Miserly Mom on Focus on the Family

My friend, Miriam, alerted me to the recent Focus on the Family broadcast with Jonni McCoy.

Jonni authored the book "Miserly Moms" which is a great read on saving money, couponing and her personal story of going from earning 55% of their household income to a stay-at-home mom.
You can find the replay at the Focus on the Family website. Simply search for "Frugal Living in a Tough Economy." The two parts originally aired on 11/12/09 and 11/13/09.

I took notes furiously while listening to Jonni talk. It was so fun to be encouraged that anyone can coupon and it doesn't have to take up your entire life.

A few highlights for you:

• The biggest waste in people's grocery lists is convenience food. You pay 3-5 times more for something that's prepared, for example:
  Bisquick - it's only four ingredients, so unless you get it free it's cheaper to make yourself
  Pancake syrup - a bottle costs almost $4, but you could make it at home for $.11!
  
• You can save 35% on your grocery list almost immediately by planning your meals around loss leaders (those items that are featured on the front and back of the weekly store ads).
  
• Jonni addressed the whole gas vs. savings of going to multiple stores controversy. She finally calculated one of her grocery trips and discovered the following, that by going to multiple grocery stores she:
  
  She saved $65
  She spent $3.80
  Spent 3 hours of her week
  
• If you don't have time to make a grocery list, plan menus or look at loss leaders then shop at Walmart. They don't have loss leaders because they have the lowest overall prices.
  
• Warehouse stores like Costco and Sams usually (but, NOT ALWAYS) have the best deals on:
  
  produce
  batteries
  dairy
  personal care items
  vitamins
  
  Cereal is always more expensive at warehouse stores. And, if you shop the sales at regular grocery stores you can usually find better deals on meat and paper products (I have found this to be very true!)
  
• If you're a working wife/mom wanting stay at home, Jonni suggests trying to live on less and less in order to learn to live on one income. She also advises taking a look at the cost of working. Some hidden expenses of working won't go away until a wife/mom actually quits working like clothing, day care, gas, etc. Did you know that some people PAY TO WORK? That is crazy to me!
  
• Jonni shared a great reminder that being frugal doesn't mean being deprived. Frugality simply means using your money as a tool to get to whatever goal you have set for yourself.
  
• The average family spend $5,000 a year eating out. If you eat out for convenience, know that a good, cheaper first step for you to take might be to simply buy some frozen prepared meals. Frozen, prepared foods are still not as cheap as cooking yourself, but it might be a good step to help wean you off of eating out too often.
  Another way to cut back when eating out is to order water to drink and to split entrees.

Finally, if you're looking for more resources, some cheap recipes and Jonni's personal price goals - check out her website here.

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Spreadsheets: Part 5 - Grocery Price Book

The final spreadsheet that I use to help me coupon and calculate my savings is the Grocery Price Book. This is one of the last spreadsheets I started using in my couponing adventures, yet it is probably the one I refer to the most, as it tells me if a sale is actually a good deal or not.

You can find the Grocery Price Book template here or in the column to the right.

I originally found this spreadsheet at Uncommon Way to Wealth, and you can see their examples under the first tab in the spreadsheet.

Date & Store
These columns are pretty self-explanatory.

Product Catagory
Here I put a very general catagories - for example: meat.

Product Name
Here I enter more specifics - for example: chicken breast

Brand Name
You'll see under my Grocery Pricebook 2009 that I've tweaked this spreadsheet a little. I've added a column called Brand Name so that I can compare brand prices and sales.

Weight/Volume/Units/Count/Quantity
These columns are really up to you as to how you fill them out. Generally I do ounces in the first two columns and pounds in the second two columns. You'll want to maintain some consistency with these, especially for similar products so that you can compare like products.

Orig/Sale/Coupon
Here is where you record the original price, the sale price and the coupon value (I've added the coupon column to the original spreadsheet).

Final Price
This is automatically calculated for you.

Price per Unit
This is also automatically calculated for you (don't you LOVE spreadsheets yet) and are the columns you'll reference most often to see which store has the best price or if a sale is worth taking advantage of.

Be patient with this spreadsheet.

It will take some time (weeks) and multiple trips to the grocery store to gather information. So, don't rush and don't expect to have a useful pricebook in just four weeks.

Also, don't stress yourself out with entering all of your trips to the grocery store every week. If I'm busy and don't feel like I have time to fill in this spreadsheet then I skip it!

