Well, I have been working really hard at reducing my overall spending. Since moving into my new house only a 7 minute walk away from walk, I did not have to buy gas for 2 weeks. I bought $15.13 in gas today because I was driving my truck and the gas gauge was at 1/4 of a tank.

As for my other spending today, I first went to the veterinarian's office to get flea medicine and ear mite medicine for the cats. That was about $30.00. (I can't seem to find the receipt right now.)

Walgreens here had a coupon in the weekly ad that proved to be lucrative. There was an ad for Hunts tomato sauce for 3 8oz. cans for $1.00. There was a maximum amount per purchase of 6 cans, so I bought 6 cans. At my regular grocery, they are usually $1.00 each. I would happily buy generic, except that my hubby complains loudly about how they don't stack well in the cupboard. (!?) I also bought a spiral notebook for my hubby, which was on sale. I wound up spending a total of $5.35 at Walgreens.

I bought some cheap staple basics at Dollar General, including tuna fish, pork and beans, relish, Manwich, V-8 juice, and Gatorade. I wound up spending $22.37 here.

At my regular grocery store, I used a coupon for $1.00 off 2 packages of Butterball chicken strips. I really love these things and they are easy to incoporate into any recipe like soups, wraps, salads, etc. They are already fully cooked, so they can just be thrown in after everything else is cooked. I brought my own shopping bags (those weird looking nylon bags that all the stores seem to be selling these days) and with the coupon, wound up spending $69.49 at the grocery store.

I can't exactly figure out what I am doing wrong. I ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS make a list and never go into the store hungry. I always get what is on the list unless I see something on sale that is a staple food product in our home. I don't buy tv dinners, a lot of brand names, etc., but no matter what I do, I seem to spend about $100.00 a week for groceries for me, my hubby, and two cats. That counts cleaning products, toilet paper, as well as food to create my lunches for work, etc. We don't have any kids and we don't have people over for parties. We buy a bottle of booze about 1 time per month. I have watched food prices skyrocket though in the last year. For example, at my grocery store about 1 year ago, Hellman's Canola Mayo was usually about $3.19 per 32 oz jar (expensive by my standards) unless it was on sale. I usually waited for coupons and sales to get the best deal. Now, it is $5.91. I know that prices are going up, but that's ridiculous, and unfortunately, that brand is not at any of the discount stores. For myself, I don't really care, as I don't eat a whole lot of mayo, but my hubby won't eat regular mayo because it has soybean oil in it.

Anyone have any good strategies to share?