Saving Money: What I *Am* Willing to Do

While deciding whether or not to continue with the couponing course I'd signed up for, I started to make a list in my head of the things I already do to save money. Not that I am the queen of frugality, by any means (that title belongs unequivocally to my mother), but there are some things that are already in place in my grocery shopping that I think may do me better to focus and improve on than couponing will (and thanks for the vote of confidence, Kar!).

1. I try to grocery shop no more than once a week, and my often-met goal is to make it ten days to two weeks between trips. Sometimes this means that toward the end, we eat a strange dinner like egg burritos, carrot sticks and pear slices, but that's okay. I also have a little rule for myself about going to Costco only once a month. My motivation is bolstered by the fact that at least 3/4ths of the time, I take all three children grocery shopping with me--not something I want to do more often than once a week! (Oh, and in case you were wondering, I push one cart-full of groceries while pulling another cart-full of kids. We are a spectacle, yes.)




2. In the past (it has seriously fallen by the wayside since Haley was born) I would A) shop the grocery store ads and B) stock up on items that were a great deal and C) buy only what was on sale that week. Three years ago, when we just had one child, our grocery/household bill was around $200 a month ($100 at Costco and $25 a week at the grocery store). Since I try to make it longer between trips nowadays, and since I am doing great just to have a list ready of the things we need when I have a good window of time to shop, I will usually only glance through the ad and while in the store, keep my eye out for items we use that are on a good sale, then stock up on them (meat, poultry, pasta, canned goods, baking ingredients, paper goods and others like foil, plastic wrap . . . see my hoarding tendency below).
My "pantry" this past winter Just for the sake of being real (in case it appears that I am neat and organized), I thought I should post this picture, too. It was taken last week and shows how things often look around here.

1. With few exceptions, I make our meals from scratch. (Not-from-scratch things we use on a monthly--or more often--occurence include tortillas, spaghetti sauce, boxed macaroni and cheese, yeast breads and pancake mix.) We rarely eat prepared meals (though this was not the case for the first four months of Haley's life). It was amusing to hear last week that according to my friend, I even make our salads from scratch--buying the lettuce head and the whole carrots, tomatoes, etc. and preparing it myself! This is how I grew up, so I had no idea that many people do not "make" salads. Let me just say salads are extremely affordable this way. On less than $5 a week, I can make 4 decent side salads three times a week (like the ones below). And that's getting the expensive tomatoes (on the vine) and lettuce (green leaf or romaine).


2. Just a couple random other things I thought of:

• I pack Casey's lunches most days (usually last night's leftovers--not something I was doing much after #3 was born, but as of February, I've become pretty faithful again)


• we keep dining out as a family to about once or twice a week (Admitting that is embarrassing, but we spend less than $20--usually less than $15--each time. Does that makes it not sound as bad?).


• Since the girls and I are home virtually all the time (Church and dance class are the exceptions), we save $ on gas since I don't drive our Pilot much, and because I rarely do other shopping besides the grocery kind, we save $ on other things (there is an exception here, too, and it's not good: Wal-Mart. It is really easy for me to spend a lot there.)


• I also feed my 10-month-old baby table food as much as possible by keeping our mini food chopper ready and near. (I gave up making actual baby food after I had a second baby. Go figure.) And the baby food I buy is carefully selected as well (I buy jars or single servings of unsweetened applesauce instead of "baby applesauce," real bananas instead of jarred ones, quarts of plain whole milk yogurt instead of "Yo-baby," or whatever that insanely expensive stuff is, and boxes of Cherrios on sale instead of melt-in-your mouth sugary Gerber puffs.)

That's all I can think of at the moment regarding grocery-type savings. Now that I've chucked the idea of couponing, I believe I'll try to focus on shopping the ads, stocking up and being more purposeful about what I put in the cart when I find myself at Wal-Mart. Hmmm. . . perhaps that's my problem . . . maybe I shouldn't find myself at Wal-Mart.

What about you? What are your family's money-saving habits?

I am a Couponing Dropout

That's right, folks. At this point in my life, I have decided that couponing (in the gung-ho, truest sense) is not for me.


How did I come to this conclusion? Back in February, I signed up for a 10-week couponing class and I was determined to give it the full ten weeks before making a final decision. Well, this is now week who-knows-what ("who cares" is my actual opinion) and I have officially given up on this couponing thing as of a couple weeks ago.


As it turns out, some of the origninal problems I had had that first week that I blamed on my not being coupon-savvy were things that I would continue to deal with throughout the weeks' assignments. Things like online coupon links either being broken or changed (the manufacturers have a certain number of coupons they will allow to be downloaded), paper coupons that are expired or totally non-existent (this may not make sense if you aren't familiar with couponing, but people who know what they're doing often post ideas on how to save $ by using certain coupons, giving the date of the coupon insert from the Sunday paper. I often found that the coupon referenced was expired or could not, for the life of me, find that coupon in MY insert for that week.)


And one of the most disheartening of all was that, when I looked down the list of a dozen great deals and found those two or three items that I could get, they weren't things I needed or even wanted. Add into that the fact that when I do almost any shopping, I have three children four and under with me. The answer was quite obvious. It was pointless.


