PERSONAL BEST!!!

I am not by nature, a "saver". I don't have a fixed budget I religiously stick to. I don't squirrel away a certain amount every week/month for savings, rainy day etc (that's why I married Tony, he's really good at that). However, as the person in the household that pays the bills and buys the groceries and keeps the wheel greased that is the Graham household, the amount we spend on "living" occasionally freaks me out. Groceries is a big freak out. I spend on average $150.00 a week to feed 3 people and 1 cat. I don't include the dogs as Tony buys their food, so not in my spend. I buy store brand, I look at labels, I don't clip coupons on a regular basis.

However, I keep reading about these women who feed HUGE families for $50.00 a week. How do they do it and do it without feeding their families platefuls of crap. You can eat cheap if you forgo health - I am not willing to do that. So, I spent an hour on the computer prior to shopping and printed out coupons on things we use on a regular basis and saved my family 32% off our grocery bill.

What did I learn? Your savings are not going to come off food for the most part, but on household stuff: toilet paper, paper towels, laundry goods etc.

Where are the other big savers: Snacks! Coupons all over the place.

In all my reading and from today's little exercise, you have to pay attention to what your store has on sale and what you can find coupons for. In doing that, I came home with two FREE boxes of Puff's Kleenex, 1 FREE box of Honey Nut Cheerios (with another 1/2 off) and two FREE boxes of Granola Bars.

Couple of sites I found helpful in finding my savings:
http://www.thegrocerygame.com
http://shortcuts.com
https://www.pgesaver.com
http://www.redplum.com

Many of these lets you link to your shopping card for automatic discounts, but if they also offer a printable coupon - PRINT IT, you get twice the savings! The Grocery Game site actually will tell you what items are on sale at the store which also have a manufacturing coupon to pair it up with for huge savings (and where to find the coupon). You really need to get the Sunday Paper with coupons to make the best of this (something I don't do now, but intend to start - this site makes it too easy)

Hoping to make this a habit, but right now, just wallowing in sense of satisfaction and personal victory.

Tomorrow, I will worry about if I bought anything to eat.

Ok - I actually had to amend this post after I lovingly perused my receipt again.
Bounty Papertowels - I paid $-.61 (yes, that's a negative, they paid me to take them out of the store)
Charmin Ultra Soft - 12 roll = $.73
Chex Mix (I bought 4 of them) = $-.19 ea (again, negative. Does that also mean negative calories?)
the box of Cheerios I thought was half was really $.17

I may sleep with the receipt.