There are try me free COUPONS on the refill packages of Glade Scented Oil at most Walgreens. However, do not use them there.
Take them to Kroger, where until October 4th you will receive a $2 catalina for each one you purchase. MONEY MAKER!!!!
If you were ever wondering how I get free milk or meat, this is the key way to do so. $2 will easily buy a half gallon of milk on sale. It will also purchase small one-meal packages of meat.
So go out and stock up!
Showing posts with label stockpiling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stockpiling. Show all posts
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
For Kyle
What are OYNO deals, or ECBs & stockpile sales?Also in which state do you live (Cost of Living comparison), thou I am afraid once you answer I will be ashamed!
I am looking at my budget now and trying to drop it back down. We are a family of 5 on a $450 budget (recently increased from $400) We do have some medical issues (diabetes) that causes me to steer clear of pre-processed foods likes the boxed potatoes and I have to buy fruits & veggies until our garden and orchard start producing. Where do you get your coupons from?I have never seen a coupon for Bananas or lettuce, where is that from?
Please post again on your grocery shopping with more details on how you trim your budget.
Thanks
Kyle
Dear Kyle,
I'm going to do my best to answer your questions. If you still need help, feel free to ask! I will gladly tell you all I know. If ya need a little coaching privately, email me anytime.
OYNO deals are when a store has a promotion where if you buy certain products they will give you a coupon for money off your next order. Say if you buy Hillshire Farms sausage, you will get $2 OYNO (on your next order).
ECBs are essentially the same thing as OYNO deals, but they are exclusively at CVS. Walgreens has a similar system, and they call it Register Rewards.
I live in Tennessee, and I don't know how that compares to where you live, but tonight I bought a dozen eggs from a "discount" grocer for $1.89, so that might help you gauge your area to mine.
I did not start out with such a small budget, I worked my way down slowly. Building up a great big stockpile is the best way to be able to live on one deal until another one comes along. We have literally lived off our stockpile for months during tight times. It is very comforting.
I get many of my coupons from my little sister, who is a paper carrier, so I get her leftovers from her Sunday route. If I need something else, I go to my friend Angie at Ladybugscoupons. She has great prices and is a super sweet gal.
As for lettuce or produce coupons, Dole puts out coupons regularly for "salad in a sack" and you just find a good sale on one kind, or maybe even a bogo (make sure you use 2 coupons!) and you have (nearly) free lettuce. As for bananas, I buy them in a 50 lb. box and can them or freeze them for smoothies. They are oh-so-yummy. If we have a major hankering for them, I will just pick up a bunch when I find them on sale, because they are among the cheapest of fruits.
As for your diabetes problems, Glucerna puts out coupons often, so you might could use them to get some good deals on things your family could eat.
Just let me know if you have anymore questions. I hope this helps!
I am looking at my budget now and trying to drop it back down. We are a family of 5 on a $450 budget (recently increased from $400) We do have some medical issues (diabetes) that causes me to steer clear of pre-processed foods likes the boxed potatoes and I have to buy fruits & veggies until our garden and orchard start producing. Where do you get your coupons from?I have never seen a coupon for Bananas or lettuce, where is that from?
Please post again on your grocery shopping with more details on how you trim your budget.
Thanks
Kyle
Dear Kyle,
I'm going to do my best to answer your questions. If you still need help, feel free to ask! I will gladly tell you all I know. If ya need a little coaching privately, email me anytime.
OYNO deals are when a store has a promotion where if you buy certain products they will give you a coupon for money off your next order. Say if you buy Hillshire Farms sausage, you will get $2 OYNO (on your next order).
ECBs are essentially the same thing as OYNO deals, but they are exclusively at CVS. Walgreens has a similar system, and they call it Register Rewards.
I live in Tennessee, and I don't know how that compares to where you live, but tonight I bought a dozen eggs from a "discount" grocer for $1.89, so that might help you gauge your area to mine.