Couponing is not worth it to me if it takes energy away from life and adds more stress to my schedule. I want couponing to be a blessing out finances, not a drain.

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Spreadsheets: Part 4 - CVS Savings Template

The CVS Savings spreadsheet is very similiar to the Grocery Savings template.

You can find the CVS Savings spreadsheet here or in the column on the right.

I'll just point out a few columns that might be confusing and if you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments.

Sale & Clipfree Coupons - This is the bold dollar amount you'll see on the far right of your receipt. It shows you what you saved because you shopped with your CVS Extra Care card.

CVS Coupons - Any CRTs (Cash Register Tape coupons), CVS coupons from mailers or CVS coupons from booklets/magazines.

ECBs Used - The amount of Extra Bucks you spent in this transactions.

Using this spreadsheet, you should start to see your savings increase exponentially if you're rolling your Extra Bucks.

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Spreadsheets: Part 3 - Grocery Savings Template

Okay, I've shared the tools that I use plan my grocery/CVS lists, now I want to show you how I track how much I save. This is my favorite part of using coupons - unless I have a zero savings shopping trip!

We'll start with the Grocery Savings Template. It's pretty straight forward. The spreadsheet does all the work for you!

You can find my Grocery Savings Template here or in the column on the right.

I found the template on someone else's website - which I wish I could remember so that I could give them credit. (If this is your original spreadsheet LET ME KNOW!)

All of the information you'll need to input can be found at the bottom of most chain grocery stores like Kroger, Tom Thumb and Albertsons. Stores like Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, Central Market, etc are a little harder to calculate because they don't always show you the sale price verses the original price.

Each week I simply sit down with my grocery receipts and plug in the numbers to record my savings. It takes 5 minutes.

Just to clarify - store savings is what you save because you use your store rewards card. Sometimes stores will show you how much you saved on doubled coupons. You can put that in this column or in the manufacturer's coupon column - either way the savings will calculate the same.

Let me know if you have any questions or any trouble with the spreadsheets! Happy savings!

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Spreadsheets: Part 2 - CVS Shopping List

Okay - are you saving money at the grocery store yet? Have you earned any Extra Bucks at CVS? Have you gotten your first mega-savings high? Are you hooked? :-)

In addition to using a spreadsheet for planning my grocery list, I've created a spreadsheet to plan my CVS shopping list. I like to calculate how many extra bucks I am going to spend on a shopping trip to make sure that I'm earning at least the same amount of extra bucks back, to keep the cycle going.

You can find my CVS Spreadsheet here, or in the column to the right.

Go ahead and open it so you can follow along as I explain.

I make sure to put the date at the top of the page, so there's no confusion after I print off the list. Often I plan multiple weeks in advance thanks to HotCouponWorld - so adding the date helps me keep things straight.

1. Trip #1
   Sometimes I make more than one trip to CVS, or complete multiple transactions because I want to earn a few extra bucks so that I can turn right around and spend them on more deals that week.
   
   In this column I list the item and any specifics (size, oz, box, etc.) that I plan on buying.
   
2. Qty
   I enter the number/quantity of each item that I am planning on buying here.
   
3. Shelf
   The price that the item will ring up at the register is what I put in this column (if an item is on sale, I put the sale price).
   
4. Total
   The total will automatically multiple the cost of the item by the quantity you plan on purchasing (don't you LOVE Excel!).
   
5. Coupon/Insert/CVS Q
   Very similiarly to the Grocery Shopping Spreadsheet, I input the face value of any coupons I have (CVS does not double or triple) and the insert where I can find those coupons. Occasionally, I have coupons from CVS (that printed on the end of my receipt, that I received in the mail, etc) that can be stacked with manufacturers coupons. I list those in the CVS Q column.
   
6. Final/ECB
   The final column is automatically calculated based on the quantity, shelf and coupon. I then enter how many extra bucks I'll earn for purchasing that item in the ECB column. Ideally, I want the ECB column to be greater than or equal to the Final column, otherwise I'll be using spending more extra bucks than I'm earning.
   
7. Limit
   I use the Limit column to help me keep track of the limit on each extra buck purchase. Sometimes the limit is one, sometimes it's three or even five. I like to know, in case I only purchase one, but want to go back later to purchase more in order to reach my limit.

And that is how I plan my CVS trips - confused enough yet? Please feel free to ask any and all questions in the comment section!

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