Why I Started Ordering Household Supplies From Walmart

Haven't had to step food in @walmart with these #cuties for over a month.  I love their 2-day free shipping.  I'm getting quite a stash of boxes, but they make great animal houses and dolly beds. #walmartmom #nevergoingtothestoreagain #shoppinginthecomfortofmyownhome #walmart 😃😃😃

A post shared by Jennifer Brockman (@camphomeschool) on Jul 2, 2017 at 6:38pm PDT

The mention of Walmart brings one of two reactions:

1.  Ugh.  It's so huge; it takes me forever to get through the store.

2.  Love it.  Love the prices.  Love that I can get everything (almost) in one place.

I side more with the second reaction, unless of course I'm toting along three youngsters.  Then I'm more like ugh!

I've seen a lot of hype online about ordering household supplies from Walmart.  Amazon vs. Walmart price wars has also been a headliner in the news.  So I knew I had to check it out.  I've been an Amazon Prime member for years.  I've used the Subscribe & Save feature, the 2-day free Prime Shipping option, and Amazon Pantry.

Even though I was already familiar with the Amazon way, I really wanted to check out Walmart.com because I buy most of our household supplies and a few specific grocery items at Walmart every month.  I typically head into town for one giant grocery shopping trip to Aldi and then drive South to the Walmart.  

It's not such a bad gig if I'm alone or with only teens, but with the younger ones it pretty much adds up to misery.  They want to sit in the cart, but there's no room.  They don't want to sit in the cart, but they're getting into the way of other shoppers.  They have to go potty.  They're thirsty.  They want ice cream and cookies and fruit loops and a papaya and yogurt tubes and, and, and.....

Two or three hours of shopping just isn't their thing.

Enter Walmart.com 2-day free shipping.

I've been placing orders since May, I think.  And I have it down pat now.

Here's how I use Walmart.com to order our household needs for a family of nine.

Most importantly is I have an account that I stay logged into.  Then instead of writing down items we're running low on, I just go straight to Walmart.com, shop for the item I need, place it in my cart, and then go about my day like nothing happened.  Adding to my cart instead of writing on a list has revolutionized my shopping.  I'm always watching for things that we're getting low on instead of waiting until we're out and running to the store.  I've only had to make one stop at Walmart and that was to get a few meat items and some jeans.  But, guess what?  Now that I know what size, style, and brand works for Nick, I can just order him another pair of jeans.

Right now my cart looks like this:

When I have enough for free shipping, I hit the purchase now button and in a couple of days my items arrive at my front door.

I use scrip to support our church and this still works perfectly.  I purchase our monthly Walmart budget amount in scrip cards and then use them to pay for my online order.  It's so simple!

So that's how I've been ordering household supplies from Walmart.  Here's a look at my latest shipment.

This last order was divided into a number of boxes.  I do understand separating food from cleaning supplies, but this seemed a little over the top.

Box #1 - pretty full

Box #2 - huge box, not much in it, a couple boxes were squashed (didn't have any effect on the contents)

Box #3 - not too full

Box #4 - another big box for not a lot of stuff

Box #5 and #6 - Really?

Here's a look at what was actually in all those boxes.

A few squashed boxes, but nothing that hurt the product inside.

I buy most groceries at Aldi, but there's always a few things I can't get there like:  coffee, Knorr seasoning, corn starch, bulk black peppercorns, self-rising flour (I'm reading the Rachel Yoder books to Peter and Maria, Rachel makes a birthday cake for her brother and the recipe is included in the book.  They want to bake the cake so I bought self-rising flour)

Joseph and Maria packed it all back up and got it into 2 medium sized boxes.  I'm sure Walmart has their reasons for separating it out into so many boxes and I still got free 2-day shipping.  Ordering this way has been such a time saver.  The closest Walmart is 30 minutes from home making home delivery quite a treat.

Shopping this way has also saved us money.  The typical quick trip to Walmart for a few things can easily turn into a long, pricey excursion with endcap specials and unnecessary extras.

Have you made the jump to online ordering?  Yes?  No?  Why or why not?  Share your experiences with me and all my other readers.  We'd all love to hear about them.

Walgreens Freebies

Do you shop Walgreens? I've found that shopping the deals found in the flyer, using tons of coupons and checking out websites that highlight deals is a must when shopping Walgreens. I've been shopping the deals at Walgreens for at least 2 years now and finally feel knowledgeable about how the system works. It's not easy, that's for sure. You have to know the rules to really get the best deals. Click on any of the links above for more info from my favorite sites. The best is to find the freebies. My most recent shopping trip yielded quite a few free items.

My Walgreens Freebies
2 Chapstick Fresh Effects
Halls Refresh Throat Lozenges
4 boxes Cherry Jell-O
2 cans Campbell's Tomato Soup
L'Oreal Infallible Lip Gloss
3 boxes Ziploc Quart Freezer Bags

I also bought many items for pennies on the dollar. If you have favorite sites for finding deals or coupons please leave a comment with a link. That way we can all benefit. Happy Shopping!

Funny Cathy comic if you clip coupons or love someone who does.

