Healthy eating on a budget

Oh yeah...I'm all about fast food swaps. Check these out on BF:

Egg NikMuffin :)
Nik Wrap
Chicken Bacon Ranch wrap
Homemade low carb hot pockets (pepperoni pizza and ham/cheese)

Another way to cut costs over the long haul is to buy in bulk, from places like Costco ir BJs.

Example is I just did Center Loin Pork chops for a camping trip.  Typically I would pay about 13 bucks for what 9 chops or something?  I bought a whole Center loin and cut my own 4oz chops.  I had probably 25 chops for about 21 bucks.  You can do this with steaks as well.  Buy the primal cuts and then portion them out yourself.  Yes you will spend more upfront but the over all cost over the life of the meat will be a lot less.

Yeah, and if you are like me and it will take you forever to use a case of whatever you want to buy or you just don't have room to store it, if you can shop with a friend you can split the cost and the case.  I used to shop at Sam's Club with a friend and we were both single so it would take use forever to go through a 20 pound bag of beans or rice but we'd split them.

Shouldn't tha read Chicken Bacon Ranch Niki Wraps?

I think the post is just called Chix Bacon Ranch Wraps. But if you'd like to call it that...I would not object!

(And of course I always observe the right to be dead WRONG!)

Here's my savings tip...COUPONS.  Now...I'm no where NEAR an extreme couponer (I mean who the hell needs 100 packs of tic tacs??!?!?) but I've taken some of the ideas from the show and I am able to buy better quality products (organic or better cuts of meat) with the savings from the coupons which helps my bottom line.

1.  I have a Sunday only subscription to the Washington Post that I got via groupon.  $25 for a year = 50cent a week.  The coupons inside are worth it alone.

2.  I swap coupons with 2-3 ladies at work.  We all like different products so it works out and I get 2-3 coupons for some of my favorite items for free.  If you have to "buy" the coupons (which is what a lot of the extreme couponers do...then you're not really saving money!)

3.  I only clip for items I use.  There's a lot of "junk" coupons (hello tic tacs) but I bypass those.  I tend to use coupons for things like laundry detergent, soap, razors, and other health and beauty products.  There are some coupons for staples that I get as well.

4.  I use a coupon matching website that matches the coupons to the sale paper (www.coupondivas.com is a good one).  Using the coupon with the instore sale increases my savings.

5.  Some stores like Target and Walmart have printable coupons on thier websites that you can print and use in store.  At Target, you can use a target printable coupon with a newspaper coupon together to increase your savings (stacking coupons).  Stacking coupons with the sales = additional savings.

I spend maybe 1-2 hours a week (usually on Sunday while doing laundry) clipping my coupons and then checking the matchups online for my local stores.  I make my list and ONLY buy what's on it specificly for the sale items.  Then whenever I'm in the area near said store (usually after work to avoid traffic) I pick up my items.  For some, this might be a bit much, but it works for me.

I recently discovered that most companies will send you coupons if you just email them and ask.  I'm loving that.  I made a list of all the brands of things that I prefer and buy often and have been slowly working my way through the list.  I just google the company, then find the contact info on their website and email them and tell them why I like their product and ask if they can send me some coupons.

So far I have gotten coupons for Smuckers jam, Jiff peanut butter, Friskies cat food, Tofurkey fake meat products... um, I'm drawing a blank on what else.  Only one company,  Morningstar Farms, emailed me back and said they don't send people coupons.  This is great because I'm getting coupons for the stuff I actually want to buy.  When I look in the paper for coupons, they usually aren't for the right brands.

Yeah there is a trick to couponing.,,,and that's one that i've been meaning to try (emailing the companies for coupons).  I mostly use the coupons for health, beauty, cleaning, and a few other things. 

For instance, about 3 weeks ago, there was a $1 off coupon for All laundry detergent (I LOVE the dye free purfume free All).  My local grocery store had 24load sizes 2 for $5.  None of the other ladies that I swap coupons with use all (but they fight over the Tide coupons)..so I ended up with like 6 $1 off coupons.

6 bottles of All laundry deterget on sale was $15 minus $6 from the coupons...that $9 for 6 bottles of laundry detergent.  Regular price for the laundry detergent is $5.99 ($35 for 6 bottles).  That's a savings of $26 and laundry detergent is crossed off my shopping list for the next 6 months.  That $26 is used to buy other stuff that I don't have coupons for.  That's sort of my method to the couponing madness. 

Also...Target ALWAYS has printable morningstar farms coupons on thier website...look down towards the bottom where all the links are, there is one that says coupons.  Usually its for $1 but  a few times I've seen them for $2.

You can go to the Krogers website and preload coupons onto you reward card.  I think they are smiths on the west coast and a couple other names as well.