Couponing- The Beginning

One of the reason that I feel a strong "push" to start this blog to share how I am saving money. I don't make New Year Resolution but this year I did set several goals:

Get out of debt except for the house and car.
Finish the addition. (This will be a whole blog of it's own, I got to
have something to write about)
Go on a week long vacation to the beach.

All of these involve money. At this point both DH and I agree that I NEED to be home. So me working more is not an option for my family right now so saving money is the way that I am helping in achieving our goals. So couponing and shopping sales,consignments,and ebaying all help me save money. There are a couple of "catches" for me using coupons. First I HATE going to the grocery store. Second is DH's pay schedule. Third trying to get all 3 of the little one in a car and then shopping well that is just impossible by myself. So I am working to make this as easy as possible and to use as little time as possible. Looking at our expenses for 2009 on average we were spending $579 a month on food. This was our largest bill except for the house payment. So it made sense for me to start working on reducing that bill. I was shopping sales but not using coupons. I "tried" to only go shopping twice a month.

So now that I have written where we started, here is what has changed. First we began ordering Angel Food. If you are not familiar with Angel Food, check out their site (www.angelfoodministries.com) I budget $100 a month to purchase food this way. Angel Food has no income requirement and it is a nation wide program. The site will help you find something close to you. The food is AWESOME! We regularly buy a signature box and a fruit and veggie box. Most months, we also purchase one or more of the meat/chicken boxes. Now for the coupons. I started by going through my mother's Saturday paper, there is no Sunday paper in this town. I clipped all the coupons I "thought" I would use. I organized them in a notebook using baseball card holders into categories. I daily check these websites, (www.budgetsavingmom.com , Southernsavers.com and Caringwithcoupons. I prints lots of the coupons, but only ones I know I will probably use and have signed up for anything free that is useful!
So far I have shopped at Food Lion, CVS and one trip to Harris Teeter for "super doubles." At budgetsavingmom, she has a guide on how to get started. This is an excellent way to start. I did save up my coupons for about a month before really starting but I don't see any need in buying multiple papers to get the coupons. I am trying to have the smallest expense up front so I have not bought anything extra. This is the start, my plan is to post another post on my actual shopping this week!