Old Habits Die Hard

It's not like we've been debt free for very long, but I've found myself more than once thinking, "I shouldn't do that!" and I can't really come up with a good reason WHY I shouldn't. Why shouldn't I buy some groceries that aren't on sale and I don't have a coupon for? Why shouldn't I buy my daughter a new dress for Easter instead of going to a thrift store? I think I am by nature a pretty frugal person so I am wired to find a deal, but at the same time I need to learn to find some happy place where I am ok to spend money now and not freak out or feel like I am doing something wrong.

Thrift Store - SCORE!!

I know a lot of people are totally grossed out by the idea of going into a thrift store, and the idea of actually buying something makes them dizzy, but there is definitely a segment of the population that enjoys it. Growing up, I always thought of thrift stores for poor people and was horrified when I was on the receiving end of something from one. Now that I'm an adult, my perspective has definitely changed.

When I pull into the parking lot at a thrift store, I am always amazed when I look at the cars. You don't see many broken down, beat up, old junkers. Look next time you drive by (or the next time you shop), people who shop at thrift stores usually drive pretty nice cars! By extension, I would guess that most of the people driving those cars are doing pretty decent financially.

Yes, lots of times thrift stores are just full of junk. But by knowing your neighborhood and knowing the stores, you can come across some true gems in the midst! It takes a bit of time, and sometimes a bit of digging, but if you are a person who thrives on the thrill of a good find, it's so worth it!

Last year I started running and I thought to myself, "hey this is gonna be cheap, all I need is a pair of running shoes." Oy! I was wrong! Even worse, it turns out I like running so I wanted to slowly build up my running wardrobe and accessories so that I wasn't running in old t-shirts and cotton shorts. Those are great to get started in, but once I started running longer distances, the comfort level in those clothes drastically reduced.

In my thrift store travels I've managed to come up with a Pantagonia jacket and a Merrell pull-over hooded shirt. Both items would have easily been close to $100 each, and both of them were in excellent condition and have years of wear left in them. I've also come across some higher end things like Under Armour clothes, but unfortunately not in my size. I'll keep looking though! (Note: I would not encourage the purchase of used shoes, especially if you are using them for any sort of exercise. It's worth it for so many reasons to really buy a good pair of shoes)

One other thing that we tend to buy quite a bit from thrift stores is books. Nate is really reading like crazy and we could go broke just buying him new books. Plus, he has really taken to some older books that are much easier to find at a thrift store or yard sale. He's always excited to come across the older "Choose Your Own Adventure" books and even "Goosebumps".

November 25 - Cleanin House!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! But what comes after Thanksgiving? Well this year, even sooner than usual, came the shopping! I can't say I was thrilled that the sales were starting at 10pm, but I made my list and headed out to tackle a few things and mission was accomplished.

Today I was working around the house and the yard a bit and decided when I went to put away some new purchases in Nate's dresser drawer that I was tired of all the chaos I was up against. I've mentioned before that I have been known to "UpCycle" things, so I thought a bit about what I could use around the house to bring some order.

Yes, I still had some old baby wipe containers stashed away that I just couldn't bring myself to part with and I used 2 of them to organize the every growing pile of Scout gear that lives in Nate's top drawer. One tub has neckkerchiefs in it, one has slides, and then I put his hat in the front. Nothing fancy, but it rounded up a lot of stray crap that was making me irritated everytime I had to put clothes away.

What else did we do post-Turkey Day? Nate had a friend come over and we took a break from organizing dressers and cleaning the basement to go to the park. The weather was amazing! I dragged the bikes up from the basement and we hit the road. We were not the only ones thinking of it because as we were there tons of families made their way up there too.

There are still plenty of leaves on the ground, and still lots of crap in the basement, but those can wait for a dreary day.

Keepin Busy

My wonderful husband started working full time again January 2011. It's been a long time coming and we are THRILLED to see full paychecks again. Hoorray!!! When he was hired on, he was hired for day shift, and then through a whole lot of HR drama, ended up being assigned to a third shift position. This has been quite the adjustment for our family! To add to the fun, he has his days (nights?) off during the week, so that means that he needs to SLEEP during the day on the weekend. No easy task when you have 3 very active children at home.

