Week 13: How I Saved Over $110

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couponing 101

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 13 – March 26 – April 1 

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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!

coupon matchups

The only place I shopped this week was Kroger. We have a lot of food in the house, and I was super busy. Plus, the stores were probably crazy with Easter this weekend.

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.

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.

how to save money on groceries

 

  • Ragu pasta sauce was priced at $1.39, and I had a 75 cents off 2 coupon, which made them $1.02 each.
  • Kroger peanut butter was priced at $1.39, and they had mailed me a 40 cents off coupon. 99 cents for the jar worked for me!
  • My daughter wanted some sherbet, which was on sale for $1.99. I had a coupon Kroger sent me for 45 cents off ice cream, making a big tub only $1.54.
  • The Kroger eggs were priced at 65 cents, so I picked up a dozen.
  • I used my digital Free Friday coupons to get a free Think Thin bar, and a free Oreo candy bar.
  • There was a digital coupon for $1 off Fage yogurt, and it was on sale for $1. So that was also free.
  • I also picked up some items that I needed for Easter.

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: $36.47

Amount Spent: $36.70

Percentage Saved: 50%

Ibotta Savings: 25 cents off ‘Any Item’ at Kroger. I also hit $100 back from Ibotta! 

How to save money with Ibotta

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:

I had to pay full stinkin’ price for gas over the weekend. And of course, the price had just shot up since spring break week was starting. Major bummer!

Miscellaneous Savings:

I had another $10 off $10 or more coupon from JcPenney like last month. I picked up a shirt that I love, on sale for $14.99, down from $32. After my coupon, I paid $5.29 with tax.

learn how to use coupons

I ordered my niece’s birthday gift from Kohls, since they were still offering 30% for their credit cardholders. On top of their already awesome sales prices!

I also went through Ebates, to get an extra 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 an extra $10 back when you make your first purchase over $25 when you use this link.

Amount Saved: $72.98 (sales + 30% off + 3% cash back)

Grand Total Savings for Week 13: $109.70

Total Saved Year-to-Date: $1180.30

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

Don’t forget to 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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