Grocery Savings and Doggy Surgery

Recently I joined a site called the Grocery Game. If you’re an avid coupon clipping deal hunter like I am then you’ve probably heard of it in the past. How it works is there are lists to grocery stores in your area. On each list are sale items that are coupled with coupons from the Sunday paper so that you can get the rock bottom lowest price and the more that you shop the list the more you save. You pay $5 per list every 8 weeks which for us equals out to $7.50 a month for the three lists that we receive which are Safeway, King Soopers and Walgreens. I’ve been at this for about 3 weeks now and I will say I’ve seen a significant savings already even though I’m still working on my stockpile. Stockpiling is another principal in the grocery game. Sales run every couple of weeks and you stockpile those sale items that you need so you won’t have to buy more until they come on sale again. That way you’re always buying your items for the lowest possible price. They even have items marked in green on the list that are things you can get for free when you combine a sale and a coupon. Today I managed to get Nivea body wash and Lunchables for free thanks to a sale and coupon. Over the past couple of weeks I see an average savings of 25% which may not sound like much but it is great to see “You saved $71 today” or “You saved $35 today” on my receipts. I will say you could probably do what the Grocery Game on your own without paying for the list but I’m honestly paying for the convenience of it all. I originally went into it thinking I’d just do the free trial and opt out but I’m hooked.

In other news, my little fur-baby is going in for surgery on Wednesday. When we made it here to Colorado we noticed that she had began limping and decided to get her checked out. Low and behold the poor thing has a torn ACL and a bone deformity that we didn’t know about. So after a trip to the canine orthopedic clinic it was determined that she’d need surgery. Even though it’s horrible expensive we’re going to go ahead with it because we don’t want her to be in pain anymore and for it to get worse and worse. Please send out lots of prayers and good thoughts to my little Peaches on Wednesday!

Meal Plan Monday

It is Meal Plan Monday! This is the day I make my meal plan and do my grocery shopping for the week.

Meal Plan Week of 2/23:
Monday: Hawaiian Chicken w/ rice
Tuesday: Potato Soup
Wednesday: Rellano Casserole
Thursday: Flounder w/ asparagus and salad
Friday: Chicken Pot Pie
Saturday: Take Out
Sunday: Crab Stuffed Shells

It all sounds good, doesn’t it? I got lucky today and the grocery store was fairly empty so I was able to comparison shop a bit more and keep a good watch on my budget. I was only able to find one coupon for this week’s trip, for rice cereal, but it is still 75 cents saved! I even had enough money left over to buy three snazzy new reusable grocery bags. I had bringing home so many plastic bags only to watch them pile up and end up in the garbage. So I can say today I made an attempt at going green; though the checker didn’t seem too thrilled with my choice. Maybe she was just having a bad day?