Crazy Coupon Lady

I admit it! I am addicted to coupons. Oh the shame. The humiliation....The money saving.

Alright. I'm not that crazy about using coupons. So I have a binder with categories and coupons organized in neat little pockets. So I go online and hunt for printable coupons. So I know a completely different language (the coupon language) and get angry when I can't find a deal. So I saved us $46 dollars on our last grocery bill. So what? So that doesn't make me crazy..It makes me...frugal.

Being frugal is the new "it" thing and everyone wants to be "it", right? I know I do. But my reason for using coupons is more than being in style, it's about doing my part to achieve the over arching goals for our family. We are going to live like no one else (great cars with no car payments, vacations paid in cash, savings as big as TP's head?- Yes.please) and to do that we each have to pull our own weight.

TP does this by working a second job and I do this by working, creating meal plans, and hunting for deals. We both do this by making sure we hold each other, even Ms. B, accountable for waste. So you see, we are striving to make a change for our family and we are doing this as a kind of well oiled machine.

I've posted a couple times about how I shop for our family and the meal plans that I create. I still do that weekly and it's actually become really fun for me. It's helped us cut down on food waste and over spending. Meal planning gives us an idea of what our week will look like and gives me the opportunity to prepare for meals a day or sometimes two days before they need to be served. It certainly takes the stress out of my week, makes packing lunches easier, and gives our daughter a nutritious meal she loves to throw on the floor.

Part of planning a weeks worth of meals is to do it in a way that offers variety and a way to save money. If I know that on Friday we're going to have Breakfast for dinner, then looking out for deals on breakfast foods (like cereal, waffles, or perservatives) gives me the greatest opportunity for saving money. That's where coupons come in.

I now buy 2-4 papers every week (depending) and cut coupons from it. I organize those coupons by categories and base my shopping trips around them and the grocery store/drug stores &Target circular. If I have a coupon for $1 off shampoo of some kind, I search and search for store deals (using two grocery stores I frequent now and Target) and drug stores either in person or through their circulars. When said shampoo is on sale at the store and my coupon is still valid, I buy it. This works great with cereal, diapers, dental care, shampoos, and other personal care items because often I can get them for free!

I'm not going to even try to explain the World of Coupons to you. It's just too much. Instead I encourage you to Google it and find more information for yourself if you're interested. It really is a culture all it's own and one that, if you understand, you'll grow to love.

-M

grocery budget: May

So if you look at this post, you know that we were successful in buying a weeks worth of food for $94.95 out of a total budget of $150.00! That was a savings of $55.05! I was very proud of myself for setting up a menu, creating a shopping list, and most of all sticking to it.

But as the week went on I felt a little bothered by the $150.00 weekly budget for our family.  I mean, that's a monthly food budget of $600.00 ($150.00 x 4 weeks). That number made my stomach hurt so I thought, "What if we can get it even lower?" So that Sunday I bought a paper, clipped a few coupons and decided that we could feed our family with $100.00 a week.

So here's our weekly menu:

(April May 8- May 15)

Sunday

-Eating out- It's Mother's Day! 

Monday

-Hotdogs

-Baked Beans

-Pasta Salad

Tuesday

-Taco Salad

Wednesday

-Left overs

Thursday

-Homemade deep dish pizza

(Veggie style for us all)

Friday

-Tunafish sandwiches

-Chips

-Strawberries and whipped cream

Saturday

-Left Overs

Sunday

-Spaghetti and homemade sauce

-Garlic Bread

Here's what we bought at Wegmans

Hoffman's Hotdogs (Pork)- Local company

Organic beef hotdogs

Organic ground beef

Hotdog buns

Baked beans

Noodles

Broccoli

Italian salad dressing

Organic re-fried beans

Tomato

Tortilla chips

Medium baking potatoes (2)

Tomato sauce

Mozzarella cheese

Spinach

Mushrooms

Canola Oil

Butter Sticks

Butter

Red hot

Bread

Tuna (4)

Bacon

Cereal (3 boxes)- had a coupon and store had a sale

Organic Milk (1 gallon)

Organic bananas 

Waffles

Oatmeal

Mojo Bars

Lemon Juice

Nestle Drumstick Ice cream (2)- had a coupon

Total cost for the week: $90.47 ($4.47 under what we spent last week)

That means we have a week savings of $9. 53!

