Day one of my journey into the world of couponista. It's already 8:30 am which means I have wasted an hour and a half on a combination of Facebook and downloading freebies. My first suggestion would be to stay off Facebook. My second would be to not get locked into the world of freebie sign ups. At one point I had over 7 windows open and signed up for maybe 4 free samples.
As far as freebies. These are going to be samples mostly. Occasionally it will be a full size item, but mostly it's a sample. Decide if you want a bunch of these taking up your space. With 3 children still at home and all girls, the samples will get used, but I don't want drawer fulls.
Ok. First I'm following Happy Homemaker Cindy as I learn to become a couponista. I have told my husband all about it...this can be either good or bad. He's my a pessimint to my optimist. Since I will need a good support group I am also following Happy Homemaker Cindy on Facebook. (I say this becuase I'm good at thinking of doing something good and starting it, but follow through isn't always great).
I have also set a goal for myself. I have seen my grocery bill double in the last 6 years, but there are only 5 of us living at home now. It has gone up $25 just in the last 6 mos. Currently I shop at Aldi and get what I can't get there at Walmart. I don't actually grocery shop at Walmart, it's just across the street and easier than going farther into town to Krogers and paying more. This is where my mind set has to change. No more Walmart (totally ok with this) and Aldi primarily for produce and those items that may not go onsale somewhere else. My financial goal is to cut my grocery bill in half, then another $15 a month. This becomes a parttime job in money savings!
For day one of week one, I am making Thursday mornings my coupon, meal planning, grocery list prep day. Day 1 is going to suck so I'm procrastinating. I don't have flyers, don't get the paper for inserts and my pc doesn't have a printer. Baby steps.
Today I am only making a list of the items we need, plan meals for the week and make a list of "stockpile" items I can start buying tomorrow, my actual grocery day. $50 of my budget will go towards my stockpile items, the rest on items for the week. At least this is my plan.
I will be going to Aldi's for grapes and mushrooms, both on sale, both can be frozen and mushrooms can be canned (it's the heighth of canning season anyway and my kitchen looks like a food processing plant).
Krogers has Kahn's hotdogs b1g1. That makes them 1.83, unless I find that Walmart has them for 2 for 3.00. Fall means bonfires, so I like to stay stocked up on one of the few processed things we eat.
Meijers is only 5 miles from Krogers so I will be stocking up on Kraft Cheese (we do a lot of that with 4 cheese-a-holics in the house) with that special of the week.
So for today, check up Happy Homemaker Cindy and hope you will follow me with your own coupnista journey.
Here's to saving money (there are only 102 days till Christmas and I had to give up my Christmas Club account 2 years ago!)
Kelly
No comments:
Post a Comment