July Couponing

As promised, here is an update on my couponing adventures for July. I am wrapping up week 3 of this new endeavor and I am pretty pleased with the results so far. It was very time consuming in the begining, but now that I am orgainized it takes about 2 hours a week to get my coupons cut out and filed away and then a little bit of time to organize my game plan for each store I want to go to. I have to admit I was hesitant and a little scepticle at first about the whole process. I never knew how to use coupons for the maximum impact, so prior to this, I would go into the store ready to use them and then end up buying the generic for cheaper and throwing my coupons away. But thanks to websites like thekrazycouponlady.com, iheartpublix.com and faithfulprovisions.com, I have been able to use the coupons to their maximum potantial and in the process save alot of money.
  The goal of couponing is to never have to pay full price for the essentials you know you will always need. To do this you need a stockpile of items, so that you aren't running out of things and having to run to the store and being forced to buy the item at full price. When I first started reading about what the krazylady considered stock up prices for things I laughed. For starters, I didn't believe that you could get free or almost free toothpaste and toothbrushes all the time. In the past, I always spent $2-3 per tube and a few dollars per toothbrush. I am now a believer! I have 8 tubes of toothpaste and 8 toothbrushes in just three weeks and total I paid less than $5 for all of them.
  I don't think I need years worth of stockpile, I don't want more than I can use before the expiration date. But I do want a few of everything on hand, so that I don't have to buy it unless it's for a great price. That being said I did need more space. We had already bought a chest freezer due to freezing my milk and Avery's baby food, so we now use it for extra meat, milk, veggies, etc that we stock up on. I also needed more cabinet space for the nonperishable food, so I reorganized the pantry and put in a few extra baskets and shelves to make more room for the extras (LOVE organizing!). For the stockpile of toiletries, I dedicated one cabinet in the guest bathroom and it's amazing how fast it fills up. All the amazing deals I have gotten on diapers have transformed the top of Avery's closet into a diaper wonderland, haha. We've even gotten some Christmas gifts during these 3 weeks.
 
Now for the results:

**WEEK 1 (had to buy alot of non-sale groceries since we had been on vacation)-
                total bill:$379
                total paid:$207
                total saved: $172 or 45%

**WEEK 2 (Christmas presents included)-
                total bill:$434
                total paid:$203
                total saved: $231 or 53%

**WEEK 3-
                total bill:$250
                total paid:$94
                total saved: $156 or 62%

GRAND TOTAL:
               total bill:$1063
               total paid:$504
               TOTAL SAVED: $559 or 53%

Each week just keeps getting cheaper! Despite my excitement over week three's success, I think I will be taking the next week or so off, so I'll keep you updated on my August endevaors. Happy Couponing :)

Latest grocery trip (diapers normally $20 alone!)
$31 total  :)