Catching up and my new hobby

So ever since we got the Internet hooked up at the house, I've been using every free moment to try to get my blog up to date. I had taken lots of pictures and lots of fun things had happened since moving into our new house, and I want to make sure that my blog has it all recorded (because scrapbooking has completely taken the backseat).


So that's why all the posts in the past two or three weeks have been about things that happened in late June and early July. I'm still catching up, and I will continue to, but I wanted to tell the world (yes, all three of you who read this) about my new hobby. I'm over the top (not really, but sort of) into the whole couponing craze!


Have you heard about it? I think there's a show about it on TV. Not sure. Anyway, a friend of mine asked me if I used coupons, and I explained to her that I didn't really because I didn't think that the things that I used, especially food, had coupons. I also explained that I wasn't about to down-grade the quality of food that I fed my family to save a dollar or two. For example, I am not going to cook Hamburger Helper or Tostino's pizza rolls in order to use coupons and get them for 39 cents each.


She stopped me mid-sentence. She said that she had cut her grocery bill by about half, and most of it was on soaps and deodorants, shampoos and things that she can stock up on, like spaghetti or chips. Interesting ... so she gave me some websites, I checked them out and I'm hooked.


I was able to get two tubes of toothpaste and 2 2-packs of Heath's soap for free last week at Kroger. I price matched at Wal-Mart this past weekend, and I saved a bundle on produce. (Stay tuned for my great grape ordeal.) I was looking at it totally wrong. It's not about saving money on every single thing, but if I can save money here and there are the things that I normally get, it makes it easier to buy, for example, the clean, all natural meat from the local butcher that we love so much. Once you get the hang of it, you can really rack up the savings. I made my weekly grocery run today, and I only paid full price for my whole milk and some raisins. 


Anyway, that's my new hobby. Saving money. It's not hard, and it's really not that time-consuming because if you go to the right websites, they have already done the foot work for you! Maybe I'll post some deals on here if you care to join in on the fun!