Sunday, April 26, 2009

Super Savings Saturday


Click on photo for a better view


I am missing one more photo of my "goods" for the week. I have a finicky i- photo program that likes to protest every month or so when I am downloading. Who knows, it is probably the operators error. I'll just keep blaming the machine though. Anyway, the missing photo contains four bottles of CVS baby lotion, four bottles of softsoap, two bottles of children's claritin, an aveeno moisturizer, an aveeno cleansing bar, one bottle of skintimate shave gel, one mitchum deoderant for women, three boxes of one a day complete multivitamin drink mixes, two tubes of colgate sensitive toothpaste, two bags of CVS chocolate covered nuts, one dove skin vitalizer, two dove skin vitalizer refill packs, one package of CVS diapers, and one package of CVS wipes.


Again this week I went over. I sort of knew it was going to happen as I found myself splurging quite a bit. (hence the chocolate cake I purchased for Jess and I to share. Totally worth it though!) I also was less organized this week in the areas of time for shopping , coupons clipped and list/ deal scenario preparation before walking into the stores. A few times this week I knew I had coupons for things but they were yet to be clipped so I had to eat the savings I would have received on those products. I also bought a lot of extra candy, all of it was extremely discounted and some free, but that did add to my extra expense. The candy is for Steven to take to work and share with all of the employees at the end of some of the extremely long and exhausting shifts. So, well worth the extra spending.
Before sales, coupons, extra bucks and register rewards, My total was $ 267.50 ( actually this number is off by just a bit. I couldn't find one of my receipts so I went to my online banking to get the exact money I spent there. I just don't have the original amount it would have been. Therefor my savings are actually higher than what I am able to calculate. Another casualty of my lack of preparation and organization this week.) My actual out of pocket cost was $94.38. I saved 65% this week. I am still happy about that but I plan to head out with a calculator next time and spend more time on prepping. I already caught myself up by clipping all the coupons I had. So this week I am starting off right.

I have to keep putting my new grocery saving adventures into perspective. A family of five, in Southern California, living on a modest income, spending $80.00 a week on groceries is not that bad. Ultimately I have a goal of only spending $60.00 a week lurking in the back of my head. I plan to challenge myself with that soon. But I know I've got a lot of work to do in the weeks ahead. I hope your grocery saving stories are getting better week by week. Let me know. It is fun to plug through the things we all need to accomplish together, all the while glorifying God in all things. That is the reason. To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.