This Wife's Savings

August 2008 Monthly Totals

Gasoline - $50.02
Grocery & Household Needs - $161.28 - ran out of cat food & bread
Fast Food - $44.23
Clothing - $5.00
Misc - $83 - 10 local newspapers (25cents each) b/cuz my daughter's picture is in it for her birthday tomorrow, & 1.99 for shipping on a Kraft Singles Saver Offer that gets me a "Saver" to store my cheese slices in.
School Lunch - $30
School Misc -
Medical - $37.78
Coupon sources - $14 - 4 big newspapers this weekend
Total - $425.31
Available ECBs/RRs - $12.50/0
Saved this month- $210.93

Posted by Daphne at 12:13 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Spending Log

I had no idea I was spending that much on fast food! In my defense (lol) I have went shopping on more days than I usually do. But I know that is just unacceptable.

I have always got fast food for me & the kids after grocery shopping. It's always cheap (think dollar menu) and a good treat for every once in a while. But that was when grocery shopping was one day a week.

I will have to figure something out.

Whether it be take food with us, or shopping at a different time of the day. I know I can't hit all the stores I want in one single day ... hmmm....

I will figure it out and Conquer this Fast Food Dilemma!!!

Posted by Daphne at 1:02 PM 1 comments  

Labels: Misc

As you can see from my last post, I've spent $143 on groceries & household needs. And it's only one week into the month. That looks (and sounds) really, well... bad. It is a lot more than I would normally spend, but see these points:

• That total is not just food. It is all things used for personal use in the home. Anything from toothpaste, to razors, to cleaning supplies, to toilet paper, to batteries, to makeup, to pet food, etc...
• I am in the beginning stages of CVS & Walgreens. I'm learning the system, I'm learning from trial and error. I've done rather well at these stores, actually.
• I am in the beginning stages of stockpiling. It is impossible to get stockpiled on Every Single Thing you buy without coming OOP in the beginning. But! Just think how long it will be before I run out of cereal, or toothpaste, or snack food & have to buy it again. A long time! But I will stockpile again before I run out...
• I have just moved from being a coupon user, to being an avid coupon user. And Yes there is a BIG difference. I have started my coupon binder and that alone has cost close to $25 to start. Plus I am learning all the store rules, policies & regulations.
• I am going to get rebates on some of the items I have bought. When the rebate comes in, it will goes towards more groceries/household needs. So that will be less spent OOP in the future.
• I feed a family of 4. One man who eats, well a lot... one boy who eats, well a lot too. And I'm a SAHM with a 3 year old at home and a 6 year old at school, I cook 3 meals a day. And sending lunch to school occasionally. And sending snack & juice to school daily.
• I am still buying diapers/pullups. That alone should say something.
• I have ECBs from some of my purchases at CVS, they are just like money. They will help me save on items next week, so I will spend less OOP.
• If you looked at my weekly grocery bill around the beginning of the year, you would see that I would spend anywhere from $85-$150 a week. And I wasn't stockpiling Anything! I wasn't using coupons, or getting many things on sale either. And the only place I grocery shopped was Walmart.

My coupon binder is similar to the one below:

Posted by Daphne at 12:25 PM 2 comments  

Labels: Grocery, Misc

August 2008 Monthly Totals

Gasoline - $35.02
Grocery & Household Needs - $142.85 - Will have a post about this...
Fast Food - $40.15 - Ouch! This REALLY needs to STOP!
Clothing - $5.00
Misc - $78.51 - Needed a book of stamps!
School Lunch - $30
School Misc -
Medical - $37.78
Coupon sources - $8
Total - $377.31
Available ECBs/RRs - $12.50/0
Saved this month- $210.93

Posted by Daphne at 12:16 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Spending Log

I had planned to make another trip to CVS to get the rest of what was on my list, but didn't want to go that far from home today. I will just wait until next week to use my ECBs. So I stopped by WalMart and used their Price Match to get the following:

• For My Kellogg's Rebate deal:
• 4 boxes of Rice Krispie's treats -saved 71cents per box with Price Match- I had 2- $1/2 coupons
• 6 boxes of Pop Tarts -saved 3cents per box with Price Match- I had 3- $1/2 coupons
• Will receive $10 Rebate
• After Price Match, Coupons & Rebate, all 10 items will cost me $2.90 plus tax

I couldn't get the Kleenex BOGO deal, as Walmart does not Price Match on BOGO deals, but was in desperate need of Kleenex, as my children's allergies have kicked in.

