Week One Shopping Results

Whew! Week One of saving money has started! I'm feeling really good about my first week's results, and generally very proud of myself. For a coupon "noob," I did pretty well.

Here are my results:

CVS:
I spent $69.53 on household stuff that we need, which will easily last us for the next 3-5 months.
I saved $63.03, which included a FREE $10 gas card because I purchased certain items. 
I used my CVS Extra Care card, coupons,  and paid attention to sales.

Buehler's:
I spent $126.19 on 2-3 weeks worth of groceries.
I saved $54.39.
I used my Buehler's Advantage Card, coupons, and paid attention to sales.

At both stores, I spent more than I anticipated because there were deals going on in the store that weren't published in the store ad/circular. I had coupons for these deals in my handy-dandy-coupon-binder, so I went ahead and got what I needed.

I also went to Family Dollar and bought a years worth of trash bags for $20. This made me so happy I almost cried. I hate buying trash bags. And now I don't have to worry about it for the next 12 MONTHS. And that's IF I use a trash bag a day, which I won't. So, actually, these trash bags will last me more than a year. Excellent.

All in all, the day was a success. I am still a noob, so my savings aren't as spectacular as they can (and WILL!) be, but I feel really good at saving more than $100 on stuff that we actually need. I'm learning that in order to save a significant amount of money, I just have to change the way I think about shopping. Before I started doing couponing, I would go to the grocery store with a budget every week, and that budget would be pushed to its limit every single week. I wasn't worrying about stuff on sale, I couldn't be bothered with coupons. I never believed that a .55 cent coupon off of bread or a .75 cent coupon off of cereal would ever make that much of a difference. I just bought what I needed and didn't have much to show for my weekly grocery store trips. Now, however, I have doubled the amount of food I bought, saved $54.39 in the process, and still kept within my budget. So technically, I saved even more than the $54.39, because this is enough food to last way longer than just one week. My days of wasting money (and time!) at the grocery store are OVER. I'm determined to never pay full price again.

Now that I have the basics down, it's time to really get into the nitty gritty. I need to start building up my stockpile of household items, non perishables, etc. My long term goal is to only have to buy the following things from the grocery store every week: meat, produce, and dairy products. Everything else will be in my stockpile/freezer. Then, when I'm doing well on my stockpile, I would like to be in a position to donate a lot of that kind of stuff to people in need. That's the long term goal/lifestyle change that I am working towards.

All in all, a very good day!