Savings is REALLY starting to show itself now!

Even saving 50% right off the bat is awesome. That is what I was saving when I first started couponing in January. I am now starting my 6th month and the savings is really starting to show itself at the register and in my wallet.

Here is what I got this week:

I finally received that $10 prepaid debit card from doing the Mach 3 survey. I have been holding on to it b/c I didn't know when I would ever spend $10 all at once (then I searched for the thread about the debit card and realized I could get a $10 gift card to a store and not have to worry about it). So I got a $10 gift card to Food Lion since they had a pretty good diaper deal going on this week.

I also got conned into subscribing to the local newspaper on my last trip to Lowe's Foods (he wouldn't let me get the "NO" in before he had me signed up and then he offered a $10 gift card and the price for 3 months is 8.50/month. so with the $10 it is actually cheaper than just buying the Sunday paper out of the box every week).

ALSO, dh drinks AMP energy drinks like water so I have been entering the codes and I won a new pair of adidas shoes! dh needed some new shoes so he was so happy ($70 retail value, they are the old school shell toe shoes like he loves too).

Anyways! Here is how I spent my money this week:

Food Lion:
2 Huggies Jumbo pack diapers size 4s
1 Food Lion jumbo pack diapers size 4s
5 Gerber 2 pack stage 2 foods
12 jars of beech nut stage 2 foods
2 gerber baby bottles
1 gerber sippy cup
2 80 ct tubs of FL wipes
1 40 ct travel pack FL wipes
1 box of Gerber cereal w/ fruit
4 jars salsa
2 KC masterpiece bbq sauces

I used all but .81 on the gift card and spent about $4 OOP (I tried to use EBT on the last transaction b/c I had a lot of food items but b/c of the coupons the register flipped out so I just paid the $4 cash to save myself further embarrassment).

At CVS I did math wrong so I spent $2 more OOP than I wanted to but here is what I got:
2 Kodak 4x6 photo books
2 Listerine Smart Rinse
4 Dawn
2 Chex Mix
2 Brut deodorant
1 Fusion razor
2 boxes CVS bandages

spent $23 ecb and got back 22.96 ecb (although I would rather have spent an extra 2 ecb than that $2 in cash...oh well)

At first it was hard to get into couponing because I had no stockpile and so I had to buy certain items every week and only had a certain amount to spend. Now I have built up a small stockpile so I can focus exclusively on sales.

I love it because now I get a one time use debit card and I wonder "How in the world am I going to spend $10 at once?!?!"