How Much Can I Save In 2009

2009-05-29T06:34:00.002-04:00

Sory, I have not been better at posting. I thought I could follow through. Summer is here so I am going to make a much better efforts at keeping you posted.

I did in the mean time set up a seperate checking account for our grocery budget. This seems to be a big help. Money is direct deposited into the account. What a wonderful thing.

I promise to be better,,,,

Meijer

2009-04-05T18:59:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I feel really good about my shopping trip this week. Just hope I can keep it up.

So this week at Meijer I spent $64.37 and saved $72.99. Not too bad if you ask me.

There are some really good deals at Meijer this week.

The Cast Is Off

2009-04-03T07:22:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone, the cast if off and I am back to normal. That was a quick 5 weeks. So I promise from here on out I will do a much better job at this.

Update my son that is in the Marine's will be home on Sunday for 30 days. They have changed his PDS from North Carolina to Japan. So he will be with us in Ohio for 30d. I am so excited. I need to come up with another plan to save more money so I can save the money to visit him in Japan. Tickets run anywhere from $1500.00 to $15,000.00. I have my work cut out for me. I just wanted to give him time to settle in and make sure he does not get deployed right away.

Well any of you with boys will know the grocery bill is going to go up. I am going to try and make as much as I can and freeze it for him. That way during the day when I am at work he will have plenty to choose from.

I will post after my grocery visit this week....

Happy shopping..

SORRY

2009-03-04T12:28:00.002-05:00

OK, well let me say sorry for not posting. I managed to break my hand and I am sporting a really cool pink cast on my left hand. It goes from th tip of my thumb to my elbow so typing is a bit of a challenge.

I will try and get my pictures up for this weeks shopping. Really good deals at Meijer. I spent $68.00 and saved $49.00. Not to terrible for not shopping the weekend before.

The cast camme on 2/18/09 and my husband went out of town from the 20th until the 23rd. So I skipped one week and no one even knew.

Happy shopping

Coupon Organizing

2009-02-15T17:01:00.002-05:00

Ok so I am at odds on how to keep my coupon organized. Up to know I have kept the RP,SS and PG intaked in a binder based on the date received. This works really great only problem is when you go to the store there may be many good deals that are not listed in the ad for your store. SO do you keep a mental picture of the item go home and cut the coupon and make another trip to the store or do you clip all of the coupons and organize and take the binder with you?

Then my big question is how to organize so when you are in the store it does not take 3 or more hours. I really like to save a lot of money but I really like to spend my Sundays doing other things. So which way do I go.

What I may try is going forward clipping the coupons and putting them in my new binder. I will still have to cut other. I have packets of coupon going back to October 08 So in the mist of changing I am cutting the older coupon and will forward to a Military Base. Which if you have read my profile my son is in the Marine's. There is a Marine Base in Japan. I am going to contact the person listed to make sure they can still use and get any other specifics from them. If is all is still good for them I will post that information or feel free to forward the coupons to me and I will make sure they are sent.

Hapy Shopping and Saving

Meijer 2/15/09

2009-02-15T11:35:00.002-05:00

So I am still with in my budget this week but I spent more then I want to. Meijer has seasoned chicken marked down so I bought several packages. Which I had not planned on. And with my son wanting to pack lunch this week there were several item I picked up that I had no coupons with me for. Which is making me re-think how I organize my coupons. I met another blogger and couponaholic at Meijer. Check out her site twocheapchicks.blogspot.com. She offers beginner and advanced coupon classes. I am really interested in finding out others strategies to see if it will help me.

So to the nitty gritty I spent $108.75 and saved $62.11 a 57% savings.

The Gap Outlet

2009-02-13T12:12:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to share my bargin for the day. The Gap Outlet in Hebron KY has all Old Navy Womens Jeans on sale for $1.99. I bought 5 pair of jean for $10.36. I think I am heading back tomorrow to buy more. One pair of the jeans has the orginal price tag it was $29.50. What a bargin. But be careful they all brands of jean mixed together. So you have to really what the brand. The sale people are great.

Meijer 2/8/09

2009-02-08T12:22:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I still need to do some work here. I complain about the amount I spent at the store and my husband is happy. What's the deal here. I still have to run to Kroger for sweet potatoes and milk. I completely forgot them at Meijer, but they are on sale at Kroger so I guess it will all work out. I spent 75.26 at Meijer and saved $55.22. It is a 73% savings.

