coupons?

I have been diligently working away at couponing, meal planning and grocery lists this past week.
All of which are not exactly something I would choose to do willingly. I really have a hard time with each of these. But I have been challenged lately to work harder at these things because they are some thing I not only need to do but must do. They are my responsibility.
My job, given by God, is to run the home. To be the home maker. Not lead the home- that is my husband's God given gift, but to organize and efficiently keep it in order. It's something I think some women shy away from, or procrastinate or somehow justify not doing for the sake of so many excuses. I fit right in there.
It's easy to put other things ahead of these tasks that, well are not exactly my favorite. I have laundry to finish, a little boy to teach, emails to respond to, bathrooms to clean, meals to cook...and on goes my list.
Yes these items need to be done too, but along with the ones that I well, dislike.
But I know that I am more than capable, and God is willing to help with each task He has expected me to do.
I'm not a failure. In fact I can be pretty determined when I set my mind to doing something. Firm even.
So I jumped in this past week. I knew the road before me would be long and frustrating as I planned out meals, researched sales and coupons and wrote my grocery list.
And guess what? I finished it. (meal plan here if you'd like to look)
I was determined to finish no matter how long it took. And I did. Thank you God for helping.
I prayed over the time I invested as I headed to the store and I feel God blessed the efforts I put in.
Will it get easier? I am hoping so. I'm starting to see a reason to all the madness.
Meal plans= less stress each day, less money on store trips, and more time for other things. So it does make sense. I think I forget that planning always equals more time in the long run.
And the coupons.
I struggled using coupons for the fact that I try hard to keep our foods more whole food based, or with as little processed foods as possible. It's tough to do this on a small budget but also with coupons as so many of them are for boxed, canned, packaged processed junk that really shouldn't even be on the shelves, because of the unhealthy things that are in them. (thinking of sugary cereals, microwave meals...etc.)
But I was again challenging myself to find the best deals, whole food or organic, without stocking up on things that were unhealthy.
The first thing I did when I was researching coupon deals was to look for all the free things. By free I mean the things that you end up getting free when you use the coupons combined with sales. Now these items can often be junk items if they are food, but not always. Free things were also toiletries or paper products such as toothpaste, kleenex, cough drops, soaps etc. When I saw those as free I knew that even if we didn't use some of them, I could still pick them up and donate them to others. Now that is awesome! Also, some of the freebies actually make you a little money when you have coupons that pay for it, with overage. So even if you don't use the items, buy them to make the little overage and donate them.
After I found all the free items and made sure I had the coupons necessary (that's key), I then looked at sales for things we could use.
After shopping between Kroger and Publix (they are minutes from each other where I live) I was able to stock up on some great items including: organic soup, organic broths, organic granola, annie's mac and cheese, natural eggs, salsa for cheap! I also picked up some other basic groceries including produce, which I could spend a little more on with the savings. I picked up a turkey for a great deal at .79 lb for Thanksgiving. Overall between the two stores I spent roughly $58 or so. $19 at Publix (saving over $19) and $38 at Kroger (saving $25 or so).
Also for the free things I headed out to Kroger on a special trip just for those. My total from that trip? I was paid over $7 back. That was pretty awesome. I think that was what encouraged me to try a little harder at coupons. A word of encouragement- you can coupon, save and still buy healthy good food for your family.
Shop sales, in season, and stock up when you have coupons combined with sales on good foods. I thought it was kind of like hoarding to stock, but you want to buy a bunch when it's at it's lowest price so that you are well stocked until the next sale. And I don't greedily buy things we don't use. If something is free, I'll pick it up to donate if we don't use it.
It's a lot of fun to chip away at our budget and get things as low as I can. We don't have wiggle room when it comes to going over so I have to shop smart, there isn't an option here!
Here are the groceries from my two grocery trips:

Also I stick to one site for all this- www.southernsavers.com
I think this helps me tremendously, otherwise I'd be all over the internet searching for sales.
I also shop at Aldi for things, and CVS- but that's another story for another day.
Be encouraged women, you were made for the calling God has on your life- being a home maker, managing all the tasks at home, training up your children, what a huge blessing and honor it is! You are capable of doing all this too, with God's help, don't give up.
Psalm 128:2 
For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
I also like the translation in the ESV that says:
You shall eat of the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

So don't give up! It will be worth it.

