So why haven't I been posting about my food deals lately?

Well, part of it has been time - we had a VERY busy summer up until last week. It takes me about 2 hours on Sunday/Monday and another hour on Wednesday/Thursday to do the Food Storage Deals, and I just didn't have that kind of time. And while my time, especially during the day, is less busy now, I've been tending to the garden in my free time in the evenings. It was SORELY neglected in July, and there were lots of weeds to show for it.

The other thing is that I haven't been doing much shopping. Part of it again was time, but the other thing is that I don't teach preschool in the summer anymore, and I have one less daycare child in the summer, and so our food budget is quite a bit less during the summer too. And then, I decided that after 7 years of living in this house, I really needed to have the living room/hall and stairway painted, and the money for the paint and supplies came out of the grocery budget.

So I haven't been shopping as much, and we've been filling in with food from the 3 month supply. I should be back to posting coupon/food storage deals/once a month cooking stuff in the fall.

Despite not shopping for food, I did manage to squeeze enough money out of the budget to pick out a couple of deals at thrift stores. Priorities, you know?? LOL I'll post pictures later.

OK, Wednesday came and went and

I didn't get my post up about coupons/deals. It is a little bit more work than I had anticipated getting things set up. I'm working on it, and I might get it up sometime today, but I will get it up by next Wednesday. Once I get things set up, doing it week to week should be much easier.

Until then, I'm going to update my blog links to include some of the blogs and coupon sites that I use, so if you want to put it together on your own until I get it up, you can.

Something else for the locals . . .

Although this time, I'm not asking you to help me. I'm hoping that this will help my local readers a bit.

On Wednesdays, starting next Wednesday, I'll be posting the deals that I've found for food storage items/stockpile/non pre-packaged food from the local grocery stores (I'll be posting about Wal-Mart, Meijer, Kroger, Jewel and Schnucks. I'll only post about Cub Foods if there is something really extraordinary. Same with Aldi's. I will not be posting about Sam's Club because their prices don't really fluctuate. And not everybody has a membership.) I would recommend that you go to these stores though and look at prices on things that you buy often and could stockpile, and decide if it makes sense for you to buy certain things there. (For example, I buy most of canned goods and pasta at Aldi's. And almost all of the food that I provide for lunch at Montgomery Academy.) I will also post about deals from Walgreens, CVS, and KMart and Target. I won't list every store every week, just if they have at least two items that could be used in your food storage.

If there is an internet coupon for these items, I will also put a link for them here. (Sort of like the coupon links on Money Saving Mom or Common Sense With Money but more specific for food storage type items instead of just a big list of every deal/coupon.)

Now, you are sort of at the mercy of what I think is an item worth putting in your food storage/stockpiling. For me, it is meat on sale for under $2.00/pound, really good deals on fresh produce, baking supplies, oatmeal, pasta, water, broth, toothpaste, soap, shampoo/conditioner, toilet paper, first aid items, etc. However, if something is a super great deal, and doesn't necessarily fit the criteria of being a "staple" in food storage, I'll still list it. Just remember though, just because it is a deal, only buy what you can use in a reasonable time. No need to buy 50 of something just because it is nearly free!

Frugal Friday

My tip for today is to use coupons*. Do you see that asterisk after the word "coupons?" It should be a REALLY big asterick. I do use coupons, but I only use coupons for brands that I MUST use. I buy all of my canned goods at Aldi's and anything else that I know that I can't get cheaper anywhere else. I try and cut down on using brand names as much as I can, but we do have some "have to" things like Angel Soft toilet paper, Cascade dishwasher soap, and Secret antiperspirant. I also use my manufacturer coupons to Kroger because they will double coupons up to 50 cents. (Check with your local stores to see what the store policy is on coupons.)

I will also use coupons if I can use the manufacturer coupon in conjuction with a sale or store coupon so that I'm spending less than I would if I got the store brand. I do this type of couponing the most at Walgreens. I use the website Money Saving Mom (it is in my Simple Blog list too) because she will show you what the deals are at Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, and sometimes Costco and Wal-Mart, as well as some other random deals. Again, I really try to buy the things that we USE, not just get stuff because it is cheap/free. So I don't always get some of the deals that I see on coupon blogs because it just isn't worth it to me to make 10 trips to buy stuff so I can get coupons so that I can get the stuff I need for free.

