Week 12: How I Saved (Almost) $80

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Each week I share how I saved money, hoping that some of these frugal ideas could be helpful to you.

Check out the Resources Page for tons of other money saving resources!

If you’ve read other How I Saved posts, feel free to skip down to the deals.

If you’re new, here’s a little background about why I share my savings…

You’d be surprised how much money you can save when you really put your mind to it. It’s the accumulation of lots of small choices and habits that dictate the path your finances take.

The money that you save might seem meaningless in small amounts, but it truly adds up. It leaves more money in your bank account that you can use to pay off debt, save for the future, or do more of what you enjoy.

I absolutely love saving money and wanted to start sharing how I save each week. Not to show off, but to hopefully demonstrate different ways to save and maybe inspire you to want to do the same.

I strive to save on groceries, eating out, clothes, gifts, gasoline, etc. You name it, and I want to save money on it.

My main motivation for saving money is to pay off our mortgage in the next 2-3 years. Every dollar saved is in honor of that goal.

We’ve paid off thousands of dollars in debt over the past couple years. Wouldn’t it feel so awesome to be completely debt free? And get to keep most of your paycheck instead of immediately sending it away to pay bills? I think so.

I thought I’d share how much I save each week by using my favorite savings formula: combining sales and coupons. Or whatever other ways I come up with to be frugal. Hopefully some of these methods can be applied to your life.

You can get caught up and read the rest of the How I Saved posts here.

Related: Flat out broke? Try these 5 tips.

Here are my savings for Week 12 – March 19 – 25

This post may contain affiliate links. You can view my full disclosure policy here.

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Grocery Savings:

This is the easiest way to cut back on spending and save money. Each week, plan your shopping trip(s) based on what’s on sale. Then combine those sales with matching coupons to get the most bang for your buck. I always aim for at least 50% savings.

Related: Use one of these 5 easy meal planning strategies to make the most of your grocery budget.

I use coupon matchup sites to plan my deals. My favorites are Kroger Krazy, Meijer Madness, and Bargains to Bounty. They make it so easy by spelling out exactly what the sale items are, and which coupons to use. Such a couponing time saver!

The absolute best place to print coupons is coupons.com. It’s where I get all my printable coupons.

Here are the deals!

how to save money on groceries

Meijer Shopping Trip:

These are just examples of a couple deals. I recommend checking out your local ads and finding online coupon matchup sites for your favorite stores to plan your shopping trip.

Ok, don’t get freaked out, but I really stocked up on paper products this week. I just couldn’t pass up these deals! Meijer was having a 2-day sale on Friday and Saturday, so I stopped in.

The Quilted Northern toilet paper 6-packs of double rolls were BOGO (buy one, get one free). There was a manufacturer coupon that came with the newspaper inserts for $1 off one. I bought 4, and since you can’t use a coupon on the free item, I used 2 coupons. That made them $1.84 per package.

The Kleenex boxes were on sale for $1, and I had a 75 cents off 3 coupon, making them 75 cents each. There was also an Ibotta rebate for $1 back on 2 of the Cool Touch variety. When Kleenex is less than $1, I stock up. I used 2 coupons and bought six.

Puffs tissues were also priced at $1 this week, and I had four 25 cent off coupons. I bought all 4 of them.

Maybe you think it’s super weird to buy 10 boxes of tissues. My reasoning is that I never want to have to run to the store when I’m sick and pay the full price of $1.50. Paying half price and already having them in the house when one of us gets sick is priceless.

I saved $7.50 on tissues by shopping this way. It all adds up.

Meijer was having a promotion where you got $5 off instantly if you spent $15 on participating household items. The Cottonelle 9-pack of Mega roll toilet paper (equivalent to 18 double rolls) was on sale for $8.99, and there was a $1 off coupon right on the package.

I also got 2 Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foam on sale for $3.49, and I had a $1.50 off 2 (newspaper insert) coupon. That got me up past the $15 threshold, and I took home all 3 items for $8.47. Full price would have been $17.37.

There was an mPerk digital coupon for $1 off produce that I used toward apples.

Amount Saved: $28.78

Amount Spent: $28.35 

Percentage Saved: 50%

how to be a smart shopper

Kroger Shopping Trip:

They had my favorite Kroger-shopping scenario going on: a Mega Event! During Mega Event sales, they have totally awesome prices on certain items, as long as you buy a specific number of items. The signs will let you know how many participating sale items you need to buy.

During a Mega Event, there’s almost always the opportunity to get a free tube of toothpaste. This time there is a $2 off Colgate Kroger digital coupon, and they had a few varieties on sale for $1.99. Free, hooray!

The Sargento shredded cheese was Mega Event priced at $1.99, and there’s a $1 off two digital coupon, making them $1.49 each.

Creamette pasta was on sale for 49 cents each, and Kroger sent me a coupon for $1 off 3. That means I got all 3 for 47 cents, or 15ish cents each.

I bought some other things we needed as well, but I won’t bore you with my entire list.

I always make sure to do the survey on the bottom of my Kroger receipts, because that gives me 50 bonus fuel points. You can do a survey once every 7 days, which ends up being 200 extra fuel points a month. That gives me 20 cents off per gallon of gas. I’d say 95% of their receipts have surveys, so be sure to check!

Amount Saved: $40.87

Amount Spent: $39.02

Percentage Saved: 51% 

how to save money with coupons

Related: Want some basic grocery savings ideas? Here are 5 ways to save money without using coupons.

Ibotta Savings: $1.00 on two Cool Touch Kleenex

New to Ibotta? Click here for a $10 welcome bonus! You can cash out your earnings or use them to get a gift card to tons of awesome places like Amazon, iTunes, Nike, Target, Uber, and many more!

Gasoline Savings: $3.06

I had 20 cents off per gallon at Kroger. I was glad I got it when I did, since the price shot up 25 cents a gallon the next day. *eye roll*

Miscellaneous Savings:

Kohls is having a promotion where their charge cardholders can get 30% off and free shipping this week. I’ve been eyeing this shirt, which I got for $10.49 after the sale and discount. The full price of the shirt is $30, (which of course I would never pay) meaning that I got it for 65% off.

Since I ordered it online, I went through Ebates, and got 3% cash back.

If you order things online, you simply must be using Ebates. They have cash back offers for most retailers! Just head to their website, search where you want to shop, click through to that site, and shop like usual. Then they’ll send you a check every quarter for the cash back you earned. It’s SO easy!

Click here to try Ebates. You’ll get $10 back when you make your first purchase over $25.

Amount Saved: 4.82 

Grand Total Savings for Week 12: $78.53

Total Saved Year-to-Date: $1070.60

You can read the rest of the How I Saved posts here.

Check out the Resources Page for tons of other money saving resources!

What are your tricks for saving money? How much did you save this week?

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