New Plan of Attack on the Grocery Bills

I have a new plan of attack to lower my grocery bills.  Earlier this year, I posted about menu planning as a way of sticking to my grocery list.  While it did save me money, only buying the items on the list, I found that I didn't have a lot of coupons for the ingredients needed for my menus.  My new plan will have me scouring the ads and matching coupons to them for the best possible deals, and then building my menu from there.  Wow!  I can't believe that it just occurred to me this week, that I have been doing things backwards for all of these months!  I also now have a coupon binder.  It keeps all of my coupons organized by categories/aisles at Kroger.  Here it is...

I bought plastic sleeves with slots for business cards to hold my coupons.  I searched and searched for the baseball card sheets, but couldn't find them.  The business card ones seem to be doing the job.  At least, now I can easily spot the coupons that I need.

Megan had driver's ed tonight, and Carter was playing with a friend, so Jacob, Ethan, and I headed to three different stores to get some great deals.  With the price of gas these days, I am happy that CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger are on three corners of the same intersection close to my home.  Walmart is across town, but I don't go there very often anymore.

Here are the deals I snatched up tonight:

The first stop was Walmart.

I had two coupons for the Always liners that were $1.00 off.

Since the price was only $0.93, I got them for FREE!

I needed the chicken chili packet, which was only $0.98.

Total Out of Pocket:  $0.97!

The second stop was Walgreens.

The liners were on sale for $0.99.

I had a coupon for $0.50 off.

Total out of pocket:  $0.56.

I then got $1.00 in Register Rewards, which I can use on my next  purchase.

So, I actually made $0.44. on this deal!

The last stop was Kroger.

I won't list everything individually, but I only bought items that were on sale and/or I had coupons for.

With Ethan and Jacob, we go through diapers and milk like crazy!

By using my Kroger Plus Card, I saved $8.56 on sale items.

I redeemed $13.00 in coupons.

Total savings:  $21.56

Total out of pocket:  $35.08.

I saved 39% by using my store card and coupons.

I also received a catalina for $5.00 off my next purchase of diapers, so it is like my bill was only $30.08!  (The diapers alone, would have cost more than this at regular price - $30.24.)

I love my new coupon binder!  I will keep you updated on whether my new plan is effective.  I think that planning my meals based on sale purchases and coupons is the way to go.  I want to keep my bill (grocery and household products) under $100 a week/$400 a month.  That would be great for us considering we have six people to feed, a dog, and two little ones still in diapers.  If I get really good at it, maybe I will lower it to $75 a week! 

I have spent $36.61 so far, so that means I have $63.39 left!  I probably won't even have to use it, because we have plenty of food in the cabinets and lots of chicken.  (I might have to do a post of what we eat on our budget.)

I may not be an "Extreme Couponer", but I hope to save my family a lot of money on what we need.