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!!

http://savingmoneytofillupmytruck.blogspot.com/2008/06/ebates-easy-way-to-save-money.html

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!!!

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!

10/3 Meijer grocery shop (Spent $94 and Saved $67)

Today was a challenging shop for me....

The challenge that I faced was due to the fact that my tween daughters accompanied me to the store. I coerced them into going by agreeing to take them to Shoe Carnival and Target if they went to the grocery store with me. They are a great help, but they tend to still whine about wanting this and wanting that...

I only gave in once and bought something off the list that wasn't on sale and that I didn't have a coupon for. Overall, it was a great shop. We stocked up on a lot of snack items such as chex mix and cheerios mix.

I have written about this before but I highly recommend subscribing to 2 Sunday editions of the paper. I get the Pantagraph and the Chicago Tribune. The money I save by subscribing to these allows me to buy multiple items with multiple coupons. I only subscribe to 2 papers since the grocery stores that I shop at will only double 2 coupons for the same item.

Today I spent $94 and saved $67!!!
I saved $15.25 for Meijer promotions.
I saved $38.73 for buying items that were on sale.
I saved $13.28 with coupons from my newspapers and Meijer Mealbox.

We are getting into the swing of things!!! Gotta love coupons!! :)

September Savings

It is hard to believe but September is now over and we have entered the Halloween month of October. We have been back to school for 6 weeks and it is amazing to think that the school year is about a quarter of the way done.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, life has been pretty crazy with activities. I am back on the coupon journey. Not only am I back to couponing, I am trying to get back my love of cooking. The activities that the entire family has taken on has greatly impacted my desire as well as my time to prepare a meal. I have made a promise to myself that I will cook at least 3 times a week. I am sure that some of you wondering what we are going to do for the other meals. What I mean by this is that I will actually prepare a meal that doesn't involve a microwave 3 times each week. For the rest of the week, it will be up for grabs with meals like breakfast, sandwiches, and maybe a frozen pizza.

Last week was pretty good week for me. I made spaghetti and meatballs, italian sausage with vegetables, and salmon with mashed potatoes and brocolli.

In regards to my savings, I only posted once this month but here is my monthly total.

9/5 Meijer spent &113 and saved $56
9/11 Sam's club spent $187
9/19 Meijer spent $131 and saved $75
9/27 Aldi spent $82

The total spent for the month of September was $513 and saved $131.
This breaks down to a weekly average of $128. Not too bad. I am trying to get back to a weekly average of below $100.

I hope you continue to join me on my coupon adventure!!!

Meijer Shop on 9/5 Spent 113 and Saved 56

Since the summer is over, I am back to work. It always takes awhile for me to transition into the work/life routine. I am still using the grocery game but have really only been using my Meijer grocery list from them. I also subscribe to the Kroger list but haven't been able to make it before their sale ends. I am thinking that I might drop Kroger and just keep to the Meijer list. I will give it another month or so to see if I make it to Kroger.

Saturday is my day to shop at Meijer. It is the last day of their sale and it seems like it is what works best for our family schedule.

I spent 113 and saved 56 with coupons and shopping the sales. This also includes toiletries. I bought 41 items. It was a good shop. I didn't buy anything that wasn't on sale and I even got some A1 Marinade for FREE with a coupon.

The meals are figured out in my mind for the week using this shop and items from the previous beginnings of my new stockpile!

Have a great week!!!

Monthly Averages

As you know, I have been bad about keeping all of you updated with my coupon journey. I have been keeping track of my grocery spending but it hasn't been as good as it once was. Even though I am disappointed that I haven't saved as much as I have in the past, I am still saving more than I did 2 years ago. I am aware of prices and sales even if it is a week when I didn't take the time to organize my grocery shop.

In June, our average weekly grocery expense was $83/week. This must be off or we ate out a lot!!

In July my weekly average on groceries was $165/week. This isn't too bad since my daughters and I are home in the summer therefore more meals and snacks. I saved $125 using coupons and shopping the sales.

In August, we averaged $145/week. I started back into my coupon adventure and saved over 80 on groceries this month.

Look for more postings as I make it a priority again to save more money on groceries!!!