Obsessed

Well, I've found a new obsession...I mean "hobby". I'm totally addicted to couponing now! I can't believe it! That's right, work is so incredibly slow that I've found myself menu planning and cross referencing the Meijer ad and what's on sale to what we have in the pantry. Yes, I know that's just common sense, but I've never really done it that way. I've just made up menus and then bought, hoping that stuff was on sale. Never the other way around - yep - I've finally clued in.

AND I'm addicted to Internet coupons. Hee! A couple of sites have some good coupons - coupon.com and mycoupons.com, and also - you have to dig for it, but Meijer also has a link where you can print out coupons for Meijer products. Well when I went grocery shopping two weeks ago - turns out most of the coupons I printed off the Internet were for items that were on sale! So - double whammy. I print off the coupon as many times as the site will let you and then buy that many items. Apparently the key is to build your pantry to the point that you only have to buy fresh items every week. Well, let's just say that between the sales at Meijers and the coupons I found and printed off - I got 300 dollars worth of groceries for 180 bucks! (I only went 20 dollars over our 2 week budget). I even got four cans of Planters nuts for free!

Last week I looked at the sales, looked at the coupons and ONLY bought what was on sale that I had a coupon for and saved more than I spent ;) I saved 36 bucks and spent 34. And the nice thing is, they are for items that we will totally eat and don't really expire. I got bags of frozen veggies for 50 cents. 1/2 gallon ice cream? 1.50 baby! (So I bought 4!) AND I would have gotten 8 boxes of spaghetti for free, but they were all out and if I'd asked for a raincheck, my coupon would have already been expired. So I used the coupons on the whole wheat pasta and still got them for 70 cents each :)

This week I'm cashing in my formula coupons. I've been holding on to the Good Start formula coupons you get at Meijer. Each time you buy a can, you get a new coupon - this one is buy 4 cans - get 10 dollars off. It's a good coupon if you can shell out 90 bucks for formula at a time because then you've got your whole month covered. Well - I've been waiting till Annie finished the last round of formula I bought - in JUNE - and formula is $1 off this week and I've got my 10 dollar coupon - plus a 5 dollar off your entire purchase coupon from last week's trip. So - 98 bucks down to 78 baby!

Yeah - I'm stoked and I'm a nerd. But seriously, with gas so freaking expensive I can change some of our grocery budget into gas money and alleviate some of the pressure!