couponing and stockpiling

[UUmom2many]

I've been trying to save money on food. Feeding a family of 7 is a big job. I've started using coupons for grocery shopping. I'm also trying to change our eating habits so that the grocery list is more of a supply list (flour, sugar, spices, meat, etc). I have limited room -very limited- right now for doing any kind of stockpiling though.

Our goal is to go into town maybe once a month after we move out to the land. We're trying to figure out how to do this now so it's not such a shock when we live 20 miles from town. right now I live less than 1 mile from a Starbucks, in the heart of downtown.

But I've found that a huge portion of the coupons available are for foods that are really packed with salt and sugar and the like. Not the things we want or normally eat.

So I guess I'm looking for suggestions on how I can attempt to change our habits to become less reliant on grocery stores and saving money on food without being able to utilize a lot of things that are at my disposal.

[jessepona]

I watch coupons, but really rarely find one for anything we would want to buy or eat. Sometimes I find coupons for cereals or detergent that we can use, but more often than not they're for T.V. dinners, pre-made meals, etc... and sometimes, for the things we would use, they cost more than store brands even with coupons. One way we've found to save money is by going to a grocery store instead of Wal*Mart. I don't know why, but the little grocery store is overall much cheaper for the things we buy than Wally world. We live about 35-40 minutes from the town where we buy groceries and we go once a week. I wish I could say we go once a month or even once every two weeks, but we don't have a great winter veg system worked out yet so if we want salads we're stuck going once a week. We're putting in cold frames to extend our season and we hope to start growing salad greens inside, so hopefully we'll be cutting our trips down soon. In the summer we just go into town once every two weeks, more for entertainment and to see my folks than anything else.

[blooba]

Well not sure what kind of setup you have there but i am always going in for milk,eggs and bread. I have started making my own bread but still no cows or chickens yet. But I only go "major" grocery shopping about once every 1-2 months. You could use powdered milk but I don't like the taste. And you can buy the eggbeaters stuff frozen but i think its worth going in for real eggs and milk. Also I agree with jessepona, coupons are usually worthless and not worth my time.

[geo in mi]

Crystal,

This may sound off the wall, but can you make and do spreadsheets? You might be able to keep track of prices, unit prices, and lots of information you tailor make for your own way of keeping inventory and making a shopping list. As you make a list, you could refer to the spreadsheet to get info to help you out, instead of relying on memory, etc. Last price, how long did this last, many other things. Might be a teachable project for your kids, too--inputting records, keyboarding, etc?

geo

[anniew]

Cook from scratch and buy a lot when those items are on sale.

[Kshobbit]

I shop at Aldi's for canned goods like veggies. I buy the 12 can flats. They have very few brand names but the quality is the same. I bought a case of tomato sauce before the prices went up. Most of their fresh veggies are lots cheaper than WalMart.
I shop at Sam's Club for bulk items like flour, rice, detergent, yeast etc, I used to belong to a food coop that was great but can't find one in this area.
Anyone know of a food coop in southeast Kansas?
Sometimes, I find great stuff here on the barter board like bulk black pepper and bulk garlic powder.
Don't rule out the free sample sites online. I have a great supply of packets of shampoo and conditioner and strangely, one load packs of laundry detergent.

[UUmom2many]

Geo- I've been thinking of doing that. A few years ago I did the whole CVS/couponing thing and have a TON of pantene and other name brand things on hand that we still haven't used makes no sense to me to buy things on clearance/sale when we won't use them. I have a daughter that is extremely allergic to parabens and artifical colors and perfumes on her skin so all those "great deals" aren't so great now if they're not being used.

I haven't checked out the warehouse places mainly bc I'm so unsure of the savings when I have to pay $40-45 for a memebership. Does that make sense?

I've been trying to support local farming and small business by doing my produce/fruit shopping at a local daily farmers stand. They have local amish made cheese and butter there too. More expensive but far, far better product. (I made broccoli cheddar soup w/amish cheese and it was great, then used store bought grocery cheese and it wasn't nearly as good). Until I can consistently make my own cheese of course.

I did just buy soem powedered milk and eggs from honeyville farms to use for baking so I'm less reliant on store bought or fresh which is more expensive and doesn't keep. I haven't tried it yet though.

