Groceries Galore

Another big successful shopping day yesterday. The first picture is our sell box. That is a 22-gallon tote that was full and we had an additional box to sell. As Susanna unpacks our stuff, she separates it right away into sell and keep. We also had a full cooler of refrigerator/freezer items.

We used a new plan, and it worked swimmingly. For one thing, we left an hour earlier than usual. Several reasons, but it allowed us to finish up way earlier than usual. We printed 2 copies of each store's shopping list. Right before we went into the store, we divided up what Susanna and I would be looking for, then we met to divide and conquer (I mean check out!). Two of our stores were giving out catalinas (coupons good on your next trip) for free milk, and we scored 4 of those.

We love stocking up on items we use a lot (as opposed to buying things to resell). We got All laundry detergent, 2000 Flushes tablets, Softsoap Ensemble refills, men's shaving gel, Pringles (38 cents a can!), pasta galore, Skintimate shaving gel, Mentos gum, Emerald Isle trail mix, Hall's cough drops, and much more. Susanna unloaded all the bags onto our freezer, so I took a quick picture.

Speaking of pictures, I wish I could download pics from my phone. My DH and I drove up into the mountains of NC/TN to pick up my oldest daughter last night (yippee). I drove up, and DH drove back. We nearly didn't take coats!! We were tooling along in our car when this white stuff started swirling towards the windshield. I said, "Is that POLLEN?" Then it dawned on me that it was SNOW!! It was incredible. We had several times where the road was completely covered, and we had to slow down to 25 MPH. My hallucination of the snow became a reality when we saw a huge truck with a SNOW PLOW on the front. Wow!! We made it up there and back safely, arriving home very late, but glad to have Elisabeth home.

~Joan

Ingles Trip Update

Here's the lowdown on my recent trip. What we kept (baking powder, tomato sauce, grape jelly, brownie mixes, noodles, pasta, powdered creamers, Chex mix, Ziploc bags, and Puffs tissues) cost me $24. I was paid $73 for the rest of the items, which I sold to a local salvage store. So I profitted $49 from the trip. Definitely worth the time, don't you think?

Another great grocery shopping day today. I don't know if I can ever go back to my old way of shopping again.

~Joan

Ingles Triple Coupon Grocery Trip

Ingles is probably my least favorite grocery store to shop in. Nothing personal--it's just the truth. They only double up to 50 cent coupons, and you need to spend $10 for every 3 coupons you can use. That is daunting, and usually makes for a not-very-profitable trip.

We needed some basics since we just got home from a nearly week-long trip. I heard through the Bette-grapevine that Ingles was doing triples this week. I nearly missed it! I decided I'd do my stocking up (mostly dairy and meat products) to get my total up, then use as many coupons as possible.

Thank the Lord, my old camera finally arrived home. I didn't realize it until after I took the above picture, however.

Pictured are (with my cost)

4 baking powders 20 cents each

12 boxes of Cap'n Crunch 50 cents each

16 tomato sauce (15 oz.) 38 cents each

2 grape jelly (32 oz.) 28 cents each

4 Betty Crocker Supreme brownie mixes $1 each (for charity desserts)

1 Domino sugar (4 lb.) $1.08

7 Betty Crocker icing tubs 18 cents each

2 No Yolks noodles free

2 Wacky Mac free

8 powdered creamers (my DH's preference) 18 cents each

4 Chex Mix 50 cents each

8 Ziploc bags 80 cents each

8 Puffs facial tissues 23 cents each

16 Manwich sloppy joe and BBQ mix 25 cents each

5 Rotel tomatoes 30 cents each

5 Treasure Cave Bleu cheese 28 cents each

10 Glory honey carrots 13 cents each

12 Minute Rice 52 cents each

The cashier and baggers had a fun time ringing up and bagging my order. The receipt is over 10 feet long...I measured it! I paid 56% of the original price, but that did include a ton of meat and dairy. I'm a happy camper.

All but some of the baking powder, all of the tomato sauce, creamer, Chex Mix, Ziplocs, and tissues are being sold tomorrow. So my total will be even lower! I'll give you a total after I see how much the items sell for. Betcha can't wait!

~Joan

Haven't Saved $1,000,000 Yet!

