Filling stomachs and cleaning bodies is a big job around here. How this is accomplished has changed greatly over the years as we have added members to our family and, in all honestly, our monthly budget hasn't really changed a whole lot.
I've gradually learned to be more and more frugal, not cheap (at least I try hard not to be), just frugal. About 18 months ago, I started frequenting websites extolling the virtues of using coupons. I was skeptical. However, the more I read and studied, I found out it works. Coupons combined with weekly sales at stores are have been a huge blessing to our family!
Take a look!
Here's what I bought at Walgreens and CVS in the month of February:
4 packs of diapers
6 tubs of baby wipes
3 tubes of toothpaste
4 men's bottles of men's body wash
3 packs of gum
4 jars of spaghetti sauce
2 jars peanut butter
2 bottles of dish soap
11 candy bars and such for Valentine's Day gifts
1 pack of pencil top erasers
8 boxes/packages of "woman" stuff
2 Valentine pencils
10 cans of tuna
2 bottles of Excedrin
4 2 liters of soda
5 12 packs of soda (this will last a LONG time!)
TOTAL Number of Items: 71
Guess how much I paid for it all? $42.00 including
tax!
This weeks at Copps (a grocery store here in town) I bought the following:
12 boxes of cereal
4 packs of breakfast sausage
1 box of cookies (a real rarity around here)
11 frozen meals (Ron takes them to work sometimes)
4 gallons of milk
2 dozen eggs
TOTAL spent: $4.55 AND 2 coupons worth $3.50 printed out of the register for me to spend on my next trip!
DISCLAIMER: I don't always do this well!
Based on the above you might be thinking the Jungs will be eating tuna and cereal for every meal in the next week. Nope! We usually only have cereal once a week. One of the keys I've learned in shopping is to buy a bunch of an item when it is on sale (and if you can use a coupon all the better) - it's called stockpiling. That cereal and tuna will last us for a while.
I don't post this to brag, but to encourage you (I hope)! You can feed your family well and it doesn't have to leave the rest of your budget feeling pinched.
It takes a bit of work, but you can do it and think what good your family could do with the extra wiggle room in your budget - the possibilities are exciting!
Interestingly, I bought some stuff on CVS.com for a family member far away and hd it shipped directly. This was a huge heavy load of a lot of random, CVS-brand hygiene-type stuff. The bill was definitely under $100 and because it was more than $50 the shipping was free! There is no way we could have bought all that stuff anywhere else for the price. It was literally about 1/3 of name brand prices at WalMart. Forget the shipping price we would have incurred! I was very impressed with their online selection and prices. You might want to check them out too! Happy savings!
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeletePopped over from Facebook! Blog's looking good!! :)
You, of course, know I wholeheartedly agree with this post!! CVS and Walgreens have provided us with free toiletries for almost 3 years now. It has saved us thousands!
And when you can't get it free...stockpile the good deals!