I tend to go back and forth on this one… I need to seriously start saving on my monthly grocery budget, and I’m thinking about coupon clipping again.

I’ve been out of the coupon game for a long time though. I’ve cleaned out my binder, and resorted what I have. I need to get a budget together of how much to spend on weekly newspapers, and check on the local stores coupon policies too.

Do you have any tips to share? How much are you saving with coupons?

I’ve come to the end of my obsessive math experiment of Coupons vs. Frugal Shopping. Finally in November frugality had a win. I had planned on making a big stockpile trip to Aldi, but the month got away from me, so I used just about everything from my stockpile. When I totaled it all up. I was $30.00 less per week than in August. I also had 9 fewer shopping trips.

Since I wasn’t able to shop out of town I utilized my local discount shops. That has helped the grocery budget a lot.  A few of my favorites are Dollar General for milk, laundry supplies, and paper products. I’ve found bulk-buy paper towels, and toilet paper that are always at a great price. Family Dollar is the best place locally to stock up on tissues, trash bags,  and they always have great deals on cleaning products too.

I have tried my best to keep my trips very limited at Wal-Mart, this one is tough. They are the lowest locally when it comes to groceries, but the over-abundance of Christmas crowds has me making fewer outings out there. I try to avoid Wal-Mart on the weekends altogether, and I like to go when the oldest kids are at school.

I’m happy that my experiment has come to an end, it was fun, but my head hurts from the obsessive tracking. I’m going to take December off, and try to keep up with the frugal shopping, and making as much as possible from scratch.

Maybe it was because October was such a long month. Maybe it was because October was filled with holidays and birthday celebrations. After I did the shopping and crunched the numbers the coupons won again!

I had three more shopping trips in October than I had in July. Grocery prices have also increased a lot since July, so that is a bit of a bummer too. I have one more month left on my project. I’ve already decided that December is stressful enough, I’m taking that month off from obsessive spreadsheet work.

I would like to see frugality reign supreme for at least one month of my project, so I’m going to see if this works. I’m stocking up at Family Dollar, and Dollar General for paper goods, and planning a monthly run to Aldi. I have a big list planned, and I hope that this will help me save a bit. We’ll see what happens though, November is a long month filled with more celebrating…

Wish me luck!

I’m on month #2 of my couponing vs. frugal shopping, and so far I’m really surprised by my findings.  I’ll bring you up to speed on my little project… Over the Summer I got really into couponing. I tracked every paper purchased, shopping trip, coupon used, and of course the total. For the next three months I’m backing off of the coupons, shopping less, making more from scratch, and still keeping track of it all. I’m trying to see which method of shopping really saves my family the most.

So far I’ve had a lot of these…

But I’ve spent a lot less time here…

And to be perfectly honest I was really surprised when June’s month of mega shopping trips and  multitude of papers purchased, beat September’s frugal numbers. I’m still looking over the spreadsheets just to make sure I’ve got my math right, but so far in this little battle Coupons are winning.

We’ll see what October brings. It is a long month, with a holiday and two birthdays too. My budget is whimpering in the corner…

I like to have a Summer project, a habit of mine that my mom gave me when I was just a little kiddo. This Summer I decided to take on couponing to try and save on our grocery budget. I bought lots and lots of papers, clipped till I had blisters on my fingers, and organized my binder till my eyes went batty. I also worked daily on a large spreadsheet full of my shopping lists, and savings. I decided I would track everything for three months, and see just how much I saved.

I think I picked the wrong months to try and save… Grocery prices are on the rise almost weekly here, and my numbers just were not  where I wanted them to be. I don’t want to get grumpy about my project though, so I am devising a brand new plan. Over the next three months I am shying away from the coupons, and focusing on frugal meals, more from scratch cooking, and more generic brand shopping.

I love numbers, so you know I will be crunching them. I want to find out which really saves my family the most on the grocery budget, coupons or frugal shopping.

Which do you think will win? Will coupons reign supreme, or will frugality and lots of home cooking win out in the end?