Holy coupons! My shopping experience this week.

I did my grocery shopping early this week on Friday. I had a doctor's appointment out of town and the road took me past a couple other stores where I ran in to check the sales. I'm glad I did because I found a couple deals on meat/poultry. What I don't have is a final picture of my purchases. I got home at lunchtime greeted by all three kids and husband (off work for the day) hungry and rummaging through the packages.

I decided since I don't have a picture, I would instead list my purchases and photograph my (very full) freezer and pantry instead to give you an idea of what I've got on hand.

Pick 'n Save: Ground beef 1.99 per lb (I bought 6 lbs to divide up in the freezer), oatmeal bars. Total 14.50. Savings: $0.65.

Piggly Wiggly: Chicken Breasts 0.99 per lb (again, bought 6 lbs), spaghetti noodles, blueberries and Grands Biscuits (0.99 each, got 8 because you can freeze them!), and tuna helper.
Total $22.17. Savings $12.38

Pierce's: 20 Totinos pizza rolls(10/$10), bagels, 2 steamers veggies (0.98), pizza, milk, 3 pizzas (3/$9.99), 4 brownies (2/$4), koolaid, 6 cookie mixes (1.66 ea), 2 frosting (1.50),2 BOGO Pop Secret popcorn, grape tomatoes, 3 mashed potato mixes (0.98), spagehettio's, coffee mate, eggs, bread.
Total $77.37. Savings $62.94!

Once again, I'm over budget but I'll live. We really cleaned up this week. I had coupons for most items I bought, and even the cashier was impressed! My total oop was $114.04, total for coupons and sales was $75.97. That is a savings of 40% for me this week! Wow. I love it! It really impresses upon me how much I have overspent on groceries for years, and makes me sick. But now I am more knowledgeable, and working to get it right.

I am linking to moneysavingmom.com with this, go there and see how lots of other women save on their groceries as well!

Now for the pictures.

Here is my basement freezer. It is pretty well loaded up right now. Lots of steamers bags, bread, pizza rolls, chicken, brats and the like.

I like this upright freezer vs a chest freezer because it is easy to see everything with just one glance! Plus, it holds enough food but doesn't let me get too overloaded! This plus our fridge freezer upstairs has been more than enough for our family of 5. Once the boys are all teenagers, I may feel differently.....







Here is the 'food' side of my hallway pantry. Doesn't it look very neat? I just spent some time the other day expanding up because my stock pile just keeps growing.

One of the major benefits that I have found in using coupons and shopping the sales is that I get so much more than I used to! I never had a back up stash of food.

Imagine the calmness I feel when I run out of peanut butter, and I have 4 more jars in the cupboard! I don't have to run out and get more, overpaying because it isn't on sale. I have so much more peace having this pantry stocked. Plus, I'm spending a lot less on groceries than I used to as well.




This is the 'non-food' side of my hallway pantry/closet. As you can see, I have tons of stuff stockpiled here as well. Kleenex, paper towels, shampoo, toothpaste (? 8 tubes), lotion, dish soap (this doesn't include the 9 packages of dishwasher tabs either, they are in a different place!).

There is also cleaning products, air fresheners, razors, and tons of batteries. The coupons on these items are often plentiful, as well as the sales.

Occasionally I get frustrated that I'm not saving enough on groceries because of the coupon policies of my local stores. But I need to remember, when I get these non-food items free or cheap, it frees up more money to buy the food we need. Savings is savings, so appreciate it wherever it comes!

That is all for today. Sorry it took so long to update the blog. I will be back later in the week to share my weekly Walgreen's trip.

And for those that don't know.....NO COUPON INSERTS THIS WEEK. Bummer.