With everything being so expensive nowadays and so many people are tightening their belts, anyone care to share tips or secrets on how they save on grocery bills and everyday household supplies? I see so many websites about super couponing, economizing,etc., yet no matter how hard I try,shopping sales, using up leftovers,very rarely eating out etc, I'm still spending waay too much on groceries. I want that to be a resolution, to slash my grocery bills as much as possible, yet still feel like we're eating well. We're big meat eaters-beef, chicken, pork, you name it. I know that's where a lot of our costs come from, but that isn't likely to change. My husband and I have two teens and one adult daughter at home, (plus 2 cats and a dog to buy supplies for.)
What ideas work well for you?
Sounds like time to move the daughter out unless she is paying rent. Get the 2 teens a job, bbq the cats and warn the dog he may be next. Other than that I cant think of a thing other than just quit eating. Which I am sure has no appeal what so ever. Hope you take this in the humor that it was written.
If you have a deep freezer that's big enough, you could put the kids in there...that would get you through the winter... Angus, you rascal! Look what you started!
But seriously.... One thing that I do, especially on meats, is stock up when it's on sale, and buy in the larger packs if your grocer discounts the family packs. Kroger here will often knock $1-2 a pound off in the larger amounts. When chicken thighs drop to $0.39/lb, I get a bunch of it and freeze it in dinner sized portions. I do the same for other meats. I don't do the couponing thing, tho' the wife does. Buy large sizes/bulk packs when possible, but watch the prices...sometimes they'll try to trick you. "Bonus pack! 30% More" and the price is 50% higher. Don't shop without a list (and stick to it!), and never shop when you're hungry.
To expand on the wisdom of Merlin, if you do have a chest freezer (or have room for one) talking to the local butcher about buying 1/4 or 1/2 cows can save a very large sum of money compared to the normal prices and get some cuts of meat that are very nice. It also works for pork but not so much for poultry.
I always shop when I'm hungry. Not for food, but for free samples. Figure a store and schedule and you can get a pretty good free meal.
Any funerals nearby are usually good for a meal. Easier than a wedding. At a funeral just mope around and say how it was just yesterday and how full of life they were, Weddings they may try to nail you down if you know the bride or groom.
Ferret
Buying and cooking fresh is a lot less expensive than pre-cooked foods. I look for buy one get one free sales on meat at the local grocer. Most mass produced meats have been injected with fluids to make them taste more like fast food. Freezing and thawing forces a lot of this fluid out so you have slightly healthier meat. Chicken especially is done this way. The local meat market sometimes has specials and we take advantage of those to buy and freeze quality meats. You don't need a chest freezer for this.
Try to avoid Walmart for frozen food because many of their stoors have been cited for letting frozen food thaw in the back before it is placed in freezer cases out front.
Buy fresh veggies, cook and freeze them yourself. Farmer's Markets usually have the best prices on veggies, but compare prices at specialty markets like Sprouts for good deals. Keep an eye out for discounts at places that specialize in resturaunt supply. Goody Goody Liquor stores are also owned by a company that markets gourmet seasonings and foods to restaurants so their flagship store also stocks these items; ground white pepper for roughly 1/8 the price you pay in a big box grocer.
Make up bulk sauces like tomato basil and freeze them flat in freezer bags. It is cheaper to buy in bulk but if you have the basic sauce all you need to do is thaw, add pasta and meat of your choice.
Sort your laundry and determine which things can be washed in cold water. Era and Arm & Hammer both make liquid laundry detergent that is formulated for cold water. Even running two loads in cold water instead of warm/hot water can potentially reduce your hot water usage by half.
You can also keep a plastic bucket in the shower and use the catch water for potted plants and flower beds. In drought areas this is almost a neccesity.
Hope this helps.
The cold water thing DC mentions is good. There are only a couple of things that we wash in hot water.
So many people shop MalWart & Sam's or other discount clubs assuming that everything there is cheaper. IT IS NOT! Pay attention to their prices. I went to MalWart to purchase a DVD that everyone else was out of. They had copies...for good reason: instead of the $19.95 that everyone else sold it for, they were $29.95. If you pay attention to grocery store flyers that come in the mail, you can come out pretty well. We used to have two chains in the community, both within a mile of the house. I would shop both each week, and save a considerable amount.
There are actually a lot of websites that compare specials at various grocery stores... I've not really used any of them, some are free, some are subscriptions, but one that I was looking at last year seemed pretty well worth the cost of the subscription, based on the reviews I saw of it, I'll try to go back through my bookmarks later and see if I can find it again.
I don't buy in what is considered bulk for most folks, because it's just me, but I will buy the 3lb pack of ground meat, for example, because I can get 3 hamburgers, plus 4 or 5 servings out of it. If I buy the 5lb, it will get freezer burn before I get around to using it all.
