How I've Been "Doing" Real Food on a Real Budget

...or at least on a budget like mine!  I've been learning a lot about "real" food, food that is nutrient dense and as close to its natural state as possible and not full of chemical preservatives, colorings, and flavorings. And thanks to A Peasant's Feast eCourse through The Nourishing Gourmet, I'm also learning how to do it on a budget.

Read more here: Purposeful Nourishment

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How Much Didn't I Spend Today?

Jill Hale from over at CouponThrifty came to my house last night and did a coupon seminar. I had already attended one a few weeks ago, but I was so excited to host one and help my friends get a hold of this priceless information on couponing, CVS'ing and WAG'ing. And it was great to have a refresher course! If you're interested in learning how to do this, check out her website and send her an email. You can also look her up on Facebook.

Here's my deals today...

My first stop was at Walgreen's. First, I bought a Gillette Fusion Razor on sale for $9.89, used a $4 coupon from the Sunday paper a few weeks ago, and got $5 in Register Rewards. I used the RR to buy the Puffs (99 cents each minus 3 coupons from VocalPoint for 50 cents each), the Suavitel fabric softener (BOGO coupon in WAGS circular for $2.99) and the Dawn (99 cents minus a 25 cent coupon from the P&G Brandsaver insert at the beginning of June. My total OOP (Out Of Pocket) for this trip was:  $7.27...way better than the $19.83 without coupons!

Next stop, Target. I had several high value coupons to use plus some price matching:

FlameDisk ($4.99 minus FREE printable coupon thanks, DealSeekingMom!), three of the new Crystal Light Pure Naturals, $1.97 each minus three $2 coupons from VocalPoint (but Target only took off the $1.97), one Kraft Mayo with olive oil $2.64 minus FREE coupon from Taste of Kraft sampler package I requested, two Airwick Aqua sprays, $1.99 each minus two $1 coupons from Sunday inserts, and 4 Miracle Whips, $2.29 each, price matched to $1.65 (Dollar General circular) minus two $1.50 coupons from the Sunday inserts. My total OOP for this trip:  $7.15. Without the coupons and price matching, $26.68!

And finally, a stop at Meijer to use a couple coupons and pick up a few other items. Free bag of Green Giant Potatoes (came in the reusable shopping bag I requested on their Facebook page) made that $3.99 bag of spuds free! Plus, I found a Johnson's conditioner on clearance for $1.90 minus a $1 coupon I had for Johnson's products, and two packages of Oscar Mayer hot dogs, 99 cents each minus a $1 off of 2 coupon from the Sunday paper. My OOP for these items was $1.88, better than the $7.87 otherwise!. I got a bunch of Catalinas for diapers, hope I can turn those into some super deals before they expire.

All in all, I left the house today with $43 to finish the week's shopping for groceries and household items and came home with $54.38 worth of items, in addition to the nearly $20 I spent on other things. I only have one more to pick up, that will be a 14 cent tube of Colgate toothpaste (89 cents on sale at CVS minus a 75 cent coupon from the Sunday paper). I am beat! Went by myself and really enjoyed it, but I am very tired from staying up so late last night trying to plan my shopping trip today!

Christian Homekeeper's Journal ~ June 22

Join in the Home Keeper's Journal here...

What’s going on in my kitchen this week …..is not a whole lot, really. I recently realized that I'm kind of bored with food, although this has not kept me from eating it. I haven't been making meal plans...supper time rolls around and I have no plan, nothing sounds good to eat...yet somehow, I manage to come up with something. The dishes seem to have a mind of their own and one minute the counters are clean, the next they are covered in dirty dishes...or so it seems.

This week, I have simply not been able to get a handle on ……housework, particularly of the kitchen variety. This is largely due to a change in some medication that I take for high blood pressure. The last several days, for about 3-4 hours after I take my pill in the morning, I am about worthless. So very tired and unmotivated. Today wasn't quite as bad, but I did end up going back to sleep after my hubby went to work instead of staying up and trying to get something done, like laundry and dishes.

It's so hot here …..I think I could bake a cake on my back porch. It's brutal in the late afternoon!

If I could have a pantry built to order ….. it would have lots of shelves, big windows to let in fresh air while I worked, lots of counter space for kneading bread or whatever, lots of little drawers for organization (I always imagine the pantry that Manly built for Laura Ingalls Wilder in The First Four Years (I think that's the book...the one where they house he built for her catches fire and burns down), nice cool tile floor, and everything neatly organized.

The one place other than where I am that I might like to live is …..a place that is partly sunny, 77 degrees with a slight breeze all year round. Nice hammock weather. But since that place only exists in my mind, I guess I might like to live in the mountains somewhere, in a little cabin that we build ourselves...with a gorgeous view of a crystal clear mountain lake. And no bears. LOL...

