Coupon Totals 12/5

We are finally getting to the point where we are spending less money on groceries because we are stocking up when things are on sale. We normally average $150-$200 every 2 weeks on groceries and baby/household stuff. This week we spent less than $100 on all that stuff! I went to CVS, Harris Teeter, the farmer's market and the Commissary.

CVS was my best savings this week. I spent more than I had planned because I'm still getting the hang of everything and I messed up one transaction. But overall, I got $50 worth of stuff for $20! And I have $6 ECB to spend next time. I won't be able to go this coming week because all our extra money has gone towards Christmas. But my goal next week is to spend less than $10 OOP (out of pocket) and get lots of good stuff. My $6 ECB (which is pretty much just free money!) should give me a good head start. It's crazy how much of a "high" you can get from couponing. At times I feel a bit silly, but then I realize that this is my way of providing for my family and I should be proud of that. Plus, it makes Ryan so happy to see that I spent $1 on $20 worth of stuff! --That was one of my transactions at CVS this week!

Harris Teeter wasn't bad this week either. I got 6 boxes of cereal, each for about $1.50 instead of $3 or more. It's definitely possible to get cereal for cheaper, but that's how it worked out this week. I also got toilet paper for $7.99 instead of $11.99. I'm not exactly sure what my savings were because I threw away the receipt and forgot to record it. But I do remember seeing approx. $90 on the screen before discounts/coupons and I ended up paying $47. So I'm thinking it was right around 50%. It would have been even better had I not bought some crazy expensive yogurt for Jax. But I wanted to try it and I couldn't find anything cheaper there. Thank goodness I ended up also finding it at the Commissary for much cheaper!

I really wish I could tell ya'll how much I save at the Commissary, but they don't print their regular prices on the receipt. It only prints out the sale prices, so I can't tell exactly how much my savings are each time. But I can tell you that I normally spend at least $125 there every two weeks, and it's usually more than that. Yesterday I spent $34!!! So that's pretty exciting. They really have great prices, plus we don't pay sales tax. It's usually my final shopping place once I've visited my other stores. I look up what's on sale and fill in things that I wasn't able to get anywhere else. I usually don't use very many coupons there because we get stuff pretty cheap without them. Even though it's more work to go to multiple stores and figure out sales, it's SO worth it. It's still a bit tight because of the holidays, but once they are over, we will have a good amount of extra money left over after each paycheck. Woo hoo for coupons and smart shopping!