I second that the adult child should be paying rent, when I was an adult and moved back into my mother's house, even when I was a full-time student, I still contributed financially to the household, even if I was only working part time.
Getting into the habit of cooking fresh foods does seem expensive at first, but once you've cleared out the pantry/freezer of the convenience foods and restocked with better quality, less processed stuff, you'll find that in the long run you are saving $. Check recipe blogs and websites for ideas that can help you stretch that pound of ground beef (adding breadcrumbs into it before you make the hamburger patties or meatloaf doesn't change the flavor, the kids won't notice, it will be a little more filling), adding some broth to the pot of stew, along with a little flour will help thicken it and stretch it a little farther. Whole fruit is MUCH more filling than fruit juice. I make a sloppy joe casserole that, when I was sharing a house with 3 other adults and a teenager, fed all 5 of us with a serving or two left over using about a pound and a half of ground beef, a can of biscuits, sloppy joe sauce, and a can of ranch style beans, and one of the adults was a 20 year old boy who regularly ate 2 hamburgers at a sitting.
Don't buy brand name unless you MUST. With the exception of LeSeur peas, Mahatma brown rice, Heinz ketchup and Dr Pepper, I buy the generic version of EVERYTHING, unless a brand name is on a really good special and cheaper than the generic, or I am desperate and there is no generic available.
Part 1
I do the cold water thing, too. Plus I try different detergents to see what cleans best at what volume. A lot depends on hardness of water, what's being washed, etc. Try cutting the amount of determine in half for a while and see what happens to the clothes. Most of us use way too much.
For toothpaste, the manufactures show pix of what they call "full-load" while only about 1/4 or less is really needed. So, about 3/4 of toothpaste is literally down the drain. Try out different shampoos and conditioners, playing with amounts. I have found that a very small amount of expensive stuff works better for me than using a lot of the cheap stuff.
Enlist the aid of the entire family. Ask them for ways to save. Have a discussion with examples of how much stuff costs. Most teens probably have no idea what their meals cost. If your family will not cooperate, it might not be possible make any real changes until the kids leave. Mom and Dad might be persuaded to cut back either for economic or health reasons.
If you do all the shopping, send someone else, with an explicit list and only so much cash. It might help relate availability of money to desire to buy.
It was easier teaching my kids back when they were little; I was relatively poor; and we used cash. They would ask for something, I would show them the real money, and they had to figure out what was more important, a gallon of milk, loaf of bread, or the candy, because I literally did not have money for any extras back then. As a result, my son made his $15 birthday money used for candy last from August to Christmas and shared with his sister. Her money went for toys, one for each of them.
Part 2
As for big meat eaters, the cook can help change that by putting portions on plates, rather than just cooking a big amount and putting it on the table. Government pyramid recommends 1/4 pound per meal for meats. Just cook what you usually do, then put some of it in the fridge before it is put on the table. If it is not in front of them, they will not miss it as much.
Those feed-four-on-$10-cooking shows are based on the 1/4 pound per person idea plus a small serving of veggie or potato and then a large salad dish.
Try using the meat in smaller versions, like stir fry, chili (more beans than meat), soups, etc. Try what we call throw-together. Meat, veggies like onions, mushrooms, peppers, plus a starch (potatoes, noodles, cheap packaged mac and cheese), a sauce (soup like cream of mushroom or chicken, etc.) You can adjust the amount of meat to how much money you want to spend, and they still get the flavor and body of meat.
My kids can afford to eat much better now, but those old things are now considered treats and every so often I get requests for specific meals. Now, though, my kids offer to pay for the ingredients.
Part 3
Unfortunately, a lot of market shopping depends on where you live. In the San Antonio area, we only have a few big stores (HEB, Wal-Mart, and Costco) with some local stores (prices higher in general for exact same stuff). I haven't seen double coupon days for about 25 years here. We do not have Kroger or Albertson's any more. I used to buy 1/4 cow or large, large roasts (which I would cut down) in the Chicago area, but they don't seem to be available here much. Only a few butcher shops around – some are high end (Kobe type beef); some are "meat market" versions. The second type has been cited for selling what are OTC drugs in Mexico, but prescription here (I thought I was seeing things when I saw the boxes on the counter, but later saw on the news that several of their stores were busted).
Being retired, I shop between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. weekday mornings. My HEB often has discounts on meats that are one day before sell-by date. I do get things like chicken legs (oh, Merlin, I wish we had 39 cent thighs again, but have not seen that price for 5 years or so), house brand Italian sausage types, various pork products, and sometimes fish . Usually not beef. Meats, chicken and fish are packaged with a sell-by date that still allows 2 to 3 days after that before cooking or freezing. Other stores have a higher turnover of meats and never have discounts.
