It’s time I got down to serious bidness about saving $$$.
To begin, I need a coupon accountability partner. Anyone?!?!??! I, as it seems the rest of America has inevitably done, watched an episode of Extreme Couponing on TLC, and decided that I have been wasting millions (okay, a couple hundred) dollars by foregoing coupons. I have decided its high time to jump on the band wagon. So, in my first rookie experience with couponing, I went to CVS and took advantage of their B1G1. I walked away with 4 men’s deordorant value packs (with small body wash) and 4 tubes of toothpaste. I spent $15 and saved $15 (duh). 50% savings, and I felt like I was the queen on the world. Ben laughed and said he didn’t even use that kind of deodorant. I smiled and thought “CHRISTMAS 2011 PRESENTS!” So then I tried again the next week, and took advantage of the extra care bucks and some coupons I had. I got a (35) pack of diapers, two dish detergents, 18 pack double roll Cottonelle toilet paper, 8 pack of paper towels, and two A&H laudry detergents (for PB) for $25, with $20 in savings. The two dye free detergents for PB and his pack of diapers alone would have been close to $20, so I’m pretty pleased. Not terrible for a rookie, but I know I need to step up my game.
Also, in keeping with my couponing, I need to master my meal planning. I’m going to set myself a goal to make out my menus for Monday-Monday, and hope that I can buy according to the weekly sales. Sounds like a novel idea. We shall see how this turns out, though. Sometimes, a girl just wants to have chocolate ice cream for supper, you know?
We bought a deep freezer over the weekend, and our veggie garden is still alive, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? So, I’m hoping to freeze alot of our peppers and corn. And hopefully we can store extra meat and things of the like when we find them on sale.
Using my infinite green thumb wisdom, I thought I bought only 2 tomato plants (because I don’t like them, and Ben eats them occasionally), but when I got home and opened the package, there were 20 tomato plants bundled together. So, needless to say, we will have lots of tomatoes. In the past, I’ve always canned them for soups and such, but we really didn’t eat them all that much. I’ve decided this year that I will attempt to can salsa and spaghetti sauce, neither of which I’ve done before. Any recipes/thoughts on canning salsa or spaghetti sauce, imaginary friends?
For our family budget, we have money specifically for food and ‘products’. My goal is to cut this bill by $100 in July by couponing, meal planning, and using the good ole’ garden food. We’ll see how it goes!
