CVS is having a great sale on tuna fish and soup.  Right now, you can get cans of Bumble Bee tuna fish, Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, and Campbell’s tomato soup for only $.50/can.

I stopped by earlier this week and picked up about 12 cans or so,  but I’m thinking of getting a few more.  Stockpiling foods when they’re at their lowest prices can really save a lot of money.

What foods are you stockpiling this week?

Hello everyone.  I went to Food Lion last night to pick up a few things and found a few bargains.  Here’s a few deals I found:

Marie Callendar’s frozen dinners and entrees are buy 1 get 1 free.  Then be sure to look on the freezer door for the blinkie machine.  There is a coupon for $.75 off one Marie Callendar’s Pasta Al Dente entree.  The pasta entrees are normally $3.99 and are on sale for $2.  Using the coupon makes them only $1.25!  If your blinkie machine is out of coupons (like mine) look inside on the freezer shelves.  Sometimes they get dropped inside.  I found 3-4 extra coupons on the shelves. 

White House High School Musical applesauce is on close-out.  Get a 6-pack of applesauce for $1.25.  I didn’t have any coupons for these, but it is still a pretty good deal.  These come in different flavors such as mango, cherry, cinnamon, and regular. 

If you have the space and a need for the items, I’d recommend stockpiling the pasta dishes and the applesauce.

Other sale items:

Food Lion bologna, sale .99
Aquarius Spring Water 24 pk, bogo 2/$5.99
Crisco oil, sale $2.50
Tylenol Cold (select varieties), $3.14 close-out, use $1 coupon
Pillsbury Reduced Sugar brownie mix, $1.09 close-out, use .35 coupon
frozen salmon, bogo
$10 off full or half graduation sheet cakes

What other Food Lion deals have you found this week?

Sales and prices vary by location.  Please view the online weekly circular.  image food lion

I went to Harris Teeter tonight for the final night of the triple coupon sale.  I’m quite pleased with my bargains.  I got about $160 of groceries for around $60 (including tax).  Not bad, I think. 

Here’s a list of what I bought and some of the prices. Sorry, I can’t remember all of them.

• Harris Teeter coffee beans
• 2 Wisk 2x Ultra laundry detergent (bogo +$1.50 qp +$2 printable qp, 2/$5.09)
• Comet long grain rice
• Diap soap 3 pk (free)
• 2 Mahatma yellow rice ($.75 qp, free)
• 2 Kraft dressing (bogo +$1.50 qp)
• Lawry’s marinade (bogo +qp, $.09)
• Doritos (bogo, $1.99)
• Ragu spaghetti sauce
• Fruiti Loops (bogo)
• 2 Knorr Pasta Sides
• Sunmaid Raisins 6 pk (bogo)
• large French’s onions
• 2 Blue Diamond almonds
• 4 Japanese noodle dinners
• 3 Campbell’s pork & beans (3/$1 sale)
• 6 Texas Pete chili sauce (6/$1 with qps)
• 1 lb Angus stew meat
• 2.5 lbs bananas
• 1 lb fresh strawberries (bogo)
• 2 Nature’s Own bread ($1.50 ea, sale)
• Sargento swiss cheese ($.50 w/sale + qp)
• 3 lbs yellow onions (1.97 sale)
• 2 bottles vitamins, 100 pk (bogo)
• Atkins shakes, 4 pk ($4 w/sale + coupon)
• 2 Indian sauce (bogo, $2 each)
• Capri-Sun, 10 pk ($.99 w/sale +qp)
• 2 Grande tortilla chips
• Snyder’s flavored pretzels, 10 oz ($.25 w/sale + qp)
• Libby’s tropical fruit in can (bogo)
• Texas croutons ($.39 w/ .50 qp)
• 3 Smucker’s ice cream syrups (sale for $2 + qps, $.20-30 ea)
• Spray ‘n Wash (bogo + qp, $.14?)
• 2 Whitehouse applesauce ($.75 qp for 2)

As you can see, you can save a lot of money when you shop during triple coupon week, especially when you combine a coupon with a sale.