[blooba]

Most warehouse stores will either have "open house" days or allow visits by non members for a 5-15% surcharge.

And yes buying in bulk is "usually" cheaper along with items on sale or in season. Although watch prices because its not always true. Also be careful how much and what you stockpile(like your pantene) or like my grandmother who stockpiled 30 yrs of toilet paper(lol). If she would have invested that money or stockpiled other items she would have been better ahead(took up ALOT of room, and mice got into it.)

Look into canning/freezing/drying items when they are in season and dump as much of the conveinence foods as you can. Also eat less expensive food, i.e. hamburgers instead of shrimp or whatever. You'd be surprised how inexpensive you can make tasty food.

[jmtinmi]

When I was heavy into couponing I had a regular store in my basement. Some times the shelves would be full of hair care, other times convenience foods would have been purchased for pennies. I am still getting into my stash of Handi Wipes (those disposable clothes that you can reuse several times) I remember that I got a package of those for about .07 each.

I am starting to look at coupons again, as one of our local stores doubles up to a $1, but for the most part I won't purchase convenience foods anymore. I will stick to non food purchases to help stretch out grocery dollar.

I little hint~~If you see a great sale and know there is a great coupon out there, check out ebay for specific coupons!

[jmtinmi]

Originally Posted by geo in mi

Crystal,

This may sound off the wall, but can you make and do spreadsheets? You might be able to keep track of prices, unit prices, and lots of information you tailor make for your own way of keeping inventory and making a shopping list. As you make a list, you could refer to the spreadsheet to get info to help you out, instead of relying on memory, etc. Last price, how long did this last, many other things. Might be a teachable project for your kids, too--inputting records, keyboarding, etc?

geo

The Tightwad Gazette advocated this, but it was done with a little notebook that could be carried around with you. I've never utilized this type of system, but I do know that peanut butter will go on sale at Kroger for $1 a jar and I stock up then.

[mtfarmchick]

Crystal, my situation is alot like yours. We have 5 kids and live 45 minutes from our major grocery shopping town. I use coupons with the grocery sales and get name brand items for less than store brand. Also, shop the loss leaders. I got Betty Crocker fruit snacks for $1/ box. It isn't something I would normally buy because they are expensive. But my kids like them so I picked up 5 boxes. When Skippy peanut butter goes on sale for .99 I buy 12 jars. Chicken of the Sea tuna was 2/$1 so I bought 24 cans. All those items were WAY cheaper than the store brand when on sale.

[geo in mi]

All:

You know, maybe I'm skeptical(paranoid?), but sometimes, when a chain store puts something on sale, I always wonder if, because of their computer system and rapid feedback, do they know something they're not telling me? Like: a certain quality problem in a certain batch number???? Stock overage and 'sell by' dates getting too close for comfort? Maybe their idea is , if you got it on sale, you won't complain about the lesser quality or miswrapping .... and on an on.....

Especially if I can't possibly use a big stockup over a certain time, or if I don't yet have the storage space, or spare cash then, I don't think it too wise to tie up good money on my shelves. At least, sometimes, those times being of my choosing. Make sense?

geo

[highlands]

I don't find coupons to be generally all that useful. They are primarily for things I don't want or need, processed foods, high priced stuff, etc. Once in a while I find a coupon that is for something I need. Rare.

We shop about once every one to three months for most stuff and then once or twice a week or so or milk. We live in a tiny house and are able to stock enough food for five people so it is doable even in a small space. I don't like shopping often. It takes too much time and stress. It is about the same amount of work to shop for three months worth of supplies as it is to buy a couple of weeks stuff. Since we're out of town this dramatically cuts on our driving too which saves money.

As to changing your habits to save money, cook from scratch, grow what you can and avoid the processed stuff. You pay a lot for processing.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project:
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa

[blooba]

Originally Posted by geo in mi

All:

You know, maybe I'm skeptical(paranoid?), but sometimes, when a chain store puts something on sale, I always wonder if, because of their computer system and rapid feedback, do they know something they're not telling me? Like: a certain quality problem in a certain batch number???? Stock overage and 'sell by' dates getting too close for comfort? Maybe their idea is , if you got it on sale, you won't complain about the lesser quality or miswrapping .... and on an on.....

