Coupons and more!

Yes, this is another blog post about coupons. Yesterday, I was talking with a friend about the great deals he had gotten for only 1 cent! Bags of Chex mix, pretzel M&Ms, vitamin waters, ect. and various other odds and ends. THAT my friends, is called good couponing! My frugal-want-to-be blood was going high! I want to try this month to see just how much I can save buy using coupons. I will only buy brand name things if the price is lower than the store brand.

What were his tips? To buy grocery coupons off of ebay. If you don't get the newspaper and if you want to do couponing get on ebay and browse their grocery coupons. I just placed a bid this morning on ebay for a package of 100 coupons for $4.00, which ends up being 25 cents per a coupon. If I save at least $4.00 I will of made some profit by buying these coupons. I know I probably should of tried to find a better deal to bid on, but I wanted to try it and see what happens. Most of the coupons will ship for free, which is really nice. Have you ever bought coupons off of ebay? If so, how did that endeavor turn out and did you stick with it?

As we prepare for our April grocery shopping, let me share some really quick tips that I have learned from my 1st shop-once-a-month shopping trip in March.

*We go through more milk than I thought - ended up having to get another gallon of milk.

*Toothpaste didn't quite last a month

* Get fresh fruit 2x a month - it doesn't quite last for a whole 4/5 weeks.

*Spending $30 extra during the month to host a total of 40 people in your home within two weeks isn't really that bad.

*Allow for spending flexibility. This is a MUST for at least the 1st month! You're suppose to have fun grocery shopping and seeing what money you can save, so don't beat yourself up when the total comes to $180 or whatever.

Start slow and work up to your budget amount. Saving money takes time. It takes time for money to build in your savings account, so why should it be different when saving money while grocery shopping. I know that there are others that I can't think of right now, but those are a few of the items that stand out to me when I think about shopping for a month and what items I need to buy 2x a month instead of 1x.

I'm going to shop 1x a month (minus for those things that one needs to buy every 2 weeks) and cook meals to freeze for at least 1 month or at least try to freeze meals for a few weeks. I'll try to share with you the recipes I plan on trying this month and keep you posted on how that adventure turns out. :)

Do you have a shopping day in mind for the month of April? I always like to shop on Mondays. Last time, I ended up shopping in the POURING down rain! I was happy over the fact that my shopping was all done and I got to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather the following days that week. I'm planning to do my shopping next Monday on April 4th. I can't wait!

I can't believe it's almost April!