my first REAL coupon experience

Yes, I am new at this. Gotta work on saving that money to meet my dream of a SAHM within the next year! Last time I was proud of my VIC savings and I did really well with them. Today I took on the double coupon week at HT. I started with my meal planning and checking for coupons online. Unfortunately the sunday paper is MIA and I didn't want to stalk the neighbors. :) So what's on the menu for this week???

• lasagna soup - found here
• moms famous chicken, rice and broccoli casserole that we love (i'll have to share the recipe in a later post!)
• pasta with the new Philadelphia cream cheese sauce found here but using sausage instead of beef (may tweak the recipe a little, haven't decided)
• going out one night
• leftovers the other nights

So my search started on coupons.com- I got several really good coupons and since they were doubling them at HT, I got many things for $2 off!

Some of the great coupons/ savings I used included...

$1 off hillshire farms deli meat and $1 off the linked sausage. Well... the link sausage was buy one get one free, so I got one for $4.49 - $2.00 = $2.49 and the other for free... So, two huge sausages for $2.49! ( I need the sausage in my lasagna soup and the other pasta I am making.)

Another big save was the Baileys french vanilla creamer. I have never tried it, but it was $2.59 on sale for $2.19 with my VIC card and I got $2 off with my coupon... there ya have it... I paid 19 cents for the creamer! Go me!!!

Not quite sure what the savings was on the cereal, but if I bought three I got a dollar off each and that double would be 2 dollars off each, so that was a great deal too!

I needed 5 chicken breasts for my casserole and they were $8.49 for 3... I found a VIC savings and bought a pack of 8 originally $18.03 and I paid $11.16. No coupons, but still a good save!

I also bought another package of sausage of a brand I haven't used before. SmartStart. It was originally $3.99 but I got $2 off with my coupon, so I paid 99 cents for it. I love sausage and can make it in a bunch of meals, so that is why we have three things of sausage that in all we paid about $3 for... hello freezer if we don't get to you by the end of the week!

I also needed spaghetti sauce for my lasagna soup- I had a coupon for $1 off any Newmans Own product... I chose to use it on the spaghetti sauce that was originally $2.89 and with my doubled coupon, I got it for 89 cents.

The Philadelphia cooking cream was originally $3.35 and with my $1 coupon doubled, I only paid $1.35.

hillshire farms deli meat for michaels sandwhiches this week were on VIC savings for $3.50 (originally $4.49). With the dollar off coupon doubled, I paid $1.50.

My grand total for groceries today was $101.21

I paid... $65.19!!!!!!

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Total coupon/ VIC savings today = $36.02

Unfortunately, I will never be an extreme coupon person. In my opinion you really can't eat as healthy as I would like to. A lot of coupons are for hamburger helper and boxed and frozen items. I am proud of what I made work today for foods that were already on our list and that we will actually eat. Now did I have coupons for the fresh fruits and vegetables or the cake mixes I am making for a friend? No. I had a coupon for a pretty decent savings on Yoplait yogurt but when I looked at the sugar content in that brand (16 grams!) I said no way and opted to buy the HT brand with only 6 grams of sugar. So you have to give some and take some, but I am very happy with the outcome and I hope this post can help motivate some of you to print some of those coupons and take advantage of it. I know I will from now on! Meal planning and coupons is the ticket!

Please let me know if you have any good sites or ways to find coupons that I am not yet aware of since I am new at this!!!

~let go laughing.