The First Bargain post!

I love a good deal and I love coupons. Think Extreme Couponing, but less psychotic (none of that turning your kids' room into a cereal warehouse business here, dumpster diving for coupons). I have reasonable stockpiles of toothpaste, shampoo/conditioner, cereal, pasta, etc. 


As some of you already know, I have a love for Target. I even went the morning I had Eva (maybe that is why she loves going there with me)! It is easy to save money at Target - they let you combine store coupons with manufacturer's coupons and when you stack that on top of a sale...well, you get the picture.

Here's today's haul...

This trip was split into 2 transactions to minimize out of pocket expenses.

Transaction #1
-3 Dove shampoos at $2.99 each
-1 Dove conditioner at $2.99 each

• Used 1 $3/2 Dove hair care coupon (from the Sunday inserts a few weeks ago) and 1 $1.50/2 coupon (from the Dove website, if I had a second newspaper coupon, this would've been a better deal) for a final price of $7.46 for 4 shampoos/conditioners

-Extra 5 cents off for bringing my own bag :)
-Total after coupons and tax: $7.93, purchasing 4 Dove hair products generated a $5 gift card making an okay sale into a good deal!

I took that $5 gift card to roll into my second transaction (since these generated gift cards have to be used on a future transaction, which I think is silly, but whatever).

Transaction #2
-1 Method kitchen cleaner, lemon verbena scent at $2.99 

• Used $1/1 Target coupon and $1/1 mf (manufacturer) coupon for a final price of 99 cents

-1 Method Mickey Mouse soap at $3.49 

• Used $1/1 Target coupon and $.75/1 mf coupon for a final price of $1.74

-2 boxes of Quaker bars at $2 each 

• Used $1/2 Target coupon and $1/2 mf coupon for a final price of $2, or $1 per box

-1 2-pack of contact lens solution at $3.84 

• Used $1/1 Target coupon for a final price of $2.84 

-Extra 5 cents off for bringing my own bag, even though the cashier did just put everything into the same bag from transaction 1.
-Random side note: the cashier tried telling me that hand soap wasn't a personal care item and that the store coupon wouldn't work...even though hand soap IS a personal care item and the coupon did work in the end. Stand up for yourself!
-Total after coupons, tax and $5 gift card from the first transaction: $3.06

Total out of pocket - $10.99

All in all, a good trip :) Let me know if you have any questions!