My name is Courtney and I am NOT an extreme couponer!

I love to save money on groceries that I have to buy, but after watching TLC's Extreme Couponing, I have learned that I am not, nor do I want to be an extreme couponer.  Before I go any further I have to give full credit to my awesome friend, Amanda, who taught me everything I know about couponing.  She is much better at it than I am, but I am slowly catching on.  Back to the show- those women are somewhat misguided in my opinion.  Is it really a great deal if you sacrificed SIX hours of your time for ONE shopping trip???  That is not worth it to me.  I spend probably 30 minutes a week clipping coupons and another 30 planning my weekly trip to Publix.  I usually don't seek out too many deals at other stores, unless it is really worth it to me.  Getting an item that I use often for free might be worth a trip to CVS if it's on my way to somewhere else, but getting an item just to say I got it for free that I don't plan on using is not worth the gas to the store and the hassle of getting a nine month old out of the car. I also don't think it is worth it to take up a lot of space in my house to stockpile stuff that I don't need.  I do know some people who donate it and if you have the time to go get the deals and then donate them, then that is wonderful.  However, as the mom of a nine month old- I just don't at this stage.

We budget out a certain amount of money each month for food/groceries.  This includes cleaning items, toiletries, food, eating out, etc.  My main goal when I started couponing was to spend less at the grocery store so we could eat out more often :).  Since Brody came along we discovered sometimes it is more work to go out to eat than to just eat at home, so we don't eat out near as much as we used to.  Getting started was the hardest part and once I got organized, I actually enjoy planning my grocery trip. I use a three ring binder to store all of my coupons.  They are in order of the store I use the most- Publix. For those of you who still think you can shop cheaper at Wal-Mart- I promise you that is not true! I get my coupons from our paper and my mom saves her paper for me, so I usually have 2-4 of each coupon (lots of times the adds are doubled in each paper). I think I have only bought three papers since I started and I used to print lots of coupons, but now I only print maybe 2-3 per week.  I only print it if I know I am going to use it because the ink is pretty costly.  (I noticed that the new show on TLC rarely factors in the cost of ink or papers.) 

My binder:

I see so many people walking around Publix with these now! Couponing has really caught on in my area and the deals get gone quickly.  Since Publix starts their sales on Wednesday, I always go shopping on Wed. morning so I don't have to deal with rain checks.

The last page in my book holds coupons and gift cards from other stores and restaurants. 

My goal is to save 40-50% each week on my grocery bill. This is minimal for some people, but that is because I still buy some stuff even if it's not on sale because we need/like it.  I try to stock up on fruit and produce when it is on sale, but you can't stock up too much on this stuff because it goes bad. This is what a typical receipt looks like for me: I spent 69.12 (a little more than usual, but it was a good week for sales) and saved 77.91.

I usually spend about $45-65/week for groceries, but that doesn't include any meat (other than sandwich meat) because we buy our meat once a month at Costco.  I have found that even when Publix has their meat at the lowest prices it is only equal to Costco, not cheaper. Also, we get 2% back on all of our Costco purchases, so that makes it even a little bit cheaper. (I have to throw in a disclosure that the 2% is through our membership card- NOT a credit card.  My husband HATES credit cards just about as much as Dave Ramsey so I know he would want me to make that clear!)  We just freeze whatever we don't need for the first week and thaw it out as needed throughout the month.  

Couponing to me is a good thing, extreme couponing seems more like a hobby and could quickly become unhealthy. For now, I am good with saving my family some money each week on stuff we need so I can continue to have my dream job of staying at home!