A good friend of mine recently shared some coupon shopping tips with me. I have never been a coupon shopper, but after hearing about how much money you can save if you put in a little work before you hit the grocery store I have totally been SOLD on the idea of coupon shopping!! The sad truth is that part of the reason I didn't want to use coupons is because I thought it would be embarrassing to have a 100 coupons at the check out register. Well I'm over that because I would rather shop smart and save money, who cares if I have a 100 coupons:).
You NEED to check out this blog, http://www.jane4girls800dollarannualbudget.blogspot.com This women is a single mom with three daughters and she seriously knows how to get some bang for the buck!! She has some GREAT ideas on saving SERIOUS money on groceries (she only spends $800 per year- TOTAL)!! One of the things I like best about her philosophy is that she 'Stockpiles', when something is on sale for cheap (she even gets LOTS of things for FREE), she buys a TON of it. This is such a great way to build up your food storage!! She also does once a month cooking, which I love!! I have been doing freezer meal cooking (once a month cooking) for a couple months now and it is GREAT. For a week straight I cooked like a mad women and froze all of my meals. I haven't cooked since the middle of August and I should be able to make it through the end of this month with out making anymore meals:)
Here are a few more helpful sites that my friend shared with me-
www.notlivingwithout.blogspot.com
www.thegrocerygame.com - I really like this one so far, it is very helpful in getting started!
www.couponmom.com
www.mommysavers.com
*** My goal for November is to spend ONLY $250 on groceries, baby items, and household items. This is going to be a HUGE challenge for me. I normally spend somewhere between $600-$700 a month on all of these items. I thought that I knew how to shop frugally, I do most of my shopping at Super Walmart, Sam's Club, and Costco, I buy lots of store brand items, and I don't buy junk (ok-occasionally on the weekends:)- no soda, no candy, no ice cream, no chips, etc... When I found out about this women's blog and that she only spends $800 in a year and I spend close to that in a month, I KNEW that I needed to figure out how she was doing it and go for it!! SO I am still pretty clueless, but I am learning more and more everyday!! Just the other day I went to the store for ONLY things I needed, I did some searching online first to look for coupons and then when I got to the store I only bought the items that were on sale, my total came to $25 and after coupons I only spent $17 out of pocket. I was SO EXCITED, I saved $8!
If anyone out there has any advise on this subject, I would LOVE to hear it!!
2 comments:
Check out frugaldomesticity.blogspot.com She tried the coupon challenge too and she is getting a lot of things for really cheap and for free.
Not sure where you live, but if it's Utah, pinchingyourpennies.com is an excellent place. They have good stuff for all states, but are based in Utah, so they have ALL the Utah stores. They have free lists like grocery game, so I quit my GG subscription.
Also moneysavingmom.com and hotcouponworld.com are good places to go.
I've fallen by the wayside with my couponing, due to time constraints, and my food storage is dwindling. Gotta get back on the wagon!
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