Monday, March 29, 2010

i think i did it!!

So tonight I think I finally did it! I accomplished something I never knew I could do.

“What did she accomplish??” you may ask. Well, let me tell you.

I successfully maneuvered, with all three children, through harris teeter with a stack of 30-some coupons taking advantage of their triple coupon days.

My goal: see how much money I really could save.

Mission accomplished. I saved $109 while only spending $80. I felt so proud of myself. I have never been a coupon cutter, but I decided to make it a game.

I LOVE DEALS!! I always have and probably always will. Traditionally, though, it is only on clothes or deals at the mall.

I never really get excited about deals on food. But, its about time that I did since we all eat—all the time.

But, I feel proud that I did it for more than one reason…

So, I strapped Zeke to my chest and put both kids in a special “car” cart and off we went.

In the first aisle, Mylie started driving Charlie’s steering wheel and the fight began. He got mad and started pulling her hair. After this went on for a couple of minutes, while picking out the sandwich rounds, I finally got Mylie out and she walked.

I felt so nervous as she dragged her precious hands along all the salad dressings. Every couple of steps I’d say “Mylie. Hands off.” which worked until the next brightly colored label.

That went on for a couple of aisles as she helped me fling things into the cart and Charlie took off his shoes and socks, standing in the cart every time I turned to grab things off the shelf.

Thankfully, Zeke continued to sleep. Finally, my husband showed up from across the store (as he went to go find something for me), and we decided to divide and conquer. He got another cart, took a child, and a pile of coupons and off we went.

Both of the older children found things to yell about. “I want to ride in that cart!” “I want to get that to buy that! Please, mommmmyyyy!” “I want to try that sample!” “I want a balloon!”

After sifting through all the coupons, because I was DETERMINED to save as much as possible, and gathering all the goods, we were finally ready to leave.

And, as the clerk scanned all the coupons and the price dropped, and dropped, and dropped!, I could feel the smile spread across my face.

All of the craziness was worth it because, you see, I saved $109.

And that is one of the many joys of being a mom. I succeeded. I won. I saved.

4 comments:

Sarah Coggins said...

You did awesome!! Both with the coupons and the kids. Some days I find just taking Dylan to the grocery store a challenge and he can't ask for anything yet. Mostly just sits and watches it all go by unless I get too close to a shelf and then watch out - he'll grab anything he can get his hands on. LOL

I love the HT triple coupon deals. In general I try to make couponing a game to see just how much I can save. Trent used to think I was nuts until he saw the total savings at the bottom of the receipt. Now he will happily clip & use coupons too. It's silly to give all that extra money away!

Melodramommy said...

hahaha! It's so nice to know I'm not alone in the craziness of things that occur when attempting to grocery shop with toddlers. Wow, that's so impressive how much you saved with your coupons. Just goes to show, don't mess with a mommy on a mission.

Molly O said...

You rock! I don't have the brain space for coupons, so I just stick to our store brand : )

McDaniel Moments said...

You are the BOMB! Seriously. That's huge. What a great Mommy.

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