Around holidays, buy several cheap turkeys and just stick them in the freezer. Same with the house brand spiral hams; HEB had a $10 off coupon, plus about $5 in freebies the week after Christmas because they had so many left. Just don't forget about those turkeys til next year.
Part 4
Buying in bulk and breaking down into meal sized batches helps, but you need to figure in the cost of containers or freezer bags, as well as freezer burn lost. As Merlin said, double check prices at the big box stores.
My Son and family shop with another family at Costco for things like pizzas, pot pies, etc, then divide them between the houses. Some things are cheaper, but dog food and cat food come in really huge bags (30# plus) and per pound are a little more than HEB or Wal-Mart. The family also has a left-over day, usually Friday when they pull everything out of the fridge and that's what they have for dinner, with everyone getting something different.
Part 5
Regarding farmers markets for produce – you have to really know what you are buying and what it costs at the big store. Some of the stands by the roadside here have higher priced produce and it is often the same thing that HEB sells (same packaging, etc.). Local farmers sometimes have fresh produce at stands that is grown here, but all too often the trucks are just coming from the Valley where they are picking up "seconds".
Part 6
Every so often, when shopping at the grocery, I have the cashier ring up my actual edibles separate from the other stuff. You might find that your food costs are not as high as you think.
For a while keep track of actual spending, taking the time to write down every single penny that is spent (seriously).
Knowing where the money goes can help you make decisions on how you want to spend your money.
Convenience foods might cost more, but that may be okay if your time is more valuable to you. Some people can spend hours each day cooking or packaging; others simply do not.
If the family insists on eating expensive meats in large quantities, it is going to cost. Decide what is "eating well" for your family. Years back for my family eating well meant buying enough food to feed us all. Now it means cutting back on unhealthy (but good tasting) foods.
Finally, at some point if you really need to save money by going cheaper, your spouse has to be on your side. If the kids can contribute, great. If not, there is nothing wrong with telling them this is how it is going to be and just to stifle when they try to complain (after giving them the chance to vent once or twice).
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html
Go green. Better for your purse as well as for the environment!
Start your own garden and if your community supports this raise your own chickens. Consider a community garden with your neighbors to help with the workload.
I second putting the meat in salads and stir-fries and the like. It's a great way to reduce the amount of meat you need without anyone really noticing. Plus, you end up eating a lot more vegetables. :)
This is a great thread.
As far as meat goes- pay attention to how you buy chicken.
For example if I buy chicken breast- the grocery store charges a ridiculous $4.25 a lb.
I can drive down the street to the Latin grocery store and at least once a month they have a sale for whole chickens at $0.99/lb.
I buy the whole chicken- spend 20 minutes butchering it at home and I get a whole lot more meat for a whole lot less money.
Plus I save all the bones and makes lots of home made chicken stock that I put into ice cube trays- freeze- throw the cubes in a big zip lock bag and I have ready to go chicken stock- no need to buy the store bought stuff that has crazy high sodium and preservatives.
I am a big fan of freezing- got myself a food saver vaccum thing a few years ago and its indispensable.
This past Christmas, I had a friend from Indiana whose neighbor works at a pork processing facility, bring me 30 lbs of bacon- cost me $1.99/lb vs the $5/ 12 ozs at the store.
I took 3 hours that saturday morning- portioned it all out- vaccum bagged it- now I have enough bacon for the whole year for 2 families. Plus my bacon is fresh and uncured aka- not full of chemicals and processes vs the store bought junk.
If you can make yourself a veggie garden- definitely do it. A bag of seeds is $1.50 for the good kind- you will spend some money maybe on dirt and supplies but after that its just time involved in tending your garden.
I have about 40 broccoli plantlings that I need to transfer over from the window sill to their boxes this weekend. Much cheaper than $3/bunch at the store
Pay lots more attention to the price per unit rather than the overall price- especially when buying in bulk.
And I agree that just because your family are big meat eaters doesnt mean you have to be spending money you don't have.
Everyone has to make sacrifices and eating more vegetables is good for you anyway. Like Ellennare said- chili, stir fry, pot pies etc are a great way to make meat go much further.
A slow cooker is also your friend. You can throw in a lot more veggies and broth
Oh I forgot another thing
Learn when the different stores start/end their sales.
For example publix (our local grocery store) puts out the new circular on Thursday and the sale end on wed
Walgreens and Target both come out on Sunday.
Get used to regularly following the circular and plan your meals according to what is on sale that week. If zucchini and pork are on sale- well thats what we are having this week.
Also, don't neglect a place like walgreens for some of your essentials- for example about once every 2 months our local walgreens has 1dz eggs on sale for $.99- thats considerably less than the $2.59 at publix.
Milk on the other hand is better quality and about $0.40 cheaper at Target than it is at the grocery store.
