To Coupon Or Not To Coupon - That Is The Question

We've all heard stories about people who clip coupons and save tons of money off of their grocery bill.  I am always amazed at how they manage to do it - it has never worked out that well for me!  Saving lots of money on your grocery bill, whether you coupon or not, does take some planning.  My planning often involves reading the weekly grocery ads and planning my shopping trips accordingly, as well as planning connections with local food producers when they are selling their products.  My planning has also recently included ordering and picking up produce and bread products from the Bountiful Baskets food co-op. 

While I do use the occassional coupon, depending on couponing to regularly save money on my groceries has never been a successful strategy for me.  Much of my grocery shopping lists consist of whole, fresh, foods - I do alot of my cooking from scratch.  I have never had much success finding coupons for these types of food.  They may be out there, but so far they have eluded me!  For things like meat, milk, and honey I have been able to find local producers that offer a higher quality product for similar, and sometimes cheaper prices, than the grocery store.  One of the things I like about buying locally is that I am also supporting my local economy and food producers, as well as receiving a high quality food product in return.  I live in a state where agriculture is a large industry, so my access to these food producers may be different and more affordable than if I lived somewhere else.  I have also wondered if couponing success differs upon where you live.

How do you save money on your grocery bill?  Do you coupon successfully to save large amounts on your grocery bill?  Share your stories!  I'd love to hear your ideas!

P.S. Be sure the check out my handcrafted doily Thanksgiving giveaway!

It's Time For The Annual Safeway Turkey Sale

Ad picture from http://www.safeway.com/

Every year, Safeway sells Thanksgiving turkeys for pretty much unbeatable prices.  You can always buy just one turkey for your Thanksgiving meal, or you can take advantage of the sale to have very affordable poultry for the rest of the year.  If you have the storage, this is a great opportunity to stock your freezer.  If you don't have the storage, you can always cook your extra turkeys right away, then take the meat off of the carcass and freeze the cooked meat in storage bags or containers.  You'll still have the extra meat, but it won't take up as much space.  In the past, we have used all of the extra turkey for things like sandwiches, turkey noodle soup and turkey noodle casserole.  You can use almost any recipe that calls for chicken and insert turkey in its place. 

For the sale this year, the terms and conditions have changed a little bit.  It used to be that a minimum purchase of $10 was what would qualify you for the good deal.  This year, the minimum purchase is $25.  The prices on the turkeys have also gone up a little bit, but broken down to price per pound, it is still a really good price for meat- it averages out to be from $.50 to $.87 per pound, depending on which turkey you buy.  That is an incredible deal!  The turkey prices are $6.99 for an 8-12 pound Safeway turkey, $7.99 for a 12.01-16 pound Safeway turkey, $9.99 for 16.01-20 pound Safeway turkey, and $11.99 for a 20.01-24 pound Safeway turkey (these are the prices according to my local Safeway ad - you may want to check your local ad at http://www.safeway.com/ to be sure of the prices in your area).  Each turkey is limit one per household per day, but you can buy one of each kind at the same time.  This sale is good through November 24th.

As far as cooking the turkey goes, we have found that an electric roaster is the best way to go.  It saves energy costs because it is a smaller appliance, and it also cooks quite a bit faster.  The awesome turkey recipe I use is posted here.  My turkeys have turned out excellent every time I have used it.

P.S.  Be sure to check out my handmade sage green doily Thanksgiving giveaway!

 

Safeway Fuel Discount - Now You Can Stack Them!

Over the last several years that I can remember, Safeway has always offered a fuel discount for every $100 of groceries purchased.  The usual discount was always 10 cents off per gallon for every $100 spent, but you could only use one 10 cent discount per fuel purchase.  We have recently discovered that Safeway is now allowing these discounts to accumulate and be used together.  I just saved 30 cents per gallon today when I filled up, for a total savings of $4.50 off of my tank of gas.  Woohoo!

We have a tendency to not always use all of our fuel discounts because Safeway fuel is on the other side of town, and it wasn't worth a 10 cent per gallon discount to drive all the way over there.  Now that we can let them accumulate, it will be worth the drive there when we have amassed a few discounts.  They do have an expiration date once accumulated, but Safeway separates them by yearly quarters.  Just thought I would pass on our recent gas discount discovery!

Homemade Liquid Fabric Softener

I have known for a long time that vinegar is a natural liquid fabric softener. The only reason I never made the switch was because I was in love with the fragrances of store bought. I have been wanting to switch, though, in the effort to continue to cut unneccesary chemical usage out of my home, as well as for the purposes of cutting costs. I finally found a pleasing solution to that problem.

