I totally forgot to post the weekly totals yesterday!! Since I went to Publix today I am going to go ahead and add that trip as well. It was hard to reconcile my spreadsheet as I purchased things that were not part of my budget. I am t-ball team mom and preschool room mom so I made a bunch of purchases for the Easter party/weekly snack this week that don’t apply to my personal budget… I think I got it all figured out!
I am very happy with this weeks list. I was able to score some pretty good deals on household products so I stocked up a bit (thanks to some awesome coupon buddies who sent me the coupons I needed!!)
This week I spent $36.44 for $224.65 worth of products!! That means I saved 84% this week!! I still have $72+ on my gift card as well as the $5 gift card I bought to do the Bounce deal!! This was a good trip in my opinion–I was able to get a bunch of stuff for that $36! A couple of turkeys, a ham, a chicken, trash bags galore, disinfecting wipes, a couple of bags of flour, lots of fruits & veggies! I have felt like the last few weeks (maybe even the last month or so) I have been shopping but not coming home with too much to show for my efforts! I am not sure if it has been the deals or the fact that I have not been taking the time to plan my trips but I have just been in a rut!!
Did you guys know that you can see all the archived posts by clicking the category on the left sidebar?? I decided to look back at the past two month’s Weekly Totals and found that I spend an average of $27.36 per week! I will be honest –I am not thrilled by that number! After tracking expenses for about a year I determined that $40 was an appropriate weekly budget for my family. While I love to save money I feel like I SHOULD have used that additional $12+ each week!! I could have easily picked up a box of trash bags, a package of paper towels or even a couple of steaks and still been within budget!!
From now on, I am going to try to use most of my money! Don’t get me wrong…I love to save money but I also think I could have used that money to stock up on items or just added some variety to our menu!! I don’t think anyone at my house would have complained if I came home with a couple of pounds of crab legs for dinner one night! I have felt like I have been in a “couponing rut” the past few weeks!! Well–no more!!! I think just by seeing my great list today and realizing that I need to spend the money I budget has now energized me to “get back in the game”
Any of you guys ever get stuck in a rut??? If so what did you do to shake things up?? I’d love to hear things that have re-energized you!!
Ok…back to your regularly scheduled programming 🙂
Here is what I bought this week for $35.44 out of pocket:
| Item | quantity | price | Q amt | TOTAL | Q details | |
| wesson oil | 1 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 1 | 0.9 | $.50/1 conagra homemailer |
| chocolate cheerios | 2 | 2.15 | 4.3 | 4 | 0.3 | $.50/1 insert + $1/1 PQ |
| crackerfuls | 2 | 1.63 | 3.26 | 2 | 1.26 | $1/1 insert |
| cheesecake middles | 2 | 1.75 | 3.5 | 2 | 1.5 | $1/1 IP |
| birds eye | 2 | 1.84 | 3.68 | 2 | 1.68 | two .50/1 insert |
| steam & Mash | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | $1/1 IP |
| OM bacon | 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | two $1.50/1 IP |
| butterball turkey roast | 2 | 7.99 | 15.98 | 7 | 8.98 | two $2/1 WT + tqo $1.50/1 PQ |
| Sara Lee Simple Pie | 2 | 1.69 | 3.38 | 2 | 1.38 | two $1/1 IP |
| whole Chicken | 1 | 5.96 | 5.96 | 5.96 | ||
| milk | 1 | 2.89 | 2.89 | 0.55 | 2.34 | $.55 off wyb keebler tearpad |
| beef | 1 | 3.27 | 3.27 | 3.27 | ||
| gold medal flour | 1 | 1.49 | 1.49 | 1.1 | 0.39 | two $.55/1 peelies |
| bananas | 1 | 1.28 | 1.28 | 1.28 | ||
| juicy juice | 2 | 1.65 | 3.3 | 1 | 2.3 | $1/2 nestle mailer |
| kraft horse/dijon mayo | 1 | 2.99 | 2.99 | 2.99 | 0 | free product Q |
| tax | 1 | 1.42 | 1.42 | 1.42 | ||
| glad small trash bag | 5 | 2.69 | 13.45 | 2.75 | 10.7 | five $.55/1 peelies |
| clorox wipes | 5 | 1.99 | 9.95 | 15 | -5.05 | five $3 off wyb glad have U seen this booklet |
| snuggle | 2 | 2.36 | 4.72 | 6 | -1.28 | two $3/1 insert |
| wesson | 1 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 1 | 0.9 | .50/1 Kroger mailer |
| kraft cheese | 2 | 1.66 | 3.32 | 4.5 | -1.18 | $2/2 blinkie + two $1.25/1 PQ |
