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| free spaghetti, zucchini and squash |
I use coupons mostly for things I already buy. Yes, cheese, pasta, and vegetables are good things to buy. Salad dressing? Well, I do buy it. Saturday, I found two Kraft coupons on pads and got two of each. Sunday, I used them. I took the opportunity to shop when I went to purchase a Sunday paper for the coupons.
First coupon: Buy two Kraft salad dressings and get $1 worth of produce free. My $1 free produce was a zucchini and a yellow squash. They were $1.25, so I paid a quarter for them after the coupon. Both will go in a salad. I will use 1/3 of each, making this enough for three salads. Along with romaine, radicchio, endive, carrots, tomatoes, chicken, cheese, and dressing, there will be enough to stuff me.
Second coupon: Buy Kraft Grated Parmesan cheese and get $1.50 off pasta. I do use both. I could have gotten whole wheat pasta. I wanted spaghetti and cannot stand whole wheat spaghetti even though I like other whole wheat pasta.
Both coupons are on pads in the store.
The Ronco pasta
zucchini
squash
Kraft Parmesan Cheese $2.98
Kraft dressings 2 x $1.68=$3.36
Total value= $8.81
Paid--$6.59
Savings=$2.22 = 20%
That's $2.22 in my pocket and food I would not have on hand. The pasta was $1.22, so the cash register is programmed so that no overage occurs, overage that usually just covers other food! RATS!
Two salad dressing go in the cupboard for another day. I use the zesty Italian on chicken when I cook. Zucchini and squash go in the crisper. Pasta package goes into a bug-proof Tupperware container. I just bought Parmesan cheese two days ago, so this one goes in cupboard.
Other free food
3 banana peppers
July so far
Cokes $5.98
1 tomato $1.00 (to see if I want to can that variety)
Above--$
pint of chocolate milk $1.59 Yikes, should not have done that.
Total for first three days of July
When I made my salad tonight and got out the dressing, it was almost gone, so empty that I could not get any out. I was in no mood to shake the bottle or let it drain upside down. The bottle of dressing is back in the refrigerator door, upside down. I opened the bottle of Ranch dressing I purchased today.
I am trying to only spend $100 on food in July. I now have
Financial setbacks have led me to this goal. I had a $200 car repair (boot and stuff on front right axle) last Friday and will have a $400 one that I am delaying until the first of August--rack and pinion something.
For several reasons I am not going to a 4th of July block party in Birmingham where I would have a front row seat to fireworks on Red Mountain, good food and visits with friends. Stormy weather, cost of gas, car problems, extreme heat/humidity, long drive (50 miles) and my complete exhaustion caused me to decide I will stay home today and clean house and write this...lol. Okay, my exhaustion right now and the drive home are the real constraints.
There are two huge bunches of bananas in the refrigerator just waiting to go into the dehydrator. Maybe I will attend to those.
Your turn
Do you have goals with set amounts to spend? Are you successful at staying within self-imposed limits? Or, do you have limits on spending set from an outside source?
Oooohhhh, fun post! I love talking about bargain shopping. I have a cash budget of $480 for all food and household needs per month. That is to take care of four of us (two teen boys and two adults).
ReplyDeleteI am trying to cut that amount in half by September. (We are in a financial bind for many reasons.)
Anyway, my goal is to stick with the $480 for July and August and build a decent pantry. Then by September, have enough stored that I can shop only for sale and bargain items.
Using coupons last week I saved almost 50% of my grocery bill on things I would have bought anyway.
Looking forward to reading about how the rest of your month goes.
Even if I have plenty of an item, if it is free or cheap AND I can use it by "use by" date, I still buy more. Good luck on this. If you can get a really large surplus of an item that is so free or cheap, you can use it to trade.
ReplyDeleteI have an area about 20'x20' that is overgrown because a tornado driven tree knocked down my scuppernong arbor several years ago. I am trading free and cheap food to someone for his services. It works. If he finishes half of it in one day and says he will take the food and come back tomorrow, he gets half the food now and the rest when he returns and completes the job.
Some people take surplus good deals and add it to their yard sale...should you get 100 of something free...lol.
It was good you wanted to keep up with my progress because I intend to keep posting it and hoped no one would be bored. But, the name of my blog says it all.
Good luck on your goals. With a little attention and cooperation from the family, you can reach your goals.
Thanks for the comment.