$$$ Thanks MPB's Mama!! $$$

A few weeks ago, my friend Suzanne, aka MPB's Mama, published this post about her big savings. She had been introduced by another friend to something called The Grocery Game. The Grocery Game is an online coupon shopping helper (that's the best way I can think of to describe it). MPBM was all excited about how much money she had saved. It was a lot of money.

Well, I got curious. I haven't been in the habit of using coupons. I tried a long time ago, but I just ended up with a lot of loose pieces of paper lying around, or scattered in my purse. I never had the ones I needed when I needed them, etc. Then there was the whole issue of obtaining the coupons. Most of them show up in the Sunday paper. We stopped taking the paper several years ago. I would sit on Sunday and read it cover to cover, complaining the whole time. I would just end up mad at the ineptness of the writers and publishers of the local paper (Oops...I hope no one reading this works for said paper.) Anyway, Kearsdad got tired of listening to me complain and made me stop reading. We canceled our subscription. For the last couple of years, any paper that made its way into our house was used strictly for BBQ fire starter. Anyway...

I talked to MPBM about how this coupon thing worked. I was really curious to see if I could save money like she did. Since we were getting ready to leave for camp, she advised that I wait until we returned to join the "game". So, last week, I signed up. Then I took the next step. I purchased a Sunday paper! I bought it on Monday, and as a result, I only paid 50 cents for it. I had already saved $1 !! This just might work...

So on Monday, I shopped. Overall, I saved $26.41 at Kroger and Walgreens. I was excited! Today marked week two. I actually bought a Sunday paper on Sunday and paid full price for it. I scoured it for all the coupons. Kat and Banana had to be at church early for a meeting, and Kearsdad had some computer work to do there, so I took off to Walgreens with my coupons and my list. Are you ready???

I spent $33.97

I saved $24.77!!!!

Yes, I saved almost as much as I spent! WooHoo!!!

Here is a picture of my purchases. All of it was useful stuff...stuff we will use...stuff we need. I didn't buy anything "just because it was on sale" or "just because I had a coupon".


Tomorrow, I'm going to Kroger.