We have been filling our weekends with tons of fun activities, activities that are either free or very inexpensive for us to do.

So what have we done? A quick glance at my calendar shows:

• Saturday movies. There is a theater nearby where we can see first run movies in the morning very cheap. For the 4 of us to go and get popcorn and drinks it's only $15. There was also a free family movie festival of second run movies that we went to quite a few of. the kids loved it!










• Scout field trip to the TV station

• Camp Open Houses. The YMCA camp near us has held monthly open houses to recruit families for camp this summer. We knew we were going to register Nick and Nate for a week of camp, so we took the opportunity to attend both open houses. One time the weather was not that great and they didn't get to do everything they wanted, the second time they were able to do it all!
  


• Easter came and went with the chance to go to a few egg hunts and other church/community activities.
  
  
  



• Local (flower) nurseries have had season opening celebrations that had kid activities, food and fun

We've also been able to spend a few weekends almost completely outdoors. So nice to enjoy the good weather when we actually have it. The snow in April wasn't very welcome, but we made it through. Nate has really taken an interest in gardening this year, so we've also spent quite a bit of time scavenging for container garden supplies and plants. Because we live in a rural area and our yard is wide open, having a veggie garden in our yard would only be inviting critters in, so we decided to do our garden on our deck in containers.


I'm already filling up days on our calendar for the summer of activities we can't wait to do! The boys are registered for a week of daycamp while our daycare is closed, vacation Bible school, camping, a trip to Michigan Adventure, family reunions, family picnics, and some other community events sprinkled in there. the county park by us stopped charging admission, so we can go there to play on the beach and swim, or we can head over the Yankee Springs State Park and hit the beach there too!

Medical Expenses

For almost 2 years I took a daily medication (beta blocker) to help keep my migraines under control. It worked pretty well, but I still had quite a few bad days where I had to break out the Maxalt. The beta blocker was only costing me $10/month, but the Maxalt fell into the most expensive tier of my insurance, so it would cost me $40/month and that was only for 10 pills. The typical migraine took 2 pills to fully clear up. After ruling out physical reasons for the migraines, my Dr strongly urged me to start eliminating some things from my diet and also going off of the beta blockers to get a "base" of what was going on. My previous Dr had the dose on the beta blockers so high my BP was super low and all I wanted to do was sleep. I hated it! Not only was I constantly tired, but I was STILL getting headaches! I had some other medical things going on and the specialist flat out tell me to stop drinking Diet Coke because it was causing me all kinds of other problems. I figured it was worth a shot to give it a try and see if something as simple as eliminating Diet Coke could make that big of a difference. If it helped even one of the problems I was having, it would be worth it. No more beta blockers I gave up caffeine, except for one cup of "real" coffee per day I was still drinking a significant amount of Caffeine Free Diet Coke Then I gave that up As of January 1, I have not had a single drink of carbonated beverages. No Diet Coke (caffinated or otherwise) and switched to pretty much just drinking water and a very limited amount of brewed iced tea. Because I had weaned down on the caffeine, giving up the soda wasn't as hard as it would have been a few months earlier. The good news, I've not had to take ANY medication for my migraines since giving up carbonated drinks! It's AMAZING! I drank my last Diet Coke on New Year's Eve and it's April 15, NO HEADACHES! I was having at least 2-3 per week, so going this long without one is a huge accomplishment. The weather is getting nicer and I've not had to waste a day in bed nursing a migraine. I'm spending time with my kids outside, I'm working on training for my first 5K and I am LOVING every minute of it! Oh and as a hidden bonus, I'm saving money on my grocery bill by not buying soda

"Free" Money to be Had!

I know I've mentioned a few different ways that I earn free gift cards and such, but I don't recall if I've ever made a centalized list of all of those. Me? Without a list? Say it ain't so! Having made this realization, I give you:


I started "swagging" about a year ago and just installed the search toolbar on my computer figuring a search here or there might add up to something eventually. Around Christmas last year I decided to see what I had and what I could cash in for. What I ended up with was $50 in Amazon gift cards! Wowza! Anyone who frequents Amazon during December knows that it's the best time of the year since the sales are abundant and I was lucky enough to have a free trial of Amazon Prime, so I stretched that $40 into a LOT of Christmas gifts for people!

