Not So Extreme Couponing

Recently, I have been examining our budgets and spending, and realized that we spend a butt-ton of money on groceries.  For instance, in July, we spent $430 at the grocery store! We are only 2 people and I only cook 4 meals a week, what the heck is going on?  Now, this does also include toiletries and household items, so it's not just food, but it still seems like a lot.  I meal plan every week, almost always buy generic and rarely buy things that aren't on sale, but still can't seem to save enough money.

So I decided to try to make some changes.  I checked out a few books at the library that included topics like: Freezer meals, $5 dollar dinner ideas, strategic grocery shopping and 600 ways to reduce your grocery budget.  For the most part, all of the "tips" were either things I already did or were aware of, so nothing groundbreaking.  However, it did motivate me to try harder. My plan for the next few months will be this:

• Try to make one freezer meal a week or freeze an extra package of meat, etc. (by doing this, I am hoping that 1 week per month we can simply eat out of the freezer and only buy a few fresh things at the store)
• Try harder to match coupons with weekly sales
• Strive to use ingredients in more than one meal a week (if one meal uses cilantro, try to use that cilantro on at least one other meal to reduce waste and avoid buying more ingredients)
• Seek out different stores (Walgreens and Target) for toiletries and such because they tend to be cheaper than at our grocery store.

So this past weekend was my first shot at my new plan.  Some things to note: I had a BOGO coupon for some meat that my grocery store didn't carry (ANNOYING!), so I wasn't able to put something in the freezer this week.  Other than that, I had $5 dinner recipe on my list and was manned with some special store coupons from a Safeway mailer. Here are the highlights from my grocery bill:

Honey Nut Cheerios (big box): Original Price: 4.79 
-On sale for: 3.33.
-E-coupon my store loyalty card (will be referenced as "J4U" (just for you) from here forth) -.34
-Manufacturer coupon: -.75, "doubled" up to a dollar, so an additional -.25
Total Cost: $1.99, Savings of $2.80

Crunchy Nut Cereal: Original Price: 3.99
-Manu. coupon -.75, doubled for an additional -.25
Total Cost: 2.99 (ok, that wasn't that cool), Savings of $1.00


Soda: Coke was Buy 2, Get 2 free - and yes, we drink that much soda
Original Price for 4 = $24
Total Price: $12, Savings of $12

Freezer Sale: Buy $15 worth of frozen items and get $5 off
So we got 4 Lean Cuisines for lunches at $10
We got some 2 personal pizzas, again for lunches, $3
So, you're thinking, you didn't spend the $15. True, but we also bought ice cream (see below) that qualified us for the deal.  So, we really got all this for only $8. 

Breyers Ice Cream: Original Price = $5.99
On Sale for $2.99
E-coupon for $3 Off
Total Price: FREE! Woohoo!

Store Mailer Coupon: Every month or so, Safeway mails out these coupons that feature 1 item for 3 different meals.  This month it was bacon, so there were coupons for breakfast items, BLT items and loaded baked potato items.  Well, I'm only making the breakfast meal, but I can use some of the same ingredients of the other meals:

Safeway Eggs, 1 dozen: $1.24 with a -.75 coupon
Safeway Shredded Cheese: $.99 with a -1.50 coupon
Safeway Orange Juice: $1.50 with a -.50 coupon
Safeway Sour Cream, 16oz: $.88 with -.67 (??) coupon

Blueberries: BOGO
2 pints of blueberries, original price: $10
Total cost: $5, savings of $5

Catalina (printed at register) coupon from a previous shopping trip: $10 OFF

Then we got a bunch of other stuff, mostly produce, canned goods and some toiletries, but the above were the best savings.  Here's the grand total:

Total Cost Before Coupons: $116.34
Total amount of Coupons and E-coupons: $24.76
Loyalty Card Savings: $27.37
Total Savings: $52.13

TOTAL COST: $64.21

TOTAL SAVINGS: 46%

Certainly not the crazy 96% savings you see on Extreme Couponing, but this is a personal best for me! Almost half off my grocery bill is pretty dang good! Assuming I can keep this up for a month, I can reduce my monthly grocery bill by $200 a month.  Let's see if I can actually do it...stay posted!