Cleaning Up

Total: $38.79

OK, it's another bargain bragging blog post, but this time I'm really proud--and I'm DONE shopping for the week!

It's been a while since I seriously used coupons to try to get our food budget down. But while combing through our September bank statement I added up how much I'd spent on groceries and household goods. It wasn't pretty. Way more than I thought.

I researched how much couponers claim they can feed a family on and tried to emulate their numbers: shooting for $300/month or less for our family of 6. That seemed a little tough, but I decided to take on the challenge - our Christmas trip is just around the corner...

I can't believe I finally did it...actually bought a week's worth of groceries (and a bunch of cleaning stuff) for our big family (plus 2 cats) for less than $50. I've gotten great deals on a couple of things to stash away for later - but never a whole week's-worth of things we'll use immediately.
I posted this photo because everything in it cost me only 39 cents at CVS. Yup, six 2-packs of razors was what I bought. The other stuff--halloween candies, lotion, a pill-counter, and a book of coupons was in a gift-pack that the cashier gave me...she said "here's your prize!" I don't know what it was for - I didn't see her give anyone else a "prize" - maybe it was for being the biggest cheapskate of the day.