Did you shop at Harris Teeter this week?  How did you do?

Guest post by Linette Gerlach

You can plant a garden even on a shoestring budget. For very little money you can grow enough food to help feed your family through the winter.

Here are a few tips to help get you started:

• Start your plants in recycled pots, or containers you make yourself. You can make your own plant pots out of newspaper, or egg cartons.
• Buy your seeds at the local farm store. There you can buy as much or as little of each type of seed as you want, and you’re paying by the weight. You don’t have to buy extra if you only want a few watermelon seeds, and the seeds are usually cheaper than purchasing pre packaged seeds.
• Swap seeds and plants with neighbors. If you have extra tomato plants, or chives trade them with your neighbor for peppers, or thyme.
• Save your own seeds. You can save your own seeds from many plants for next years crop. Before you save a particular seed do a little research to make sure the plant will grow back true from seeds.
• Start a compost pile, and make your own fertilizer for your garden. This is a huge money saver, and you’re also recycling your waste at the same time.
• Make your own potting soil, by mixing about half regular soil, with half compost. You may have to play around with the mixture a little to suit your soil.

If you have tips for saving money in the garden, feel free to share them in the comment section.

Linette shares more gardening advice at Mother Earth’s Garden, and cooking and gardening advice at The Home and Garden Cafe.

Image L Gerlach

There are plenty of ways to save money on coffee and coffee gear. Some of these ways to save, I’d actually NEVER do because, frankly, I’m a little bit of a coffee snob (read addict), but they may work for you. Other ways to save on coffee work even for us coffee snobs.

SAVE ON COFFEE GEAR & BREWING TECHNIQUE:

Buy a coffee post sans the timer and other bling accessories. If you buy a coffee maker with a clock, timer, and so on, you’ll one, spend more at the get go, and two, you’ll feel compelled to leave the pot plugged in. If you get a pot sans all the bells and whistles, it’ll still work fine, only it’ll cost less, and use less electricity when you unplug it after brewing.

Only use a reusable coffee filter. Paper filters are not only bad for the environment, but create a lame ongoing cost.

Grind your beans super fine because you’ll need to use less per pot for the same flavor. The finer the ground, the richer the coffee.

To make better coffee with less grounds use a French Press and boiling water. Boiling water brews a better cup, and your coffee maker will never get that hot. Well, not unless you have a super fancy pot.

Once you brew your coffee, pour it in a thermos and unplug your pot for maximum energy savings.

SAVE ON ACTUAL COFFEE:

If you only like the best of the best beans buy oodles when they’re on sale and freeze all but a few weeks worth.

If you like great beans (like a special organic) but want to stretch it, you could consider also buying some cheaper coffee and mixing the two. NOT a tip for coffee snobs - sorry.

You can save half the grinds from one day in the fridge then mix them with 1/2 new the next day - also not a tip for coffee lovers, but works if you’re not as picky.

Save leftover coffee in an ice cube tray and use the cubes later for iced coffee drinks OR pour your extra coffee into a small freezer safe container and mix with low-fat milk or chocolate milk. Freeze. Later pull out the container for a coffee-icy-milk flavored concoction. It’s a little like a coffee frosty if you let it thaw a bit. You can also use leftover coffee to make many various recipes.

Ask for coffee gifts. If you really love coffee, but can’t afford your faves, make it known that you’ll take it as a gift - i.e. ask for a coffee of the month club membership for your birthday or another major holiday.

And the obvious - don’t buy coffee out and about; make it at home.

How do you save money on coffee?

[image via free pixels]

Print this KFC coupon and get a FREE two piece grilled chicken meal deal courtesy of Oprah.  The meal includes two grilled pieces of chicken, two sides, and a biscuit.  Hurry, this coupon must be printed today. 

