My New Shopping Strategy

I have been asked to expound on my new shopping strategy. To be honest, it isn't all that different than before, just refined.

When I shop I often will pick up unnecessary items that I don't really need, just because it will only cost me $.25. It may seem silly, but these small purchases really do add up. So I have decided to streamline my purchasing just a bit, but I will keep up on purchasing items to donate.

An example of this would be Kraft BBQ sauce. I purchased at least a dozen of these last month. Some bottles I paid $.25 for and some I was able to get for FREE. Since I was able to get some for FREE, I feel like I shouldn't have paid $.25 for any of them. Even though I probably only paid $1.50 (for 6 bottles) it still was unnecessarily spent. Especially since all of my Kraft BBQ sauce is earmarked for donations.

I feel like I can refine my shopping just a little bit more and I can save just a few more dollars each month. Coupon spending, to me, is about saving money (or getting the items that our family needs by spending less than full price) but I have recently had my focus on how much money in FREE stuff I have been scoring. I just want to change my focus.

My husband and I have been learning more and more about Dave Ramsey's Total Money Make Over and we would like to leave the world of school loans debt asap. Spending less and creating a snowball of debt pay-off will help us to escape our loans more quickly, thus spending less on interest.

So, all in all, I'm not a cheapskate (I HATE the word cheap!!!) I would just rather wisely spend my money so that we can invest in our future, our son's college education and in loan repayment.