Savng Money at Walmart

We talk a lot about saving money, couponing, and shopping for deals, but this week I discovered for myself something that I had heard about but had never tried. 

Usually a shopping trip for me entails buying the Sunday paper, going through the store flyers and coupons, checking my favorite online coupon matching websites, making my list, planning the order in which I will hit each store (want to save on gas while I am shopping sales), packing the diaper bag with snacks, juice, and maybe a toy to keep my buddy entertained, and then putting it all into action on the day I choose for shopping day. 

However, when you have a small child in tow (and some of you have more than one- there is a special reward in Heaven waiting for you!), taking them out of the car, putting them in the shopping cart, having enough hands to pull the snacks and juice out of the diaper bag while pushing the cart and getting your groceries, going through the check out, filling the trunk area of the vehicle, buckling them back in to the car seat, and driving off to the next location can be a bit tedious and even dreaded (it is the car seat buckling that gets me- on weekends, that is Brian's job!).

To add to the fun, we have a weekly budget for food, and to keep us mindful of what we are buying, we use cash for our purchases.  

Fun? you may ask.  Absolutely!  It is a challenge, and I love a challenge (just don't ask about the garden challenge)!

On Monday, I took my list and flyers to Walmart.  I am not a huge fan of Walmart (customer service leaves much to be desired), but I am starting to appreciate their price matching policy.  Rather than hitting every store on my list, I just take my flyers to Walmart.  They will match the price that is offered for the same item at the other store (they do not honor buy one get one free deals).  For example, at Walgreens this week, a bottle of Ajax dish detergent was advertised for $0.89.  Because I had my Walgreens flyer, the normal $1.29 price of the Ajax was matched to Walgreens' special price.  A 10 oz. bottle of Palmolive was on sale for $0.89 at CVS.  I showed my flyer handed them my manufacturer's coupon and only paid $0.64! 

Another way I chose to save some money this week was in the area of cold cuts for Brian's lunch.  Usually, I buy a 2 packages of coldcuts (2 different meat selections) from the lunchmeat section and move on.  That usually costs me about $6 in just meat.  This week what I chose to do was go to the deli counter, pick out two meats and one cheese, and order enough slices to make Brian's sandwhiches for the week.  This way, I will be able to give Brian a larger variety in his sandwich flavors in the weeks to come, and at $2.50 I can stay within our set budget.  Just as a note, you are not required to buy your deli meats by the pound. You can order by the slice if that suits you better.   

I only went over our allotted budget by $1!  I am looking forward to next week, and putting this to the test again.