I heart Free Stuff

I didn't use to love free stuff because usually it wasn't anything I could use. Now I have been enlightened by the couponing divas and I now love free stuff b/c it's stuff I need and will use.


Here's a picture from my Target trip last week:


Everything but the baby formula was free! This was my first attempt at using coupons to get free stuff. The cashier didn't give me a hard time other than she asked where were my Cheerios- the coupon for the cereal cups had a picture of Cheerios so I had to point out that the coupon stated "General Mills Cereal" not only Cheerios.

Today's trip to Target, I got a Johnson & Johnson head-to-toe baby body wash, travel size Vaseline lotion, Kotex liners, and a package of bacon ALL FREE! We don't even eat bacon at home but it was free so we'll think of something to do with it. It's really best to go shopping on Sunday when the young kids are doing the cashier shifts because they don't question anything, they just override the coupon when the machine beeps.

I have officially quit going to Wal-Mart neighborhood market. I now grocery shop at Publix and Target. I haven't officially sat down to calculate the savings but I think it's close to 50% if I include cleaning and personal hygiene products. I have built a small stock pile of soap/body wash, deodorant, and other hygiene items and I'm not even doing everything that I could be doing. Once you have a system, it really doesn't take that much time to follow through. I only buy two newspapers on Sunday and I've been getting the rest of the coupons online (target, coupons.com, or manufacturer's direct websites). I follow a couple of blogs that give me the details on where the sales/freebies are and that's it- they do the work for you. I'm lucky to have Publix, Target and CVS all within a 3 mile radius so I'm not spending extra gas to shop around.