Baking soda goes on sale at walgreens at 3/$1 about once every two months.-This week an 8roll pack of paper towels is $4- thats a whole lot less than any other store
I LOVE my slow cooker. I have a big 5 or 6 qt that I've had for several years, but for Christmas one of my friends gave me a 3 qt that is AWESOME for making stuff just for me. I just have to remember that it is smaller so the amount in it is smaller, and therefore cooks faster, I nearly burned my spaghetti sauce over the weekend because I left it on low for too long.
Chicken breasts around here will go on sale periodically and be under $2/lb. It makes Nim sick to cut up a chicken, but I'll frequently do that, especially if I'm working on a soup. I've got the process down pretty good. A cut here, and a cut there, couple of dislocations, a couple more cuts, and the chicken is quartered, with the back in the stock pot.
Polly, I'm right in the middle of Tysonland. Chicken gets real cheap, if you watch for it. Boneless, skinless breasts will occasionally show up at $1.99/lb, whole chickens at $0.69/lb, and legs and thighs at $0.39/lb, but you have to buy 10# bags...like so what, eh?
Part of the savings comes if you like leftovers...which we do. I'll make a pot of chicken/rice soup boiling a whole chicken, some onions, celery, carrots, and rice, and spend less than $10. Enough soup for 3 good meals for the two of us—at least—and the dark meat is held out (Nim doesn't like it), and I make sandwiches for me from that, getting another 2 or 3 more lunches. So that is 8 individual meals at no more than $1.25 each.
I missed talking about the whole Asian/Latin market thing. I can get Atlantic salmon for as little as $2.99 lb at the H-Mart. Frozen fish is poo-poo'd by a lot of chefs. But for the average consumer, flash frozen is safer than fish that is shipped fresh. The produce is not exactly picture perfect, but if you know how to pick out the good ones, you can save a bundle.
Arroz Amarillo, $1.39 at the market, $2.69 at Albertsons.
My husband jokes that even when the store is packed we can still see over everyone's heads to find stuff.
Everyone's offering great advice here! Here are some of the things I do that have helped reduce costs:
- I eat less meat (especially beef which tends to be more expensive than pork or chicken). I always have a number of meatless meals each week.
- When I buy beef, I tend to buy large, less expensive cuts (like chuck roasts) and use them in stews or soups.
- I buy whole chickens and cut them up myself. If I'm not using all of it at once, I wrap and freeze the rest for later.
- I shop once a week with a list I make from the grocery store's weekly flyer. I always buy the items that are on sale without regard to brand.
- I plan my weekly menus based on what's on sale rather than what I feel like eating.
- If non-perishable items are on sale, I stock up.
- I no longer buy prepared foods (canned soups, frozen dinners, jarred sauces, etc.) but make simple meals from scratch.
- I grow some of my own veggies and all my herbs during the season. If you cook with herbs, you should try growing them yourself--it's easy and you save lots of $$.
- I use the freezer A LOT. It's always filled with cuts of meat that I bought on sale and frozen leftovers ready to be reheated. Every couple of months, I skip my weekly shopping and eat everything in the freezer instead. Helps keep things from getting too old in there!
- I'm careful about electricity and don't use unnecessary lights, unplug (from the wall!) all chargers or appliances that suck electricity even when off, and don't leave the TV on when I'm not watching (the TV is a huge power suck), etc.
- I keep the thermostat low in the winter and high in the summer.
These may seem like small things but they've made a big difference for me!
You guys are great. This was reprinted in our newspaper a couple of days ago, and I thought it was pretty neat.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/345680/
I work on a university campus, but work odd hours. I arrive at 5am. Every morning, though I'm pretty much the only person in the building, I find lots of lights on. On the way to my building, I pass this one that houses a large meeting room, and almost every morning all the lights are on in that room. I counted the wattage, and it was nearly 5 kilowatts. Figuring that the lights were on in an unoccupied room for 10 hours out of 24, 20 days out of the month, that's 1000 kwh per month being wasted in ONE ROOM on a campus with hundreds of rooms, albeit not that large. Turn out the unused lights!!! I have to follow Nim around the house and turn off lights...she's bad about it. We do heavily rely on compact fluorescent lamps or dimmers in every room.
Looking at the Kroger flyer, split chicken breasts this week are $1.19/lb. Our preferred toilet paper is $1 off, plus there's an additional $1 coupon for the large pack, making it nearly 30% off. Stop tossing the weekly flyer away! Pay attention to it!
Wow, so much good advice here! I haven't fully sifted through it all yet (I'm sick and the thought processes aren't firing too well at the moment.) When I feel a little better, I'll write more.
You need some of my chicken soup...good for what ails you! Hope you feel better soon.
This whole conversation has made me wonder at the huge disparity between grocery prices across the country. Here in SW VA (semi-rural) chicken breasts are .99/lb at Kroger this week, compared to 1.19 out Merlin's way at the same chain.
