I Feel Like I'm 18

And not in a good skinny way.

When I moved out into my own apartment (with a roommate of course) I lived on Top Ramen and Macaroni and Cheese. Almost literally. After each payday I would have at most $20 left after all my bills. I was very adept at only spending $10 when I went to the grocery store.

That's how I feel again today. I just got paid but every penny went into our emergency fund where we can't touch it.

And while I've been couponing for almost a year I've never had to be so conscientious of what I'm going to buy at the grocery store this weekend. I literally need to plan it down to the dollar because we only have $65 to work with and it has to last us until the 25th when hubby gets his next paycheck.

It's definitely an interesting experiment to live this way while we still have a choice. And I know that we can do it, and will be glad for doing it if I get let go. I doubled our emergency fund just by putting my paycheck in it today. (No, it wasn't very big to begin with but we have two of them...this is the most accessible and smallest one.)

My plan for the weekend is to get milk (using my $1/1 coupons)...as many as I think we can afford since we go through it fast so let's say $10 for milk. That should get me at least 2 gallons (yes, I'm still buying organic). Then we need bagels because that's what I eat for breakfast (and hubby does too)...those are on sale and I can price match them at Walmart for $2 each. They're normally over $3.50.

I'm planning to get some green grapes - they are on sale at Safeway and Albertsons for $0.99 a pound. I really need to eat some fruit and the thought of these doesn't make me gag.

So I'm up to about $15.

Safeway has bread on sale for $1...it's the cheap stuff but we can eat the cheap stuff.

And Albertsons has a coupon for $1.69 for Kraft Singles and I have $1/1 coupons so I can get them for $0.69 a piece. I'm going to try to find some more coupons and get at least 4 or 5 of them because hubby loves this stuff and it's really expensive normally.

My goal is to spend no more than $30 between the few stores I plan to hit. It doesn't take me that much time to go the different stores because I have a specific list and know exactly what I want - so I'm in and out. Oh and I have a $10 coupon from Albertsons off my next order so that will help a ton.

Walgreens has a few things on sale that I can get for free (or even get paid to take them) so I'm going to try to go there too ... as long as it doesn't cost me any money out of pocket.

I'm a planner so this is actually kind of fun for me. But it does bring me back to my college days. I'm not sure how I feel about living on Top Ramen now.