juice for Oliver

Today's shopping trip was a little simpler than last weekends. I picked up a few toiletries and some other foods we ran out of like yogurt and milk. I still had to split my trip between a few stores, CVS being one of them. I have been taking advantage of their Extra Care Bucks by only buying things that offer them, and that I can also match a coupon with. This is the best way to save a lot at pharmacy. Their normal prices are never usually worth it as they seem to price things a lot higher than any other store. But using their reward system can be like getting some things for free.
Actually I did get some things for free today! They have a machine in CVS that lets you scan your card (you have to have this little Extra Care Bucks reward card to scan and use at every purchase) and it prints out coupons for you. This time it printed out two free items, one a pack of CVS brand bandaids, and one candy bar- Caramello. As it turned out they didn't carry that kind of candybar, so I was able to pick any Hershey brand bar and use the coupon. Since I rarely buy candybars, or candy for that matter, it was nice to have my pick. Literally like a kid in a candy store! I chose a dark chocolate bar. Yum. I'll be sharing it with Jonah....well maybe :)
I know that it can be overwhelming when you start out, to try to figure out the saving, coupon and CVS thing, but it was worth it to us when I can save on things like deodorant, feminine products, shampoos and mascara. Who really wants to pay full price for those anyways? We use them so often it's worth the effort on my part.
But my trips today were Oliver free as Jonah was home with him for me. It was an easier trip because of this, not having to tote Oliver in and out of the cart and into the blazing hot heat we've been having today. (thankfully it's raining now and will hopefully cool things down!)
My bargain deal today was at Kroger. I was walking down the natural food section and I saw a discount label on organic juices for kids. I looked closer and realized they were clearancing it out for good. The regular price was around $5 per bottle and they were marked at $1.57!
I haven't really given Oliver juice, just water and milk, and every now and then some really watered down orange juice. I wasn't crazy about giving him sugar. But these were made to be first juices and the ingredients were purely fruits and vegetables. (carrots, bananas, and apples) What a great deal! I bought all four that were left on the shelf.

Plus when I went to check out they rang up at regular price- so I asked if I could go double check the tag to be sure I was correct on the discount and item. The checkout lady didn't believe that they were discounted, but I checked and they were- even after they had another worker come check too. I've really learned to be bolder when it comes to sales. I'm not afraid to check and double check if I don't get the discount I had planned for, and I'm not afraid (usually, still learning) to put the item BACK if I was wrong.
That's the tough part.
In fact I did the exact opposite the other day in the thrift store. I really shouldn't have even gone in. But I did, it was hot out, and I was killing a little time before we headed to meet Jonah for lunch. My buy? A portable charcoal grill by Charbroil. I payed around $16 for it, only because when I put it in the cart I thought a certain color was half price- including the grill. When I got to the checkout I realized I had been told the wrong color by a sales associate in the store. Darn. So I payed full price, even after I had talked with Jonah about it- we agreed we wouldn't spend more than $10. So there you go. I'm still weak when it comes to making the best decision all the time. And now, I'm going to see if I can sell it on Craigslist, because when I opened the box at home, I realized it was brand new in it's original packaging. Wow, pretty nice.
But in the long run we really try to stretch our dollars as far as they can go since we don't have many of them!
God knows my heart, and He knows I desire to be wise with our budget and groceries and purchases, and He knows how hard I'm trying and that I still fail. For that I am thankful, because I know He owns everything that goes through our hands and I don't have to fear anything resting in His provision. Even if we don't have a grill if we sell this one, He'll provide a way for us to grill those steaks we have in our freezer (from our 1/8 cow share).

