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Mom feeds family of six for $4 a week


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If it works for them, great, but I didn't see a single fruit or vegetable there. I saw tons of processed foods, and my family just doesn't eat a whole lot of processed foods. I don't coupon for that reason. I would love to save a ton of money, but I can't see putting that much time into something that won't benefit our family. :confused:

 

ETA: I am in a very grumpy mood, so feel free to ignore all posts from me tonight.

Edited by Nakia
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If it works for them, great, but I didn't see a single fruit or vegetable there. I saw tons of processed foods, and my family just doesn't eat a whole lot of processed foods. I don't coupon for that reason. I would love to, but I can't see putting that much time into something that won't benefit our family. :confused:

 

ETA: I am in a very grumpy mood, so feel free to ignore all posts from me tonight.

 

:iagree: (even about the part about being grumpy tonight :tongue_smilie:) I don't clip coupons because I don't see any for fresh fruits and veggies, plain rice, and meat and fish. That's about 80% of what we eat. The rest (cereal, bread, etc) I buy Trader Joe's -- good prices and no coupons.

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I seem to remember once upon a time you could get a free turkey at Thanksgiving if you spent X amount of dollars. I haven't seen such a thing in almost a decade.

We get 50 cents off for each X amount of dollars we spend at Macey's, and they stack, so I'll be getting a smallish free one. Pity there aren't coupons for produce.

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It wouldn't work for us. We don't really shop in the middle of the grocery store. I buy organic a lot and we shop at a Mennonite store, farmer's markets, grow some food, and get the rest from Mejiers and that's always on the fringes of the store...seafood, produce (for things like organic mini-bellas and leeks), etc.

 

I think a plan like this only works if your family eats a lot of simple carbohydrates "white" foods.

 

Faith

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If it works for them, great, but I didn't see a single fruit or vegetable there. I saw tons of processed foods, and my family just doesn't eat a whole lot of processed foods. I don't coupon for that reason. I would love to save a ton of money, but I can't see putting that much time into something that won't benefit our family. :confused:

 

ETA: I am in a very grumpy mood, so feel free to ignore all posts from me tonight.

 

 

:iagree::iagree:

 

If you HAVE to to survive, then go for it. But I don't think living like that is optimal or healthy. But if it were that or the streets-I'd do it.

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I agree with the fact that I don't bother with coupons for the most part. There are never any for the natural and organic foods that we buy. I am excited when I do happen to find some though.

 

I always feel like we can't really cut back on our grocery expenses, because I won't sacrifice how I prefer for our family to eat in terms of organic fresh fruit and veggies, etc. I wish it didn't cost so much to feed your family healthily.

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I think the video is impressive, however I agree that the food she buys with the coupons is probably not the food I usually have in my cart. But good for her for finding a way to make it work for them! I think her space to store all that she buys is impressive, too. I don't think she will run out of paper towels or tp any time soon.

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I've done coupon shopping for some time. We do have great stores for it, so that helps. I think doing it has actually helped me buy a little more healthy food for my family. If I can get things like toilet paper cheaper, then I can put more on some organic produce. I do buy some processed foods, but I also buy things like frozen vegetables. The best "healthy" coupons I've found were during the week of Earth Day. If the organic companies would price things and have coupons like that week, it would be great. I remember that I bought $100 worth of organic food that week for $30.

 

I've never bought $200+ for pennies, but it does feel good to leave the store with 50-70% off.

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I've done coupon shopping for some time. We do have great stores for it, so that helps. I think doing it has actually helped me buy a little more healthy food for my family. If I can get things like toilet paper cheaper, then I can put more on some organic produce. I do buy some processed foods, but I also buy things like frozen vegetables. The best "healthy" coupons I've found were during the week of Earth Day. If the organic companies would price things and have coupons like that week, it would be great. I remember that I bought $100 worth of organic food that week for $30.

