Wal-Mart Rant #1

As you can tell from the title, I suspect there will be more rants pertaining to Wally World aka Voldemart on my blog. Yesterday Wal-Mart was supposed to be giving out free scoops of yummy ice cream and while my sister-in-law Grace and I didn't go there just for that, it was a nice added perk. So we decided to do our shopping first and eat the ice cream on the way out which I guess was our first mistake. We picked up what we needed and headed over to the ice cream booth where they told us that they had just ran out of ice cream and would be stocked up in about 15 minutes. I thought about leaving then (I should have) because we had some chores to do at home and had Micaiah with us, but we decided to meander over to the movie section. We spent a good 15 minutes getting there, looking, and heading back to find no one at the booth and the man who had talked to us walking away from it. This does not make me want to shop at Wal-Mart. Sure, they didn't do anything wrong by running out of ice cream but they sorely underestimated the amount of ice cream they would need and/or the amount of workers needed to keep it stocked up. This is one of the many reasons I do not shop at Wal-Mart unless absolutely necessary.

$.03 Grocery Trip

I had my best shopping trip yet this past Monday at Publix where I saved $78.04 and spent a whopping $.03. As you can see from the picture, I bought a huge amount of stuff including a gallon of milk, two containers of mayo, three bags of frozen chicken, and two quarts of ice cream. The trick? Well, there are plenty, but this time competitor coupons and overage were my best friends. Publix takes coupons from several local grocery stores and will combine their store coupons with other manufacturer coupons. This fact alone can result in some major overage. For example, the Kraft salad dressing was buy one get one free, saving 2.99 on two. So each bottle was about 1.50. I had a coupon for 1.50 off one and a Target store coupon for $1 off Kraft dressing so for each bottle I bought, I was basically paid $1.
However, this kind of thing doesn't happen often. You can't often find that many good deals in one trip. But I don't do too bad normally either, always saving at least 75% with sales and coupons. It makes me happy to save money yet be able to keep the cupboards chock full of food!

Chihuahuas

Yesterday I saw two cars with chihuahuas peeking out the drivers side window within 10 minutes. I thought that was an odd happening and blog worthy.

It also reminds me of someone who read "Chihuahua" on a map of Mexico and pronounced it "Chi - hoo-a hoo-a."

On couponing

I never realized you could save so much money with coupons. Sure, I would use the occasional coupon that came my way but I never knew you could get so many through so many different sources. I've always shopped the sales and thought I was doing pretty good when I looked at my savings at the bottom of my receipt. Boy was I wrong! I started full-on couponing around fall of last year. And since then I have become MAJORLY addicted. Just ask my husband, he thinks I'm a complete nerd. I bought a binder and trade coupons online, the whole works! In a couple weeks I'm actually doing a small "seminar" for the ladies of my church on it. Mind you, there are other ways to save and you can probably do just as well if you use a mixture of coupons and making things yourself (bread, canning, etc.) but I'm not quite there yet. I am still a ready-made type girl when it comes to food and if it's quick and easy (and cheap) I'm all over it.
If you want any tips let me know. Rest assured this is not the last you'll hear of my couponing!

Ok, I really should be packing right now (plus my 15 month old son is begging at my legs for Teddy Grahams!) so I must go!

Layouts and Widgets

Not sure about this layout either, it's cute but may not be versatile enough. Added some widgets. Any great ones that I should have on here? I'm trying to make it informational and user-friendly.
I'm so indecisive sometimes! Still not sure if I should keep the title or change it to ... Keeping up with the Kershners or Kershner Klan or something...

Post Numero Uno

I've been thinking about creating a new blog for awhile now, especially when something happens that I really want to blog about. I do have a blog on Xanga, but that site is quickly becoming less popular and I feel like no one is really reading my posts. Then again, who knows if anyone will read them on here either but at least I can start fresh and not really care.

Until I decided on the title of my blog, I never wished my name was spelled any other way. Now I realize it would look much more pleasing to the eye if it were "Thrifty Vicky" instead. But if I spelled it like that, everyone would think that's how I spell my name in real life, plus I still have family members who misspell my name so it would be even more confusing.

I'm open to suggestions on my blog name and I'm not totally satisfied. I want it to reflect the fact that I am a mom too since that is such a huge part of my life. I won't be JUST blogging about my savings and deals, I will be talking about other aspects of my life too.

Well, anyway, that's all for now!