My Points
I've been using MyPoints as my starting point for online shopping for years. They also send random emails to your account that have you click through for 5 points each. Sometimes you can earn 10-25 points for filling out a survey, but I rarely do that. If I am looking to buy something online, I ALWAYS start by seeing if it's a merchant that works through MyPoints. I've redeemed over 55,000 points, which works out to a whole lot of gift cards to places like Sam's Club, Chili's, and Starbucks! One thing they did recently was link up to Coupons.com, so if I print out 10 coupons from them (which is incredibly easy for me to do with the amount of coupons I use!), I get 10 points, and you get points for redeeming the coupons as well.

My Coke Rewards
This is a hit or miss one really. I have redeemed my MCR for a few good things like Chili's gift cards and Omaha Steak gift cards, but the pickings on their site are pretty slim. You have to check back often to see if there is anything good there to cash in on. I bank up well over 1000 points before I even think about cashing out. I have a lot of friends who drink Coke products but don't do the rewards program, so they just give the codes to me.

Speedway Rewards
If you drive a car, you pretty much are guaranteed that you have to buy gas. There are less than 5 options on my way to/from work to get gas, and Speedway happens to be one of those. As long as they are the cheapest option, I will choose them to get gas from in order to build up my Speedway Rewards points. At Christmas last year we cashed in our rewards for a $25 gift card to Applebee's and the year before that we cashed in for a $25 card to Lowe's. It's not big money, but we aren't loyal to just Speedway so we don't earn as many points as we could be. If someone offered you $25 wouldn't you take it?

I've gotten random gift cards here and there for filling out surveys, but am always interested in more ways to free up cash in our daily expenses to put towards the snowball.

The Price of Country Livin'

Almost 4 years ago we made the move from urban Metro Detroit to a little township between between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. We love living here and have ZERO plans to move back to "the city" at any time, ever. But every once in awhile something comes up where I think, "Wow I really miss that!"

I was visiting my family this weekend, which was a very frugal trip since we haven't sold our house there and can sleep there for free, and this morning I drove by Randazzo's Fruit Ranch. When I lived there I would typically go there at least once a week to buy fresh produce and I absolutely loved it. We would make fresh salads with our meals, lots of stir fry's, and plenty of variety in buying fruit. Driving by I remembered just how much I miss having that kind of convenience.

So I stopped in and walked around. I could have bought a couple of just about everything, but ended up leaving with: 3 heads of garlic, 2 lbs of gnocchi, 2lbs of popcorn, 10lbs of apples, 2.5lbs of grapes, and celery....all for $11.10. Last time I bought celery, about a week or so ago I paid $2.50!

I guess there really are trade-offs to everything, I just wish I didn't have to give up reasonably priced produce to live here!

Savings Angel

So it's been a little over a year since I started using Savings Angel and I wanted to get some thoughts down on the program.

Pros:
-Amazing deals!
-Centalized list making
-Easy access to printable coupons
-Supportive community for swapping coupons and non sale deals

Cons:
-It does cost $20/month

It took me a long time to wrap my mind around the whole concept of paying $20/month to be a part of the service, but the money is VERY well spent! I easily save that in just a week of shopping using them.

I was not a Meijer shopper at all before Savings Angel, and now that is pretty much my store of choice. With their MealBox coupons stacked with a manufacturer coupon, I can get groceries for just pennies on the dollar, or just plain free. Plus, I am in Meijer more often, so I can take advantage of their produce and meat markdowns that I come across as I am in the store. My kids have enjoyed more fruit this way than I was able to budget and buy in the past. Fruit in our house doesn't last much longer than a day or two, so the ripe fruit markdowns are just fine for us.

