the pictures every week and post them with the details.  Plus, my blog became nothing but PL and I didn't want to do that. Update on how it's going: beautifully!  I haven't gotten more than 3 weeks behind at a time.  I keep really good notes about what I want to include each week.  I save EVERYTHING!  I enjoy setting up in front of the TV on Sunday nights and working on the week.  I really love it and can't wait to dive in again next year.  Planning on getting the Clementine core kit next year when it's back in stock.  And for 2014, I plan to combine the leftovers of the Turquoise kit I'm using now and the Clementine kit I'm using next year to make my own kit-of-sorts. 

I feel less pressure by letting these projects go and refocusing on what I really want to create.  Now, to go through some baby stuff...