You should be able to print the coupon four times.  Be sure to hit the back button to print it twice and then click on the link again to get the coupon and print it two more times.  Sounds like a great free family outing. 

You must have the free coupon software installed to print this coupon.  Image from KFC.  Thanks Tracee!

Being mainly a green blogger what I tend to hear when I blog about organic foods is that it sounds good, but it’s not worth the extra cost, or more usually that families can’t afford the extra cost. And it’s true, organic costs more in most cases than conventional. On the flip side, eating a diet higher in organics, which might mean cutting foods like very expensive organic meat, is also healthier so perhaps you’d cut your doctor bills, your gym fees, and more.

In any case if your goal is to eat healthier and greener you really can’t miss a great read at The Miami Herald; Dollar menu at home. The piece looks at Linda Watson creator of the website, Cook for Good. Watson has learned to spend about $1.12-1.16 per meal in recent years, mainly, it seems by sticking closer to the bottom of the food chain and cooking primarily from scratch. She also uses techniques that save water and energy, which of course is sustainable, but also saves you cash.

Watson ran another experiment along her quest to inexpensive meals to see if shopping more sustainably cost more, and it did, but only a little. AND that’s when she shopped at Whole Foods and Farmers Markets. If you grow some of your own organic food, you’d likely save even more. While on this new diet, both Watson ans her hubby felt better and lost weight too!

This article points out what I’m always saying, when it comes to saving money or eating green, we all make choices. If your choice is to cut out some meat and always cut out Doritos and soda, you’ll fare well. If your choice is to keep the processed foods you’re going to have a problem eating green for sure, and spending less a lot of the time.

Read the whole piece: Dollar menu at home.

For some specific tips related to organics, read, Organic Food Costs Rise - 11 Ways to Save Money on Organic Food.

[image via stock.xchng]

Last year, I wrote numerous articles about grocery shopping, saving money with coupons, stockpiling, The Grocery Game, and getting groceries for next to nothing.  This year, I’m really struggling.

In December, our family moved to a very rural area.  It’s beautiful out here.  The neighbors have llamas, donkeys, horses, and cows.  It’s nice and quiet.  There’s just one problem . . . the only grocery store around is Food Lion. 

Food Lion does have some nice weekly specials that I like to stockpile, but I am really missing my Lowe’s Foods.  Each week, I would print out The Grocery Game list for Lowe’s Food, clip my coupons, and I felt a great deal of satisfaction when I rolled out of there saving such a nice chunk of change.  It was a personal goal to keep our weekly grocery budget under $75.  Many weeks I did not spend half that amount.  Some weeks I did, but our cabinets were so full!!!!  After my husband was laid off, we ate off our stockpile for months and was able to share with others too!

There are other groceries stores around in the larger cities, but who wants to drive 15-20 miles to the grocery store?  I sure don’t.  That takes a lot of extra time from my schedule. 

Since moving here, I have had to increase our food budget by at least $25 per month.  Now that we have an active, growing 11-year-old (who eats more than I do), I find I’m spending even more.  As a very thrifty person, this is really hard for me.  Sometimes I am spending over $100 per week on groceries!!!!! 

I need to put all this out of control spending to rest.  I think if I had a regular plan in place, I could start saving a lot more money.  I’m thinking I need to plan one day each week to go to “the big city” (lol) to do my grocery shopping.

What do you think?  How can this thrifty mommy get back on track?

We all want to plan healthy meals, but some of us (ahem, me) aren’t born cooking geniuses. Some of us need some recipe help.

That said, healthy cookbooks can cost a bundle, both for our budgets and the planet. Very few cookbooks are made with recycled content, so each new cookbook you buy wastes money and trees. However, you can make a cookbook of your very own with very little cash, and save some trees in the process.

