10 ways to save on groceries without clipping coupons

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I’m not an “extreme couponer.” 

But if I don't use many coupons, how does my family save money on groceries? 

Here are a few tips on how my family has learned to shop for real, unprocessed food on a tight budget:

• Shop at Aldi (or another discount grocery store). Aldi is an international discount store, and they carry quality food! They don’t take coupons, but their prices are so low that you don’t even need them!

• Scour the clearance racks. Yes, they exist in food stores, and they are the first places I check out. The food isn’t bad either. It’s just not the freshest of the fresh. I recently bought 14 huge organic bell peppers for $4 total! I cut them up and froze them when I got home. Just make sure you eat or freeze “clearance” foods fast.

• Make a flexible meal plan. I plan, but I modify the plan based on what I find at the store. For example, I bought a huge container of organic salad the other day marked down to $2. We had enough to have taco salads for dinner and lunches for two days. Sure, I’d love more variety, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. Salads two days in a row sure beats Hamburger Helper!

• Buy and freeze “clearance” dairy. I only feed my toddler organic milk, and I frequently find it on clearance a couple days or so before “sell date.” I buy it and freeze it – sometimes freezing smaller portions in different containers. I find it never goes bad before she can drink it all. I also buy and freeze organic yogurt when it’s on sale/clearance. At one point this winter, my husband commented that our freezer looked like the dairy section of a grocery store!

• Plant an organic garden. We had our first organic garden last summer and expanded it this year. A garden saves us lots of produce money during the warmer months, and I froze some of our “harvest” for the winter months.

• Try to use everything you have. For example, I boiled chicken breasts the other day to make enchiladas. I saved the broth to make chicken stock and used it for chicken noodle soup the next day. We had steamed broccoli a few nights ago. I chopped up the leftovers and added it to spaghetti sauce the next night. I don’t want to waste anything!

• Check stores like Big Lots and Ollie’s for dry goods. I’ve been able to find some organic options at these stores at rock-bottom prices!

• Buy bulk dry goods. Health food stores can be pricey, but buying from its bulk section can actually be quite affordable. It’s usually much cheaper than buying pre-proportioned dry goods in a bag or box.

• Drink water – it’s free. We never, ever buy soft drinks and rarely buy juice.

• Cut corners on other household supplies. Switch to cloth diapers, wipes, napkins, paper towels – any and every paper product. Use baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, tea tree and other essential oils for cleaning. There’s so many ways to cut corners and still eat relatively healthy food.

What ways does your family save money on your grocery bill?

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*This post first appeared in the May 27 issue of the Mooresville Weekly. 

I'm linking this post up with: We are THAT Family

 

Why I'm NOT an Extreme "Couponer"

I confess: I am not an extreme “couponer.”

I had aspirations of trying my hand at couponing sometime this year, but I haven’t made it too far.

It seems extreme couponing is the talk of the town these days. There’s TLC’s “Extreme Couponing,” and I even wrote a story about a former Mooresville resident has been featured on that show.

Some women literally spend hours on end scouring the newspapers and Internet for coupons. I applaud these women. It’s a creative way to help stretch a family’s budget in tough economic times. They see couponing as their full or part-time jobs.

But what works for one person doesn’t work for everybody. Each mom has to find ways to save money that works for her family – whether it’s clipping coupons, cutting hair or in my case, writing stories.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love saving money. My college roommates jokingly said “Laura Lynn” was my friend because it was the name of a local grocery store’s generic brand – and it was all I bought at the time.

But right now, my family’s money-saving strategy has more to do with cutting cable than clipping coupons.

The danger with couponing is that it can become an addiction, and people will buy stuff just because they have a coupon – not because they really need it. I don’t want to take couponing that far.

As I’ve dipped my feet into motherhood the past few years, a lot of my priorities have changed. Nutrition is one of them.

I have no doubts you can save massive amounts of money by couponing. But is it worth it if you do it at the expense of the health of your family?

Let me explain. When I first moved back to Mooresville, I was thrilled to find out that a couple of grocery stores regularly double and triple coupons. When local friends updated their

Facebook statuses with sentences like, “I just spent $2 on $200 worth of groceries at Harris Teeter,” I was more than ready to jump on the bandwagon.

I started collecting coupons and even planned my store trips by scouring prices on websites and tailoring my list to match my coupon collection.

And it worked. On paper it looked like I “saved” money, but I really just came home with a bunch of processed foods that sat in my pantry for months.

You see, it’s easy to find a plethora of coupons for pre-packaged, prepared and processed foods that contain lots of additives like high fructose corn syrup, red40 and MSG.

But coupons for whole, healthy foods – like produce and meat – are hard to find.

If I find coupons for foods my family eats, I use them. But I’ve decided not to coupon on something we normally don’t use just to get things cheaply or for free.

I recently stumbled upon SavingNaturally, a blog dedicated solely to coupons for healthier items, like yogurt or organic cereal. I receive their daily emails, which saves me time from having to scour individual sites for deals.

I also opt to shop at discount stores like Aldi, Big Lots and Ollie’s as a way to save on my grocery budget.

Household items are different altogether. Since I’ve decided that coupons for food items aren’t my cup of tea, I’ve made it a goal to at least try using more coupons for things like toothpaste and toilet paper.

My husband bought me a coupon organizer for Christmas. It’s cute, but it’s not chock full of coupons. Is it possible for me to use coupons on healthy foods and household items without taking it to the extreme?

I welcome your suggestions.

*This column first appeared in the May 12, 2011 edition of the Mooresville Weekly.