Saved (in more ways than I expected)

Okay! Many of you know that we have been on the savings wagon with groceries and clothes. As the mom of a large family, I am always on the lookout for ways to cut costs around here. We do hand-me-downs from one child to the next and from many friends.

I decided that this month, I would attempt to plan my meals and shop for a full month. Here's how it went down...........

After a couple of hours of planning and then a couple of hours of clipping, the girls and I went to Kroger. We had two buggies overflowing. The girls were a touch mortified, and refused to get a third buggy and therefore got creative with where they stuck stuff. Pretty funny. But, let me tell you, they are way into this grocery savings bit and were up for the adventure....

Total Bill for one month for a family of seven ages 7 to 15....ages recorded so that you know they aren't little people who eat nothing.

$620.00 (I was secretly hyperventilating when the total rang up)........then came the savings..............$177 and change in Kroger card savings..........$104 in coupons for a grand total of $339 spent for the entire month. (plus or minus bread and milk).

Can you believe it????? Neither could the check-out lady whose mouth had dropped at the $620.00, but dropped further with the $281.00 in savings!!! Whoop! I love www.thegrocerygame.com.

Pretty impressive I think! and we aren't just eating beans and cornbread either!!!

Second savings moment............we went shopping at the thrift store. There is a really big one in our city. It is in a heavily Hispanic section of town, so the kids practiced interpreting Spanish today. Very few of the workers speak English and the majority of all the signs were in Spanish. Very funny :) We bought:

Three pair of jeans (Levi's and Gap still with tags) for various kids
Two pair of Gap dress pants for K
One Gap skirt
One pair of church shoes for Little J
Five T-shirts for A's trip to Haiti
Two long sleeve dress shirts- one Ralph Lauren and the other Croft & Barrow
a wallet (for Big J)...weird, I know, but whatever...it was so cheap
Five other long sleeved shirts for A (he is very into shopping thrifty...prep for college)

All for $55!!! When I added up what the cost would've been in a store, we determined we would've spent $290.00 brand new!!!

Very exciting...........

To top it off, I overheard A talking to a friend of his about his adventure. He said, "Well, I got loaded up today at the thrift store. Now all the money that would've gone for clothes can go with me for Bendy (the little boy he sponsors in Haiti). I know that I should be saving for a car, but God will work all of that out. Bendy's family needs it far worse than me."

Humbling to hear...we are so proud of him. So proud of all our frugal little savers :)