It's a Girl Thing

Clothes. I'm cuckoo for clothes. Cheap clothes, that is. Since my birthday was last month (yes, I know another thing I have yet to blog about), I had a little birthday money waiting to be spent. I've been holding out for some good deals and they are finally here!

Old Navy & Target: I can ALWAYS find clothes I love at these places. Today only (4/18), at Old Navy you get 40% off your entire purchase when using your Old Navy card, plus a free tote bag. And they just marked a ton of stuff down, so I snagged this super cute dress and short-sleeve cardigan for only $9.00 each.

Right now online, Target has some great apparel coupons, one being for $3.00 off any Mossimo apparel item. Go print this quickly, it will not last long. They also have their tanks marked down to $6.00 right now. I don't know about anyone else, but I HATE spending money on tanks. I wear them under everything, yet it's not something people usually see, so I hate shelling out moolah for them. I've been needing some new ones so I was stoked to only pay $3.00 for a tank! The shirt was only $5.00 with the coupon. (Old Navy also had plain shirts like this one for about the same price, but they all fit weird. Too short, too long, too wide, etc... These Target Ts fit really well.)

I also couldn't leave without getting Little Landon something... I've been eye-balling these items for him for a few months. They ended up being $9.00 each. Not a SUPER deal, but the coat has been on clearance for a while and they only had two left; one happened to be his size. Yep, here I go, justifying my purchases...

Couponing Questions Answered

For those of you still on the fence about couponing (or scared to get near that fence, like I was) I'd like to answer a couple big questions I had before starting...

Q: Is the newspaper subscription even worth it?  
I mean c'mon, you are paying for coupons!

A: The short and sweet: YES!!!

I pay $14.62 a month for three newspapers. When I first started couponing, I wondered if I would be able to save enough money to make it worth the price. Let me give you an example of how easy it is to save that much, and more:

Yesterday I cut my coupons, checked out Krazy Coupon Lady's blog to see if there were any great deals I should hit up, made a quick list, and got my coupons ready. This morning Landon and I went out and got $35 worth of items for less than $2.00. (The cost of tax.) And it's only the beginning of the month. And as you can see, we didn't even get a ton of stuff. We went to Target and Walgreens, at 8:00am (right when they open). That's pretty vital. If you want the really good deals you have to be the first one there. Now I realize not everyone has an alarm clock that wakes them up at 5 in the morning, thanks Landon, but for us, it works. We also live in Mormonville so all the crazy couponing moms don't go shopping till Monday. In other states, by Monday, all the deals would probably be gone.

We were also extra lucky this morning. The lady behind us at Target happened to be buying a ton of these cars from the movie Cars 2. Landon saw them and flipped out, of course. You know the toddler philosophy, what's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine. So, as I'm trying to drag a screaming, flailing Landon away from the check stand, the lady gave Landon a car and told the cashier to ring up an extra. She insisted of course, and Landon left the store a very happy boy.

Q: I want to get started, but not commit to a newspaper subscription. Is that possible?

A: YES!!! The Glade spray and Tums were bought entirely with coupons printed from sites online. I looked at Money Saving Mom's blog this morning and found the links to the coupons needed, making those items free. I probably use half printed, half newspaper coupons when shopping. And remember, when printing coupons, you can print two of each per computer.

Hope that helps some of you!

Determined

Thank you, everyone, for your words of advice regarding budgeting and couponing. I gleaned many good ideas from your comments. I am determined to succeed at this. So, here are the steps I've taken thus far to cut my grocery bill in half...

I went through and tracked every dollar in a budget. Been doing this for a while, but I really sat down and revised it. And I know, maybe it's a little weird that I've put all our expenses on the web, but blogging about this journey makes me feel much more accountable for succeeding at it. Each category under expenses has its own column to the right where I will keep track of everything spent. I've set it up with equations so that when I add in our income each month, (which is variable since Scott works freelance) then we can easily see our profit after subtracting the expenses.

Next, I made a list of all the gluten and dairy free items we buy. In the next few days, I'm going to take the list to each store and find out where I can buy them for the least amount of money.

Finally, I made another list (can you tell I'm a list person?) of all the meals and snacks we eat. This will make it a million times easier for me to plan dinner because I will know where to look for ideas. (Instead of searching the internet for random new recipes.) Included on the list are "cheap" meals like spaghetti, breakfast for dinner, tacos, soups, and sandwiches. This will also be helpful because I can't even count all the times that I've wandered around the house opening cupboards, the fridge, freezer, trying to find a good snack to eat. Now I have them listed!

