Wal-Mart price matches

Wow, who knew? Last time I went grocery shopping, the cashier let me in on a little tidbit, "You know we price-match don't you? I had a woman in here the other day with a *bunch* of kids like you (I had 3 with me) and she saved $40 on her total bill. I'd watch the adds if I were you and give it a try." Now that was a challenge I could not refuse. How could I let a grocery flier hit the recycling bin with a clean conscience if I had not scoured it for the items we needed to price-match at Wal-Mart? There was no way I could sqander our family's hard-earned income like that any longer.

This very Saturday morning, out of sheer necessity, I loaded up all the kids to do some serious grocery shopping/money saving. With detailed list and fliers in hand we took off (this form of shopping does require MUCH more effort and thought than the regular old waste-your-money type of shopping.) In the car I gave "the lecture." They were equipped....sufficiently reminded of appropriate grocery shopping/price matching behavior and the sweet bribe, rather incentive they would receive for helping me on my mission to spare our family $40.
Well, an hour-and-a-half and $337 later, with a whole trunkload of absolute necessities, I didn't even bother to count my price matching savings because what was spent after our excursion was me! I came home blubbering. (Quite shocking as I am the worlds largest bawl baby right now.) Lunches had to be made/eaten/cleaned up, all those groceries had to be neatly stowed away, the kids were cranky from the morning's outing, and I was trying to wipe from my mind the experience of seeing a sweet woman from church we know who kindly stopped to chat and comment on all my 'helpers' and how I gave her my best fake smile when what I desperately wanted to do was pass off a couple of my ever-so-helpful-little-helpers to her for the hour. (They did not meet the goals to earn their incentive.)
I'm sure we saved. I'm sure we saved big. I'm not going to count how much because I don't want to cry again if it is meager. I did my part for Deutschland. I took one for the team. I price-matched....with 4 small children....on a weekend morning....I price-matched.