A slow week but not discouraged!

So even though this weeks coupons were much better than last weeks and the sales were definitely better, it didn't really fit my particular needs this week. I didn't have a lot of great coupons to match the sales and since I've got a fairly decent little stockpile built up so far, there just wasn't a whole lot on sale that I felt I needed to add to it. This was also the week that I needed paper products like paper towels, toilet paper, dryer sheets, etc. Ugh, I really hate these weeks when I need nonfood items, they're usually so expensive and I always need everything all at once. We also had some severe storms rip through our area this afternoon that really put a stop to a lot of my weekly shopping. It's kind of difficult to save, save, save when the store you're in is being "relocated" via tornado... Don't worry though, nothing that severe happened, everybody is ok. We just had some downed trees, branches and a lot of debris on the roads.

I also had to cut into our grocery budget a little this week since we are trying to gear up & get the nursery ready. We got paint and some other things to decorate with which cut into our budget a little bit. I did however have a coupon for %40 off one regularly priced item so I ended up saving almost $4 there which was nice. Will post pics pf the nursery when it's all finished!

Ok, so let's break down this week in savings:



1 12 roll pack of Scott bathroom tissue
1 gallon of Publix brand milk
2 jars of Classico pasta sauce
2 1lb. boxes of Publix brand pasta
1 box of Publix brand stick margarine
6 packs of Uncle Ben's Ready Rice

Total retail price: $35.60
Total amount paid: $17.98
Total amount saved: $17.62

That's a total savings of 50%!

Like I said, it was a slow week. I ended yo having to pay full price for a few items like the milk, margarine & pasta. Publix did have some great B1G1 sales this week, but some of their generic brands are still a better deal. Due to the storms and the late hour in which we were FINALLY able to get our weekly shopping done, we were unable to pick up paper towels & dryer sheets but I will pick those up later this week. We picked up the Scott bathroom tissue at Walgreens, they had the 12 roll pack on sale for $6.99 & we had a $1.00 off coupon which means that we saved a total of $6.00 on toilet paper! Scott is one of the more expensive brands but we feel that it lasts us twice as long as any other brand so when it's on sale, I jump on it! The Uncle Ben's rice was B1G1 at Publix this week & I happened to have 3 $1/1 coupons which meant that I spent less than $3.00 on 6 packs!

So this week was not a exciting savings wise, but it was not a total loss. My parents surprised us by buying us us a fantastic crib! They are so great, I love them! I plan on making some of the bedding myself which will help save a TON of money. Has anyone looked at the price of crib bedding these days?! I've seen plain bumper pads go for $80 by themselves! If anyone has some great tips on how to prepare for a baby on a budget, feel free to share them here!

I hope everyone had a great week and saved big! Feel free to share your savings here, I just love hearing and seeing what other people save. Have an awesome week and happy saving!

Week 2, let's review!

Ok, so this weeks sale papers and coupons were not so hot. Probably due to Presidents day tomorrow. My savings were not quite as I had hoped but some weeks will be better than others, I still saved money and I still added quite a chunk to my stockpile.

What is stockpiling? Well I guess that we will go ahead and go over this subject as I will be referring to it quite frequently, especially over the next several weeks. There is a method to the extreme couponing madness and it involves stockpiling on groceries and things that we need on a day to day basis. Why do we need to stockpile to save money? It's very simple, if I have at least a years worth of food in my home at any given time, I do not need to spend several hundred dollars every week on the same things over and over again. I will only be purchasing things like milk, eggs, butter, etc. Think about it. If you only purchased milk and eggs on an average week, you would save so much time and money in the long run. Still not following? The point in to purchase a large quantity of one product because it's on sale AND you have some amazing coupons. Example: Publix had Bertolli pasta sauces on sale (buy 1 get 1 free) this week, they are regularly $2.57 a jar. I happened to have 2 coupons for $1.50 off 2 jars, so I picked up 4 jars. I would have originally only paid full price for 2 jars because they here b1g1 (buy 1 get 1 free). I would have paid $10.28 for 4 jars but because they were on sale I could have gotten them for $5.14. Remember my coupons? I used both coupons which gave me an additional $3.00 off so I ended up paying $2.14 for 4 jars of pasta sauce. Not only did I save $8.14, I also added to my stockpile and I will not need pasta sauce until it goes on sale again.

