One Year

Today was our 1 year anniversary. I can't believe it has been a year since we got married already! Since we celebrated our birthdays with big gifts we decided to take the "paper" anniversary to the literal sense and just buy cards. It was a perfect day. My parents took us out to dinner to J. Alexanders... DELICIOUS. Then we came back home and did the traditional eat the top layer of the wedding cake thing. My dad wrapped ours really well after our wedding and it wasn't all that bad. The frosting left a lot to be desired... but this is from someone who doesn't care about cake that much anyways. The second anniversary is the "cotton" anniversary and I already have some pretty good ideas for it! We are off now to cut out our coupons and then hopefully watch a movie and go to bed...

A picture from 1 year ago today...

Couponing our way to a new fence, Bills game, and FSU game

As I mentioned in my last post, we saved about $45 tonight using coupons. When I shop I do not count the amount saved by using my store card as an amount to put in our jar. Though if we did, that would be another $45 that we saved just by buying the sale items. 


So tonight, we have a deposit of $45 to our savings!!! 
This brings our total to $181

We went shopping tonight.....

Throughout the week I have been making my lists of sales and coupon matchups at each store I planned on going to. This was the first BIG trip Tim and I were taking with the coupon binder. I was prepared! Luckily today, I got my first envelope of coupons in the mail from the coupon exchange I participate in. That was even better because I was able to get even more of a deal. I am going to list the stores and what we got and then post pictures of all of the items together. All totals include tax.


First stop CVS where we got:
3 airwick iMotion air fresheners- on sale for $4.99 each with $4.00 coupon= $.99 each total-$4.35


Then Target, who had a hard time understanding my coupons...but that is another story.
1st order:
6 Old Spice body wash on sale $3.99 and used 3 BOGO coupons. When you bought 3, you earned a $5 Target gift card. So I paid $12.15 for all 6 plus got the 2 gift cards. (I later gave customer service a $1 off 2 body wash coupons because the cashier didn't understand that this coupon could still be used because YES I was still paying for 3 and did NOT use a coupon on those 3- so in reality I paid $11.15 for these). Making these around $2 each


2nd order:
2 soft scrubs for $2.79 each used a BOGO
Scrubbing bubbles power sprayer $8.69 (other sites have mentioned his being on sale for $6.99 but it is not here)- used a $5 coupon
2 Wonka exceptionals bars (or whatever they are called) $2 each used a BOGO and $1 off coupon
2 Act II popcorn (again other sites mention this as $1 but not here) $1.77 each, used $1 off 2 coupon
Total: $11.98 used two gift cards earned in last order and paid $1.98 in cash


Third stop, Kroger
2 totinos pizza rolls $1.25 each used a $.50 coupon (doubled)
2 totinos pizza $1.25 each used a $1.00 coupon
2 gatorade $.99 each
2 chef boyardee $.99 each
2 gushers fruit snacks $1.99 each used $.50 coupon (doubled)
(buying all 10 of these items took $3 off my bill)
1 loaf of wonder bread for $.78
1 bag of doritos for $.99
1lb strawberries $2
5 corn on the cob $1
We didn't have a lot of coupons here but we still got some good deals because of the sales, Total spent $12.32.  (Total saved due to using my Kroger card and coupons $16.08)


Last stop, Schnucks
9 hamburger helpers 10/$10..used 3 $.75 off 3  coupons..... making these $.75 each
2 Crystal lights $2 each used 2  $1 coupons....making these $1 each
3 Skinny Cow ice creams 10/$10 used 2 $1coupons..... making these $.33 each (would have just gotten the 2 for free but couldn't decide on flavors so I got 3)
1lb of cherries (a little over a lb) $3.17
1lb ground turkey $1.87
1 cantelope $1.25
1 ice cream (something Tim wanted) $1.99
4 Dole Mandarin oranges 10/$10 used 2 $.50 coupons that doubled....making these $.50 each
Total spent: $22.35


And now the pictures of everything we got.. I am so proud 

Total spent all together: $52.15

Total saved with just coupons: $45.72

A few more pics I have edited in the past couple days

I am having too much fun editing pictures on my summer break, so here are a few more...

Couponing our way to a new fence, Bills game, and FSU game

In my original post I stated we had $150 in our "jar". I made a mistake and it was supposed to be $100. Anyways, with that said...


