Worth it!

So, I'm a budgeter. And this morning I was crunching some numbers in honor of my one-year anniversary of when I started getting the newspaper. Specifically, for grocery coupons. This is what I found:

In the past year (November 08-October 09) I spent about 40 percent less on groceries than I did in the previous year (November 07-October 08). Factoring in the cost of the newspaper brings that number down slightly, to a roughly 35 percent savings.

Even though we are spending less, we get more. So it's not a fair comparison. I'm getting low on cereal right now, which means I only have about 50 boxes in my pantry. I have toothpaste to last until 2020. We've not just been saving money, but building up storage. We also have an extra kid in diapers since the previous year and we are still spending less.

And then there are the valuable lessons that you realize you're teaching when your kid makes you something like this:

 

Priceless. Haha. It's a coupon envelope to take to the store with me. It's full of expired coupons that I let Ella play with and has a list on the front for me to write what I want to buy (lettuce, apparently). My favorite feature, however, is the little coupon cylinder taped to the left for me to set aside the coupons I just need to use for that day to hold them separately. Love it!