A Recipe For the Birds

Someone asked me the other day to share my recipe for suet cakes, and was only too glad to oblige! 

Now, technically, suet cakes are made from rendered beef fat that theoretically can be purchased at a butcher or sometimes found in the meat department of the grocery store.  But in Real Life I've found that when I am able to find suet, the birds don't care for it as much as what I make myself.  Pre-made, pre-packaged suet cakes  can be purchased at the dollar store for - guess what - a dollar each, or you can make them very frugally at home with leftovers. 

For us, making our own suet cakes involves my best parenting skills, some homeschooling lessons and satisfies a portion of our entertainment budget - birdwatching.

For starters, begin to collect the following:

• "edges" off of PB&Js (<---parenting skills!)
• freebie bran cereal that gives everyone tummy aches if they eat it (coupons!)
• stale cheerios (coupons again!)
• forgotten fruit including skins and cores
• lumpy grits
• spilled oatmeal
• stale bread
• heels of bread - but only after you've made enough bread crumbs
• raisins that get spilled in the pantry and are too dirty to eat
• stale cookies
• peanuts that the 3 year old sucked the salt off of and tried to put back in the jar (!)
• mushy blueberries that no one will eat
• etc., etc.

Store these items in the freezer.  I use a bread bag and just dump the stuff in as it collects, tie it off loosely and replace it in the same spot every time so I know what it is. 

See?  Bird stuff on the right, hot dog buns on the left.

Next, getcha some shortening.  Not the all vegetable kind, either.  You're going for the artery busting stuff - Manteca - the animal byproduct, gross-out staple of the Southern Pantry. 

Mmmm, mmmm! 

Seriously, though, the birds need fat to convert to energy so they can fly.  Have YOU ever tried to fly?  Its tiring stuff.  You need manteca.  Well, THEY need it.  YOU need Omega-3s, but that's another topic.

Melt that stuff down.  Scoop out a couple cups of it and put it on the stove top, stirring, watching carefully, because it will burn.  And start a BIG hot fire.  I know these things.

Then, get out one of your jars of $1 or less peanut butter - from a good Kroger sale where you stocked up on 22 jars of it or from where you found it at the Dollar Tree.  Scoop out a cup or so of that, too and put it in the pot to melt along with the shortening.  Yummo!

Now, why I don't have a picture of this next step is beyond me.  But I think you can figure it out without the visuals.

• Dump the aforesaid bread-bag-full-of-scraps into a giant metal or glass bowl.  If you want to keep the squirrels and chipmunks away, add a generous few dashes of cayenne pepper.  No harm to the birds, but mammals don't like it.
• Pour the peanut butter/shortening mix over top of the scraps.
• Mix with a spatula very well so that all of the scraps are covered.  Beware: its hot.  If you're using this as a homeschooling lesson, let the kids know to stir carefully so they don't burn themselves. 
• If you need more shortening and peanut butter, go for it.  I use a ratio of about 3:1 with shortening and PB.  You just want the PB there for the taste mostly.
• Pat it all out nicely into a cake pan:

Mouthwatering!

Slice and serve!

Store the unused portion in the freezer.  Again, it would be a good idea to label the container.  You don't want Daddy-o getting his hopes up for a freezer pie and then having them horribly dashed when he takes a bite of that gross stuff.

Oh, and if you look really carefully in the picture above you'll see a blue snowflake-looking sequin where the cake slice was removed.  That's from where I swept up something - probably cheerios - off the floor and just dumped it in....!

Now, go take that chunk-o-suet-cake and put it in your suet feeder that is hung alongside your other bird feeders and watch the show.  You'll enjoy woodpeckers, various sparrows, tufted titmice, nuthatches, and even cardinals.

Here's a little downy woodpecker....

...all of 5 minutes after I put the suet into the feeder!