I did not start out with such a small budget, I worked my way down slowly. Building up a great big stockpile is the best way to be able to live on one deal until another one comes along. We have literally lived off our stockpile for months during tight times. It is very comforting.
I get many of my coupons from my little sister, who is a paper carrier, so I get her leftovers from her Sunday route. If I need something else, I go to my friend Angie at Ladybugscoupons. She has great prices and is a super sweet gal.
As for lettuce or produce coupons, Dole puts out coupons regularly for "salad in a sack" and you just find a good sale on one kind, or maybe even a bogo (make sure you use 2 coupons!) and you have (nearly) free lettuce. As for bananas, I buy them in a 50 lb. box and can them or freeze them for smoothies. They are oh-so-yummy. If we have a major hankering for them, I will just pick up a bunch when I find them on sale, because they are among the cheapest of fruits.
As for your diabetes problems, Glucerna puts out coupons often, so you might could use them to get some good deals on things your family could eat.
Just let me know if you have anymore questions. I hope this helps!
Labels:
coupons,
shopping,
stockpiling
Saturday, December 8, 2007
My Shopping Strategy
I have said it before and I will say it again -- I shop weird.
I only buy produce about once a month, in one trip where rarely any coupons are used. I am trying to incorporate more organics, and so I am taking a trip to a whole foods store today to see what they might have.
I also basically shop once a month for meats. There is a local chain that does 5 packs for $20 -- which can or cannot be a deal, depending on what you get. Included in that deal is a 8 lb. bag of popcorn chicken, so I typically do 5 of those about twice a year, that makes it about .50/lb. I have figured out how to use these in a bunch of different ways, so that we are not tired of them. Instead when we are on the last bag my girls all remind me, so that we will not run out. I find the best deal possible on ground beef, and usually buy marked down packs. If I am lucky enough to hit the mother lode and score several packs, I buy all I can find -- sometimes as low as .79/lb. I buy chicken quarters when I can find them around .50/lb and pick them off . Occasionally if there is a great deal somewhere, we will buy prepackages Salisbury steaks or something similar. I also like to keep frozen pizzas for the nights when we are just too tired to cook. Once in a great while I will find roasts or stew meat on markdown, so into my freezer they go too, for another night. I also tend to look at the rotisserie chicken, because I have found them to be cheaper than fresh chickens if they are really close to their time being up. You just have to watch every possible outlet, and never completely rule out any option.
As for everything else that comes out of our budget -- snacks, canned foods, oh-so-yummy processed foods, milk, cheese, bread, all paper products, health/beauty aids, OTC medicine -- I always say "whatever's free is best for me!" I am not brand loyal at all. I buy whatever is cheapest. You may have to join a coupon site to learn to trade, but there are coupons out there for almost anything you could ever need from the grocery store. There are coupons for free milk when you buy cereal, and you can use coupons to get the cereal to get the free milk. There are coupons out there for free bread when you buy lunch meat. I buy marked down lunch meat with coupons and get the bread for free.
Oddly enough, the bulk of what I buy never even makes it into the house. I did my figures the other night and I have sold WAY more than I have inside my house. To date -- since April -- I have sold over 500 bottles of Dawn dish liquid. Most of them were free to me, and cheaper through me than they were at Walmart. I am the same way with Venus razors, shampoo, and even some food items. I buy them cheap and resell them to help my customers save money, but I make some, too. I always make more in a month than I spend, usually double what I spend, depending on the month.
I do shop weird though. I have bought 20 jars of pasta sauce and limped along with .33 cent regular price pasta until I found it free, then I stocked up to the hilt on it. I have bought 200 cans of veggies in a week, but then I will not have to buy them again for a year (these were exclusively for my own family). I take a nod from stockbrokers -- buy low! I can see a deal and know without even a second thought as to whether or not it really is a good deal. You have to be careful though.