Rummaging for Deals

I love rummage sales and so do my kids. We love to get up early and head to the sales, never knowing what we might find. Today was the season opener for us. We hit a 5 home neighborhood sale and then a loner. I think we bought something at every one. For under $28 (including what the kids spent out of their own pockets), here's what we got:

1 purse
2 pair jeans
1 infant sun hat
4 shirts
5 pair socks
8 kitchen utensils
4 tiki torches
1 filet board
1 wooden youth chair
1 set of play golf clubs
1 mini tractor
1 belt
2 necklaces
2 rings
2 pair clipon earrings
5 3-ring binders
1 travel case filled with brand new crayons
2 pair shorts
1 piano book
1 antique glass jar
1 farm game
4 chocolate chip cookies
4 rice krispie treats
4 cups Kool-aid
1 teacher book filled with math games for little ones

Looking back at that list I think we did pretty well. I've read at so many blogs about job losses and financial stress. Rummaging for deals is one way to really make the dollar stretch. It can be tempting to buy unneeded items just because they are so cheap. My best advice is to have a mental list of what you are looking for and let the kids know; they are experts at pointing out things on my list they find while browsing the sales. Happy Thrifting!

Discount Shopping

Just a quick note to the holiday shopping craze. I have a couple of favorite sites I use when internet shopping. First off is retailmenot.com - I find lots of discount codes to use. For example I ordered from JCPenney.com today. Using the code they offered on the cover of their catalog saved me about $25.00, but then I toggled over to retailmenot and found a couple of coupon codes. I tried each one and found that one of the codes saved me $50 on top of my original savings. So that's $75 off of my order. Pretty incredible, I'd say. Not all the codes work so copy down the top 4 or 5 and see what happens. Secondly, I've discovered magazinepricesearch.com - Here I've found magazine subscriptions at deep discounts. For example, I just ordered a subscription for my husband. The shelf price is $4.99. The subscription price on the card in the magazine is $2.13 per issue. I just ordered it for $1.16 an issue. Another great savings.

Happy Shopping!!!

Uh.....NO!

Today while shopping for men's shorts at Shopko.

Lou: Uh...mom? Can we (her and her little brother) just play tag while you shop? We'll meet you by the doors in two half hours.

The Food Bill

It's in the news everywhere. Food prices are rising. Some foods are being rationed. I'm not going to rant about the cost of food because it won't do me or anyone any good. I just have one thing to say. Why is it that kids' appetites increase proportionately to food prices? For example I thought I was shopper of the year on Thursday. My local grocer had GM cereals on sale; save $5.00 on 5 boxes. I had 75 cent and $1.00 coupons for every box, plus the grocer gave a gallon of milk free to any customer who bought the 5 boxes of cereal. Jackpot! I purchased some of the normal low sugar favorites, but I also threw in a box of Cookie Crisp (an absolute favorite) and Lucky Charms (gotta love those dehydrated marshmallows). In total I ended with 10 boxes of cereal, hoping they would last the entire month if I spaced them with eggs, toast, bagels, yogurt and fruit, pancakes, waffles, and french toast for breakfasts. The entire jumbo sized box of Cookie Crisp is gone. It was consumed for all of 2 breakfasts.

In the dairy case I discovered quart size yogurt. What a great idea. I picked up two of them since the price was right. Today I set out tiny bowls, spoons and strawberry yogurt for an afternoon snack. I ate a small bowl, did some laundry and came back to an empty yogurt container. What? That should of lasted for two afternoon snacks. Now here it is, quickly approaching dinner time and the kids are already starving (according to them). It scares me because they've basically watched episode upon episode of Clifford, played computer games and colored all day, due to severe winds and cold temperatures. Just how hungry will they be the next time they get a day full of sunshine and bike riding? Please don't answer that.

FYI***Very interesting reading over at Wikipedia about the history of breakfast cereals. Did you know that the original idea for Lucky Charms came from mixing Cheerios bits with Kraft Circus Peanuts? Now you do.

Post Thanksgiving Shopping

When in the right mood, I love shopping. This mood doesn't come very often - usually starts the end of November and ends right around Christmas. Today was a perfectly sunny and crisp day to embark on a shopping trip. Since we had to take my mom home, Grace, Lou, Grandma and I made a few stops along the way. First up was Walgreen's. I love Walgreen's! Just the right size. Just the right amount of choices. Just the right sale prices and I love their coupons and rebates. In the past I've received $40 worth of rebate gift cards, enough money to purchase my entire Walgreen's list for the next month. Then I rebate again and the cycle continues. The most prized item purchased at Walgreen's was by Lou. She finally got the Fart Putty she'd been wanting for her entire life of November.

Then we headed off to McDonald's where, once again, Lou was in her glory. I encouraged her to drink all her milk, play and then take her food in the van to eat on our way to Kohl's. She looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said "Are you sure you want me to play before I eat all my food?"

At Kohl's I found exactly the items I was looking for and they were all 50 and 60% off and mom had a $10 coupon. Jackpot! Just two more stops and Nice As New and Target and then to take mom home. It's amazing how fun shopping can be when the boys stay home. Not that they're naughty, they'd just rather not be there, and it shows.

The Salvation Army red kettles are out. The stores are jammed with customers. Christmas songs play 24 hours a day on certain radio stations. Christmas is upon us, but let's not forget Advent. The very message of Advent is preparation. There's gift ideas, wrapping, baking, cleaning, writing cards, decorating and so much more. But let's not forget to prepare a place for baby Jesus in our hearts, homes and lives. Confession, weekly Advent devotions, well chosen Christmas stories - these can help us to prepare everything with love for Jesus' sake.