Challenge # 2 is all wrapped up; the challenge was to make a grocery list & STICK to it & & I don't mean to toot my own horn but I kicked this ones behind!! I made my list & checked it twice last Tuesday then decided to go to the grocery store Saturday on my way home from the airport!! I was confident that I had everything on there when I left on Friday but started to feel like I was missing some stuff Saturday so I went over it all in my head & made some adjustments.
This is what my list actually ended up looking like:
Salmon Fillet
Beef Tips
lunch meat (chicken & turkey)
Pot Roast
Chicken Fingers
Bacon
BBQ Pork
Bread
Saffron Rice
Biscuits
Milk
Yogurt
Shredded Cheese
Cheese Slices
Sour Cream
Cottage Cheese
Brayden's
Yogurt
Puffs
Cheerios
Mandarin Oranges
Bananas
Avocado
Mushrooms
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Carrots
Dried Cranberries
Creamed Corn
Corn
Sausage Gravy
Plug Ins
I made he changes headed to the store & was only $3 over the $80 budget I set for myself so I was pretty proud & think that as the weeks pass I will get the budget down below the $80 budget I set. Some of the changes I made because I remembered we had whatever it was & some of the things I crossed off because we could do without them or they were more expensive & I wanted to try to find a coupon for them! I am very proud of myself for NOT buying the candy bar that I really wanted & for also sticking to my list!!
I actually found this trip to the grocery store to be a very quick one since I knew exactly what was needed & there was no question in my mind that making/having a list is a better way to shop & control my spending. I am sure that there will be times when I spend more than I want to but I am alright with that.
Lance & I have decided to make one major adjustment to our food shopping though; I am going to start going to Costco once a month & getting all our meat/fishes, household product/cleaning supplies, & whatever else I have a coupon for in bulk. We have had our membership for a while but I just started to pay attention when I received the coupon pack from them in the mail & I think that doing this could help our budget tremendously. I am going to head there this weekend & then head to the regular store once I get unpacked & re organized in the pantry & fridge..............I'll let you know how it goes!!
Challenge #3 - Think about what your family often purchases that puts a dent in your budget and try the store brand or generic version. Was it just as good? How much did it save you? Would you try more generics? Why or why do you not purchase generics? What things could your family buy in generic to save money?
I have never commented before but I just wanted to let you know an awesome website that you can also follow on facebook. I don't know if you have heard of it or not. Its southernsavers.com. I get all kinds of stuff for free like shampoo, deoderant, body wash, toothpaste, etc. I have a stock at my house now. I literally have like 8 bottles of body wash for my husband stocked up..all which were free. It takes a little work but it is so rewarding. I think my husband gets sick of me talking about my coupons. And of course I am commenting the first time to talk about my coupons. You should also get into CVSing...that is were I get most of my free stuff. My friends and I go out every Friday and look for deals which is fun. You should check into the diapers also...I have gotten jumbo packs of Huggies or pampers diapers from $0.11 to $4.50. The coupons work better on the smaller packs of items than for the bulk items. Anyway I'll quit boring you now. By the way, your son is adorable!! :)
ReplyDeleteThats awesome that you did good this week around. I would love try this challenge. I have just started to use coupons and Im very excited that I have been saving money and its really fun to see how much you save.
ReplyDeleteWahoo! Congrats on the shopping list success.
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