The most comfortable shoes I have ever had …..are the beat up old Eastland sandals I bought back in the mid 90's. I still have them....I refuse to throw them out, but I need to see if I can get them repaired as the one side of one of the sandals is coming apart. They've been everywhere with me, even hiking in the Appalachian foothills. My bestest friend since kindergarten thinks they are unsanitary, but I love them. They fit my feet just exactly right! I haven't worn them in a few years though (the lack of tread makes them slightly dangerous. I should just wear them around the house...) so I'm sure any germs have died off by now!

My favorite things about summer ….. well, since I can't stand the sun, the heat, the humidity, and Dumb Stupid Time (DST) that was forced upon our state (by a Governor who didn't give a hoot what the people of Indiana wanted) sometimes it's hard to remember there are good things about summer. I love tomatoes fresh off the vine, still warm from the sun. I love to make my family's legendary "California Salad"...it just tastes like summer, and it's only really good when tomatoes are in season, don't bother with store bought tomatoes! I love cool melons, fresh veggies and fruits...sunsets witnessed on bike rides with my daughter...and those wonderful, yet often rare, days where it's just perfectly warm enough, but not too hot, to take a nap under a big ol' shade tree.

I know I need to ……quit staying up so late. Stay on top of the housework. Spend more time with my Bible and its Author. Play with my kids more. Not beat myself up because I'm not getting it right all the time. Yah, relax a little...it's ok really.

Playing the Grocery Game: Free Stuff!

Today was supposed to be the day that I swept through CVS, Walgreen's and WalMart and snagged up a bunch of stuff for next to nothing. I had planned to plan strategy Tuesday evening, but can't remember now why I didn't...something else came up I guess. And last night we had a really bad storm that knocked our power out from 7 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday...I tried to look through the coupons and sale papers by candlelight, but it was rather difficult. Not to mention that all the great Scenarios I tried to plan included coupons that were, apparently, in every other region's Sunday circulars except for ours. Like the $5 coupon for the Schick Hydro razor that, combined with CVS Extra Care Bucks and a Schick rebate, would have actually paid me about $9. I was quite perturbed.

I ended up deciding NOT to go to CVS, since I didn't have a very solid plan, and after waffling in my head for several minutes as I traveled in the general direction of places to shop, decided to brave Super WalMart. I knew I was going there with a stack of FREE product coupons...I was ready for a showdown! If you've never really used coupons much at WalMart, then you have been spared the icy animosity from certain cashiers as you hand over a stack of coupons...particularly when it means you get something for pennies or free. They don't like that for some reason...I think they suspect that you're trying to pull a fast one over on them since certainly companies would never send out coupons for free stuff.

Going against my better judgment, I did what I swore I would not do again...take the kids with me. And while it wasn't a complete disaster, it just did a lot to cement that decision. I am too new at all this to shop with them. I need to be able to think and that's hard to do when you're constantly interrupted by requests for junk food and a toddler with a lightning-quick telescopic reach going for the glass jars of pickles.

I am, over all, very pleased with my first official "couponing trip". Using several free product coupons  I snagged $17.87 for just 89 cents! Not a bad haul. Now, some of this stuff is stuff I wouldn't buy on a regular basis, but once in a while, and for free, I'm o.k. with that.

Hard to believe this would have cost almost $20!

Pictured above are Ritz Crackerfuls, Kraft 100 Calorie Packs Cheese Bites, Oscar Meyer Deli Fresh Chicken Breast (1 pound!), Kraft Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese, Beechnut Let's Grow Toddler Meals, and Genesis Today Goji Berry Juice. The Ritz, Kraft and Oscar Meyer coupons  I received the other day from a Kraft First Taste mailing. Goji Berry Juice from Genesis Today's Facebook fan page, and the Beechnut coupon was mailed to me when I signed up for something on their website.

Plus, when I got home I found this waiting on the steps for me:

 

I signed up for this just a couple days ago, but wasn't sure if it even went through or if I would get one. Came just in time for Father's Day! The $5 in coupons are definitely a plus!

So, I ended up with almost $30 worth of products today for less than a dollar. I'm so liking this coupon thing! Now, if I can just get the CVS thing started...

Free Money from CVS!

I know you've heard the tales of people going into CVS and coming out with $153.97 worth of stuff for $1.09 (or something similar...you get the picture, basically free stuff). I know you're wondering how on earth they do it...and is it really legal? If you read my On a Mission: Using Couponing to Make the Budget Work post, then you know about the couponing seminar I attended and that I received some very practical and do-able instruction on how to "play the grocery game." And if you have attended one of Jill's Coupon Seminars, you know it is definitely possible and definitely legal when properly executed.

The title of this post and introductory paragraph are a tad bit misleading, since I haven't actually "done the CVS thing" yet, at least not in full force. I'm still putting my strategy together. But I was very blessed today:

I took my middle stepson to the doctor (a doctor's office copay was not necessarily in the budget...wonderful) today and she wrote two prescriptions (great...prescriptions weren't in the budget either.) BUT then I remembered that I had just received in the mail in the last week or so a mailing form CVS that included two free $25 gift card coupons for new or transferred prescriptions. I had two scripts, so that's $50 free from CVS!  Of course, you couldn't use the gift card to pay for the prescription, and I could only use one coupon that day, so I'll have to take the other prescription in tomorrow to get the gift card (and use the gift card I got today to pay for it!).

