Hi, My name is Mavis and I like to feed my tomato plants with kale smoothies once a week. That’s how I get the plants to grow super strong. Life is wonderful. The birds are always chirping, our backyard chickens are always quite, and they lay hundreds of yummy nutritious eggs for us everyday, and I’m high on life. Living in suburbia is awesome. You should try it. Life is perfect here.
You don’t believe all that crap do you? Okay good. Here’s the deal. I now have only $195.17 in my grocery budget to last the next 3 months. Somewhere along the way I got off track and blew a fortune on groceries. I have no idea how it happened, but it did. So if I want this thing to work, I’m going to have to get creative, and quick.
So while I go bake some chocolate chip cookies {and eat 1/2 of them} to make myself feel better, here are the groceries that made it into our house this week.
Costco $18.88
Note to self: Never, ever, not in a million years send the Handsome Husband to the store for 1 gallon of milk and 4 ounces of Parmesan cheese. Yep, as you may have guessed it he stopped at Costco and blew my budget for the week. Boooo! Men want what’s quick and easy. Woman however, will take the extra minute to stop at the store with the best prices AND possibly use a coupon.
Free Produce
Luckily we didn’t have to pay for any fruit last week thanks to the free chicken scraps.
Free Local Pears
I also scored a huge box of pears for free {I’ll tell you how a little later}.
Barter with Mrs. Hillbilly
Mrs. Hillbilly cracks me up. She’s always up for anything and LOVES to barter with me. If I was in one of those PBS documentaries set in the colonial times, I would totally want her for a neighbor. She’s a hard worker, funny, and willing to barter pretty much anything.
Free Food from my Vitacost Credits
I heart Vitacost.
Albertsons $7.24
I’m not sure if the double coupon deals at Albertsons are going down hill, or if it just seems that way to me because we are not buying as much processed crapity crap these days.
What do YOU think? Are the deals becoming harder to find, or is it all in my head?
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $ 26.12
Total Spent This Year $1,004.83
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $516.21
Total “Seed Money” donations received $51.00
Suzanne says
Make pear sauce (like apple sauce) and splurge on a big can of generic refridgerator biscuits, roll them out with a little flour, and make turnovers. You’ll get 8 big ones in one can. sprinkle with a little cinnamon and sugar. Make peanut butter chocolate dip with those choc chips for the bags of pretzels, great fun snack. sour cream with some herbs and chopped kale for dressing on the lettuce. Youre doing great, I believe in ya!!! the cost of food has risen about 20% in the last two months, so if you can continue with the $100/month, youre doing fantastic…
Thrifty Mom in Boise says
I have tried to get free chicken scraps from the grocery store but to no avail. They won’t do it because in the past people have returned the stuff saying they don’t have their receipt and gotten a refund. Only takes a few dishonest folks to spoil it for the rest of us.
Albertson’s double coupons are few and far between here. I hardly get them in the paper and their prices are HIGH, which is weird since Albertsons was founded here. I rarely shop there because of it. They no longer price match or take other store’s coupons anymore either. I stick to Fred Meyer and Winco for most of my shopping.
I just have to get more creative to stay on budget!
Susan says
The deals are becoming few and far between at Albertson’s. I haven’t shopped there in quite awhile. It is the furthest store from my home, so I factor in gas,too.
Plus I try to get less crappity crap. I love to cook and bake so don’t buy much frozen garbage. If the snacks aren’t close to FREE, I don’t bother.
Mamalala says
Same here. The deals just are not appealing these days with eating healthy and low carb.
Nt worth the drive to pick up a few items.
Sophie says
I havent used my doubles in weeks. Part of it might be due to the laziness that comes with being pregnant, but we just dont need alot becuase of our stockpile. I always used to be able to find a few good things to go for, but not anymore. I might go for oatmeal this week, but that is it.
Patti says
You actually set me free from the double coupons at Alb’s the last time they ran them. I think you commented that there wasn’t much there and you were passing on using them that week (actually the 3 days.) I thought, “ok girl, if Mavis can pass on doublers, so can I!!”