• I got 3 boxes at $1.18each and I had a $.50/3 coupon, so they cost me $3.04 plus tax

Total spend after coupons was $17.66

Total savings [before rebate] - $8.49

Posted by Daphne at 12:49 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Grocery, Walmart

This was my very first trip to CVS since I got into coupons. I was really disappointed. They didn't have half the products on my list. So I will have to find another CVS to get my Kellogg's products for the Kellogg's rebate. [Yes I know I bought Kellogg's products at Walgreen's yesterday, but they all have to be in the same transaction, and CVS has the products I want to get, just not at the store I visited today] 4 of my coupons wouldn't go through, so she finally had to manually put them in. I was in there forever! And I used 4 BOGO coupons along with the BOGO deal on the Covergirl makeup, so all 8 should have been free. But the way the lady did it, I paid $3 more than I should have. And I didn't notice the difference until I got home. Oh well, a lesson learned I guess.



So here's what I got:

• 2 Crest Pro-Health toothpastes -on sale for $2.49ea - I had 2- 75 cents off coupons
• 2 Crest w/Scope toothpastes -on sale for $2.49ea- I had 2- 75 cents off coupons
• 1 Oral B Advantage toothbrush - on sale for $2.49 - I had $1 off coupon
• [These 5 above items gave me $7.50 in ECBs]
• 1 Colgate toothpaste - $2.99 - I had a $1.50 coupon
• [Colgate got me $2 in ECBs]
• 1 Gillette Fushion razor - on sale for $9.99 - I had a $4 off coupon
• [Gillette got me $3 ECBs]
• 4 Pert BOGO - $3.69 each - I had 4- $2 off coupons - HAD REBATE FOR THIS
• 8 Covergirl makeups BOGO [9.49, 9.49, 8.99, 7.99, 7.49, 5.49, 5.49, 5.49] - I had 4 BOGO coupons, which would have made all 8 free, but ... instead I paid $3 for all 8 products, still not bad I guess

My Total saved - $88.90

My Total ECBs - $12.50

My Total OOP - $24.09

**Would have gotten the Pert Rebate - Buy $5 worth of Pert Plus and/or Sure products, get up to $5 in FREE school supplies - but I neglected to read it in it's entirety until I got home and realized you had to buy the school supplies, then they send the refund. At least I got all the Pert products for free after my coupons!! Another lesson. At least it wasn't a big mistake!

Posted by Daphne at 2:07 PM 3 comments  

Labels: CVS, Grocery

August 2008 Monthly Totals

Gasoline - $35.02 - $20.01 this week
Grocery & Household Needs - $98.10 ($71.13 this week)
Fast Food - $29.07 - Ouch! This needs to STOP!
Clothing - $5.00
Misc - $70.11 - needed new printer ink this week
School Lunch -
School Misc -
Medical - $37.78 - LittleMan had to go to the doctor, he had an allergic reaction!! (plus meds)
Coupon sources - $8 ($6 on 4 newspapers, $2 on 1 magazine)
Total - $283.08 Not great, but I have stocked up on some things plus the visit to the doctor!
Saved this month- $113.54

I have added a new category. Coupon sources. Which is mainly newspapers & magazines. I also combined Grocery, Household Needs and Pets into one category.

I am headed to get LittleMan a haircut tomorrow, as he is going back to school Thursday. I then plan to hit CVS for some Great deals! I couldn't find the CVS in the town I was in today.. ??? hmmm. This will be my first trip to CVS since I started couponing.

