back on the wagon

I suppose it all began last winter.

We had just lovingly welcomed our little Ellery, making us a family of 7. 

A large family.

Two in diapers...again, and 5 little mouths to feed.  Did I mention, that Tim can put away a 9x13 casserole by himself? Yep. 

My grocery trips to Meijers were chaos.  A frenetic grabbing  and tossing of food, in an effort to get out of there and keep the peace....because I always took the kids.  I would easily drop close to $200 per week on groceries....and always seem to be out of food.

Something needed to change, or our kids were literally going to eat us out of house and home.

And so, my 2010 New Years resolution was to cut our grocery bill.... significantly. I knew this would involve a complete rehaul, to change my haphazard ways of grocery spending.  It would involve PLANNING.  Not something I was used to in the food dept.
 
I discovered the art of couponing, and began to follow a few blogs.  I began to understand how the game worked, and I must say, it changed the entire way I approached shopping. 

I soon caught the fever and fast became a coupon addict.  It made me sick to think of all the times I paid  (gasp) full price!  I was filled with glee every Sunday when I picked up my newspaper... looking  forward to my coupons in the same way a kid looks forward to Christmas. 

It took a bit of time, clipping, planning etc. I would get my coupons in order, print my grocery list, and  shop by myself at night after Tim came home from work.  Pretty soon I had enough free deoderent lining our shelves, that Tim told me to stop, because he was clearly set for life. I proudly showed off every reciept I brought home, because our grocery bill was down by more than half....and we were eating well. I was using better beauty products than I'd used in a long time.

Well, summer came...which brought about 5 kids at home  all. the. time.,and no break. Tim became so busy at work, that it was just too late to go out by the time he got home. Because I couldn't seem to catch a break, I slowly began to fall behind in my organization as well.  

Trips to the store would  involve me holding Ellery, Stella laying in the aisle screaming until I would put Ellery down to cry, and pick her up, the big kids fighting, and many clipped ankles.  One particularly weary day in July, I left Meijers with 2 screaming babies, sore ankles, milk, formula, wine and pokemon cards.  Clearly all the staples :) 

I quit couponing for the month of August....with the hopes of getting started again once school began, and I had more time LOL.  It made me sick to just aimlessly buy...but I just couldn't get it together.  September passed by in a blur of back to school, soccer, field trips, new puppy, entertaining, extra responsibilities,and just figuring out this new scheduled school life again.

Wow, I'm sorry, this story is so long winded!

I've been getting myself organized again, and last week I finally started playing with my coupons again.

I'm pretty proud of my first transaction back. A simple one.

All of this was free, and I made $0.63 profit!  A necessary break, but it feels good to be back!