So I'm a few days late, but thought I'd type a little something up for reflection on my little blog over the past year (well actually my little blog isn't quite a year old yet).  I initially started this blog as motivation for me and a small group of friends and family to share coupon deals and store sales!  It's grown quite a bit through word of mouth (well, ok social networking) and here we are today.  One of  my first introduction posts, explained my interest and motivation for couponing and saving money where I/we could.   


My journey couponing over the last year has been a little different from what I had anticipated.  Last January I eagerly jumped in writing this blog full force, and even spending countless hours typing up and figuring my own coupon match-ups for weekly grocery shopping.  I was also shopping like a mad woman (yes, I even had my toddler and baby in tow 90% of the time!).  I quickly built up a great stock-pile for a lot of the "staple" products that we were using.  Then somewhere around the summer our 3-week vacation came (and I even couponed in Florida), but after returning I never really got back into the swing of it.  I was also keeping active during the summer months, and began training for the Columbus 1/2 marathon :)  To be really honest, on most products (besides grocery items), we having been living on the stockpile ever since (shaving cream, razors, toothpaste, etc).

I also confessed on my blog that I had signed up for greenbeandelivery.com.  It changed my family's eating habits (for the better), but also put a damper on my couponing because I wasn't in the grocery stores and keeping up with the ads and sales.  Greenbean is an organic produce delivery right to your doorstep.  For me, the cost and selection of produce was/is TOTALLY worth it.  I live in a rural suburb where driving 30 or more minutes to the nearest Whole Foods or Trader Joe's wasn't cost effective for the items I was shopping for.  Time is money, right?

So after all that, I am still couponing (I never really stopped, just scaled back you could say).   My family was still able to hit a few of our financial goals for 2011.  I should also mention that my husband was laid-off from his job in November 2011, so couponing and sticking to our budget is now of a greater importance :)



Here is what we accomplished in 2011:

1. Able to pay an extra $10,500 on Graduate school loans.  Although these are not paid off like we had hoped this school loan is our one and only debt (besides our home).
2. Our older cars were maintained and are still in good working condition (both cars have over 230,000 miles each, eek!).
3. NO CREDIT CARDS!  
4. Completed Christmas Club savings, and stayed on budget for all holiday shopping.