I. Love. James.

Something happened at Target today that changed my life.

But first, I have to tell you that I stopped at Walmart to get the facebook Sunbelt buy one get one free goodies. They were on sale for $2, so I got 2 boxes of granola bars and 2 boxes of fruit snacks for $4. And now my kids are happy, because I never buy fruit snacks anymore. You want a fruit snack? Here’s an apple. But I buckled under the pressure. Sometimes the coupons dictate my life.

Pit stop. I had to go to Chick Fil A and Sonic, because it was happy hour and also, I’ve learned to never ever ever ever go to the grocery store hungry. Unless it’s Costco. Then I graze.

Okay, now we’re at Target.

I had so many coupons today, I was almost hyperventilating, so I had to get the big ones out of the way.

Free gift card when you buy 2 marked Schick products. They were on sale for $6.49, and I had $3 off Schick refills, $3 Schick Extreme razor from the P&G booklet I got in the mail. (If you haven’t ordered one yet, you have no idea what you’re missing.) This brought the total to 6.98, and with the $5 Target card, $1.98.

Target web coupon Airwick Plug in scented oil unit with purchase of scented oil refill. Target web coupon had $1 off of any one scented oil refill pack, as well as the Sunday insert. The scented refills are $2.99, so the total for both the unit and the oil was $1.99.

General Mills cereal – on sale $3.49. Buy 2, get a multi pack of kids’ Yoplait yogurt free. I also had a coupon for $1/3 General Mills cereals, and a .65 off of Reeses Puffs. I bought the 3 boxes of cereal, and took a chance at checkout, and they all went through. This made 3 huge boxes of cereal and a yogurt pack around $6.50.

Digiornio Pizza –  On sale for $4.50, buy 2 get one single serve pizza free. I bought 2, and then 2 California Pizza Kitchen pizzas. Coupons.com had a $1 one California Pizza Kitchen pizza, and I found $1 Digiornio coupons at smartsource.com. So, 4 nice pizzas for $8.This one was awesome. We have lots of kids coming in and out this weekend, so we need quick food. Way less expensive than ordering even 1 pizza.

More pizza. I had an Archer Farms print out from a previous visit for a buy one and get one free, and $1 off target web coupon. So, 2 more pizzas for 1.99.

Smart Ones – $5 gift card for buying 10, $4 off of 10. Most of them are $1.88 each. Total was 9.80, so that makes them less than $1 a piece. Brad’s leaving town next week, so I hid some of them from the kids, and lets be honest, from Brad so I can take it easy while he’s gone.

Baked Lays – on sale for 2.79, $1 Target web coupon, $1.79. Gotta have some chips for all that salsa.

Nabisco crackers – $1/2, Target web coupon

$2 off Quaker oats, on sale for $2.34, so .34

Ground Beef – 4 pounds at $1.99 a pound, used 4 .50 off coupons, $6 for 4 pounds. Lots of options this week.

Old El Paso – .50 off coupons.com, so .19 cents.

Green bell peppers- .69 cents

Free Avocado

Carving Board Turkey – $1 Target web coupon, .75 coupons.com

Market Pantry bread – .50 Target web coupon, so .49 cents

Kraft cheese – on sale for $2.00, $1.50 printout at register from a previous visit, so 2 for $2.50. You can find a kraft cheese coupon at smartsource.com or coupons.com

Beggin Strips – $1 Sunday Insert, $1 Target Web, so .49. And there was a coupon on the bag, so free in my book.

And last but not least, use this with this sale on Wholly Guacamole, and it will be $2, which is almost unheard of. (sale ends Oct.30)

Those were the best deals today. At least I thought they were, until I met James.

James was my check out boy. I warned him right up front that there were going to be a lot of coupons I was going to hand him. He didn’t even wince. God bless James.

Poor James. I talked and talked and talked to him about each deal I was getting and did he want to see the pictures I took on my phone? And yes, I bought 3, do you want me to find it in the bag?

And then James said something to me I’ll never forget.

James asked me if I wanted a Target card to save 5%. And I was only hearing the word card and I said, oh no, thank you very much, credit cards are bad for me. And this is the part where he changes my life. He says to me, no, I mean a Target debit card. We’ve only had it about 2 weeks. It takes your cash directly from your account when you pay, and you save 5% each time you use it.

And this is the part where I turned into one part tornado and one part whirling dervish. Literally. Something took over me and I spun around and then grabbed my hair and said way too loudly, ARE YOU KIDDING ME! James! You just changed my life!

Poor James turned super red. I asked all the right questions. And bam. I have a Target debit card that I can use anytime I want.  ( And your local school of choice benefits. Ridiculous.)

Thank you James.

He saved me even.more.money.

See?

And don’t forget I got 2 $5 gift cards.  This is what I have to show for it.

God Bless America.

P.S. lots of freebies this week on Gypsy Jules. Don’t miss out!