Being a Good Steward...

Well in the interest of needing to be a better steward of our grocery money, I got busy today. In between folding the mountain of laundry and doing more, I was researching couponing.

I know, I know-why does one NEED to research couponing? It's basic, right? Clip the coupons, save the money.

Well, it's not quite that basic. I mean, it can be, but, part of being a modern traditional wife is being the manager of the household. To me, that means managing the household finances, as well. Now, I don't mean managing as in taking the money from the husband and spending it without his input. No, no, no. I am his helpmeet, so it's my job to consult him on our spending. He has asked me to be in charge of finances. He has the foresight and openmindedness to realize that finances are not his strongpoint. I don't really think they are mine, but he also knows that I spent a long time with just Aimee and I, on one income, and we ended up neither homeless or starving. So I handle that end of things, with his input. It usually goes something like this:
"Do you think we should buy X item?"
"Why do we need it"
"Because (whatever reason)"
"Then yes."
Not because he says yes to everything, but because I usually don't ask if it's something we don't need. He does say no. For example, we need a new TV. We got offered a 56ish inch projection big screen for $100. We can't buy a new TV for $100 around here, much less something that big. Granted, we don't NEED something that big, but, because it would be cheaper than new, I thought it was worth consideration. Ever practical, his response was "Where will we put it?" Seven people, three bedroom apartment, darn good question. We measured, it won't fit, we're not getting it. Done.

Anyway, back to being a better steward.

I bought a whole bunch of coupons today. Between the coupon clippers last night, and ebay this morning, I'll have hundreds. Now, you can't choose what you get on ebay, but what I can't use, I can sell on ebay or giveaway. I also bought a coupon organizer. I'll post the link once I get the item, cause it looks to be really neat. This way, when the coupons come in, I can organize them right from the get go. In fact, I think that will be my project for when I'm up in Pueblo for training. Lisa and I are planning on playing Scrabble all night, and we can organize coupons while we do that.

It's important to organize because I will have multiples. Why have multiple coupons? Where this is where you go beyond the basic. To get the best price on your items, why not stock up while they are on sale with the coupons? Let's take rice-a-roni for example. The normal price on rice-a-roni at Walmart is $1.24. Today it was on sale at Safeway for $1.25, but if you bought 10, it was $.75. There is a coupon out there for $1.00 off 4, which, if I had had it, would have taken the price down to $.50. It would have been silly of me to not buy as many as I could at that price-it's less than half!

I found this incredible resource today. It's a forum called afullcup.com. They have advice on stockpiling (which we do anyway, cause I'm a prepper), pictures of people's stockpiles, plus postings about different deals at different stores. I spent some time reading there, and discovered that there were some really great deals at Safeway. They would have been even better if I'd had coupons. Now, I looked at the store sale ad online, but I missed a bunch of these. They also had info on another promotion called Chill Out At Home, which is for frozen food month. They also have a complete list of the items covered under that promo, which includes store brands. If you spend $25 on participating frozen foods, you get $10 towards your next frozen food purchase.

Now, yesterday when we were shopping, we didn't make it to Safeway. The kids (and the adults) were all tired. So after reading this, I decide it's a pretty good deal, even if I don't have coupons. So I ask Aimee if she will watch the kids for awhile, and when Larry got home from training, and we ate dinner, we went to Safeway.

Here's what I got:
10 Mott's Applesauce, assorted flavors, the 6 packs
10 Rice-A-Roni
20 Hunt's Pudding Snacks, 4 packs
2 Chips Ahoy Chocolate Chip Cookies
10 Honey Roasted Skippy Peanut Butter
10 Duncan Hines Cake Mix
6 Gallons Milk
10 Yogurts
25 Banquet Frozen Dinners (Fire meals)
10 Sara Lee Bagels, 6 pack
2 lbs Beef Short Ribs (I use for broth)
25 lbs Round Steak
8 lbs Pork Ribs
4 lbs Pork Chops
2 lbs Chicken Breasts
2 lbs Chicken Thighs

Total before savings $396.69
Total Out Of Pocket $206.20
Total Savings $190.49, 49%.

The cashier actually said "You saved $190.49! That's awesome!"

Upon returning home we actually had to rearrange the entire pantry! I'll post pics tomorrow!

Well the dishwasher is finally done, so I'm heading to bed!