Another month under my belt and the savings continues...
For the month of November, I spent $575 and saved $132!!!
This works out to $115 a week to feed a family of 4!!! As I begin to coupon more and add to our stockpile, I am working towards achieving 80-90 a week!!!
Wish me luck!!!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Meijer and Aldi shop 11/28
Today my dear husband decided to accompany me on my grocery shopping expedition. He has gone once before and was very supportive. I ran into a friend on Wednesday who shared with me that her family is now becoming more supportive of her coupon addiction. My family still teases me but loves it when I come home with special items that are on sale that I wouldn't have usually bought before coupons.
I just don't understand how anyone wouldn't support saving money. I have found when I am a conscious coupon clipper I am able to apply more money towards bills and/or retirement.
When I get lazy and don't pay attention to the grocery shopping and budget, we start eating out more and eating less healthy meals.
Today's shop included Aldi and Meijer. I needed to run to Aldi as I was filling a box of food to bring into our church for their food collection day. I bought 20 dollars worth of groceries at Aldi and spent 20 on our family. Last year, I was a die hard couponer and I just pulled this food from our pantry. Since I haven't filled our pantry doesn't look like it did last year, I needed to supplement a little to support our church's campaign.
Our Meijer shop also included something to take into church and that was a winter coat for their Imagine campaign. I was able to get 4 dollars off the coat using a coupon. I also bought some toothpaste and toothbrushes to donate with our food drop off.
I spent 106 at Meijer and saved 48 dollars!!! I did have a few items that made it into the cart due to my husband accompanying me on this journey. He did apologize for throwing off my savings a bit! :)
This does include the 20 dollar coat for donation. Our grocery budget for the week was 106 dollars including the Aldi shop!
Savings breakdown:
Total Meijer promotions: $6.09 (from my catalinas)
Items being on sale: $12.92
Total coupon savings: $29.08
Total Savings of $48.09
I just don't understand how anyone wouldn't support saving money. I have found when I am a conscious coupon clipper I am able to apply more money towards bills and/or retirement.
When I get lazy and don't pay attention to the grocery shopping and budget, we start eating out more and eating less healthy meals.
Today's shop included Aldi and Meijer. I needed to run to Aldi as I was filling a box of food to bring into our church for their food collection day. I bought 20 dollars worth of groceries at Aldi and spent 20 on our family. Last year, I was a die hard couponer and I just pulled this food from our pantry. Since I haven't filled our pantry doesn't look like it did last year, I needed to supplement a little to support our church's campaign.
Our Meijer shop also included something to take into church and that was a winter coat for their Imagine campaign. I was able to get 4 dollars off the coat using a coupon. I also bought some toothpaste and toothbrushes to donate with our food drop off.
I spent 106 at Meijer and saved 48 dollars!!! I did have a few items that made it into the cart due to my husband accompanying me on this journey. He did apologize for throwing off my savings a bit! :)
This does include the 20 dollar coat for donation. Our grocery budget for the week was 106 dollars including the Aldi shop!
Savings breakdown:
Total Meijer promotions: $6.09 (from my catalinas)
Items being on sale: $12.92
Total coupon savings: $29.08
Total Savings of $48.09
Saturday, November 21, 2009
11/21 Meijer shop (Spent $49 and SAVED 36)
I am back on my coupon high!!! I had a great shop today. However, I was mad at myself because I left my $6.50 off coupons that can be used at Meijer. I will have to use them on my next shop. If I had them today, I would have been close to a 50% savings on today's grocery shop!!!
We made a Sam's club run last night. Despite my attempt at always using coupons, there are many items at Sam's that are cheaper than Meijer and Kroger. When we make a Sam's club run, I pay extra close attention to our weekly grocery shop. Sometimes, on the week that we make our Sam's club run I don't make a Meijer/Kroger run. However, there were lots of great items on sale this week.
Today's shop totals:
Spent $48.57 (including tax)
Saved: $24.14 for shopping the sale and $11.85 with coupons (Total Savings $35.99)
GOTTA LOVE COUPONS!!!
