Finally made it to the grocery store. I did try the www.thegrocerygame.com, which did have a few buys I wasn't aware of, and had a great reminder system by color coding what is "buy this only if you are out" sale and a "buy this now and stock up" sale.

Didn't do too badly. Checkout price before savings was $203.92, and after savings was $89.62.

It would have been better, but I did need some spices, which are EXPENSIVE at a standard grocery story, and MD bought a chimney-cleaning log, $7. I told him he was RUINING my % savings, but he pointed out that hiring the chimney sweep every year was $100, and we aren't using the fireplace much this year. The fireplace DOES increase our heating bill as well as cause allergies, despite the forum arguments about what the air does or doesn't do. Hubbie has 3 PhDs, and one is in physics, so I keep my mouth shut about air flow and such.

The bad news, PetSmart. Had a $5 coupon, but by the time we bought a crate and a pad and some treats and a gate, it was $200. OUCH. And, I think Max will outsmart us on the gate in about two tries.

Didn't BUY ANY MORE GIFTS, so am keeping up my goal for the week. Need to wrap a few, I think that's my festive fix. NOT as fun, but we DO have costs to cut. The vet bills came to over $2000, the pet insurance was worthless. Never seen SO many loopholes. So, we continue to rebudget and dig for more ways to save.

I'm considering starting up a coupon train. I've got an envelope a week that is overflowing with ones I won't use. Anyone interested? Might ask another CERTAIN MEMBER to head it up if she wants. But, to be cost-effective, i.e., the costs of mailing has to be insignificant to the savings from the coupons received, there would need to be a committment of a turnaround time by each member of around 3 days. Is that reasonable? Anyone have any experience with this?