2009 End of the Year review

[coupondink]

I just got around to tallying up my annual End of the Year Coupon Retrospect.

(sorry I am 2 months late...I was really busy these past two months)

I am quite proud! My goal for 2009 was to keep the OOP as low as possible, and to try to live as much as possible off my stockpile, while trying to continue to build a stockpile, but with no oop spent. I was an avid freebie chaser. I even passed up super good deals, just to keep the oop low. It was challenging, but I met my goal and learned alot along the way!!

Here is the grand total for my total oop for 2009........



drum roll please......

.........................$88.30 for the whole year........................




I saved $5189.17.


I also totalled up $1480.58 in rebates (included in the grand "saved" total). YEY!


That is for 2 adults. Breakfast and dinner for both of us and lunch for me (try as I may, DH will not take lunch to work, but I do bring to work without fail). We RARELY go to eat. So it is not like we spend all our money on eating out and that is why the grocery oop is so low. We actually prefer to eat at home...and I love to cook! I can count on one hand how many times we ate out or did take out in 2009. YEY!

So, averaged over a year, I spent $7.35 a month on groceries, HBA, paper products, cleaning products...everything! WOW!
And I have two freezers packed solid, a whole shelving unit in the garage full, a pantry closet full, and every closet's top shelf and floor in my house full of stockpile! Yey! I seriously have enough to survive for half a year or more, if it wasn't for "sort of picky" hubbie. By "sort of" I mean he won't eat soup and cereal every day like I will (haha!). But I can't complain in general, because he is easy to please!

This is a new all time achievement. I have been hard core couponing for 4 years now. I have always been a couponer my whole life, but only discovered "xtreme couponing" recently. I don't want to repeat my story because I am sure those who have read it million times are quite sick of it. But the Cliff Notes is that I used to spend $400 a month, with sales and coupons, and when doing my budget the first year after getting married, I decided that was too much and I had to do something- quick! I found some great websites, learned alot, and never looked back. HCW.com rocks. I visit daily. I have learned so much, and continue to learn so much. I love the warm, supportive community here, and LOVE saving money! It has become like a hobby, and it can be quite fun. Yes, it is challenging, and a lot of work....but anything worth doing is!

I look forward to 2010.

My goal is to continue my "Operation Use It!" from last year....and TRY to get through the crazy stockpile. My other goal is to, like last year, keep my OOP as low, low, low as possible. Wish me luck!! Good luck everyone with your 2010 goals!!!!!!!!!!

[MamaBird06]

great job! My oop could never be that low, we eat way too much produce here and even though we garden every summer we're newbies so we haven't been able to eliminate that oop every week.

[thorrocks1]

congrats on a job well done!

good luck in 2010

[Mikki 316]

Congratulations on meeting your goals, OP. You (and your hubby) did amazingly well. Good luck with 2010, but I think you've now made your new choices and behaviors a habit, and you won't need much luck.

[Dara77]

WOW! That's incredible!

[Laurieellen]

WOW! Way to go!! keep up the good work

[amylynne01]

I bow down. That is awesome, since a lot of people spend that in 1 week!

[dja13]

Awesome job!