It is really quite simple, and I can't believe I never thought of it before! Basically what I did was to take a large jug of vinegar, and add 1 to 2 teaspoons of a fragrant essential oil. Before each use, I shake the jug, just to make sure it is all mixed up well. And for ease of use, I use a Downy liquid fabric softener ball to dispense my homemade fabric softener during the wash cycle. It has been working quite well for us so far, and right now my fabric softener is lavender scented. I won't be buying any more of the store bought liquid fabric softeners, although I will be buying some new scents of essential oils to experiment with :) While essential oils can seem expensive, since a little bit goes a long ways, they really do last for quite a while. For saving money on my essential oils, I order them from www.vitacost.com .

Always Check Your Safeway Receipt!!!

Just thought I would give you all a little warning about Safeway. While I really like their sales, I am disappointed in them. Almost every time I go, I end up being overcharged anywhere from $4 to $10 each time. Usually my average order is under $50. There seems to be alot of overcharging going on there. If you shop regularly at Safeway, be sure to carefully check your receipt. If anything, I have learned that they are rather consistent at this faux pas. Because of the club card, you can't catch the price mess-up with the cashier, you usually have to wait for your receipt to get it figured out. If you find that you have been overcharged, take your receipt to the customer service desk and ask them to fix it. I have never had a problem with them correcting the errors, but I really don't appreciate the extra time that I have to take to fix their mess-up. And sometimes I really wonder if they do it on purpose hoping people won't notice. Especially since it happens just about every time I shop there. So, the moral of this blog post is beware of Safeway and check your receipt!

Homemade Whole Wheat Bisquick Mix Recipe

I have avoided buying Bisquick for years now because it doesn't come in whole wheat (at least not where I live), contains bleached flour, and it also contains hydrogenated oils (which is where trans-fats come from). Not exactly a healthy food product! I try to avoid these types of food products if at all possible. The downside of avoiding Bisquick is that there are lots of yummy recipes that call for Bisquick. I found an alternative, though! I can make my own Bisquick! And another added bonus is that by making my own, I will also save money over buying it at the store. I tweaked it slightly, but I got this recipe from http://www.grouprecipes.com/25102/homemade-bisquick.html .

Whole Wheat Bisquick Mix

4 Cups unbleached flour
4 Cups whole wheat flour
1/4 Cup baking powder
4 Teaspoons salt
1 Cup shortening or oil
1 1/3 Cups dry powdered milk

In large bowl, blend unbleached flour, salt, and baking powder. Add shortening (or oil) and mix until crumbly. Stir in powdered milk, and then the whole wheat flour. Store in an airtight container, refrigerate if made with the oil.

I made mine using oil instead of shortening. My reasoning for this is that shortenings are usually a hydrogenated oil, and they are REALLY bad for you! I tried this mixture out in a recipe I made for dinner, and it turned out great!

Bulk Spices

I went to the store today in need of some dill weed for a soup I am making for dinner. I usually prefer fresh dill, but right now in our area there is really no place to get it. Plus, I like growing it in our garden and picking it fresh to use, but that's only during the summer. But anyhow, back to buying it at the store. In the past, I have paid anywhere from $3.oo to $6.00 for a bottle of dill. I was pleasantly surprised to find organic bulk spices at the store, at a hugely reduced price when compared to buying pre-packaged spices. Plus the organic factor is a bonus! I bought a baggie of dill (about as much as comes in a bottle when I buy it that way) for $1.00.

Don't let the price tags on the spices scare you. The price tag on the dill said it was $19.99 a pound. Yeah, that sounds scary! However, the amount of dill I purchased weighed around 1/2 an ounce, so it turned out that I got a nice amount of dill for a small price. Many of the spices are sold by the pound, but they weigh so little that it really doesn't cost that much to get an adequate amount of the spice. So, the benefits for me to buy the spices in bulk are that they cost less that way, they are organic, and I can buy in any amount that I want to. Yay!

P.S. The picture came from www.naturallifemagazine.com/9604/herbs.htm

Saving Money On Your Food Budget

In this economy, it seems we all are looking to cut our costs and make our dollars stretch farther. One area of the budget that is usually easy to cut costs on is the food budget, if you do it right. A few very basic things to do, some of which I have blogged about previously, is to shop the weekly sales ads, only buy the sales items, buy less packaged and processed foods, use coupons if you have them, plan a weekly menu, eat at home more, and cook from scratch as often as possible.

In our city, the grocery ads usually come out on Wednesdays and Sundays. I will buy a newspaper each of those days and go through the store ads. Unless there are really good sales at several stores, I usually pick the store that has the most deals that I would use and shop there that week. Also, if you don't want to go to several stores, Wal-Mart will match competitor ads (there are some exceptions that they have, check with your local Wal-Mart). I generally avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible, but occasionally, I will take my ads with me and have Wal-Mart match the prices for me.

