Dollar Diet Day 21

Well my Dollar diet challenge is officially OVER! 21 days of using cash and buying only what my family needed (well for the most part). This was a great experience for me. It really forced me to take a hard look at my wants and realize them for what they were.....WANTS. One thing I have enjoyed mastering over these last 21 days is couponing. For me, it is challenging and rewarding. Someone said to me last night they don't coupon because there aren't coupons for the "stuff" they use. Really??? you don't use deoderant, toilet paper, shampoo, condidtioner, soap, razors, toothpaste? With coupons and a little patience you can buy brand name products for a FRACTION of store brand items. Tonight I wanted to use up the last of my Albertson's doublers. I knew I was in the red already but with my doublers I could score some items for FREE and some for $.50 or less. I purchased 4 tubes of crest toothpaste @ $.29 each, 2 Old spice deoderants for Quinn @ $.50 each, 2 containers of Darigold sourcream for $.25 each and I splurged on a package of Rhodes cinnamon rolls for $.50. Oh and I can't forget the BIG bag of Kettle chips that were calling my name (totally a want that I caved to) for $1.99. So my grand total came to $5.20 plus tax. I had a $3.50 catalina from left over from my fruit snack purchases. earlier in the week, so I paid OOP $1.70 plus tax. The free item (yogurt) I was hoping to score was out of stock. I feel at peace when I see my food storage and my general storage growing. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I am able to grow that storage with very little money out of my pocket. I intend to continue monitoring my wishful wants and trying to keep them in check. This has been a great journey. Now onto the next one.......training for my half marathon in May. Hopefully I will be so busy running I won't have time to spend any money in the next two months!