So to add to the mix Neysa, one of the things I have to do is keep track of what the regular price of things is in order to know if the "sale" is truly that.
And don't get me started on just how screwed up "Extreme Couponing" has made the everyday couponer's life heII. From the loss of double and triple coupons, as well as not being able to buy multiple items and use multiple coupons.
How about we take a look this weekend and put down the cheapest costs we find at the store we normally shop at (whether it's regular price or sale). Might be interesting to see differences throughout the country.
We could check costs on some commonly mentioned items here. Anybody interested?
I certainly am. Do we want to start a new thread? I am thinking, chicken whole, chicken breasts, ground beef, lets pick one common lesser expensive beef (London broil?) and perhaps pork loin (not tenderloin).
Then gal milk, doz large eggs, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes.
Does your grocery store offer a "shoppers card"? Here in SW PA we have a grocery chain (Giant Eagle) that offers what it calls an advantage card. The card is free, but you much register to get it. The card enables you to get in store specials that you would not otherwise receive if you did not use the card.
This card also awards you fuel perks (points) for a discount on gasoline at their Get Go gas stations. I've gotten free gas this way. Once you purchase gas, you build up points called food perks to be deducted from your next grocery bill. You can accumulate these points for maximum savings.
Buy a Sunday paper for the coupons. The savings from the coupons far outweighs the cost of the paper.
Try store brands. They truly are no different than the brand name items, and they do cost less.
And yes, use a slow cooker. You can buy cheaper cuts of meat to slow cook. They turn out wonderfully.
Gina
Quote from: mehan on January 06, 2012, 07:58:09 AM
I certainly am. Do we want to start a new thread? I am thinking, chicken whole, chicken breasts, ground beef, lets pick one common lesser expensive beef (London broil?) and perhaps pork loin (not tenderloin).
Then gal milk, doz large eggs, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes.
New thread ready. Grocery Prices across the Country.
Quote from: angusmacinnes on January 04, 2012, 08:13:11 PM
Sounds like time to move the daughter out unless she is paying rent. Get the 2 teens a job, bbq the cats and warn the dog he may be next. Other than that I cant think of a thing other than just quit eating. Which I am sure has no appeal what so ever. Hope you take this in the humor that it was written.
LOL! You are so bad! ;D The adult daughter does pay rent, but I still can't wait to get her out of my house! My almost 15 yr. son isn't quite old enough to get a job yet, other than lawn mowing and stuff like that which he does do. My 17 yr old daughter did have a job as a car hop at the local Sonic Drive In, but a couple of months ago she got a very serious chemical burn on her foot and ankle when she accidentally spilled a cleaning solution down her leg into her roller skate. She was a bit traumatized and hasn't gone back. If anyone is interested to hear THAT drawn out story, I'll start another topic thread.
Quote from: Merlin the Elder on January 05, 2012, 08:34:31 PM
You need some of my chicken soup...good for what ails you! Hope you feel better soon.
Merlin, nothing beats homemade chicken soup, even when you're not sick! Now I want some!
I feel I'm doing some of the "right" things I should be doing...I just need to do a lot more and be more consistent with my resolve. Side trips to the store are my downfall because it's right around the corner and I know that's a huge part of the problem. I love to cook so scratch cooking is second nature. Using generic brands, rarely eating out. etc. Every spring I plant a garden with a wide variety of veggies and herbs in two 4' by 8' raised beds. I think I need to make it bigger, because we always eat everything up. I never have enough to can or freeze, (plus always end up losing some things to pests.) For those that have suggested slow cookers, YES, my crock pot is one of my best friends! I don't know what I'd do without it! I always joke you could put a shoe in there and it would get tender and tast good :D
Mehan, I've often wondered about the price differences too! The extreme couponing thing...I don't know if I have the patience and dedication for it. I've seen stories about coupon queens that have gotten hundreds of dollars of groceries and paid under $50,etc.. Then I think..it must take months of planning for a trip like that. Then I wonder, yes but where do they live? You're gonna pay alot more for food in a huge metro area in or near a major city than you will, say, rural Alabama. Polly, that's a GREAT idea for everyone to quote prices!
Everyone has given such great input! Glad I started this thread!
on some level, I really think the extreme couponing is inconsiderate to other shoppers.
Number one, if you are going to buy 25 of an item, are you REALLY going to be able to use all of those men's deoderants in your lifetime? What about someone else who also wants to buy that item, using the same coupon you've hoarded 25 of, but they can't because you've taken them all?
Number two, there are limits to how many coupons/items you can use a coupon for, and if that's the case, that means as many as 25 separate transactions for your items, do you really think that's fair to other shoppers who are not taking things to the extreme, and get in line behind you, not knowing that you are engaging in EC, thinking, "oh, that's a full basket, but it shouldn't be too bad" only to discover that in that one basket are 25 different transactions, each taking 5 minutes, instead of one transaction taking 10 minutes?
