How Do I Coupon ?Save Money While Buying Healthy for You, Your Family, and the Planet!

Every penny counts, right? I thought I would post a small list of easy ways you can save a little at the grocery store. A little bit here and there does add up to a lot!

 Just some quick tips and hints on how to save  some pennies at the grocery store:

BYOB -Bring your own bags. Most grocery stores offer .5  cents off per reusable bag you bring in. Don’t have any cloth bags? Bring in plastic ones, old purses, and diaper bags. I even use a gift bag that was given to my son for his birthday. It is made of some type of sturdy material and holds quite a bit!

Check the day old section.Normally the day old section is found near the dairy items in the store. Items can include bread, pies, cookies, and cakes. I have seen the area in Fry’s and Walmart and peruse the items often. I typically find at Walmart french bread or a baguette for .59 cents or less! Fry’s often has bakery goods discounted at 50% off. Also, at Fry’s they typically have a discounted refrigerated section with cookie dough, cheese, and yogurt. Combine the discounts with coupons and you can get a really great deal! Just be sure to use or freeze before the expiration date. I know Bashas’ does not offer discounted bakery items because they donate it to the local food bank. Love them!

Use your Grocery Card! This is by far the simplest way to save some $ at the grocery store. You can sign up online and register your card. You can load up e-coupons on the grocery store website along with Shortcuts and Cellfire. By signing up the stores use your shopping info to track trends and whatnot. Typically, you will get paper coupons in the mail as well along with special notices of sales, etc. Also, many grocery stores offer fuel discounts at their gas stations. I save .10 cents a gallon every time I fill up. That adds up for sure!

Here are links to stores that have grocery cards:

Safeway.com

Frys.com

Bashas’.com

Happy Shopping!

I

Well, this week has been interesting budget-wise. Earlier this week the coffee decanter decided to break. So that took an immediate $16+ out of my $50 budget for the week. Because I would be a raging B without my morning coffee. Seriously, take away my coffee and see how pissy I get! I was able to use a gift card for Walmart to pay for some of my groceries.  If I do not factor the $13.03 spent on the gift card, I would be .17 cents under budget. If I do factor  the gift card money spent, I went $12.86 OVER. Wahhh Wahhh Wahhh. I am disappointed but will try to do better next week and make up for the difference.::sigh:: I am glad and grateful I had the gift card to depend on but I am bummed that I still could not make it under the $50 goal. I will set my budget for next week at $37.14. Wish me luck!

I am still doing a menu plan for lunches and dinners. I loathe making them. I am not sure why it stresses me out so much but I do know after the initial effort it makes my week miles easier when I just have to look at the menu to see what to make. I was watching a report on the news where a woman creates a menu plan for every day of the week for lunches and dinner FOR THE WHOLE YEAR! I think I am in awe and I think she may be a little wonky- just sayin’. Here is to next week being UNDER BUDGET

Happy Wednesday!

In case you are not sure what certain abbreviations mean here is a breakdown for ya:

DND = Do Not Double

DNT= Do Not Triple

WYB= When You Buy

SS= Smart Source

RP= Red Plum

PG= Proctor & Gamble

GM= General Mills

 Here are the DOTW (like that? ;]) for Tucson:

Bashas’ (Doubles Couponsup to $1.00):

Lettuce – Green or Red Leaf or Romaine, .77 each!

Large Slicing Tomatoes, .77lb.!

Beef Ground 80% Lean, Limit 2 , $1.37 lb!

Chicken Breasts Boneless Skinless , Limit 4, $1.37 lb.!

BC Dinner Helpers (Hamburger, Tuna, etc.)- .88 ea.! Use Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, or Chicken Helper, any three, DND DNT $1/3 (active) This Link-12/31 Print it twice. OR Use Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper or Chicken Helper Home Cooked Skillet Meals, any flavor .75/3 (2-27-10) SearsSS-1/3. Final Price: .55 each!!

Finish Dishwasher Detergent 12 to 20 ct or 75 oz. $3.99. **I don’t know if this variety is on sale but if it is, it is a great deal: Use Finish Quantum, Powerball Tabs or Gelpacs $2.50/1 (1-31-10) DirectTVSS-1/3. Final Price: $1.49 each!

January Deals at Bashas’:

Hunts Snack Pack 4 pk., .99 each. Use: Hunts Snack Pack Pudding or Gel, any .30/2 (2-28-10) SS-1/10. Final Price: .69 each!

McCormick Taco Seasoning or Grill Mates Marinades Mixes .71 to 1.5 oz. Use McCormick Spice or Herb, any .75/1 (2-7-10) LOrealRP-1/3. Final Price; FREE!!

Minute Ready To Serve! Rice Cups White or Chicken Rice 2 pk 4.4 oz. Use Minute Rice Product any .50/1 (3-6-10) RP-12/13. Final Price: .39 each!

Star Olive Oil 17 oz., $3.99 each!!

Safeway: All Coupons are $1.00! (limited time)

Blueberries 6 oz Limit 4 .99 each!

Broccoli Crowns, .99 lb.!

Texas Grapefruit Ruby Red, .33 lb.!

Yellow Onions,  .33 lb.!

7-UP 2 liter Saturday and Sunday Only!, .77 each!

Betty Crocker Specialty Potatoes 4.8 to 6.6 oz. .99 each. Use Betty Crocker Potatoes any Box or Pouch except Potato Buds .35/1 (2-6-10) GM-12/13. Final Price: FREE!

