Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Where Shopping is a Pleasure

This week, I once again spent about an hour clipping coupons and researching the Publix sales ad. I went grocery shopping and bought sixteen items that I needed. Now, some of these items were staple items that there are not coupons for, generally speaking. Milk and eggs, for instance, you rarely get a break on. Anyhow, This week I spent $16.44 on $38.67 worth of groceries!


That's a savings of $22.23 (thankfully, this is broken down on my receipt!) and I ended up saving more money than I actually spent. I actually got 2 huge boxes of delicious and healthy Total Raisin Bran for only $1.34 per box--the regular price of these is $4.79. It's kind of exciting to save so much money.

Over the past few years, I have really been impressed with myself. I have curbed my spending in so many ways. First of all, I rarely shop for clothes now, although there was a time in my life that I nearly bought a new outfit every week. I also haven't been getting my hair cut as often as I used to--I used to follow the "every six weeks" rule. About every other haircut, I would get highlights as well. That's also a luxury I have cut out. While James and I still go out to eat frequently, I have lowered my standards of restaurants so that I don't take a toll on our pocketbook. (Thank goodness, though, that I have a husband who knows what I like--he has treated me occasionally to wonderful special restaurants because he knows how much I enjoy it!) I am not paying for an expensive gym membership that I don't use. I am not purchasing things for the house that we really don't need. I have really kicked a lot of bad habits out of necessity, and I think that it will make good impact on how I continue to spend (or not spend) in the future!

I am trying to get over my materialistic "want, want, want" attitude, and finding myself more content with what we have. So what that we have an empty living room with no furniture--it makes a great place to play ball with our little dog. The blue tile on the floor still bothers me, but I know it's a priority for us both to fix it as soon as we have the means.




In the meantime, life is pretty good!

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