[aclee]

Originally Posted by mommy3

My main hint is to have a small plastic envelope (or some other holder) that you just keep in your purse and whenever you see/find/clip/get a coupon that you might us, put it in there. I actually shop regularly at 3-4 stores, counting Costo, Trader Joe's, our regular grocery store and the natural foods store. Honestly, our list is always pretty similar except when I plan an unsual meal, so I just watch for my regular items and if they are on sale, cool; if I can use a coupon, I've got 'em with me. Typically, everything I cook is fresh, so lots of coupons don't work for me, as they are often for much more commercial items, but still, we probably save about $3-5 per week plus another 20-30 on that week's specials that just happen to be specials. I also have a medium-sized freezer and a decent-size pantry, so I buy extras or large-sizes so we usually have more than what we need for a week or a month, depending upon the item. The coupon game can be a real deal if you eat lots of commercially-prepared foods, but that's not us, so I just try to watch for specials on the brands and foods we eat and use coupons when I'm lucky. susan

Ditto this post. As a house hold where one person has a sodium restriction (no prepared foods for him) and I am gluten free...we really can't use coupons. If I need something premade, we buy a store brand if we can. I worry less about coupons, and more about stocking up with the item is on sale so we don't impulse buy. Impulse buying chicken breast can mean the difference between paying $1.39 a pound (or less!) or paying $3.99 a pound...makes a big difference in the meal. We just bought 10 pounds of chicken at 1.39 a pound...and we weren't even close to needing it. We stock up on veggies during the summer, or stuff that looks good on the reduced rack. I just bought 6 pounds of green beans at .49 a pound off the reduced rack. I know enough about green beans to look at them, know they were fresh, but were late season, and maybe just barely frost bitten. It makes for darkish spots on the bean...spots that basically disappear when you blanch them. So I have (6) 1 pound vacuum sealed bags in the freezer of fresh green beans for $3. And the dogs ate the end trimming in their dinner Fruit is harder. I find that they don't really move fruit to the reduced rack till it's VERY ripe...which is great if it's citrus that you'll use quickly, but for pear etc...it can be tough. When I was making stuff for Ty, it worked great, but stuff for eating now, it's a bit soft. I can't wait till spring/summer.

I won't cut our grocery budget if it means eating prepackaged rice with 1200 mg of sodium per serving. I'm not a complete scratch cook yet, but I'm working on it