Challenge: To trim down the grocery bills by at least 33%

According to the US Department of Labor, the average American family of four spends $8,513 per year on groceries. This statistic breaks down to $177 per person a month. My family is not the traditional nuclear family. In addition to me and my husband, we have four children -- three teenagers, a two-year-old, and a mother-in-law. Applying the above figures, our grocery bill for a family of seven should approximate to $1239 per month. And astonishingly, it has regularly fluctuated in the range of $1000- $1300. My goal is to trim this monthly pile of receipts down to $830,(including diapers, wipes, hygiene products, and restaurant bills) if not less. Being able to frugally feed my nutrition-conscious husband and appease the voracious appetites of my teenagers will be my main challenge!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Chief of Coupons

Our water filter fell apart today, requiring my husband to disassemble it, drive over to one of the local stores to purchase a 3-stage water filtration system, and come back home and put it together.  He checked out the price for refills while he was there -- $29.95 for a 3 pack.

I recently discovered the coupon-saving site http://www.couponchief.com/ and thought I would give it a try.  It was a bit overwhelming at first – there were so many coupons, and apparently some coupon codes worked better than others, which didn’t really make sense to me (why are the ones that have little success still on the website?).  I actually watched the site’s video tutorial and the system cleared up a little for me.

Then I realized how amazing a site it is.  After searching for various items, I ended up with a coupon for Target, one of the stores I had previously purchased refills from.  The online cost for the 3 pack was $32.01, which was fair.  However, www.couponchief.com gave me a $5 coupon code off a purchase of $50.  

For a few weeks now I had been hunting around for my son’s school uniform.  Finding his particular size is challenging.  I ordered from French Toast online, but the pants ended up too large.  To get my money back, I had to return them and pay shipping of over $10!

When I shopped in person at Target, his size was not available.  When I clicked online, I was able to order 3.  And to my surprise, another special popped onto the screen – if you order 3 pieces of apparel, you get a 25% discount.  I would have paid full price anyway, never thinking uniforms could be discounted.

So this wonderful website not only saved me 25% off the clothes and $5 off my order (making the filters cheaper than the store my husband would have bought them from), it also saved me gas and apple juice boxes (which I use to distract my toddler when shopping), but most importantly, time!

I can’t wait to see what more the site offers!  

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