Hi, and thanks for visiting! Despite the title of this blog, I am what I consider to be a moderate couponer. I like to use coupons and save money, but I also don't mind missing a deal or two on occasion (which is why I'm not an extreme couponer! LOL) I regularly shop at CVS, Walgreens, Homeland, Target and Walmart. It's not as easier to get great deals at these stores as it is at stores like Kroger and Publix, but with some planning you can do okay.
I just watched a video on yahoo.com where a couple ate for 30 days on $30. Every morning they had plain oatmeal. Lunch consisted of a pb&j sandwich on homemade bread. Dinner was beans and tortillas. Not very appealing and not healthy either. I started thinking that I bet with coupons I could eat a lot better, for not much more than $30. I decided to aim for $45 in 30 days, or a $1.50 per day. I thought it would be a good new years resolution, so January 1, 2009 is my starting date.
To make this realistic, I am not going to limit myself to only what I buy with that $45 though. I am a couponer (and a stockpiler) so I have a certain amount of food in the house. In addition, I have coupons that expire on 12/31/08 (including several for free products) that I will use before the start date. Therefore, to the extent that I have an item already in the house on 1/1/09, I may use it during the month without counting it towards my $45. However, I will not deliberately go out and stock up on items to "skew" my results.
My other caveat is that where I work we are provided with bagels every Friday morning and juice and soda every day. In addition, once a month I attend a meeting where lunch is provided. I am going to take advantage of this because its free food.
I'm going to update periodically between now and the start of my experiment so you can get an idea of the items I am buying. I am also going to start asking companies for coupons to help me reduce my prices for the items I buy in January.
Lastly, if anyone would like to join in the challenge, please feel free! With a little bit of time and effort, anyone can eat great on a budget!
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I want to join the challenge but I may have to alter it a bit for our fam. I have wanted to know for a while how much I could save if I really tried and since I go back and forth from being a moderate to psycho extreme, 12 HL trips in one day couponer, maybe I can find a happy medium and see that I am still saving tons. Plus like you say it really helps non-couponers to see why we are so addicted.
ReplyDeletePlease do, it will be nice to have company so to speak! I don't think a non-couponer will ever understand 12 HL trips in one day, but I think if people see all the different ways you can save they may try to incorporate one or two of them into their every day life!
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