Especially if I can't possibly use a big stockup over a certain time, or if I don't yet have the storage space, or spare cash then, I don't think it too wise to tie up good money on my shelves. At least, sometimes, those times being of my choosing. Make sense?

geo

Yea, sometimes these things happen but usually its just a way for the stores to get people into their store and spend money on other things. Usually if peanut butter is on sale the jelly and bread is expensive, barbeque sauce on sale the meat is expensive and so on. It takes some smarts and time to get stocked up so that you have that barbeque sauce when the meat goes on sale and so on but stores will sell stuff at a loss sometimes to bring people in. How many times have you gone to the grocery store and only bought one thing?

Or they get a break on the price if they buy a big lot of a certain item but they won't sell it all in time or don't want to store it. So they will put it on sale to get rid of the extra until they are back down to regular inventory to sell at full price.(bigger markup)

[stef]

Even when I clip coupons I never use them. I don't use processed foods and most of my grocery and dry goods are store brands. I do almost all my cooking from scratch so I always have flour, sugar(s), shortening, herbs, spices, seasonings, condiments, home canned apple and tomato sauce. Home dried herbs. I'm just finishing off last seasons' onions.

I don't get brand name laundry detergents, for which there are tons of coupons, cause they're too costly.

I am a nut about having enough liquid dish detergent on hand, though, so I pick up a bottle whenever it's on sale. I like having five of six bottles in storage, "just in case". (o:

stef

[SquashNut]

When we started stocking up, we found a store that sells in bulk. And bought all 50 pound bags of unbleached white flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, potatoes, oat meal and rice. the next time we went we bought 25 pound bags of corn starch, kosher salt, lentles, split peas ect. 2 pound bags of yeast and 4 pound buckets of baking powder.
it wasn't so much buying the food but finding a good way to store it. That became a problem.

[DW]

You need to know the prices of what you buy. We get coupons in the mail f/King Soopers (Kroger) and usually there is at least a lb of butter free but many other good deals. I watched a young woman check out w/a stack of free coupons this week. The item is usually on sale and then I use a coupon. I don't use lots but watch the good deals. We're currently stocked up on laundry soap for months!

[Lydia]

I'm an avid coupon user. Yes, a lot of the coupons out there are for packaged and processed foods. However, there are the occassions, like recently, when you can find coupons for things like flour and BOGO dozen eggs, oatmeal, canned veggies and fruit, potatoes, pineapple, cuties oranges, etc. Also, due to coupons, I have been able to stockpile everything you nomrally have in your bathroom. I have enough for 2 years. Toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deoderant, face wash, lotions, tooth brushes, floss, mouth wash, soap, make-up, toilet paper. In the kitchen, I have easily 2 years worth of dish washer soap, liquid dish soap, soft scrub, lysol in many forms, and about 6 months worth of laundry soap and a year's worth of fabric softener.

It's a huge relief on my budget to shop the sales and use store coupons WITH manufacturer coupons. Plus, a lot of stores will have rebates on top of that, either mail in (rare) or in the form of a coupon for X amount off your next purchase, or a gift card.

There's a couple of web sites that will show you how to do it, tell you what's available at different stores and what not. One that's layed out just like this site is www.hotcouponworld.com, and one that I particularly love is www.moneysavingmom.com because she does a lot of home cooked meals and shows how to do things yourself instead of buying it all pre-made. She's very much into organics and cutting sugar out.

[Michele of MI]

Check the manufacturers websites. We buy a lot of food (for 6 people), but no convenience food. I even got a coupon for milk a week ago, and they never seem to have coupons on that. I buy a lot of organic, and I pay less than the non- organic store brand by waiting for sales and getting coupons from the websites. If you keep track of prices too, you can sometimes predict the sales.

[clovis]

We're avid couponers too, and at least in our area, you can clean up on the deals. This allows us to stock up greatly. It is quite abit of work, but is definately worth it.

Late last fall, I got Green Giant Steamers veggies for free. I filled my freezer, my mom's freezer, and my sister's freezer for free. Yes, totally free.

I could easily give 25 examples of healthy foods that we've gotten ultra cheap, and were able to stock up on them.