The guy they call "Mr. Coupon" does use some of his stockpile to make care packages for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, which I think is nice, and most of the coupon-ers donate to local food pantries and churches, so I guess the stuff they buy isn't going to waste, but it just seems silly to try and "beat" commercialism by paying little to nothing for things you don't even need. (Maybe its just me.)
So anyway, the other day when I mentioned how I was feeling like there was nothing blog-worthy going on in my life and I said that I wasn't going to bore you all with the details of our new budget, well, too bad! {insert evil laugh here}
No, I'm not really going to talk about our monthly household budget at length, but I will impress you all with my most recent trip to the grocery store and how coupons helped me stay within my budget.
One of the areas that we historically spend the most is on our grocery bill. We like fresh food and everyone knows that fresh foods aren't cheap. Its much cheaper to eat shelf-stable foods, but alas, that isn't always the healthiest option. I also enjoy trying new and interesting recipes and this tends to be where the bill creeps up and money gets thrown away. Sometimes I buy an ingredient specifically for one recipe and then we end up not really liking the recipe. Then that ingredient sits in our pantry (or fridge)
Moving right along. I had a few coupons from the mail and a few from the printouts that come with the receipt at the grocery store checkout. A few of the coupons were for items that we use, but weren't on the list for this trip, so I didn't use them. I also tend to buy store brand whenever its things that we can't tell the difference, like cheese, pasta, canned goods, etc. This saves us a bit because the store brand is usually cheaper than the name brand and our grocery store tends to give additional discounts on their own brand when you have their rewards card, which we have.
So Saturday I made my way to the grocery store, armed with my list and my coupons. I made myself promise to stick as close to the list as humanly possible. I knew it wouldn't be too hard this time because I've been feeling pretty nasty (sore throat, body aches, etc.) for several days and I really just wanted to get in and out in as little time as possible. (Note to all, if you want to spend less at the grocery store, go when you're sick and no food sounds good.)
I always make a dinner menu for the week and then create my list based off the menu. I also add in things that we like for breakfast and lunch like bread, milk, eggs, nutri-grain bars, deli meat, fruit, goldfish, Dr. Pepper (duh), etc. This trip was no different. I went into the store and I'm pretty sure that I only bought one thing that wasn't on the list and that is because D specifically requested it before I left.
At the end of the trip, I was $8 over my budget, but I had coupons and my store rewards card to scan still. My total savings was $6.50, so I was only $1.50 over my budget for the trip! Using coupons, estimating what my total would be (within $1.50, by the way) and staying on budget made me feel like the camera crew from Extreme Couponing should have been following me last weekend!
What do you do to save money? Are you a coupon clipper?
