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Welcome to Centsable Savings Stories and Struggles!
This week we are featuring Cheryl who blogs at Mutt Cooking. Thank you for sharing your story, Cheryl!
My Family
My family consists of my husband who works full time, my son who is away at college but returns every weekend and during vacations, my eleven-year-old daughter and myself. I am a stay-at-home mom, and I am currently taking online computer classes in web design. We also have two inside cats who have special needs, and I feed a bunch of feral cats because I can’t let them walk around dying.
My Struggles
I have struggles that may be different than many. At the moment my number one struggle is saving money and learning to buy more sensibly. There are lots of dietary preferences and needs among the members of my family, and this causes me to waste money and spend extra money. I don’t eat red meat, poultry or pork. The only meat I eat is fish. Some nights I cook two meals, one for me and one for the family members who eat meat. My son will eat anything I cook, meat or vegetarian, but he is lactose intolerant so he cannot eat anything made with milk. My daughter will not eat fish, pork, meat or anything with tomato products so when I make something she will not eat she ends up eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or some instant soup. My husband thinks every meal needs to contain something that is no longer breathing (meaning meat) so when I make vegetarian meals like Pasta e Fagioli he sometimes makes a meal for himself like homemade chicken soup or meat with rice and veggies. My husband is also diabetic so he requires special meals and lots of produce. I spend a lot of money on produce, and sometimes I buy produce that I plan to use in my menu but then for some reason or another I don’t and I wind up throwing it out. There are several other reasons we have high expenses. My husband is supporting his family in his native country of Honduras. We send them money monthly because if we didn’t do this they would starve and die. I also save up things I get for free or cheap to ship to them. My cats also cost a lot of money. I spend $50 a month on the special food they require, $24 on Fancy Feast food for my female cat and $30 on food for the feral cats. On top of that, I also have to buy cat litter. In addition to those costs, we also are struggling to replace things we lost in Hurricane Katrina. We lost almost everything and were never compensated by FEMA; instead we were given used things that are now falling apart.
My History
I have used coupons for 15 years, but now they are actually working for me. Before I would save $5 or $10 and be happy, but my pantry was never stocked and I had to buy health and beauty aids weekly. I was an avid Walmart shopper, but the noise and lights would cause me to come home agitated. A few months ago I switched to shopping at Harris Teeter and CVS, and I began making the coupons, deals and store loyalty cards work for me.
My Stores
I shop at Harris Teeter for everything, even when I just need to get a gallon of milk. I save lots of money with them and love triple coupons. I frequently save anywhere between $50 and $90 with them as opposed to when I used to spend $180 at Walmart after which I would still have to go to Sam’s club and Harris Teeter to get some specialty items. I’ve cut our grocery bill to about $70 a week.
I also frequent CVS for deals. I have a closet and two plastic containers full of stockpile items from CVS. I use ECBs and coupons to get things free, but I can never seem to pay nothing for my purchases. Yesterday I paid $9 and change for four bags of merchandise and saved $69. I should feel great, but I always feel I can do better.
My little city has lots of stores, and sometimes I’ll go to Lowes Food for special deals, Kmart for double coupons, Rite Aid for free or almost free items and T.J. Maxx for quality non-grocery items. I shop at a few different pet stores for my pet food, and I go to the farmer’s market for fresh produce. I also shop occasionally at Central American markets for specialty foods I need to cook Central American recipes and tortillas.
Room for Improvement
I make a menu for the week, but I don’t stick to it. I tend to buy the things I need for the week ahead of time, but when the day comes for that recipe I don’t cook what I say I am going to cook so produce often ends up in the garbage. I need to figure out how to cook food for all of us so I am not making more than one recipe.Any suggestions you have would be great! If anyone has a similar experience, I would love your input. I am always looking to learn. Thanks!
Cheryl
Each week we feature a different shopper’s story. Centsable Savings Stories are the stories of people just like you who are working toward reducing their budgets, bargain hunting, living a more frugal lifestyle and constantly learning along the way. If you are interested in sharing your family’s successes and struggles, please contact Katherine at centsable.katherine[at]gmail [dot]com. Blogger and non-bloggers are both welcome to participate. Click here to read the stories of shoppers featured in the past.
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