Pinching Pennies

Another month has come and gone and I'm keeping up with my couponing. I'm trying to cut our previous spending of $935 per month. I was very successful last month, and managed to save almost half on our grocery bill.

I knew this month would be harder. We were going to be on vacation for a week which meant eating out and trips to California's higher priced grocery stores. I tried to bring what I could, but space was limited in our mini van just with the necessitates. I'm still happy with how things turned out. We spent $608 on groceries for the month of October and while in Cali, we only spent $133 on eating out. It was unavoidable at the zoo, sea world, etc. Plus you HAVE to eat a pizza as big as a stove at least once in your life. Hopefully, twice!

I never calculated eating out in the original $935 average as we rarely eat out, maybe once a month. With that being said, I won't count it in this months total, and we saved $327 on groceries.

I'm getting pretty good at stacking sales and coupons and which web sites to visit to find where the deals are and where online coupons are. I'm still learning though. And I think this month may be my best yet. I stocked up on tons of canned goods, pasta and other items at the store yesterday. I spent $43 (which included the Toy Story 3 DVD..I had a coupon) and saved $89 in coupons and bonus buys, etc. I love that.

The biggest lesson I learned is that tons of things are free. And when I say free, I mean free. The item is $1 and you have a coupon that can be double/tripled to $1, so it's free. Or you can get online coupons for free items that cost way more than a dollar. Here is a picture of just some of the items that I got for free last month.

After I took the picture, I realized I forgot the men's body wash, 2 rolls of paper towels, gum...

If you coupon, you never have to buy another toothbrush, toothpaste, dish soap, soap, dental floss... I'm kicking myself that I didn't do this years ago.

My biggest problem now is realizing that I might need to join coupon anonymous. Seriously, it's become an addiction. I guess it's a healthy one, but now that I'm getting better at it I don't think I will need to spend as much time researching everything. Hey, my husband has his new car show. I have my coupons. We're even.

Last night when I showed David more free toothpaste, he told me he was cutting me off. I'm not allowed to buy toothpaste anymore. We have a 3 year supply now. I told him I would continue to buy it if it's free and I'll donate it to a local charity.

But only after I build our stock pile a little more...