Couponing

Since I will probably do several coupons posts, mainly for my benefit of being able to look back and see progress or not, etc. there will just be several posts with the title of "couponing." I mean, I could try to think of names to call the posts, but I just don't want to think that hard.

Tonight I did late night shopping. The store closed at midnight. I turned on the car just a few minutes before the hour. I would have gone earlier but my husband worked late and I would have gone tomorrow or early next week but there is a bad weather forecast and I really don't want to go out in bad weather, not to mention it is great to shop without kids, no matter what the hour.

It was double/triple coupon week again. I think they do this at least every month or two so it is easy to take advantage. I got a lot of cereal and could have waited for the cereal to be on sale but I was satisfied with the price, and it got me pretty low anyway. I even got meat, which I normally wouldn't have done, but we needed some.

My main haul for the day ended up being tons of breakfast foods. I don't mind though. Sure, I could've waited for some things, but I haven't been shopping in a long time and we kind of need some food. Not to mention, I am in a rut right now and can't think of anything to make, so I went for a few easy fixers. All in all, I was pleased. I had people at the checkout behind me asking me if I was going to get it all free and how many papers I get or if I get the coupons from my neighbors. Everyone was impressed as was I and since I really don't want to make it a career to get all my food cheap, although if it happens I'll take it, I will continue to be pleased.

The total before coupons was $137.65
I spent a total of $60.96
Which saved me $76.69

I don't even have to figure this all out because the cash register does it for me and my receipt tells me I saved 56%

Safetly Room Make Over

OK, so it's not an entirely great makeover or a complete one, but it is a start. Since money is tight I have had to do it in a few segments. Yesterday I worked on the safety room (My daughter named it. It started out as the 72-hour room) putting up the shelves. Sure, it would be nice to buy the shelves from Shelf-Reliance that are built to hold cans and use the FIFO method but I don't quite have that much money rolling around. I have plans for building my own can shelf but it has to wait at least a few years or until I have the means. There are lots of ways to build your own shelves and be creative.

I decided to be creative by going to Lowes. They have wide boards that cost around $6 each. I also bought some weight blocks which cost less than a dollar each. They may not look fancy, but they do and it works much better than stacking everything.





Of course, I'm not done with the room yet. I have to clear out junk I don't need and put a few things away (I ran out of blocks, could ya tell?) When I expand my storage area next I will use the same wood boards and blocks and I will make a shelf in the middle of the room of which I will be able to have access from all sides. Which is pretty much like the shelves my parents had in our food room growing up. I sure miss that room. It was a great example of how food storage is to be.

Couponing

I decided to try couponing, or at least attempt it. I have been quite surprised. The only thing I need to do is learn to wait. That's pretty hard. I've gone out twice on 'couponing' trips and have saved more than half each time. My second trip even resulted in items I got for free which totally got me excited because they were instant potatoes and they have come in handy.

I don't want to make couponing a 'job' but enjoy the challenge and being able to get out of the house on an evening when the kids are in bed and my husband is home. Couponing is quite difficult with kids. What I am talking about, shopping is difficult with kids.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the challenge. I will keep it up and have been surprised to see how many coupons exist for foods and things other than refrigerated dough. I even have some for yeast and can't wait to use my chocolate chip coupons.





So, these were my two trips. Sure, there are things in there I didn't normally buy but I am trying to branch out and my couponing trips happened at a time where I was just not motivated to make stuff from scratch. So, I have realized that I will need things in my storage that require little effort even if they don't taste nearly as great as home made.

So, if you want to try it out do it. Just be patient though and some things really aren't worth buying. Just because you have a coupon for it doesn't mean you have to buy it.