Sweet Savings

I am currently on a "saving money" kick. We aren't usually extravagant spenders, but don't pinch our pennies either. I am the one to balance the checkbook and so I see how much we spend on certain things--eating out for example. Now don't get me wrong; I love to eat out. If I don't have to think of it, make it, and clean up afterwards, I'm all for it. But there for awhile, it seemed like every third entry in the checkbook was for "dining." (and we had some big grocery bills this month, mostly due to C's party). So I decided to be a good steward and see how much money I could save at the grocery store and how little we could go out to eat in a week.

A friend from college has a website dedicated to saving money at the grocery store. (www.mysweetsavings.com) I started getting some ideas from her, starting with getting a paper for the coupons and sale ads (I don't know that I will ever be as extreme as she is). I've gotten the paper for 2 weeks now. (This past week I had 2 papers given to me--with all the ads and coupons still in it! Thanks Miss J!) I do have to say that it takes me awhile just to get ready to go to Wal-Mart! First I make my menu list. Then I write down all the ingredients I need. Then I see what I have and cross out what I don't need to get. Then I look in the sale ads (Wal Mart does comparison shopping; very nice) Then I go through my coupons. I've also looked on the internet for coupons, especially for name brand stuff. For example, this week I needed sunscreen for the kids. I love the spray on kind but it's so expensive! I got on Banana Boat's website and there was a coupon for $2 off! Nice.

Now to my bragging time :)
This week I only spent $109 at Wal Mart. That's groceries for an entire week. Actually it wasn't all groceries. I bought a phone card for my phone and had a price match for it too! (Usually it's $19.88; I paid $17.99). I saved $10.09 just in price matches and had $7.15 in coupons for a grand total of $17.24 in savings!

I was so excited! I called Daddy twice to tell him all that I had saved. He kiddingly asked if I was going to blog about it. Of course! It's very note worthy! Now that I see what I have saved, I'm very excited to try again next week. I think I'll go start now. (anyone have any inexpensive dinner suggestions?)