January 2009

I've updated my savings information on the right to reflect the new year. I'm going to try to do a better job this year in keeping track of how much I spent and saved.

A few comments about how I figure things:

Because I participate each month in the monthly rebate program at Walgreens, I get it loaded onto my gift card and then use it the following month. For my OOP (out of pocket) cost each month, I only count actual money spent. There will be months where I'll spend $80 at Walgreens on my gift card and not a penny of my money. (For example, in Jan. I spent $86.97 on my rebate gift card at Walgreens and just $3.00 OOP)

I also sometimes get gift cards in other ways - gifts, MyPoints.com (ask me for a referral!), winnings from blogs, etc. I don't count those in my OOP cost either because I received them for free. (For example, in December, I won a $25 Kroger gift card from a blog I read. I can't remember the name or URL off the top of my head. In the month of Jan., I spent $53 of my own money not counting the gift card.)

I always start with the price that rang up at the register - whether that be a sale price or not. In the case of sale prices, I never figure what it would have cost at the "regular" price. It might be interesting to do, but a lot of these things I'd never purchase if not for sales and/or coupons.

So to see how I did in January, just look to the right on my blog. :)