We made a Sam's club run last night. Despite my attempt at always using coupons, there are many items at Sam's that are cheaper than Meijer and Kroger. When we make a Sam's club run, I pay extra close attention to our weekly grocery shop. Sometimes, on the week that we make our Sam's club run I don't make a Meijer/Kroger run. However, there were lots of great items on sale this week.
Today's shop totals:
Spent $48.57 (including tax)
Saved: $24.14 for shopping the sale and $11.85 with coupons (Total Savings $35.99)
GOTTA LOVE COUPONS!!!
Is the time to clip coupons worth it?
When I brag to my friends about my coupon savings, the automatic response is I don't have time to do this. I understand how busy our lives are and know that I don't have a lot of extra time either. My husband and I both work full time and I am in graduate school. My daughters are in middle school and participate in travel soccer and run cross country and track. So, our week is always busy as well as our weekend. I have written about my hiatus from couponing but I have reevaluated that the time that I spend couponing is worth it for a couple of reasons.
1. When I am shopping the sales, our family eats at home more because we have more food. This also saves money!!!
2. When we have more food, we eat healthier!!
Today, I took the time to pay attention to the time that it took for me to organize my list and clip coupons. Since I subscribe to the grocery game, I log into the site on Monday's or any day after Monday to pull my grocery list(s). The grocery game lists all of the items that are on sale and where you can find the coupon. The list also is color coded. Blue= stock up!!! it is a great price, green=free, and black= that it is a good price but will be cheaper. Your shopping list could be huge, but I go through and just select the items that our family will eat. No reason to buy an item just because it is on sale if no one will eat it.
The list is then narrowed down with just the items that you will buy buying. Another wonderful thing about the grocery game list is that it also sorts the items by where they are located in the store. This saves time!!! When you rely on the list, you are in and out of the store within 30 minutes because you aren't browsing the aisles. This also saves you money because you aren't adding extra items to your cart!
Once the list is printed and sorted (this takes less than 5 minutes), I match up my coupons. Today, this took me only 20 minutes to do. I purchased 34 items at Meijer and was able to find the coupons that matched up to the items in this amount of time.
Today's shop saved me 50 dollars. So, for 25 minutes of my time I was able to save 50 dollars! I think that this is a wonderful way to invest your time.
Clip your coupons while the family watches tv or while you are supervising homework! If you do this every week and save 50 dollars on average, you will be saving your family 200 dollars a month for 2 hours worth of time for the month!!! Not too bad!!
How many of us have easily "wasted" 2 hours by browsing the internet or watching tv. I challenge you to give it a try!!!
1. When I am shopping the sales, our family eats at home more because we have more food. This also saves money!!!
2. When we have more food, we eat healthier!!
Today, I took the time to pay attention to the time that it took for me to organize my list and clip coupons. Since I subscribe to the grocery game, I log into the site on Monday's or any day after Monday to pull my grocery list(s). The grocery game lists all of the items that are on sale and where you can find the coupon. The list also is color coded. Blue= stock up!!! it is a great price, green=free, and black= that it is a good price but will be cheaper. Your shopping list could be huge, but I go through and just select the items that our family will eat. No reason to buy an item just because it is on sale if no one will eat it.
The list is then narrowed down with just the items that you will buy buying. Another wonderful thing about the grocery game list is that it also sorts the items by where they are located in the store. This saves time!!! When you rely on the list, you are in and out of the store within 30 minutes because you aren't browsing the aisles. This also saves you money because you aren't adding extra items to your cart!
Once the list is printed and sorted (this takes less than 5 minutes), I match up my coupons. Today, this took me only 20 minutes to do. I purchased 34 items at Meijer and was able to find the coupons that matched up to the items in this amount of time.
Today's shop saved me 50 dollars. So, for 25 minutes of my time I was able to save 50 dollars! I think that this is a wonderful way to invest your time.
Clip your coupons while the family watches tv or while you are supervising homework! If you do this every week and save 50 dollars on average, you will be saving your family 200 dollars a month for 2 hours worth of time for the month!!! Not too bad!!