Homeschooling lessons:  Identify birds using a field guide or the Internet and talk about the varieties of birds and animals that God created for our enjoyment.  Discuss which birds prefer seeds, which prefer suet, which are foragers on the ground under the feeders.  Of course, in making the suet cakes there are dozens of lessons on food, measuring, heat, solids vs. liquids, etc.

Enjoy the birds!

Save Money on Grocery Shopping, Part 5b of 5

FL was a success!  I spent more than I planned, but they had cat litter on sale - unadvertised - but since the Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent was on sale, I figured they might have the litter on sale too, so I brought my coupons along, just in case.  Saved $1.50/each off of 2 from the WM price.  Score! 


OK, Now I'm going to take you along while I plan my Kroger trip.  This is going to be fun, I promise...AND, it will be the last post in this series.  Whew!

First thing I do is gather my grocery list.  Mmmmm, not much this week - tuna, powdered milk, yogurt, milk, Popsicles.

Second, log in to coupon mom . com and select "Grocery Deals by State," from the scroll down list I select "VA-Kroger-Central"
Here is the screen that results from that selection:

(You can see that my BSecure Internet Filter is filtering out unwanted ads :)

Look down at the bottom right hand corner - I know, its tiny, but you'll see "% Saved" and two arrows.  Click on the arrow pointing "down".  What this does is give you the items that are on sale with the highest % off first, like so:

(I do it this way because I'm probably not interested in the items toward the bottom of the list that are listed as being on sale but are really only 0%-25% off)

See those words in red?  Those are FREE items!  Woo-hooo!!  See why I love this stuff?


OK, here's what you do next.  On the far left hand side of the screen there is a tiny box.  Scroll through the Kroger sale list and check off the items you want to add to your grocery list.  If you're looking for a specific item, like TUNA, you can put it in the box on the upper left hand corner (above) to pull up that deal.

After you've made your selections, hit, "Display Selected Deals" at the bottom of the screen and you'll get a list like this:



Now, you can either email this list to yourself to print later, or print it directly.

The next step is to gather your coupons. 

OK, on the left are some codes:  N/A (no coupon available); PG = Proctor & Gamble, RP = Red Plum, S=SmartSource.  These are all names of the coupon inserts in which you will find your coupons.  So....go to your coupon organizer, look at the dates on your hanging files and pull the coupon inserts out of them, where you've been saving them for at least two weeks!  Look in those magic flyers and find the aforementioned coupons. 

Clip those coupons to the list that you printed out and shop away! 

As you can see from my list above, if I had all those coupons (I don't*) I would be able to purchase 14 items for a total price of $5.94 (not really**)!!

*I know I've already used a couple of those coupons, and I know that I don't have the 6/6 coupon files because I threw them away by mistake (horrors!).

**See how after some of the items it says, "promo item"?  That means, in this case, you have to buy a certain number of an item to get the discount.  With Kroger, its usually mix-and-match, and there are a dozen or more items that count toward the number you have to purchase.  Usually its something like by 10, get 30% off each item.  And usually, you'll have a few coupons for those items in your coupon box.  But, if you don't, and you still want the deal, just purchase the lowest cost item in the promotion to fill in the gap.

Now what?

Go shopping!  Stick to the list, don't be afraid to miss a sale (stay in your budget), have fun!

Oh, and about those items in RED....we just won't use some of them, but I'll probably pick them up anyways.  Donate them!  Your church undoubtedly has a food pantry, or else you can collect a bunch of stuff and surprise a college kid with 'em.  You can also stockpile them so that when you run out of shampoo or whatever you're not making a "quick trip" to the store which we all know will only result in buying extra stuff you don't really need.

One more thing:  You'll notice that my personal "needs" grocery list and the Kroger list don't really match up, except for that tuna and yogurt.  Does this justify my driving 20+ miles one way?  Notsomuch.  But, I'll be close to the Clifton Forge Kroger anyways and I need powdered milk, and their price is better than anywhere else for it.  So, unless I had to be over there anyways, this wouldn't be a good stockup week for me.  I have plenty of soap and toothpaste, deodorant and shampoo in my stockpile.  But since I'll be there anyways and some of the stuff is free....well, you get the idea.

