Budget Update

Monthly Update

YEAH! For the month of August I was under budget by $27.58. I spent $472.42 on $755.13 worth of groceries. I saved $209.26 with coupons during the month.

Unfortunately, that will only purchase one college textbook:(

How I Save Money on Groceries

Several years ago I saw a special on the Food Network about the website The Grocery Game. I decided to give it a try. It changed my way of shopping forever. About a year ago I decided to cancel my subscription and try to shop on my own. From that experience I have found myself where I am today.

From several years of watching prices, I basically shop for things that I normally would buy and pretty much know what I would pay and match sales and coupons from the local paper. Due to my time and distance, I take these ads to my local WalMart and comp the prices. My local WalMart also takes internet printable coupons which makes a huge difference in your grocery savings. If it is a really good deal, I will stock up on as much as my budget will allow or as many as I have coupons for.

My original purpose of this blog was to post these stockpiling items to help others who were just starting their journey with coupons or even those who do not have time to look for deals and match up coupons. To follow along you will need to obtain the Dothan Eagle paper on Wednesdays which includes all of the ads listed here except for the Piggly Wiggly (Troy and Brundidge) ad which might be delivered to your door or is in the Troy Messenger on Wednesdays. You will also need to purchase a Sunday Dothan Eagle or Montgomery Advertiser for each member of your family. Or if you know someone that will give you the coupon inserts from these papers that would be even better.

Now I do buy most of my Health and Beauty products from Walgreens or CVS. I mainly use Southern Savers for a list of what is on sale at these two stores because I love their shopping list tool. There are so many wonderful sites out there that have the deals at these two drug stores that I felt it would be redundant to post these here. I do post the link to several of these on the side of my blog for those of you who are interested.

If you are new to couponing I would greatly suggest that you read either Shop Smart, Save More by Teri Gault (Founder and CEO of The Grocery Game.com) or The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half by Stephanie Nelson (Founder of CouponMom.com). They are both great resources for learning the game of couponing and the two drugstores I have mentioned above.

As I strive to be all the things that God calls me to be-a wife, a Mom, a daughter, a sister, an employee, a friend-I find myself barely having time to gather up my coupons and head to the store. So I apologize for those weeks in the past and those weeks in the future that I miss a week of posting the week's stockpiling deals. I can only promise that I will try to do better.

I hope that this information helps you to discover a love of couponing as I have. I also pray that you will find the resouces you need to help you lower your family's grocery costs.

Budget Update

Monthly Update

Well, for the month of June I was over budget by $21.91. I spent $521.91 on $784.01 worth of groceries. I saved $199.32 with coupons during the month.

Due to the sales at Walgreens and CVS recently, I was able to obtain about 12 bottles of body wash for FREE. My boys should not need any body wash for awhile.

Budget Update

Monthly Update

Well, for the month of March I was over budget by $136.68. I spent $636.68 on $1,081.06 worth of groceries. I saved $198.82 with coupons during the month. When I looked at my total saved from coupons for the quarter I was shocked. I have saved $512.91 the first three months of the year with coupons. What could you do with $512 right now?

I am a little disappointed in myself for going over budget this month. I did have several things going on during the month that probably would account for this-spring break, school project, etc.

Hopefully, the month of April will have great sales and super coupons so we all can stay under budget.

Budget Update

Monthly Update:

For the month of February I came in at $9.04 under my $500 budget. I purchased $798.51 of groceries for only $490.96. I saved $158.06 with coupons. My weekly average decreased from $123.51 in the month of January to $122.74 in February. It did not increase as much as I had hoped. Although this last week in February I purchased $31 of dog food at Target (on sale with coupons @ $6.99 each) and Zyrtec for my allergy sensitive hubby. So overall, I feel good that I came in under budget.

We have spring breaks in March which mean I need more food in the house, I am praying I can stretch my $500 to cover that as well.

Budget Update

Weekly update:

For the fifth week in January, I came in under budget by $31.69. I have a $10 RR from Walgreens that I am planning on using next week with the Blink tears FREE item and probably some more drinks. They are 5/$15 again this week with the $10 RR after $20 purchase.

Monthly update:

For the month of January, I came in under budget by $7.47. I spent a total of $617.53 for $1,012.13 in groceries with coupon savings of $156.03.

As I prepared my budget for February, I had to adjust for $100 extra for electricity and $85 for auto maintenance. I am hoping to squeeze some from my weekly grocery budget to cover these extras.

Weekly Budget Update

For this fourth week of January, I spent $154 on $338 of items and saved $184. My savings rate was 54.5% and I used $80 worth of coupons. This week was my best savings week this month thanks to the Pepsi and Frito Lay deal at Walgreens. However, I did go over my $125 budget by $29. The Pepsi deal was too good to pass up and $10 of that will be returned later in a mail in rebate. I do use the Savings Tracker I mentioned here and added a weekly savings rate column to the far right. The spreadsheet keeps track of my monthly budget at the top of the page but I may also add a weekly budget column as well.

I have been using the envelope system for the last 1-2 years now and it seems to work best for me. My goal this year is to be more accountable on my grocery budget and to hopefully lower my budget to $75 a week from the $125 I currently have in place. I am not setting a goal on savings percentage because I cannot account for the items I comp at Wal-Mart. I actually save more than my totals indicate because of the way I shop. I think if I can focus on the weekly amount, I can manage my grocery spending better and hopefully find ways to lower my out of pocket.

For those of you who do not run your household finances with a budget, let me encourage you to at least try. It will make a huge difference in the way you view your finances and help you to have a clear picture of your financial situation. I will be posting later about how to set up a budget and the ways I have found to save on buying groceries for my family.