Number three, you are kvetching about the "new policies" on coupons, limiting transactions, eliminating the multiplication of them, etc., are you really so dense as to not realize that YOUR BEHAVIOR CAUSED THE CHANGES???
Number Four, do you not realize that the fact that you go in EVERY WEEK with your bazillion coupons and come out of the store with a "refund" is a valid reason for the store to increase the prices that they do have so that they aren't losing any more money than necessary. Yeah, I know the behemoth that is WallyWorld is greedy, and whatever else, but when it comes down to them giving away product AND money on top of that product, eventually it becomes a problem
Number Five, because of EC, people who really DO need the savings that double/triple coupons provided get screwed because YOU took EXCESSIVE advantage of that policy to such an extreme that it has been eliminated completely.
Now, I do know a young woman from my church, who, with a friend, does the EC thing, but anything that their families won't use in a reasonable time gets packed into care packages for the soldiers deployed overseas, or donated to the local shelters. I'm sure they aren't the only ones doing this, and that's a good thing. The ones I have real problems with are the ones whose product have taken over entire rooms in their houses, which, to some degree, at least in my opinion, is HOARDING behavior. I just don't understand how you are "saving money" when you spend money on products you wouldn't normally spend it on?
/rant off
My mother couponed my whole life, when we were kids and she was feeding a family of 6, she had a lunchbox in which all of her coupons were organized by category, and they were arranged in the general layout of the commissary (we lived on base). She shopped from a specific list, on which she'd noted which items she could pull coupons for, and rarely deviated from that list. If it was something fun or a treat, like spaghettios, she didn't buy it UNLESS she had a coupon. Once we left military life, and my parents divorced, so it was just her, my brother & me, she shopped the local grocery, and her couponing slowed down quite a bit, largely because more store brands were available and less expensive than national brands, even with a coupon. She gave up the lunchbox organization after she picked it up out of the cart by the handle one day, not realizing it wasn't latched & her coupons went EVERYWHERE!
I coupon some, but not a whole lot, because, especially now that double/triple is gone, there's not a lot that I HAVE to get brand name, and what I do insist on is rarely in the coupon section, and when I do coupon for brand name stuff, I often buy what I would NOT have otherwise spent on, which is not a savings at all.
Make friends with hunters if available
Venison is great-
and you can slow cook it as well-
Crazy
I concur with you raevyncait 100%
just as a side note, ive lived in Florida going on 20 years now, and we never ever had the double and triple coupon days that every other state seems to have.
I never even knew that existed until I took a trip to Missouri when I was in college.
Thank you Raevyncait - I wanted to rant... my sentiments exactly.
I know I am going to start something here but I disagree. If I want to buy 25 of something then I will and that is one Item I wont be buying again for a long time. It is my right to use the coupons the way the manufacture allows and the store allows. If you get in line behind me sorry about that. And yeah sometimes the garage looks like Walmart shelves. ;D
I don't see much of the extreme couponing around here. I don't see how they get away with it to start with, because every coupon I see says "one per" on it. But, whatever.... If you are one of those people whose shopping habits require the monopolization of a clerk's time for 20 minutes, you should at least be considerate enough to not go to the store during peak hours.
Crazyrennie, I wish I liked venison. I've never been able to get used to the taste, and I've lived in Arkansas most of my life, and I have deer in my yard! Now, if a rampant cow comes wandering by, I can take her out with my `03-A3 Springfield with little trouble...other than the local police force.
I will have to stop by and cook some for you, Merlin. The way I cook it people argue with me and swear I am lying, that it is not venison, it is fine beef. 8)
Even a couple people that swore they hated venison. ;D
I ate deer meat growing up, and I currently know a guy who hunts and keeps his freezer well stocked. I never liked it that much as a kid, because as you know it can taste very gamey. I've heard though, when cooked and seasoned well, it can indeed taste like beef. It's been a very long time since I've had it, but the last time I did, it was very similar to beef, not gamey at all. If you use ground venison in stews, chili, etc, it's very hard to tell the difference.
Quote from: Lord Dragon on January 06, 2012, 04:10:25 PM
I will have to stop by and cook some for you, Merlin. The way I cook it people argue with me and swear I am lying, that it is not venison, it is fine beef. 8)
Even a couple people that swore they hated venison. ;D
I appreciate the offer, but I don't think I could. I think deer are beautiful animals.
I can't shoot one, but I support the hunters who do around her, because there is a tremendous overpopulation of them here. I'm serious about them being in my yard...and no, I don't live in a rural area.
I'll eat beef, because I think cows look dumber than a bag of rocks.
and cows are so tastey.
I mostly shop at 2 am so no real lines to worry with. LOL
I don't coupon as I pretty much do all my shopping at Aldi. The prices are great! Just remember to bring a quarter for the cart & your own bags.