 

I've never bought $200+ for pennies, but it does feel good to leave the store with 50-70% off.

 

that's how I use my coupons. I don't buy the boxed foods with them.

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If it works for them, great, but I didn't see a single fruit or vegetable there. I saw tons of processed foods, and my family just doesn't eat a whole lot of processed foods. I don't coupon for that reason. I would love to save a ton of money, but I can't see putting that much time into something that won't benefit our family. :confused:

 

ETA: I am in a very grumpy mood, so feel free to ignore all posts from me tonight.

 

:iagree:

 

Is she feeding them FOOD? Kinda doubt it. :glare:

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How uncanny. I've been doing a coupon experiment for the past 2 weeks (in fact, am working on a blog post about it), inspired by stories like this.

 

I didn't have the same results. Not even close. And I invested a ton of hours scouring sale pages. Maybe it takes practice? I refuse to stock my pantry with that much processed food.

 

I don't know where to go, around here, for double coupons. Produce coupons are extremely rare. I do have one for $1 off orange tomatoes, but I can get Roma tomatoes for cheaper without a coupon.

 

That said, there are some real savings to be had if you find a good coupon. I bought some blood glucose test strips (something I need that never goes on sale) at Walgreens and received a $5 coupon for Listerine. I happen to use Listerine (or the store-brand twin) and found a big bottle of some funky flavored Listerine on sale for $4.27. So, I used my coupon and got money back. Woo-hoo.

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I've done coupon shopping for some time. We do have great stores for it, so that helps. I think doing it has actually helped me buy a little more healthy food for my family. If I can get things like toilet paper cheaper, then I can put more on some organic produce. I do buy some processed foods, but I also buy things like frozen vegetables. The best "healthy" coupons I've found were during the week of Earth Day. If the organic companies would price things and have coupons like that week, it would be great. I remember that I bought $100 worth of organic food that week for $30.

 

I've never bought $200+ for pennies, but it does feel good to leave the store with 50-70% off.

 

That is a valid point.

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My experience is that you can't do groceries for pennies unless you're willing to make some major compromises, but it's pretty easy to save a good bit of money. I buy chicken from a local, Humane Society certified producer. They put out $1.50 off/package coupons regularly, and I buy lots of them on ebay, so I never buy it without a coupon. I do see produce coupons sometimes, too. This site: http://www.mambosprouts.com/ has organic coupons that you can print. And if you do CVS and Walgreens, you can have free deodorant and toothpaste and shampoo for the rest of your life, which, as another poster pointed out, frees up money for other things.

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We spend about 100 to 120 a week on food for our family, sometimes a bit more, and we eat primarily organic veggies and fruits, grains, beans, small amounts of meat and oatmeal. We don't really buy anything processed, except for the occasional pint of ice cream. We do buy organic milk, which is pricey, as is organic chicken (but the boys only eat meat 1-2 times a week).You can eat quite cheaply if you avoid the processed food--basically the center aisles of the grocery store LOL. (well, the beans and grains are there, but YKIM)

 

ETA: Okay, I did buy a whole bunch of indian spices and foods online last week. I think what I bought will make at least 30 indian meals, probably a lot more. I spent $100 on all the various items.

Edited by Halcyon
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That said, there are some real savings to be had if you find a good coupon. I bought some blood glucose test strips (something I need that never goes on sale) at Walgreens and received a $5 coupon for Listerine. I happen to use Listerine (or the store-brand twin) and found a big bottle of some funky flavored Listerine on sale for $4.27. So, I used my coupon and got money back. Woo-hoo.

 

Yes--I found Planters peanuts w/sea salt at $1.79/lb container if you bought two, and then there were $1 off if you buy two coupons on the lids (IF you could find any--most were filched), so I got those for very cheap. But that happens maybe twice a year, lol. And no double coupons here that I know of.

