An oldie, but a goodie!! This photo of Ben was taken the day after his 3rd (I think) birthday party. He just climbed into the cool with the leftover beer to cool off. His birthday is the end of June, so it was pretty hot! Scott's Uncle Tim worked for Bond Distributing and they loved seeing this photo of Ben amid the cans of Coors Light! :)
Kind of random? Yes...but no blog post is complete without a photo!
As a young married couple fifteen years ago, Scott and I were very careful with our budget. I clipped coupons regularly and shopped the flyers. There were only two of us (and Hunter, our Jack Russell), but saving money on groceries and clothing was a game to me. I was determined to beat the retailers and save as much as possible.
About four years after we were married, we started our family. I still clipped coupons when Andrew was a baby and shopped for bargains and sales, but I didn't devote as much thought to it as I had previously. (I thrived on saving baby food jar labels and turning them in for tons of good coupons.) In fact, during the last couple of months of my pregnancy with Andrew, I managed to find Pampers diapers on sale regularly and with a coupon only spend $6 per pack. Needless to say, once he was finally born, we didn't have to buy diapers for at least three to four months due to my pre-planning.
After Ben was born three years later, I occasionally snipped a coupon although I still shopped for sales. Most of my coupons revolved around baby items. And then after Caroline was born, another three years later, I simply stopped clipping coupons and used the ones the grocery store spit out and just shopped from sales flyers. I took advantage of Giant's "buy five, get one free milk deal", but just couldn't find time to clip coupons and read the newspaper.
Recently, I have become obsessed with coupons again. It's probably unhealthy, to be honest. J With the internet a click away, it is so much easier to get to the coupons quickly and print them out. I don't have to scour around for them, get my fingers dirty for newsprint, and they are easy to cut with my scrapbooking paper trimmer! I have, once again, become the lady who has a grocery receipt two feet long because of all of the manufacturer and in-store coupons that are taken off at the end and let me tell you, I love it! You can ask my poor husband, I get so excited to tell him how much we saved and how much we didn't spend! It's kind of pathetic. A couple of weeks ago, Kraft Singles Cheese was on sale at my local grocer. By the time I took advantage of their sale and my manufacturer coupons, I only paid twenty cents each for five packs of cheese! (Yes, we eat a lot of cheese in our house.)
It's easy, it's fun and it saves us a ton of money. Our grocery bill was rising to $200 a week (including extra milk and most of our cleaning supplies, but excluding the run to the wholesale club once every two months and Target for the middle of the week needs). That's a lot of money! Last week, I got away with spending $130 total! I was so excited. And this week, I've already gotten a ten pound bag of Purina One dog food for $7.69. (And I have three more coupons to use before the end of November for the same thing!)
Seriously, it's an easy thing to do and a great way to save a few bucks in this insane economy. Check out these sites to save:
http://www.shop4freebies.com
http://www.savingcentswithsense.net/
And check a lot of the manufacturer websites for recipes and bonus coupons. General Mills, Betty Crocker, etc. all have websites and are always offering coupons! I have found that frequently they will highlight a recipe and then have coordinating coupons for product! Can't beat that ... plan your week's meals and save money all at the same time.
