Hey-Hey-Hey- I'm a Believer !

(click to enlarge if you wish)

Not pictured:

1 case of 24 bottles of water
1 17 pound bag of Fit and Trim dog food
(too heavy to hoist up on the table)

How much for all of this? A grand total of $27.86

I went to three stores. At CVS I actually made three transactions. One just to buy the magazine for 99 cents because it has a $2.00 coupon I wanted. Then I bought the rest of my CVS items. I walked in with $27.00 in Extra Care Bucks, spent some of them, used a lot of coupons, and spent $5.63 out of my pocket for 3 Alavert, 5 Body Washes, 1 facial scrub, 2 shampoos, 2 conditioners, and the water. I left CVS with $39.00 in Extra Care Bucks. Very profitable trip. I then went on to Wal-Mart where I bought the dog food, beans, hot dogs, Renuzits , Renuzit Sprays, and Rubbermaid containers. I spent $21.94 there and once again, I used some very nice coupons. Then my last stop was Walgreens. I used a $10.00 register reward and a few coupons there and bought the 2 milks, 2 cheeses, and 2 mascaras. I only spent 29 cents!

My new goal for the week is to start with $50.00 on Tuesday when husband gets paid and make it last for an entire week. All of my CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, and grocery shopping must come out of this. I am not counting the $5.63 spent tonight at CVS only because that was with left over money in my purse. My total that I am counting is $22.23 from Wal-Mart and Walgreens. I have $27.77 left for the week. I will report in to let you know how I do. I have a planned trip to another grocery later this week, but I do not need much. Actually, I do not NEED anything. But I will take advantage of some sales and coupons to maintain the stockpile.

My goal with all of this is to actually see tangible benefits. We want to reduce our debt and if I maintain a $50.00 weekly budget I should be able to put even more against our debts. This all still blows me away. By learning the tricks of CVS alone I am able to go in with $5.00 and instead of getting one thing my family needs, I can walk out with 12 things that my family will need eventually. By maintaining a stockpile I am reducing my chances of ever going in to get that "one thing" we need, which would probably be at regular price.