There is not room enough to receive it...

In January Ken and I discussed getting more food storage.  We only knew of traditional ways of doing this like buying extra at the store and going to the church cannery and storing basic ingredients for survival.  We felt like we needed to be better prepared in these economic times so we tried.  

When I came upon the idea of couponing I thought it could help save us money every month.  Now that I have been at it for a few months I have been astounded at how much I save. I have enough household items to last our family a year.  I have so much in the freezers (we have a huge one in the garage too) that I recently had to eat the last of the ice cream to fit in the purchases that I had just brought home.  My cupboards run over.  I have things everywhere.  My kids rooms are the only place left for the stuff to go.  I feel so blessed.  I find things at such a cheap price on sale and then save more with coupons/rebates/promos.  When I find something at a really good price I stock up.  

This has saved us.  Ken was furloughed for 3 weeks in April.  Unpaid.  Fortunately we had tax refund money to make up the difference.  I was still perfecting my couponing skills then so we had normal spending then.  Ken was told 2 weeks ago that he has to take another furlough by July 17.  21 more days off without pay.  He has had such a reduction of hours that he doesn't qualify for paid holidays anymore so there goes Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day too.

In preparation for the next furlough I have been able to cut our grocery spending and we are living off of what we have here, some great deals at the store, and a few dollars worth of produce.  We have to be very careful but we will make it due to couponing and stocking up.  I am so grateful for the Law of Tithing.  We have paid our tithing faithfully and we have been so blessed.  I feel like I have been given a new skill.  Here are some pictures of my shopping trips lately.  It may seem like a strange assortment of items but I shop differently now.  I have enough of most items that I do not need to shop for them weekly like I did before.  I only get things that are a great deal and add them to my stash.  

This isn't all that I have shopped for but it does give an idea of how I am doing things now.  The first amount under every picture is what the store said I should have paid before their sale and my coupons.  HOWEVER, this is at Albertson's and Walgreens and we all know they jack up the prices there.  I prefer not to look at how much they say I am saving but rather how much these same items would have cost me at Wal-Mart or Winco.

$14.79 / I paid $0.55 / I think that this would have been around $6.00 at Wal-Mart.

I had to buy the banana on the one transaction because the receipt showed that the store owed me money.

$28.15 / I paid $0.91 / Maybe $15.00 at Wal-Mart

Had to buy that candy - another coupon "overage"

$24.87 / I paid $2.25

This stuff was all free except the frozen meals and those were less than $1.00 each

$80.26 / I paid $10.09

That is 10 pkgs of hot dogs there

$90.39 / I paid $18.16

$9.03 / I paid $2.03

$172.59 / I paid $38.65 / ?? at Wal-Mart?

Chex Mix Turtle Bars ROCK!

 $84.51 / I paid $25.47 / maybe $50.00 at Winco

$14.07 / I paid $2.57