Noteworthy

I just saved $80 at the grocery store. All my hard work and research is paying off. My first trip, I saved $16. Second trip, $32. Now I think I am finally in the game. It took me two hours to prepare for the trip, and sweat was trickling down the back of my neck by the time I was ready to leave for the store, but it's all good. I managed to score at least a week's worth of groceries, including all the fixings for Turkey day dinner, including the bird. On top of that I have a $5 rebate to mail in for the turkey. Not too shabby! I spent $122, so it would have been over $200 without the savings.

Resolutions

Is it too early to make resolutions? I don't think so. Just trying to beat the crowds, so to speak. I have been reading alot of blogs lately that focus on frugality and saving money, particularly on groceries. This is a really weak area for me. Saving money and groceries. Put the two together, and you've got a major money pit. I don't make a list, I don't clip coupons, though I dabbled in it for a short stint.

My church did a free coupon class a few months back. I went. I took notes. I bought into it, hook, line and sinker. In other words, I spent $30 on a fancy binder with a pretty ribbon tied to the front and clear plastic pages for coupons. It had dozens of categories to file coupons under. It was going to save me tons of money.

Then I left the church. I walked out to the parking lot and noticed something was not right with my van. I mean, more not right than usual. I had a flat tire. $100 later, me and my shiny new binder were on our way home.

I purchased 2 copies of the Sunday paper, so I would have double the coupons. I clipped away my Sunday afternoons for a few weeks. And then it happened. The binder found a new home on the shelf in the hall closet.

Fast forward to today. Something has been nudging me to try again. I pulled out the binder, and found that all my coupons were expired. I have a fresh copy of the Sunday paper (just one this time). I discarded all my old coupons. I am trying this again, but not in such a labor intensive way. I am going to keep my coupon inserts from the paper, filed by date. I will refer to helpful websites such as I heart Publix to help me with the match ups. And hopefully I will save tons of money on my groceries. Oh, I also plan to make a list according to what is on sale that I have coupons for.

I'll report my success story here:)

Another resolution: exercise. Daily. I am signing Grant up for football and the other 2 for gymnastics. They will get a discounted rate if I sign back up for my gym membership. No excuses now, right? And we will be eating healthier too. I am sick of being tired and depressed. I need to get over myself and just do it!

So I will be busy with those projects, plus school which is ongoing and always keeps me busy. We hit a milestone last week: 1/4 way through the school year! We are up to 50 days as of the middle of this coming week. We started out great but lost 3 weeks due to our Disney trip (which was so educational on so many levels but I could only count one day of that as school- their field trip day.)

I am also working on some fun design work for some great friends. Website, tshirts. It keeps me creative and I love that. I hope to pretty up my own blog one of these days but that is so low on my list.

That about sums up my rambling thoughts for tonight. TTFN!