Over two weeks of food for under $17

We followed that first week of shopping -- See 7-foot receipt post -- with more shopping trips. And, thanks to better planning, the addition of my mom and the reappearance of my girlfriend (she didn't bail from embarrassment after the first few trips - dedicated I'll give her that much) we posted four huge receipts and never spent over $17 total.

To be honest, there is no time for embarrassment. We spend the trips, laughing, smiling, digging through coupons, cussing those slips of paper that disappear faster than a sock in a dryer, and proclaiming this is going to be the 'best trip ever,' all while comparing it to previous trips.

So here is the damage of the end of that first week: receipts that totaled:
$0.04
$0.63
$0.12
$2.92
$4.91
$7.91.


Here's what we got - and split amongst the three of us:
10 Hidden Valley salad kits - 10 Ken's salad dressing - 9 Minute Rice steamers - honey mustard dipping sauce - lysol bowl cleaner - glade carpet cleaner - 4 boxes gordon fillets - 6 boxes danactive yogurt - 4 boxes Taco shells - 6 kraft home-style mac-n-cheese - 2 bottles taco sauce - 2 tubs sour cream - 2 cans refried beans.

If we had paid retail, (something I did for the first decade and a half of my independence) I would have paid $132. Instead I spent less than $17.

What the ....... was I thinking before? Need I even point out how many car payments I could have made, shoot, how many months of rent, vacations, ohhhh I mentally kick myself every time I think about how much money I have wasted not knowing the power of coupons.