I've discovered the "coupon matchup" world. Apparently, while I've been finding myself too busy and important to save money, others have been racking up savings at the grocery store using coupons and sales. Why should I be so different? Can I really afford to pay way more for food? The answer is that I'm no different and NO we cannot afford to pay regular price for everything.
Coupon matchups require the following: 1) the Sunday paper, 2) meal planning (which I already do, as evidenced by this blog. I even meal plan when I'm not posting - posting requires extra time and sometimes I just don't have it. 3) the time to comb through the sales ad. Making all three elements work for you can seem tricky and daunting but it's NOT. Here's how I did it this week.
Step 1. Access the Tops (my local grocery store) ad online and examine the front page. This is where are all the big savings is: the loss leaders. With whatever is on the front page that looks appetizing and what's already in your pantry, proceed to step 2:
Step 2. Devise a meal plan for the week that utilizes things on sale and things already in your pantry while buying as little at full price as possible.
Step 3. Go through your coupon collection and coupon websites to find "matchups" or things that are on sale AND have coupons.
I know what you're thinking: Wow - what a colossal waste of my valuable time.
Do you think spending $97 on $165 of groceries is a waste of time? I DON'T.
In addition, you're thinking: I don't eat processed food so coupons don't work for me because most are on processed foods.
It is true that there exist a majority of processed food coups. But I don't eat lots of processed foods either. It still saves money to use the method!
Here's how I did it this week. Based on the Tops Weekly Ad, I saw that pork butt roasts were on sale, Hillshire Farms smoked sausages were Buy 1, Get 1 Free (B1G1F) and I have a really well-stocked pantry from previous sales and shopping. My meal plan became this:
pork barbacoa wraps: http://www.skinnytaste.co...sweet-barbacoa-pork.html
black bean chili with butternut squash: http://www.epicurious.com...h-and-Swiss-Chard-234146
Shrimp and sausage jambalaya: http://www.food.com/recipe/jambalaya-48322
Chicken enchiladas: http://allrecipes.com//Re...enchiladas-i/Detail.aspx
I'm not done. I'm still looking for 3 more recipes for the week, but I have the major ones and a leftover night or pasta night can easily be worked in.
Next, I went searching for coupons to match up with the ingredients I needed on my list. I found a Hillshire Farms sausage coup from a previous weekly newspaper insert. I found coupons for some of the loss leaders on the front page of the sales ad. And then I went to the store and got the savings I mentioned above. $165 of groceries for $97!! This was a particularly big shop - normally I spend about $60 per week. As I learn the best format for sharing the deals, I'll be happy to pass them along!
I stocked up on loss leaders that I had coups for and I bought what I needed for my major recipes. The end!
Next post will be on what I cooked ahead of time to make these recipes easier to handle.