Well, that about wraps it up.  Any questions?  Comments?  Does this work for you?  Lemme know and keep saving your coupon inserts - they'll save you $$!!

Save Money on Grocery Shopping, Part 5a of 5

I'm going shopping today.....

This week I'll be shopping at 3 stores for groceries - it seems like a lot, but one of them is Bartley's Meat Market which doesn't really count because I only by -!- meat and misc. there and I don't use coupons.  In fact, I've already been, and I spent $28 and got: beef short ribs, a roast, a poundish of smoked bacon, a poundish of ground beef, 3/4lb. of block Parmesan, h'burg buns (Hiner's, which I buy only because they are called "sunny buns," of course....)a chuck steak...and I think that's all.  Her prices are really fair, and I trust her ground beef, which she grinds herself.

Next on the list is Food Lion.  I scanned the circular on Wednesday and double-checked it online.  I didn't really see anything great as far as stocking up, but there were a few items there....

• Holly Farms Whole Fryers @ .57/lb
• Red Grapes @ .99/lb
• Nature's Own Butterbread 1.50
• Arm & Hammer Liquid Laundry Detergent BOGO @ 2/$5
• FL Raw Shrimp 16 oz. $4, BOGO

I'm out of chicken in the freezer, so I'll pick up a couple hens....

Red Grapes keep the girls happy, and are higher in anti-oxidants than green grapes (on sale at Kroger for the same price)

N.O. Butterbread is Andy's favorite, and is usually priced around $2.19 at WM, so I'll buy a couple loaves at this price and put 'e in the freezer.

And the A&H is great for a stain remover (Remember, I make my own laundry detergent) and I have a good coupon:  here's that scenario:

• buy 2 A&H Laundry Detergent @ 1/$4.99, Buy one Get one Free
• use 2 $1/off coupons
• out of pocket: $3 for 2 (or $1.50 each), which, in my opinion is a great deal. 

I "never" buy shrimp, but lately I've been craving seafood.  FL's policy is if you don't "buy one get one free," you can get just the one item at half price.  So, that means one pound of shrimp for $2. It will be a nice side dish to supper one night. 

Tomorrow, I'll be in Clifton Forge, so I'll go to Kroger....more on that later!

Save Money on Grocery Shopping, Part 4 of 5

In no particular order, here's some more savings/couponing tips. Remember, this is to punch up your grocery savings by a modest, but significant amount. It is not black-belt couponing. You can do that of course, and I'll be doing it this fall (and will share my results), but, if you're like me, its not practical right now, and maybe not for the the long-term.  This solution is ideal for the organized-ly challenged and for a method that can be used quickly and easily.

1. As you receive your coupon inserts (from the companies, "Red Plum," "SmartSource" and "P&G Brandsaver,") put them in the hanging files according to the date received. You'll be referring back to them later.

2. As you scour magazines, find coupons on products, get coupons in the mail for promotions you've signed up for, etc., put them in your "loose coupons" folder to review before your shopping trip.

3. Consider signing up for The Grocery Game ($1 for 3 month trial). TGG will match coupons with sales for you and will also let you know if an item is at a good, rock-bottom price - giving you a jump on your price book. At any rate, go to The Grocery Game website and read about what they do.

4. Sign up for The Coupon Mom (free) for a list of current online (printable) coupons as well as coupon matching for sales for stores in your area. They won't tell you if items are at the rock-bottom price, but you can get the feel of it as you go along. It does tell you a % off of each item, so you can judge if it is a good sale.

Truly - I am not impressed with any website's WalMart coupon/sale matchups. I wonder if our local Wal-Mart is a week or so off, because whenever I try to go by what I find online the sales don't match up in real life. Just a word of caution so you don’t get in the checkout line and the cashier looks at you like you're nuts….

