Friday, May 13, 2011

Living large on one income: using coupons ~

May 13, 2011 032

We are a family of seven.  That’s a little bit larger than your average family.  We also are a family of seven living on one income.  Even though I don’t have a “paying job”, I do see it as my job to stretch our income for our family as much as possible. 

Back when I was doing a Tightwad Gazette challenge, (which I plan to get back on now that life is slowing down a bit) I talked about how one of the largest areas that I could save money was in the grocery section of our budget. 

However, I’m sure you’ve noticed that food prices are on the rise due to gas prices.  It has gotten harder and harder to save money on food.  So now I’ve added saving money on non-food items such as our toiletries and household needs as well. 

And just how have I been doing that?

Well, I have been receiving the Sunday paper for about a year now and with it…many, many coupons.  And I’ve been saving them and thinking to myself:

I’m sure most of these coupons are for things I don’t use.

I don’t like to feed my family many processed foods and that’s what most coupons are for.

I don’t see how one coupon here and one coupon there will save us any money.

 

But finally, I decided to look at those coupons and see what was in there and you know what…

I did use some of those items on the coupons.

Not all of the foods were for processed junk.

And these coupons combined with weekly sales (which I all ready used) would save our family some money.

So I took the plunge.  And do you see those items in that picture above?  There are 2 liquid laundry detergents, 3 dish detergents, and four toothpastes.  I got those for a total of $ 9.32.  And considering that one of the detergents alone costs over $7.00 and we saved over $30.00 for these items, I call that a good deal!  (These were purchased at Walgreens.) 

This savings on non-food items as well as the savings from using coupons at the grocery store matched with the sales ads has been helping our family to live large on one income!  {more to come}

For some information on couponing, here are some great places to visit:

Couponing 101

Southern Savers

Coupon Mom

Money Saving Mom

There are many, many more but I’ll leave you with those to get you started! 

6 comments:

  1. Hi, my name is Sally, and I think you're awesome :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. First all, you have the biggest full time job a woman can EVER have!

    Being a wife and a mother, homeschooling, managing a home and a budget! That's HUGE!!!

    I've been couponing for years now and I'm not sure how we would make it without it. As a matter of fact, as I type this I just printed off coupons from coupons.com for johnsons baby wash, lotion and shampoo. It's on sale this week at kroger for $2.50 and each coupon is worth $1. That means I will get them for $1!!!

    Walgreens and CVS are your best bets for GREAT deals.

    Thanks for the links. Some, I've never visited and I can't wait to check them out!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sally ~ Why, thank you. I think you're pretty awesome too! :0)

    Amanda ~ I totally agree with you about mothering. David and I both realize just how big of a job it is to run this home. But I can not tell you how many times I hear, "If only you got paid for it." Or I hear, "When are you going to go back to work?" I guess it just fills my mind with little bits of doubt about my "non-paying job". But I feel so called by God to be where I am right now. And there's no place I'd rather be.

    I have put off this couponing thing for quite some time but I'm finding it a little addictive and a lot of fun! I haven't tried CVS yet. The above was my first time at Walgreeens and it took me a while to figure out all of the transactions in order to get the best deal. I imagine that it will get easier over time.

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  4. I am getting started with couponing. I hope I can be as successful as you are with it. I have alot to learn!! :) I also like www.thefrugalgirls.com

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  5. Way to go! I just got back into couponing myself and I use the Southern Savers website all the time. Great job on the laundry detergent! I hate buying it because it is so expensive, I always try to look for a deal.

    You should start a Tightwad Gazette weekly linky party. I would totally do a weekly post and link up to it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kristina ~ I'm just learning too. Thanks for the link to the site, I'll have to check it out. :0)

    Melissa ~ I had a thought a while back about starting a linky party for the TG. I'll think a little more on and if I feel I can keep up with it, I'll give it a go. Thanks for the idea. :0)

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