Posted by Daphne at 9:15 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Spending Log

All I can say is Wow! This is the first time I have saved over $20 in one visit to Walmart. I went to Walmart after my trip to Walgreens, so the main thing I noticed was .... rudeness. They didn't want to take some coupons because I had more than one of several. I had to explain the difference between a purchase and a transaction. Then they had to get a CSR over because I had so many coupons. They were not happy with me, even if they didn't say it, I could see it all over their faces. **I told the people in line behind me that I had several coupons and that it would take a bit longer because of that, just so they would know ahead of time.** I mean come on people, I am saving more than a few dollars here!!

My total before coupons & tax was $112.42. After my 24 coupons, my total was $53.63 ($8.99 was tax, Walmart taxes the full amount before coupons). My savings total $67.78! (56% saved)

What I got:

• 15 packets of Koolaid, for the B3 get Free deals below... (I did this deal last week too)
• 3 pounds of Ground beef
• 1 pack of B/L S/L chicken breasts
• Chocolate chip waffles
• shredded mozzarella cheese
• Kraft American singles (FREE by buying 3 Koolaids)
• Oscar Mayer hot dogs (FREE by buying 3 Koolaids)
• 4pk Pillsbury biscuits (50 cents off)
• Crystal Light To-go (FREE by buying 3 Koolaids, also had a 50 cents off coupon!)
• Big box of Ramen noodles
• 2 boxes of fruit snacks
• Hamburger Helper (50 cents off)
• Wheat Thins (FREE by buying 3 Koolaids)
• Lasagna noodles
• Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber starter kit ($2.75 off)(I also have a Rebate for this, so it will be FREE with possible 2.75 overage!!!)
• One Touch Ultra Mini Blood Glucose Monitor (FREE with coupon)(will be given to my Papaw)
• bag of Puffcorn
• 5 pks. Durex =) (FREE with $2 off each, plus 85 cents overage for all 5)
• Kotex (FREE with $1 off)
• V8 juice (FREE with $3 coupon, plus $1 overage!)
• 2 Dawn Direct Foam dishwashing liquid ($1.50 off each)
• 1 lg & 1 sm Cream of chicken soup
• Kraft Ranch dressing (FREE by buying 3 Koolaids)
• 2 alfredo sauces
• 2 Great Value green beans
• 1 Green Giant green beans (50 cents off)
• 4 Glade scented oil air fresheners ($4 off each - less than $1 each with the coupons!!)
• 2 Equate foam hand washing liquid
• hamburger buns
  

All in red was FREE, all in red or blue had a coupon.

Posted by Daphne at 8:26 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Grocery, Walmart

This was my very first purchase at Walgreen's. I was kind of nervous, mainly because it was new for me, and I couldn't find one of the items I had on my list. My list that took me quite a while to compose, with all my transactions separate, coupled with coupons, etc. I found the employees to be Extremely nice & they even told me how impressed they were with my organization! Yay for the nice Walgreen's Employees!

What I got:

• 4 Kellogg's cereal - they were running really low on most of the ones included with the RR deal, but I got Fruit Loops, Raisin Bran Crunch & 2 Frosted Flakes (I used 2 coupons worth $1/2) $3 for all 4 boxes after RR
• 4 Lifesavers BOGO - (I used 2 BOGO coupons, so all 4 bags were free!!)
• Angel Soft Toilet paper (I used a WAG coupon to make it 99 cents)
• 2 Beef Jerky 2/$5
• 4 Kellogg's Special K bars (I used a BOGO coupon & 3 $1 off coupons, after RR they were FREE)
• 2 pks Energizer "D" batteries (I used a WAG coupon to make them $2.99 each, then had 2 $1 coupons) $1.99 each
• and a $1.99 candy filler, not pictured because my kids ate it!

The overall total, after sales & my Great coupons was $17.50 OOP

I got 2 Kellogg's deals worth $5RR each and went ahead and used all my RR towards other things since I do not know when I will have time to go back. {Maybe next time I will start rolling the RR on a weekly basis.} My total savings today - $41.66!! (70% savings!!)

