Over a year since I updated this blog. Shame on me. I've found myself talking with more than one person lately about saving money, couponing, and other related topics. So I thought I'd re-visit this blog and share what *I've* been up to when it comes to those things. And I had no idea it'd been so long since I'd written anything here. :-/
If you're at all interested in saving money, you've probably watched Extreme Couponing on TLC. Let me just say I don't do that. I don't keep a stockpile under my bed and on top of my fire place hearth or even in my pantry. But I will share what I *do* do. I'm no expert. I'm not great. But I feel like what I do is much more "typical" and sensible for the every day person (as opposed to the stockpiler).

1. I do buy things I need every week. I start with what our family needs and go from there. After that's done, I might add in deals that can't be passed up.
2. I do buy some things in bulk when the deal is there and when it makes sense. But the majority of my shopping is not done in bulk.
3. I do shop every week (every Friday usually).
4. I do use coupons.
5. I do keep a binder :O

So last week, I had some coupons that were expiring on Friday. Tom Thumb had sent out this great mailer at the 1st of November. They included: 20% off of frozen products, 20% off meat and produce, 20% off paper products, and 2 coupons for $10 off any purchase of $50 or more :)
I'd already used my $10  off ones as well as the others, but I wanted to stock up on meat just a little... so I decided to use my 20% off meat and my 20% off frozen entrees. PLUS they were having a deal where if you spent $75, you got a $10 coupon (they run this usually once a month I think. Very often :)).

Here's what I ended up with:

A pot roast:                                               4.50
   (It was regularly 9.38. I saved 3.76 with my TT card, and then I got another 1.12 knocked off with my 20% off meat coupon. So 4.50 for an entire pot roast that will be going in my crock pot tomorrow :D)

A Curel Ham                                            4.50
   (Regularly 10.35, saved 2.22 with my card and then 1.63 with my 20% off. But there's also a $2 off coupon out there right now, so I got an extra $2 off :D)

4-5 Pounds of Chicken breasts                11.17
        (these were NOT on sale; I just got the 20% off)

93% ground beef (4-5 pounds)                10.60
             (it was on sale, so I saved 8.86 with my card and then 2.65 with my coupon)

I also ended up with a huge lasagna that feeds us for many meals for 5.99, eggs for 1.49, Reynolds foil for 1.94, A big pack of individual chips for 4.99, little smokies for 2.40, plus produce that included bananas, apples, bell peppers, celery, an onion, and a huge thing of salad. I got quite a few other things, but I'll stop there.

I wanted to use my $10 coupon then and there... and I actually ended up having to add something from my 2nd transaction just to get myself up to $75. My total for my 1st transaction ended up being 76.10 with tax.
I saved 14.69 in paper coupons, 8.48 in Just for U savings (their new savings plan that helps you save even more on top of your card savings), and then 20.67 in card savings (although I don't give those as *much* credit as the coupon savings just because they are based on the full retail price, which sometimes doesn't even really exist b/c they never actually have things marked up that high :-P). So a total of 43.84 in savings according to my receipt and a 37% savings.

BUT THEN.....
I had another transaction. This one was more fun. ;)

I got a 12 pack of toilet paper for                                           $4
            (They were on sale for $5 and I had a $1 off coupon)
and Dove Men's body washes for                                        .50 a piece!!! :D :D
            (they were on sale for 2.50 and I had a $2 off coupon for each one. I only had 2, so I only got 2)

I also had one of my loaves of bread in this transaction, as well as a loaf of garlic bread. And I ended up having to grab a nearby box of mac and cheese because I wasn't quite at the $10 I needed to be at.

My total ended up being .94 for all of those things!!!! I used the $10 coupon they'd given me on my 1st transaction, which ended up saving me 98% for the 2nd transaction (I saved 5.00 in paper coupons as well as 7.82 in card savings).

So yeah.... .94 for a 12-pack of toilet paper, 2 Men's body wash (yes, full size!), a loaf of Mrs. Baird's bread, a loaf of garlic bread, and a box of Macaroni and cheese. I was pretty pleased :)


Then I headed to Wal-Mart for 3 more things. I needed some foundation, lip gloss, and some Zantac (my best friend this pregnancy!) My Tom Thumb store down-sized their makeup section awhile back, so I tend to just get makeup items at Wal-Mart. :-P
My total was 18.19 for the 3 items, and I only had 1 coupon... for $5 off Zantac. So my total ended up being 14.07.

So my total bill was 91.11 for all the things I needed that week (again, I didn't list all of them here) and I got us about 2-3 weeks worth of meat for me to cook dinners with. That way, I can leave meat off my list for at LEAST this week and probably even next week, which shaves a good portion of my weekly bill off. :)

And that's my detailed grocery shopping trip for last week :) My budget was $100 so I actually came in under budget (I went back later and picked up some sodas and things we needed to host a get-together on Sunday).

Like I said, not super-complicated... I prepared ahead of time, took advantage of really good deals on things I probably wouldn't have put on my list for another week (particularly the Zantac and the Dove Men's Body wash). And I cut a couple of inserts worth of coupons, as well as printed some off from online. But nothing super crazy.
I enjoy being very scaled down from what you see on TV, but also saving money (and in case you're wondering, yes 99% of the time I do actually spend less on my Tom Thumb items than I would at Wal-Mart. I've shopped TT for enough years to be able to walk into Wal-Mart and go "nope, that's cheaper at TT. Ok... I can get a better deal on that here at Wal mart, etc" And if I feel like I CAN save money at Wal-Mart, I usually go there first and check prices on a few things. Often, I walk out with a small amount of my list but Tom Thumb nearly always has the staples I need for less- like orange juice, bread, eggs, salad, etc. So I DO even it out and get things at WM if they're cheaper :)).

The end. ;)