5. Sign up for A Full Cup and read around that website for awhile.  Its free. There are black-belt coupon ideas and how-tos galore.

6.  Shop at Home is another good website to peruse.

7. By all means, sign up for Grocio if it is available in your area. Unfortunately, here in rural Virginia, notsomuch. Grocio compares sales among stores , ensuring that you get the lowest price on your grocery list items. Ah, now that is a great idea. But if you don't have access to Grocio, you have to do that part yourself!

8. Read couponing blogs and learn how others do it. Some of my favorite money-saving/homemaking/couponing blogs are:

http://www.moneysavingmethods.com/

http://www.kingdomfirstmom.com/

http://www.southernsavers.com/

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

http://www.mommysnacks.net/

and there are many, many more out there. Sign up to get updates delivered to your email. Follow their links and the links of their readers via the comment section. Some of the blogs I subscribe to are specific to stores here in our area. Mythical stores like Albertson's, Frys, Aldi - they sound delightful, but they're just not available for us.....but we do have PLENTY of mountains and sunshine, right??!

9. Use your store's loyalty card. You can load coupons on some of them from the websites. For example, go to Kroger.com, sign in and look for "coupons." You can use these coupons IN ADDITION to paper coupons.

10. Find and use online coupons. A couple links are coupons.com and other links on AFullCup.com and CouponMom.com.

Don't sweat it. If you can save a few dollars here and there, gradually you'll get the hang of it and start saving more and more. You might even want to venture into ordering coupons in bulk for items you frequently use - to build up your stockpile. You also don't have to go to every sale or use every coupon. The sales will roll around again on about 12-week cycles or so. Do what you can . Save where you can.


Next: Your Shopping Trip!

My Kroger Shopping Trip Today

Skip over this if you find this topic boring....please!  But I wanted you to see a real-life example of how I saved money couponing and putting these "rules" in play.....

Sure, there are better 'scenarios,' but I'm satisfied with this.

Here's what I bought:

2 Cheerio's 18oz. boxes @ 2.09 (clearance bin, marked down from $4.29)
1 Charmin 12 pk.
4 kroger mac & chz
6 2lt. Pepsi
1 suave deo
6 spaghettios
48pk Lipton Tea
2pk Lever 2000 bar soap
3 pkgs salad dressing mix
2 boxes Kroger saltines
2 jars "sprinkles" <<---- IMPULSE BUY TO BRIBE KIDS, cost: 2 @  .88
1 Kroger vanilla ice cream
6 pkgs American sliced Kraft Cheese
8 pkgs 8 oz. Kraft Cheddar
34 oz. (regular size) Maxwell House coffee
1 seedless watermelon
2 Nature Valley Granola Bars boxes

TOTAL:  $113.37

Pretty good, right? 
NO!

Less Coupons, bonus coupons (doubled coupons), Kroger plus savings: $53.97......

TOTAL: $ 59.40
That's better.

For the record, I compared the Cheerios with the store brand.  With my coupon, it was about $.25 less per box.  Also, as for the tea, the price of the store brand was within .15 with the coupons I had.

Now, yes, we should not be drinking Pepsi (ahem) or eating Spaghettios (ahem).  BUT, as I mentioned before, everyone's line in the sand is different.  We have picky eaters here, and if I can keep them happy within the budget, then it works for us. 

ALSO, remember I told you that Kroger - the only store locally that doubles coupons - is over 25 miles away?  I combined the trip with storytime at the Clifton Forge :Library and a quick visit with Daddy-o :)

You'll notice I didn't buy bread, milk or lunch meat.  I still have to go to Wal-Mart.... :-/

Save Money on Grocery Shopping, Part 3 of 5

Stockpiling!
I'm not talking Y2K style - remember that? Scary times. And you should have enough food on hand for emergencies, anything from power outages to weather emergencies to economic problems. I'm not going into the politics of all that; I just want to show you how to save the most money on your grocery shopping. but for the most bang for your buck, stockpiling is a must.

