Tuesday, July 13, 2010

I'm a Thrifty Gal . . .

I am a thrifty gal.

And, it's a good thing that I am. As a stay at home mom, whose husband is a teacher, I have to make paychecks stretch quite often.

Very, very often.

I have actually become quite good at stretching my family's dollar. I buy foods in bulk and then come home and separate them for future use. I clip coupons, and I watch for sales. My husband jokes about the mess that I make of the Sunday morning paper as I cut it up and then align the coupons with the week's sales circulars. But, he doesn't joke when he sees what my thrifty work provides.

Case in point . . .

This week, I scanned the sales flyers, and then I perused my coupons. It was a golden week. My coupons lined up with the sales at the CVS drugstore. So, I purchased:

2 Suave Shampoos
2 Suave kids shampoos
2 Suave bodywashes
2 Head and Shoulders Shampoos
1 deodorant
1 Gillette Pro Fusion razor with cartridges
1 box Multigrain Cheerios
1 box Chocolate Cheerios
1 box Kellogg's brown sugar poptarts
1 box Kellogg's smores poptarts
1 pair of kid's school scissors
1 10 pack of ball point pens
2 cans of Folger's coffee

That is 18 items. (28 if you count the pens individually, but really, why would you?) If I had used the suggested values for each of the above items, I would have spent approximately $53.95.

Yikes!

My cost . . . $21.12 for all of the above.

SCORE!

Now, do I really need 6 different shampoos in the near future? Not likely. Do I really need 2 cans of coffee tomorrow morning? No. (But there are days when it feels like a yes.) The point is, if I can catch them on sale now, and stock up, then in the long run it saves me some serious cash.

Cash that I can use to support my shoe habit.

After all, a girl has to have her priorities.


11 comments:

  1. Congrats! And I'll bet you feel so proud, too, huh? SITS sent me by, and I'm glad they did!

    Busted!

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  2. That is SO encouraging. I have been trying to get thrifty again. My 'cheap' got all out of practice for a couple of years and I REALLY want to work the coupon thing. Your post is 'news I can use'.

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  3. annie, you are awesome. i always clip coupons, but then i forget them at home or drop them everywhere as i am sifting through them in the store. i'm a disorganized mess. how do you keep your coupons organized?

    p.s. how are you all feeling???? better, i hope?

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  4. I'm the world's worst couponer. I will use them for the things on my list but always miss out on the big steals. *bowing to your awesomeness*

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  5. annie - i am a bad couponer. I can't be bothered - and by the time I remember I have them - they all have expired. Yay for you my friend!

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  6. Ooooh, you did a great job! As a fellow thrifty gal, I say way to go! :)

    http://lambaround.blogspot.com

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  7. My SIL is really good about doing that. I should try it. I just don't have time to go to all the different stores like she does. But those are great savings!

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  8. It is hearing things like this that make me want to spend the time doing this!!

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  9. Wow, you go girl!!! I did couponing awhile back but kind of lost interest until recently. I just ordered the weekend paper again and started following various sites that list sales incorporated with the sales in the Sunday paper and so far I've managed to save a nice chunk of change. My husband is always amazed as well!

    Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and showing your support in reference to the nasty comment left by "BFF"! I really appreciated your thoughts!

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  10. That is inspiring! I am not good at coupons, but I'm going to make more of an effort. Thanks for visiting my blogoir on my SITS day last week. BTW, John is a pseudonym on my site. :-)

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  11. That is truly impressive! Good job! My hubby's a teacher too. And I'm a school psychologist. I love coupons.

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