The doctor instructed my stepson to eat candy, specifically sour candy, like Sour Patch Kids, which happens to be his favorite candy in all the whole wide world. I looked through the CVS sale paper while waiting for the prescription and wouldn't you know it, the big bags of Sour Patch Kids candy was on sale for Buy 1 Get one for 1 cent. Only problem was, there was only one bag. So I got a raincheck for the deal, plus another raincheck for a bag of Sour Patch Kids candy for a penny. A sour situation turned sweet...how ironic, that's just what the candy does! (There's a good reason for the doctor telling him to eat sour stuff...to flush out his saliva gland, which is either blocked or infected. He was quite happy with that prescription!).

I was internally lamenting just last night that I just didn't have much to spend at CVS and it seemed like I would never "get this CVS thing going" and then today, I get $50 free from CVS. I'd say that's a good start! I'm so glad I didn't throw those out, which I almost did because we hardly ever have to get prescriptions.  I won't actually have $50 to get the CVS ball rolling as I spent $8 today of the first $25 gift card, and will need to spend $15 tomorrow for the second prescription, leaving about $2. But going in to CVS with $25 and a plan to procure as much free or ridiculously inexpensive stuff as I can sounds very, very workable!

ON A MISSION: Using Couponing to Make the Budget Work

Last Saturday I attended a couponing seminar presented by Jill Hale over at couponthrifty.  I really enjoyed it, Jill did a great job of explaining all that coupon mumbo-jumbo and the fine art of CVS'ing and bagging great WAGS deals. She is also a good friend of my friend The Dime Savin' Diva and I was really looking forward to meeting her. She's great!

Coupons are not a new thing for me, I've used them off and on for years. But there is a difference between the casual couponer and the Coupon Queen...a big difference...we're talking hundreds of dollars a year, if not more!  And the whole CVS thing completely escaped me...I've heard tales of ridiculous deals (ridiculous as in it's ridiculous that people can even DO this!) and have longed to score some myself, yet every time I tried to figure out a 'CVS scenario' my brain would literally lock up. I just couldn't get it, which is incredibly irritating as I consider myself to be of reasonable intelligence...so why is it so hard? It takes experience for one, and an ability to think ahead and around...not always my strongest area, to be honest.

Jill did a great job of explaining that though, and I am very excited to try it out this week. I plan on spending some time Tuesday during Li'l Man's nap to plan my strategy.

She had for sale some neat coupon binders, but I just didn't have any extra money so I didn't purchase one. I had never thought of putting together a binder and decorating it with scrapbooking materials! She has some very cute ones, plus inside are all you need to organize your coupons, a grocery list, and a reference sheet of websites and other information that is very helpful.

I decided I would make my own...I have binders all over the place, sheet protectors, and coupons. I don't really like to use grocery lists made by someone else simply because they shop and eat differently than I do. I haven't made up a grocery list yet, but I did print out some Pantry Inventory sheets from OrganizedHome. My project this evening is to go through the cupboards and shelves and make a list of what we already have (I think I said I'd do this earlier...um, I haven't gotten to it yet LOL).

Jill uses baseball card sheet protectors to slip her cut-out coupons in, which is brilliant! You can see the coupon and expiration date (I had to get creative and fold some in certain ways to make them fit and keep the relevant info visible) at a glance, and you can organize them however you want. However, I have to be totally honest and say that while I do have access to 'slave labor' (she has her children cut them out and organize them into three general categories), I just don't want to cut all the coupons out...for one, when I go to those websites that tell you what's on sale where and what coupons to use with it, they say things like $1/2 (product name) RP 6-13. That's $1 off of two whatevers and the coupon was in the Red Plum Sunday circular on 6-13. My problem, then, is that if I cut them all out, how am I going to find them again later? I suppose I could just look through all the little pockets, but I don't want to do it that way.

The Coupon Mom has you keep the coupon circulars, write the date on the front in big Sharpie marker, and put it in a binder. Then you go to her website and look up the deals, which are cross-referenced to the corresponding coupons. Sounds great...yet then I have the problem of what to do with the coupons I already have cut out,  and the ones I get in the mail, on products or print out?

The solution for me is to use both systems...then I'm not cutting out every single coupon and waste time on coupons I won't use, yet I have a place for all the loose coupons I already have and the others I will no doubt accumulate.

I spent some time today putting together the binder in a 'logical' fashion. I may have over-complicated it...I often do that, but the way I put it together makes sense in my head.  I'll give it a test run for the next few weeks and if I like the way it works, I'll post pictures of it here later.

So for now, it's off to inventory all our stuff...