Off the grocery topic but we have a large family to buy for at Christmas. I set a pretty low budget & then shop all year. I currently have 3 tshirts I bought at a local Christian store for 90% off. They're going to be my nephews birthday presents. These are $20-$25 shirts I got for about $2. Even if I have to store it for a few months I'd rather do that than pay full price.
Put on a sweater or put on a lighter weight shirt before you turn on the heater or the A/C. If I'm sitting on our couch chances are I have a blanket over my legs.
Go used before new. My son needs some new long sleeve shirts. Before I hit the mall we are headed to Platos Closet resale. The same kid also has a really hard to fit jean size (28x34) & most of his jeans come used from eBay. $25 is a lot easier to swallow than $60-$120 (I've looked!).
Quote from: raevyncait on January 06, 2012, 11:56:37 AM
Number one, if you are going to buy 25 of an item, are you REALLY going to be able to use all of those men's deoderants in your lifetime?
Depends on how many Ren Faires I attend, in full garb, in the late spring/summer/early fall. ;D
I guess I have been lucky. As far as I know I have never seen what seems to be called an extreme couponer save for days past when they did allow double and triple coupon days and even then it wasn't all that bad to me. And as for nowadays, all the coupons I see get used they simply scan through their purchases then scan through all the coupons in one go, save for the ones that refuse to scan.
I always either lose the coupons or hold onto them and remember them a day or two past expiration. :o So now I just watch for the sale ads and we usually get pretty good prices on stuff, outright, two for one, etc. And it doesn't hurt to have a Winn-Dixe and a Publix who are constantly fighting each other on the lowest sales, either. :P
Like Angus, I usually do my shopping after midnight anyway. Definitely saves on crowd jostling. ;D
But I have three types of shoppers that annoy me no end too. The ones who can't count to ten (or twenty ) when the sign clearly says ten (or twenty ) items or less. I go pick up one or two items, I really don't want to wait while you checkout your 35 items. And FYI, 5 loaves of bread don't count as one item, k?
I smoke. And usually buy at walmart which is cheaper in this area. Which they only allow those to be sold in ONE checkout. Irks me no end to get behind not one but two or three carts loaded down, wait for them to checkout and NONE of them are buying smokes, they just don't want to walk down another 10 feet to the four other open lanes. And again I am usually there buying one or two items.
And lastly....what compels people to wait in a line to buy anything at all, not just groceries, anything, gas, movie tickets whatever...to wait in a line, get to the register and only THEN take 5 minutes looking for their cash or card? And still more....they wait till ALL of their purchases are scanned through, THEN start swiping their card and doing the pin, sig, whatever, taking another several minutes. Maybe not a lot of people know this but 95% of the machines used today, once they scan that first item, it opens the transaction and you can swipe anytime after that, do your numbers or sig and just be waiting for the final ok on the price.
/myrant off
/threadjack off
;D
I don't "extreme" coupon, but I do coupon and I do stockpile. (hey, my house is the place to get stuck in a storm - garage full of wine, coffee and ribs!).
Shamefully sometimes it takes money to save money. Until you can build a pantry, you are at the mercy of buying whats on sale that week. I built a menu of about 15 go to recipes and stocked the pantry/freezer accordingly when the staples were on sale. Now, if is isn't on sale I don't "have" to buy it.
That being said - I learned the hard way to rotate my stock and that not everything on the shelf has an indefinite shelf life. I use reduced fat miracle whip every day on my husbands lunch. Oh look, on sale for 1.99 (normally 3.49), I have three coupons - yipee. However, its takes almost three months to use a single container meaning it was a year before I opened that third jar. It was gray, ugly and way past expiration. (I learned that it was still usable and wouldn't kill him - but there was no convincing him of that). Didn't exactly save much in the long run.
Barter! There is a thriving bartering market here locally. If you have anything to offer - its a great system.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with Angus about the extreme couponing thing. Heck, I've been in the grocery store before with a fairly full, mounded up cart, (with no coupons), and people have looked at me like I'm nuts. Can't figure out why, I'm just stocking up, why is that so strange? Anyway, I understand the points that are being made against it. I admit I've been annoyed at times as well, being behind someone with 2 full carts, and a thick wad of coupons, but annoying as it may be, if the store allows it, people have the right to buy and spend their money as they see fit. Stores are always going to have any number of justifications for increasing their prices. I get far more annoyed about prices increasing due to theft, rising fuel and transport costs, the high cost of beef due to the cost of grain, etc, etc. Or for things no one has any control over, like the time a few years ago in Food Lion I saw heads of iceberg lettuce spike up to almost $3 or more a head due to a huge crop failure in Florida. I've never extreme couponed before, the best deal I ever got was when my kids were babies, I got some great promo coupons in the mail and I ended up getting 4 or 5 large cans of powdered infant formula for free! If extreme couponers can work out deals like that all the time, then I can't blame them for doing it.