As we've paid off our debts and we've had some wiggle room in our budget, I've actually increased our grocery budget over time. We were budgeting right around $200/month at one point, and I've increased that to $250/month. We were almost living exclusively on chicken since it was the most inexpensive meat to buy, but now I splurge and we're eating more beef and pork than we used to. I personally could eat chicken every single day because I love the taste of it, but the variety is nice too. In theory, Dave would have us stick to the barebones until we were debt free, but I think that he would be amazed that a family of 5 could even make it on $250/month, forget the $200 we were skating by with!

Breaking News: Water is Wet!

I always joke around that there is breaking news right now: water is wet, the sky is blue, and it gets cold in Michigan. So why is it that people are shocked when snow falls on the ground? We've been pretty much wearing our winter jackets since before Halloween and I anticipate we'll be wearing them through March and possibly into April, you just never know how long it's going to stay that cold here.

One thing I started doing years ago was buying my kid's clothes a size or so bigger at the end of the current season for the next. It's not really that hard, and I've done pretty well guessing on just about everything. One thing I try and remember to do every year in January is hit the clearance racks and get winter jackets and snow pants. Last year I got wrapped up in just general chaos and missed my window, and ended up not getting a very nice jacket for Nathan.

So the other day I noticed that JcPenney was starting to mark their jackets down, and I decided to swing by today and see what was what. I don't like to spend more than $10-$15 on a jacket (a girl has to have her limits right???), so when I did the quick math and saw that the jackets I had picked out for Nathan and Nick were going to be closer to $20 I did hesitate a little. Do I risk it and wait for the next wave of markdowns? Or do I just get them now and be done? The deciding factor was that I was only able to find 3 jackets in about 10 racks that were even in Nick's size that I was looking for, so I knew if I waited much longer, I was taking the risk of not getting a good quality jacket or not finding one at all and being stuck paying full price later this year when the snow falls again.

Original price: $222.57
Clearance price: $50.32 (or $16.77 each)

Of course I'll still have to budget for boots and stuff later on this year, but the biggest expense is already out of the way!

Proud Mommy Moment

One thing that Dave really talks about over and over again is how as adults, we have the power to change our family tree and really impact our children by taking control of our finances and modeling to them.

Matt and I have really taken this seriously and have worked very hard to be consistent in what we say and do, especially around the kids. Nicholas and Lauren are still way to young to catch on to the brainwashing we're doing, but Nathan is definitely starting to sip the Kool-Aid.

When we embarked on our Total Money Makeover, we also brought Nathan on board with us and started working with him to understand money and give him a real education in this area and not let him grow up clueless.

The way things currently work is Nathan gets a base allowance of $5 every 2 weeks, which is consistent with the allowance Matt and I give ourselves for "blow" money. The most important thing we've taught Nathan is that before he spends any of his allowance, he needs to set aside 10% of it to give during the children's offering at church.

Prior to Dave, we would just hand Nathan $1 every week and send him off and that was that, but it's really teaching him more about his faith and being responsible if he gives from his own money than us giving him money just to give him money. It's been a little harder of a lesson to explain to him why he's giving less money than he was before, but when we walk into his class and he drops his $.25 in the box (10% of his $5 is $.50, or $.25 per week), I take that time to reaffirm to him that he's tithing from HIS money and I am very proud of him for doing so.

Now as a Christian parent, you can imagine how much my heart swells with love and joy when I can hear Nathan talk about this kind of stuff and especially that I know he really GETS it. But, I think that I have a very, very close second moment that ranks right on up as of last night.

Nathan was standing by me as I was doing dishes and told me he wants to open his own savings account! He's pretty good at saving money on his own for things that he wants like Nintendo DS games, or to buy books from the school book orders, but he recognizes that he wants to save for some bigger things (like Guitar Hero) and that a bank account could help him. So I am really going to try and find time in the next week to take him up to the credit union and do this with him.

Grocery Savings

This is the time in the year where it's time to stock up and start filling the pantry. Between November and the end of January is when you can find the BEST coupons out there and the most! Usually it's hard to come by coupons and good sales on staples, and with holiday baking creeping up on us, it's the time to start combing through your ads and matching coupons to sales.