At any rate, I haven’t used my doublers this time either and unless I think of something we could use/need in the next day I won’t. So that will be 2 times in a row I will have totally passed on Alb’s doublers. I can tell you that NEVER happened before!! I did do the round up, but I only bought 6 items. Yeesh.
And yes, we are eating from the abundance or our garden and also not buying all of the crappity crap.
Also, I think the coupon values have gone down and prices are up, so good deals are fewer (until we adjust to the new normal or prices drop or coupon values go back up. I mean have you EVER seen so many 25 cent coupons!! Come on!)
Laura says
Gosh, I didn’t find much last time, but used 15 sets of doublers this go around and could have used more, lol! I got lots more oatmeal (free) and roasted red peppers (free) as well as super awesome deals on canning jars ($6 for 12) so I can do my canning and not agonize over giving away the jars.
I did get two bags of Lay’s, but that was the only “crap” I came away with. Oh, and some Danimals yogurt for the kids’ lunches (hard to beat 50 cents for 4 yogurts and they love that junk!).
Love rolling those catalinas too–makes for lots of free stuff!
Patti says
You did good Laura!! Nice work!
Cyntha says
I would love to hear more about your kale smoothies for tomatos. How did you learn that? Just kale and water? My biggest tomato is smaller than a golf ball.
Mamalala says
Me too. I have Swiss chard like crazy. I eat my tomatoes would love Swiss chard shakes.
Desi says
I bought some prego spagetti sauce, cascade, and quaker quakes( diet food). I wanted the oatmeal but when I saw It was for the small containers I was unimpressed and walked out with out it. Would have done the pringles but we already used the coupons.
Love all those Ghiradelli chocolate chips
Susan says
There was a time (not too many years ago) when Albies would have their Quaker sale in October and March. You could score the large tubs for FREE (or .50)
There were coupons that came out about the same time for almost ALL the products in the sale. Not anymore 🙁
Winco has oats for .60 lb. all the time.
narf7 says
We don’t have coupon systems here in Australia and just have to rely on “specials” that are really lures into the supermarket to get you to do your entire shop there. We are in the process of renovating our overgrown 4 acre property to include 3 food growing polytunnels and an edible food forest. I am getting some great ideas from your site. We are self styled simple living penniless horticulture student hippies and ANY advice about living simply, cheaply and most importantly sustainably is precious to us. That’s why I found your site and why its placed in a position of rank in my rss feed reader. Cheers for the great advice (even though most of it isn’t pertinent to us here in Australia). I look forwards to your gardening advice especially 🙂
Miriam says
I’m not Mavis, but I think my experience may help.
First off, you have the internet, so if you are growing, look up what problems you may have with that, such as squash borers for the squash or cabbage loopers for the broccoli or lettuce. That means you can see how low or high maintenance your plants are and how large they get, so they don’t choke out your other plants.
Second, ask around what people have grown in your city (mostly neighbors, group activity members or church members are best for this) to see what they have had success with.
Third, grow what you actually eat normally. My husband forced me into planting beets. I have an aversion to them and a lot of them ended up going to waste. If you do want to try something new, buy one from the supermarket first and then grow it if you like it
Fourth, look into companion and organic planting. That will save you room in your garden and can help keep away pests, plus save yourself money from buying pesticides.
Fifth, think about starting a compost pile. You can use it as free fertilizer.
Sixth, learn how to preserve what you grow. I am still learning on this, but there are many sites on how to do this and even a lot of posts on Mavis’ blog.
Seventh, ask for help when you need it. Everyone has a frustrating experience or gets overwhelmed with a garden occasionally, so don’t be afraid to ask for specific advice.
Hope that helps, narf.
Sarah b says
Time to barter barter barter. I would love to barter for some canning lessons!
And I bought oatmeal squares, lays stacks, mayo, and something else…can’t remember! Albie’s prices are high and the only time I go is doubles or roundup and it is 5 min away. I much prefer Safeway for deals and some produce, but Freddy’s produce is awesome!
Robin Welch says
They are closing some Albertsons stores. The one in my town is one of them.
