My boys do not care one lick about what they are wearing, which is mostly evident by the shirt my 6yo is wearing backward and the shorts he pulled on that belong to his older brother.  Every time we go out in public I have to remember to double check what they are wearing or we will walk into a store looking like…well, like the above photo.

One time as  my boys were walking ahead of me into church I noticed they had picked up each others clothes and worn them without knowing or caring.  My older boy had a shirt on that looked three sizes too small so that his belly was peeking out and my younger boy’s clothes were barely hanging on to his hips and shoulders.  I made them go into the bathroom and trade clothes much to their dismay.

I am thankful that they don’t care about brands or how many shirts they own, but what do I have to do to ensure that they at least care about the clothes fitting?  Oh, and one more thing, I had to HIDE all the long sleeved shirts, sweaters and corduroy pants so they would STOP wearing them this summer.  They have no concept of seasonal clothing.  NONE.

Okay, I’m done with my little rant.

Now, on to my new way of shopping.

We had pretty much come to a stand still with our debt this last year.  We have paid off our vehicles and then we were making tiny payments toward our consumer debt, but we were having a hard time making any progress.  Our income has not increased for several years and two years ago we actually lost income.  Everything had gone up, insurance, groceries, gas, kid’s expenses and so on.  It’s so frustrating to take a tiny step forward and a giant step back.  We knew we were going to have to change something to get the ball rolling in the right direction, but where in the budget were we going to find room to maneuver?

I have dabbled in coupons several times over the last few years, but I never quite understood how to use them so that I was actually saving a significant amount of money.  I decided to give the couponing one more chance, because our food and household budget was the only place we could easily cut.

I want to make it known that I have NOT seen the TLC show Extreme Couponing.  We do not have cable, we have never had cable, we will NEVER have cable, it is a complete waste of time and money in my opinion.  We own one TV and it’s primary use is to watch movies and play games.  So, we can’t watch the show, but I have seen some little snippets of the show on YouTube and I watched those after I started seriously diving into the couponing world.  I really don’t have an opinion one way or the other about the show, but I hope it’s helpful to some folks.

This time when I started couponing I spent a lot of time reading web sites, especially all the Walgreeens 101 and” How To Save” types of posts.  I had to go through a big mental shift from buying purely off-brand items and shopping for only the basic items we needed to searching out sales of name brand merchandise and matching the sale with a coupon to get those items cheaper than I could ever pay for the off-brand items I was used to.

This new strategy has not only saved us nearly $150 a week, but it has allowed us to stock up on much needed and highly used items.  Thus, I needed some storage shelves.

This was the start of my little stock pile, which took me several weeks to accumulate.  I’ve been seriously couponing for about three months now and Clay got so excited about the stuff I was bringing home that he gladly agreed to build me some shelves.  My goal is to have a 4-6 month supply of non-perishable items for my family.  I’m not interested in buying 100 boxes, bottles, cans or bags of anything because we simply do not have that kind of storage and I really don’t need 100 boxes, bottles, cans or bags of anything.  So, save the hoarding comments…..I know they’re coming, but save it, there are enough people that can testify to the fact that I have a hard time keeping anything and they all live with me and have suffered the wrath of me throwing out their unwanted crap, or wanted crap.  This stocking up thing is a very strange habit for me to start because I love to use up everything we have before I get more.  Yet again, I have had to mentally change my way of thinking about how I shop and how I store stuff.

Can you tell I’m ready to do some smack down of any negative comments on this post?  These items were paid for with a lot of preparation.  The best way of describing a stock pile that I’ve heard was that you are not shopping for your family right now…you’re investing in your families future.  Just like you save money in the bank, I’m saving items that I pay much less for now so I won’t have to run to the store to get them when we need them and pay full price.  It makes a hurkin’ lot of sense if you have a good shopping brain, which I think I just grew the last few months.

Our house is over 100 years old, which means we have a very small, shallow basement…that leaks.  Everything that goes in the basement needs to be elevated on blocks for fear it will get wet.   Our shelves were built on top of cinder blocks.  We had to purchase some of the wood, but the blocks and plywood were found in the barn.

While Clay built the shelves I found my two little boys nestled in a laundry basket watching the spin cycle of the laundry machine.  Maybe I should reconsider letting them watch TV?

The previous owner of our home brewed his own beer and against that black plastic he had metal shelves full of brown bottles, it was really quite a site.  I think my new shelves full of bathroom products might be equally as interesting.

While Clay was building these shelves I was writing the last installment of The Birthday Saga.  I went downstairs to ask him a few questions on video and I thought I’d share with you the beginning…..he loves it when I help him build stuff, because I’m extremely helpful and I never irritate him…ever.

