The New Coupon Queen...Who Me?

For approximately the last six months I have been on a slow transgression from a "buy what I want" kind of girl to a "buy only what I need" kind of girl. With a new baby on the way and some debt to pay off I am bound and determined to live on a budget and quit making excessive purchases. I never really realized just how bad I was until now. I would go to Wal-Mart every other week, sometimes every week and plop down $350 on groceries just to go home and pitch out about $150 worth from my fridge to make room for my new purchases. I was bad! Well I can say I have definitely transformed myself. By all means I am still a work in progress but I really feel like I am getting there!

I have pretty much stopped going to the mall all together. I used to be there every Saturday and a couple of days during the week at lunch. Whether I needed anything or not, and I never failed to walk out with a shopping bag in my hand. I would tell myself, it was such a great deal, I just had to get it. The problem was, I in no way needed it! So my solution to this was to just stop going all the time. It has been hard! My girlfriends at work think I have deserted them, but I have to stand strong. I don't yet have the willpower to just window shop...someday maybe, but for now I just need to stay clear.

I have even stopped making my weekly purchases at Gymboree for the kids. I no longer shop there unless there is a sale and I have a coupon on top of it! This is still a work in progress but again, I do feel like I am improving.

We are working on the eating out all the time and have made some improvements. We still eat out occasionally but have definitely scaled down. I am not the best cook in the world I admit, but have found some golden Crock pot recipes that have worked out well. When we do eat out I try to find a coupon for where we are eating so I don't feel as guilty. I purchased an entertainment book and they actually have some great deals for some great restaurants around town. We ate at Balboa Pizza at the District on Friday night and saved $10.25 with my coupon!

Charlie is still trying to get on board, he's getting better but still enjoys the impulse buy here and there. I was able to convince him to go shopping with me the other night and I am hoping he realizes how committed I am to this. It is time to save, pay off and adjust our lifestyle. It is not fun but I am sticking to it!

One fun aspect of this has been cutting coupons and seeing how much I can save. It is like a huge challenge to me and I love seeing the savings at the register. I bought myself a cheapy photo album, labeled it for the different sections of the grocery stores to help keep myself organized.

It is not easy! I try to make a comprehensive list so I am not in the store for hours matching coupons with items. It does take more time with coupons but I really feel like I am getting it down. There is a little embarrassment that comes along with it as well. I am now that lady at the checkout that is holding up the rest of the line because the clerk has to scan in all of her coupons! One time at Wal-mart I actually had to wait for a manager to approve my purchase because I had gone over the limit on the amount of coupons I could use. I never knew Wal-Mart had a limit!

Another one of my favorite coupon challenges is the double coupon days at K-Mart. Our K-mart has a grocery store in it as well so I am really able to rack up the savings there. Charlie had to go with me last night because they have decreased the number of coupons per customer from 75 to 25 so he had to check out a basket as well. All in all we saved $50 alone in coupons last night. I paid 50 cents for a big thing of toothpaste and $1.00 for the Flinstones Vitamins! My record so far was a $365 bill that got reduced to $140 after coupons