confessions of a bargain hunter

I consider myself frugal. I am not cheap, however. I don't separate 2-ply toilet paper; I don't rinse out baggies so I can reuse them; I don't wash out my tinfoil to get extra uses. I do clip coupons, watch the sales, stockpile items and, heaven forbid, follow up if something doesn't live up to the warranty.

Today, I got to throw the clerks at Sears for a loop. They have a program called KidVantage. When you purchase $100 in children's clothing, you earn a $15 rebate or something like that. Another wonderful perk of the program is that items are guaranteed. That is to say, if your child wears out the clothing before they grow out of it, it will be replaced.

Most people probably forget where they buy the clothes or figure it's not worth it to drive down to the store to replace. Not me. I've got other kids waiting to wear those pants...so it may be several years down the road before it happens, but there's a line. (OK, confession time...as much as I am frugal, I have had to break myself of the habit of holding on to clothing. It must be in excellent condition to warrant taking up my precious space. Most things get donated.)

In February, I bought my oldest a pair of pants that were slightly too big. He was in that awkward stage of too tall for size 8 but too short for 10s. We bought him a 10. He played hard in those pants, so hard that he wore a hole into the cuff. You betcha I marched those pants into Sears and wanted an exchange.

Now the problem I have, and I'm not sure what to do about it is this: The original pants had an adjustable waist. Dear son is too big around the middle for slims but regulars just about fall off of him and he hates wearing a belt. They were completely out of the pants we originally purchased. We had to replace them with a pair in the same size of equal or lesser value. They didn't have any wtih the adjustable waist. I'm very tempted to have DH take these pants back and exchange them for a 10 slim because those *Should* fit. But then I feel dishonest. thoughts?

Second thing I had fun with today was shopping at the new Publix. The supermarket is opening two new stores in our fair city, presumably to compete wtih the two super walmarts and the new super walmart being built. We have something like 5 superwalmarts within 20 miles. it's obnoxious.

Anyway, I was able to get sugar at a very good price, but other than that, this store was more expensive than the walmart. I really have no idea how they are going to compete. A large grocery chain in the area is going out of business because they can't compete. And the other large chain, eh...they aren't exactly the place of bargains either. I really expected this new store to cater to a market different than the other stores.

I wasn't really all that impressed with their prices, but I will probably end up shopping there for one or two items at a time, if I run out. In order for me to justify shopping at the super walmart, it needs to be a big trip. I use a gallon of gas to get to the walmart and back home. Right now, that's $2.50. In order to justify shopping at the neighborhood stores, I have to either a) save more than $2.50 over walmart prices, or b) spend less than $2.50 between gas and the cost difference between the stores. For example, soy milk is $2.18 for a half gallon at walmart. If I were to go to walmart I would actually be paying $4.68 for that soy milk if that were the only thing I needed. And let's be honest here, if I go into walmart I will spend A LOT more than what I intended. Now, let's pretend I go to Publix. The soy milk there is $2.60 but I only went 6 miles roundtrip, so the actual cost is $3.85...and I'm less likely to buy other junk I don't need because the publix is over priced on most other items.

Sometimes, I being frugal involves too much math.