Hi everybody! What an exhausting few weeks this has been. Things are slowly getting back to normal, and although I am still wading through emails in my neglected inbox, I want to thank everyone for their well-wishes and thoughts.

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, since I’ve been out of the coupon loop for the past few weeks. What sales have I missed? Are there any good offers or promos that I should know about? Leave me a comment and let me know!

I wanted to let everyone know that I won’t be around much over the next week or so, because my fiance’s Grandpa passed away on Wednesday. I will still check my email and blog when I have time, but obviously I may not be able to respond right away or post much. Take care, and have a good weekend.

What a hectic weekend! I’m back from Portland and am slowly working my way through my email inbox. I’m short on time today, but I’ll share what I bought on my coupon road trip sometime tomorrow. Happy Monday!

Today were are heading into Portland to run some errands, and since there are so many stores down there that we don’t have locally, I’m taking this opportunity to do a little coupon shopping! I made up a list of good deals at Wal-Mart, Target, and Albertsons, and clipped a huge mound of coupons last night. I’m excited to see what deals I will score!

We’ll be staying with family in Portland until Saturday night, so if you send me an email or comment, I won’t see it until then. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Things are settling down again after my little break for the holidays. I had a great time celebrating with family and friends, and I’m feeling much better too. I’ve got a lot to talk about – including my frugal Christmas presents – so check back later today as I get back up to speed!

Click here to find out how you can print three coupons from the 2009 Entertainment Book free of charge. These are coupons for local businesses, such as restaurants, golf courses, movie theaters, and so on – could come in handy if you plan on doing these things anyway. Thanks to Money Saving Mom for the info!

My article on dumpster diving was included in the 42nd Money Hackers Carnival, hosted at Financial Wellness Project. The carnival is a round-up of articles dedicated to saving money, with a wealth of information on everything from coupons and frugal living to the economy and debt. There’s all kinds of interesting reads – my favorite was Frugal Grandma’s post.

I thought it would be fun to do a quick comparison of what my grocery trips used to cost, versus what I’m spending now. I save most of my receipts, so I looked in my paperwork archive and pulled out a receipt from January 21st of this year – click here to view it. I started using coupons in February, after I discovered Hot Coupon World. So what did my grocery budget look like, pre-coupons?

For this one trip, the total was $68.01. And if you look at what I bought, you’ll see that this isn’t even enough to get us through the week, because I didn’t buy any milk or veggies, just for starters. In comparison, my budget for the entire month of November was $63.30 – and that’s the highest my monthly total has been since I started this blog. Just 11 months later, and the savings are dramatic.

It’s amazing to look at how much money I spent on certain items during that trip, and compare it with what I pay now. For example, on January 21st I paid $4 for 2 boxes of Quaker oatmeal. Last month I paid .84 cents for 12 boxes. During that January trip, I also spent $13.78 purchasing four 12-packs of Sierra Mist and Canada Dry soda. After discovering coupons, I got 42 bottles of Sprite for free. In January, I spent $5.50 on yoghurt. Since then, I’ve gotten lots of yoghurt free or dirt cheap. But the most surprising comparison for me is the cost of fruit. Since discovering coupons, I’ve been astonished to find that you can save big on produce with coupon strategies, too. During January’s trip I spent $4.81 purchasing a Papaya and 1.67 pounds of bananas. In September, I paid $2.06 for $55 worth of groceries, which included bananas, 2 pounds of grapes, 1 head of broccoli, 1 carrot, plus all my other groceries. What a difference a year makes!

To those of you reading this that are just starting out, I hope that this gives you some inspiration and encouragement as to how much money can be saved using coupons. I know that reading about other people’s savings on Hot Coupon World really motivated me to use coupons, and illustrated how worthwhile it was.

I hope all my US readers are enjoying the holiday weekend. I’ve been busy with guests, gatherings, and food for most of the week, so now I’m playing a bit of catch-up with emails and comments. Enjoy your turkey sandwiches in the meantime!

Mercedes at Common Sense With Money featured one of my catalina articles as a guest post on her blog today. Fun! Be sure to check out her awesome website – it’s one of my daily reads.

Paula over at Saving Money 101 has also shared some of my posts with her readers. I love the little Super Coupon Girl image that she made! If you’ve got a Meijer store in your area, you’ll enjoy her deals.