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!