I also use the coupons that Kroger sends me. I shop at Kroger for 3 main reasons - One, it is pretty close to my house. Two, they do double coupons. Three, they track the items you purchase, and then about every couple months, they send you pack of 10ish coupons for items that you buy regularly. I've got coupons on 3 separate occassions for a 24 pack of drinking water for FREE. Most of the time, the coupons are for at least a $1.00 off the item.

Oh, I forgot another reason I shop at Kroger. They have a store discount card, and I try to not buy anything that isn't discounted by using the discount card, or I have a manufactur or store coupon for it. Most of the time, I save equal to what I spent (so say I spend $75, it means I got $75 off in coupons and discounts.)

Oh, yea, another reason I shop at Kroger is that you can load coupons from Shortcuts.com and Proctor and Gamble right on to your card. That way, you don't have to print it out or cut it out, etc. I think I went to the Kroger website to set it up.

Maybe I should have labelled this tip - Shop at Kroger instead of Use Coupons, LOL. But if you live in an area that doesn't have a Kroger, you may have one of their affiliates (check on at Kroger.com). You also may find that it is cheaper for you, and the type of shopping that you do, to shop at another grocery store. I went to all of the main grocery stores in my area (Schnucks, Meier, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Jewel-Osco.) and priced out the items that I would generally buy at a grocery store (as opposed to a drug store, discount store, or Aldi's). I took my grocery list and wrote down the prices of the items and compared it. It took me AWHILE, but I learned that for my family, Kroger was the winner, especially when you added in the coupons that they send and the double coupons, etc. But you may find that another store works best for the type of items you buy and the stores that are available, etc. I also will look at the sale papers and I will be willing to go to another grocery store if they have something on sale that that is a very good deal, particularly if it is an item that I am trying to use to build up for my 3 month/one year supply/once a month cooking.

So use coupons, but don't get too caught up in it, and it is easy to get caught up in it once you start. My goal is to buy the things that are on my master list as cheaply as possible, and using coupons can sometimes help me spend even less than normal.

Busy day

We had Jelly Bean's first basketball game this morning. Everyone had fun, and JB even scored a basket!

Then we went to the local Museum of History (housed in the old Courthouse). Wow! What a great place! We had a wonderful time, and plan to go again. Today it was Christmas at the Courthouse, so there were crafts on each floor, music, and Santa in addition to the normal exhibits. We also got to go on a carriage ride. It would have been fun, but it was SOOO cold.

Then Flower had a Christmas craft party to attend, and Jelly Bean and Super napped. After they got up, I did my Town Day of shopping, although I concentrated on doing shopping at Walgreens and Kroger with my coupons.

I don't do a lot of coupon shopping because I find that I can do better by buying the store brands or shopping at Aldi's, but this week, there was a lot of coupons for things/brands that I use anyway, and I ended up getting some great deals. It took me awhile, which was a pain, because uh, I hate to shop. It wouldn't be cost-effective, but it would almost be worth it to me to pay someone to shop for me. But I was pretty excited about my deals. I ended up getting $20 off my original $35 at Walgreens, and $50 off my original $125 at Kroger. So I ended up saving $70 and only spending a total of $85. I could have done better, I'm sure, but it isn't worth it to me to do all the things that the hard-core couponers do.

I grocery shop at Aldi's for my stockpile and things that don't need to be name brand. I shop at Kroger for the other grocery items. Since I shop often at Kroger, they send me coupons on at least a montly basis, and often they are coupons that are specific to the items that I regularly shop for. And then, I will occassionally use a manufacturer coupon from the paper or the Internet. At Walgreens, I use the coupons from flyers/rebate book, etc., and manufacturer coupons.

I probably won't be posting much for the next few days. Mr. Simple is having surgery to repair a torn tendon in his shoulder on Monday, and my sister is having major surgery (liver resection) on Wednesday, and I'll be watching her girls for the next couple weeks.