I’m not cheap. I’m frugal.

Like most twenty-four year olds, my husband and I have money problems sometimes. Like now.

We aren’t broke by any means {we can afford our rent this month, at least}, but we are still stretched pretty thin at the moment. I’m lucky, though, because I was raised by a coupon connoisseur.

Though, I guess if you compare my mom to one of those crazy women on those coupon shows, she wouldn’t be nearly as impressive. But I like to think that my mom is more realistic than those women.

Even if she did save $112 at the grocery store the other day. And spend 86 cents.

I remember cutting coupons in college, my roommates thinking I’m crazy. But I’m sure glad I did. It’s kind of amazing how much money you can save by just looking though the ad and planning your shopping trip and week’s menu accordingly.

I haven’t necessarily been couponing as much as I should/could have for the past year. But seeing as things are a bit tight these days, I knew that the first thing I could cut back on was our groceries. And this is how I did this weekend.

I like to challenge myself, and so I turned it into kind of a game. I’ve decided that we can easily spend $40 a week on groceries, as long as we eat the majority of our meals at home. And while it’s not so difficult to use coupons, it can be somewhat hard to eat healthy on such a budget. So, I’ve made some rules.

• We will eat at home for 6 dinners per week.
• We will eat at home for 6 breakfasts per week.
• We will eat at home {or bring food to work} for 5 lunches per week.
• One dinner per week must be fish.
• One dinner per week must be vegetarian.

Sundays are my shopping days. And how did I do today?

This was a trip to Vons, where we spent $20 on what was originally a $51 bill. Here are a few things that we got:

• Tortilla chips {$1.99}
• Sliced cheese {$1.49}
• Hamburger buns {$.88}
• Hot dogs {$.99}
• Sunny Delight {don’t judge, it was 50 cents}
• Corn on the cob {4/$.88}

We also got charcoal {$5.99}, which I don’t count as groceries, so technically we spent $14 of our $40 budget for the week at Vons. Some of this is going toward our BBQ for tomorrow, in which we are feeding a few friends, so I don’t think we did so bad!

This morning we also went to Ralphs, where I transferred a prescription from Target and got a $25 gift certificate. We spent $9.83 on what was originally a $49 bill, and we didn’t even have any coupons! Here are a few things that we got:

• Broccoli {$.99}
• Cauliflower {$.99}
• Salmon {$6.11}
• Hamburgers {$7.99}
• Organic milk {$3.29 – I only buy organic milk}
• Salad {$3.00}

We also got two packs of gum, which I also don’t count as groceries, so technically our total was $7.83. That means that between the two places, we spent $22 of our $40 budget for the week.

Not too shabby.

On Wednesday, I’ll go to Sprouts to buy some produce. If you have a Sprouts or Henry’s near you, here is a little secret: go on Wednesdays, because they have products on sale from both the previous week’s ad and the current week’s ad. That means double stuff on sale.

And, if you aren’t beyond bored yet by this post, I have actually planned our meals for the week too.

If you’re thinking that it’s kind of strange that I put “bagels” and “sandwiches” on a few of the meals, you would be right. I don’t necessarily think I need to plan out meals as simple as these, if I didn’t have bread rising right now so that we can have homemade bagels for breakfast tomorrow and fresh bread for sandwiches.

It’s been a very food-centric weekend. I’ve made quite a few yummy things the past few days, but I’m going to wait for the weekend to be over to post about it. Keep an eye out.

I’ve also spent quite a while this weekend creating a couple notebooks, which I can’t wait to show you. The page above is from my new household planner, which I’m kind of ecstatic about. I also made a recipe notebook, to hold my recipes. I’m thinking about perfecting them, and offering them up for sale. What you think? Good idea?

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. I know that this isn’t the most exhilarating post of my blogging career, but I also know that there are plenty of young people out there who have no idea how couponing works. So, that’s how I do it.

I hope you’re all having a fantastic weekend, and I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday. Eat yummy food.

xoxo,