Posted by Daphne at 8:17 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Grocery, Walgreens

August 2008 Monthly Totals

Gasoline - $15.01
Grocery -
Household Needs - $20.47
Pets - $6.50
Fast Food - $6.75
Clothing - $5.00
Misc - $44.50
School Lunch -
School Misc -
Total - $98.23
Saved - $4.10

What a rough start to August already. I take full blame for spending too much yesterday. I was in a crabby mood and set out with the intention to blow money. Which is something I need to learn how to control. It's like eating when I'm depressed, I feel like I can't stop.
Which is why I want to log everything I spend this month. I will not include our regular bills or what my hubby spends. Mainly because he never keeps receipts and doesn't remember where his money goes.

My Breakdown so far:
Gasoline - $15.01 - I almost always run over a penny or two.
Household Needs - $20.47 - This was batteries and pull-ups for Princess
Pets - $6.50 - cat food, it's all my 2 dogs will eat, Ha!
Fast Food - $6.75 - lunch @ KFC
Clothing - $5.00 - shorts for Princess on sale at TJ Maxx
Misc - $44.50 - new cups for Princess, we just got rid of the sippy cup, other new plastic dinnerware for Princess, some notebooks on sale, all the stuff to start my coupon binder, a toy for LittleMan to give Princess for her birthday in 2 weeks
Total - $98.23
Saved - $4.10 - 2.50 coupon on pull ups, the rest is savings from not paying tax [tax-free weekend]

Posted by Daphne at 5:00 PM 1 comments  

Labels: Spending Log

Posted by Daphne at 2:40 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Making Money

For Me:

For LittleMan:

For Princess:

For Neice#5, due in October:

This was my favorite find of the day. LittleMan has been needing some better boots, and I got these for only $3.88!

My total before tax was $44.10 What great deals!!

Posted by Daphne at 2:28 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Clothing, Thrift Store

I l.o.v.e. thrift stores!

Thrift stores are my main way of buying clothes.


You can get so many name-brand clothing for such a cheap price. Many of the clothes are in excellent shape. But you do need to keep your eyes open for imperfections, such as holes, tears, stains, buttons missing, zippers broken, etc.

Check with your thrift store to see when they pick up from the "ritzy" part of the neighborhood. Then go shopping there 2-3 days later. {ex. They pick up on Tuesday, Unload & Price on Wednesday, and Put out on Thursday, go shopping on Thursday.}

Also many thrift stores offer a day when they mark certain items down by 10, 30 and even 50%.

Don't be afraid to ask these question to save your self even more money!

Some thift stores are now offering New clothing also!

I am always adding posts showing my Thrift Store finds, to view them click HERE or on "Thrift Store" under my labels.

Posted by Daphne at 2:06 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Saving Money

Always check your store for a clearance/sales rack or area.

You can also go to your favorite store's websites and sign up for their email alerts which will tell you when they are going to have a sale.

Sometimes they may even email you coupons or e-coupons.

All their full-price clothing will go on sale every few weeks or so. So just keep a look out and you may be able to get your favorites for the sale price!

Posted by Daphne at 1:57 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Saving Money

And I don't mean going to Sam's Club either. {Which, isn't bad, but I'm not into having to pay a membership fee just to be able to shop there. But that's another post...}

When you're using your coupons, and/or using your loyalty card, and/or using price match, you're getting a good price, right? Right.

Stock up when the items are on sale. And you will not have to pay full price on it later. You can just get it from your stockpile. Even if it seems like a lot out of pocket to begin with, it's really just paying a percentage overall.

Just don't forget that you will be continuously replenishing your stockpile. There's always a sale on something. And you don't want to run out and have to pay full price.

Posted by Daphne at 11:35 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Saving Money

Using Walmart's price match is as easy as it sounds. The main thing I use price match for is Milk. Milk can range anywhere from $2.99 to $5 a gallon at any given store.

Milk at my Walmart this week was $4.20. In the Walgreen ad, I saw that their milk was on sale for $3.79.

So, when I checked out, I just showed the ad to my cashier before she rang up the milk, and I got 2 gallons for $3.79 each.

Walmart will match any competitors price, within a 50 mile radius. [Some people have said 60 miles, but I was told by an employee at my Walmart it is 50 miles for our store.]

