Full Speed Ahead...

The pace of life has picked up dramatically around here since spring arrived and with it, spring sports.

Nick is playing high school ball on a homeschool team up in Baltimore. As one of 3 freshmen on the team, his new name is "rookie." It's an excellent program--with several alumni going on to college ball.

Alyson made the varsity track team-hooray! She'll be long-jumping, high jumping, hurdling, and sprinting.

Our life now consists of cramming in school, making up a bunch of snacks, and hitting the road every afternoon for one sport or another.

(check back for great pictures of them as soon as I get my camera fixed...or borrow Alyson's again)

Since I'm on the road so much, I have been looking for ways to save money. Some of you have noticed a couple new blog addresses on my sidebar. My sweet, Duke-loving friend (is that an oxymoron?) has gotten me interested in serious coupon clipping. I've heard of the "grocery game" and of people getting great deals at places like CVS, but figured it was too complicated for me to handle.

And it may be....but I'm still giving it a go!

Today, on my way back from NE Baltimore, armed with my lists and carefully printed, clipped, and organized coupons, I made my first go.

Here's what I got:

1. Ziplock round containers 5 count
2. Ziplock sandwich bags 50 ct
3. 2 packs Mentos gum
4. Veg-All frozen vegetables winter mix
5. Super Pretzel frozen pretzels
6. Welch's light strwbry-mango juice 52 oz.
7. Rold Gold Honey twists
8. Pillsbury ready-to-bake oatmeal choc chip cookies
9. 5 Johnson's Buddies bar soaps

Total retail price for all of the above items: $23.97

Amount I paid: $4.96!!!

It was pretty exciting looking for the deals and then walking around the store with a cart full of stuff that was going to cost me almost nothing. It was really nice when the cashier at the grocery store said, "wow!" when she rang me up. I was glad to see that this can be done at regular stores with regular items and it doesn't take me completely changing my shopping habits to do it.

That being said, it is somewhat time consuming. I've been emailing back and forth with Lori, the "coupon consultant," whose blog you can link to from here. She, and many other people, do a lot of the work--figuring out where the best deals are, linking to printable coupons, and spreading the word. Lori said when she started it took her hours each week to go through it all but she had no one to show her where to look. Now she spends 1-1/2 hours each week, clipping, sorting, and making her lists and meal plans. She's obviously more organized than I am. That's about what I spend just thinking about going to the commissary!

I am really excited at the prospect of this, though. I've heard people say they've saved $500 a month following this "plan!" For those of you who live fairly near me and are interested in learning how to shop smartly and save money, email me. Lori lives in Virginia Beach and teaches classes. The 3-hour class costs $35 and Lori guarantees that you will save the cost of the class within one month. If not, she'll refund your money! Since she spends $200-$300 a month feeding her family of 5, I'm very interested in figuring this thing out. She will come up here to teach us if we can get enough people interested.

I'm going to periodically update you with my savings--even if you don't live nearby, you can definitely learn a lot by checking out those two websites on my sidebar. Email me if you'd like me to send you a couple more as well!

And an extra-big thank you to my friend, Lori Graham, for getting all this rolling for the rest of us! Go Heels!