Nothing ventured, nothing gained

I took the plunge and decided to give CVS shopping a 3 month try in April following instructions on the Money Saving Mom blog. About the middle of April, I started getting 6 Sunday papers, and this week I started a trial of The Grocery Game. According the their website, I should be able to save approximately 50% off what I spend now. I'm not sure about that, but am game to try. We were spending around $300 a month on all groceries, household and toiletries, and since April, I have brought it down to around $200 or $50 weekly. So I will work on the $100 month grocery bill.

Its been a lot of fun, but somewhat time consuming to start out. Its getting easier and easier. The funny thing is, I've always been fairly frugal on groceries and toiletries, cooking from scratch, stretching meals by using pantry stockpiles, even using coupons and rebates on stuff I needed, but now we are cutting it back even farther.

Since April, I have utilized Crystal's methods for saving at CVS, and have spent no money on diapers, wipes, shampoo, etc, other than the first time I went in to start off the rolling over of ECB's. I even got a free $25 giftcard from transferring a prescription and am using that to pay the sales tax and out of pocket costs.

I honestly cannot imagine going back to paying full price for stuff, especially now with gasoline as high as it is.

Pros:
*Free diapers, wipes, toiletries, etc.
*Lots of variety of foods, shampoo---stuff I wouldn't try otherwise, but bought for pennies or received free.
*More money to pay for gas.
*Meeting lots of nice people in the stores, who are fascinated by my coupon box and how much $$ I'm saving.
*The sweet evening cashier at our local CVS, and the afternoon cosmetics cashier at the Cherrydale Walgreens. Nice, nice, nice!!
*Having extra to freely give to Food Drives, my Shoebox Project, the battered women's shelter, friends, and treats for co-workers.
*Feeling generous with stuff.

Cons:
*Lugging around the coupons--for now, I'm using Crystal's method, but I may get a binder in the future.
*Not enough time to clip and file coupons before a certain almost-3-year-old decides to "help".
*Extra time at the cash register waiting on cashiers.
*Some cashiers that think couponing is criminal, like the one at Wal-mart that told me they had a limit of 3 coupons per customer. Or they think you are trying to get one over on them, and refuse to use a valid Sunday paper coupon.
*Shopping several times a week. I manage to do the Walgreen's trip on my lunch break, but it takes some time away from my lunchtime thrift store shopping. CVS on Monday evening, for a few minutes, and a trip to Bi-Lo or Ingles once a week. I'll get used to it, but I was a once a month, one evening shopper at Aldi, Sam's, and Walmart (in that order).
*Finding enough storage space for the stockpile of stuff.
*Feeling stingy with money.

If you would like to sign up for a $1 trial of The Grocery Game, please use my email as a referral...it gives me free weeks! kybkat (at) bellsouth (dot) net.

Some great websites to learn from:
*Money Saving Mom -- tutorials, and deals to help you make it work.
*Jane4girls $800 Annual Budget -- savings blog of a single mom.
*The Centsible Sawyer
*Freebies for Mom -- coupon links, freebie links, rebate links
*The Motherload -Mom Advice -- freebie links, including the great Redbox links for free DVD rentals on Monday and Wednesday's.