Every morning I try to look at my local couponing blog to see if there are any freebies. This morning I found that a new coupon for $2.00 off Renu Contact Solution was available online and it didn't exclude trial size. I ran to Target, and picked up the last four for FREE. I had a really nice cashier who told me I could also get a couple candy bars since I technically had an overage of "coupon money." I just had to pay the tax, $0.48.

Next step: Plan a grocery trip that doesn't involve spending the whole month's grocery budget in one outing! :)

Help!

Well, February has come and gone which means it's time to reflect on my first month of couponing and sticking to a budget. I'll just throw it out there: epic failure. I've read about families of eight living on $300 a month in groceries. Obviously seven of them are starving.

Things that worked: 

• A couple very successful couponing trips. (I'm getting the hang of it!)
• Going to multiple stores. Target is my new favorite.
• Switching to the envelope system. Using cash worked really well... until it was all gone... and I still had 21 days left in the month.

Things that didn't work:

• Giving Scott my debit card. a) I ended up just grabbing his to use when we ran out of cash, and b) I have the whole card memorized anyway. (Is that weird?)
• Sticking to a budget. Obviously. 

So, here's where I need some help from my readers. And I know you're out there because I've seen the Google Analytics. On average, we spend about $600 in groceries, $150 eating out each month. In February we spent $800 in groceries and $180 eating out. I know, for being the first month couponing/really budgeting, how did I go over so much?! Gluten-free. Dairy-free. (That being said, February was actually an improvement from January.) My goal? $400. (Ha!) Obviously I need a more realistic goal. Soooooo, kindly leave me a comment and let me know:

How much you spend each month in these areas? 
How do you stick to a budget?

In other news, Landon's bedroom that was bursting with toys, has finally gotten a facelift. For months, I thought the only solution was to get a bookshelf to hold everything. Well, after stalking KSL forever and never finding the perfect used bookcase I could fix up, I decided to rearrange his closet and room. I also gave the train table (good ol' cardboard box) a makeover with paint and fabric I had around the house, and now it looks much better, and finally has a place against the wall. At least I was thrifty in some way this month! :)

Bring on the Coupons!

My name is Becca and I have a problem. I suck at following a budget. Now before you judge, it's not like I'm out buying everything that catches my eye. It's always the same thing. Food. Food is my downfall. We have to eat, right? And eating right can be expensive. And all those crazy coupon ladies just downright scare and intimidate me. And I don't have that kind of time. And Landon's a handful. And, and, and...

I was able to convince myself for a couple of years that couponing just "wasn't for me." But, my excuses were pathetic. Why pay more for something when you could pay less, or even *gasp* get it for free? So, one of my New Years resolutions was to learn how to stick to a budget and save money by using coupons.

I did a lot of research about how to get started and yada yada yada and was so excited that I'd be able to exercise my crafty side in putting together a coupon box. My coupon box alone makes couponing way more enticing. Details at the end of this post.

Next, I set a budget, told Scott to hide my debit and credit cards, converted to the envelope system, got my Sunday paper subscription, found a couponing site that I like (Savvy Sister Shops), and let the fun begin. I'm happy to report that on my first couponing trip to Walmart I got multiple items for free, paid under $0.50 for many others, and walked out of there with quite a bit of stuff for $17.70. I was so giddy with excitement! I can coupon! It's not too hard or time-consuming after all! Saving money is fun!

I must also share the couponing success behind my new kicks. I've been pumped for months waiting for the Toms ballet flats to come out. Well, they're finally here but with one slight downer - they're 80 bucks. 80 bucks! For one pair of shoes! Heck no, I would not spend that much on shoes. So, I've been eye-balling these red polka dot babies from Old Navy for a few weeks now. Saved a couple coupons and ended up only paying $5.27 for a $25 pair of shoes. Bring on the coupons!

Coupon Box
Materials

• Rubbermaid container
• Scrapbook paper (patterned and plain)
• Labels

Directions

• Measure and cut the patterned paper to fit in your box. Label each with your categories for coupons. Behind each divider put a folded piece of plain paper to act as an envelope to keep your coupons in. 
• My categories are: Baby, Baking, Batteries, Beverages, Bread, Candy, Canned, Crafts, Cereal, Cleaner, Clothing, Condiments, Dairy, Entertainment, Feminine, Frozen, Health Food, Hygiene, Jelly & Peanut Butter, Laundry, Meat, Office Supplies, Paper Products, Pasta, Produce, Restaurants, Salad Dressing, Sauces & Seasonings, Snacks, Expires Soon.