2011 End of Year Report

Well, 2011 has ended and I don't have anything too exciting to report. : / It started off fairly well, but life took over and we got busy. We put our house up for sale (and looked at a bazillion others), tried to enjoy our summer (and manage our weird work schedules), enrolled Kip in Kindergarten, got our first taste of baseball (and homework), prepped for the holidays, and made an unexpected trip back to ND. Needless to say, couponing had to give.

My goal for 2011 was for my hobby not to be as stressful. Meaning, not to stress if I missed out on a deal. If you are a "coupon crack" addict, you know what I'm talking about! : ) I think I succeeded. I didn't force myself to make time for coupons. If I had time, I did what I could. And I still managed to stick to our cash budget that we had set up the year before. Yay!

For simplicity (less stress remember), I didn't keep track of store coupon savings this time. Only manufacturer coupons. We managed to save $1203 this year just by using manufacturer coupons alone. And remember, this wasn't "hard core" couponing... it was just a dabble here and there when I had time. I think it's safe to say I probably saved just as much in store coupons, which would have made our YTD savings about $2400.

The lessons I learned from couponing in 2011 are pretty much the same as I learned in 2010. I'll keep it simple...

#1. It is possible to still save money just by clipping a few here and there. A penny saved is a penny earned, right?

#2. We don't "need" or eat near as much food as I thought!

I'm not sure what our goal should be for 2012. I think our budget system is working well, and we have managed to pay some things off these last two years. I would like to get back into a couponing routine of some sort because I do feel that you save money alone just by having a stockpile on hand. I know for us, if the cupboards are full, we don't have an excuse to go out to eat which is a HUGE temptation for us!