I have a confession…I love to coupon. No, I am not one of those people that have a massive stockpile with fifty boxes of pasta and thirty-five bottles of toothpaste in their basement, but I do love getting a great deal. I love grocery shopping equally as much as I love cooking. There is something about picking out the food I am going to prepare that is comforting. I am the girl who stares at the bananas for a good five minutes before picking out the perfect bunch.
I started couponing before J.T. and I were married. I have only recently improved my skills and realized just how much I can save by purchasing items while they are on sale and combining coupons with these sale offers. I am taking classes and studying for my CPA exam, in all actuality my full-time job at the moment. I feel as though couponing is my way to contribute financially to our income.
I enjoy following various couponing blogs. In these blogs, many authors post a picture of the items they purchased along with how much they spent and saved. I have noticed on numerous occasions that people are not buying "real" food. One cannot survive on packaged processed food alone. Where is the meat and produce? Surely people do not exist on Ore-Ida frozen French fries and Go-gurt yogurt. I think not. I have challenged myself with showing people that you can coupon and eat real food - J.T. and I certainly do. You may be shocked to know that we eat at home for 3 meals a day, with the exclusion of our weekly Wednesday date to Zoe's Kitchen. There are instances where we must eat out, and when J.T. is teaching school he takes his lunch with him. Occasionally we go out on Friday night, but why do that when we have food that we can make better and cheaper at home. Too many people settle for mediocre food. J.T. jokes that I have corrupted his love of average food.
The last item I have challenged myself with is buying organically. If you haven't seen Food, Inc. you should watch it ASAP. It changed the way J.T. and I eat and what products we purchase. While we cannot afford to buy all our grocery items organic, we try to purchase as much as our budget will allow - in particular milk, eggs, chicken, beef, and the dirty dozen. We also have a grocery budget - $50 a week. Many of you will look at the total on the post and think "she blew her budget." A few other factors to consider are that I spent under $40 last week, so this gave me room to buy more this week. I also do not include hygiene items in this budget – they have a separate budget of $100 a month. For anyone who is counting, I still have $0.95 cents to spare!
Less: Manufacturer and Publix coupons $23.51
Less: Save-A-Lot $5/$25 purchase competitor coupon $5.00
Total $68.33
I started couponing before J.T. and I were married. I have only recently improved my skills and realized just how much I can save by purchasing items while they are on sale and combining coupons with these sale offers. I am taking classes and studying for my CPA exam, in all actuality my full-time job at the moment. I feel as though couponing is my way to contribute financially to our income.
I enjoy following various couponing blogs. In these blogs, many authors post a picture of the items they purchased along with how much they spent and saved. I have noticed on numerous occasions that people are not buying "real" food. One cannot survive on packaged processed food alone. Where is the meat and produce? Surely people do not exist on Ore-Ida frozen French fries and Go-gurt yogurt. I think not. I have challenged myself with showing people that you can coupon and eat real food - J.T. and I certainly do. You may be shocked to know that we eat at home for 3 meals a day, with the exclusion of our weekly Wednesday date to Zoe's Kitchen. There are instances where we must eat out, and when J.T. is teaching school he takes his lunch with him. Occasionally we go out on Friday night, but why do that when we have food that we can make better and cheaper at home. Too many people settle for mediocre food. J.T. jokes that I have corrupted his love of average food.
The last item I have challenged myself with is buying organically. If you haven't seen Food, Inc. you should watch it ASAP. It changed the way J.T. and I eat and what products we purchase. While we cannot afford to buy all our grocery items organic, we try to purchase as much as our budget will allow - in particular milk, eggs, chicken, beef, and the dirty dozen. We also have a grocery budget - $50 a week. Many of you will look at the total on the post and think "she blew her budget." A few other factors to consider are that I spent under $40 last week, so this gave me room to buy more this week. I also do not include hygiene items in this budget – they have a separate budget of $100 a month. For anyone who is counting, I still have $0.95 cents to spare!
- Dairy
- 1 gallon Greenwise Milk @ $5.99
- Silk Almond milk - $3.00
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $2.00
- Publix Greenwise Organic Eggs - $3.50
- Land O'Lakes unsalted butter - $2.50
- Grocery
- Eight O'Clock coffee – 1 - $3.49
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $2.49
- Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Cereal – 2 - $4.69
- $1/2 manufacturer coupon - $3.69 or $1.84/box
- Total Raisin Bran Cereal – 1 - $2.50
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $1.50
- Publix Bran Flakes - $2.67
- Penny item coupon - $0.01
- Pompeian Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 1 - $5.88
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $4.88
- Dreamfield Pasta - $1.67
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $0.67
- Mott's applesauce - $3.34
- $1.10/2 manufacturer coupon - $2.24 or $1.12 each
- Greenwise Oats - $1.99
- Publix semisweet chocolate chips - $2.29
- Meat
- 2 ½ lbs. Greenwise Chicken thighs @ $2.29/lb. - $5.73
- 1 ½ lbs. Center-cut Pork chops @ $3.49/lb. - $5.79
- Frozen
- Greenwise Vanilla Ice cream - $3.50
- Produce
- Organic Bananas @ 0.99/lb. - $1.83
- Mangoes @ $1 each – 2 - $2.00
- Onions @ $1.89/lb. - $2.82
- 2 lb. Cabbage @ $0.69/lb. - $1.43
- Earthbound Organic celery - $2.49
- $0.75/1 Manufacturer coupon - $1.74
- Other
- Viva Big Roll Paper towels @ $1.50 each – 2 - $3.00
- $1/2 manufacturer coupon & $1/2 Publix coupon - $1.00 or $0.50 each
- Colgate toothpaste – 1 - $1.45
- $1/1 manufacturer coupon - $0.45
- Pantene Pro-V shampoo @ $3/$10 -2 - $6.67
- $5/2 manufacturer coupon - $1.67 or $0.84 each
- Banana Boat Sunscreen (10 oz.) - $7.99
- $3/1 manufacturer coupon & $2/1 Publix coupon - $2.99
- Publix Mouthwash - $2.99
Less: Manufacturer and Publix coupons $23.51
Less: Save-A-Lot $5/$25 purchase competitor coupon $5.00
$62.69
Sales tax $5.64Total $68.33
No comments:
Post a Comment