Complete: 71. For 3 months, only buy what is on sale or what I have a coupon for

With the close of April came the close of item 71: three whole months of extreme budgeting.

I set a $200 budget for groceries for the month and any other purchase had to be on sale or I had to have a coupon.

I think the grocery limit stretched me a lot. We worked through the things we had stored in the freezer and I found myself not letting any food go to waste, since I couldn't afford to replace it. We only went to Costco like, twice the whole time. The student discount at Sprouts was a big help.

We did manage to see a few plays, one free, one discounted with hubster's student status, and one preview performance.

International Cinema at BYU became our weekly date night as it's free and counted for items on both of our lists.

The thing I missed the most was eating out. Frozen fries are just not the same as fresh ones, but I made do. I was especially glad to see coupons for Kohinoor in the Money Mailer these months, and I finished up my Indian food goal with their help.

Overall, I think it made us more mindful about our spending and I'm going to try to keep to the $200 budget for groceries as much as possible and look for sales and discounts for other purchases. I'm not going to be too rigid, though. It will be nice to get fries now when I need them. :)