Simply put, you buy the most of an item at its lowest price so that you have plenty of that item on hand (in your pantry, under your bed, in your basement storage, in your garage) to last you until it goes on sale again at its lowest price. Got it?

OK, here's an example. Not a great example, but a good real-life example. We only use Ragu Traditional Pasta sauce. I know that a good sale that comes around quite regularly is to purchase it at 3/$5 or $1.67 each. If I am low, I might purchase 2 or 3 at this price. A few weeks ago, though, I found it at $1.19 a jar after coupons. So I bought 10 jars of it.  (Don't argue that we could make the sauce for cheaper - it ruins the example!)  The expiration date on the sauce is over two years out, and this should last us about 3-4 months, long enough for another sales cycle.

Another example: I found several boxes of 1lb. Heartland whole-wheat spaghetti on sale for $.50 a box. I bought them all.  I know that a good price for pasta is $.90 or less a pound, with whole wheat being more - the regular price is almost double more. Since I am familiar with the price of pasta, I knew this was a good deal. So now I have pasta (which never goes bad) that last us for months and months.

I do this with perishable things, too. We'll often find milk (at Kroger) marked down because it is close to the sell-by date. It is not going to go bad, but grocers can't sell it past the sell-by date. So I scoop it up (usually at $1.79/gallon, down from $2.70/gallon which I normally spend on full price milk at WM) and pop it in the freezer. I've had as many as 8 gallons of this milk in the freezer before. I don't do anything special - the containers expand due to freezing without bursting the plastic. I simply thaw them on the counter in a bowl to catch the condensation for a couple hours, or thaw them for 2-3 days in the fridge, also in a bowl. One time only did a container crack, and that was near the middle, so I lost about 1/3 a gallon. 

Milk is also an exception.  If the price goes up over $2.75/gallon, it is usually less expensive for us to buy powdered milk, which I can make for about $2.50/gallon.  But plain powdered milk is a tough sell, so I buy half and half or cream to top it off (thank you Nancy for that tip!).  I'd rather find it on sale, though.

Cheese is another item that I find at low prices. I don't buy it unless it is less than $3/pound. After I save out enough to keep in the fridge (cheese lasts a very long time unopened), I put the rest in the freezer. when I want to use it, I let it thaw for an hour or so on the counter and then shred it. We eat most of our cheese shredded anyways. Oh, and cheese you shred yourself melts and tastes better than pre-shredded cheese, which is coated with a silicone powder.... Just sayin.

Finally, my favorite stockpile item is butter. I buy the store brand when it goes on sale at less than $1.75 a pound, although I prefer $1.50 a pound. (Off sale, it's around $2.38/pound). I'll buy 20 or so pounds at a time at this price. I put it in the chest freezer, and pull it out as needed. It doesn't pick up flavors of other foods - but if you're worried it does, pack it in freezer bags.

So, why does stockpiling save so much money? Well, consider the examples above. I've got butter, cheese, pasta and sauce waiting in the pantry. Those are items that will stay off my grocery list for weeks - or months, leaving room (and therefore grocery money) for other items. If -and it does happen - I have enough things stockpiled, my weekly grocery run can come in well under budget, and I can bank that money for the next trip to stock up on another item that I find on sale.

But there's more!

Here's the last way to really punch up your stockpile savings. I've only done this once, because I am so disorganized, but I'll be doing it more as I aim toward our goal of becoming debt-free. Here it is: use multiple coupons on stockpile purchases. What, buy 10 newspapers? No. There are several reputable and legal coupon-clipping services from which you can purchase bulk coupons for certain items. For example: Right now, Kroger has Hunt's ketchup on sale for $1 a bottle. Coupons by dede has clipped Hunt's coupons for $.20/1 - purchase 10 of these and pay $1.20 for a clipping fee. Kroger doubles coupons up to and including $.50. So, if I bought 10 $.20-off coupons at $1.20, I'd save $3.80 ($.20x10=$2, double coupons = $4, less $1.20 handling fee=$3.80). Thus, the ketchup would cost something like $.65 a bottle. Get it? OR, you can save the coupon clipping service fees entirely and use just one coupon from your own newspaper to get it at $.60.