My best friend is just as much of a coupon enthusiast as I am. We shop together, coupon together, and we live very similar lives. However, a few weeks ago she asked me if .99 was a good price for a small jar of brand name jelly. I pointed out to her than you can buy a jar 3X the size at Save-A-Lot for the same price. "DUH" was her response. Sometimes you get that hot little coupon in your hand and you realize that you cannot always get the best deal by using it. An even cheaper option (what I do) is make it yourself. With a .99 can of frozen concentrate, water, sugar and some pectin, you can make about 6 jars for the price of 2 at Save-A-Lot. You just have to be very conscious of every little cent you spend.
Yes, there are times I have bought something special that I could have gotten cheaper another way. I only use kosher salt, not because of my religion, but because I like the tatse 100 times better than the 3/$1 cheap stuff in the round box. I give about $1.50 for it on sale, and it lasts a long time, tastes much better, takes less to flavor foods, so I buy that. I also purchase olive oil, which I almost never find a good deal with coupons. I buy big cans of it, making it a lot cheaper per ounce than the small bottles. Sure, corn oil is much cheaper, but then again the flavor and health values of olive oil is much better than any other oil. I keep a bottle that I get free here or there, but our cholesterol levels thank us greatly.
There is no hard and fast way to shopping how I do. It just takes work. If I took you shopping, you might say that you would never eat so many processed foods. If I get instant potatoes for free, but I have to pay for fresh ones, I will take instant, TYVM.
My only true rule of thumb is that there are things I always get for free before tax: shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toiletpaper, paper towels, kleenex, cosmetics, OTC medicines, cleaning products, laundry soap, snack foods, razors, shaving gel, etc. My list is too long to put into this blog, but I know what is always free, and so I buy up big and stick it in my stockpile.
There is no real way to answer each and every dilemma without some questions, so let's hear them! I will try my hardest to answer each and every question you have, or give advice if you need better insight as to how to save you money like I do. If you need to know something, ask away! I will be glad to help you learn to save!
I only buy produce about once a month, in one trip where rarely any coupons are used. I am trying to incorporate more organics, and so I am taking a trip to a whole foods store today to see what they might have.
I also basically shop once a month for meats. There is a local chain that does 5 packs for $20 -- which can or cannot be a deal, depending on what you get. Included in that deal is a 8 lb. bag of popcorn chicken, so I typically do 5 of those about twice a year, that makes it about .50/lb. I have figured out how to use these in a bunch of different ways, so that we are not tired of them. Instead when we are on the last bag my girls all remind me, so that we will not run out. I find the best deal possible on ground beef, and usually buy marked down packs. If I am lucky enough to hit the mother lode and score several packs, I buy all I can find -- sometimes as low as .79/lb. I buy chicken quarters when I can find them around .50/lb and pick them off . Occasionally if there is a great deal somewhere, we will buy prepackages Salisbury steaks or something similar. I also like to keep frozen pizzas for the nights when we are just too tired to cook. Once in a great while I will find roasts or stew meat on markdown, so into my freezer they go too, for another night. I also tend to look at the rotisserie chicken, because I have found them to be cheaper than fresh chickens if they are really close to their time being up. You just have to watch every possible outlet, and never completely rule out any option.
As for everything else that comes out of our budget -- snacks, canned foods, oh-so-yummy processed foods, milk, cheese, bread, all paper products, health/beauty aids, OTC medicine -- I always say "whatever's free is best for me!" I am not brand loyal at all. I buy whatever is cheapest. You may have to join a coupon site to learn to trade, but there are coupons out there for almost anything you could ever need from the grocery store. There are coupons for free milk when you buy cereal, and you can use coupons to get the cereal to get the free milk. There are coupons out there for free bread when you buy lunch meat. I buy marked down lunch meat with coupons and get the bread for free.
Oddly enough, the bulk of what I buy never even makes it into the house. I did my figures the other night and I have sold WAY more than I have inside my house. To date -- since April -- I have sold over 500 bottles of Dawn dish liquid. Most of them were free to me, and cheaper through me than they were at Walmart. I am the same way with Venus razors, shampoo, and even some food items. I buy them cheap and resell them to help my customers save money, but I make some, too. I always make more in a month than I spend, usually double what I spend, depending on the month.
