Goal #95 and 2 sentence update.

Wendesday marked four weeks for another goal:

95. Use at least one coupon, per purchase, for every purchase for four weeks [grocery/drug store].*

Now I've been "couponing" for awhile now and have a stockpile of toothpaste and toilet paper to prove it, but I made this goal not because it'd be super easy, but rather because it should have been super easy but I knew that it wouldn't.

You see when I truly go grocery shopping, I look at the weekly match-ups with coupons, find my coupons, make a list and head out saving a good percentage. My problem is that I don't always think through what we have in the cupboards and what we'll want to eat that week. The result is a trip to the grocery to pick up one or maybe two things that are 99.9% of the time not on sale or do I have a coupon for. So this goal was created to cause me to think ahead and know what all I'd need for the week and buy it all in one stop, thus cutting down on extra driving and not getting the most out of my savings.

What I should've done was keep all my receipts for these four weeks to be able to note the savings, but what the heck, hindsight is 20/20 right?!

*Confession: Technically I made one trip to the grocery store that I didn't use a coupon at. There were a few items that I needed to pick up at Aldi's last week and they don't accept coupons there so I obviously didn't use one. :)

Oh and completely random with this post, but not if you read the previous one, after several phone calls to the hospital/doc's office, I got the results of my 24-urine catch. One number was a teensy-tiny bit high, but in the doc's words: "Don't worry it! Have a good weekend!"

Deal. Maybe a good weekend for having a baby. ;)

A Couple More Stockers

For my own 'records' I'm going to try to keep up on my purchases on here as well. So here's a couple since that I didn't include before.

September 18th:
Spent:     $1.26          Saved:     $10.98         Number of Items: 2          Saved: 90%
     This was just on toilet paper. :)

September 20th:

Spent:     $7.13          Saved:     $37.09         Number of Items: 22        Saved: 84%

September 22nd:

Spent:     $9.85          Saved:     $35.29         Number of Items: 16         Saved: 78%

I realize that the dates look like I live at Meijer, but don't worry, I don't. I could combine these purchases, but sometimes it's an excuse to get out of the house : ) [or they are out of something and it wasn't until tonight that I thought, 'Duh Rachel! Raincheck!' :) ]

Shopping

Within the last couple of months [actually it was on August 11th that I Facebook-declared myself as a crazy couponer], I have been couponing. It is so. much. fun!

For one I actually pay attention to how much things cost. Before "good deals" were simply based on how much something costs today compared the the full price tag under that little yellow attention grabber. I had no idea what the usual cost was of items. Now I see shoppers going crazy with $ .50 off sales and shake my head and smile because I know that 1/2 the time it's usually $1 off.

Also I am not so drawn to those little yellow tags. I know that if I don't really need it, and it's not a really good deal, it's not worth it! I actually say No!  to a sale! *gasp* :)

There are a lot of things that I have learned by couponing and the best part is that we save SO much money!

Since my receipts were laying around, I figured I should figure out exactly how much we have been saving! So here's the breakdown:

August 28th:
Spent:     $67.59          Saved:      $96.05         Number of Items: 66         Saved: 59%

September 1:
Spent:     $4.08            Saved:      $34.54         Number of Items: 14          Saved: 89%

September 17th:

Spent:     $53.03          Saved:      $61.86         Number of Items: 43         Saved: 53%

September 18th:

Spent:     $44.44          Saved:      $95.11         Number of Items: 56         Saved: 68%

We'll see if this continues, but for today's shopping below is a pic of what all I purchased. 

Not pictured: 10 lb. bag of potatoes and a case of water. Pictured: More than a cupboard full!

How can it not be fun to bring that much home and know that you saved as much as you did!

Anyways, off for some more shopping...not grocery shopping :) baby shower shopping!