A not so starving artist.

I wish I could keep and up to date and riveting blog like so many other bloggers in the wonderful land of the world wide web. But alas, I do not.

I am a proud patron of the "Happy Money Saver" Yes, that is the name. I kid you not. It used to be blog but now it is more a website. But if you ever want to see some extreme money saving, coupon wielding ladies than this is the place to go.

Now as a general rule it is not often that you see a student with with a hand full of coupons, a sale flier and a shopping list. This is usually a common sight for a woman with two kids stuffed into those plastic trucks on the ends of shopping carts. She is out for the best deals because her family relies on it. Plus she manages to squeeze the time out of her day to scour the weekly ads for the best deals. But this fall I have become much more thrifty in my grocery shopping thanks to the inspiration of this website. 

I live in a little town. We have four grocery stores. One is a discount outlet and the other three are major retailers. My system is as thus: get the ads for the major stores and look for the best deals. Make a list of things that I need. Compare prices with the discount grocery and see which is better. It is usually a safe bet to go there every trip. In the end, I probably scrape off about $5-$10 per trip.

Now honestly, this is not that much not compared to these crazy Money Saver women who go to the store and manage to pay $1.50 for $40 worth of stuff. ( I am not joking).  However, I am lucky enough to have been born with a very thrifty mentality and so I can do the math. This kind of savings over the course of the year adds up to be between $210 and $420. Not bad for a student. To extend this even more I cook at home and rarely eat out. When I eat out it is for lunch which is the cheaper alternative. To top that all off I often can get organic food at my discount grocery for the same price as the regular stuff at say Safeway. Unbelievable right? Yet very few students ever shop at this place.

Okay, yeah, I know I am weird. Most people that are under 25 do not think like me. But really, it is not that hard to do this kind of thing. I wish more people would do the same. We would be healthier, have more money in our bank account and feel that sense of homemaker accomplishment that comes from getting dinner on the table for under $10. That sentiment died in the 1950's. Too bad.