While you are clipping and matching, take a minute to look and see what you can get for FREE or for a few pennies, and take those items and donate them to a local food pantry. The food pantry we choose to support is http://projecthopedorr.blogspot.com/ (Project Hope in Dorr, MI). Our church has a box right in the lobby where donations can be dropped off, which makes it so easy and convenient to do!

So what did I get for my $9.06?

3 3.5lb bags of Purina One cat food
2 Macaroni Grill dinners
3 Wanchai Ferry dinners
6 cans of Campbell's Gravy
2 4pk of Fiber One yogurt
1 4pk of YoPlus yogurt
2 cans of Campbell's cream of chicken soup

Received a coupon back for 1/2 gallon of OJ (Value of $2.50!)

Out of pocket: $9.06
Saved: $54.20

Before anyone jumps and tells me how unhealthy I shop, I do need to add the disclaimer that we don't eat boxed meals every single night of the week. I find it extremely handy to have a few in the pantry for those busy nights where everything falls apart and we all need to be somewhere and have the tendency to just go through the drive thru in order to get people fed. I would much rather throw together a quick chicken fettucini (ala box) and eat that instead of a Happy Meal with fries. Not only is it CHEAPER, it's still the healthier option because there are things we can do to the "box" to make it healthy. I can use skim milk, I can make sure it's not loaded down with butter and oil, I can make sure the chicken isnt' fried, and I can mix in plenty of veggies!

I do use a coupon "service" that helps me organize my shopping lists and gives me access to hundreds of printable coupons. Many people have heard of the Grocery Game, and while I haven't tried to "play the game", I have been blessed by Savings Angel! I love that I have full access to stores in my area and I don't have to pick and choose where to shop and I can search all my local stores and get the best of the best deals!

http://savingsangel.com/amember/go.php?r=18341&i=l8

Busy Summer

Summer was pretty busy for us. The weather didn't cooperate as much as we would have liked, but we still had quite a bit of fun! We kept things frugal and still had a great time together. I never would have thought a $5 pool from Family Dollar would provide so many hours of entertainment, but that was probably the best summer investment we made! I spent quite a few hours out riding my bike around and the kids went to the park almost every day.

Now that fall is creeping up, it's time to get serious about keeping our grocery budget low. We don't worry too much over summer because we end up at a lot of potluck picnics and eating dinner at the camp for the family nights. This week I decided it was time to refocus and start stockpiling again and getting ready for the cut in pay we see when it's camp off-season for Matt.

Meijer, my coupon store of choice, was my biggest trip this week, but I was able to get quite a few staples in our menu on hand to start the pantry off:

Total spent: $30.70
Total saved: $67.77

So what will $30 buy you these days?

6 boxes of Hamburger Helper
4 bags of frozen veggies
7lbs of frozen turkey
8 Campbell's soup microwave soups
6lbs of chicken nuggets
3 "cups" of Oreo cookies
2 boxes of Pizza Rolls
4 Lysol toilet bowl cleaners
12 cans Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
BIC razor refills
1 box Honey Bunches of Oats
4pk of Activia yogurt

I end up buying quite a bit of snacks since Nathan prefers to take a lunch to school, and having a nice stash to pick from is nice so that he doesn't end up with the same thing every day.

Beans and Rice (and Rice and Beans!)

I tried out a recipe the other day for a beans and rice dish that I have absolutely fallen in love with! It's quick, it's easy, and it's easy to dress up a bit if you have stuff laying around the house.

Ingredients
3/4 cup dry lentils (brown ones)
3/4 cup dry brown rice
4 cups water
4 beef bouillon cubes (or chicken, vegetable)
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions
Dump everything in a medium pot and boil. Turn down the heat to a little lower than medium and cook covered (just like rice) until done. I usually stir every 5-6 minutes, but you probably don't need to once the spices are mixed! Use just like regular taco filling.

I have been putting a bit of taco sauce on mine, who doesn't have extra Taco Bell ones right? And sprinkling a little bit of shredded cheddar on it and eating with broken taco shells. Not only does this taste very good, it's a good balance of carbs and protein so it does fill you up. A bag of lentils can be bought for under $1 and rice should be a staple in any frugal house, right?