We are still making shopping mistakes, believe me. I didn't post about our PPPD (per person per day) spending last month. For those who have been waiting with bated breath...

You can look back here for past months. I am learning to cut back on numerous small trips and still save money. We are still hosting record numbers of guests, which we greatly enjoy.

PPPD for October...$2.55

PPPD for November...$1.97

I'm satisfied with that.

~Joan

Fall Decorations, Take 12

You're likely to see mostly quilts from here on out. This is a little one. The HSTs on the leaves are 1" finished, and the flying geese are 1" x 2". The inner border is 1/2" wide finished. This is made from all Thimbleberries fabrics. It's in my bedroom right now.

Another triple Q offer is upon us. Lowes Foods in Gastonia is having triples tomorrow through Friday. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow. I'm glad we can stock up on foods for a change (as opposed to toiletries and cleaning supplies). Susanna and I spent over an hour and a half last night compiling and perusing our list, filing and pulling Qs, then finalizing our plan. She was wiped out. Here's a picture of her stressed look...

She isn't as stressed as she looks. I took that a few days ago when we were having sandwiches and Bugles for lunch. She was trying to look scary, but with a face like that, it's pretty hard to do so.

~Joan

Double Qs at KMart

My 3 oldest girls just got back from a phenomenal trip to our local KMart. Some of the KMarts are having double coupon days, up to a $2 Q! That's a ton of savings.

I know some items are difficult to see. Since our store is not a Super K, we got nearly all toiletries and cleaning items, with some cat food and air fresheners thrown in for variety. There are also razors, carpet cleaner, Endust, Visine, first aid non-stick pads, as well as lots of shampoo, shaving gel, and toothpaste!

I spent about 90 minutes this AM researching prices, pulling Qs and making a list. Each person could use up to 75 Qs with 4 identical items for each person.

We got all in the above picture, plus some items we just could not fit up there on top of our chest freezer ($576.44 retail value) for $57.44 ($20.99 for items plus $36.45 for tax). That's 9.9% of the original cost, the majority of it being the tax cost.

The beauty of a family that works together was that in just a few minutes we had everything brought in and sorted, then divided into items to be stored in our pantry, with others ready for selling to a local store (hi, Tammy and Vik!). I remember the day when all my children were young (and it doesn't seem that long ago) when a shopping trip of this size would have taken me most of a day to unload from the car, unpack, then put away.

What a blessing.

~Joan

September Daily Spending

September was my best month yet for saving $ on daily spending. If you're just starting to read my blog, here's a quick recap. We have 10 people living in our home. My WH and I, along with our 8 children. We home school, and my WH works from home, so on most days, we are all eating here. There is the occasional exception. One of my children works during lunch every day, and another will occasionally miss lunch or supper. The daily spending includes an average for the month for food, personal toiletries, all cleaning supplies, and medicines.

My first month of serious couponing was April of this year. I didn't figure that month's expenses because I was learning the whole coupon thing. Our May average was $5.40 per person per day (PPPD). I thought THAT was tremendous. June's average was down to $3.20 PPPD...big drop! July was up to $4.53 PPPD. August was $3.92. September was $2.37 PPPD, our best month yet.

This is an ongoing adventure and challenge to me. I don't want to be obsessive about it, which would be easy for me to do. One of the Bible verses I memorized recently is Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD my strength and my redeemer." I can't let saving money direct all of my thoughts. But I do think there is a time and place for it.

I'm very grateful that my family supports this endeavor. Everyone pitches in...some shop, some clip Qs, some file them, some organize pantries, some merely consume what we bring home, LOL!

~Joan

Grocery Saving Extraordinaire

Is clipping coupons worth it?

I get that question over and over again...from cashiers of all people! Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I didn't realize it wasn't crystal clear until after I put everything away.

Guess how much I paid for the stuff in the picture? Here's a list of original costs (from left to right, back row first):

~Food Lion brand frozen breaded chicken breast patties ($2.99)

~64 oz. half and half ($4.29)

~Gerber nurser (baby bottle; $1.15)

~Food Lion Kid Wipes ($1.38)

~Smithfield Boneless Ham Quarter, sliced ($8.72)

~Gerber baby food peaches ($1.09)

~Nestle White chocolate morsels x 2 ($2.53 each, total $5.06)

What is the grand total I spent? I'll tell you tomorrow night. Please leave a comment and guess.

