I think I did ok

Today I had my first ever coupon and grocery shopping trip for the family where I put together my deals, got my coupons together and figured out how to get us some meals for possibly the rest of the month.

Krogers grocery store has a deal where if you buy 10 participating products, they'll take 5 dollars off your total. I decided on the these products:

4 cans of Hormel Chili (while pregnant I've wanted chilidogs constantly)
5 cans of diced tomatoes (my sister wanted 3 can to start with)
1 pack of four Danon light and fit yogurt
2 packs of Colgate toothpaste
 
I bought 12 items participating but still got 5.00 off. With my coupons, these items only cost 4.15 total.
The chili was 1.90. 1.25 for the tomatoes. 50 cents for the yogurt and 25 cents for each tooth paste. That's pretty much an 85 cent gain if I'm remembering correctly along with those items pretty much being free. Cool, right? It's gets better.

I bought 4 Pillsbury products using coupons which made a tin of biscuits 1 dollar each (bought 4) and then I got a 1.00 catalina to use on my next stop to the store!

I did buy other products that rounded out our bill to 35 dollars like Steamfresh veggie meals (buy one get one coupons), cornbread mix my family loves, bottled water and more but I can tell everything we bought will last longer than a month feeding 5 people counting my baby to be. A few more things to get (chicken, veggies, lunch meat) and I'll be done with shopping for the month!

Finding deals, specials, clearance racks, using coupons, and just being able to provide for my family is my biggest goal right now. I'm 24 and due with my first baby in February, I'm soon to be fully self employed after maternity leave and I share my house with three other people (mom, 2 sisters).

I need to be able to take care of my baby, keep my house taken care of and keep my sanity as I completely switch gears. The plan is to get us prepared for the big changes that will be coming up next year, keep us ahead of the curve and keep us happy.

On this blog I plan to show how I'm going to do just that. I'm not amazing at couponing, in fact I'm just getting started. I'm not someone who has it all down yet but I'm excited to getting going. I hope that by the end of 2011, I'll have an impressive stockpile, knowledge of coupons and an eye for deals.