I went shopping on Monday and saved $18 (spent only $20). We dropped that $18 in the jar, bringing our total to $118.


Then I emptied out my change purse... we don't spend change ever. When I emptied it out, there was $9. This brings our total to $127.


Then Tuesday we went to the zoo (for free...we should drop that $30 savings into the jar too hmmm) and on the way home drove past CVS (it is right at the corner of our development) and saw that coke 12 packs were on sale 3/$11. That doesn't seem like such a good deal to me usually BUT... they had made a very large error last time we were shopping and to make up for the mess they made, they gave me an extra ECB. So I had $8 in ECB. We went in and on the packs of coke were coupons for $1 off 2. We only got 3 so could only use 1 coupon. We ended up getting the 3 12 packs for $2.25 and saved $9. Adding that to our fund, we have now $136. 


I also in the past couple weeks have mailed out 3 rebates that will total around $25 so when those come in I will add that to our savings. 


Who woulda thought this could be so much fun?!


Total savings since June 7.... $136!!! 

Baby James

Today after running errands with Becca, she let me take pics of her baby because Roscoe (my dog) is rather sick of posing for pictures for me. I decided to edit a few tonight and here they are.

We decided that we need to take him somewhere to take some more fun pictures because he is too cute not to!

Coupon Binder...

After spending a lot of time researching couponing and how to do it and save a lot and how to sort coupons and blah blah blah... I decided to make my own binder. I have seen sites where the bloggers offer to sell their binders for a fine tune of $40... i made my own for 20. Good for me!

It is best (I think) to get a binder with a zipper. I have had far too many things fall out of binders, and no way do I want to be searching the floors for missing coupons. So, I went and got this binder from Walmart.

In the front little zipper pocket I have sandwich baggies filled with misc. coupons. These are coupons for entertainment, eating out, and save X off X at the grocery store.

When you open the binder I put in paper. This makes it easy for me to make my list of what to buy at each store and how much I should pay for it. On my list I also include where in the binder (under which tab) my coupon is located. Once I get to the store and decide that I do need the coupon, I will be sticking them in the mesh zipper that you saw on the front of the binder. This will make it easier for me to hand them all to the cashier at once (and not make Tim shove them all in his pockets).

I bought these dividers because they are more sturdy than the paper ones. If you want to save more money though, I imagine you can use the paper ones just fine. 

I made labels on the computer and just taped them to the tabs on the divider. I used categories that made sense to me, but these can be adjusted based on personal preference.

My categories are:

baking, cereal, boxed/canned, cleaning/detergent, razor/mouth/soap/deodorant, drinks, dairy/frozen/meat, candy/snacks, pets/school, female/make-up, hair, first aid, misc, and medicine.

I combined some of the categories because of where I keep things in the house or how I associate them in my brain.

Under each tab I have the baseball card insert sheets (I believe I got 35 of them for $5, also at Walmart). I only put one specific coupon in each insert. Therefore, I can have 9 coupons per sheet. I don't like to put them front to back, but you can. I just thought it looked messy. If I have duplicates of the same coupon, obviously they go in the same insert.

On the left side of the binder, there is an accordion style folder. I am going to use these to keep coupon inserts. After I cut out the coupons of things that I will most likely use, I date the insert and keep it so that if I see a coupon match up on something I may not usually buy I can easily locate the coupon. A lot of times things can be gotten for free or under a dollar, so even if it isn't something we will use, it can be donated.

There is MY coupon binder... hopefully this will be a start to helping us add more to our "jar"...

This "jar" has been a savings method for us for years. We used it for 2 years to save up for our honeymoon. After that we used it to save for our anniversary trip, and now...

Our "jar" this year is for a fence, a bills game, and a FSU game... 

So we are couponing our way to those things and any time we add money to the "jar" there will be a post titled:

Couponing our way to a fence, bills game, and FSU... 

Deposit of _____

As of now we already saved $150 since coming back from Disney on June 7!


Edited in later post... this amount should say $100.

A little of this....

A little of that... and everything in between. That's what this blog is going to be. I will post:


Pictures that I take/edit
Recipes that I make/bake
Money that I save
Weight that I (hope to) lose


Why?
Because I got a new dslr for my birthday and want to get better at using it.
Because I am learning to cook and bake, and because of new camera, take pics of it all.
Because I am getting into couponing, and you should too.
Because I am going to try to stick to some type of a workout plan and posting it keeps me accountable.