The Coupon Queen

Instead of working on a school assignment that is due by 11:30pm tonight, I decided to procrastinate a little more by jumping on the blog to tell you about my new, self-proclaimed title, the coupon queen.

Don't get me wrong, I know there are people who are better at this than I am. There are more tricks for me to figure out. But in this household, I am running the grocery scene...and have started to master the art of it.

I've come along way. When I first started dating Layne, a trip to the grocery story together never ended well. I had no process, I just did my thing. Layne had a routine as to how he approached grocery shopping, and he didn't deviate. CLASH. I have this ingrained habit from when I was child of holding on to the side of the cart. I distinctly remember Abby and Gregory in a grocery cart with Stephen and I holding on to the side and mom pushing us in a cart and pulling the groceries behind her. (How she did this I'll never know.) Without realizing it, I still hold onto the side of the cart all of the time. It drove Layne nuts. CLASH. We've figured out how to go to the grocery together since then, but I will always look at those beginning days and laugh.

Now I am the one who has a specific approach about the grocery store, and it starts with my grocery list. It is so easy to go to the store for 12 things and come home with 20. I find myself buying extra things- things I want but don't need, or things I will use just not right away. Rarely are they on sale, and rarely do I have the right coupon. So the first step for me is to commit to my grocery list. Like anything in life, there are exceptions. But the conscious commitment to sticking to the list goes a long way.

Next, I compare my list with the weekly flyers. If you don't get the paper on Wednesdays and Sundays, look online. All of the grocery stores I use post them, and there is more information about other store discounts as well. After looking over the ads, it was obvious that Kroger was the right place for me to go this week. The last thing to do was to look through coupons and see if I had everything. The world of printable online coupons has really made a difference in the way I approach grocery shopping. I now list what I need, and find the coupon to match it. And you would be surprised how easy that is to do. Yesterday, I was able to find $1 off of the milk we use, and $0.75 off of my creamer. Finding coupons for our essentials is the best, and in total I used fifteen coupons last night.

My favorite steals of the day: 12 pack of coke zero and sprite zero $2.00, my Herbal Essences shampoo $1.45, Yoplait Frozen Smoothies $1.54, Kraft sliced cheese $0.89, Oscar Meyer Deli Meat $1.09, and my Quaker Rice Cakes $1.19

Was it worth it? Look at these savings and you tell me.

Manufacturer's Coupons (that I brought in) - $9.95
Bonus Coupon (I held my bread off to the side and used the coupon to pay for it) - $1.50
Kroger Plus Savings (why I chose to go to Kroger, they had sales on my items) -$27.41

Total Savings-  $38.86  (29%)

I invested about an hour of my time to prep. And keep in mind that I'm grocery shopping for Weight Watchers as well, so I was able to find steals and deals on the specific items I need to eat healthy. Totally worth it.