A Thrifty Shopping Trip!

Now, I know this "thrify" craze has been sweeping the nation, and it's certainly got me caught up right in it! I'm learning and striving to stretch our dollar further and further - as far as it can go! I have learned a lot from several great websites - MoneySavingMom & Hot Coupon World, to name a couple, and I'm starting to use a lot of their great tips in my every day life.

First, CLIP coupons! I know, I know, it's a tedious, and not-so-fun job, but I promise it will save you a ton of money! Second, MATCH those coupons with your local grocery stores weekly sales flyers! I have local to me a Kroger, Albertson's, Market Basket, WalMart, Sam's Club, and a KMart. I also have a CVS and a Walgreen's, which I do really well coupon'ing there as well, too!

Today I gave myself a budget of $50 and wanted to see what I could come up with. It takes me about an hour or so to ready myself, by going over my sales flyers and gathering my coupons. Billy (my husband) and I decided to take the whole family and make a little outing of it. We had to stop at both WalMart and Kroger.

First, at WalMart we got:
10 boxes of Ronzoni SmartTaste pasta
3 bags of Hershey's chocolate & butterscotch chips
2 packs of candy canes
1 3-lb bag of rice
2 Blue Plate mayonnaise
1 Country Crock margarine
1 Italian dressing
1 Smucker's all natural peanut butter
Green Onions

White Onions
Celery
Pepsi (for me!)
Soft Peppermint sticks

Grand total @ WalMart after coupons - $34.97

We ran to Kroger right after, where the boys had a melt down so Billy took them home (we sadly cannot fit comfortably into one vehicle - we own a Honda CR-V and a GMC Sierra, but three carseats makes for a not so comfortable squeeze). I picked up the last few things on our list.

Kroger -
2 packs Huggies diapers
2 4-packs of Cottonelle toilet paper
2 smoked sausage
2 cans ReddiWip
1 bag Kroger brand french fries
Organic bananas (bought the organic on accident, we usually don't buy organic bananas)
1 jar Kroger salsa

Total spent @ Kroger after coupons - $18.67

Grand total $53.64! A smidge over my budget of $50 for the week, but not too shabby!

Next week will be a slow week because of Christmas, but our freezers are stuffed and our fridge and cabinets are full, so we are blessed! Do you have any good grocery trips to share? Leave me a note with your blog address!

Public Blogging!

This is my first leap into public blogging. I have been a private blogger for over seven years now, but I feel like it's time to leap into the world of the unknown! Let me give you a little bit of background about myself....

My name is Christy, and my husband's name is Billy. We've been married for almost 5 years, and together for over seven. We have definitely had our ups and downs, but we have a very solid love and foundation to our marriage. We have three children now, our oldest two our boys, Donovan is 3 1/2, Trenton is 2, and our baby is Miss Delilah, born 10/1. She has brought a whole new depth of love to our family. The boys adore her, and she is the sweetest baby I've ever met! We currently live in a small town in southern Louisiana. My husband is going to school to finish his electrical engineering degree. We hope to be done with school in about 4 years.

I am currently a work at home / stay at home mom. I am able to work from home for an online only retailer and be with my kids as much as possible. My husband is home during the day when he's not in school (he works a very early morning shift at a local hardware store) so he cares for the kiddos when I'm focused on working. We are VERY blessed by this job, and though it's not secure (due to the ever changing economy) I know God will provide whatever way He sees fit.

I am hoping the point of this blog will be to post pictures and the like for our friends and family that we moved far, far away from, and to post about all my frugal homemaking and thrifty shopping. I'm a bit of an addicted coupon-er, but I figure there are worse things to be addicted to. I also hope to publicly blog about my struggle with my weight and my goal of losing a good amount this year. Billy has a 10-year reunion for high school this spring and one of my best friends is getting married in October and I am a bridesmaid!

I consider myself very lucky and blessed. I have a great family, great extended family that I married into, and great friends. :)