Time to Stock Up Again

One thing that I have to do as a working mom of 2 kids in diapers, is be on my game to make sure that I #1 have diapers in 2 different sizes for the kids, and #2 am not breaking the bank doing so.

So I was thrilled to see some of the diaper deals this week that are to be had, especially since Lauren just moved up from size 3 to 4's and I was down to the last few in the pack and Nick can only fit in Huggies size 6 (since he's so big!).

Walgreens has their brand diapers on sale for $4.50 per pack, which is fine for Lauren since she can wear pretty much any diaper. Plus they have some register rewards out there that end up netting you free products (Colgate toothpaste and Edge shaving gel), and factor in a $2 per pack coupon! Do the math and you'll see that I am at about $2 per package of diapers, or about 6cents per diaper. Prior to being a coupon gazelle I was buying diapers by the case at Sam's Club for 18cents each (Members Mark brand) and thought I was doing pretty good.

CVS has Huggies diapers on sale for $10 per pack and $5 wipe refills, and if you spend $25 you get $10 off your next purchase. This was my big score since I can definitely use more diapers for Nick right now, and if by some act of God he potty trains, I'll just hold onto them know that Lauren will be in them eventually. I had some leftover printable Huggies coupons that are expiring in the next day or so, so I had to hop on this one FAST. I picked up 2 packs of diapers and a pack of wipe refills for $25, minus the $8.75 in coupons, which gave me an out of pocket on the purchase for $16.25 and have my $10 off my next purchase to use later on today to roll into my next round of diapers. Even if I lose the $10, the $5.40 each that I paid out of pocket for the diapers and wipes is better than store brand prices, so the $10 I'll be rolling only sweetens the deal.

I was talking to Matt last night about couponing and how it's work. It's a LOT of work, but if I figure out the time invested vs the money saved, I am confident that I am coming out ahead. The money saved is what is helping us get through the winter months when Matt is not working full time and we take a pretty significant hit in our income.

We're also starting to see some little improvements in our budget from changes we've made. I made changes to our cell phone plan that took us from $91/month down to $60, and we've dropped our car payment from $317/month to $100 and I am confident that the tiny loan we took on our van will be paid off very soon. Matt's hours are picking up in the next month, so we'll just maintain our spending and expenses and throw all that extra money coming in towards our SNOWBALL!