Wow, what a great day of deals

I blogged about my mom's visit here. Well, before she came to visit us, she visited her brother and his family in Texas. While there she went shopping and bought a ton of clothes for my daughter and two shirts for my son.

She didn't have room in her suitcase, so she shipped them to us. We received the box Wednesday and it was like Christmas in July! Mom had gone to Gymboree and Dillards, and the box was full of skirts and shirts, a beautiful school sweater, a nightgown, and a very grown-up suit. I was nervous because my daughter is taller than average and Gymboree runs short, but only two items were too short. I looked at the receipt to see what she had paid to determine if it was worth it to make the 10+ mile trip to Gymboree to exchange the items. Well, just those two items were $57! So, yes, it was worth it to make the trip.

The kids had been clamoring to go to Target to spend their $6 from Grandma. Target was on the way to the mall, and, DING DING DING, Crystal had just posted about the amazing Target diaper and wipes deal, so I added Target to the list.

Also needed to get cereal and bread from Fry's.

Made my list, grabbed my coupons and we were on our way.

First stop: The Mall

• Went straight to Gymboree. Because my mom had paid with her credit card, I couldn't get a cash refund. So, I walked around the store looking at the deals, trying to make my $57 plus tax stretch as far as possible. It was comical because I would pile stuff on the counter, the cashier would ring it up and say "Okay, $22 more." At the end, I was going through the clearance bins that they keep by the register pulling out discounted socks and hair clips (which she needed and I never think to get.) Here's what we got in exchange for two items:

1. 1. Two pairs of boy uniform pants on sale for $15 (this is more than I usually pay, but free is free!)
2. 2. 2 piece pajames for my son who will only wear long sleeves, $7.99
3. 3. Red jacket, originally $42.50, marked down to $6.99.
4. 4. Navy Henley shirt, $14.50, marked down to $3.99.
5. 5. 4 pairs of socks @ 99 each
6. 6. 3 Hairbows $1..49-$1.99

Total OOP: .80!!!

• Decided to pop into Payless Shoe Source as I need shoes desperately. Picked up three pairs of shoes for $19.20!!!! The original price on one pair was $19.99.

Next Stop: Target

I decided to only print out the coupons for the $5 gift card (for my own personal reasons). I printed out two. I also had a coupon for $1.50 off wipes that I received in the mail from Pampers. Finally, my wonderful mom gave me an awesome gift of a years worth of free diapers when I had my son. (Side note, this is an awesome gift to give a new mom. Check it out here.) I have gift certificates for a jumbo pack of diapers for free. I got two packs of diapers and two packs of wipes. I gave the cashier the $5 gift card coupons first, then the $1.50 off wipes, then the gc's for diapers. Total OOP: $10.48, plus I got back $10 in gift cards.

Final Stop: Fry's

Select General Mills cereals are on sale for $1.88. I printed out two Trix coupons for .55 each, which Fry's doubled = .88 each x 2

Bread= 1.50 x 2 = 3.00

Total OOP: 4.66 plus tax

I also had good runs at Staples and CVS earlier this week.

All in all, a very productive week. God Bless and have a great one!