2010 - Money Saving Challenge!

About this time last year I witnessed something that has changed my life forever. I was at Publix doing my "normal" grocery shopping. When I was at the check out the lady in front of me told me that she had a lot of coupons and suggested that I change to a different register because it was going to take a while. Well I stayed, having a 3 year old at home this was my chance to "chill" out and do NOTHING!

Well after the lady rang her up the coupons came out. I have never seen anything like it. When she said she had a lot, she really had A LOT! So I stood there in amazement and asked her how she did this. She gave me a few pointers....

• Check out the Buy one get one FREE deals (BOGO). You can match up two coupons, one for each. EX: Honey Bunches of Oats is BOGO for $4.99 you can use 2 $1.00 off coupons, making each only $1.50!
• Publix take competitors and will stack them with the manufactures.... (Target, Walgreens, Winn Dixie are all Publix competitors) So to add to the 1st example if there is a $.50 Target coupon for Honey Bunches of Oats than you can use 2 $1 man. coupons and 2$.50 off Target coupons making them now only $.50 a box!

So then I asked her.... "how long does it take you to do this?" She told me it takes her about 1.5 to 2 hours. (However she had a Blackberry with a spreadsheet with ALL of prices in Publix, you do not have to go that over board!) But the thing that she said that stuck was well ya, it take about 2 hour but I look at it as though I am making about $70 an hour.

So after she was rung up I asked her how much she saved.... Her total before coupons was around $250 and she handed over $40 cash for everything after the savings! I was shocked!

So I ran home and did some research on the computer and realized the coupon sale match ups where all over the web. And at that point it began.... I became a money saving, coupon using, crazy girl!

Last year I just did what I could do without any budget. I took our $500 monthly grocery bill down to $250. And the crazy part is NOTHING changed! We still eat the same. So this year I have decided to keep track of my spending. And would love to have people join me!

So I am starting the 2010 Money Saving Challenge! I am going to use this spreadsheet... HERE. (from the Coupon Project) Each Friday I will post my spending and saving and hope that everyone else does too.

Also I will be doing postings on how to save money at grocery stores, CVS, Walgreens, Target/Walmart and just on the web.