Yours for saving,

~Joan

How Does My Garden Grow?

Whew--three posts in one day. Just like when I first started blogging.

Well, first of all, Bette is alive and well (hey--you didn't mention donating all your coupons to me in your email, Bette). When I mentioned the chair-kicking in an earlier post, it is because Bette sits right behind me in choir. We hold down the alto section. Or at least we like to think we do. We have a patriotic service on Friday this week.

I've had some curious folks email and ask how much of our food we grow ourselves. Zilch. None. Nada. I only wish.

I am hoping to have some small garden plots next year. One of my daughters will graduate from high school in 2009. I am giving her the project of planning and caring for our garden since she will have some extra time and would be fabulous at it. I have a book on order that should be here any day (Square Foot Gardening). We used this method at our first house and it was highly successful.

Here in the land o'cotton the ground is red clay. I mean red, and I mean clay. I don't know how they grew that cotton in the good ole day. I grew up in Pennsylvania, where the ground is rich and actually nourishes the crops. What a concept!

Some asked if we eat oatmeal for 2 meals a day. Nope! Breakfast is usually something hot (eggs, grits & biscuits, pancakes, baked oatmeal, etc.). So much cereal has been nearly free in the past couple of months that we have started eating it for a couple breakfasts a week with muffins, bagels, or homemade wheat bread toasted. Lunch today was homemade mac & cheese, chili sauce with hamburger in it, and hot dogs (on sale yesterday). Supper was baked scalloped potatoes and ham (scrumptious), sweet corn, and freshly baked homemade wheat bread with jams and honey for topping. Wanta join us? We eat very well and have meat with most meals. I thank God for keeping us so healthy for so little cost. To Him be the glory.

FWIW, we also have company frequently. My WH walks/runs/does upsie-downsies with another man and HIS son nearly every AM. The father nearly always stays for coffee and sometimes they both eat breakfast with us. We have company for lunch or supper often--like every week.

~Joan

More on Grocery Savings

Here is a picture of my mailbox area, decked out in flourishing Black-Eyed Susans. They are more beautiful this year than last (that's when they were planted). Thanks to our mild climate, they are perennials instead of annuals. It's a balmy 81 degrees here, and it's nearly 1:30 PM. This 38'-long by 4' wide at the widest area was entirely weeds when we moved in here two years ago. After much exertion, it has been transformed into something lovely.

It was a pleasure to walk in such nice weather this AM. I think it was around 70 degrees at 6 AM. I had been having lots of pain and discomfort because my feet would swell in the afternoon/evenings. That has only happened one of the days I've walked. I'm sure the muscle workout has something to do with it.

So many have asked if I'm still doing the coupon-clipping grocery-saving thing. Absolutely. You have to keep in mind that there are 10 of us in my house. My DH is rarely gone for meals (maybe 4 meals a month). My 4 oldest children are gone for lunch a few times a week. I did some comparing of our costs for the past few months. Thank you, Bette.

I considered April a learning month because there was a lot to learn. Plus I had no coupons with which to save (at the time). I separate food from other personal expenses when keeping records. Thank you, Bette.

Including food, toiletries (shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste, etc.), and consumables for the whole house (TP, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, etc.)......

In May, we spent an average of $54/day for the above items. Roughly $5.40 per person for food, toiletries, and consumables. That's pretty remarkable considering that my 5 oldest children all eat more than either my husband or I.

In June, we were able to get by on $32/day!! That's 41% lower!! Whoo-hoo! And you should see our stockpiles. Just yesterday I asked Susanna (who is my most active partner in this) how much of different items (toothpaste, body wash, etc.) we have used in 3 months. Hardly any! So our out-of-pocket spending should decrease every month since we have been in the stockpiling stages for these 3 months.

Thank you, Bette. Thank you, Bette. Thank you, Bette. Bette is the one who got me started doing this. I'll know when she reads this. She might be so happy to see her name on the blog that she donates half her coupons to me. Probably not. But maybe so! I know she is going to be ROFLOL when she reads that. I expect a good kick in the back of my chair at the July 4th service Friday if she's there.

~Joan