How I Saved $89.84 This Week | Week 2

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how to cut grocery bill in half

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 2 – January 8-14

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Grocery Savings:

This is the easiest way to 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

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.

I didn’t need too many groceries, since we still have lots of food in our stockpile and some fruit left from last week. Here are a couple of my favorites scores:

I was able to get the Centrum Gummy Vitamins deal again like last week.

I keep seeing digital and printable coupons for free Arla cream cheese. I must’ve gotten 8 containers for free at this point. There was another mPerk digital coupon for a free one. Yippee!

I also just picked up a few other sale-priced items.

Amount Saved: $22.86

Amount Spent: $14.36

Percentage Saved: 61%

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!

how to save money on food

Related: Read the rest of the How I Saved Series here.

Aldi Shopping Trip:

Aldi is one of the most effortless ways to save money on groceries. You’re going to save 20-50% on most  items there, compared to other stores. You don’t have to wait for sales at Aldi. Some items are a little cheaper during certain seasons, but everything is always affordable.

I buy many staple items there, or whatever else I need/want that I can’t get cheaper elsewhere. For the purpose of these How I Saved posts, I’m going to estimate a 30% savings (and I think that’s being conservative). I am saving money by shopping at Aldi, so it totally counts.

Again, I just picked up a few things, including a 32 oz container of chicken broth for $1.19 and a dozen eggs for 74 cents.

Related: Want some basic grocery savings ideas? Try these 5 tips.

Amount Spent: $8.59

Amount Saved (assuming 30% savings): $2.58

I use a collapsible shopping basket like this one for my Aldi shopping.

Ibotta Savings: I totally forgot to use Ibotta. There was a 25 cent rebate on ‘any item’ from Meijer, but I didn’t submit it before it expired. Boo!

If you’re not using Ibotta yet, click here to sign up. You’ll get a $10 welcome bonus!

Gasoline Savings:

Nothing too impressive here, but I did purposely go to a gas station that was selling it for 4 cents cheaper per gallon. You can use the Gas Buddy app or website to see which stations in your area are cheapest. Just don’t go too far out of your way, or the extra gas you use will negate the savings.

Amount Saved: 60 cents

how to save money eating out

Miscellaneous Savings:

We went out to dinner with my dad at Bob Evans, and used a $5 off $20 coupon sent via email.

We are going to Seattle in June to visit my sister. She sent me a link to book our lodging through Airbnb, and we saved $40! Click here to get $40 off your first Airbnb trip.

I went out to lunch with my mom one day and used a Restaurant.com certificate. It was a $10 certificate that I only paid $2 for. So in essence, we got $8 off our meal.

After lunch we went to Hobby Lobby and found a couple 90% clearance items. I did buy one item that wasn’t on clearance, so I pulled up a 40% off coupon on my phone and used that at checkout. It was only a $2 item, but I’m trying to save every penny I can!

It really takes no effort to do a quick search online for a coupon or promo code. I’m not going to count the clearance items in my amount saved but I will count the 80 cents I saved with the 40% coupon.

how to save money at Hobby Lobby

Since all the cars here in Michigan are caked with salt right now, I decided to use one of the free car wash coupons that I receive when I get my oil changed. When it’s not winter, we wash the cars ourselves. The car wash was worth $5.

And lastly, I went to Dollar Tree to buy a birthday card and gift bag for my niece’s birthday gift. I love that all their greeting cards are either 50 cents or $1. I’m sure I saved at least $5 by buying those items at the dollar store instead of Target or Hallmark.

Amount Saved: $63.80

Grand Total Savings for Week 2: $89.84

Not as great of savings as last week, but still not too shabby.

I realize not everyone is interested in going to multiple stores or bothering with coupons, but any money you can save is helpful! Here are 5 very simple ways to save on groceries without using coupons.

Don’t forget to check out the Resources Page for tons of other money saving resources!

What are your tricks for saving money?

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