Ok, but on the other side of the coin, I do get very annoyed when someone at checkout will stand there and argue with the cashier for 10 minutes over something they thought was on sale but wasn't and they want to argue it anyway. They'll pull out the flyer and get snotty and insist they are right, only to finally discover after 10 minutes of haggling and having the manager called , that they were wrong after all. Then they'll still stand there and complain and gripe about how the add is misworded or whatever. Or they'll argue over a coupon that isn't exactly right for the product they are buying, but they insist on it being honored anyway. There have been times I've been tempted to dig into my purse and say, "for gods sake lady here's 50 cents, the rest of us want to move on with our lives!"
Mercy! That is so true! I wonder what they would do if you actually did give them the 50 cents...
Quote from: Merlin the Elder on January 07, 2012, 10:19:21 AM
Mercy! That is so true! I wonder what they would do if you actually did give them the 50 cents...
Probably still argue - it's part of the game.
They get really indignant and try to return it and when you refuse as they appearantly need it far more then you do they get angry. at this time the manager returns takes you to a different line while both he and the clerk try not to loose it in front of said customer. OH YES kindnes can be dangerouse. Said customer has actually walked back out of the store after seeing me there.
A few times in the past, when I had more money than time, I was behind someone who did not seem to have enough money for their purchase. I would hand the cashier sufficient money ($10 or less) for the purchase and say to the buyer something like "pay it forward."
A couple times I recognized the person from around the neighborhood but not someone I knew personally. One woman was probably a con, but, hey, it comes around, karma and all that.
Like George of the Jungle says, something good always happens afterwards.
I WISH I had an Aldi in a reasonable distance to me, but alas, the nearest one is about 30 miles one way, and the last 7 or 8 miles of that is an area that is ALWAYS heavy stop & go traffic, so any savings I might see are negated by the fuel cost. That being said, there are places that I go that are near an Aldi, and I try to stop in there to do any shopping that I may need to do. In the areas where Aldi is within about 5 minutes, ALL of the grocery stores have reduced their store brand milk to match Aldi's price.
Come spring, when the project I'm working on is finished (I work in a construction office on a field site), and I move back to the main office about a half hour away, I'll be driving by an HEB every day, which makes me happier than you can believe! They are a TX firm, so a LOT of their products are TX products, they have fabulous regional produce, and the newer ones (this one has been open since September) are sort of a hybrid of their older stores (basic groceries) and Central Market (an upscale market focusing on super fresh products with a lot of organic, natural and international products and a HUGE bulk foods area). There are some things I won't buy at CM, because I can get them cheaper elsewhere, but their bulk, cheese, and bakery selections can't be beat.
What's an Aldi?
Polly
Aldi is a grocery store chain that offers really discounted prices.
The exchange for the lower prices is that their stock is limited compared to a regular grocery store, and a lot of their products are store brand- not national.
Thank you guys for bringing up Aldi,
i really didn't think we had any in the area but I looked it up anyway- turns out there are 2 on my way to work
also to know about aldi is that they don't accept Credit cards, only debit or ebt cards or cash. bring your own bags, or expect to buy some of theirs, and you'll self-bag as well. I've honestly not been disappointed with anything I've bought there.
I did a quick Google on Aldi, but it appears there are none around here.
I take my own bags to the store (unless I forget them in the car) anyway. Name brands do not in general impress me, though there are a few that I do insist on for some things because I can taste the difference, especially in texture of some veggies.
If one is ever opened around here, I'll be sure to check it out.
I am loving this thread. I am learning so much I didn't know. Thank you fairmely.
If I wanted to save a lot of money, there's one thing I could do: stop going to faires. For the record, it ain't gonna happen.
and see, I do apply my savings toward my Faire stash! ;) ;)
I don't which thread I should put this in so I'll put it in both. I just learned of an opportunity to buy a big meat bundle pack from a local butcher. They're offering 69 pounds of meat for appr. 2.45 per pound. $169.00 In it you get a variety of- 4lb boneless beef sirloin steaks,17 lb pork loin roasts and chops,4 lb country sausage, 3lb bacon, two 4lb beef roasts, (not sure what cut), 12lb ground beef,5lb chicken legs,3 lb bone in chicken breasts, two 3.5 lbfrying chickens, 6lb hot dogs(not real thrilled by the hot dogs...). We're gonna split it with my parents, but this will still cover our meat needs for a while. The meat comes already separated and freezer wrapped, which is a big plus for me. I hate re-wrapping meat.
Sound like a good deal, or no?
If you eat hot dogs, it does sound like a pretty good deal.
Personally, I would talk to the butcher and see about substituting the hot dogs with something else, even if its just chicken. I don't do hot dogs