As of the first of the year, in and effort to cut down some of our spending and get some bills paid off, we started paying more attention to the grocery store sales and cutting coupons. I saw a couple blogs with tips and decided to give it another go.We used to use coupons all the time when we first got married and especially when we first had kids. Diapers and formula are expensive! But we got out of the habit of it. It takes time. Well, just in this first month we've made quite a difference. During one shopping trip we cut the bill nearly in half with all the sales and coupons. I won't say we're great at it yet. If you've got any tips or blogs worth reading about saving money let me know. But I'm happy with our start. And while in that first month we didn't actually spend any less on groceries (we stocked up on a bunch of things that were on sale and we had coupons for) we do have A LOT more to show for the money we spent!We're also trying to cut our spending on eating out. That is where I think we can save quite a bit. We tend to get lazy sometimes and if we don't feel like cooking dinner we'll just order pizza. If we head out for errands in the morning we always seem to end our outing with a stop for lunch. So far for February we're on the right track. I'm just such a sucker for eating out and not having to cook myself!!
When you can't pronounce the brand of clothes your daughter wants to wear. I thought I was safe from that whole thing for a while because she has never really cared what she wore or where we shopped or IF we clothes shopped for that matter. One of her best friends is a little shop-a-holic already but my daughter never really gave it much thought.Until now! I mentioned that while her younger sister was at a girl scout activity this past Friday night we'd hit the mall to kill time. Yeah, whatever mom. But then all of a sudden she came home from school on Friday and she needed to get something from Aeropostale. Seriously, for some dumb reason I really have a hard time saying that name. Obviously it has nothing to do with my age like I said.....cuz I'm NOT getting old. I can't be. I haven't figured out what I want to do with my life yet and I just don't feel like I'm gonna be *cough* 38 this weekend. That's getting dangerously close to the big 4-0. But at least I get to spend my bday with my two favorite guys!! Hubby is taking me to see Rick Springfield this Saturday! WooHoo! Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it and share a pic or two.
There are some things that no matter what, when you go grocery shopping you get them. I'm sure every family has them. Things you use or eat daily and by the time you go shopping again you need them. My husband can't seem to get that through his head and he'll forget them if I'm not shopping with him. And of course usually they are things that I want. I went to have a ham sandwich today for lunch.......same thing I eat almost everyday. There is just enough ham to make my sandwich and no new package. I know if I ask him when he gets home he'll tell me.........."It wasn't on the list". I hear it every time he goes without me! I have plenty of cheese for my sandwich though! But that's only because it was on the list.
By that I mean, the one thing you need to have, have too many of or every time you go into a store you have to look at whether you'll be getting it or not. For me it's shoes (well besides cameras). I just got a new pair on Thursday and it got me thinking about it. Back about 12-13 years ago my husband and I were getting ready to move into our first house. I worked at Kmart at the time and remember asking a co-worker to save a box she was emptying. She knew we were moving and asked what I was going to use it for since it was fairly big and odd sized. When I told her my shoes her jaw dropped and she asked just how many pairs I had. Well, I went home that night and counted and it was only about 35-40 pairs from what I can recall. Nothing out of the ordinary, I thought! She couldn't believe it when I went back and told her the next day. She started calling me Imelda Marcos. Not quite, from what I read on Wikipedia she had more like 3000. Anyway, with that move and the next I condensed and slowed down in the shoe buying because we had kids. Our money was going to clothe and feed them!! Go figure. But over the past couple years I've started accumulating again. I counted now after buying this last pair and I'm at 25 (27 if you count my two pairs of winter boots). For my mom it's books.......go into ANY store and if there is a book for sale she will find it!! For my grandmother it was curtains. Don't ask me, I don't get that one at all!! I hated being dragged to the curtain dept. every time we went shopping. So, what's your thing?
Is it too much to ask that the people bagging your groceries actually know what they are doing? I'm sick of coming home with more bags than necessary, squished food, all the heavy stuff in one bag or cleaning supplies mixed in with fresh food. It's not rocket science people!! Today as I put my bags in the van they wouldn't stand up straight, when I got home I realized it was because she laid all the bottled stuff sideways on the bottom of the bag and then tried to stack stuff on top of it. My frozen items were spread throughout all the bags. Why? I purposely put them all together on the belt so when you bag them they are together. Ugh!
