You know it's been a long time when...

So quite a few people have asked me how I've been doing with couponing as I haven't posted anything in a while. Honestly - not that bad. March was a bad month. My heart just wasn't in it...but I still managed to spend under $1000 for groceries...which is about $200 less than we were averaging last year. After a very successful shopping trip yesterday morning (Total OOP $53.63, Total Savings $109.56), two things happened: 1) I got re-invigorated by the whole thing, and 2) I did bookkeeping for our family and compared spending to date from this time last year. So far in 2011 I've saved our family $1100 compared to what we spent last year! If that is all I ever do...If I can save $1000 per quarter...that is $4000 a YEAR!!! However...as I said - I really didn't do very good in March. So I still think I can make a bigger difference going forward. Speaking of making a difference - I stumbled upon a great website. Zeal for a Deal takes the weekly ad with coupon match-ups and figures out how by spending only around $3, you can provide $20-35 worth of groceries to those in need! I started thinking about what I've said in this very blog...about donating things that I don't need or want, but can get either free or at a good price. However - I haven't been great about doing that lately... Unless I could get it free or "make money" on the deal - I really didn't give it a second look. In other words - if it didn't take any extra effort on my part, then I was willing to buy and donate. However - at my church we are currently studying and having a sermon series (in addition to small group bible studies on the same matter), a book called "The Hole in Our Gospel" by Richard Stearns. (see more about it here - I highly recommend it if you want to challenge yourself) It is an amazing book that questions how we as Christians actually "walk the walk" rather than just "talking the talk"...or rather - how we haven't been doing that. So - my plan is to now be more deliberate when I'm doing my grocery planning, and deliberately buy OOP $5-10 per week items for the hungry/needy in our community...regardless if it is items that I can use myself in my family. For example - my coupon websites that I frequent in doing my planning, have some GREAT deals not only on Crest toothpaste, but also on Oral-B toothbrushes. Great enough that I should be able to "buy" 10 tubes of toothpaste and 10 toothbrushes. Do we need that many in our family? Sure we will someday go through them...but we don't need 10! So - I'm going to "buy" 10 of each...and donate 8. Another great deal is Mueller's pasta. It is BOGO (starting on Thursday), and with a coupon I have, I can buy two boxes of pasta for only $0.39. At this point - we really don't need any more pasta in the house...but I plan on buying at least 6 or 8 boxes and donating them. Also - Wish Bone salad dressing is BOGO. I wish I could say that my family eats a lot of salad...but we don't...so that is something I would normally have overlooked. However, with coupons and the sale, I can buy 4 bottles for less than the regular price of one. Imagine if all of us used the free resources that are out there and really tried to do this. The food banks would be busting at the seams with food...needy families wouldn't be turned away from the shelters when they are looking to eat...and it would only cost each of us $3-5 a week!!! What a difference that would make!!!