I do shop weird though. I have bought 20 jars of pasta sauce and limped along with .33 cent regular price pasta until I found it free, then I stocked up to the hilt on it. I have bought 200 cans of veggies in a week, but then I will not have to buy them again for a year (these were exclusively for my own family). I take a nod from stockbrokers -- buy low! I can see a deal and know without even a second thought as to whether or not it really is a good deal. You have to be careful though.
My best friend is just as much of a coupon enthusiast as I am. We shop together, coupon together, and we live very similar lives. However, a few weeks ago she asked me if .99 was a good price for a small jar of brand name jelly. I pointed out to her than you can buy a jar 3X the size at Save-A-Lot for the same price. "DUH" was her response. Sometimes you get that hot little coupon in your hand and you realize that you cannot always get the best deal by using it. An even cheaper option (what I do) is make it yourself. With a .99 can of frozen concentrate, water, sugar and some pectin, you can make about 6 jars for the price of 2 at Save-A-Lot. You just have to be very conscious of every little cent you spend.
Yes, there are times I have bought something special that I could have gotten cheaper another way. I only use kosher salt, not because of my religion, but because I like the tatse 100 times better than the 3/$1 cheap stuff in the round box. I give about $1.50 for it on sale, and it lasts a long time, tastes much better, takes less to flavor foods, so I buy that. I also purchase olive oil, which I almost never find a good deal with coupons. I buy big cans of it, making it a lot cheaper per ounce than the small bottles. Sure, corn oil is much cheaper, but then again the flavor and health values of olive oil is much better than any other oil. I keep a bottle that I get free here or there, but our cholesterol levels thank us greatly.
There is no hard and fast way to shopping how I do. It just takes work. If I took you shopping, you might say that you would never eat so many processed foods. If I get instant potatoes for free, but I have to pay for fresh ones, I will take instant, TYVM.
My only true rule of thumb is that there are things I always get for free before tax: shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toiletpaper, paper towels, kleenex, cosmetics, OTC medicines, cleaning products, laundry soap, snack foods, razors, shaving gel, etc. My list is too long to put into this blog, but I know what is always free, and so I buy up big and stick it in my stockpile.
There is no real way to answer each and every dilemma without some questions, so let's hear them! I will try my hardest to answer each and every question you have, or give advice if you need better insight as to how to save you money like I do. If you need to know something, ask away! I will be glad to help you learn to save!
Labels:
coupons,
frugality,
shopping,
stockpiling
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Pantry raid!
On the way home from the orthodontist today, my darling 14 year old daughter asked if she could cook dinner........."Sure!" was my excited response to an evening without cooking! So, without even knowing she was making a frugal choice, she made spagetti sans meat, with all items straight out of the pantry that were either cheap or free with coupons. It may not be the healthiest meal, but on a cool evening such as tonite, the prospect of a warm bowl of pasta is just the ticket.
So, thanks to her helping hands, I get to spend the time I would have spent cooking -- blogging instead!
Oops....time's up! It's time to eat now.......
So, thanks to her helping hands, I get to spend the time I would have spent cooking -- blogging instead!
Oops....time's up! It's time to eat now.......
Labels:
family,
stockpiling
Monday, October 8, 2007
My pantry
With all of the sites available on how to coupon -- there is not much need for me to explain how to do it all. However, I can tell you the things that I often buy and keep an eye out for. I will tell you that I shop wierd. I might buy 40 jars of pasta sauce today and then not buy pasta for 3 months. However, I have enough pasta left from last time I bought it that I have enough to get by on.
