My own little frugal fest!

Last week I posted about the great deal I got on those cute lil boots - and they were a smokin' deal!  But actually, I've been finding really wonderful deals all over the place.

With prices on just about everything going, up, up, up, I've really been looking through coupons and scouring to find the best deals, and I've had some great success.  I want to keep myself motivated, so I thought I'd sharing some of my finds would keep bargain hunting forefront in my mind.  (Yeah, like I'm not always looking for a bargain!)

Eggs
Last weekend while grocery shopping I found a great deal on eggs.  They had several dozen cartons marked down to just .50 cents each!  The sell-by date was coming up soon, but eggs are still good for 3-4 weeks after their sell-by date, so I decided to stock up a bit; I bought 4 dozen eggs.  In my area, eggs normally run about $1.99 per dozen, so this deal resulted in just over a 74% savings.

Clothing
The same day I purchased my boots, I also purchased some clothing: four pairs of pants and a winter sweater.  The total for all five items came to just $52.32, including tax.  All of the items were between $8.00 and $10.00.  When I was removing the tags, I calculated out what the price would have been if I'd paid full-price (which, of course I'd never do!).  Full price on everything would have been $205.00, so again, I saved right around 74%.

Beauty Products
Okay, I'll admit it - I love ULTA!  I'm a member of their rewards program so each time I buy something, points are credited to my account.  When you have enough points, you can redeem them for a certain amount off your bill.  I'd bought some things in the fall, and a gift over the holidays, so I had some points on my account, but not all that many.  Last week they sent me an email stating that they'd added more points to my account as a 'bonus', but I had to use the points by Saturday.  The points on my account totaled a $9.00 reward for me - yay!  I also found a coupon for $3.50 off any purchase of $10.00 or more and I was able to combine both the $9.00 reward and the $3.50 off coupon.  One of my favorite products is BioSilk.  It's a wonderful moisturizer for both hair and skin, but it's a bit on the pricey side - $14.00 for a medium-sized bottle (It lasts a long time, though. I've had the current bottle for just over a year.)  I am down to the last bit in the bottle I have, so I thought I'd go and pick some up.  While I was there, I also found the mineral make-up I like in the clearance bin.  The company is changing the packaging, so the current lot is clearanced out.  The make-up normally sells for $12.99, but I paid just $6.49 for it.  Without the sale price on the make-up, coupons or points, my purchase would have been $29.42.  Instead, I paid just $8.71 total.  That's a savings of $20.71, or savings of over 70%.

Produce
We have a nearby grocery that has phenomenal weekly deals on produce.  I don't go often, but I'm going to put it on my weekly To-Do list for Wednesdays.  Why Wednesdays?  They have a double-ad special that day.  That means that you get the sale prices for whatever was in the ad last Wednesday, and the sale prices for whatever is in their ad for this Wednesday.  Because Kevin was running some errands close to this grocery yesterday, he stopped and picked up a couple of things I wanted from this store:  bunch spinach - .48 cents per bunch; haas avocados - .48 cents each; red bell peppers - .88 cents each; Texas ruby red grapefruit - .48 cents each; ataulfo mangos - .48 cents each.  Great deals!  Kevin bought 3 bunches of spinach, 6 avocados, 2 red peppers, 4 grapefruit and 4 mangos.  The total bill came to just $11.00.  I can hardly wait to see what's in the ad for this week!