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Kroger was having a sale where if you bought 8 bags, the price came out to a dollar a bag. And then I had coupons for something like $2 off 2 bags. Something like that. I had to go to one store to get the coupons out of one of those dispensers, and then take them to the store with the sale.

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I seem to remember once upon a time you could get a free turkey at Thanksgiving if you spent X amount of dollars. I haven't seen such a thing in almost a decade.

 

I got a free turkey last Friday. Shopper's Food Warehouse had a coupon for $10 off your order of $50 or more. The turkey was a 20 pounder at 49 cents/pound so the coupon just covered it. Their prices for other things are usually pretty good so I got a fair amount of other stuff for the $50 I had to spend.

 

Just wondering. Doesn't she have to spend some money to get the coupons in the first place? Our Sunday paper costs $2. Do they factor that cost in when they ring up the total or do they consider that negligible?

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I seem to remember once upon a time you could get a free turkey at Thanksgiving if you spent X amount of dollars. I haven't seen such a thing in almost a decade.

 

We still have this deal at one of our grocery stores. If you spent $300 cumulative over several weeks you received a free turkey coupon. I got my free turkey today! Even with my cut backs because of DHs job I would have spent $300 in groceries over a few weeks anyway. The turkey was just a bonus.

 

Now for every $100 spent we receive 10 cents a gallon off of a tank of gas. It eases the pain of grocery shopping a little bit.

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Kroger was having a sale where if you bought 8 bags, the price came out to a dollar a bag. And then I had coupons for something like $2 off 2 bags. Something like that. I had to go to one store to get the coupons out of one of those dispensers, and then take them to the store with the sale.

 

Cool! I need to be more observant for deals like this. :)

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If it works for them, great, but I didn't see a single fruit or vegetable there. I saw tons of processed foods, and my family just doesn't eat a whole lot of processed foods. I don't coupon for that reason. I would love to save a ton of money, but I can't see putting that much time into something that won't benefit our family. :confused:

 

ETA: I am in a very grumpy mood, so feel free to ignore all posts from me tonight.

 

 

I'll be a grump with you, then. :001_smile: I think it's rather unfortunate that one can eat cheaply on crap, but real food never goes on much of a sale and there aren't coupons for real food either. Processed food manufacturers certainly do not have healthiness in mind.

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There are so many coupons out there now for healthy/organic foods. Last week I got 12 lbs. of organic carrots and 15 lbs of organic, whole wheat pasta for free. I don't use processed food either. I do save tons by getting paper products, HBA stuff, etc. free or extremely cheap. I get great deals on lots of healthy foods. We don't do all organic, but I feed my family of 6 really well for about $50/week.

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I seem to remember once upon a time you could get a free turkey at Thanksgiving if you spent X amount of dollars. I haven't seen such a thing in almost a decade.

 

You can get a free turkey here at Fred Meyers if you spend $150 or more. Since the price of groceries is a little outrageous here, I suspect lots of people will be dragging away the free turkeys this week.

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There are so many coupons out there now for healthy/organic foods. Last week I got 12 lbs. of organic carrots and 15 lbs of organic' date=' whole wheat pasta for free. I don't use processed food either. I do save tons by getting paper products, HBA stuff, etc. free or extremely cheap. I get great deals on lots of healthy foods. We don't do all organic, but I feed my family of 6 really well for about $50/week.[/quote']

 

:iagree:

 

We don't have the best couponing opportunities here, but it is possible to save on non or at least "less" processed foods. In my ideal world I would be able to afford organic, raw, unprocessed whole foods, but we can't afford that right now. I do cook mostly from scratch and don't buy a lot of processed foods, but we do eat things like canned tomatoes, beans, olives, frozen veggies, store-bought bread, pasta, etc. I am able to save on those things with coupons. There are also coupons for oats, rice, yeast, oil, nuts, etc. I have also gotten cheese for free :D, and I often "make" money at CVS! Why pay for toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, condition, lotion, etc. when you can get it for free! It's helping us survive a tough financial time.

