{Mavis and Buff the Wayward Chicken}
Last week was pretty low key. I only used 1 coupon. I stocked up on milk and bread, scored some free organic food, and bought a few special ingredients. But besides that, grocery shopping was pretty much a snooze fest. It just goes to show you, some weeks are better than others. It’s okay to slack off and give your coupon scissors a break every once in awhile.
Here is what I purchased, as well as picked up for free last week:
Costco $1.37
The trick to getting out of Costco without spending an arm and a leg is to go in with blinders on. Walk with purpose, and no matter what, do not grab a cart. Find bananas. Look straight ahead. Go to register. Pay. Leave. Go home.
Question: How many people do you know that can walk in and out of Costco in 3 minutes or less without spending over $2? I’m telling you, it’s the only way to shop.
* If you decide to go around noon, allow an extra two minutes so you can stop and get free samples.
*Vitacost $ Free
Have you signed up for Vistacost yet? Let me tell you a little secret.
When you sign up for Vitacost, the nice people over there will email you a code for $10 off your first order. But it gets even better. Vitacost has a referral program. In fact the links in this post are my referral links. Why am I telling you this? Well, you too can create your own Vitacost referral link and then share your link with family and friends via your blog, email account, Facebook and Twitter pages. When people go through your link, they will get $10 to spend and you will earn $10 to spend. Pretty sweet if you ask me.
Fred Meyer $10.34
I need to buy a cow.
Fred Meyer $9.03
And a pig.
Local Produce Stand $2.50
And an avocado tree. Monkey Boy was craving chips and homemade guacamole so like a good mommy I made him some.
Albertsons $3.50
I have a feeling I will be buying a lot more cheese here pretty soon. Good food is addicting isn’t it?
Unidentified Store $ Free
*Tomorrow I’ll show you what I was able to reclaim from the boxes and what I did with it.
So that’s the skinny on what made it’s way in to my kitchen last week. How did you do? Did you finally get up the courage to ask your local store for their “scraps” yet?
Total Spent This Week $26.74
Total Spent This Year $481.70
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $412.40
Looking for some delicious ways to serve up vegetables? Check out Fast, Fresh & Green
*Amazon prices are subject to change at any time.
Jaime @ AlittleSaverinthe253 says
Hello, I am about to start the search for stores that are “NICE” and give out there “WASTE” and be starting a local need meet up to give it out. It sounds so daunting and a logistic and legal nightmare, but there’s so many people in line when I drive past the food bank, so many kids, I can’t believe it.
I see so much waste everywhere, its an epidemic. Those who are lucky enough to have jobs and pay taxes are really the ones paying the bill, and most of time ineligible to get help if they need it.
I also wanted to ad something to those who are having issues with stores and managers refusing or giving you a line like, legal liabilities and such…….
That President we had a while ago, Bill Clinton, he did an awesome thing. He released liability to the stores who donated items by enacting the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act of 1996, you can check it out here: http://www.usda.gov/news/pubs/gleaning/appc.htm
Challice says
Tried both local stores here (only have two hee hee) and because there are sue happy people, they are not allowed to give out the leftovers/scraps/etc. 🙁 What a waste. I would have gladly signed a paper that said I will take full responsibility of the food.
Karissa says
I tried, but my closest store gives anything remotely edible to the food bank so they really did only have leftovers suitable for chickens! I still have a couple more stores to try, crossing my fingers!
Helen in Meridian says
Later this week get your coupon clipping scissors at Costco. They will have the 3 pk of Scotch scissors guaranteed for 100,000 cuts for $7.50/3 after the $2.50 coupon in the May coupon book kicks in. These scissors would also make a great Teachers gift. I love love love these scissors for $2.50 each as will you.
Cher says
You don’t need a cow….you hardly bought ANY milk….at the 10/customer, I sent myself, my husband, and two kids through the line each with 10….20 at each end of the week….20 gallons is about a 3 week supply around here! (I have 5 kids+childcare)
Carin says
One of things I love about where I live is the berry farmers when they have “pick your own” days where you can fill up 5 gallon buckets with strawberries or blueberries for $5 – $10. During citrus season I can get free oranges and grapefruit from many of my friends (they’re like Mavis during zucchini season – tying it to door handles in the middle of the night!).
Desi says
Interesting how different people eat different things. Last week I hit up Albies, Smiths, Winco and Smiths and Albertsons agaig. MUST STOP GOING SHOPPING!!!!!!! Luckily today I was able to get another box of produce. This time it has cantelope in it too! I’ll wash and cut them open soon to see how good they are inside. I’ll also be dehydrating the onions and mushrooms. I plan on making Chipotle Lime Chicken Tacos for dinner to use up some of the limes and things. My sister said they were really good and that her picky hubby even loved them.
http://www.laaloosh.com/2011/05/26/chipotle-lime-chicken-tacos-recipe/
Sheryl says
What an awesome giveaway!! I have never tried Quinoa before, is it anything like couscous?? Thanks for all the garden inspiration!! Love your blog!! I follow you on facebook, email updates, and get your blog feed on google. Thanks!!
Sarah says
Have you ever tried the bakery outlet? We get the “old bread” freeze it and it still tastes better than at the store. And we get 20 loaves for twenty dollars, of the $4 bread thank you very much. My family of 7 through a loaf a day.
D'Anna says
Saturday I went to Winco and got 36 cans of Rosarita Spicy Refried beans, 16 cans of Ortega Chiles and Ortega Taco Seasoning. I had quite a few $1/2 Ortega coupons I got in the back of one of those brand cook booklets at the Albie’s register, scored a bunch of Rosarita coupons on Ebay and I guestimate I have enough beans & chiles for about 4 months. I’m sure they will be cheaper somewhere now that I bought that many but I’m happy with not having to buy them for awhile.
We did have a guy ask us if we were having a party, I said “No” so he asked if there was a really good deal and I pulled out my wad of coupons and waved them about and said, “Well, I have coupons so they will be”. It was the first time I needed a manager override because I hit the limit on coupons 🙂
PS: Right now there is a printable on Ortega’s site for the $1/2
Edie says
You might need more than one pig depending on how much bacon you want. 🙂
Page M says
I finally got brave enough to go rummaging through the recycle center’s newspaper dumpster! I hit a JACKPOT with the coupons, but Curly (my 2 year old) got tired of throwing rocks at the cardboard dumpster and we had to high-tail it home for supper. I’m going to go back tomorrow if I can get away because that bin was FULL and it made it easier to reach in and grab the coupons 🙂 I’m trying to stock up on $.75 coupons for this triple coupon sale at Harris Teeter next week 🙂