How many of us have easily "wasted" 2 hours by browsing the internet or watching tv. I challenge you to give it a try!!!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Christmas Shopping....
It is time to think about Christmas Shopping. I know it is hard to believe but it is almost the Christmas season. I still am amazed at how early the Christmas decorations go up. There use to be a respected code that Christmas displays didn't go up before Halloween. For some reason this code has fallen by the wayside. It irks me to see ghosts and goblins in one aisle and boughs of holly in another. ...
Well, from some of my former posts I have shared Ebates with you. Today, I received a check from Ebates for $19.21. This money is from just shopping online through Ebates' portal. Every one of their 900 stores will give a percentage cash back on your purchases if you hit ebates first.
My husband and I started shopping with Ebates one year ago and have earned back $152 dollars!!
I am including the link to a previous posts so you can learn more about ebates and how it works!!
Well, from some of my former posts I have shared Ebates with you. Today, I received a check from Ebates for $19.21. This money is from just shopping online through Ebates' portal. Every one of their 900 stores will give a percentage cash back on your purchases if you hit ebates first.
My husband and I started shopping with Ebates one year ago and have earned back $152 dollars!!
I am including the link to a previous posts so you can learn more about ebates and how it works!!
http://savingmoneytofillupmytruck.blogspot.com/2008/06/ebates-easy-way-to-save-money.html
Saturday, November 14, 2009
11/15 Grocery shop
The savings has begun again.....
This morning I woke up on a Saturday determined that my leaf has turned over and healthy eating and meal preparation will begin again...
I got out my coupon binder and started filing my weeks of circulars into their sheet protectors. This is where it really hit me. I have 6 weeks of coupons that were labeled with the appropriate week but I had done nothing with them. This means that it has been almost 6 weeks since my last coupon clip!!
I went onto the grocery game and printed my Meijer list for. There were some good deals but since I had fallen behind on my stockpiling I had to buy many items that were needed for our family even though they were not on sale. I did have coupons for some of these items but the item wasn't on sale! This was frustrating for me!!
I leisurely strolled the aisles with a cup of coffee in my hand. I found that I had missed going to the grocery store. It was about one o clock in the afternoon and the store was quiet. I had a wad of coupons in my hand and I was ready to begin my journey again.
I feel that I will keep going on this journey. So feel free to see how I do...
Total grocery bill:
184 dollars (we needed razor blades!!! these are so darn expensive. I had a coupon but they weren't on sale. So 22 dollars of this bill was for razor blades!!
Saved $51.95
Non coupon savings = $33.55
Coupon savings $18.40
As I checked out, my catalinas (the coupons that shoot out of the coupon printer with your receipt) included more coupons for $6.50 off my next purchase!!! Yippee!!!
This morning I woke up on a Saturday determined that my leaf has turned over and healthy eating and meal preparation will begin again...
I got out my coupon binder and started filing my weeks of circulars into their sheet protectors. This is where it really hit me. I have 6 weeks of coupons that were labeled with the appropriate week but I had done nothing with them. This means that it has been almost 6 weeks since my last coupon clip!!
I went onto the grocery game and printed my Meijer list for. There were some good deals but since I had fallen behind on my stockpiling I had to buy many items that were needed for our family even though they were not on sale. I did have coupons for some of these items but the item wasn't on sale! This was frustrating for me!!
I leisurely strolled the aisles with a cup of coffee in my hand. I found that I had missed going to the grocery store. It was about one o clock in the afternoon and the store was quiet. I had a wad of coupons in my hand and I was ready to begin my journey again.
I feel that I will keep going on this journey. So feel free to see how I do...
Total grocery bill:
184 dollars (we needed razor blades!!! these are so darn expensive. I had a coupon but they weren't on sale. So 22 dollars of this bill was for razor blades!!
Saved $51.95
Non coupon savings = $33.55
Coupon savings $18.40
As I checked out, my catalinas (the coupons that shoot out of the coupon printer with your receipt) included more coupons for $6.50 off my next purchase!!! Yippee!!!