Progresso Traditional or Rich and Hearty Soup 18.5 to 19 oz., $1.11 each! Use: Progresso Rich and Hearty Soup .25/1 (1-30-10) SS-12/6. Final Price: .11 each!!

Rosarita Refried Beans 16 oz., .99 each. Use: Rosarita Beans, any .50/3 (1-31-10) SS-12/13. Final Price: .66 each!!

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers, Saturday and Sunday Only!, .88 each!

Annie’s Mac & Cheese, 6 oz., .99 each! UPDATE: Try this link HERE and see if this works for you. It is a .50 cent off coupon for Annie’s Mac N Cheese making it FREE after coupon! I could not print because I am on Windows 7 and it is not supported . I hope it works for you. Good Luck!

Fry’s (Doubles Coupons up to $1.00):

This week at Fry’s it appears that anything pork related is on sale at good prices:

Cook’s Spiral Sliced Half Ham, Bone In, .99/lb.

Pork Butt, Bone In, Sold Whole in the Bag
First 4. $1.49/lb.

Pork Loin Back Ribs
First 4. $2.99/lb.

Pork Loin, Half, Boneless, Sold Whole in the Bag
First 4. $1.77/lb.

Pork Picnic Roast, Sold Whole in the Bag
First 4. $.99/lb.

Pork Sirloin, Boneless, Sold Whole in the Bag
First 4. $1.69/lb.

Pork Spareribs
First 4. $1.49/lb.

Pork Tenderloin
First 4. $2.99/lb.

Fry’s Milk, 1 Gallon. Limit 2. $1.59 each!!

Hass Avocados, 2/$1!

Chilean Peaches and Nectarines, $.97 lb.!

Cara Cara Pink Navels or Arizona Grown Minneola Tangelos: .88 lb.!

3 lb. bag Red Delicious Apples, 3 lb. bag $2.57 (.85 lb!)

Navel Oranges or Texas Grapefruit, 4-5 lb. bag, $3.47 each (.69 -.86/lb.!)

Coke, 2 Liters. $1.13 each. Special Promo: Buy 4, Save 1.50. Final Price: .75 each WYB 4!!

** I will update as I get to the ads!**

 

 

Well it looks like for the first week of our new grocery budget our total is: $47.00! $3.00 under budget! I was able to stick to our meal plan and also able to get a few extras including pizza, dip, and chips. I ended up going to 5 stores total and the time spent was under 3 hours. Not too bad. I am hopeful next week will be just as good. I will make another menu (which I loathe) and look to see what can be used up around here to create healthy meals. I hope we do not get too bored with the meals but it will be worth it when we can throw the extra at our debt.

I have been doing a lot of organizing with coupons and our food storage. We completely reorganized the garage and it looks great. It is easier to see what we have in stock. I purchased some shelving from Lowe’s and my food storage is much more functional than before.I plan on adding bins and labels later but that will have to wait until we have some extra cash.

The biggest reorganization I have done is my coupons. If you use coupons you know what a pain in the a$$ they can be! I have vacillated between using a big filing system and only taking out coupons I need to clipping every single coupon and putting them in a small coupon holder. In all honesty, neither system seems to work very well! I am either at the store seeing an item on sale super cheap and not having the right coupon with me because it is stuck in my filing cab at home or I have so many in such a small space that I miss one or get so frustrated I say F it!!

So, I decided to use a coupon binder system instead. I will put together a tutorial of sorts so I can show how I organize my coupons, ad inserts, etc. I really like this system! I hope it helps with grocery shopping in the sense I will have all of my coupons with me and available should I see a great deal. I will post that soon!

Overall for this week I am optimistic with our new budget plan and organization!

 

Happy New Year!

I don’t know about you but I am so glad 2009 is done!

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? I like to call them goals so I don’t overwhelm myself or set myself up for failure . I do have some including the usual like exercising more and eating healthier. The biggest goal I have for 2010, however, is to get our personal debt under control. I figure there is no better place to keep track, post, and update this monstrous goal than here!

We have an insane amount of credit card debt and a small student loan to pay off on top of a mortgage and car loans. Yikes! Just writing that all out is humbling and stressful! But, we do want to get on top of it and reduce our debt significantly this year.

So, how to do this? Well we need to reduce the amount of money spent so we can throw the extra at our credit cards. I am so sick of paying interest to these companies who frankly do not give a crap about us. It seems every month we are getting a notice that our credit card interest is going up and our limit is being reduced. Nevermind that we have not once been late in payments in 9+ years and we have always paid off our debt.

The first way I can think of doing this ties into this website: reducing our monthly grocery bill by at least 50%. Typically, for our family of three including two cats and a hamster we spend $400- $500 a month on groceries. This includes all food items and non-food items such as toiletries , pet supplies, etc. So, I want to reduce out grocery bill to no more than $200 a month….Can I do it?

I think I can. I know I can. The concern is can we do it while still maintaining a healthy diet with fresh whole food? I am sure we could live off of Raamen and potato chips but I do not want to feel like sh!t. Eating that kind of food all of the time will ensure that. YUCK.

So, I am going to start posting my plan for sticking to $50 a week for 3 people and 3 pets while eating healthy foods. It seems like a huge goal but the mountain of debt we have is a great motivator! I want to be out of debt more than I want to spend more money on groceries, eating out, etc. I plan to document all of this here while also continuing to post Deals of the Week, coupons, freebies, etc. Wish us luck!