Money saving adventures #1

Well, now that laundry is done and put away…sort of. All bags are unpacked and put away until our next out-of-town excitement. We are back to farm-life reality. Which is exactly how I like it. I love schedules, routines, and organization. I am a nerd.

Since we are building a new farm, reality is we don’t get paid for three months, that means living on savings for right now…which is normal for farms. You get paid when you sell whatever it is you are growing. So, because of this, I am being very careful about how our money is spent.

Groceries used to be one of our largest expenses until my friend Amy taught me how to coupon-shop. (Thank you, Amy!) I have a giant notebook, I cut coupons, file them, and shop with them. It is fun for me, I guess it goes back to my nerd status, but I really do enjoy it. AND it keeps money in my savings account, which I love…since I am a budget dictator.

My notebook looks like this:

I think it is a 4 inch binder, but I am not positive. It is humongous. I love it. A lot.

I have challenged myself to spend spend $100 or less for 10 days of groceries. I went to the grocery store on January 18th, and I am hoping to not have to go back for anything other than a gallon of milk or eggs until the 28th.

All I do is match sales with coupons. I also shop at a store that doubles coupons. So I have the sale, plus the doubled coupon to get the lowest possible price.

Now, to make all of this easier for us, we have two refrigerators and one chest freezer. I think it would be impossible to hold as much cold food as we require in a ten day period in one refrigerator.

I also feel I should address the “extreme couponing” stuff. Please take note that I do not buy 76 bottles of mustard. We won’t use it. I do buy an obscene amount of turkey and ham when they go on sale…it looks ridiculous…but it does get eaten.  I also “buy” an obnoxious amount of free toothpaste…but given we have lots of teeth around here it works out okay. I do not have cereal boxes hidden in the shower or toilet paper under my children’s beds. We buy what we will use or give away.

So here is my January 18th shopping trip…please, someone explain to me how I saved 179.13 but in the THIS YEAR YOU’VE SAVED section it says I saved 124.57. Maybe I am having an airhead moment, but I haven’t figured it out.

So, I have $6.59 left for my extra gallon of milk or eggs. Not sure how this will pan out, but it will be fun to try.