For many families, Target is the line item that shows up the most on credit cards. Whether it’s food, school supplies, or birthday presents, those superstores are a one-stop-shop. But they’re also a one-stop frustration if you’re trying to track spending. Who knows if the $100 went mostly to groceries or pet food or toothpaste? And by the time you find the time to figure it out, that receipt is long gone.

In recent months, I’ve been avoiding the big boxes. And I haven’t paid for toiletries in I can’t tell you how long.

Yes, I’m still showering and brushing my teeth. I’ve just been using up my travel-size toiletries collection. For years I’ve saved them from hotels and brought them home for camping trips or other times when small bottles are helpful. But lately, we stay with family or in hotels where we get new mini-bottles to use.

I’ve also been trying to master the CVS ExtraCare program.

1. Scour the weekly circular for items that are “free” after using your ExtraCare card. They are free because some deals will net you merchandise credit, called “Extra Bucks” equal to the purchase price you paid.
2. Save coupons to pair with those deals so you are essentially being paid to take an item away.

3. Keep those ExtraCare bucks that print out with your receipt in a safe place until next week and do it again.

Confused? Check out this overview from WayMore4WayLess.

I have enough free toothpaste, toothbrushes, razors, soap and bandaids to get us through many months. Off the top of my head, I can remember also netting free mascara, chocolate and antacids.

According to CVS, ExtraCare cardholders shopping the 33 CVS/pharmacy stores in Minneapolis received nearly $500,000 in Extra Bucks rewards in 2007.

Bargain-hunters and shopping mavens, this reader needs your help:

Do you have any tips on where to get decent quality stuff (new or used) on a tight budget? I want to be environmentally and fiscally responsible and not buy anything that is going to fall apart and need to be replaced in a few years. I have some of the basics like a bed, but I am going to need some furniture and a washer and dryer.

I’ve received three birthday greetings this week and my special day isn’t until the end of June.

What’s up? Well, looks like the rewards programs that I’ve signed up for at the Gap, Famous Footwear, and DSW send birthday coupons to be used during your birthday month.

Gap will give me $15 off my next purchase of $60 or more if I use my Gap credit card. DSW will give me $10 off my purchase of $24.95 or more. Famous Footwear will give me $5 for my purchase of $5 or more.

Can anyone say free socks?

As for the other coupons, I’m not sure if I’ll use them. What kind of birthday gift is it really to go to a store and spend your own money in order to use a coupon? (more…)

I’ve mentioned this in the past– about how I shop in spurts. Part of it is time– it’s hard to find hours to mill about the mall with a job and a family. But part of it is also keeping temptation at bay. I love to shop and know I’ll find plenty to buy if I give myself the opportunity. Which leads to guilt. Which leads to returning items. Which leads to more buying. Which leads to a stern conversation with myself about wants and needs. And then I inevitably end up on Monday morning with a pile of new clothes and nothing that seems to go together.

So on my most recent trips, I’ve spent maybe $100 on my kids for several outfits and a couple pairs of shoes and multiple pairs of sunglasses (why do I even try with a 2 year old? I don’t think I owned a pair until I was in high school…then again, they were only $2.50).

On myself I spent in the ballpark of $150 for three shirts, two pairs of pants, some jeans, and an $89 sweater I never would have bought but did thanks to $125 in gift cards at Banana Republic that I earned through my rewards credit card.

And still I found myself second-guessing whether I really should have bought much of it –even the $3 and $4 sweaters at Gymboree. My daughter would be happy to wear the same skirt every day of the year if I let her (and maybe I should). So what drove me to buy any of this stuff at all, except that it was cheap? And it was there?

But then I popped on over to MSP-Magazine and came across the tally that accompanied this blog entry about shopping with toddlers and I realized that I didn’t even go close to overboard.

Shoes at Nordstrom, $78. Summer wardrobe additions, $400. Ride at MOA, $20 pass. Lunch in sunny courtyard, $19. Photo booth, $5. Shopping with my daughters, priceless.

I’d revise the shopping with my daughters phrase to include the words annoying, distracting, frustrating, and expensive. I know when I’m with my daughter I tend to spend way more than I do when on my own because I listen to her opinions and find myself raising the threshold for how much I’m willing to spend on kid’s clothes (usually, no more than $15 on anything– going above $10 makes me cringe). And then we get home and she refuses to wear what I bought her anyway.

In other retail news, the latest survey from the National Retail Federation found that 40 percent of Americans plan to spend some of their rebate money, although much of that will go for necessities. But I’ll bet that when that money appears and people see that puffed up bank account balance, at least some of that money goes to buying that ump-teenth pair of toddler sunglasses.

Being a consumer in this country is an identity that’s going to be tough for many to shake.

Hello. I’m back from sunny California, the land of heavenly weather, wonderful scenery, heavy traffic, $3.93 gas and $5.99 almonds (they were only $3.99 back home on the tundra).

Apologies to those of you whose comments were stuck in moderation all weekend. And stuck in the rain/snow.

Many thanks to brilliant budget bride Aimee for holding down the fort.

I didn’t pay much attention to the money news when down in the valley. It was a vacation, after all. But I did notice a few stories about retailers offering deals to shoppers who use their stimulus checks to stimulate their earnings– and the economy.

As my colleague Jackie Crosby reported today, Lands’ End, Kmart, Sears, Roundy’s (Rainbow), and Cub are offering discounts to those of us who spend our rebate with them.

What if your rebate will be directly deposited into your bank account? Cub spokeswoman Haley Meyer said that Cub “will work with shoppers” who “show us proof” that the rebate was deposited. The proof needed is a copy of your bank statement or print-out of your online bank account. My guess is other retailers will also accommodate e-deposited funds.

I don’t know about you, but I’m planning to milk the “spend $300, we’ll give you $30 deal” that Cub announced and Rainbow matched.

Here’s my reasoning: I spend about $100 in groceries each week. Yes, that’s a lot of money tied up in grocery gift cards if I throw in the entire $1,800 my family expects. Yes, it will take me almost five months to use up those gift cards, but that’s a free $180–almost two weeks of groceries.

Tell me this: Where else can you get a risk free rate of return of 10 percent on your money in five months? Certainly not in an online savings account with the Fed expected to lower rates once again. Not in a CD. Not under my mattress. Not in short-term bonds. This is about the best short-term investment around. And if they’ll let me use my credit card that earns me 6 percent back on groceries to buy the gift cards, I’ll earn another $108.

Milk it? You bet.