Tag: groceries

Posted on

how did we do?

Well, we have one month of couponing and sale shopping down. And it turns out that I am pretty darn good at it. Who knew? So we spent more money than our new food budget allows, but I knew that would happen. I have to build up a base of supplies and coupons first. I figure the first two or three months will be spent in stocking the pantry and adjusting the budget. Although we went to lunch a few more times than we should have, we have not eaten dinner out with or without the kids this entire month–Awesome!!! Creating an excel tracking sheet is just what I needed to remind me how much eating out cuts into the budget.

Total Value: $1560.82

Total Spent: $600.35

Total Saved: $900.01

% Saved: 58%

Our total spent including eating out was $709.74. That is still far less than I know we were spending before. I feel satisfied that I am doing some really great things to help my family succeed financially.

Funny side note–our kids hate to eat out, especially for dinner. If we say we are going to go eat, they beg to stay at home instead. It is so weird to me because going out to eat was such a treasured treat in our house. But my pocket book is definitely not complaining. :)

Posted on

rockin’ it @ target

I told my mom the other night that once again I was amazing, explaining that I purchased nine bottles of Ocean Spray Juice for free. She responded, “Of course, you are amazing, duh. But I am not sure what kind of coupons you are finding. They surely didn’t exist in my day.” :)

Target had the juice on sale for $1.99 (average regular price of $3.99 depending on where you shop). They also had web coupons for a $1.00 off. I printed off a bunch. Also, Ocean Spray was offering $1.00 off coupons. So once I combined the coupons I actually made $0.01 on each bottle. I also had great success with yogurt this week. After combining the Target sale and coupons and the Yoplait coupons, each container worked out to about $0.23.

6224

Total Value: $131.79

Total Saved: $110.76

Total Out of Pocket: $21.03

Percentage Saved: 84%

#of Items: 87

Price/Item: $0.24

The kids L-O-V-E yogurt so we are already making a dent in our stockpile. (there is more juice and yogurt than what is in the picture) I bought all of the chocolate whips they had so that I can freeze them in muffin tins for some frozen dessertish yumminess. Juan P. thinks that frozen gogurts are the best thing ever.

Oh, and the kashi bars are way too expensive for us to splurge on these days….but lovely Target had them on sale for $2.75. I had Kashi coupons for $2.00 off making each box only $0.75.

My newbie tips and tricks are coming. (I promise, girls) That will be my next post! :)

Posted on

my cart overfloweth

6154

Total Value: $254.00

Total Saved: $157.88

Total Out of Pocket: $97.00

Savings Percentage: 62%

# of items:75

Total price/item: $1.29

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Armed with coupons, and a Grocery Smarts list, off to Albertson’s Adam and I went for our Friday night date:) And boy, did we have a blast. Once again, I walked out ecstatic. My heart was pounding with pride as I watched the $1 coupons roll off the already discounted items. What a feeling. I never knew that saving money could be so addictive. I am hooked!

Since we were there so late (10:00 p.m. on a Friday), the checker was more than friendly and didn’t mind that I divided my purchases into FOUR transactions. I did that so I could save $20 instead of $5 using the Albertson’s current promo. And after hearing our adoption story, she was even more wonderful. She is actually the same lady that helped me last week when I used my first ever coupon. Anyway, she gave us two helpful hints that I thought I would pass along:

1. The butcher block– they puts left over ground beef out every night at 9 p.m. for $1.50…that’s a steal from the butcher block.

2. Pizza Fridays–apparently all frozen pizzas are discounted by 16% every Friday, even the ones already on sale. Who knew? (well, probably all of you, but not me.)

I am so grateful Adam was there–he couponed like a champ finding soda cheaper than we were expecting–he helped divide everything up, and he was very patient with me. I about jumped out of my newfound frugal skin when he wanted to try a box of off-brand cocoa krispies. Yeah, it was $3.00. You’ll notice from the picture that he got his cereal–because I L-O-V-E him.

 And for all you friendly nay-sayers out there–Yes, I know there is a lot of “sugar” on the table–I realize this. But we are stockpiling soda for our family get together the end of March. Four of the bottles are Mountain Dew, and they are all for my brother-in-law, Brian. If you are coming, you’ll have to ask him if he will share. :) He has always been so stingy and all–never sharing any of his good fortune with the rest of us, right? The massive amounts of fruit snacks and granola bars were also on my hit list–just because I’m now a mommy doesn’t mean I want to lose my “coolest aunt” status with my nieces and nephews.