happy at home

FRUGAL SHOPPING (OR, I DON'T MISS WAL.MART ONE LITTLE BIT)

This afternoon I went to what we call "the dented can store". I am sure it has a real name, but I don't know what it is. I wasn't really sure what to expect but I was out of things such as cereal, crackers, etc. and couldn't think of anywhere else that might have these kinds of things, other than our local grocery stores, which are all large chain companies. I was pleasantly surprised by the dented can store. It DID have a lot of dented cans...and it had a lot of other stuff too, for really cheap. Here is what I walked out with.

-1 roll of kraft paper (for wrapping gifts)
-1 bag of Pampers Diapers, pack of 33
-3 Boxes of cereal (life and cheerios)
-3 boxes of taco and fajita dinner kits
-2 cake mixes*
-1 cookie mix*
-1 box of birthday candles (two birthday boys in October!)
-1 jar of spaghetti sauce
-1 large can of chickpeas (to make hummus)
-1 can of sweetened condensed milk (to make ice cream)
-1 gallon of milk
-1 can of deviled ham (I know, gross...but I ate it as a kid)
-1 package of corn on the cob holders
-1 large can of tomato soup w/ basil
-1 package of organic whole wheat flour
-1 box of organic fruit leathers
-1 box of Lipton noodle soup (all matt will eat when he is sick)
-1 box of Lansinoh reusable nursing pads (I am really excited about these. I usually pay $8 a box for disposable. These were $2.50. Cheap and enviromentally friendly!)
-4 small bags of animal cookies
-3 containers of cake sprinkles*
-3 tubes of icing*
-1package of cupcake cups (again, thinking about those Oct. birthdays)
-2 large bars of Ghirardelli chocolate
-48 foil star and heart shaped baking tins*

*My little sister, Darcie wil be nine on Sunday. For her present, I am putting together a baking box. This was one of my all time favorite gifts as a kid.

I paid $46.10 for all of it. I easily saved at least $20. I had only been here one time before. They had lot of more items than I had remembered and I will definitely be coming here again. There are more benefits to this experiment than I had anticipated. So far, it isn't costing me more money to shop in places other than wal.mart...it is just requiring that I shop a little more creatively. As a result, I am becoming aware of what is available to us and am finding that we have alot more resources than I had first thought. Yay for that!