Consignment Sale time

I have been buying most of the girls clothes used, pretty much since Katelyn was born (although I do also frequent the clearance racks at Carter's and Target).  I used to go to thrift stores, but that is now too time consuming with the two girls to bring along.  For over a year now I have been going to consignment sales.  I mainly go to Up Up and Away in Orange County.  While the prices are not quite as good as at the thrift store, I can be sure that my time will be well spent and I still come away with some great deals every time.  This particular sale occurs 4 times a year and I have been about 5 or 6 times.  It only lasts Wed. thru Sat. and then it is over until about 3 months later. 

Last week Thursday I left the kids with my mom and headed down to Tustin to do some shopping.  It normally takes me about 2 hours to get through everything.  It is a huge sale.  I think as the girls get older and I don't need to dig through the toys and as many sizes of clothes, it will take less time.  I always look around at the moms with crying kids and I am so grateful that I found a babysitter.

This is by far the smallest amount of stuff I have purchased and I was still pretty happy with what I got.  I paid $50.76 for all of the following and one book that I bought for my mom that is not shown.

I bought the rainboots for Katelyn's birthday.  In total, I bought 1 book, 1 pair of boots, 1 dress, 1 sweatshirt, 6 shirts, 1 pair of shorts, and 5 pairs of pants, for $50.76.  Several of the items are GAP, and most are Old Navy, Cherokee (Target's nicer brand), and Carter's.


The next sale in November is already on my calendar!  (At least mentally, Brooklyn took my date book last week and I have yet to find it.)

Couponing Again

I don't post about my coupon shopping trips very often.  In part because I don't consider myself an 'extreme couponer.'  Also, I haven't been doing a whole lot of couponing yet this year because busy season was so nuts and so long and I usually go to the stores in the evening when Kyle gets home from work.  Well, I had a good shopping trip this week that I think might motivate me to get back into the swing of things.  A couple weeks ago our closet where I keep all the cereal was basically empty and I actually paid full price for cereal a couple of times (not something I do very often).  It is now overflowing again with cereal as there have been a lot of good sales and a couple good trips (I aim to never pay more than $1.67 a box).

On Tuesday of this week, I went to Ralphs and purchased all of the following for a total of $25.03.  My receipt shows a savings of $82.68.  The highest cost items were actually the potatoes I needed for dinner that night, followed by the grapes (which were still a pretty good sale).

I get most of my shopping ideas from different couponing blogs that match the sales ads for the week with the coupons to get the best deals.  I just found a new website that has good matchups for our local grocery stores (www.ocdealmama.com  I also use www.southerncalisaver.com).