I WON I WON!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I NEVER win anything!!! I'm so excited! I came home last night to a message on my machine saying that we had WON the Organic Valley Coupons!!!!!!!! My Sweetie teased that HE won, I stole....I reminded him had I not stolen we wouldn't have gone back to try to steal more to see they were in fact a raffle not a give away and he wouldn't have been guilted by my crime to "pay" for the one I stole! HA! All in all, I now have 43 FREE ANY Organic Valley Dairy product. I should be SET on milk for the REST of the year. YIPPIE!!!!!!!!!!

OOPS!!!

I have really taken a liking to organic foods for my family. However, the prices sometimes just make it a real hard commitment to make when I'm trying to feed five. So, I pick and chose what is most important and try to keep my eyes open for deals and coupons and such.

There were all sorts of freebies being handed out. You can imagine my THRILL today when we were strolling in our "downtown" today during our Earth Day Celebration when I spotted a coupon for "Any Organic Dairy item FREE". So, I grabbed one.

After we got home I couldn't understand WHY I didn't grab more than one. We buy Organic Valley milk and that would save us $6-$8!

So, My Sweetie went back downtown to get some more. I was so excited!!!

Well! It turns out they were a raffle item....it was the whole pile!!! You buy a ticket for a dollar and if they draw your name you win them ALL!!!! OOPS!

Seriously, DON'T leave a stack of AWESOME coupons out on a table full of other freebies!

So, My Sweetie proceeded to buy six of the raffle tickets to sort of "pay" for the one I mistakenly took.

Who knows! Maybe I'll win ALL of the coupons

March Wrap Up...

It's the end of the month....the bills are done, and all of our purchases/expenses have been put into their little homes in my little excel spreadsheet. This is such a chore!!! I dread it, but it really helps me to see exactly WHERE the money went from month to month and the time I spend doing this is worth it.

To re-cap real quick....there was a $300 difference between our basic household/grocery expenses from January and February. Our overall spending between the two months was pretty substantial as well. Our dining out cost was unchanged, which was bad because it was high.

I was certain that with the kind of month we had that my expenses were going to be through the roof. Between a sick baby and the big boys being on Spring Break I didn't have as much time for my planning and research that I've been trying to do. I had My Sweetie pick things up for us a couple of times, there was one shopping trip that I didn't even have my coupons with me and I let (not intentionally!) $15 of RR from Walgreen's expire (I thought I was going to throw up...what a waste!)

However, much to my surprise, although it wasn't as significant of a drop there was STILL a $90 drop this month in our basic household/grocery expenses from the previous month!!! Not only that, but our dining out dropped by over 50%!!!! When I went over all the numbers with My Sweetie from the past three months he was still wondering where all the money is going. BUT, we are THRILLED that we are continuing to DROP in the areas that we know we can actually have some control over.

I think part of the success of the month is from having things stocked up and on hand. Having a full freezer, pantry and overflow cupboard HELPS!!! I still might not ever get as good as some of the other people I've seen out in blogville, BUT as long as we can continue to improve where we can...I'll be happy!!

It's like Christmas!

What a fun mail day!!!! Today in the mail I received a package of Chocolate Turtle Chex Mix, a book for Little Dude and a coupon for a free bottle of Suave hair products. ALL FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HEART Target!!!

It use to be I couldn't leave that store without spending at least $100. BUT, since I've been a little smarter about my shopping I have not been even CLOSE to having a bill that high!!! Last weekend I went to the store with my friend and didn't buy ANYTHING! I didn't have ANY coupons with me...there was nothing I needed. YAY ME!! During a recent shopping trip I had a $20 savings with my coupons! They've had some GREAT meat deals recently too so my freezer has several choices waiting to be used.

My main reason for this post, besides to tell you about my love for Target is to tell you about a way to go and have a chance to win a $15 gift card to Target!!!! WOW! Go and visits Melissa's Bargain Blog to find out how!!! She also has all sorts of good tid bits on how to save and stretch your money. So, go check it out!!!

Rethinking my Strategy

Yesterday while Little Dude was asleep I thought I'd sneak out alone and do my CVS and Walgreen's shopping. I made my plan of attack for both stores: My coupons were all organized, I had a detailed list for each store and I knew if I were alone there would be complete concentration!!

Despite the fact that I had $13 in Extra Rewards at CVS I was still somewhat disappointed in my total OPP. My failure occurred when I deviated from the list and began wondering the store looking for what else I could get to earn MORE Extra Rewards. I was being GREEDY!!!! What I should have been doing was figuring out how I could roll over and stretch my money with the Extra Rewards that I currently had and was about to purchase. Did I get things that I am going to use??? Yes. I also used A LOT of Extra Rewards to bring down the prices and went on my merry way. But, I just think I could have done better had my greed not gotten in the way.