I haven't updated on our progress in awhile, mostly because I've been holding off until our van was paid off. My goal date for payoff was July 1, but we ended up needing to get tires put on and I took money from our "snowball" and paid for them that way rather than tapping into our emeregency fund. Hopefully with payday next week I can report a big payoff!

Tuesday Shopping!

Tuesday is typically the day I spend my lunch hour doing some shopping since that's when the coupons are all posted and finalized on Savings Angel. I made a quick run to Walgreens and then to Meijer. I'll be making a few more trips into Meijer since they have a couple of deals I want to take full advantage of with a few more trips.

Walgreens:
4 packs of Mentos gum, 1 bag of Chex mix, package of hair rubber bands, 2 Lysol toilet cleaners, 2 Lysol wipes.

Total spent: $5.77
Total saved: $20.33
Even better, I am getting a $3 rebate back from Lysol, and I got a $2 coupon to use on my next trip to Walgreens, so I actually ended up spending 77cents!


Meijer:
Silk Soy yogurt (large bulk container), 2lbs of organic baby carrots, 1 loaf of bread, 4 boxes of Kelloggs cereal, 6pk of Danimals yogurt

Total spent: $7.68
Total saved: $17.16
The soy yogurt for Nick was $2.99, which was almost 50% of what I ended up spending.

The Diaper Deal

So via Savings Angel, I found out about a GREAT diaper deal this week at Walgreens. So knowing that I was going to load up, I recruited some friends at work to print off coupons from me since there is a 2 copy limit from the website (www.coupons.com) per IP address. I work in an office with over a hundred people, and when there are times like this, I am happy to have so many IP addresses to choose from!

What I ended up with:
8 packs Huggies Supreme
2 packs Huggies wipes (182ct)
1 tube of Colgate (and it had a free travel size with it!)
1 Glade Plug dual air freshner
1 Glade sensor air freshner
2 bottles of Garnier Fructus shampoo/conditioner
5 packs of Eclipse gum

Total spent: $35.02
Total saved: $115.83

The Huggies are regular priced for $12 per pack, and Nick can only wear size 6 Huggies because he's so big for his age. So I bought 7 packs of the size 6's and 1 pack of the size 4's for Lauren knowing she'll be wearing those soon enough. Since this deal is so hot, the pickings were pretty slim, so I was happy with what I was able to get my hands on! I am debating on going for another round of the stores later this week even...We'll see!

Weekly Shopping

I wanted to post my amazing diaper deal today, but I misplaced 2 of my receipts, so I will have to do that tomorrow. It's a great one, probably one of the best ones ever in fact.

But what I will post is my Meijer shopping trip that I did today on my lunch hour. I ran into a co-worker there and she was amazed at the fist full of coupons I had. I had quite a bit in my cart, and I told her that I was probably up to about $10 by that point, which even that blew her away.

Items purchased:
3lbs of bananas, 1 bottle of organic ketchup, 3 2ltrs of Pepsi, 2 boxes of brownie mix, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 4 boxes of Ziplock bags, 4 boxes of Fiber One bars, 4 boxes of Curves granola bars, 4 boxes of Strawberry Yogurt Cheerios,

Total before coupons and sales: $60.79
Total spent: $20.61

On my way into work, I made a quick stop to Hardings to pick up yogurt that was on sale this week and came away with:

7 cups of Dannon yogurt, 3 bags of Chex mix, 1 bag of croutons

Total spent before coupons: $7.77
Total spent: $3.77

Yes, we are a pretty breakfast heavy household, in fact I think my kids would eat breakfast food for dinner every night of the week if I let them.

Frugal Living Resources

Dave says to eat lots of beans and rice, and when you get tired of that, eat some rice and beans. Matt and I actually have been eating red beans and rice quite a bit lately, and I have to say it's tasty if done right! We use bacon to make it, and that brings a lot of flavor. We pretty much buy any bacon (READ: CHEAP) that's on sale and I haven't noticed a different in taste at all.

