You can save food dollars without using coupons

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

Angela @ The Coupon Project — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:42:00 GMT

As a newbie couponer, I have to say...I am saving WAY more money since clipping coupons. I do believe meal planning is key, but just by taking a few minutes out extra a week to plan your meals around store deals and stack coupons on that...it makes a HUGE difference. And what about toilet paper, household cleaners, cosmetics, OTC meds? I regularly get these items for FREE now using coupons...and I'm getting name brand stuff. FREE beats generic prices any day in my book.

How much exactly have coupons saved me? Try $1,200 for the first three months of this year. That is JUST coupon savings, and guess what? Stores in my area on a whole do not double, either. Buying items on sale has saved me an additional $1,000, bringing my total savings to-date for 2009 to over $2,200!!! My out-of-pocket has been $1,100 (savings of ~65%) and that is for two adults, a toddler, and a baby and includes grocery AND household items including diapers.

While it is true you can save without clipping coupons and by doing a little planning, I think the extra effort of adding coupons is well worth it. If you're still on the fence, I encourage you to check out my blog where I'm chronicalling my real life couponing and money-saving adventures...www.thecouponproject.com

$1,200 is a lot of money to me. If you make $20 an hour at your job, you'd have to work 60 hours to earn what I just saved by clipping coupons. And I guarantee you, I spent nowhere near that clipping coupons each week and organizing my grocery trips.

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

Bill in Houston — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:52:50 GMT

Ethnic markets are wonderful for fruits and vegetables. There is a Korean chain, H Mart that has been in Houston for about a year. They're a mile from the Kroger I normally shopped in, and produce is half the price or less! We buy meats and breads and milk from Costco, along with some bulk sundries. Kroger is now used for sundries like toothpaste and dishwash liquid (made cheaper by using coupons that are multiplied). Aside from that we buy lunchmeat there. That's it. We shop once a week and hit all three stores (less if we can get away with it) in a loop. Sometimes we skip Kroger all together. We eat very well and spend about $200 a month on groceries (maybe $250 with the sundries). It is worth the 20 mile loop round trip. Shopping at Kroger alone, even with their card and couponing would mean an extra hundred dollars at least per month.

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

S. Walker — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:14:47 GMT

The key is to cook from scratch. I usually cook a huge amount and use the leftovers to make other meals, ex. chicken can be shredded to make chicken salad. If you are making some kind of meal with meat and you do not have enough meat, add diced pototoes to the meat and it will seem as if you have a lot of meat.

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

Nan — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 01:44:04 GMT

Laura~~and others who don't use up bananas. Have a plastic bag to FREEZE them.

Break up the banans in about 1 inch pieces and freeze. Use to make SMOOTHIES.

Example: In a BLENDER: about 2 inches of crushed ice+ 5-6 pieces of frozen banana

+about 4 inches of low fat milk and then the flavorings you like..a rounded teaspoon

of instant coffee....chocolate powder or syrup....other fruit, ie strawberry/blueberry

If not flavorful enough, add more favoring, a half tsp. of sugar...vanilla, or vanilla

or other flavored creamer....WHAT A TREAT....NOT ICE CREAM...BUT SATISFYING

AND HEALTHIER....MAKE IT THE WAY YOU WANT TO AND ENJOY.

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

andrea — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:46:19 GMT

I buy my eggs from the egg farm, my vegtables and fruit from the farmers market and meat from the butcher. It might cost a little more in gas but the savings are unbelievable. When eggs were at all time high in our supermarkets for $2.09 they were still .75 at the egg farm. Another example is 5lbs of potatoes at our local Walmart are $2.99 at the farmers market 50lbs are $7.00 and you can use potatoes in many ways as well as make them into fries and freeze them or share them.

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

Cindy — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 19:14:49 GMT

I remember my Mother, raising us kids back in the fifties and sixties and how her meals would be living on one income household.

I plan from what I remember beef macaroni, sloppy joes, chicken, spaghettie. What she did was plan what she would cook for her kids.

Grandma, also had given her advise of what to cook and give her a family recipie.

Grandma made beef cassarole with tamotoe soup but I do not.

Also, I look in on a healthy eating habbit why should I suffer just to buy cheaper? I compare labels and also I buy store brand they even have more nutrition or the same as brand foods.

What I call organic is gardening vegtables. My parents and my father's family and the nieghbors would have a vegtable garden.

I would also bake my own bread. I recalled also making blackberry jam as it was so good.

I must confess what I hate is dry milk. I tried to use it but again why should I suffer just to save money?

You would say who has the time to bake bread and garden etc? Do it in advance and plan, plan, plan.

Perhaps there are Posters, who remember how there Mother, use to feed the family or a Grandmother or Aunt, to share with others to help.

Bon Appitite!

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

Jen — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 18:03:33 GMT

I live in a small rural area, where the grocery store is 20 minutes away. Unfortunately groceries cost more because of the distance they are trucked in, and the produce is not very fresh. Does anyone have some ideas on how I could save, because by the time I drove an hour to the next store, I would have spent double just on gas. I try to shop the sales they have and stock up, but I would like to provide fruits and veggies for my kids more often. I also buy the store brand more often than not, but my bill is still outrageous. Thanks :)

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

Tess — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:53:34 GMT

Try putting your bananas in the frig as this helps keep them fresh a little longer. You can also peel and freeze (break into smaller pieces) and use later in bread etc.

At our hispanic grocery store, they have a much larger selection of fruits and vegies than our regular stores and you save a lot.

Mayo is really easy to make. An egg, a little lemon joice in a blender, pour in olive oil or whatever you have and watch mayo being made! As it starts turning white, taste and keep adding oil until it's what you want.

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

Captainsquest — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:00:53 GMT

Saving money on food at my house was easier than I feared. I was one of those who buy all these beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables and then have half of them go bad before I used them. Now I purchase two servings of fresh fruits for each day of the week, one head of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms etc. If I run out I stop at the store and restock. I only buy bannanas when they are on markdown and set the best asside to eat and make banana bread to freeze. On the weekends I cook meals as if there were 6 of us and immediately freeze in two serving and one serving portions for future dinners and lunches. We bought an inexpensive bread machine, load in the ingredients and it makes the bread for a lot less than the $3-4 for gormet bread.

re: You can save food dollars without using coupons

barnegat48 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 17:34:56 GMT

I agree with nvjeepgirl. I just went through the Sunday paper and there are not as many coupon sections now. Those that still exist are loaded with more and more ads asking us to buy merchandise, instead of cents-off coupons. I rely more on thecouponclippers.com to find me coupons for the products I use, and then I buy a handful of those and stock up. It's not expensive when I can pay 5 to 10 cents for a dollar-off coupon that I would not have been able to obtain otherwise.