I actually started by shopping yesterday, there were a few things Meijer had on sale and I had coupons so I spent $10.03 and saved $16.12.

Then Kroger had a few items I wanted so I spent another $5.32 and saved $15.49

Total OOP $90.61

Total Savings $86.83

New Find

2009-02-07T09:04:00.004-05:00

It is so great when other bloggers find you. The ideas are just great. As I was reading http://cleaninguptheclutter.blogspot.com/ I have been inspired to start working on my closets. My idea of cleaning and my husbands are two different things. I believe in every item having a home and my husband believes out of sight out of mind *(shove it in a closet or drawer). As all of the wives know that creates more work for us. I am going to start in my oldest son's room (since he is gone , he is in the Marine's) it seems to be the collect all room. Some pictures will follow.

Also I am looking for a good cleaner for laminate floors. Seems like everything I have tried leave a dulling film on the floor. Any good ideas?

Meijer 2/1/09

2009-02-07T08:44:00.002-05:00

Again, I am a week behind. I do not have a picture of last weeks buys. It was Meijer Brand Sale. So coupons were not so much. I spent $88.00 and some change and saved $37.00 and some change. I know not to bad.

As I read other blogs I hear of family spending $60.00 a week to feed families of 5 or more. What am I doing wrong? There are only 3 of us and I can not seen to get much below $80.00. My freezers are full and so are the cabinets.

The problem last week was I did not sit down and meal plan. We ate at home all week but last night. Dinners seemed to be just tossed together not to appetizing. I need to sit down and meal plan for next week. Hopefully my grocery ads will arrive soon.

Snow Days Part Two

2009-01-28T09:15:00.003-05:00

So overnight we received about an inch of ice. Just standing outside you can hear the tress crack under the pressure. I am lucky right now and still have electric. But my parents are not so lucky. Good thing is they have a generator and keorsine heaters. They should be OK. I will keep a check on them. Even though there is not much I could do for them right now.

Robert has again been up since 5:30am wanting to play outside. Around 9:00am he thought he was slick and went out side while I was on the phone.

The snow is coming down in big fluffy flakes. We are suppose to get another 3-5 inches by noon. Which will make the afternoon really bad.

My work has been delayed until 12:00, I am not going in. It is about a 45 minute bus ride on a normal day. Who even knows if my bus will run or not. So I am going to stay home.

Stay warm and safe today.

Snow Days

2009-01-27T08:19:00.005-05:00

Well anyone who lives in the Cincinnati area today may not be too happy. Schools are closed the road are terrible and if you are like many will still have to go to work. My company actually closed today. I have been there for 11 years and I think this may only be the second time that I remember the office closing for the whole day.

Long before the sun even came up Robert was dressed and ready to go outside. I managed to hold him off until 8:00 am. I should mention he was up around 5:30am all excited over the snow. So I guess the whole day will be the in and out thing I am sure once his buddy is up and going he will be here with his quad and Robert will want to ride the dirt bike. Not real sure how the dirt bike will do in the snow. Quess I will find out later this afternoon since I plan on riding it.

Right now the snow is still coming down pretty fast but looks like fine flakes not the big fluffy ones. But it is still accumulating quick. I am guessing as of right now we have around 4.5 to 5.0 inches of snow.

Happy shoveling today. And be safe if you have to travel.

Meijer 1/25/09

2009-01-25T14:15:00.002-05:00

This week as I went through and made up my menu for the week. There were ingrediants I needed that I did not see in Meijer's add, all to find they were on sale and I did not bring my coupons for it. I need to come up with a back up plan so I have some coupons with me for those types of items. As a family we are stuck in a rut of what to eat each night that is some what healthy. So tha tally this week is I spent $74.09 and saved $32.30. On my way home I realized I forgot a few items so I ran into Kroger and spent $5.11 and only saved $1.43. The one good thing is my freezers are filled to the rim.

Meijer 1/18/09

2009-01-25T14:09:00.002-05:00

Ok so I am a week behind. Not really sure what is happening. I am in a bit of a funk with grocery shopping. I would really like to get my bill down to around that $30-$40 mark for about $100.00 worth of stuff. Just not quite there. This week I found my self falling back into that bad habit of picking up things that were not on my list and I did not have a coupon for. I still stayed below budget I spent $77.39 and saved $31.12.

