Back to Couponing!

I wrote the other day about how my life has been crazy lately and I've barely had time to breathe.

Now that is very true, but there is also another aspect of why I'm mentally scattered and drained. I'm LAZY.

Which has led to our bank account suffering over the past months. Which is ironic since I'm making a little extra money now too. Am I the only one who is really bad at self-control and self-discipline? Or really anything involving said "self"?

God works in mysterious ways, right? Well as I was thinking that maybe I should change something up so we manage our money better instead of having a "whatever" attitude, my friend emailed me asking about our budget and how we save/spend our money. She specifically asked what we spend on groceries (she's like my bestie so she can ask things like that and I won't give her the stink-eye), and my answer was "Ummm I'm not sure and I don't really want to know..."

Yep, it's been bad. I knew I had to change something now to get on top of our finances again. I truly want to avoid this:

 

So here is what I did.

The Barter:
My friend also hates clipping coupons, shopping sales, etc. I hate budgeting. So, what do you do when you have really close friends who hate opposite things? You trade awful tasks to each other and then you both have good tasks!

True story. She made up my budget sheet, and I am going to shop the sales and find coupons for her whenever she needs to go shopping. And I'm THRILLED about doing this, while she thinks I'm certifiably insane, and she didn't seem to mind plugging numbers into a spreadsheet. She's awesome like that.

Reluctantly Using Technology:
Also, another reason our money is slowly going bye-bye is I finally broke down and bought a smartphone. I cringe just typing that.

I decided that if I'm getting this ridiculous thing that I'm going to make it worth my while and make it pay for itself. So I am using apps for coupons, rebates, price checking, etc. This dumb mini-computer costs an extra $40 a month and I've saved maybe $5 so far. Baby steps!

By the way, here is my Ibotta referral link! https://ibotta.com/r/omaqdnw. I have used this app for all 3 hours and am hooked. :)  I'm also using Checkout51 and ShopSavvy.

Cold Hard Cash:
I was also whining when my friend and I were discussing this. I'm a big fan of debit cards, because again I'm lazy. But if she's doing it, I should do it too...

So this morning I went to the bank, took out cash for groceries, fun, eating out, house stuff, gifts, etc. for the entire month. And then, I actually used it! This is huge people. Handing the King Soopers checker a $100 bill was really unnerving at first, but it really didn't take any longer than swiping the card and signing. Plus the guy in the aisle over did the same thing and that made me feel better.

Give me a few more weeks, but this really may be a big game-changer for me!