Saving Money, But Not Time...

Ken came to me last night as I sat at the computer and told me about a segment he'd seen on the local news. It was all about a woman who had started an online service to help people use coupons more efficiently.

Read the 9News Article Here

I decided that the $1 trial sounded interesting, so I signed up. In just a little while, I had big lists of sale products at five local stores. I focused in on the highest values - items where the prices were significantly lower than usual and recommended for 'stockpiling'.

Today, I gathered up all my available coupons and lists and store fliers and made my way around to four of the five stores. In all, I spent $198.37. That is pretty much a normal grocery bill for us. But, if you look at the retail prices of the items I bought, the 'shelf price', I would have spent almost $320 if I hadn't bought the items on sale or used a coupon. I also bought several rebate items from Rite Aid, which has a really great online rebate system. I'm usually TERRIBLE about sending in mail rebates, so I'm thinking this will work better for me. If not, I just won't do the rebate shopping. At any rate, for my first go-round, I saved $121.37 with an anticipated return of rebates of $14.67.

I think I can keep this up, because it falls into my AR need to control and count. So, here's hoping it works! I focused on buying things we would actually use. I think that's an important part of it. No sense saving a bunch of money on something that will eventually get tossed.

The thing that was a bit difficult was getting all the stores in one outing. I left home at 12:30 this afternoon and didn't get back until almost 5:00. Now, there were two extra store stops in there because Ken needed stuff from Checker Auto Parts and I ended up having to return to one store because I'd missed some essentials that weren't on a list. :( I will need to work out a good way to do this efficiently. Since the goal is to save enough money so we can afford gas for the RV, I don't want to expend a whole lot of extra gas just getting to all the stores!

In other news, I had a pretty good WW day. I did have one breakdown midday because I hadn't eaten since breakfast. I bought a can of Pringles chips. BUT...I only ate 15 of them, which is the serving amount on the box. And, they didn't cost me that many points in the long run, only four. I still had plenty of points at the end of the day to enjoy a wonderful steak dinner with the family. And it was YUMMY! And...I bought the steaks for half their usual price! lol...