 

There are also a lot of blogs out there that provide the match-ups for you. I have found a couple of great local blogs that tell me what's on sale and where to find the coupon (Sunday inserts and Internet printables). That saves me a bunch of time.

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I don't use processed food either. I do save tons by getting paper products' date=' HBA stuff, etc. free or extremely cheap. I get great deals on lots of healthy foods.[/quote']

 

Same here. Shop the ads, buy what's on sale in bulk. It's so do-able. I spend about 30 minutes perusing the coupons and flyers from the newspaper every other week. I purchase all of our household products, toiletries and groceries for my family of 4 for $160/month.

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If it works for them, great, but I didn't see a single fruit or vegetable there. I saw tons of processed foods, and my family just doesn't eat a whole lot of processed foods. I don't coupon for that reason. I would love to save a ton of money, but I can't see putting that much time into something that won't benefit our family. :confused:

:iagree:The farmers that I get eggs, meat and milk from probably wouldn't be impressed.:lol:

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I seem to remember once upon a time you could get a free turkey at Thanksgiving if you spent X amount of dollars. I haven't seen such a thing in almost a decade.

 

I've never paid for a turkey at Thanksgiving either her in AR or in WI where I lived for 20 years. In WI, all the stores I shopped gave free turkeys for store "points." Here in AR, Krogers does it too.

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My sister and my neighbor give me the coupons from the newspaper though. Also the best coupons often come from the internet. You can generally print two coupons per computer. There are tons of printable coupons out there for organic products now.

 

You are allowed to use one coupon per item, or one manufacturer's coupon and one store coupon per item.

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I do a lot of what she does, so I'm going to try to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume that this trip was planned specifically for the wow factor, and that she DOES buy better foods on a more typical shopping trip. But who knows?

 

On top of the processed foods issue, I know (from experience) that there's no way my family of 6 would be able to get through that stockpile before a lot of it expired. When I first started, I wound up having to donate a lot before it became outdated.

 

These days, we generally save 40-50% off shelf prices, and that's good enough for me, especially knowing the majority of the bill is produce, meats, and dairy.

 

For the record, I haven't paid for a T-day turkey in my entire life. ;) I'd love to get a free-range bird, but I just can't pass up my ShopRite deal!

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I've done coupon shopping for some time. We do have great stores for it, so that helps. I think doing it has actually helped me buy a little more healthy food for my family. If I can get things like toilet paper cheaper, then I can put more on some organic produce. I do buy some processed foods, but I also buy things like frozen vegetables. The best "healthy" coupons I've found were during the week of Earth Day. If the organic companies would price things and have coupons like that week, it would be great. I remember that I bought $100 worth of organic food that week for $30.

 

 

 

This is pretty much how I look at it. I mostly shop the perimeters of the store. My son has tons of food allergies, so we do not eat a lot of processed foods for meals. However, I do use TP, paper towels, ketchup, mustard, marinades, jam, peanut butter, soup, and a number of other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. By getting those items dirt cheap when they are on sale and then combining the sale price with coupons, I am able to keep our grocery/household supply budget at $100/week and I live in a very expensive area where most people I know are spending at least $1000 a month. There aren't coupons for meat, but there is almost always meat that goes on sale for $1.99/lb each week -- usually chicken or pork. We don't have the luxury to buy all natural/organic. I'd love to, but it isn't an option for everyone.

 

Lisa

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Well, I don' t think we have any stores here that double any longer and I'm not sure about taking more than one coupon per item. Do some of you buy more than one Sunday paper so you can do that?

 

I mostly use printables lately. I can potentially get 6 of each coupon this way, if I use DH's computer and our netbook in addition to my regular computer. I sometimes buy coupons on ebay, too. If it's either something I buy all the time (the aforementioned local chicken example) or something I can use that's going to very cheap or free after coupons, I'll buy a lot of 20 of them for a couple of bucks on ebay.

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