Truly, I am not organized that much to do a scenario like the one above. But I hope to be.....

**Thanks, Annie for the preview!  What can you add?

Save Money on Grocery Shopping ! Part 1 of 5

This is the first in a several part series of how you are going to start saving noticeably on your grocery bill. I'm not an expert or a Coupon Queen, but I have learned a lot about saving money at the grocery store, and I learn more all the time. I just want to share some of that knowledge with you so that you can put a dent into your own food bill.

(The bad kitty could care less about all this....he only wants to camoflage with the bedspread....)

There are a few things to keep in mind - rules, if you will - that will make this whole process work. Now, I live in a rural area, so my rules will be slightly different than yours, but once I share them with you, you can apply them to your own situation.


You know I like to write/talk, so this will be quite lengthy, but my hope is that I am being thorough so it can work for you. We are the stewards of our grocery budgets (Uh, yeh. I'm not good at this part, and I fail, fail, fail, but it is an ideal toward which I strive.), and this is an area in which we should be able to carve out an extra $20/$30 or more a week to spend in other ways - your choice what those other ways are, but at least you'll have that choice.

Another disclaimer. I get tired of the preparation of shopping, tired of using coupons, tired of looking for sales and tired of limiting my trips to the store. So I go way over my budget and spend way too much and blow our budget to where Andy gets very red in the face at me. Writing all this out is my way of bringing myself back on track, so it’s a means of accountability for me for now.  "Do as I say, not as I do..."


That said, let's begin:


1. Subscribe to the largest Sunday paper in your area. The one with the sale ads. You will make your money back on this investment after just one grocery run using the coupons and/or sale ads therein. Now, you could skip this step and plan to purchase the paper faithfully, week after week, but there are a few problems with this approach:

a. You won't go out every Sunday due to snow/sickness/laziness, etc.

b. Newsstand papers cost more than delivered papers - $1.50 a pop vs. $.50-.75 delivered.

c. When you go to buy a paper, you will buy coffee/candy/chips/something you don't need, and thus you will defeat the purpose of getting the sale ads!

d. If you find a great batch of ads in there you can always go buy another paper at the newsstand.

While you're waiting for your first paper to arrive, continue your preparation:

2. Buy or repurpose a hanging file folder holder. This can be a milk crate-style, a sturdy cardboard box, or, as I have, a plastic box specifically designed for the purpose. WalMart has these for around $9. You will also need some hanging files to go in it.

 3. Label the hanging file folders with the dates of the next 3 months of Sundays. Label four additional file folders as: coupon books, receipts, rebates, loose coupons*. I use a label maker that I got for an outrageously cheap price, but you can use masking tape for the labels. This is much easier than filling out those little inserts and trying to slide them in their sleeves. You'll never do it, you'll get discouraged and quit. I know. Write the date on the label in marker and as you rotate your dates you can just put another piece of tape over the old one or peel it off.

You can see here how the older file dates are waiting to be recycled and moved to the back to hold newer coupon flyers....and lurking in the back is an old coupon binder (shudder).  We won't be clipping coupons and tediously filing them under categories....yay!!!

4. Gather your supplies to keep in the file box: Scissors, blank envelopes (repurpose bill envelopes; you only need one "clean" side for writing your list), a pen and paper clips.

5. Put a blank pad of paper (or envelope or whatever) and a writing implement near the refrigerator or pantry, and keep an ongoing grocery list. There are two things you'll need to be keeping track of:

a. Things of which you have run out;

b. Things which are running low in your inventory (more later on that) should you find them on sale. For me, I write "SU" (stock up) or "IOS" (if on sale) on my list.

