Money Saving Monday

I get super excited anytime I get a good deal on something and I LOVE to save money at the grocery store. Last summer I started couponing, using CouponMom. Recently, with the new addition to our family coming and the absence of a paycheck from yours truly, I have become really obsessed with saving money. REALLY OBSESSED. It is almost an addiction, Jeremy would tell you it IS an addiction. But I love getting good deals. For example, last week, I spent $23 on groceries at Publix and saved $36. This was a pretty big trip too. I walked out with 4 FULL reusable grocery bags (which hold a lot more than the plastic ones).

My friend Lauren has introduced me to even more couponing sites, my favorite of which is Southern Savers. The girl that does this site posts all the sales that each grocery store, drug store, etc. has each week as well as coupons that you can use on each product. There are all kinds of great tutorials and information on how to start couponing on her site, I won't bore you with those details here. But seriously, check it out! I am up to saving over 50% of my grocery bill since I started and I am still building my "collection" of weekly newspaper coupons since I just started buying a paper 4 weeks ago.

All of this to say, that, since I check Southern Savers site daily I was excited to see that KMart was doubling coupons up to $2.00 this week! There were a couple of catches to this (1) you had to have a smart rewards KMart shopping card (which you can sign up for free for online) and (2) you could only double up to 5 coupons per day. Well, the closest KMart is Prattville so it is not practical for me to drive up there 2 days to use more than 5 coupons. Luckily, Jeremy is off on Mondays so I had the bright idea that we would both sign up for cards and go together to take advantage of this deal. I spent yesterday afternoon going though my exteremely organized coupon binder, pulling out all coupons over $1 and making a list of things I might want to buy at KMart. Now, you have to watch the prices because just because they double the coupon doesn't mean that's the best deal you can get on a particular item. Some items go on sale as BOGO (buy one, get one free) at drug stores, grocery stores, etc. you have to know the prices and sales. We didn't end up getting everything I had coupons on for this reason but I think we did fairly well.

Here is a picture of what all we bought...

All of these things are things we use on a daily basis. Here is the break down of what we got and what we paid:

Caress body wash Retail: 4.79, Paid: 2.29

Olay soap (4pk) Retail: 4.99, Paid 2.99 (I MIGHT could have got a better deal but I NEEDED soap)

Rimmel Mascara Retail: 3.29, Paid 1.29

Bic Soleil Razors Retail: 5.69, Paid .99 (this was my best deal by far! )

Herbal Essenses Shampoo Retail: 3.89, Paid 1.89

Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Cleaner Refill Retail: 4.49, Paid 2.49

Pampers Swaddlers (40ct) Retail: 9.99, Paid 5.99

Retail Price for all of this before tax is....36.43

We spent...17.87 and saved $18.56!!! Woohoo!!

And to close, because I promised, here are my 17 and 18 week pictures. Can you tell a difference 1 week makes? Ok, confession the 18 week picture was taken at 18 weeks and 6 days so maybe that's why but I suddenly look a little more preggers now :)