So...last night I had to do some last minute running around for a little trip we are getting ready to take.  I know you aren't suppose to tell the internet when you are going away but the house isn't going to be unattended (I have great neighbors), we have an alarm system that will be armed and my FB page is private so I feel okay mentioning it this one time on my blog.

Anyway, to my point, last night I needed to do some last minute running around and it included a trip to the grocery store.  I took my binder with me and headed out.

When I got home, I felt I did well but I wanted to know how well I'd done.

As I was clipping new coupons that my neighbor (I told you I had wonderful neighbors!) left on my front porch and I mentioned to Jerry that I wanted to figure out how much we had saved in June.  I had kept all the receipts and just needed to plug them in somewhere.   He was on his laptop and he came up with this : The Krazy Coupon Lady's Extreme Couponing Tip: Savings Tracker.  I'm pretty sure he was more excited about it than I was...

Jerry has been supportive of my couponing so far.  He really does need to see that it's working, though.

He sees me come in with 5 free toothbrushes and says, "We don't NEED 5 toothbrushes".  I respond with, "But they were FREE and we WILL use them eventually.  Just think...next time you need a new toothbrush you will just have to open it!"

He worries that I'm focusing on things that we don't need and therefore forgetting about the stuff we do need.

Right now I'm stockpiling a tiny bit . . . but I know that we still need to eat!

Seeing our savings on a spreadsheet last night made him feel a little better but he is a very competitive person, too...so I think he wants to know how we stack up in the savings department.

I don't really care about that.  Well...that's not entirely true.

I can't lie, it feels good to have someone behind you in the checkout say they are impressed by your savings.  It's nice to brag a little.  However, the most important thing is that I am coming in under or at our budgeted grocery amount...$560 a month.  We budgeted about $140 a week for groceries when we were doing our budget on mint.com and that's what we have been going by since then.

So ~ here's the somewhat of a breakdown of this month - keep in mind that this isn't just the grocery store . . . this includes Walgreens, Target and CVS, too!'

Total Shelf Cost:  $1,038.63
Total Coupon Savings: $295.04
Total Store Sale Price Savings: $181.60
Total Combined Savings:  $476.64

Total Out-of-Pocket:  $561.99

Savings Rate:  45.89%

Not bad for the first month back to couponing!  Plus, I know that I am starting to get a bit of a routine down and that I will get better as I build a more extensive library of coupons (is that even the right terms to describe it?) and know the sale trends and all of that!

I know that couponing is something that I'll be doing for a while so Stay Tuned!!!  I'm hoping you will see the Savings Rate go up and the Total Out-of-Pocket go down!