| sorrento ricotta | 1 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1 | 1.5 | $1/1 blinkie |
| strawberries | 1 | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.25 | ||
| ham | 1 | 6.55 | 6.55 | 6.55 | ||
| eggs | 2 | 1.59 | 3.18 | 3.18 | ||
| zantac | 4 | 1.09 | 4.36 | 10 | -5.64 | two $5/2 insert |
| Bounce bar | 3 | 4.59 | 13.77 | 6 | 7.77 | three $1/1 insert + threee $1/1 PQ |
| publix gift card | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | |
| cookies | 1 | 5.27 | 5.27 | 4 | 1.27 | $4 bakery calendar Q |
| sweet potatoes | 1 | 0.92 | 0.92 | 0.92 | ||
| breyers ice cream | 1 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| tax | 1 | 3.94 | 3.94 | 3.94 | ||
| gift card | 1 | 0 | 27.85 | -27.85 | won from sweepstakes | |
| 36.44 |
Leave a comment or link to your weekly totals!
Your weekly totals really depress me sometimes. I know it’s because your store doubles, your prices are generally lower, and you’ve been doing this a lot longer. There was a different manager at my Publix tonight who said I CAN’T use a Pub. q AND a comp. q on the same item even though another manager told me I could. I found a package of Pull Ups on clearance for 4.75. I had $3 Pub q, $2 manf q, and $1.50 Target q. I was so excited about super overage to cover something else and she wouldn’t let me use it. I also had 2 $1 FLIPs and 1 $1 Target q for the Breyers to make them .99 each, but she would only use 2 of the q’s. So frustrating to not know what to expect each time.
ANyway, VERY impressive week for you! Good Job! 🙂
My publix will let me use a Man.Q and a Store Q together, but a Competitor Q=Store Q. Another words, they won’t let me use a Target Q IF I am already using a Publix Q. On the pullups deal, I would use the $3 and the$2, but not the $1.50 OR I would use the $2 with the $1.50. Same goes for the BOGO on the Breyers. You can either use one Flip and a target OR 2 FLIPS. If they were Man. Q’s, THEN you can use 2 per item. Hope that helps!
Made both Publix and Kroger shopping trips this week:
Publix: Spent $23.61 for $185.66, saved $162.05 = 87%
Kroger: Spent $.40 for $25.18, saved $24.78 = 98%
I’m glad to see you post about the topic of maximizing your set budget. My husband and I just sat down last night to readjust a few things on our monthly budget. We lowered the grocery/household category by $250 a month based on what I average for groceries and adding in misc. household expenses. I told him that at the end of the month if there is money left in that category that I want us to spend it on some fresh fish or higher quality meat that we wouldn’t usually get because I would consider it too expensive. I think it’s great to get smokin’ deals on 95% of the stuff we eat and use, and that allows me to spend some extra money on items that would be considered a luxury.
Michelle, You could do an entire post about getting stuck in a rut or BURNOUT. My rut is when I only come home with items that I get at least 90% off…then I look around and wonder what I can put together for dinner?? Burnout is when I have hunted the deals for so long that I would just as soon go pay full price for a nice dinner. (sigh) it happens.
First let me say I LOVE your blog!!! Does anyone know a good blog to follow for someone in Florida. I love that our BOGO ring up one full price one free for BOGO coupons but I HATE that Publix in Florida does not double
THANKS!!!!!!!!
I follow Iheartpublix and southernsavers religiously
You can still get great deals just following this site even though we don’t get double coupons in Florida. What I do is look at the list provided by this site and determine what I will spend with which coupons I have. I ignore any of the double coupon totals. Honestly, this site isn’t very specific to double coupon states, Michelle seems to map it out for everyone, just don’t look at her totals and get depressed because she does get double coupons!
My sister-in-law lives in Fl and i sent her a site called Prudent Patron. The owner of that site lives in Fl and doesn’t have double coupons and has a true BOGO. It made it easier for my sister-in-law to understand as she is new to couponing! Although personally I think iheartpublix has a better layout and offers more up-to-date deals!
http://savingobsession.blogspot.com/ – it’s an Orlando-based Florida one!
