I'm thinking I'm getting the hang of this

Yesterday's couponing wasn't stellar. I went after church, and by gosh, the grocery fairies had pretty much cleaned the store out of any good deals that I wanted.
But I did three transactions anyway.
1. 5 boxes of cake mix and 5 cans of ready made frosting. $24 worth of stuff. With preferred savings and 5 75 cent off cake mix and frosting coupons, and 2 of those doubled, I spent $11.45. 56% savings. This transaction was supposed to give a $5 catalina and it did not. I squawked and got the catalina AFTER I was done with everything, but at least I got it.

2. 4 cartons of Dreyer's ice cream. $28 worth! Goodness, who spends $7 a carton on ice cream? But with preferred savings and two $1 off coupons, both of which doubled, I spent $8.60 and got a $4 catalina. 70% savings.

3. Two packages of frozen Jumba Juice smoothie mixes. Regularly $2.99 each, on sale for $2.49, and I had $1 off one coupon with doublers. Spent $1.16, saved $5, for 81% savings. Now that's more like it.

I still left the store feeling very frustrated, because I really wanted some Progresso soup and they were out. And no Totino's pizza. I almost bought some more cereal, just to get the General Mills promotion, but I held off.

I was talking to a co-worker today about my frustration, and I mentioned that I hadn't bought any Hamburger Helper because we don't eat it. My co-worker pointed out that I could buy it and donate it. I'm ashamed of myself, that I didn't think of that, because honestly that was one of the things that drew me to couponing. So I looked up my coupons and I did have some HH ones. When I got off work, I high tailed it to the nearest Albertsons to see what I could do.

Well, they had the things I had missed yesterday. So I did three more transactions.

1. Bought 1o boxes of Hamburger Helper. Used two coupons for 80 cents off 4 boxes, and doubled them. Used the $5 catalina I had fought for yesterday. Spent $2.31. Got a $5 catalina AND a $2 catalina (which alas, I didn't inspect that closely). 90% savings (including preferred savings).

2. Bought 4 cans of Progresso soup and 4 boxes of Totino's pizza rolls., and 4 Totino's party pizzas. Used a $1 off 4 cans coupon for the soup, 40 cents off two coupon for the pizza rolls (had two), and $1 off 4 pizza coupons. The two $1 coupons doubled. I used the two catalinas I had just gotten ($7 total) and spent $1.86. All in all, this was $27 worth of stuff, so I saved 93%.
AND got another $5 catalina.

3. Bought 4 Weber marinade mixes, on sale for 89 cents, and bottles of pop for me and my girl, and splurged on Pillsbury refrigerated desserts. Had 4 coupons for $1 off for the mixes, and 2 of them doubled. Completely forgot that I had a $1 coupon for the dessert, dang it! So I spent $4.41 and saved 68% with preferred savings and all.

And finally got another 5 cents in gas rewards, so have 10 cents off a gallon. Seems like it's taking forever to accumulate these now. I thought they would go faster since I'm shopping more at Albertsons....sigh.

Anyway, according to my tracker, I have saved 33.99% overall. Some trips were better than others. I have discovered that I do not like shopping at Walgreens, as their stock is really limited, but I love Rite Aid. I tend to get flustered at Winco, for some reason (maybe it's knowing that I'm going to bag all that...) and that the trip goes MUCH better if I stop and take a moment before I check out to make sure I have everything I need. And it goes without saying that I have to plan thoroughly and carefully before I set foot in the store.

And along with that, I am going to stop carrying my binder into the store. I'll have it in the car just in case, but I absolutely can not continue to carry the binder and buy things on impulse. There are so many awesome web sites out there that match up sales and coupons, I will continue to make use of them and plan carefully. Now, if I do find something on an amazing sale, I will have to stop and think before I grab it.

Payday is Friday, and I will be shopping. I am REALLY glad to say that I have a nice stockpile. I estimate that I have about three months' worth of most things. There are very few items that I don't have at least one of, but I'll change that this week. Since I've made a really nice stockpile inventory list (and it's on Google docs so I can access it just about any where), I've been able to make a grocery list that's divided into two categories: things we are out of, and things we need for stockpile. I'm really happy that there aren't that many things we're out of. I also made the Costco list based on the coupons I just got in the mail (it's a sad assortment, but by some miracle my fabric softener has a coupon this time around!)

Seriously, though, I have to cut way down on spending now that I know I can save consistently. Ordinarily, I spend a lot of payday weekend and vow to cut down the rest of the month. This month, I'm cutting down on the big shopping trip and dividing the grocery budget into weekly amounts instead of monthly. I've also stopped planning monthly menus....it was getting so tedious....and am doing weekly menus instead. It's amazing how fast I can plan a weekly menu, knowing what I have on hand in the pantry or freezer, and even knowing about what fruits and veggies I'll get delivered by Boise Milk.

So, the goal for the next four weeks (starting Friday) is 50% savings, and to cut spending by 40%. I'm a lot more confident today than I was yesterday.

And tomorrow: one more Albertsons trip. I have $9 in catalinas, and three more doublers to spend. I am looking forward to it.