Who’s ready for Black Friday deals? I can’t wait to see what comes up. I’m really hoping to get something good because I’m on a serious budget! Yes, I’ll go out, I’m desperate!

To prepare more for things, I did my other shopping this week. With triples and doubles at Shoppers Food Warehouse, I was ready to roll. I did OK on Saturday, but wait till you see what I did when I went back with a plan!

Monday started out at CVS of course.

I walked in and I scanned my key fob at the magic red machine. Out came… “Ten dollars off a purchase of $50”. Oh baby. I almost did the happy dance. All my transactions became one! Check it out!

CVS Transaction:
4 Tylenol Express Gels
2 Mineral Face Powders
4 Nail Polishes
3 CVS Toothbrushes
1 bag of CVS Pretzels
1 bag of CVS stuffed pretzels
4 bags of CVS Gummy bears
1 CVS mug with snowmen on it
2 Boxes CVS Tissues 200 count
1 Buddies soap
2 packages Tone soap – 2 bars each package
1 package Coast soap – 3 bars
3 CVS calendars

The candy was marked down to .88. I used a $1 off two coupon.
The pretzels were .79 and 1.49 and I used a $1 off two coupon.
The toothbrushes were $1 each and I used a $1 off three coupon.
The tissues were on sale for .99 each and I used a $1 off two coupon
I had a coupon for $2 off a purchase of CVS items totaling $10.
The Tylenol was Buy one Get one free. They are 4.99 and so I really only paid for two. Then I used four $2 off coupons. I also have a CVS coupon for $2.50 off my next pain reliever purchase over $10.
The mug was .99
The nail polish was also buy one get free. I used coupons for each one that were $2.00 off. I can’t remember how much the nail polish was.
The powder was like 7.99 each and I had coupons for like $2 or $3 off.
The Buddies soap was 1.20 or something and I had a $1 off coupon that I’d printed off the internet.

The secrets with CVS coupons are these:
1. Always use coupons from CVS saying $x dollars off a purchase of $y. So first I gave my $10 off the $50 purchase then I gave my $2 off the $10 CVS items.
2. Stack what you can with good deals. Tylenol was buy one get free. Two for 4.99. Use two coupons for $2.00 off and you have .99 for two. Since I bought four I should have owed 1.98, but I used that CVS coupon to further the good deal. It actually gave me a SURPLUS of .52. Nice.

Once I was done, I forked over an ECB for 15.99. I love those little store credit coupons that print off on my receipt. My total was just over $3 and I have a gift card that I used. I was actually upset that my total was so high but someone slipped an extra pack of gummies into my cart and somehow I got rung up for an extra box of tissues. I could have complained about said extra box of tissues but decided it wasn’t worth my time. I mean I did just get like $90 worth of stuff without spending a dime. Right?

Oh and the three calendars are freebies they are handing out. I’m planning to use them for stocking stuffer sort of gifts. Throw it in a gift bag or whatever.

My next shopping trips were on Tuesday. First up was Shoppers. Now let me explain this one to you. I don’t shop here. They are too expensive. But hen they are offering to double $1 coupons, that means loads of nearly free goodies.

I walk in with some coupons I’d clipped. This time i went in with a plan. I get lost in that place. As my luck would have it, there’s a guy selling newspaper subs at the front of the store. I’d been wanting to get the Sunday issues delivered so I don’t have to try to scout for them on Monday. $7 a month seems high, but I think we’ve already learned I save way more than that a month. I forked over $7 for my first month and got a $10 gift card to the store. Way I see it was I just made $3! (More if you want to count the savings from not having to buy the Sunday paper each week.)

I run around and I don’t have my receipt but here’s some of my good deals:
4 bags of cat food – free. Some lady gave me coupons. Score!
3 boxes of parchment paper – .89 after doubled coupons
4 boxes of oven bags – .29 after doubled coupons
2 fruit cups – free after doubled coupons
3 bags of tuna – two were free after coupons. They should have all three been free, but they didn’t do it that way. Shame.
2 Swanson broth cartons, I used a store coupon and a doubled coupon and they were under a dollar total.
Jar of chili
Dog treats – coupon said “Try me for free”
2 Baking powders – free or something after coupon
2 cans of chicken
2 OCello Sponges – free after coupon

My total was $16.06. I used the gift card so I paid 6.06 out of pocket.

Then I went to Target. What a deal! They had cauliflower and broccoli on sale for like 1.33 or something. They had store coupons for $1 off. I bought 10 broccoli and 8 cauliflower. Each is just over a pound.

I also picked up two poptarts which were on sale. I had a coupon and there’s a target coupon. I also picked up another 10 little coffee packages. .06 each with Target coupons!

Target total: $7.07

So I got everything in this picture, plus the weekend editions of the newspaper delivered to my house for a month, plus 2 fruit cups, plus a bunch of coffee packages for gifts and frozen cauliflower and broccoli.

$215.10 in stuff (not counting newspapers) for only $20.13 (counting the newspaper subscription) isn’t too bad if you ask me!

In other news, my deal shopping didn’t hinder my goal to be able to verify my NaNo novel before leaving on vacation. As of this moment my NaNo 08 is not only verified but I have a word count of 55,138 words.

By my estimation, I have roughly 14,776 words to go until I finish Juan of the Dead.

Random poll: What do you think of this?

Juan of the Dead: It took dying for her to meet that special some Juan

And which do you like more for swag?

– I ❤ Juan
– Bea Reanimated
– Reanimated One

I'm totally thinking I need t-shirts and stickers. How cool would the Lady Ozma van be with a big old sticker on the back promoting Juan of the Dead? I hate such things, but I'd make an exception for this!

–Lady O