The point isn't to spend tons of money to stockpile groceries so that you don't have to buy food for awhile, the point is to buy a lot of something when you can get it for cheap or free and then you're set on that product for a long time and won't need it until it goes on sale again, thus saving you money every week by not having to buy it as often. Got it? Ok, so let's get back to this weeks savings.

Let's start with my Friday evening. My husband and I decided that we were going to go and try to buy some baby clothes (quite an expense when paying full price). We stopped into a new consignment shop up town just to see what they had. Lucky for us, they were running one heck of a sale and we managed to get out of there with 2 full bags of clothes for $21.00. Then we went over to Ross where we found some more great deals! We found a set of 5 Carters onesies and another outfit and got out of there for $18.00. If we had paid full retail price for these items at Ross, we would have spent $42.98, so we ended up saving $24.98 on 7 articles of clothing. I have no idea how much we ended up saving at the consignment shop since we do not know what the actual retail prices are on the items we purchased.



We got 37 articles of clothing (mostly name brands) for a grand total of $39. Our son will not need more clothes for quite awhile (especially since I have a baby shower coming up and who knows how much more I will get then!).

Saturday after work I stopped and picked up 2 Sunday papers, clipped as many coupons as I could and studied the weekly circulars. That's when I discovered that this would be a slow week for savings...



Let's review our loot:
10 boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes (Kroger 10 for $10)
10 bags of Rice Sides (Kroger 10 for $10)
4 packs of Carolina Pride sausage (Kroger B1G1)
10 cans assorted variety Chef Boyardee (Kroger 69 cents ea. when you purchase 10)
4 cans of assorted Bertolli pasta sauces (Publix B1G1 plus 2 $1.50 off 2 coupons)
16 cans assorted Progesso soups (Publix B1G1 plus 4 $1.00 off 4 coupons)
10 cans assorted Green Giant veggies (Publix B1G1)
20 assorted Yoplait yogurts (Publix 20 for $10 plus 2 40 cents of 4 coupons)
5 boxes assorted Publix pastas (they are always cheaper than other brands)
2 boxes Bic Soleil disposable razors (Publix B1G1)
1 100 oz. bottle of Purex laundry detergent (Publix on sale for $3.99 plus $1.00 off coupon)
2 dozen eggs (Ingles 2/$5)
2 25 lb. bags of Tidy Cat litter (Ingles 2/$7)
2 packs of Tyson chicken breasts (Ingles on sale for $1.98 per lb.)

Total retail value of everything- $187.92
What we actually spent- $108.16
Total savings- $78.26

Not amazing, but not terrible either. I did have to pay full price (or close to it) for a few items and I did not have coupons for many of the items that I purchased. I'm sure that a true "Coupon Queen" would laugh at me but I don't think that it's too bad for my second week. I'm learning and I also understand that in order to build my stockpile, I am going to have to invest some money in it at first. I was pleased that I actually saved over $1 more than I spent at Publix, that was pretty exciting. I sure hope that someone out there was able to save a few buck this week as well, feel free to share! Sometimes having a good support system is all you need to stay motivated to keep it up and not to quit! I hope that you all have a great week and happy saving!

The moment of truth!

So, my day went as follows: Midwife appointment at noon, then off to shop! We went to a total of 5 stores to grab the very best deals.Kroger, Publix, Ingles, Rite-aid, and Walgreens. Now that may seem a bit excessive to some of you but let me tell you something, we would have never saved as much as we did today had we only gone to one or two stores. I combined the sale items found in my weekly sale papers and coupons clipped from the local newspapers to optimize my savings. As it turned out, we didn't full price for ANYTHING we purchased today! Not one single item! Now let's review my stash...



10 boxes of cereal
4 tubes of toothpaste
4 boxes of jambalaya mix
2 bags of cookie mix
3 packages of refrigerated ready to bake cookies
5 cans of homestyle biscuits
5 cans of cinnamon rolls
2 packs of 4 count light bulbs
10 cans of canned ravioli
4 cans of condensed soup (the kind used for cooking)
4 cans of SPAM
2 42 count packs of diapers
2 100 count boxes of plastic sandwich bags
10 frozen pizzas

Total retail price: $161.88

But we didn't pay retail price for anything.Sto what did we end up spending for all of this stuff? Drum roll please................... $91.34!