MAKE YOUR HOMEMADE COOKBOOK:

First grab a basic three ring binder - I actually have a few; basic meals, baking, and desserts, holidays, & treats. Fill it with page protectors (this is your big cost factor here), and slip recipes into said page protectors. You can go cheaper and use no page protectors, but page protectors allow you to have your cookbook folder in the kitchen and protects the pages from splatters (did I mention I’m not kitchen friendly). Note: plastic page protectors are not so green, but one better choice are UniKeep page protectors made with 100% recyclable polypropylene.

ADDING RECIPES TO YOUR HOMEMADE COOKBOOK:

• Browse blogs and websites for good recipes and print them out using both sides of the paper.
• Head to the thrift store or a garage sale and buy up all the old magazines they offer related to food. These cost anywhere from 10 cent to $1.oo which is a huge saving over typical cookbooks. Tear out your fave recipes and recycled the rest of the magazine. You can also score free magazines sometimes if you get them from a friend or if you visit a doctor’s office or hair salon (ask nicely for their discards).
• Check out good cookbooks from the library and jot down your favorite recipes.
• Share. Most folks I know have at least one or two real cookbooks. If you hold a cookbook swap, you can snag your fave recipes from all of them.

BENEFITS:

1. Super cheap.
2. No nonsense - you only get the recipes you like.
3. Healthy - um, don’t look for unhealthy stuff (no brainer).
4. Green - less paper used.

How do you score cheaper and healthier recipes?

[image via stock.xchng]

If you’ve ever shopped for coffee, then chances are you’ve noticed the many different brands and prices.  If you’re trying to comparison shop, then you want the best price for the taste.  The problem I have is, what is the difference between them?

Millstone is a popular coffee. I like that you can buy it by the pound. I don’t brew a lot of coffee, so I like that I can purchase 1/4 lb if I choose.  It also allows me to try different flavors and bean types without feeling stuck with a whole pound of something (if I don’t like it).  The problem I have with Millstone is that I find it to be incredibly bitter.  I have yet to find a Millstone flavor that I really like.  Any suggestions?

The Juan Valdez coffee is a more affordable option.  The price is pretty good and we’ve heard the Juan Valdez name for years, but I have never tried their coffee.  If anyone has tried it, please let me know what you think of it.

A few months ago, Wal-Mart began carrying a less expensive by-the-pound coffee.  At $6.54/lb, Veneto’s is an affordable alternative to Millstone.  I found that Veneto’s has a similar taste to Millstone.

A few other coffees I have tried are Folgers, Maxwell House, and Starbucks.  Folgers is ok, Maxwell House seems to taste good for a few days and then loose its intensity, and I have yet to find a Starbucks flavor that I enjoy.  They’re too strong, too bitter, or something just isn’t right.  I don’t mean to be so picky, but if I’m going to have coffee I want it to taste right.  Know what I mean?

I was getting very frustrated at my coffee experiences and so I asked my friend Marye at Kettle & Cup which coffee she recommended.  Her top recommendation was Ugly Joe’s.  I was giving thought to trying Ugly Joe’s (and still am), but then I came across Caribou Coffee while I was shopping at Target. 

I probably wouldn’t have bought the Caribou Coffee, but it was 50% off.  The $4 price tag made it hard to pass up, plus I had tried the Caribou Coffee granola bars before and they were quite tasty.  I decided to give it a try and got the Sumatra blend.  Let me just say, I am pretty happy with this purchase.  It is creamy and not bitter and the earthy taste is delicious.  I don’t know that I have found the “perfect coffee” for my personal taste, but this is pretty close. 

Some of you may have no problem drinking inexpensive coffee such as Maxwell House, Folgers, or S&D.  Unfortunately, I have developed a preference for a certain taste.  In areas such as this, it is difficult to use coupons and buy whichever brand is the cheapest.  It is, however, thrifty to find something that you like and not waste hard earned money searching for something that meets your preferences.

If you enjoyed this article you may also enjoy 20 Ways to Save on Coffee. 

Which coffees are your favorite?

Disclaimer:  These thoughts are only opinions and should be treated as such.Images 1-3 by Karen Weideman.  Image 4 from Caribou Coffee.