I was always one of those peoople who never believed in the value of couponing. I didn’t figure it was worth the trouble to save 50 cents here and 20 cents there. But as my grocery bill continue to climb, and our household income took a few hits, I began to read about ways to trim my grocery budget. You can read more about my “journey toward frugality” here.

I really started researching the whole couponing thing last November (just four months ago) and I actually started couponing (as in clipping my coupons and using them) on January 1, 2010. Since that time, I’ve reduced by grocery expenses (including food, personal care and household items such as cleaners, detergents, paper products) by at least 38 percent and probably more. I say probably because prior to this whole couponing thing, I didn’t do a great job tracking all the “extra” trips to the store when we ran out of toilet paper, milk, bananas, diapers or cereal.

What I do know is that prior to January, I spent about $300 a week on groceries, totaling about $1,200 a month. Now mind you, we eat almost all our meals at home or from home, meaning my kids and husband pack most of their lunches, I cook almost all of our dinners and everybody serves themselves breakfast. But still, it was a lot of money. Since January, I’ve reduced that amount to about $800 a month and that DOES include the extra trips to the store in between major shopping trips. And I might hit a new low of around $600 this month (I’ll keep you posted).

So, if you’re convinced and want to get started, go here for “Getting Started Part 2 – Building Your Stash of Coupons.”

Be sure to visit my Coupon Database and sign up at Coupons.com

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