Recap

It was easier to just shop at one store this week. It had everything we needed and we were in and out with our detailed shopping list. We also didn't go to the market this week because we didn't have a large amount of produce to buy. Also, Wegman's is great because they sell local produce in the store!

We have two nights of left overs this week because last week we had a lot of food left over (which was nice because we shared with a friend and I had pretty great lunches for work). 

The savings that we had left over from this shopping trip, unfortunately went to TacoBell. But this was a guilt free visit because we weren't spending other portions of our budget on fast food. However, next week I wont go shopping hungry and in a bad mood so there will be no reason for the savings not to go into a sinking fund (more about those later). 

-M

grocery budget

Not everyone has a family of three and soon to be four but I don't think that should stop people from creating a meal plan and a grocery budget. I am by no means an expert at this. In fact, I have watched over several months how our grocery bill has increased dramatically. But it's never too late to make a change.

I read Money Saving Mom and The Frugal Girl very often. They have great advice and tips on how to shop for less (Money Saving Mom spends $35 a week for a family of 5 and The Frugal Girl spends $200 every two weeks for a family of 5). These two amazing women (Money Saving Mom and her husband bought their first house with cash, meaning they don't have a morgage) do this by shopping smart, looking for deals, using coupons, creating meal plans, and creating a budget. I think people like this are amazing.

Though TP and I do make weekly meal plans, life just gets in the way. He was in graduate school (he's done with classes now!), doing an internship (done now!), I'm pregnant and working full time and we have a daughter. So life gets in the way but the aftermath of that is hungry parents, a cranky baby, and mommy guilt about not providing nutritous foods for my family.

So I decided on a grocery budget of $150 dollars a week. Obviously, the goal is to come under that for the following meals:

(April 30- May 8)
Saturday
Stuffed shells
Bread
Green Salad

Sunday
For Me and TP
Left overs

For Bean
Homemade Mac n' Cheese
Homemade baked chicken nuggets
Strawberries

Monday
For Me and TP
Ravioli in red cream sauce
Spinach Salad

For Bean
Left overs

Tuesday
Salmon patties on buns
Home fry potatoes
Fresh green beans

Wednesday
Left overs

Thursday
For Me & TP
Pesto chicken paninis on ciabatta bread
Corn

For Bean
Grilled cheese
Chicken noodle soup
Bananas and pudding

Friday
Buttermilk Pancakes
Whipped cream
Berries
Sausage (only me)

Saturday
-Eating out! It's Mother's Day!

Here's what we bought at Aldi's & Wegmans

Aldi's
Whole milk (for cooking, not drinking)
Strawberries (2)
Waffles
Canned salmon
Parmesan cheese
Sweet peas (2)
Stewed tomatoes (2)
Diced tomatoes
Bread crumbs
1 lb of cheddar cheese
1 lb of butter
Tortellini (2)
Shrimp
Total: $31.22

Wegmans
Whole milk ricotta cheese
Organic ground beef
Organic chicken noodle soup cup (2)
Jumbo shell pasta
Dry mustard spice
Organic peanut butter
Vanilla pudding
Total: $27.73

Here's what we bought at the market

Local organic baby spinach (2)
Parsley
Local hormone free, free range cows milk
Carrots (3)
Onions (2)
Ciabatta bread (5)
Sweet potatoes (5) - not on the menu
Local organic free range brown chicken's eggs (dozen)
Green beans
Strawberries
Broccoli (2 heads)
Bell peppers (4)
Total: $36.00

Total cost for the week: $94.95

That means we have a week savings of $55.05!


Recap

I wont be shopping at Aldi's anymore. This isn't because I don't like the store or the products, this decision is based on the drive it takes to get to the store and their lack of product variety. Everything I bought at Wegmans couldn't be bought at Aldi's and with the gas prices the way they are, we can't afford to travel like that.


The savings that we have left over from this shopping trip will go to the Mother's Day dinner on Saturday (with the goal to come under that, of course). Under normal circumstances this would just go into our savings but what the heck!


-M