I've decided to go back

to the way I bought groceries when we first moved to the Little Blue House. Prices here were so much more than in Florida that the sticker shock was huge. I did a lot of things to make ends meet - cut the boys hair (someday I will show a photo. Some of the cuts were pretty bad), got a lot of clothes and some Christmas presents (games and sleds) at garage sales, furniture at estate sales, etc. I also bought most of my groceries on sale. The grocery stores in town are relatively close to each other so it makes sense to stop in where the price is the best.

Over the years, as I became busier with work and other things I got away from that. I still used some coupons but basically went to one store to save on time. But yesterday that changed.

Half of the grocery stores put out their circulars yesterday and the one store was not only advertising their double coupons (did not realize that they did that) but was also having a buy one/get one free on products that I actually use. Like dog food, pork tenderloin and crackers (among other things). I paid $54.59 for groceries. BUT I saved $43.58 on the same order. Made my head spin.

Now the prices are a bit higher at the second store, but if I'm careful it can work out to my advantage. For example I got 2 bags of dog food. $18.99 per bag. But I got one free. So two large bags for $18.99. At the other store dog food costs me $13.43 per bag. So $26. 86 for two bags. It was cheaper to drive to the other end of the shopping center for the buy one get one free. Now, I'm looking forward to grocery shopping!