My First FREE Trip!

On Wednesday morning I got a call that the special order my husband had placed was ready to be picked up at the commissary. I had already spent a bunch of time the week before planning my trip and sorting coupons, so I was ready to shop! I asked on the phone if it would be a problem to break up my special order into two different shops, and they assured me it would be very easy. I LOVE my commissary!

My husband had taken the van to work on Wednesday since he's having trouble with the windshield wipers on his truck, so I spent even more time checking prices and printing coupons. By the time he got home from work, my son and I were ready to shop! I have a coupon binder, but haven't bought the inserts yet to put it together, so I'm still working with an expandable file folder. So I sorted out coupons I knew we would use for sure in one envelope, sorted another of ones I wasn't sure about, and left the others right where they belonged, so I could use them on an unadvertised deal if I found one.

Extreme Couponing

So, I've always used coupons, at least casually, since I first moved out of my parents' house. I haven't always done as well as I should with them, though. Last year my husband was deployed for several months, and during that time we ended up accumulating some extra debt due to poor communication, overspending, etc. So one of our biggest goals this year is to use more coupons, and watch sales more closely. I've managed to keep our grocery budget under $300 a month for quite a while anyway (we're a family of 3 with two dogs), so now my new goal for the first half of the year is under $200. If I can attain that, I'm hoping to drop it to around $150 for the second half of the year, and leave it there.