That is a total savings of $70.54, which means that I more than tripled my goal for this week! Plus I got a good little jump start on my stockpile (we'll get into stockpiling a little later on when I get a few more notches in my belt). I am so thrilled that I can hardly stand it. I still can't believe that after going to 5 stores and purchasing ALL those items that we didn't even spend $100. When was the last time you spent less than $100 a week for groceries? Of course not every week will be as successful as this week, some weeks I'll save less, others I will save more. For instance, this week I did not need bread, milk, eggs, cheese, etc. but next week I may, so I have to hope that one of the stores in my area has one or more of those items on sale and that I have a coupon (or several) in order to get the best deal.

So how did I manage to save almost as much as I spent? It's actually a very simple system although it may seem complex at times. Basically I went and purchased a Sunday paper Saturday afternoon, grabbed the local paper out of my driveway and went to clipping. Even if I saw a coupon for something I wouldn't normally use, I clipped it anyway because if that item goes on sale and I can get it for cheaper than my usual brand, I'm going for the cheap stuff. That's another thing, if you're going to really dive into extreme couponing, any "coupon queen" will tell you that you have to let go of brand loyalty. You may absolutely love Mayfield milk, but if Publix has a buy one get one free on their brand milk, you just need to bite the bullet and make the switch to save a few bucks. After all, a few dollars here and there really add up in the long run. So after clipping every coupon for everything (unless it was for something I really won't use like adult diapers or denture cream) I organized them all in my binder and then checked all the sale papers. This is where you will save the most money, try to focus on things that are on sale AND you have coupons for. Example: Ingles had a sale this week on cans of name brand biscuits and cinnamon rolls, they were 10 for $10. That by itself is a steal, but I just so happened to have 5 coupons for that particular brand, 2 75 cents of two cans, 2 40 cents of 2 cans and 1 30 cents of two cans. So on top of already saving a bundle, I was able to shave an additional $2.20 off the total cost. That's means that I got 10 cans for $7.80! Another example is that the same store had frozen pizzas on sale 10 for $8, I had 2 coupons for $1 off of 5, so I got 10 pizzas for $6.

So today was a huge success, I more than met my goal & I saved money. I am quite pleased that my mission is off to a good start. I hope that some of you out there were able to save a few bucks as well. Stay tuned!

Happy Valentine's Day

So it's 2:00 AM and I should definitely be in bed, but instead I am wide awake, clipping coupons, checking sale papers and mapping out my plan of attack for my big grocery run today. I plan on saving major $$$ today if I can help it!

I just wanted to make a quick post to share some pictures of my handy dandy coupon organizer (thanks mom for the idea and nesting for the motivation). All it is, is a 1" 3-ring binder, several clear trading card organizing sheets, a few dividers, a binder clip and a scratch pad. I've got my sections organized by: Dry goods, meat, dairy, condiments and canned goods, cleaning supplies, bathroom supplies, baby, and misc. I am thinking that I need to add frozen foods, cold items, and pet supplies. Maybe. I used a 3-hole punch to add my circulars to the back for easy viewing. I hope that someone out there will see this and can make it work for them too. Of course, tomorrow is my first day using my new organizer so we'll see how well it goes.

My goal for this week is to save $20. Look for another post coming tonight to broadcast my success or failure to reach my goal. Here's hoping!

So here we are. Day 1.

So, where do I begin? The beginning? Nah, too far back and I have too little time to start there. I guess I will start from when my life took the biggest turn anyone's life could ever take, the day I found out that I'm pregnant *gasps*.

So here I am, 26 years old, married to the love of my life for a year, working 40+ hours a week at a job that I love and having very few cares in the world. My husband and I has discussed the possibility of starting a family down the road a few years, when we had some money saved up and were a little more planted in the ground. Funny how life plans things out for you, regardless of what you think is best. Less than 2 months after that conversation we had on our couch at 2 AM (the days of leisurely staying up late, Midnight trips to Wal-mart and sleeping 'til noon are long gone, I'm afraid) I had a feeling that something was "different".

Now I may not be known for my impeccable timing in most departments, but there was always one that I could set my watch by (you know the one, ladies). That's right, you got it. Well, somebody seemed to have missed the bus and was running a little "late" that particular month. I am not one to panic, so I did what any sensible woman would do in my situation. I panicked. I'll admit it, I'm not too proud to say that when faced with the possibility of having to be responsible for another human life, I freaked out a little (or a lot). But I maintained my composure long enough to stop by the drug store after work one Saturday to pick up the one test I would never have to study for.