Got all that? Good. Now you're ready to get ready to shop. It's not as complicated as it sounds. Once you have all of the above in place, things will run rather smoothly.

We'll come back to the coupon box in part 4 of the series. This is the easy part. Besides, there are a few things you need to attend to that will get you saving money right away.

*or, for your "loose coupons" file, you can have it stacked in an easy access place like on your desk along with your other miscellaneous folders for which you can't seem to find a place....

The dreaded coupon binder....lovely to look at, cumbersome and nigh unto impossible for me to use!!

Questions?
Comments? 
You know where to click below!

PS:  As I reviewed this article, I noticed the verse of the day:
Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.  Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV)
None of this comes before Christ.  Don't let it become an idol.  If its too much trouble, chuck it.  But I think that this is a way that we can honor God with our finances. :)

my JOB

I thought I’d write and share some about MY job. Andy and I both feel that God wants me to be a SAHM (stay at home mom), and therefore, with His help, I have had to develop some new skills to save us money to enable this to happen. The first place I really looked at was clothing for the girls. To that end, we make use of yard sales, hand-me-downs (mostly Hannah to Abba now, but when I was in Tidewater, my pal BF kept me stocked – those clothes are now on kid #4!) and thrift stores. Thrift stores are limited in Alleghany, so when we go visit family in Tidewater, we make the most of our trip and hit Thrift Store City (“sigh”- Anna!!) and a new one over near Bayside High School, my old stompin’ grounds.

That part is easy and fun, but it was the weekly grind of grocery shopping that really had me stymied for awhile. Once I got the hang of it, however, it is where I can save my family even more and make our dollars go farther. Here are some of my tricks:

First, we have a budget. We aim for $75/week for groceries…usually that runs over, but never over $100. By groceries I mean basically whatever we can buy in Food Lion, so it includes dipes, vitamins, cleaning products, paper goods, etc. Some folks who figure out a grocery budget separate some of that stuff, but I include it. I hope to change this to a cash-only envelope system so that if we have money left over it goes into next weeks’ envelope, savings, or whatnot. We’re just not there yet. I need a small desk of my own, I think, to better organize myself here.

Second, before I shop, I make three lists. The first is an ongoing, “we’re almost out of” list that’s posted on the fridge. The second is my “stockpile” list, which includes shelf-stable or freezable items we keep an inventory of. I research these to get the best price (with coupons+sales) and buy in bulk when I get them at a great price. By stockpiling, I am not stuck running out to buy, say, tomato soup not on sale, because I can wait a couple months for it to go on sale and buy 10 cans. The third list is also one I research well by finding internet coupons, newspaper coupons and alerts on deals from some of my favorite money-saving websites. These are bonus items – can’t pass up deals - such as the Nestle hot chocolate mix I got from Wal-Mart on Friday – it was $2/2 packages. I had two $1/off coupons, so I got 2 boxes for FREE. Also, a $30 Bayer Contour 2 Blood Glucose Monitor at CVS…it was on sale for $30 and I had a $30 coupon, so it was free….I don’t need, it but I will donate it to the church or a local adult home…but, even better, I had a CVS coupon for $5 off a $30 purchase, so I got $5 back – meaning they paid me $5 to take that glucose monitor. Pretty cool! So, this third list is stuff I might not be looking for or it might be something I don’t normally buy, but if it is 75% + off, then I will get it as long as I stay in budget. I match up the store circulars with the coupons I have on file, then I put my lists (all written down on one piece of paper so I can see it all at a glance) at the front of my coupon notebook and off I go to the store.

