August 31, 2010

Bargain Bonanza

I love a bargain/good-deal/getting stuff for free. It makes me feel like I am doing my *job* as a stay-at-home-mom cutting our costs, off setting my freeloading ways. Last week, I found a $50 Target giftcard that I received for my birthday in March and had lost/forgot about until I finally tackled the job of cleaning out my purse. Two days later, my mailbox presented me with a Target coupon for $10 off a purchase of $75 or more. I am not usually a Target shopper, preferring to spend my cool cash across the street at Wally World where I can get way more bang for my buck, but today Wally World couldn't promise free.

I left the house armed with a list of necessities, and my own personal promise to only spend $75 to get the maximum savings out of my giftcard and coupon. Ink cartridges for my $10 garage sale printer were the first thing on my list. I turned down the aisle, located the right cartridge numbers, looked up to find the price, and... It Must Be Christmas!...the cartridges that I needed (one black, one color) were buy 2, get a $10 gift card free.

Fabulous! But now I must recalculate my spending for optimal savings. Yea, right. I went to Target with the intention of spending just $15 ($75 worth of stuff - $10 coupon - $50 giftcard) but, once discount delirium took over, I ended up spending more than double that amount. I did, however, manage to avoid impulse items and purchased $103 worth of stuff that we actually needed for a mere $33.

Cha-ching!