Happy Couponing

I almost did it….I was almost able to beat myself at the coupon/money saving game this week….but ultimately I was not able to make it happen. I originally had $86 to spend this week for my family. I set a personal goal to only spend $80 but ended up with a grand total of $86.83. Not too shabby in hindsight since I planned an extra special meal and dessert for Valentine’s Day night and bought the “have to have” red sprinkles to decorate my son’s sugar cookies for his class for Valentine’s Day!

Wouldn’t we all be a little bit richer if items such as fruit, vegetables, dairy, and meats were ever able to be purchased with coupons? My haul this week included strawberries, asparagus, zucchini, green onions, a large bag of baby carrots, a dozen eggs, 1 quart buttermilk, shredded cheese, sour cream, 12 oz of cream cheese, and 1 ½ lbs of top round steak….all of which I had to pay full price for. Fortunately places like Publix usually have great deals on a “fruit of the week” and their meat selection is usually phenomenal…not to mention their awesome buy one get one free deals. I would imagine, even with the discounts I am able to score at Publix, these above mentioned items take up at least ½ of my total cost every single week.

This week I scored some Arnold Country Bread for BOGO and some Breyers Ice Cream as well (hubby will be happy about that!!!!) They did have some other very good BOGO deals but I am married to my budget so I did not deviate and stock my cart with anything extra this week. I was however VERY tempted to utilize my ALL Detergent coupon, which expires in 2 days, but since I am married to my budget I had to let this one go. (side note: for those that don’t know, I am a closet laundry detergent addict….just ask my husband…..we currently possess 12 bottles and I am DYING to add to that!!!!)

Overall this was a rather successful week. Besides the staples that I mentioned earlier and the BOGO deals, I was also able to score a few frozen lunches for myself, snuggle dryer sheets, large bleach, butter sticks, golden mushroom soup, rice, a small thing of merlot (for cooking), heavy whipping cream, spaghetti noodles, paper towels, powdered sugar, white baking chocolate, prosciutto, splenda, coconut, Lays BBQ chips (for FREE!!!), cherry pie filling, a 12 pack of sodas, and those special red decorating sprinkles for one SUPER little man!!!

Total saved this week was $23.00. Could have been better….have had better weeks in the past but with Valentine’s Day coming I focused more on making my little loved ones a really awesome Valentine’s Dinner complete with a Cherry Frosted Red Velvet 3-layer cake (homemade )

And now that my mission for this week is completed, I am off to enjoy a very quiet evening alone watching “Mommy” shows and relaxing!
Happy Couponing Everyone!!!!