Target is cheaper than people think

I budget $250 a month for toiletries and snacks for school lunches.  This amount includes any hair products, makeup, toothpaste, lotions, cleaning supplies, snack foods, drinks, toilet paper, paper towels, etc. for a whole month.  I have some tricks that help a lot.  First, I don't buy prepackaged snacks for lunches.  I buy the target brand snack foods in bulk such as pretzels, trail mix, and animal crackers.  I buy a box of snack bags and I bag the snacks myself for lunches.  This saves so much money.  Next, I buy shampoos and conditioners with a pump on them so the kids don't over pour or waste these products in the shower.  I buy target brand for most food items including bread.  For just over a dollar you can't beat how soft it is and delicious for pb&j lunches.  The only choice in this house.
Besides watching what I buy I go prepared with a couple of price cutting tools. I have the Cartwheel app on my phone and I preload it with deals I know I'll use.  Getting a 5% to 10% discount isn't worth buying things I wouldn't normally get, but if I'm going to buy it anyway I might as well take the discount.  I also have the Target Red check card which saves another 5% off my bill when I use it.  The money comes right out of my checking so I don't pay credit card interest for having a balance.  Today these tools saved me $25 and I was under my monthly budget.  Always excited to share my saving tips.  Part of the savings tonight was getting two $5 gift cards on items I normally buy and they happened to be on sale as well.  Extra bonus!

Decorative Pillows CHEAP

When I decide to buy something I always do my research before jumping in and making a purchase.  Tonight's find, decorative pillows.  I knew what I was looking for, but having never really put much thought into buying things for my house, I needed to do some research.  I'm on a budget and really can't (won't) spend more than a few dollars on a luxury like a pillow.  With that being said, I also don't want to buy something cheap that is going to fall apart because that would be wasting money.  Basically, I want to be cheap without looking cheap.

I looked at big department stores, linen stores, ebay, and Amazon.  Department stores $20-50, linen stores, ebay and Amazon as low as $15.  I was ready to resign myself to this price and give up on my quest until I had more stamina to look further, and then IKEA came to mind.  There is one near my parents' house, so it isn't an out of the way trip to go when I visit my parents. 

Bingo, $3.99 for a 20x20 pillow at IKEA.  Patience pays off.  When I am hunting for a bargain online I always have a specific idea in mind and I have time to spend researching it.  With 6 kids, I don't get a lot of time to look for these types of deals.  Now that I know where to get them, I am excited to go get them in the near future.