Dollar Tree with Coupons!!

So, today, for the first time ever, I brought my coupon binder into Dollar Tree.

It was exciting and fun to know that there was a huge possibility of me walking away paying next to nothing.  I did spend some money.  I spent $5.  But, for that $5, I got:

4 boxes of Hefty Bags (had two $1 off 2 coupons)
2 bottles of Sally Hansen Nail Polish (had one $1 off and one $0.50 off coupon)
1 loufa (I didn't have any coupons for this, but the one I had crumbled apart in my hand in the shower the other day)
2 rolls of Bounty Basic Paper Towels (had $1 off 2 coupon)
1 L'oreal lip gloss (used $1 off 1 L'oreal lip product coupon)

My total was $10.50 before coupons, and had I decided to spend longer in the store, I probably would have saved more and done even better, but I spent exactly $5, cutting my pre-tax amount in half.

The one problem that I had trying to coupon there, was that the sizes of the items were varied from "normal".  I tried to buy Crest toothpaste, but on the coupon, it said that it had to be at least 4 oz, and all of their crest toothpaste was 3.5 oz.  I had a coupon for a 3 bar pack of Dial Soap, but they only had 2 bar packs.  This made it a little difficult because you have to REALLY pay attention to make sure that you're following the rules.

That being said (and I am in NO way condoning bad couponing behavior.  Exactly the opposite actually.) They don't scan the coupons, they key them in, and the cashier that I had wasn't very diligent in looking them over really well.  So I could have used those coupons for that toothpaste and soap, and they probably would have worked.  Please don't do this.  People are going to abuse this enough as it is, and I fear that it will eventually end Dollar Tree's use of coupons.  Please don't contribute to that.

I did enjoy being able to go in there and do a little bit of cheap shopping for extra cheap!