Couponing How-To

So many people always ask how I save so much money on groceries, so I'm going to tell you ALL my secrets!  (okay they aren't really secrets just things that some people don't know)

The Goal:  

Spend as little as possible on food and other household items.  My personal goal is to save 80%  OR MORE on each transaction.

Example:
 
This trip I bought:
3 bags of Gorton's Fish
4 Packages of Oscar Myers Lunch Meat
3 6 Packs Danoninos Drinkable Yogurt
3 Phillidelphia Cooking Cream
1 Greek Yoplait yogurt
3 Dole Fruit Crisp
4 24 Pack of Nestle Pure Life Bottled Water
3 boxes of Ritz crackers
1 Beechnut Rice Cereal
6 Cans Pedigre Dog Food
2 Dial Foaming Had Soap
1 Kroger Toilet Cleaner
3 Zone Bar
20 Boxes of Ronzoni Pasta
3 Sunny Delight
3 Boxes Lucky Charms Cereal
2 Butterfinger Snackers
2 Starburst
2 Powerade
2 Beechnut Baby Food
1 Kroger Cotton Squares

76 Items Total

I spent:

Out of Pocket:   $27.86
I received a $5 Catalina to use on my next transaction (more about that later)
I saved $172.30   86%

You should know there are several things on this list that we wouldn't normally buy: Butterfingers, Sunny D, canned dog food, Zone bars etc.  However they were free, so we buy them and then we put them in our pantry and instead of having a sweet tooth and going to the store, paying $0.50-$1.00 at the store, we go to our pantry and pick something that was free.

This is how you do it:

New Year's Goal

Happy New year!!

(Yes, I'm aware I'm a bit late just bear with me and read on)

A quick update...

Michael just had his first ever Track and Field Day at school.  Robert was able to go and help with it.  Michael had tons of fun!  He's had a few rough days with school but overall he really enjoys it.  He is reading now and I enjoy listening to him read new books everyday.  It's amazing how much he is learning in school!

The Battle with Eczema

We have had a tough battle with eczema with James, a little with Katelyn and a lot with Lilly.  If you have ever had to deal with this you know how frustrating it can be.  With James we took the traditional route of going to our Dr, getting a prescription for a steroid cream and months of applying the stuff and hoping for it to go away.  Eventually I stopped using the cream with him because of my concerns over using a steroid on such a little baby and we continued to battle it with OTC lotions and creams.  Eventually it went away.

A New Adventure

So I had this (crazy) idea that we should switch to cloth diapers! So I did some research and let me say this, these are not your mother's cloth diapers!

No pins! No plastics! No folding!

Our Latest Project

This project is one that has been planned since we moved in 6 years ago!
We FINALLY ripped out the original built in entertainment center and replaced it with a much more modern one.