Well, I said I would update everyone on my April grocery challenge. Our April grocery total was $561.43. Our coupon savings was $71.42. Compare to $679.81 and $33.66 for March. And, of course, our starting point was an average monthly grocery bill of $850.
The question people ask about this is, "Yeah, but how much time do you spend?" I have to say, grocery shopping has become a major chore and a major pain. I figure I probably spend about 5 hours a week, give or take an hour. If I eventually get to the point of saving $300 a month, that'd mean I'd be getting "paid" about $12.50 - $18.75 an hour. On the up side, it's getting more routine as I'm "trained in" on how to do this (e.g., focus narrowly on only buying items discounted 30% or more, plus whatever we absolutely need; never sort coupons in a windy parking lot; always read the fine print on advertised specials; not everything marked "sale" is actually significantly discounted, etc.). I'm also beginning to learn the pattern of how quickly we use stuff vs. how often those things are deeply discounted. Give me a year, and this stuff should be second nature.
My goal this month is to have a sub-$100 week. We'll see how that goes.
Well, Jerry, I can't say I'm anywhere near as diligent about using coupons as you are, but I'm inspired to learn! This month I saved about $5. I try to use only the coupons on things that I really need, otherwise to me, it's not saving money. I used it for some side dishes and one on baby food (always a good one!)
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