Coupon Madness and Cutting Costs

Since I have taken the paycut for my new endeavors, I have become very sensitive to cutting costs and keeping spending under control.

To try to keep food costs under control, I am shopping the sales and cutting coupons. Related to our food costs I have found www.couponmom.com to be the most helpful site. Once you complete the free registration, you can easily access the sales for local stores and it also matches those up with coupons from the Sunday papers. The double whammy of matching coupons with sales has resulted in some pretty significant savings on out weekly grocery trips. I think our best savings on a big trip so far has been a savings of over 40%. Mr. Gooch has also started asking about coupons and sales before heading off to the store. He even likes to brag that on his last trip to the grocery store, which was for a few items needed for dinner, by shopping the sales and with coupons, he saved almost as much as he spent. My dream is that one day he will get as excited as I do to see the "You Saved $XX.XX" amount.

We also have been shopping at Costco. For many of our staples, it is cheaper than our regular grocery store. After comparison shopping with our local grocery store, I have found that lunchmeats, baking supplies, frozen treats (like the yummy Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches), as well as stuff for Mr. Gooch's lunches. We also watch for the coupons we receive from Costco to stock up on things like paper towels, toilet paper, dishwasher tablets. They seem to come out just as we are running out from the last purchase.

I also use sites like www.moneysavingmom.com to look at sales at Walgreens and CVS. By using the CVS Rewards card and matching sales with coupons, it also has resulted in large savings on toiletries, hair care products and other drug store items.

Another way that I am trying to plan weekly menus for breakfasts, lunches and dinners so that I can see if we can get along with a small trip to the grocery. This week, between the Jewel, Ed's Grocery and Costco, we need a grand total of less than 15 items for a weeks worth of meals.

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