2 shopping trips today - Sat 7/24/10

Have I ever mentioned how much I love to go to Farmer's Markets?  Well, I'll reiterate that I LOVE to go to Farmer's Markets.  There's one in my area that's run every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month.  I've been going there instead of my weekly trips to Froberg's Fruit and Vegetable Farm because Froberg's has a booth there and right now the strawberry picking is on hold till December.  We won't be here in December except maybe to visit (and I'll want to take a trip out there if we do), so for now I'll get my fill at the booth bi-weekly.

 The Froberg's Farm booth at the Farmer's Market

Well, of course there are other vendors there too including Gardener's Corner which is a small association of gardeners that farm a little in their own back yard and pick some of the abundance of their veggies to sell.  I normally like to get my cucumbers there because they can easily last through the 2 weeks till the market is open again.  Granted, I know that if I went to the Froberg's actual farm I could get an entire1/2  peck of cucumbers that are "irregulars" for $1.00.  As much as I love cucumbers, I really can't go through that many so I can't justify the 30 minute one way drive for just cucumbers.

Here's what I got at the Farmer's Market.

From Froberg's:

• 1/2 peck of green beans
• 1/2 peck of small red potatoes
• 1/2 peck of peaches (found out later they weren't local... oh well)

$6.00

From Gardener's Corner:

• 2 cucumbers.  See the lower right hand corner?  I have one regular looking cucumber and two that are curvey.  I got the 2 curvey ones from Gardener's corner which is a group of local people that farm in their back yard.

$1.00

From another vendor:

• 1 cucumber
• 1 carrot
• 2 light green peppers

$1.00

From a final vendor that specialized in mostly oriental veggies:

• some leafy green that I can't remember the name of.  He gave me a recipe for it, but I can't find it for the life of me.  He said it's best in stir frys with some garlic and oil or served as a salad.  So looking forward to trying this!  (Edit: found the papers.  It's called Ong Choy)
• a gourd of some type that's light green and bumpy (lower left hand side).  Again, he gave me a recipe but I can't find it.  I WILL be eating this, though. (Edit: didn't get any papers on this one, but I'm gonna try it steamed with butter & salt)
• 1 small eggplant

$3.00

 The vendor that had lots of exotic veggies as well as well known ones

$11.00 total spent on all the produce above.

I stopped for a brief moment at Kroger, but mostly just to pick up some pancakes (I totally suck at making pancakes), syrup, and newspapers.  Nothing fancy and no coupons used.

Here's my proud moment for today.  I had a kid's birthday party to attend with PreK Newbie and hadn't picked up a gift yet.  I ran to Walgreens planning on only finding a gift and leaving, thrifty or not.  I wasn't planning on anything big or fancy for the trip, but when I walked in there was a whole cart of L'Oreal stairing at me, marked down to $2.49 a box.  I was there with Mother In Law Newbie who does like to try out colors on her hair.  I figured I'd grab my coupon binder and see if I could get her some cheap.  Well, I found $3.00 off coupons!  I told her I'd definitely buy them for her if she'd let me.  She was so cute.  She kept asking me if I was sure.  I love her!  I explained that Walgreens would actually be paying me $0.51 each box to take them out of the store for me!  She loved that idea and just let me do my thang ;)

I also insisted she get the color treated shampoos on the right but that was only because they were also a $0.51 money maker each.  The Royal pudding was on clearance for $0.09 each too.  Had to get them.  Oh, and the Fructice shampoo....  you guessed it.  Between a manufacturer coupon and Walgreen's coupon from the July coupon book it was also a $0.51 money maker!  All in all, I made $3.57 on just haircolor and shampoo.  Yeah, now I could buy what I needed.

• Goodnightes boxers on clearance for $8.99.  Used a $2.50 off coupon.  Paid $6.49.
• Birthday card $0.99 (not pictured)
• Birthday gift $9.99 (also not pictured)
• 8 Royal Pudding on clearance for $0.09 each.  Paid $0.72 for all of them
• 3 L'Oreal Haircolors at $2.49 each.  Used $3.00 off coupons.  -$1.53
• 3 L'Oreal color treated shampoos at $2.49 each.  Used $3.00 off coupons.  -$1.53
• Frutis color shampoo -$0.51 

Now, here is what I liked seeing...

Even after a year of couponing, I know there are some people that would've gone in and willingly spent $77.85 on all of the above items.  Why?  Seriously?  The Return of Investment in clipping coupons is so high that it honestly doesn't make sense not to use them!  Isn't there something else you could do with the $61.99 saved on a trip such as this one?  I know I sure have plenty!  :)