D'Anna says
I’m not real mathy but I’m pretty sure I scored 3 Pantene shampoo & 3 conditioners for $1.50 after q’s and catalina’s and that was about the best deal on shampoo I’ve seen in months. Store’s aren’t running deals on things I need but it is soup season so maybe we’ll see some good soup deals soon.
Elizabeth F says
Ewww, caramel wrappels…my children wanted to try those years ago, it was pre 1993 according to the house we were living in. Terrible things. I didn’t even know they still made them!
Talaena says
I agree with the fairly lame and hard to find deals these days. Since my family went Paleo just under a year ago we stopped doing doublers every weekend. Honestly I think we’ve done them maybe twice in the last 6 months.
I was going to send my husband this week to get some of the cascade and the starkist tuna but we wound up being busy on Sunday so the cascade was out. Now it’s Tuesday and it’s not worth the 45 min drive for 4 packages of starkist. I’d be better off buying it at full price at Safeway or QFC 5 mins from my house than paying gas prices to drive to Albies.
I was also going to do the last round up, I even ordered extra coupons for the paper towels but I couldn’t go early in the week (kids after school stuff) so when I finally was able to go I would have had to go to 3 Albies and I still would have only been able to use maybe 20 of my over 50 coupons for paper towels. (I call each store and checked stock before making the drive.) And I didn’t pre-order because I wasn’t sure I was going to get my coupons shipped in time.
I remember some screaming good money maker deals from last year, like the single serve TGI Friday’s frozen meals. We wouldn’t eat them but we bought a bunch to make the money and then donated them. I haven’t seen those kind of deals in forever! 🙁
Jodi says
You may be resistant to the idea, but you really ought to make your own bread. It’ll save you money. Buy yourself a big 50lb bag of wheat (they are like $19) and make yourself bread all winter long. Do you have a grinder? I know you have a mixer. Also, making your own yogurt is TONS cheaper.
Here is a link for a simple bread recipe and homemade yogurt:
http://hutchingsrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/bread-and-yogurt.html
Here is a link for a more complex but better bread recipe:
http://hutchingsrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/bread-and-yogurt.html
When you make a batch of four loaves, you can freeze or refrigerate them until you go through them.
Also, just a few brainstorming ideas for sticking to your budget: Stock up on peanut butter (or buy peanuts when they harvest, freeze them and make your own in your blendtec). You made tons of jam. Maybe homemade bread with peanut butter and jelly will be your mainstay this winter (wheat and peanuts make complete protein, after all). Also, see which of your neighbors like jam or bottled fruit that you have tons of and barter your way to the free food you guys will need.
Good luck!
Elizabeth F says
Agree. Make your own bread. Do it often enough it becomes …I hate to use the word brainless…but doesn’t require a lot of thinking. Becomes 2nd nature. Soon as we move towards the time when I feel a bit of chill in the house (here that started 3 weeks ago) I start the breadmaking. There are only 3 of us at home now so I just make the one recipe of 2 loaves. This gives me 2 loaves or 1 loaf and 2 batches of cinnamon rolls or monkey bread or breadsticks. My husband takes one of the loaves or batches into work…we have a full equipped lunchroom and we have breakfast, snack whatever for us and our employees.
Agree. Make yogurt. Back when I was single I had a gas stove the pilot light kept the culturing milk in a large peanut butter jar (they were all glass back then) warm in it’s water bath. Then my husband bought one of those Salton brand yogurt makers. Though I have gone back to the old way using a glass jar and the warmth inside the microwave when I turn the overstove light on. My children have grown up on plain yogurt sweetened or topped as they want and cannot abide the store kind.
BTW I do not make bread during the “hot” months here…July and August, sometimes June. As September approached my husband often asks “is it bread
making weather yet?”. Summer we tend to go with wraps or pitas, tortillas etc.
Or husband will be out of town and bring home some nice bagels or other breadstuffs from bakeries we don’t have. Our favorites are in Skokie, Ill.
Elizabeth F says
Another thought…I saw the mushrooms and just found out that I could can mushrooms. I saw it on another blog. I have not checked the canning guide…I am guessing needs the pressure cooker. Do not like buying the canned mushrooms in store as all come from China and such. I do have frozen sliced mushrooms in the freezer now.