The Year Of Living Frugally

Before I get to the topic of my post, let me say, "Happy New Year"! I've obviously been slow to get back into the swing of things. Today marks the end of our first five-day school week since mid-December. To say I am sick of snow (heck; winter in general) is a ridiculous under-statement. So now, back to my original train of thought.

When it comes to shopping and saving money, I am a bit of an enigma. I hate to shop, but I love to save money. I am a bargain hunter, but I have my limits. Walmart can be a great place to find deals, but there are times I'd rather have my fingernails removed than suffer through the experience of shopping there just to save a few bucks. Case in point: One Saturday night, my husband and I had just finished a movie at 11:30, when it occured to me that we didn't have enough milk for breakfast. We have a Super Walmart that recently opened across the street, so I figured I'd just zip in there and pick up a gallon. Yeah. I stood in a line of about 10 people (all with buggies heaping with groceries, not a single one offering to let me go ahead with my ONE item) until after midnight. I vowed to never go there again that late at night. A couple of months later when I was in the same predicament, I went to the corner store and paid five dollars for a gallon of milk just to avoid the frustration that is Walmart.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if I have to work too hard to save money, it just doesn't seem worth the effort to me. I have tried couponing over the years, but it's never really clicked for me until recently. I do most of my shopping at Aldi. It's a chain of small grocery stores that sell generic brands really cheap. I couldn't see how using coupons on name brand items would save me more money than shopping at Aldi. It certainly seemed less time consuming to just shop there than taking the time to cut and sort coupons. One day, I ran across a website called Southern Savers. I learned that I've been going about this coupon thing all wrong. It wasn't enough to just cut coupons and take them to the store with me. I had to combine the coupons with the weekly sales! Most of you experienced couponers out there are probably smacking your foreheads and shouting a big ol' "DUH!!", but this was quite the revelation for me. It's becoming a fun game for me to see just how much money I can cut off of my grocery bill.

In January, I decided to start keeping a Savings Journal. I know I've missed a receipt or two, but I've done a pretty good job tracking my savings so far. In my next post, I'll let you take a peak. I'll tell you what has worked for me so far, and maybe you more experienced shoppers out there can give me a few pointers. I definitely have much to learn (I'd love to go to one of those Couponing 101 type classes that I've heard about). Maybe this can become a semi-regular topic for the blog.