Marnie here: How much can you save with coupons when you are just starting?  My good friend Crissy is ready to find out.

After I spent months trying to convince her that grocery coupons are worth it, she finally agreed to take me up on the challenge. Crissy will be blogging regularly on how she saves money by using coupons.

I’m just amazed at how much she saved on her first shopping trip! Check out her haul!

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The Mission: To save as much as I possibly can while being realistic about my family’s needs.

The Goal: Pay cash for a trip to Mexico October, 2011 for a good friend’s wedding

I am a newlywed just starting out in this delightful economy.  My husband and I would like to save to buy a house but everything seems so expensive.  Fortunately I have a wonderful husband who is great with budgeting so we are able to save.   That being said, we are young and I have the travel bug!  There is No Way on our modest budget that we could travel and effectively save for a house.  That was when I decided to get serious about couponing.  Like most of you, I have seen the value of couponing but always seemed to be falling short of my potential savings.  In the last month I have adopted a new system and a new philosophy.

•    Buy what I need and what I will actually use
•    Research
•    Stay organized
•    Be realistic

Since we are all in this together I thought I would start out with you.  We can share tips, organizational tools and success stories! We could all set a goal and work on reaching them together!

I am a pretty healthy eater.  I also LOVE food so my shopping list usually consists of produce, dairy, frozen, organic, sugar free, gourmet and meat.  Since my husband prefers food that most of our friends buy for their children I also buy name brand snacks and children’s breakfast food.  These are not usually cheap items and a lot of them do not normally come with the deep discount coupons.  I am willing to change brands for a good deal but not start eating terribly unhealthy just so I can save $ now and end up spending it later on cholesterol medicine.

I have been clipping and printing coupons for about a month now and yesterday I went on my first real couponing shopping trip.
Groceries for my husband and myself for 2 weeks

Spent:  $76.64
Saved: $99.57

I felt very good about this trip!  I did not spend $6.25 and get $1,000 worth of groceries like the pro’s on Extreme Couponing but hey, this is not a TV show and I did save 67% on food my family will really eat.  In my book, that is a success!  The trip made me so excited to hear all of your success stories and hear any useful tips you may have for next time.

Mexico here I come!

(Marnie again. If you’d like to show off your own couponing trip, contact me, Marnie@freecoupons.com)

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