A New Passion

Okay, so I know this is really geeky, but I've found a new passion. It is saving money at the grocery store. When I first moved here, my ward had just barely had an enrichment night about how to grocery shop, while saving loads of money and building your food storage. Well, my neighbor told me about it, and I thought, "Honestly, how much money can you really save." So, I continued to shop the way I always had; buying whatever and spending whatever.

One day, I finally realized that I was spending WAY TOO MUCH at the grocery store, and there had to be a way to save money. So, I talked to my neighbor a bit more and decided to order the Sunday paper for the coupons. I did this for a few weeks and found that just using coupons wasn't really getting me anywhere.

Then, I got serious. I found out that you have to order 4 Sunday papers and watch the ads carefully each week. Well, this took many hours, but I was finally saving some money. Then, through another friend's blog, I found the answer: grocerysmarts.com This website is awesome! You do have to know a code to get full access (you can get it from anyone who uses the site), but I just googled "GrocerySmarts Utah Code," and BOOM, there it was! Then I just bookmarked the site on my computer, so I don't have to enter a code every time I use the website.

Anyway, this website lists all the Utah grocery stores and what is on sale each week. It also lists which coupons to add to the sales and where to find those coupons. So, I just clip the coupons I am actually going to use and save hours of time by not clipping coupons I'm never going to use. Then, you can print out the sale list (with coupons you need) and go right to the store. I've found awesome deals that I would have never believed possible (even free stuff). If you ever want to try this, give me a call. I am more than happy to help you out!

I've probably ended up saving about $300 on groceries a month, which makes me happy. Since I don't actually earn money myself, this makes me feel like I am still helping out in the finance department. We have managed to build up more food storage, and I'm starting to feel like if disaster were to strike, we'd survive. We still have a long way to go, but it's actually become kind of a fun thing for me!