Shopping today: great deals!

I was gone for 7 hours today - shopping. Well, nearly 3 1/2 hours of that was driving to and from Madison. The other 3 1/2 were spent running various errands.

As I've mentioned before, I don't care for shopping. Actually, that's putting it nicely. I really, really don't like to shop.

I'm happy to report that I'm still alive, even in spite of the gale force winds in southern Wisconsin today.

Unfortunately, I now have a lovely cut on the bridge of my nose. The extremely strong winds caused my trunk to fall onto my nose with quite a bit of force as I was putting groceries in my trunk at Aldi. Good news is, my nose was already crooked, so it can't be any worse now! And I don't think it's broken - just cut and bruised.

I managed to go to Walmart, Target, Copps, Aldi, Trader Joe's and Festival while I was out today. I scored some really great deals and kept my spending to a minimum, so I'm really proud of myself! Here's the final breakdown:

Walmart
(2) Colgate wave toothbrushes, $0.50 each (on sale for $1.50 each, used $1/1 printable coupons)
Total: $1.17

Target
(2) Clorox To Go travel size wipes $0.22 each (reg. price $0.97, used [2] $0.75/1 printables)
(2) Refrigerated Coffee Mate creamer FREE (on sale for $1.50, used [2] $1.50/1 printables)
(1) Oral-B Pro Health for Me floss picks FREE (on TPC for $1.89, used $2/1 Vocalpoint coupon - cashier gave me the $0.11 overage!)
(2) Kraft shredded cheese $1.00 each (on sale for $2.00 each, used $1/2 Target coupon plus $1/2 man. coupon)
Total: $2.49

Copps
Transaction #1
(1) box Rice Chex cereal $2.29 (reg. price $2.89, used $1/3 coupon, which doubled)
(2) boxes Chocolate Chex cereal $2.29 each (reg. price $2.99, used $1/3 coupon from above)
(2) boxes Apple Cinnamon Cheerios $1.89 each (reg. price 3.39, used [2] $0.75/1 printables, which doubled)
(1) box Cinn. Toast Crunch $1.99 (reg. price $3.29, used $0.65/1 printable, which doubled)
(2) V-8 Fusion juice $1.69 each (on sale for $2.69 each, used $1/2 printable coupon, which doubled)
Fresh Broccoli $1.20 (on sale for $0.69/lb.)
Total: $17.22
Because I purchased six boxes of General Mills cereal, I received four separate checkout values coupons: 1 FREE dozen eggs, 1 FREE gallon of milk, 1 FREE box Toaster Strudels and 4 FREE Yoplait yogurt cups. Since I don't grocery shop very often, I turned around and did a second transaction right away to use these coupons.

Transaction #2
(4) Yoplait yogurt cups FREE (checkout values coupon)
(1) dozen eggs FREE (checkout values coupon)
(1) gallon of milk FREE (checkout values coupon)
(1) box Toaster Strudels FREE (checkout values coupon)
Ground chuck (6 lbs.) $10.48 (on sale for $1.99/lb.; used [2] $0.50/1 ground beef printable coupons, both of which doubled)
Chicken thighs (4+ lbs.) $3.95 (on sale for $0.88/lb.)
(1) Roundy's hamburger buns FREE with purchase of ground chuck
Total: $11.92
Something strange happened with my "checkout values" coupons. It looks like the cashier took off the maximum value for each coupon, not what I actually should have paid. I should have gotten $7.34 off; instead, she took off $9.85. I'm not complaining, though - it certainly helped stretch my grocery budget this week!

Aldi
(2) crushed tomatoes, 28 oz. $0.89 each (for my homemade pizza sauce)
(1) Russet potatoes, 10 lbs. $1.99
(2) margarine quarters $0.59 each
Total: $4.95

Trader Joe's
(1) box GF waffles $1.99
(2) Brown rice spaghetti $1.99 each
(1) Brown rice penne $1.99
(1) Brown fusilli $1.99
Total: $9.95

Festival (Mauston)
(1) Cracked wheat bread $1.88
(2) Buddig lunch meat packets $0.79 each
(2) Flavorite chunk cheese $1.00 each (used 3/$3.00 mailer coupon)
(1) Flavorite shredded cheese $1.00 (used 3/$3.00 mailer coupon)
(2) Pepsi 2 liters, $0.29 each (used $1/2 man. coupon plus $0.79/each mailer coupon)
(1) flour tortillas $2.09
Total: $9.22

Total spending for Madison shopping: $56.92