Grocery Savings for October
My efforts towards saving money has taken a backseat and I have not been working the sales or the coupons. I believe in my last post I commented that I was going to work on this..Well, not much improvement has occured.
However, today I have jumped back on the coupon wagon again. I hope that I can stay on and keep on riding!!!
We found out last week that both of my daughters will be in braces next year. I need to make my grocery coupon shopping a priority again!!!
For October, we spent $631.00 and only saved 75 dollars. This worked out to a weekly grocery average of $157/week. This number is less than I was spending about a year and half ago. I remember when we were spending close to 200/week on groceries and came home feeling like we didn't buy very much.
Since there were very few coupons cut last month, I know that this is higher than it should be. Also due to time restraints, there were many Sam's club shops (which means no coupons -uggh!!) and last minute fast food runs.
With the braces coming and the reflection of the amount of fast food that was eaten in our house, I have decided to REALLY get our budget back in order and to go back to cooking dinners again for our family!
There was a moment last week that really resonated with me. One evening after a long day at work, there was no desire to fix a meal. We have been functioning on the help yourself method. With 2 almost teens in the house and 2 adults, we have been allowing everyone to fix their own dinner. Well, one of my daughters decided to fix french fries for dinner. The shocking part to me was that this was okay with me because I didn't have to fix dinner. Later that evening after reflecting, I realized how sad our eating had become.
The sad eating story continues...In the car on the way to drop off my daughters at school, I shared with them my new goal to make healthy eating a priority again for our family. My other daughter (not the one who had the french fry dinner) said, "Mom, it is okay. We eat a healthy school lunch. I always have a vegetable and a fruit." I had to agree with her that this was great that she was eating from the pyramiad but we all know school lunches aren't always as healthy as they seem. I knew that I really needed to get this together.
Another thing that I have noticed with my lack of "real meal" preparation is that we have strayed away from the family dinner table. I know that having children in middle school with lots of activities that the "family meals" are harder to coordinate but they need to become a priority again.
So wish me luck as I try to keep in mind that even though we are busy, my families nutritional health is important but so is the time together that we spend together at the dinner table!
However, today I have jumped back on the coupon wagon again. I hope that I can stay on and keep on riding!!!
We found out last week that both of my daughters will be in braces next year. I need to make my grocery coupon shopping a priority again!!!
For October, we spent $631.00 and only saved 75 dollars. This worked out to a weekly grocery average of $157/week. This number is less than I was spending about a year and half ago. I remember when we were spending close to 200/week on groceries and came home feeling like we didn't buy very much.
Since there were very few coupons cut last month, I know that this is higher than it should be. Also due to time restraints, there were many Sam's club shops (which means no coupons -uggh!!) and last minute fast food runs.
With the braces coming and the reflection of the amount of fast food that was eaten in our house, I have decided to REALLY get our budget back in order and to go back to cooking dinners again for our family!
There was a moment last week that really resonated with me. One evening after a long day at work, there was no desire to fix a meal. We have been functioning on the help yourself method. With 2 almost teens in the house and 2 adults, we have been allowing everyone to fix their own dinner. Well, one of my daughters decided to fix french fries for dinner. The shocking part to me was that this was okay with me because I didn't have to fix dinner. Later that evening after reflecting, I realized how sad our eating had become.
The sad eating story continues...In the car on the way to drop off my daughters at school, I shared with them my new goal to make healthy eating a priority again for our family. My other daughter (not the one who had the french fry dinner) said, "Mom, it is okay. We eat a healthy school lunch. I always have a vegetable and a fruit." I had to agree with her that this was great that she was eating from the pyramiad but we all know school lunches aren't always as healthy as they seem. I knew that I really needed to get this together.
Another thing that I have noticed with my lack of "real meal" preparation is that we have strayed away from the family dinner table. I know that having children in middle school with lots of activities that the "family meals" are harder to coordinate but they need to become a priority again.
So wish me luck as I try to keep in mind that even though we are busy, my families nutritional health is important but so is the time together that we spend together at the dinner table!
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