After that I headed to Walgreen's. I was a wee bit better there....still spent more than I had wanted and also, again deviated from the list when I saw a BOGO Walgreen's brand Tylenol. My biggest, most proud moment....3 boxes of cereal for $1.83 each!!! AND, I got a $1.50 coupon for another 3 boxes next time! YIPPIE!

For the rest of February, I"m putting a halt on health and beauty items. I'm pretty well stocked up for the time being. No sense going overboard. If I run out of something, then I'll look into replacing it. The only things I'm going to allow myself to buy at either CVS or Walgreen's the rest of the month are grocery items. My second re-think is that I"m going to purchase a $25 gift card from both CVS and Walgreen's through a Scripp program; with my purchase from each of those store 6% will go back to the program in which I purchased the cards from. I will then have $25 to stretch and use at each store for the month of March. That will force me to use my Register Rewards and Extra Rewards smarter and force me to be a little more aware of what and how much I am spending at each store. When it's gone, my shopping for the month at those stores is done.

We'll see how it goes...

Adventures in Couponing:January wrap up February looking up!

One of my goals for the year was to be more of a coupon/sale shopper. The month of January is over and most of my purchases have been entered into the spreadsheet. I was a little taken back by our total spending for the month. Then thanks to my spreadsheet, I was able to analyze the spending a little closer. My Sweetie had a good month of commission checks so our tithe was higher. With that subtracted out, (that money is NOT ours to begin with so it shouldn't really count as an expense but I leave it for cross check purposes. I'll leave that subject for another blog post!) It looked a little better. A lot of the bills from The Boy's arm fracture came due and that was a nice chunk. I also pre-paid for My Sweetie's birthday gift, which was also a good chunk of money. I purchased some winter coats for next year at a nice low price and a couple of clothing items for myself, also at sale price. We spent WAY TOO MUCH on dining out. UGH! Total spending is total spending (except for the tithe) and I really am able to get a better sense of where things are going when I can see it on paper/my computer screen.

Food and your day to day personal items still seem to be what is killing us. So, after a lot of reading of other blogs and clipping coupons and shopping other stores and cleaning out my cupboards (so I could plan meals around things I have) just prior to my big grocery trip and PLANNING AHEAD, I was able to have a savings of $141 in JUST coupons for the month of January. Some items I bought were buy one get one free (BOGO) which helped but isn't reflected in my coupon savings. I had about a 8% savings on food and daily/household items from coupons. This number would probably be higher if I were to add in the BOGO and other sale prices, but I don't. I was happy with these numbers being that it was my first whole hearted month of trying. HOWEVER, My Sweetie always says, in the end things cost what you pay on them. My total grocery and household items spending for the month was still over what I would like it to be. I'm hoping as I get better at this, get my printer fixed so I can take advantage of a couple other coupons and get a little bit of a stockpile that MAYBE that number can begin to drop to my goal or lower.

With THAT said, it is a NEW MONTH! I have meals planned out until Feb. 13th and most of the ingredients for those meals in the house in hopes of cutting down on trips to the store which leads to more spending. I know that milk, fresh fruit and veggies are something I am going to have to buy by the end of the week so that we can get through the second week of the month.

Today I headed out and did my CVS and Walgreen's shopping. I don't have complete hang of this art and I'm not convinced that grocery items are in fact cheaper there with there "sale" price than the grocery store. Before I never paid attention to prices in the grocery store. I would have made a TERRIBLE Price is Right contestant. My theory on buying was if I needed it, buy it, if I don't then don't. My new theory is to buy what I can cheap or free and use what I have. I digress....I know what I paid today for some of my grocery items at these stores and I will cross check them when I get to the grocery store later.

At CVS today I got 3 sets of items that were BOGO. I had $5 in Extra Bucks that I applied to my total bringing my out of pocket to (OOP) to $42. I also earned $13 more in extra bucks for my next visit. YAY!

When I was at Walgreen's I was feeling a little uninspired. Until I got to the cash register!!!!! I did two different transactions and purchased the following items: (YUP! I took a picture!)

2 12-packs of Sierra Mist Free
1 12-pack Diet Cherry Pepsi,
3 Walgreen's re-usable bags,
2 eco-friendly light bulbs,
2 boxes Jiffy corn bread,
2 boxes Jiffy blueberry muffins,
4 cans of Campbell's cream of chicken soup, 4 cans Swanson's chicken broth
2 packages of 146 Valentine Stickers
2 3 packs of Scotch Brite sponges
Revlon Creme Gloss

My total OOP (after BOGO, a mail-in rebate, coupons, two separate transactions and $9 in register rewards) was $13.19!!!!! YAY ME!!!!!! :) Not too shabby of a start to the new month!!! :)

I'll try not to bombard you or bore you too much with these kind of posts....that's not what this blog is about (but a little because I'm simply just a lowly reporter here to do my job of bringing you the latest scoop from both inside and outside our Laundry Trenches!) maybe I'll just post occasionally on my progress and an occasional celebration of a good shopping day like today.