Like many women, I'm sure, I paced around in my bathroom trying to convince myself that I didn't need to relieve myself at the moment and could probably wait a day or two. Yeah right. I smoked a few cigarettes (don't go all psycho on me, I quit as soon I took the test) and talked myself into it. It wasn't the first time I had done this, there were a couple of scares in my younger days, but everything turned out for the best. I have never flunked one of these things before. Why would this time be any different? Oh, well there was that whole egg being fertilized thing which obviously can alter the results...

There they were, 2 little pink lines staring back at me just as hard as I was staring at them. Really?! This is where the real panic set in as I sat on the side of my tub, going over every horrible thing I had done to my body in the last several weeks that could have affected my unborn child. All the cigarettes. Had I had any alcohol? I couldn't remember. Had I taken any OTC medications that could have been harmful to my baby? Then it hit me... I was thinking like a mother and had not even come to terms with the fact that I was carrying a child yet!

I never cried. No happy or sad tears, I was in a state of shock. Surprisingly enough I wasn't angry, sad, regretful or any of the above. I was actually content. Me? The lady who hates most children and likes MY space and MY stuff? A mommy? That's right. My husband was obviously just as shocked as I was, but elated just as I knew he would be. He's so amazing. My mother went soaring through the roof and started planning for this baby's future immediately. The rest of my family could barely contain their emotions. I had nothing to fear, I had an amazing support system and I am so lucky that to this day I still do.

So, cut to today. Here I am, 29 weeks pregnant with my first child (a boy btw) and taking on a new approach to life. Being pregnant has changed my life dramatically, some changes were hard to adjust to but mostly every change has been a positive one. My whole attitude towards life is different now. I look at things differently than I did before, I treat people differently, but most importantly, I treat myself differently.

So what is this mission, you ask?

Well, it will seem silly to some of you but I am hoping that at least a few people who read this will relate, support and join me on my journey.

I have noticed that the way so many people live their lives is wasteful. Some people may not even notice this and others may not even care. Well I care. I have lived my life for me because I could. Well now I am bringing a new life into this world and I don't want him to make the same mistakes that I have made. Mainly I am referring to money waste. All the thousands and thousands of dollars that I have wasted over the years, and have nothing but "stuff" to show for it. I'll admit that my husband and I took quite a financial hit when the economy fell apart. He was unemployed for almost a year and when he finally could find work, he was making less than he was on unemployment. I know that so many of you can relate to our situation. If we had been smart, we would have had something saved up or put away to help us through these troubling times. But like many people our age, we didn't listen to those who told us to "start saving now while you're still young". But like I said, you learn from your mistakes and we have come to terms with ours and are making a change.

My goal starting today is to be conscious of our spending, change the way we approach spending and change the way we spend. I will find new ways to cut costs around the house and outside of the house. Yes, this may mean that I become the "crazy coupon lady" but I do not care. It's time to stand up and say "NO" to a society so focused on money (how much we spend, not how much we earn unfortunately). The price of everything keeps going up but our paychecks remain the same. We need to find ways to compensate for these changes and not allow them to break us down. I don't want to fight with my husband about money, I don't want to try to figure out how I am going to be able to afford diapers for my son. My husband and I work very hard for the money that we make and for 2 people working full time and living in a small home with few expenses, we should never have to struggle the way we have in the past.

So change begins today. This blog is my way of keeping track of my progress and reaching out to others who want to join me in the struggle against spending more than we make for the things we need to survive. I can't say that my posts will be scheduled or even regular all the time, but I will be updating them as I go along this journey. I will post pictures occasionally and share with all of you my successes and failures. This is after all a learning process.

What am I doing today to start things off? Well yesterday I invested a small amount of money on a binder, trading card pages and dividers to create an organized space to keep my coupons (I was never a coupon clipper so this should be interesting). I'll admit that I spent $27 on these items, but I actually saved $12 by only buying items on sale. Today I am going to purchase a Sunday paper and get to clipping! I spent my morning reading articles and blogs written by women who consider themselves to be "extreme couponers" and I picked up some tips and tricks to try to apply to my weekly grocery run on Monday. I will post a blog then to let everyone know how much I spent and how much I saved. Wish me luck!