Wal-Mart on a Saturday

I went to Wal-Mart on Saturday. I know what you must be thinking, I had a momentary lapse in judgement. My friend, Celeste, needed a ton of groceries, and I didn't have anything else going on so I told her I would go with her if she drove. Also, I figured some essentials I needed might be cheaper at Wally World.

Because Publix doubles manufacturer coupons that are less than $1, it makes more sense (cents) to save all of my coupons that are less than $1 for Publix shopping trips. So, I gathered all the $1 and $2-off coupons, made a list of what I needed and headed to the dreaded Wal-Mart — on a Saturday afternoon.

It actually wasn't too bad. We stuck mostly to the food aisles, and only some of the shelves were bare. The other shoppers were actually courteous, and even helped us get paper towels down from a really high shelf. I only had $52 in my account, so I knew I couldn't do too much damage. I ended up getting cleaning supplies, Smart Ones frozen meals (they are $1.88 at Wal-Mart, $2.05 at Target and like $2.30ish at Publix), some canned veggies and beans, a squash and two bell peppers that looked surprisingly fresh for Wal-Mart, some vitamins and a few other items. I spent $38, but that covered all of my food spending for the week.

Other recent spending: Normally, I'm pretty lame on weeknights, but last night I ventured out to play trivia. I ordered some tater tots because I hadn't had dinner and split two pitchers of beer three ways. My total with tip was $8, so that's not too bad for something I don't do very often. I know the smarter thing to do would have been to eat before going out, but I didn't have time to workout, shower and pick up Celeste for trivia, so I ate there.

An update on the budget-conscious front: I usually go bathing suit shopping in January because it's when stores start setting out the summer swim wear (and all the small sizes go so quickly). I decided to skip my annual purchase because I need to be more aggressive with saving money. It's just $30ish for a new suit, which is justified because I wear my bathing suits so often in the summer that the elastic is worn out by the end of the season, but I'm going to just see how long my old one can hold up. Maybe I'll revise this decision when I get my tax refund money...

Tomorrow is payday, finally! I'm waiting on my W2's to get here so I can go ahead and file my taxes. I haven't decided if I'll use Turbo Tax again or take them to a professional. My taxes are pretty basic, but I do have a lot of receipts from the donating spree I went on this year and Bank of America gave me $65 in interest from joining their Keep the Change program. I just can't wait to get taxes over with; I read that a lot of people are predicted to file early because the economy is so bad that they need the money now. I really need to do some maintenance on my car, so the refund money will keep me from having to charge the expenses. I plan on putting the rest in savings, but we'll see if I need to allocate it toward something else.

Comments

[Karen]

Do your own taxes - you'll save the fees. Check out the free e-filing options at irs.gov. If you qualify, you'll be able to save even more and it's very easy. You may not even need to use those receipts (sorry!) if you don't have enough deductions to itemize. Most taxpayers without mortgage interest come out better with the standard deduction. I've used TaxCut and TurboTax online and like them both (plus I worked 4 yrs at a franchise tax prep firm). Email me if you have specific questions.

[Gwen]

"(and all the small sizes go so quickly)"

Do they really? Anybody else feel poor AND fat now? :)

[Nick]

If you can get past the stigma of shopping at Wal-Mart, they actually have some pretty good deals on a lot of things, namely food. I don't go there often, but when I really need to stock up, I'll go there and get what I need, and whatever they don't have I'll get from a normal grocery store.

[Tricia]

Try Aldis for Canned veggies 42 items for 39.65 I even got fresh strawberries and fresh pineapple.