My big idea

I've decided, in the interest of interest, to keep a running tab of my spending and saving this year. I'll include all of our groceries, newspapers, toiletries and personal care items purchased from CVS, Kroger, Meijer, Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. Since this is the first official grocery week of 2009 it's a great time to start. I'm very curious to know exactly how much I can save in a year's time, since I started couponing mid-year and saved a ton. So I'll be documenting all of my spending here, trying to stick to a $4420 budget for 2009, which comes out to $85 a week for a family of 4 (and the baby practically eats more than the rest of us combined).

I already documented my Meijer trip from yesterday. Here are my 2 CVS runs, with a photo from tonight's.

Yesterday, I bought:
(6) Newspapers @ 1.75 each
(1) Garnier shampoo @ 2.99
(3) Hershey bars @ .89 each

Used $3/$15
1.00/1 Garnier
9.79 ECB

Paid 2.37 OOP
Earned 2 ECB

Tonight:


(Sorry to put my lady business out there like that, but we're all adults here, right?)
I bought:
(4) Stayfree @ 4.50 each
(1) Band-Aid @ 3.00
(1) Maybelline Shiny Licious Lip Gloss @ 5.79

Used:
$3/$15
2 BOGO free Stayfree from 1/4 paper
4.00/1 Maybelline lip from a few weeks ago (expired today)
9.98 ECB

Paid 1.64 OOP
Earned 10 ECB
(The deal here is if you buy $20 worth of Stayfree and Bandaids you'll get 10 ECBs, making everything about 2 bucks after coupons and ECBs, and a moneymaker if you use the $3/$15. Jessica put together this great deal. Thanks!)

Total spent so far this week: 4.77
Total saved: 72.62