Thursday, January 29, 2009

My Dad Loves Me!

I went to Homeland today to meet my dad since we were having a family dinner at their house and like always there are a few 'last minute' items to pick up. While waiting for him to arrive I wanted to go ahead and make use of my $6.03 that I had left since I had the time. So, I looked around and picked up a few things, paid, took them to the car, and decided to come back in and fill up again using my coupons. I decided to go ahead and dip into my February money I debated and although some may disagree I was completely okay with it...I would rather make use of the time rather than make a separate drive back out later with my almost 3 year old in tow. Anyways, I got the following:


So, the great thing about this is that I paid for my first transaction of almost $7.00 (I went over just a hair but under $1.00)--will fill in the exact amount as soon as I remember where I put that silly receipt. :) The second transaction I had all ready to go (complete with Pull-ups and Goldfish crackers...that mysteriously ALWAYS go missing from my pictures...) and then my dad proceeded to tell me that groceries were free for daughters today...isn't that soooo sweet!!! The total of the items he bought me ended up being $22.20 ($11.00 of which was the stinkin' Pull-ups). The breakdown of the receipt is that I/he saved $30.35 (60% off). I am not including this in my monthly total as it was a gift even with my coupons.

Chinet Plates SP 2.50 - $1/1 IP= 0.50

Pillsbury Savorings SP 2.99 - $1/1 IP= .99

Farm Rich Battered Mushrooms SP 5.99 - $1/1 MC= 3.99 (I LOVE these but they are usually 8.19!!!)

Pepperidge Farm Bread SP 2.50 - $1/1 IP= 0.50

OR Popcorn SP 1.66 - $1/1 IP= FREE

Olay Ribbons Body Wash SP 2.99 - $1/1 MC= .99

Kotex Lightdays RP 1.29- $.75/1= FREE

Ocean Spray Light SP 2.50 - $1/1 IP= 0.50

Puffs SP 1.00- $0.25/1= 0.50

There were a couple of other things that he paid for but I sent home with him even though I used the coupon. Its about helping everyone out so I am so thankful that he did unexpectedly. I am now only a few cents over my budget although I was already planning to dip into February Money!

3 comments:

millionaire teacher said...

Hi there!

I originally visited your blog because I'm from Oklahoma and when I saw "Muskogee" I got really excited. I'm a new blogger, so I've been reading anything I can find. I've enjoyed reading about your frugal adventures!

Anyway, my question is this: exactly how do you feed your family of 3 (I assume it's three) on $125/month? Our budget for the two of us is $300 and I thought it was pretty low. This month we have already done our shopping (we try to do a month at a time) and kept it under $200, which was very doable, but a personal challenge nonetheless.

Is it all coupons? I know Homeland doubles coupons, but my experience with them has been that their stuff costs twice as much as other stores and there's never more than two checkers! I love reading your frugal recipes and seeing your progress through each month. If my husband and I could live decently on $100/month, that would be amazing!

All that to say... If you would maybe post a total breakdown of your strategy, I would really appreciate it. I'd even post a link to it on my blog so others could read it, too.

Thanks,

Millionaire Teacher

lifesajourney29 said...

Sure! I have a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of my savings. This is the first time I am putting my family on an actual food budget so I may not be exact to my $125 a month budget but I will try to use it as a guide so I don't go "crazy." I try to buy things in bulk like meats and freeze them (I have a very small post on this). Other than that I just try to keep my costs low. If it isn't on sale I generally don't buy it. You would be amazed at the things you can make from just items on sale. I do still get fruits/veggies, etc. but we don't actually sit around and munch on oranges at our house. I usually just pick up a few bananas, oranges, etc. if I know they will be eaten in the next few days (a bag of oranges would just go bad in our house). So, this keeps my food cost low on that. I also prefer to do lots of smaller transactions because my Homeland is close to home and I pass it at least twice each day so I can keep an eye on the things that are on sale as well as time for the reduced items.
Well, I would suggest that rather than try to cut your budget from $300 to $100 each month what you may try to do is cut a little bit out each month or/and use the last little bit of your money to use for specific coupon items.
Example:
January budget $300
February budget $285 (make the last $10 of this budget be only coupon related items)
March budget $270 (make the last $10 coupon related items)

This may not work exactly for you (you may want to do more or less each month) but this is how you can slowly cut your family down to a smaller budget. You will notice that your stockpile of coupon items will grow and then you will do more from there.

BTW...sorry that I haven't been posting much lately. I have some pictures that I have been taking but my work has been pretty hectic lately so I haven't actually gotten to the posting part... :(

millionaire teacher said...

Thanks for the tips! I will definitely try to compile them into some helpful tips for my readers (with a link back, of course ;-))