Walmart ROCKS MY SOCKS!

Now liiiiisten. Say what you will about Walmart, it's ghetto, trashy, Mex-ed out (well, at least in the DFW metroplex), but DANGIT, you can get some CHEAP-A** groceries there!

But here's the key: you gotta' be prepared! Most of you know my Sparkstein ways, and how planned and frugal I can be when it comes to grocery shopping and clipping coupons. But I'm telling you, it is worth it! I spent an hour clipping 4 Sunday paper's worth of coupons this past Sunday afternoon. NOW, I treat my coupons AS my shopping list, w/ a few other essentials tossed in. I divide up all the coupons I clip by month, and sort them in my small accordion coupon organizer (shutthahellup!). I try to use up the current month's coupon's first, obviously, but toss in other things I need from other month's. Once I've chosen all the coupons I want to use, I put them in piles of where these items are in the grocery store: Dairy, Dry Goods, Canned, Beauty, Personal Hygiene, Healthcare, Frozen, Paper Products (TP & napkins), etc. I add any additional items I may need that I don't have a coupon for, like produce, to my shopping list. Then I'm OFF!

I start w/ the non-perishables first, and take out my coupons for one section at a time, and keep them in my hand (the visuals on the coupons are great, b/c sometimes I'm trying a new product - because I have a coupon for it!) :) I tackle each section, and once I've found all the items for each coupon I have, I take out the next section, and so on. If I can't find the product, I save the coupon for a different store, it's possible I might use it at Albertson's or Kroger. For those of you that hate to grocery shop, I hate to tell you, but it's impossible to find everything at ONE store - sorry. :(

So, back to my love of Walmart...I got this entire grocery cart full for $93.58! I'm serious people! That's under $100 for a load of groceries. All my coupons added up to a $15.35 savings - SEE! And I got all kinds of things from essentials like TP, 2 body soaps, toothpaste, Dawn dish soap, and Zip-Loc bags, to cooking necessities like onions, garlic, ancho chiles, chicken/veggie/beef stocks, canned tomatoes, canned hominy (posole recipe this week) pork (yes, MEAT was in this purchase), salsa verde, Frank's Red Hot (love it on everything!) marinara, and frozen corn. And I got snacks like sweet potato chips, almonds, Fiber One muffins, fruit snacks, yogurt of all kinds, even gum!

I have to say I got a pretty good haul that will help me to spread out the dry goods in my pantry for 2-4 weeks - that's $100/mo for groceries! Pretty damn good, I'd say. I'm a happy penny pinchin camper! :)