Adventures in Couponing

One of my "goals" for the new year was to become more of a coupon/sale shopper. There are people, GOD LOVE THEM, who put A LOT of time into crafting this art. I've seen pictures of a big haul that they have gotten from Walgreen's or CVS for $7 and have been amazed. Now, I'm not looking to having an overflowing stock pile of toothpaste necessarily. Partly because I don't have the space and partly I don't have the time. BUT, I do want to be more conscientious on what and how I spend for our family on groceries and other everyday items. Maybe as time goes on, I'll get better at the fine art of "couponing". BABY" STEPS!!!!

I actually found myself giddy over my Walgreen's trip today!!!! My haul and out of pocket wasn't quit worthy of a photo because I was hoping to spend a little less out of pocket than I did. I DID however have about a 6% savings on my purchase with the over $23 I saved in coupons. (When I add up my savings, I don't add in the "advertised savings") Which, I thought for a rookie, wasn't too shabby.

I sat down yesterday with the add, clipped the coupons I would use and found a couple of manufacture coupons to add to the Walgreen's coupons. Walgreen's has what they call Register Rewards. I purchased 2 2-liters of Hawaiian Punch and 1 2-liter of Sunkist soda for a sale price of 3 for $4. THIS gave me $2 back in Register Rewards. I did my first transaction with the sale items that would earn me Register Rewards. My total in Register Rewards today was $6. Then I did a second transaction with the items that I had bought with Walgreen's coupons, Manufacture Coupons then added my $6 RR to the $10 RR from a previous trip to get to my final price.

Although I thought it seemed like it was all well planned and mapped out, I made a couple of mistakes...TWICE I had to go back and get the item that the coupon was actually for because I didn't read the sizes of products very carefully. Then I forgot to give them one of the coupons so I needed to wait for the manager to come and reimburse me. Thankfully they were patient with me!!!

Overall, as dorky as it may sound, I'm happy with the outcome of my trip. Maybe someday I'll have a trip which I think is worthy of a photo to post!

Food Glorious Food...Saving Money

It is RIDICULOUS how much money we can spend on groceries! RIDICULOUS!!!! We don't even have teenagers yet. There are a lot of reasons that I've realized WHY we spend what we spend. Some of the reasons are important to me and there are places that I know I can improve and MAYBE save a few dollars along the way.

I am a food snob. I like good food. I like as natural and fresh of foods as I can buy. I'm not going to chose the cheapest brand to save money if it tastes bad. I had the years when I did buy cheap food to survive....that was called college. Good food is something we have chosen to invest in because ultimately we are choosing to invest in our health.

I also prefer organic food. However, buying organic is EXPENSIVE so I've had to decide what is most important. Milk and meat and fruits and veggies whose skin we eat. Shopping farmers markets and growing your own garden is another way to get organic fruits and veggies. This past summer we did a little better planting the right amount of veggies and eating them. I only made it to the farmers market once last summer.

Wanting good, organic food makes saving money a little bit of a challenge. But I believe that there can still be a way to save some money along the way.

There ARE lots of GOOD quality store brand foods, I will buy these. I don't buy the pre-packaged or frozen foods, these are expensive and loaded with salt and fat. Planning my shopping and meals will keep me out of the store in between trips. This will save me money also. How many of us have gone to the store for "just one thing" and come home with several bags??

One of the things I'm REALLY going to try to do is be a better coupon/sale shopper this year. This all has to tie into my planning in order to work. I have set coupon boundaries. Only buy items that I will use and make sure it's really a good deal. Buying 5 of one item to save 50 cents is NOT a good deal to me. I also need to think outside of the box a little bit. Walgreen's seems to have GREAT deals and coupons.....last week I saved over $20 by using coupons!!

The other thing that will save me money is to check my cupboards before I shop. Don't buy things I already have and create my meals around ingredients that I have. This will be especially helpful as I do coupon shop and stock up on staple/pantry items.

This is an area in which I hope to improve on this year. I hope that I can find a balance between buying foods that are healthy and taste good and saving some money. I hope to be better about farmers markets and our garden. I will continue to look for ways to save and cut corners. I'll keep you updated if I come up with anything brilliant and if you have any suggestions, I'd LOVE to hear them!