Meijer

2009-01-18T08:04:00.001-05:00

So in my shopping yesterday I did not take a picture of my buys however I spent $19 and saved $28.00. There were a few items I picked up that I did not have coupons for however the items were on sale(no coupons avail). They were still good deals so it was OK by me.

Meijer Second Trip

2009-01-17T07:51:00.002-05:00

There were so many good deal this week I think I am going to dip into my saving from last week and pick up a few more things to stock pile on. The Green Giant veggie are just to good to pass up. Well when they are free after coupon you can never go wrong. Plus we eat them every day. And I have been know just to pack a box of veggies for lunch. Double duty you could say. Some of the other items I can freeze.

Happy shopping today and stay warm.

Meijer 1-11-09

2009-01-11T11:17:00.000-05:00

Another good week for Meijer. $10for$10 11th item free. Most of these items there are coupons available.

I spent $80.69 and saved $73.03. That is around a 90% saving. I can tell you the budget really like that.

The menu I think this week will be:

Sloppy Joe's with oven fries

Meatloaf with potates and veggies

CrockPot Chicken with rice and veggies

BLT'S

2009-01-04T13:30:00.001-05:00

Ok, so here is my offical first post of the year. My weekly budget for groceries is $130.00. Well this week I have spent $69.71 and saved $38.17 at Meijer. I still need to make a quick trip to Kroger. Meijer was out of a few little things I need. And I think I will need to run over to another Meijer. My store was out of the V8 Spicy. But I need to make a trip to Eastgate anyway.

Walgreens 12/20/08

2008-12-20T16:28:00.000-05:00

Sorry, but no picture today. Well at Walgreens I ended up spending $.20.

1.99 Lucky Charms .99 after coupon
2.49 Coffee Mate Creamer 2.49
2.49 Coffee Mate Creamer 0.00 after coupon
.99 Del Mar Turtles .99 sale
2.49 Colgate .25 sale and coupon
2.49 Colate. .25 sale and coupon

And I started this whole transaction off with a $5.00 RR.

CVS 12/17/08

2008-12-17T17:07:00.000-05:00

Shopping today was at CVS. I tried the $5.00 Challenge however I messed up so the whole visit cost $7.64. According to my receipts I saved $42.22. Missing from the picture is one bag of M&M's I left those at work. But don't tell anyone...

I started with $5.00 ECB's

5.99 Pantenne $2.00 ECB

-2.00 coupon

Total OOP $3.44

Started with $4.00 ECB's

2.99 Colgate $2.00 ECB

2.99 Colagte $2.00 ECB

2.99 Right Guard $2.00 ECB

2.49 Dove Soap $1.00 ECB

-1.00 coupon (dove)

-1.50 coupon (colgate)

Total OOP $3.95

5.99 Pantenne $2.00 ECB

1.88 M&M's

1.88 M%M's

-2.00 coupon (pantenne)

-1.00 coupon (M%M's)

Total OOp #.25

Todays Finds

2008-12-13T14:09:00.000-05:00

So today I went to Garden Ridge spent $8.39 and saved $16.00. All of the boxed Christmas cards are 75% off. The ones I bought are listed at $3.99 so they only cost me $.99. The gift bags were 50% off. So the bags were listed at $.99 so they only cost me $.49.

Saved $16.00
OOP $8.39

2008-12-12T11:48:00.000-05:00

OK, so today I hit Meijer, Kroger and CVS.

Meijer
Saved $34.28
OOP $30.28

Kroger

Saved $15.38

OOP $8.42

CVS

Saved $26.95

OOP $6.00

and received $5.00 ECB

Total Saved

$76.61

OOP Total

$44.70

My 2009 Goal

2008-12-04T17:51:00.000-05:00

Ok so I am new to the coupon life style. I am not really good at this so my goal for 2009 is to see how much I can save weekly at the grocery. I talked with my husband and the budget for groceries is $130.00. Up to now I would pay with my debit card. Well not for 2009. I will take the $130.00 cash do my shopping and the amount I saved will go into the kitty. I am not unrealistic and I know that some weeks will cost more than other. Hopefully at the end of the year I will have saved enough to pay for Christmas or maybe a nice get away for my family.