I am not going to run to Walgreens for two items I don't want, jaunt over to Wal-mart for one item I don't need, and then head to the grocery store to do my "real" shopping. If you have even one child, you know how difficult it is to run even the simplest of errands. The time and energy expended in getting three children into and out of their car seats four times makes me exhausted just thinking about it. The inducement of three whole free items I have absolutely no use for just wasn't enough for me. Would it be enough for you?


The entire thing makes me wonder if I will ever find that kind of couponing appealing and worth it. Do I really need to add to my clutter by buying things I do not need, or adding to my schedule by trying to find someone who does need or want those three measly items? All tolled, I have probably wasted hours on some of the assignments, inputting my name and e-mail to get a 30-cent coupon, (not to mention the time spent on deleting the several-a-day junk e-mails I now get even though I opted out of anything that would let me) trying to find that paper coupon (Where is it? They say it's in this coupon insert. I must just be overlooking it.), clicking on broken or expired online coupon links, and, yes, downloading the "coupon printer" or other program that must be done if I want fifty whole cents off that can of soup. This is a concern in and of itself.


My husband is a computer guy. We have a slew of security protecting our computer from destruction. My motto with internet downloads is: "don't." It works. We don't get computer viruses because Casey knows what should and should not be trusted, and I will not install anything without clearing it with him first. The few times that I did find an internet coupon that was still good, coupon software installation would get hung up (probably running into our security filters) and Case wasn't comfortable with turning off a filter just so I could save 75 cents on a tube of toothpaste. I don't blame him.


So for the last couple weeks I looked at the assignments, after all the rigamarole of finding one or two free items I could run and get from Walgreens, I weighed how much it would take out of me and there wasn't even a question: it wasn't worth it.


What about you? Do any of you find this couponing stuff invigorating? Money-saving? Worth your time? Does it get in the way of other things, like a virus-free computer or a clean inbox? Is it worth going to four different places or making a half dozen transactions to get deals on the items you get? Am I just too lazy to find it worth my while?

Perfectionism is a Tough Habit to Break

So many things have been going on this past week. I have no idea where to start. My brain is thinking many things, and I'm just going to say that this list will in no way flow, and that's going to have to be okay with me. The girls have another cold as of late last week, and it's creating more night waking, even among usually good sleepers and I'm pretty much ready to have a good 6 hour stretch of straight sleep . . . please! I have a whole post dedicated to this topic. As to whether or not it will ever get written and posted, I cannot tell.

Sandy, my MIL (also sick :() is in town this week as well. What? Yes, she was here last month, and had a free ticket that had an expiration date and we were her choice in all the destinations she could have picked. Okay, it isn't that amazing, but we are honored, nonetheless. Even though she sounds and feels terrible, she has been such a help and a blessing to our family.

Today, having Sandy here helped me quickly jet (by myself!) to Walgreens and do my first couponing assignment: pick up all six items at Walgreens that end up being free after rebate (and by the way, I'm LOVING that I can submit the rebate so VERY quickly online, instead of in the mail.) I have nothing to report about the actual savings yet, but theoretically, I should be receiving my Walgreens gift card in the next couple weeks worth what the items cost plus 10%. I then will use it for my next purchase of free or next-to-free items. Sounds easy enough, right?

To tell the truth, when I read the assignment for this week, I thought it sounded so easy that I should go ahead and try to do a little more. A couple hours later, confused and frustrated (where in the ad is this item that is supposedly on sale? Why does this coupon link say the offer is expired?) I got offline and decided to just take baby steps. I know. Novel idea, right? This is a problem I have. I see that something is simple and think: how can I make it more complicated? Not that that actually crosses my mind, but I get carried away with what "could be" and end up burning out before I've done what I was supposed to, forget all my other plans. I have to remind myself with this couponing thing: "I am not a coupon maven. I may be one day, but I am not one right now. Just do what you're told. Don't add anything." So next week, I'll stick to the assignment only.

Well, there are many things on my list of what I want to blog, but alas, it is almost 9 p.m. and that is my new bedtime. (Silence) . . . (pin dropping). I know. You're wondering how long I'll keep it up. I have no idea. But my guess is that I may not be blogging much while I try to get into this new routine. This is truly a stretch for me to go to bed several hours before I'm accustomed to "retiring," but one good thing is that sleep helps keep one healthy, and as of this moment, I am the only healthy human being in the household, and it would be really wonderful for all of us if I could stay that way.

Couponing: Is it for Me?

Hello, friends! I have just a moment to share with you what I signed up for last week: a 10-week course in couponing.

Like others, I am sure, I have enjoyed using the occasional coupon for that occasional thing that I actually need or use, but in the past, when I have tried to get into serious, money-saving (and making!) couponing, I have never been able to make it worth my while or save enough to keep it up.

My problem, I believe, was that I did not know what I was doing. Last week, I signed up with Claire at choystercash and I have hopes that she can prove me wrong in my coupon naysaying. I hope to update this blog with some of my experiences along this journey, but wanted to invite any of you who are also critical of the whole money-making couponing craze to join me in what I hope to be at the least a bit fun, and perhaps generate a few free toiletries and extra items for donation (chances are, there will still be things I don't and won't use!).

Please visit the above link and if it sounds fun to you, please join me in signing up!