These are the things that I rarely find free, so I buy them at Save A Lot or Aldi:
Cream of whatever soups
canned mushrooms (often on sale at Walgreens for .39 though)
Canned Veggies - almost all kinds
Saltines
I look for sales on these items:
Milk
Eggs
Cheese
I go to the day-old bread store for these items:
Garlic bread
hamburger/hotdog buns
hoagie rolls
sandwich bread (if it is on sale for .25 a loaf)
**I will buy 3 months worth at a time and keep it in the freezer
For meats:
Sandwich meats are bought with coupons
Hotdogs, breakfast sausage are bought with coupons (mostly free)
Bacon -- I buy a 10 lb. box for $14.90 and break it down into bags for the freezer -- cheapest way I know and it lasts for months
Chicken -- other than whole chicken, the only way I buy chicken is leg quarters in 10 lb bags. (see below for "pickin chicken" method)
Shrimp -- I only buy when frozen bags are bogof
Turkey is only bought during the holidays -- with the great sales
Ham is just like turkey
Pickin Chicken
Buy the 10 lb. bag of chicken (usually on sale for .49/lb.)
Put in a stock pot and cook until done.
Pull out of the stock and let them cool
Put the broth (once cooled) into a clean gallon milk jug -- use it for up to a week!
Pick off the skin (discard or I feed it to my dogs -- they LOVE it), pick all the meat off the bones and lay it on a sheet pan. Slide it into the freezer, occassionally stirring it so it does not freeze into one big sheet. Once frozen, put into zip bags and use to add to soups and casseroles!
I will try and get up some of my pickin chicken recipes soon!
These are the things that I rarely find free, so I buy them at Save A Lot or Aldi:
Cream of whatever soups
canned mushrooms (often on sale at Walgreens for .39 though)
Canned Veggies - almost all kinds
Saltines
I look for sales on these items:
Milk
Eggs
Cheese
I go to the day-old bread store for these items:
Garlic bread
hamburger/hotdog buns
hoagie rolls
sandwich bread (if it is on sale for .25 a loaf)
**I will buy 3 months worth at a time and keep it in the freezer
For meats:
Sandwich meats are bought with coupons
Hotdogs, breakfast sausage are bought with coupons (mostly free)
Bacon -- I buy a 10 lb. box for $14.90 and break it down into bags for the freezer -- cheapest way I know and it lasts for months
Chicken -- other than whole chicken, the only way I buy chicken is leg quarters in 10 lb bags. (see below for "pickin chicken" method)
Shrimp -- I only buy when frozen bags are bogof
Turkey is only bought during the holidays -- with the great sales
Ham is just like turkey
Pickin Chicken
Buy the 10 lb. bag of chicken (usually on sale for .49/lb.)
Put in a stock pot and cook until done.
Pull out of the stock and let them cool
Put the broth (once cooled) into a clean gallon milk jug -- use it for up to a week!
Pick off the skin (discard or I feed it to my dogs -- they LOVE it), pick all the meat off the bones and lay it on a sheet pan. Slide it into the freezer, occassionally stirring it so it does not freeze into one big sheet. Once frozen, put into zip bags and use to add to soups and casseroles!
I will try and get up some of my pickin chicken recipes soon!
Labels:
coupons,
frugality,
stockpiling
Monday, September 3, 2007
The Room is Complete!
Im sooo excited. I wander all over the internet drooling over the perfected filled stockpile shelves. I have a decent stockpile, but I just had it scattered all over the place. A few shelves here, some boxes there, my house looked more like a stockroom than a home. My DH decided to build a new room a few weeks ago. In that room he put 6 shelves, each 8 ft long. I'm soooo excited over the amount of storage I now have. There are a few holes left, but I thought I would share the pictures with you just the same. Silly as it is, my favorite part is the peg board for hanging bags, which is now filled with Chex Mix.
Please share your ideas for making the best use of the storage we have. I will take any advice I can get! Don't forget what you think is "simple". Since I was not born with the organizing gene, I don't really think even in the simpliest terms of it.
Please share your ideas for making the best use of the storage we have. I will take any advice I can get! Don't forget what you think is "simple". Since I was not born with the organizing gene, I don't really think even in the simpliest terms of it.
Labels:
coupons,
frugality,
stockpiling
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