TODAY'S SAVY SHOPPING!

The morning hours today began rather grim, then came a phone call from one of my 'besties' saying "Ready to do some shopping?" Although she couldn't see me roll my eyes over the phone lines (as in 'we have nothing extra for "shopping"..kind of eye roll), I sighed and said "Ummm...not unless it's FREE". As I recanted my "joyous" current life happenings she said "I'll be over to cheer you up shortly".

Once she was here, we gathered coupons, club cards and the like and headed out with our "map" (to ensure efficient time and gas consumption...Hahaha) in hand of our intended itinerary.

• First stop: Panda Express for a FREE entree (and complimentary fortune cookie) of their new Shrimp dish.

• Second stop: CVS where the first thing we did was scan our club cards to see what current coupons they were offering. $1.00 off Dove candies. PERFECT!! Why? Well, we had already printed a coupon good towards ANY candy or soda "up to $2.00" for FREE. Dove was on sale for 2/$6.00. Walked out with the a nice large bag of Dove Chocolate - the perfect prescription for a crummy day!

• Next stop: RC Wiley - where we received a brand new full-size bed pillow absolutely FREE!

The Galleria Mall was our next stop:

• Sephora brought us FREE mascara and samples of perfume and foundation primer.
• Victoria Secret - FREE pair of panties!
• Aveda - Full size bottle of Body lotion - FREE!
• Yes, we hit up another Panda Express in the mall - bingo!

Across the mall in The Fountains shopping area:

• Boudin Bakery: I bought one 1lb. loaf of sourdough bread (they sliced it for free) and 1 chewy chocolate chip cookie - minus a $5.00 voucher for doing survey - Out of pocket cost .18cents. I received a 2nd loaf of sourdough bread (sliced) for FREE for belonging to their rewards program.
• Vera Bradley: They sent my hubby a $20 gift card for his birthday which he so lovingly gave to me saying "have fun" and I coupled that with another gift card I had from a previous deal and got a new beach towel and journal for $2.03 out of pocket. Then I did a return for $22.00 and some change making it a net gain of $20.00 to me!!

I scored two FREE movie premier tickets for "BATTLE: LA" for tomorrow night which will be a fun thing to do...gotta love a FREE movie!!

At the end of the day, we enjoyed our FREE Panda Express dinner and a handful of chocolates for desert...and I was reminded as I wrote this post how fortunate I am for good friends who always lift my spirit when it's needed the most!