Time to start saving

Early this year I started thinking I'd like to see if there was any way my husband and I could cut our grocery "budget".  We have never really paid much attention to how much we were spending each month on our groceries.  He'd head to Sam's once a week, buy a ton of food in bulk and we'd think we were getting such a good deal...after walking away with a $150 - $200 bill or more...YIKES!  And then we usually had at least one trip to the grocery store each week to buy a few things we would run out of...milk, bananas, etc. 

I decided we would track our spending for one month.  And I consider my "groceries" to be food, paper products, diapers, whatever we're buying at the store.  Wow were we shocked to see the total at the end of the month.  My husband said he'd love to see me cut the bill in half, but I could tell in his tone he thought there was no way we were going to be able to do that.  For me, that was all the challenge I needed.  Our first month and we have cut that bill in HALF!  And we're going for more. 

For me one of the most exciting parts of grocery shopping now is seeing the checkers see me pull out my stack of coupons and being so excited to see how much I saved.  There is one in particular that when she sees me coming now she'll ask how much we're going to save that day.  And my favorite line has been "you saved more than you spent!".  I LOVE it!

So, how am I doing this?  Several things:

1. Coupons!!!  I've always been a coupon clipper and I'd file them away.  I'd use them sporadically, but usually at the end of each month I throw a huge stack away.  Now I check my weekly ads and pull out my coupons and I use them!  I'm working on a new filing system as there are so many places to get coupons and I'd like to have them more organized.  This week I have 3 stacks of coupons in addition to my filing...one stack is for Dillons, one for Target and one for Walgreens (that I will use with this week's ads).  It's crazy how many deals there are. In addtion to getting my coupons from the Sunday paper and online, I have several websites I pull my coupons from...normally if there is a certain brand I will go to their website and sign up to get coupons...Campbells, Kraft, really whatever you buy go to their site and sign up for coupons.  Another good site to load coupons is coupons.com. 

2. Loadable Coupons!!!  One of the easiest ways to save money is by going to Cellfire.com or shortcuts.com.  Both of these sites will actually load coupons on to your Shoppers Card...Dillons for sure.  Once you sign up load away.  I load every coupon they offer just because you will never know when you'll use it.  You have to load them every 2 or 3 weeks I believe. When you go to the store they are already on your card and will show up as a saving on your receipt (this works at Dillons, but there may be more stores that have this too). 

3. Check out the weekly ad.  I'm going to do my best to show you the savings I see each week, but I'm sure there are going to be things I miss.  If you find a great deal I miss feel free to post it in the comments section.  I like to use the coupons I have on hand and match them up with the ads...even if I don't need it at the time...I'm starting a pretty good stockpile of things.  It's about time for Justin to get me another shelving unit for it all.  We have a deep freeze, so lots of room for freezing extra stuff too.

Those are the 3 biggest things I can tell you I do for sure.  I'm sure there will be more as I learn along the way, but this should get you started.  I think after you take a look at your grocery budget (if it's not something you do already) you are going to be shocked at the spending.  And then you will be shocked the following month when you see your savings! 

Later this week I will post a few of the sites I go to regularly to get points for free gift cards! 

Happy Saving!