I was checking my email this evening and got my update from the Hillbilly Housewife and thought that it would be a great addition to my blog. I love her updates! And there is just a ton of great information on her site.

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

I use her menu planning options for Angel Food Ministries to help get ideas on what to make with some of the things that come with the monthly box of food. I have an amazing homemade sweet and sour sauce recipe I got that way that is just awesome, and it's not glow in the dark red.

I do keep handy my copy of the Tightwad Gazette, but because it's a book it is a point in time reference. There just isn't anything new in it, so it's great to look through, but nothing new is being added, and that's where Hillbilly Housewife comes in.

Some Shopping Savings

Just wanted to throw it out there some of the shopping I managed to squeeze in today.

Walgreens
4 packs of BIC razors, 1 bottle of saline solution, 1 tube of Colgate toothpaste, 1 bottle Garnier Fructis Conditioner.
Total before sale prices: $34.35
Sales: ($5.80)
Coupons: ($13.75)
Total: $14.80
After rebates: $8.46

Considering the razors are normally $5.99 for a pack of 4, I am pretty happy with this trip. Matt shaves his head and has very sensitive skin, so whenever I can find these particular razors on sale, I stock up.

I also had to run to Meijer to pick up my vitamins (do you know that they do free prenatal vitamins there???), and picked up a few groceries while I was in the store waiting. I snagged a bunch of 6 organic bananas that were marked down to 37cents! I was pretty happy with that since my kids will eat bananas morning, noon, and night. I am not sure what the criteria is that they use to mark down their produce, but even their mark downs are in better shape and last longer than our local grocery store!

Meijer:
bunch of bananas, 2 bags of Quaker rice cakes, 4 boxes of pizza rolls, 2 liter of Dr. Pepper, 10 cups of Dannon yogurt, 3 cups of soy yogurt, 2 cups of Meijer yogurt, 10 Lean Gourmet's (quick lunches for me at work), 2 Lipton side dishes.

Total before sale prices: $39.86
Total after sales and coupons: $16.07

Not one of my better trips, but not the worst either. Lauren and I have been eating a lot of yogurt, and Nick has taken a liking to it as well, so I have been buying more of that lately. Unfortunately, Nick can only have the soy yogurt, so I can't get as good of a deal on it as I can with the bigger national brands. But you can bet if I can find some coupons for Silk Soy yogurt, I am going to load up!

Shopping Day

Tuesday is typically the day of the week I do my shopping. That gives me all of Monday to get coupons in order from the weekend and make sure that I am getting the best price possible from all of my options available.

Walgreens:
2 rolls of Bounty, Garnier shampoo, saline solution, 2 bottles of Fantastik
Total before coupons: $18.81
Total after coupons: $9.53
Total of mail in rebates: $7.98
Net total: $1.55

Meijer:
2lbs of bananas, Bbq sauce, 4 boxes of Meijer brand cereal, 2 boxes of Fiber One bars, 2 boxes of Fiber One muffin mix, 2 bottles of Vaseline lotion, 3 bags of pizza slices, 2 4pks of YoPlus yogurt, 1 bag of Chex Mix, 2 tubs of frosting, Herbal Essence Shampoo, Herbal Essence Conditioner, 2 cans of Progresso Soup
Total before coupons: $75.81
Total after coupons: $25.02

It's exhausting to go from store to store and clip the coupons, but the time investment is worth it to me. The key is to stock up on things so that you don't get in a position where you are out and have to pay full price or a less than "good" sale price.

When I find that I have too much of something, I am able to donate it or give it to a family member. I have some loose guidelines in my head that I follow, for example I won't pay more than 50cents for a tube of toothpaste, so I am usually giving away something that I paid a fraction of the cost for and can possibly help someone else out. My goal is to get a full stockpile of things so that I can get to the point where I am just picking up free stuff and donating it to the Project Hope Food Pantry or the Ronald McDonald House.

How I Save Money

Here is the site I use to cut my grocery bill.

The monthly investment is $20 and my typical grocery bill is $200/month at the very most.

I consider myself a coupon warrior!