How to buy and prepare wholefoods on a tiny budget

I have been busy in our kitchen this summer. Busy at the store and occasional farmers market too.
My ongoing journey into wholefoods, cooking from scratch, has taken a good turn. My focus has been able to be on it even more.
One reason being that I am now at home with our sweet son. I ended my full time job, left the workplace and really I am not even looking back. It's been a WONDERFUL experience so far. I love being at home with my husband and son, and I love being able to plan our eating a little more.
In this food journey it's very easy to quickly become overwhelmed with what you should and shouldn't eat, how you should cook something, what you should soak, what should be sprouted, and above all else, how in the world you can stay in/under budget- or my biggest one- shop and prepare whole food meals in a very small budget.
Is this even possible? I found myself wondering that so frequently it almost made me want to quit.
But my knowledge of the benefits and my knowledge of what many 'food' products on the shelves contain is enough to make me press on. It IS worth it to have nutritious homeade meals on your table when all is said and done.
I thought I would share some of my latest attempts at a few different foods.
One is tortillas.
These are usually a little pricey in the store, and the list of ingredients on the package is a little unnerving. I'm eating what exactly??
I was determined to find a way to at least try to make them at home, and if it failed or was impossibly hard, well, back to storebought I suppose.
I came across a fabulous little recipe for some whole wheat tortillas. The ingredient list? four. That's it, and one is water. Okay sounds simple....
It was. And guess what? They are also delicious. My one batch made roughly 12 medium to small sized tortillas and I popped them in a ziplock and put them in the fridge to use for the week. So handy and healthy to make wraps with meat and veggies, or peanut butter and banana, or quesadillas for us.  One of my favorite recipes is: fresh garden tomatoes, cheese, and basil (picked out of my garden) on a tortilla folded and half and toasted to melt the cheese. Oliver loves these and they are so easy!
Here is the link for this simple recipe: wheat tortillas
I used King Arthur's whole wheat flour (being sure it was made with red hard winter wheat- nutritious). And you can freeze these for later use.
I also dived into breadmaking. I thought I'd try it out to see if it really was worth the time to make it. Bread is another product on the shelf that has a long list of ingredients, many being preservatives of some sort.
I had purchased my whole wheat flour, so I actually just used the recipe right on the back of the flour bag. Pretty easy- the longest part is waiting for it to rise. If you have ever made breads of any kind, you are familiar with this process. So if you are running and doing other errands, you have to stay at home so that you don't miss the times to punch down and transfer, then later bake. But if you make more than one loaf at a time I would say it's worth it and cheaper than buying bread. At least for us it is since we spend over $3 a loaf at the store. We try to buy bread that is better quality and nutrition- never white bread. Not anymore! I remember eating some white bread after being without it for so long and my stomach was so upset...not sure what the relation could have been. Maybe it wasn't the bread at all! I do know white flour is bleached and processed, much of it having vitamins added back into it- or 'enriched'.
The only negative about bread making is that it doesn't stay fresh too long and gets dry after a few days. I am going to try freezing the second loaf to see if this helps.
I have also been storing up our freezer with fresh produce. When something is in season at the store I'll buy a bunch and freeze it. I did this with sweet corn, summer squash, blackberries, blueberries, mango, some peppers (I have many growing in our garden- so exciting watching them get bigger!), peaches, eggplant, cauliflower, and broccoli. I also bought some green beans in an attempt to freeze some but never got around to it. I'll be on the lookout for more things that are low price. Seasonal is definitely the way to shop- whether at the store or at a farmers market. Farmers markets offer fresh from the garden and often the sweetest, most flavorful foods if you have a good local one. I found our tomatoes there and my goodness what a delicious difference. I'd love to go and pick some produce too as we have several places near us. I love stocking up our freezer with produce at it's peak flavor.
This is as far as I have gotten in our kitchen/freezer.
I did read a great article about freezing things- even cooked beans! (this is great for me who likes to soak a bunch, cook them only to have them sit in our fridge because we can't possibly finish the huge pot of them I made!) I found that here.
I have found that shopping seasonally and using a minimum amount of coupons has saved us money. Well, at least we are able to buy more and stay in our budget.
Some things I did this past grocery week: purchased a double Sunday paper (to keep coupons). I actually looked through the local grocery store flyers (even though you can find them on southernsavers.com) and I found some off the wall sales for different things like mangos for .50 at Aldi's. Big discount there, considering I have only seen them on sale for around .85 elsewhere. I also found some great deals for back to school items, even though I don't have school age kids, there were sales on computer paper for sooo low. Yes, .25 for a ream, cheap.
I also glance through the grocery flyers, but mostly just look at the deals listed online for those.
I am not giving up entirely on couponing- I know it's really tough to do when you are trying to be wholefoods conscientious. So I'm giving myself at least 6 weeks or so of really trying it to see if it's worth the effort.
I usually search for sales at two different grocery stores that are actually 2 minutes from each other for me. This is helpful since I really wouldn't choose to shop at 2 places if they were farther apart. I also keep an eye on Aldi sales. I've found that they have some great items for low prices- items that have only a few ingredients and that are still healthful.
My stores of choice are Kroger and Publix- welcome to the south.
I also found a great resource for coupons: recyclebank.com
You sign up for an account and to earn points you take little quizzes that are so easy- even if you get the answers wrong they still reward you points. You can use these points for different organic coupons or for coupons to get money off your order at Publix. Pretty easy and useful.
I have to admit that it will take some time to find a system that works- an efficient one. I am not one that loves to sit and plan grocery shopping for hours on end. I have found that I'm getting a little faster as I know what I will look at.  For example when I'm comparing store sales I go immediately to produce and fresh foods and keep an eye out for wipes and diapers or some toiletries we use. Those are really the basic things I focus on and it helps narrow it down. I don't stock up on crackers, cookies, processed foods and sugary cereals as you can imagine. (those seem to be big items that couponers find to be good deals)
I'm not perfect at this in anyway. I only hope to encourage others that are on this similar journey. I'll try to update as I go along....
It is definitely worth it to buy quality items and stay in budget isn't it?
For now I think thats about it. I have a nice long row of peaches sitting on my kitchen window ready to be sliced and frozen. Nice and ripe now!
And my final thought in all of this, don't forget to pray over each decision. I have found that I was trying to hard to do everything right. You can only do your best, and God knows that and will bless your efforts!