Third, I organize my shopping trips. I have three stores to choose from: Food Lion, Wal-Mart and Kroger. Kroger is about 12 miles further to drive to than the other two, but it is right near Andy’s office. If we go there, we usually make a day of it and pack a picnic lunch so we girls can get some extra Daddy-o time. Some weeks I will only go to one store, but other times I’ll hit all three, especially if Food Lion has a 3-day only sale. I shop when the girls are in good moods, well-rested, or else I leave Hannah home with Andy. I am less likely to impulse buy with a list, and I stick to my 50% rule – it has to be 50% off (with coupon) if I’m going to buy a non-necessity. I carry my coupon notebook into the store with me in case I come across an unadvertised sale – or better yet, find something on clearance (like the True North Almond Clusters I found at Wal-Mart once for $1.50/bag, normally about $4 a bag and I had 3 $1 off coupons! Gotta love it!)

My reward? I get great satisfaction knowing that I have saved money and am able to contribute in a tangible way to our economic goals. I generally save about 40-50% on our total grocery bill ( I like shopping at Kroger because it shows at the bottom of the receipt how much you save, and I hold off giving my MVP card till the end at FL so it takes it all off at once after it has been subtotaled). It is also a challenge and a little mental gymnastics. I hope that I am teaching my girls the value of Daddy-o’s work – that we don’t just go and randomly get things, but that we are good stewards of our money. I hope that I am teaching them that we are disciplined in what we do and don’t buy, that we wait and do without some of the “fluff” sometimes – but our needs are always met. I hope that they see what I do as important so that they will be inspired to take their household management jobs seriously – be they married, single or still living at home. Money management is something that I just don’t have a firm grip on. By staying in a budget and working hard to pay off credit card debt (a whole ‘nother post) we are showing them and ourselves that our actions have consequences, and we are indeed slaves to our debt at this point.
Whew, this was a long post. But I just got back from Food Lion where the register rang up $105.10, I handed over my coupons and my MVP card and it flickered to $55.45, so I thought I’d share with you how I did it.

Have any questions? Want more ideas/tips? Wish I’d just go away?? J

CVS trip

I am still pretty new at this, so I am SURE that this wasn't my best, but it was still pretty good for me. I bought all of this in 3 transactions, and spent a total of $6.04.

Transaction #1: Extreme Energy $4.99 + tax = OOP: $5.27 , Earned 4.99 ECBs


Transaction #2: 4 Pert Plus (BOGO) @ 3.99 each; 2 Excederin @ 2/$5, Dawn soap $.88.
Used: 4.99 ECB from previous transaction

$2 Pert coupon
$2 Pert coupon
$2 Excederin coupon
$.50 Dawn Coupon
$ 2/10 CVS coupon ($2 off a $10 purchase)


Total OOP: $.77

Earned: coupon for free asprins


Transaction#3: CVS adult low dose asprins - FREE!


OOP= Out of Pocket BOGO=Buy One Get One Free ECB=Extra Care Bucks



Sooooooooooooo, even though I did not QUITE make it $5, I wonder if this is helpful and/or encouraging to you. See, I had to get that second transaction over $10, but not too far over. When I gave the cashier the coupons, I had done TOO well, and she couldn't (or wouldn't) take my last coupon for $2 because my total was $.77 or something. So I just told her to ring up another Excederin and I'd use that. They were on sale anyways, so it cost me $3 for two. I needed them, so no biggie. I know that veteran CVS'ers would frown on this, but the OOP overage came out of coins from the bottom of my wallet!!

Check out other scenarios at Keeping the Kingdom First blog.....

Oh, one more thing. I didn't qualify for KKF challenge because I didn't "grow" my ECBs for use later. But I will, OH YES, I will next trip!!

AND, I could have made the entire purchase under $5, and alas, the REASON for my agitation and distraction is pictured in the photo above. I get rattled at the checkout and lose confidence when I am being badgered! On the way home I lectured her for 4 miles that "Mama will NEVER EVER EVER buy you anything at the register or the checkout line, so you NEVER EVER need to ask." "Do you understand?" "Yes." A moment later: "Mama, when I get big, I am going to buy LOTS of candy with my OWN money!"