Money Saving Challenge-

Well I'll recap our whole weekend.
DH and I ran our errands together yesterday in a circle to save gas and spend some quality time together. We went to Best Buy and got him new gel ear buds for his ipod and I got New Moon on Blu Ray. I had coupons from our Best Buy rewards card, I saved $12 on our total purchase- paid with a free gift card $0 out of pocket.

DH noticed that our shower head had started to leak and it was pretty cheap and couldn't be fixed, so we got a new one at Lowes-I found it on their clearance rack and DH was happy normally $59.99, we paid $18.99 and it' s better quality then what we had.

Went to the grocery store together-he got bud light on sale, I got 1lb bananas, a dozen eggs and OJ. We hate going to the store mid day on a weekend because of the lines but I took the time to observe the carts around us. Since I started couponing a few years ago I've learned it's more cost effective for me to cook from scratch that it is to buy prepackaged or processed foods and I think it's healthier too. DH and I have been able to lose weight in a good way. I noticed the 2 people in front of us had carts filled with donuts, cinnamon bread, pizzas, fried chicken, cookies, and I am nosy so I looked at the total. (No fresh fruit/veggies/meat) and the total was over $120. DH commented to me he was very grateful for my cooking homemade meals and couponing. He realizes how much money I save us. Sometimes it's just nice to get kudos. And for me sometimes it's nice to see that cart load of high priced sugary items it renews my resolve to coupon, cook at home, and attempt to eat healthier.

I received $13 in mail in rebate checks
I claimed another $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks. I'm slowly rebuilding my Amazon account (I wiped it out to buy some books for a birthday gift).
I did a CVS advisory survey to get $10 in extra bucks. This helps offset our household needs. :)

We wanted to hang out with our friends last night but didn't want to deal with the noise at bars/expensive food/beer. So we hosted game night at our house. One couple brought a side dish and some soda, the other brought fruit and a fruit pizza for dessert. I made pasta(from scratch with my kitchen aid), red sauce, with meatballs and garlic bread. I got my mom's recipe for meatballs much cheaper to make them then to buy them premade from the grocery meat case. DH and I provided the wine and beer. It was extremely fun! We all agreed it was a much cheaper night than we'd have had out at a bar(and we didn't have to battle march madness fans).