Free Food!

I subscribe to some great coupon blogs. One of my favorites is Deal Seeking Mom and yesterday she posted about Chipotle's B1G1 deal. All you have to do is follow this link, watch a video and print out your coupon. I let the video play on one screen and checked my email on another until it was done.

Sunday Suggestion

Today as I went through the weekly ads I was thinking about what to write- something simple that I have learned  during my couponing. This is what I came up with . . . always have a stash of coupons for the most used products you buy. This week is super doubles at HT, meaning that they'll double a coupon up to $1.98. This means my $1 coupons for coffee turn into $2 and coffee refills were on sale bring the price per package to $1.50. I thought to myself how sad I don't have 20 or 30 coupons so I can buy a year's supply of coffee. Although I had a few coupons I was so busy last week I didn't plan my shopping trip well enough to fully maximize my coupon usage.

So, if coffee is something you can't live without always have a stack of coupons ready for the big sale. Feel free to substitute the coffee for the thing you can't live without.

Heading home from my Harris Teeter trip . . . I saved over 50%!!! Best past is all the fresh fruit I bought was free thanks to my Kashi coupons.

Super Doubles at Harris Teeter this week!!! I am so excited to plan my shopping trip!

A week in review

So, wow! I haven't posted since last Friday- I guess this is what can happen when one gets a job. I am mostly happy to report that my 5 months of self-elected unemployment will come to a complete end. My first official day is Monday. 


More importantly how has my quest to save money been going? GREAT! I'm shocked that I have not needed to get a single grocery item for a week AND that I'm still eating from what I have in the fridge and cabinets. I have tried 4 new dinner recipes all from Cooking Light, Eating Clean or Real Simple. These are my favorite magazines!


We went out on Friday night, so no cooking. On Saturday I made Salmon Kabobs in the oven. It was surprisingly simple and very delicious. To round out the meal I made mushroom, zucchini and onions kabobs and brown rice. On Sunday we went to the coast to watch the Steelers get whooped by the GREEN BAY PACKERS, so also no cooking. Monday, I made the most delicious Italian Beef Stew from Cooking Light. Tuesday night was a spicy Shrimp pasta dish and last night was a Chicken with white beans and tomatoes, both from Cooking Light. Everything was so good and so easy to make- I impressed myself.  


So, I'm still stretching that $65 dollars and I think I can make it until next Wednesday before I have to shop. I think I may be able to spend less than $200 this month on food, which I must say is totally awesome : )

Meal planning? Does it work and can I do it, but most importantly will it save money

So, it's well known that I like binders and love to organize things. It brings me peace. I have many binders filled with all sorts of pieces of paper on all sorts of topics. My two favorite binders are (of course) my coupon binder and my recipe binder. 


I use to buy cook books until I realized I never use them. The only cook book I do use on a regular basis and almost never makes it back to the shelf is the Joy of Cooking. It was given to me by my extraordinary grandmother, Bebe and I will cherish it forever. (Turn the tears off) Anyway, I thought that this week I would plan my dinners and then shop for them hoping to stick to a budget, cook new things and not waste food. 


I pulled 6 recipes (we eat out at least once a week with coupons, of course) I have not tried, scanned my shelves and fridge and then made a list of what I needed. I spent $65 at the store. The more I think about it now the more I realize I didn't need to pull 6 recipes for one week. I think the 6 will last 10 days because of a variety of factors, so let's see if $65 will make 10 dinners- that's $3.25/person. I'll report back. 

What I've learned (so far) about selling coupons

I spent the whole day in bed yesterday. I felt like I was getting a cold the night before so I decided to do something I never do which is try to prevent getting more sick. I normally think I can take some pills and keep moving, but yesterday I slept for almost the entire day. And guess what? It worked- today I slept in and now I feel almost 100%. I think I managed to beat whatever illness was trying to develop. Something I thought about yesterday during my brief moments of alertness was my selling strategy for coupons, so I thought i would write about it today.

I have had moderate success selling coupons on ebay. Some coupons seem to sell quickly while others barely get a glance. It appears that the hot ticket items are pet food and natural/organic foods. Surprisingly makeup products are not as popular as I would have thought. I think that baby products such as diapers would be a big seller, too, however there haven't been many coupons for diapers for me to sell and the ones I have collected I sent to a friend (she better be using them, I even included instructions for her).

I've decided that I'm going to only sell the coupons that have been hot sellers and that I will add a Buy It Now feature so that I can sell them quickly. the Buy It now feature will also allow me to get paid. I am learning that not everyone reads and follows the rules I have. I have had to open three non-payment cases and will probably have to open more today. I just don't understand why people bid and then don't pay especially when the amount is so low.

I'm hoping that my new selling strategy works and I'll be sure to report how things went at the end of February.