Fast Tube by Casper

He loves me so much!

Here’s what the stock pile looked like this morning.  I’m using part of the shelves for my sewing supplies which irritates Clay enormously, but it irritates me that he has to line up all the Suave body wash on the edge of the shelf so he can see all the different flavors, so we’re even.

I know, I know, I know…I’ve talked about couponing before on here and it just hasn’t stuck with me.  So, I decided to give it one more try and this time I think I finally got it.  I am saving about $150 a week on my grocery bill and I’m stocking up on items like shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, laundry detergent and Pringles (yes, I have a large supply of Pringles right now, that will probably last a week and that’s HUGE for us).

This time my entire family has jumped on the couponing wagon.  It really helps me stay motivated when they participate.  My daughter helped me put together a coupon binder, my youngest son asks, “Mom, can I get this if you have a coupon?”, my oldest son always wants to look over the store receipt and Clay has been the greatest coupon cheerleader of all time.  He loves the days when I go to the store and then wants to know exactly how much I saved.  I’ll call him from the parking lot and make him guess, it’s like our little trivia time each week.  I love to see how excited my family is about trying  to save more and spend less.

Ellen made the following video of me in early May when we were just getting started.  We had just come home from track practice and I was wiped, but I was determined to read all these different blogs about couponing. You’ll notice my house is a wreck, my hair is a wreck, my shirt is actually Clay’s shirt and it has a weird stain on it, I can’t explain the weird toy on the counter,  and my sanity…is teetering.  I apologize ahead of time for the sucky accent, it’s my dream to speak in an authentic Columbian accent someday…for the rest of my life.

Fast Tube by Casper

I’ll let you all know how we’re doing.  Hopefully, this time I will stick to my guns and become a life-long couponer and save lots of MONEEEE!

It has been FOREVER since I’ve mentioned anything about our debt reduction diet via DAMN RAMSEY!! I guess we get used to doing things a certain way and then it just seems normal.

Confession Time

There is one area that we are really bad at saving money.  Any guesses?  Food.  We are still terrible about going out to eat every Sunday.  We usually go to a places that costs us $20-25 to feed all six of us and we’re socializing at the same time, but still we could be saving that money for something else.

We paid off our van this year.  We paid a huge chunk all at once and then we sucked wind for several months, so that wasn’t very fun, but I’m glad the debt is gone.  And the van is dented on every side. I backed it into a tree last week and Clay backed it into his truck this week.  Poor van, it looks terrible, but it’s paid for, so who cares! We will drive it until it dies, which might be sooner than we hope if we keep abusing it.

We haven’t had an increase in our income for over two years.  I’m sure there are a lot of you nodding your head acknowledging the same circumstance.  It sucks, so we try not to think about it.

Our monthly expenses have gone up almost $400 mostly due to insurance and children.  Ouch.

By the grace of God, we are doing okay. We’re not taking vacations or fixing things that need repaired (the van, the porch, the barn, the dining room lights, my drooping eyelids, blah, blah, blah) and life just keeps going.  We’re really okay and I’m very thankful for that.

Things we really save on are clothing and entertainment.  We rarely get new clothes or shoes. I mean the kids have to be in dire need in order for me to go get them something new.  As for entertainment we stick to movies at Redbox and going to the kids’ sporting events and by sporting events I mean basketball. That’s about it.  Again, I don’t feel like we’re missing out on anything, we’re far too busy to even think about anything else.  Well, okay right now I’m thinking how nice it would be to go somewhere warm….but then I’d have to pack and do laundry…never mind, I’ll just stay home.

Saving money is a lot of work.  Getting out of debt is exhausting and at times very boring.  But, the peace of mind that if gives you is so worth it.

Money Saving Site

Last year I bought 2 yards of fabric on the clearance table to re-do some chairs I found in a dumpster.  I ended up using a different fabric for the chairs.  So, I decided I wanted to make curtains out of the fabric, but 2 yard was not enough fabric to cover the three windows that need curtains.  Unfortunately, the fabric store didn’t have anymore of the fabric.  DANG!  So, I searched online and finally found a site that had my exact fabric and it was CHEAP!!  So, if you have some older fabric and you know the manufacturer and the name of the print try finding it at Fabric Guru.  I was amazed at their prices.  My fabric came yesterday and I’m so excited to get started on my curtains.  I’ll show you pictures and tell you how much I spent when I’m done….hahahaha, oh I love how I make it sound like I’m just going to whip out those curtains any second now.

Okay, that’s it from me.  I’d love for you to share any great money saving tips or deals you’ve had lately.  I think hearing how other people are surviving is just what we all need to keep ourselves motivated to save more and spend less.