I might have said this before, actually I know I have, but saving money right now has become a very important part of my everyday life. I have chosen to take my lunch everyday to work for the month of January. There have only been 2 working days in this month so far, but so far I have taken my lunch and not bought one thing extra. If you work in a large corporate building like myself, then you probably already know that lunch can run you anywhere from $8 to $15! That's ridiculous. And if you are married and share finances, if he is eating out the same day, that can equal almost $30 in lunch! I have decided to stop that trend and see how much money we can save.
I start the night before and pack my lunch and my husbands. I make sure meals are different everyday and I give a variety of options that I can leave at my desk to help with the munchies I get every hour!
I pack a lot of yogurt, crackers, pretzels and oatmeal.
I was afraid my grocery bill would go up regardless, but since I have been clipping coupons and finding deals, I have saved a lot of cash already.
Here are some of my secrets:
1. Base your meals off of the weekly grocery ads your stores send out. I shop mostly at Publix. Every Thursday there is a new ad, so I wait till Sunday to go through my coupons and clip more from the paper, then I match up with the current ad and I go to www.iheartpublix.com to get even more ideas.
2. For toiletries and paper items, I check out Target every week. At Target, you can print out a coupon from their website, www.target.com, and then use a manufacturers coupon on top of that. So this week I need toilet paper, which I usually buy in bulk anyways because I hate buying toilet paper! Anyways, Target had a coupon for $1.25 off of Angel Soft and there was a coupon for $1 off in the RedPlum paper. I used both of these coupons and paid $7.74 (before tax) for a 20 pack of toilet paper. That made it $1.54 for a 4 pack of Angel Soft, I did not think this was a bad deal at all! And now I don't have to buy anymore toilet paper for a long time!
3. Another site that is super helpful is www.thekrazycouponlady.com. She tells you all the sales pretty much everywhere and certain products that you can get at really cheap prices. There is so much information on this site, you really have to check it out.
4. Go through your pantry! This was something I am going to try to do every week and see what I have that I have not been using. We all have cans and boxes of items we have bought and not used that can be added to a dinner item or used to make something without having to go to the store.
Since this is new to me, I will continue to update on my progress and let you know if I come up with any new ideas for saving some cash.