(You) got to have faith!

For the last two months I have challenged to not spend any of Jared’s money, or the little money that I earn at SU, on groceries. I have to find creative ways to earn grocery money. I have done a few sewing projects, helped clean Mrs. Shelton’s house before she left, and babysat my nieces and nephews. Also I have cut my grocery bill down to about $15 - $20 a week. This week I spent a little more because I was stocking up on several things we use a lot of (and that won’t go bad). Really the only groceries I need each week are all for Jared’s lunch: lunchmeat, granola bars, yogurts, bananas, oranges, pretzels, and/or chips.

So...what can you buy for $23.43?
I bought all of this.

As seen above, I bought:
* 10 Dannon Fruit-in-the-Bottom Yogurts ($4.00)
* 2 bananas ($0.36)
* 1 can of mandarin oranges ($0.89)
* 8 boxes of Stovetop stuffing ($3.92)
* 5 boxes of Jiffy corn bread ($2.00)
* 1 block of gorgonzola cheese ($1.98)
* 3 tubes of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls ($2.25)
* 4 cans of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup ($1.35)
* 4 can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup (1.38)
* 1 package of Always Infinity Pads (free)
* 13 cans of Swanson’s chicken broth ($5.30)

Original price: $65.69
I paid 35.7% of the original price (or for those of you that don’t like percentages, I saved $42.26). Also, note that I bought the nice brand for this price and not just the store brand. That is why I was so excited about my flour last week. Regular flour has a much better feel to it than store brand flour. Most things I will buy store brand, but real flour is so nice. I usually buy the store brand cream soups unless I can get Cambell’s for cheaper, as I did today (34 cents versus 55 cents (at Walmart))! Yay.

I love grocery shopping. It is so much fun. It is a big puzzle that I have to solve each week.

Example: I went to Food Lion (the sale ends today) and went through the line three times today because the chicken broth and cream soups were buy 1 get one free, but it was limit two. But if I bought a combination of six of those products I had coupons for another dollar off. So the first time I bought 4 chicken broths and 2 soups, the second time 4 soups and 2 chicken broths, and the last time 4 chicken broths and 2 soups. I had to buy 4 soups the second time because I also had a coupon for 35 cents off 4 cans of soup.

Oh, and did I tell you that Jared signed up at Wor-Wir to get the Sunday paper for Fwwwweeeeeee!!! I love coupons and matching them with sales. Plus, you can print off coupons online and match them together and save even more money. I can’t do it as well as some of these people online, but I am pretty happy.