A Year Without Couponing

 I have been couponing for over 10 years and enjoyed all of the stockpile that I gotten at super low prices. I never thought I would go back to not couponing but I guess it would take a pandemic to shut down the system.  I stopped getting newspapers because the library was closed.  Even before the libraries closed, there were less inserts and less coupons in the inserts. It wasn't worth buying the inserts to save the money that I spent on the paper. Now with a crazy infection spreading in ways we were still learning about I was staying out of the stores and shopping once a month to save on exposure. We didn't know what the year was going to bring.

We got the notice that my son was going to stay home from school on March 13, 2020. Little did we know that we would be out of school over a year and we wouldn't even be going back to get our things.  

By March 14th, grocery store shelves were cleared of many foods and household goods.  My husband drove me from store to store so that I could run in and grab a few things to make sure that we had a stock of the important things my son's favorite Chicken Fries, Bacon, Pringles, Cool Whip, Ice Cream and ingredients for Rice Krispie Treats. We got gas in the car because my father (and living through multiple ice storms) taught me to always be prepared. 

 

March 15th brought notice that all school buildings were closed so my husband and son were both home now. I knew that I was going to have to create a schedule before things were crazy in my house.  My son had a check list of all of the things he had to do in a day in different categories so that he could pick.  He did Mo Willems Lunch Doodles to do art and had a ton of fun. He did Coloring Squared to do Math and other fun things.  He started making cakes, brownies, rice krispie treats and kool aid by himself in the kitchen.  He built things out of Legos and made marble mazes. He started doing lots of biking and playing outside. We all watched Cincinnati Zoo Home Safari to learn about different animals.

By March 25th, we realized that this wasn't passing anytime soon and I headed off to the store.  I got food that I thought would be fun and still distract my son like we were on spring break for real and enjoying life although Dad was obviously still working every day from the dining room table and we weren't going anywhere fun.

 

The beginning of April was when we realized that we needed masks going forward to leave the house. It also meant that germs were everywhere and we were told that we had to wipe down everything coming into the house so we had to wait in long lines at the grocery store and shop quickly with plastic gloves and face masks and hand sanitizer. There were no longer returns or exchanges in stores, no rain checks and shelves were still empty so you got what you could and went from store to store just to get enough to make it through until the next fun shopping trip.

The middle of April is when we learned good terms like synchronous and asynchronous because school was going to start up but only online and we had to know when we were supposed to be where and which platform to sign in on. My son quickly caught on even though he had over 10 different google classrooms and just as many teachers to balance. We did virtual teacher appreciation and end of the year parties and made the most of the year finishing it out with our class.

 

Home hair cuts started in May and hand made masks from Grandma showed up in the mail in June. School was over and the pool finally opened even though it was a little different since we had to swim in lap lanes. Life was different but we were trying to adjust and make things seem like normal.  

 

We decided to go to our July beach rental with driving straight through with no stops. We just made it a totally different experience with only one trip to the pool and no eating out. We went to the beach when it was quiet in the morning and left when it started to get busy. We rented bikes to ride around town. Overall it was weird but an amazing change to being at home for over four months. We thought we were recharged to make it through this because it had to end soon right?

We are now going for a full year out of the physical school and finishing up this school year online by choice. We are making the most of what we have and enjoying time outside but what have we learned.

What has this year taught me?  I can still make my budget work in the short term by cutting out a lot of things and being very creative.  I am grateful that I make our bread, rolls, cookies, cakes, quick breads and more. If I make a few things a week, the groceries don't seem to be as limited because we have a fun breakfast and dessert. I make at least one batch of homemade bread and one batch of rolls.  I make pumpkin bread or blueberry muffins or chocolate chip scones. I make a yummy dessert treat like cake, brownies, cookies and more. We have homemade french fries, hash browns, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and twice baked potatoes so we use 15 pounds of potatoes a months now.  We also need at least two bags or flour and two bags of sugar for the month to make all of the meals and treats.

What was a grateful for? We use a lot of cleaning products in the middle of a pandemic but I had lots of things on hand to pick from when stock was low at stores. Although cleaners are getting lower, I still have enough toilet bowl cleaner, laundry detergent and trash bags to last the next year or longer thanks to great sales before the pandemic. In the pantry, I still have plenty spaghetti, hot sauce, salad dressing, syrup and a few other items to last for over a year. The personal care selections included tons of extra shampoo, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes which we enjoyed.

I wish that we had couponing where I could still get lots of things for free and go to the store daily to get the things that we want that are on sale. But I am grateful to have stocked up on the things that that I have and really use the last year and many to last us through the coming years. I am certain that I am going to get better at knowing how long things last so we can have a good inventory like I know a box of 80 trash bags lasts me over a year.  I still don't know how long the laundry detergent and dish detergent last us. Going back to tracking how long things last to see what we need to keep on hand.

I still make my monthly meal plan the same way with an inventory at the end of the month of things in the pantry, fridge and freezer.  I have been making a big effort to use all the things that we have that we haven't used like the BBQ sauce and the Grape Jelly that we don't like were mixed together and I used it on chicken with a little of a seasoning that we had.  We both thought it made an amazing BBQ chicken sandwich on grilled homemade rolls.  Stir fry was made with Franks Stingin Honey Garlic mixed with the Teriyaki sauce that we hadn't been using and a little soy sauce. It turned out to be such a favorite that we are sort of sad that we are running out of the Teriyaki sauce. We had Orzo in the cupboard and I decided to add it to a rice dish which made it taste amazing like homemade Rice A Roni. I have used spices that I haven't touched in ages and things in the pantry that really needed to be used up. It has been easy to plan with the things on hand and add a few things to the list to get for the month to stay under my $160 grocery budget.  My monthly shopping trip is mostly getting things that are on sale to stock up in the coming months. I hope that I can continue the same but as things run out and grocery prices increase, I wonder if my budget is going to have to change. 

What have you learned this year that has changed the way you shop and meal plan??