Hi Michelle,
It’s so easy to look at other people and say “they are perfect, they have everything figured out.”, but that’s really not true about anyone. Life is all about balance and finding the perfect balance of everything in your life. If for the past two months you had other things going on that were more important and needed more of your attention, then that’s fine. Couponing, shopping, saving money, that shouldn’t define your life. It’s like a job, really we do it so we can do all of the other things in our life. Sometimes we take vacation to focus more on those other things. I wouldn’t be worried about “being in a rut” for the past couple of months. You are “perfect” in my eyes. You are excellent at your job. You make lots of people happy. You need to focus on what makes you happy. Keep up the good work, you are great!
Here’s what happened to me today that definitely made me shake things up a bit. On the way out of the store I asked my 4-year old son to carry my coupon suitcase. I should have known better. His little tricky fingers got near a lock, and in a matter of a second all my hours of coupon organization went flying all over the parking lot. Lucky it wasn’t too windy today! So with the help of two nice people we were able to gather that mess up. Would anyone like to sort those up for me again?;-))
Hanna,
I am so sorry that happen to you:( I had that happen to me once too and I swore it would NEVER happen again… I started searching everywhere for a really nice zippered notebook that was big enough. I found a really nice one at http://www.caseit.com but it really cost some money ($35.00) but it has 1 3″ ring and 1 2″ ring!! Everytime I go into Publix now, shoppers always ask me where did I ever find a “HUGE” zippered binder! Needless to say, dropping my binder and losing all of my hardwork has not happen since then!!! Besides it has a shoulder strap and allows my hands to be FREE for my 3 year old!!
Michelle, I think it’s so funny that you wrote this post! I have been in a “rut” for 3 weeks now! I haven’t been grocery shopping for 3 weeks. I have only picked up the staples for almost a month now. Milk & eggs for my son and bread & lunch meat for my husband for lunch. I don’t even know so much if it’s a rut, but I feel like the ads haven’t even enticed me enough to pull out the inserts and cut out the coupons and go shopping! Sad… Ironically we have made dinner every night at home, we have a great stockpile. The only complaint I have heard so far is, “honey, I don’t have any good snacks for my lunch, when are you going to go couponing again?” But after reading your post and everyone else’s, glad to know I am not alone! I will get back into it.
To get out of a rut, I usually go through the cabinet, throw everything that is extra or getting close dated into a big box and take it to the food pantry or to playgroup for friends to sort though. Then I usually end up talking about couponing and to see people’s eyes when I tell them how much I paid for what, it helps tremendously. I usually offer friends to come grocery shopping with me so I can show them how it’s done. Somehow helping a rookie rejuvinates me!
I have always considered myself a smart shopper, but since reading your blog I’ve found I have a long way to go! 🙂 I love using coupons, and BOGO’s. I’ve ALWAYS shopped that way. I’ve always stockpiled when it was super cheap (my friends always think we LOVE BBQ sause because I buy it by the caseload!). 😉 I get burned out by seeing ALL the coupons availabe, but no access to them. Like, how do I get TONS of diaper coupons, or TONS of bbq coupons? ;). I’m looking into a coupon swap for my area, but am clueless on how to organize it. Also WT (winetags, right). Do you have to buy the wine to use them? Or are they there for anyone? I didn’t want to steal any! ;).
This doesn’t answer your question of getting out of a rut, but just adds to the questions! 🙂 Thank you Michelle for your time, I appreciate you! 🙂
Hey Jennifer
Here in my area we don’t get Wine Tags (at least I have never found ANY!!) I trade for mine–all of the ones I trade fore are no wine purchase necessary 🙂
To shake myself out of a rut in couponing, I challenge myself. For example, I will try to spend only 150 dollars on groceries for a month. It is fun and makes me look for new ways to use the staples in my pantry.
I just stop couponing for awhile when I feel tired of the deals.
I was just thinking the other night about how I haven’t really been saving as much lately.
I also realized though that a lot of the stuff that is on sale and that I was buying when I started couponing a couple months ago is JUNK, JUNK,and MORE junk. It is a lot harder to save money when you are trying to eat healthier and buy organic products. I did find some good coupons today though, so hopefully I’ll get out of my rut soon.
It happens to everyone at some point. You still Rock!