The only deals they DO NOT match is the Buy One Get One Free deals.

So, this Sunday when you're getting your coupons out of the paper, don't forget to pull out all your locals grocery store ads and look them over. [and pharmacy ads, etc.]

Posted by Daphne at 11:08 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Saving Money

I'm not as familiar with loyalty cards as I'd like to be. The only store that I currently use a loyalty card with is Winn Dixie. And I'm learning more about CVS-ing before I start there. I do know that these stores have some pretty great deals, that you can only get if you have and use their store card.

What I've learned recently about CVS & Walgreens (Walgreens does NOT have a store card, the specials are for everyone!) is the best time to use your coupons is in conjunction with their deals. Especially their Buy One Get One Free deals.

For example, CVS is having a sale on Covergirl. Buy any Covergirl product, Get one free.

[If you're signed up at Covergirl's website, they will periodically email you coupons that you can usually print two of. ]

Here's where the fun begins. Say the Covergirl products are $7.99 each, but you get one free, so together they are $7.99. And you happen to have 2 coupons for $4 each. You can use 2 coupons on these deals! So you can get both for free.

This is just an example. Your coupons could be for $3 each and you spend $2 out of pocket. Which is still a great deal.

And it's not always on make-up.

[If I'm not wrong, I believe on the BOGO deals, you can also use any coupon for the same product that says BOGO and get 3 for the price of 1. That also could be only certain stores or cities, not sure yet.]

Even when you do not have coupons, you can score some really great buys!

But you can't get them if you do not sign up for the store's loyalty card.

Posted by Daphne at 10:51 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Saving Money

Used Walgreens Ad to get them to match Gallon of Milk price $3.79
Coupons used:
Buy 3 Kraft, Nabisco or Oscar Mayer products, Get Free Wheat Thins
Buy 3 Kraft, Nabisco or Oscar Mayer products, Get Free Kraft Dressing
Buy 3 Kraft, Nabisco or Oscar Mayer products, Get Free Kraft Cheese Slices
Buy 3 Kraft, Nabisco or Oscar Mayer products, Get Free Crystal Light
Buy 3 Kraft, Nabisco or Oscar Mayer products, Get Free Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs
2 of $1 off Johnson Buddy Soaps
$1 off Kotex

Total before coupons & price match - $33.51
Total after coupons & price match - $18.15
Savings of - $15.36

Posted by Daphne at 5:35 PM 2 comments  

Labels: Grocery, Walmart

Oh boy, did I pick a good day to go to Old Navy.

Here's a breakdown:

Old Navy Boys Jeans are originally $19.50 per pair.
I bought 4 pair today for 2/$25
I also let LittleMan pick out 3 shirts because they were on sale for $2.99 each.

When we were checking out, the guy told me that they were running a special and since I spent over $50, I got $10 off!!!

So essentially, I got the 3 shirts for free!

Total Spent - $48.97 before tax
Savings of - $38.00 plus tax

Don't ask me why all 3 of the shirts LittleMan picked out were black. I didn't even realize it until I was taking this picture.

Posted by Daphne at 5:22 PM 0 comments  

Labels: Clothing, Old Navy

LittleMan starts school on August 7th. So we had some shopping to do.

This weekend is our tax-free weekend. I don't like to shop for clothing on tax-free weekend for 2 reasons.

1. Everybody shops then, so the stores are super crowded, and the choices dwindle quickly.

2. In Alabama, on clothing, it's only tax-free on the first $100. Which is only an $8 savings.

So, I thought we'd get what we needed before the tax-free weekend. I usually go to several places before finding some shoes he likes for a good price. But we got lucky in our first store.

Shoe Carnival had a Buy 1 Get 1 50% off.

Sketchers Kewl Breeze Airators - $44.98 [the blue & red ones]
Sketchers Z Straps - $34.98 - 50% off - $17.48 [the yellow & black ones]

Total = $62.47 before tax
Savings of $17.48 plus tax

Posted by Daphne at 4:47 PM 1 comments  

Labels: Clothing, Shoe Carnival