Serious Business

Lately I have been very conscience about spending. I've always been up for sales and deals, and I always save, but I never really thought about where my actual money goes. I kept hearing things about Dave Ramsey’s Finical Peace University and started talking to friends about it. Well my Aunt Sherry sent me the whole kit and I’ve been listening to the cassette tapes… yes you read right… cassette tapes, in my car and reading the book. So far I have learned so much and Steve and I are going to go on board to following his plan starting the beginning of October. Now, we are going to try and follow it as much as possible while re-doing our home/kitchen. But there are a ton of steps that we can do to make our money stretch even further! So just a little warning you might start seeing me talking about savings on groceries… cutting coupons… taking surveys for cash… and being REALLY excited about it.

So here goes nothing right? My first step I wanted to do was cut coupons. The kind of coupons what you find in the newspaper and online. Sounds good to me to save $.50 here and $1.00 here because it all adds up right? Well one thing led to another and I found out, by researching online, that there is a HUGE community of ‘money saving moms’ out there. My mother’s friends neighbor (did you follow that?) brought home 10 bags of groceries from Dominick’s and paid under $2.00!!! My ears starting ringing and I wanted to learn what she was doing and start this very moment. So I called her up got some information on the ‘coupon game’ and now I’m on board! It takes some time to understand and get a grip on how it works, but it’s all about playing the system of using coupons when things go on sale and buying those items in bulk. So I am going to start small and work with only one maybe two stores to get started.

First things first… purchase a newspaper with COUPONS! I have heard that the coupons in the Sunday Tribune are the best. So I purchased the Sunday Trib at the dollar tree (for a $1) on Saturday. Then I decided the one store I’m going to focus on is Meijer. So I got my game plan ready and was ready for the hunt on Sunday morning.

I didn’t end up going on Sunday, but here are the GREAT deals I got today…. and then there were a few items I NEEDED and had to get that were not on sale. Shame on me, but I will learn from this trip and keep my eyes open and my wallet closed until the next great steal... deal.

I got all of this for… $42.58 and without my coupon cutting deals on sale prices it should have cost me $86.10!! That's $43.52 in savings, just about 50%!

Here were my TOP deals were…
 Nivea Lip Care had a price drop and was .99 each. I printed a coupon of $2.00 off 2 items and my total for this was: FREE! +$.-02 back!

Suave Hand Lotion is always $.99 each so I bought 2 of them and paid $1.98
Then I got $2 off my next shopping trip at Meijer and so my total for these items were: FREE! + $.02 back!

Meijer Frozen Vegetables is a $1.00 and I had a coupon for $.50 off. Total: $.50

Kraft Items - Cheese. On sale at 3 for $6.00 and deli cheese 2 for $5.00 and cheese block 3 for $5.00. So I had a buy five Kraft items get $5.00 off and I had a $1 coupon for deli style cheese. So my total cheese bill: $4.17

Shick Womens Razor 4 ct.- On sale at 2 for $11.00. I had a coupon for $3.00 off so my total razor bill was: $2.50

So in today’s shopping trip I feel like I took a baby step. And I can’t wait to see what my next steps are. I do have to admit that I did not NEED the free items that I got, but they were free so that's a no-brainer right? Also my thought was why not donate them to the food pantry or to someone in need? I have been thinking a lot about how awesome that would be if I could somehow help someone else by the deals I get. So here is a start... if I ever find something that I can get for free... whether it is cat food, depends, lip gloss, salad dressing... if i can get it for free and can give or donate the item, then I'm doing it!