Notes on a Wal-Mart Trip - 03/31 - Clearanced Girls' Shoes, Near-Free Shipping, and Coupon Freebie Matchups, too!

I know one thing for sure: I'm just starting to crack the surface of bargain shopping and couponing at Wal-Mart. Today, I headed there with a $20 gift card that had been a birthday gift to my daughter, from my aunt - a very savvy longtime Wal-Mart employee who could write a whole book (or a few) on the Wal-Mart experience from the other side of the checkout.

I had written my aunt a thank-you note that explained that we planned on using the gift card for some quality summer shoes, since my daughter has almost outgrown all her current ones. I fully anticipated paying at least $15 for a pair of durable new shoes...but guess what I found! Not only were full-priced sandals around $10 (at least the pair we got), but there were sneakers and Mary Janes on sale for as low as $5, and faux-Uggs (kiddie version) clearanced at $3/pair!

My eyes probably popped out of my skull when I saw the faux-Uggs on clearance because one pair of brown ones from Target (I coughed up full price ~$17 for them...ouch) basically got us through this past winter casual shoe-wise. The style is great for cold weather because the exactness of sizing wasn't as crucial as, say, with girls' dress sandals or sneakers. You can buy a size larger and still have them work for popping on your girl(s) for running errands for a whole season or more...even without socks if it's "that kind" of a day.

Granted, the Target ones I had bought are probably higher quality - but at $3/pop, I stocked up on colors for next winter, buying two sizes up. (By the way - they are available in solid black, solid chocolate brown, solid khaki, floral-embroidered purple, floral-embroidered pink, lighter blue Tinkerbell design, and High School Musical design.)

What else was I making mental notes on while at Wal-Mart? Probably nothing that the regular Wal-Mart couponing shopper doesn't already know, like:

• Grocery prices at WalMart are the sale prices elsewhere. Example: large bottles of Arizona teas are $1 both at WalMart regularly, and down from $2 each this week at Giant. WalMart sells Oreos for $2.98, while Giant's 'special' on Oreo products this week is 2/$6.
  
  
• Half-'n'-Half at WalMart is cheap, at $1.87/quart.
  
  
• After searching WalMart.com for a pictures of the faux-Uggs to post, I saw in the shoes section that WalMart will ship shoes, tees, and polos (and probably lots of other stuff!) to your house for just $0.97. That's close to WalMart free shipping. :)
  
  And some well-publicized unbeatable WalMart coupon matchups on the frugality blogosphere (credit to, um, everyone):
  
  
• Kraft salad dressings, priced at $1.58, are just $0.08 after the $1.50 off coupon in the 03/28 SmartSource insert. Wowee!
  
  
• Glucerna Cereal is $3.96, and if you use the printable $5/1 coupon here, it's free (or mayyybe overage...?). Final Price: FREE!
  
  
• Johnson's Bath Buddies Soaps are FREE, as always. Use the $3/3 coupon available here. We use these for our daughter while potty-training as she hasn't gotten the hang of traditional pump liquid soaps yet. Their net covering makes them easy to handle, and they don't 'ooze' the way other bar soaps do.
  

And, incidentally, the people at WalMart (customers and employees alike) were so friendly! :)
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