Buying less packaged foods and processed foods not only costs less, it is healthier for you too. Those bags of chips and cookies cost more, and most of the time they are full of all kinds of junk with little to no nutritional value, and lots of salt and sugar. Eating healthier is also thrifty, because it will promote better health. Better health means less unessecary trips to the doctor. You will get better value for your dollar if you spend it on nutritious food.

I occasionally clip coupons and use them, but most of the time the coupons out there are for the packaged and processed foods. Sometimes I have gotten coupons for, say, $5 off my next grocery order. I love those! But since the coupon usually promote junk food, I am finding I don't use them as often anymore (we have been striving to eat healthier at home, so junk food does not have much of a home in our house).

One of the biggest things we have done that has helped tame our food budget was to plan a menu for the week. Seriously, it only takes me around 5-10 minutes to plan, and it utilizes what I have in the house. We waste less food, spend less on groceries, and eat out way less now. I keep it pretty simple. Breakfast is usually cereal, oatmeal, or Malto-meal, lunch is usually leftovers or sandwiches, and dinner is usually a main dish, plus fruits and vegetables as side dishes. The kids snack on things like fruits, veggies, pretzels, etc.

One of the biggest things I do to save money on the food budget is to cook from scratch. Packaged convenience foods at the store are more expensive, usually, than making it yourself. For example, we don't buy frozen pizza most of the time. I use my breadmaker to mix up a whole wheat crust and make the pizza from scratch. I can make two healthier pizzas for less than $5.00, plus it will usually last for more than one meal. I try to make enough of the food so we can have it for more than one meal. Leftovers really are the first convenience food ever invented! All I have to do is pop it in the microwave, it's our own version of fast food, and it costs way less.

I hope some of these suggestions are helpful to you, and give you more ideas about how you can save even more money :)

Tips For Saving At The Grocery Store

We went grocery shopping yesterday. I am always on the lookout for savings, and I was pretty happy that I got a cart load of groceries for $75. With a family of 5, I think that is doing pretty well! I just thought I would offer up a few tips that I use for saving at the grocery store :)

1. Wal-Mart is usually NOT the cheapest place to get groceries. Their prices are consistently low, but there are ways to save at the grocery store even moreso than at Wal-Mart. Although, Wal-Mart will usually match the grocery store ad prices if you bring the flyer along with you. I just prefer not to go to Wal-Mart myself, mostly because of the crowds. The local grocery store also usually offers better customer service, like drive-up service to pick up your groceries, or a bag boy/girl to help you get them to your car. I have to say that I have really appreciated that service, especially when I have some squirrely children along with me :)

2. Shop the local grocery ads. You can get some great deals doing this! Usually the front page and the back page have the best deals listed on them. The best deal I got at the store this week was to buy two Dole bagged salads (2 for $5), and get a pint of grape tomatoes, a bag of shredded carrots, a cucumber, and a bottle of salad dressing all for free. I also got fresh mangos for $.79 each, and apples for $.49 a pound.

3. Clip coupons, but use them wisely! I clip coupons, but am cautious about how I use them. If I am going to use a coupon for something, it usually has to be on sale as well, otherwise it is not worth it to me. This week, I got some Red Baron pizzas for cheap. They were on sale for something like $3.79, plus I had $1 off coupons. My husband likes my home cooking, but does appreciate the junky food every now and then!

4. Buy less pre-packaged foods. We all love convenience foods, but they can get expensive, plus they really aren't that good for you. It does take more work to cook from scratch, but if you make extra it will last for a meal or two. Heating up leftovers is just as convenient as popping a frozen pizza in the oven. I don't usually buy convenience food unless is it on sale and/or I have a really good coupon to go along with it.

5. Know where the store clearance areas are. I have gotten plenty good deals shopping this way. One of my latest deals was buying several large bottles of John Frieda hair conditioner for $1.00 each. I have also gotten ziploc baggies for $.50 a box this way too.

6. Stock up when there are really good sales. If there is a product on sale that you will consistently use, it is worth it to buy alot of it. A while back at our grocery store, they had Secret deoderant and Xtreme Sport deoderant on sale for $1.00 each. My husband and I both like those brands, and we bought around $20 worth of deoderant. Those deoderants usually cost around $4 each, so at $1 each it was definitely worth it to stock up.

7. Check your receipt after you check out. I do this consistently, and you would be surprised at how often there are mistakes that result in being overcharged. One time there was a difference of over $8.00! It has happened often enough that I make an effort to check it every time. If you are overcharged, take your receipt to the customer service counter and show them what you were overcharged for. Sometimes the stores just didn't get the sale price in the computer correctly, or an employee may have mislabeled a product. Most of the time the store will be happy to sort out the errors with you and give you the difference of what you were overcharged for.

These are some of my tips for saving money at the grocery store. If you have any more tips, feel free to share!