How do you save without the coupons? s/o of extreme...

[Amys1st]

This is not to debate! A few of us expressed how we did not use coupons for various reason. I think for some families, coupons are a great asset and would not make it otherwise. So, what do you do instead of shopping with coupons to keep your costs low?

[happysmileylady]

Freecycle and CL!  I scour them all the time.  Even when I am not looking for something specific.  I believe that anything can be had for free, at some point or another.  It just depends on the time and effort you want to spend.  I have seen everything from furniture, to big screen tvs to toilet paper to dog food to plant seedlings and everything in between listed on Freecycle and the free section on CL. 

Also, Costco.  Particularly for meat.  I find their prices to generally be comparable to sale prices at the regular stores, and the quality is better.  The fact that Kirkland brand is sometimes organic as well is just a bonus.

And, to go along with Costco...the buddy system.  I get the executive level membership with Costco.  Because you can bring along someone who isn't a member each time, every time I go, I bring at least one person with me. (sometimes I will bring two, but combine orders, so only one buddy has their own order.)  Everything I spent and everything they spend all counts towards the total accumuated spending.  At the end of the year, with the executive level membership, I get a "rebate check" to be used at Costco, for 2% (I think it's 2) of that total accumlated spending.  I then use that to pay for the next year's membership.  Last year, I didn't have to pay but $1 for it out of pocket, this year I will have to pay $25.  My mom and I also use this buddy system for our gardens.  We ordered our seeds together, so we were able to use a coupon we wouldn't have been able to with seperate orders, we share weeding tasks, and when it comes time to harvest, we will be sharing that.  We have planned for that in what we plant where.  She's growing most of the tomatos, they do best in her garden, but I am growing the jalapenos, I have had good luck with those.  So, when we do our freezer salsa, we will be using her tomatos and my jalapenos to make them.

And of course, that leads right into the gardens.  This year, between the two of us, we are planting corn, radishes, carrots, lettuce, tomatos, hot peppers, bell peppers, zucchini, snap peas, green and yellow beans and onions.  Oh, and I have strawberries in front (first year on these plants, not sure if I will get berries this year off them)  and black berry bushes in the side yard.

[Chicky2]

We raise most of our own meats (grocery store meats make me want to hurl), so where are the coupons for that?  LOL!  Tractor Supply puts out 10% off coupons on orders of $100 or so periodically.  We stock up!  Feed prices have skyrocketed!  We also garden, and my kids know the cycle of those animals we raise--their poo helps our veggies grow.  We forage for berries, nuts, and other fruits.  If someone has a tree that looks like it needs to be picked, I don't hesitate to ask if I can pick it and bring them jam or frozen/dehydrated fruit.  We get our pork for free.  We drive to my moms to butcher wild pigs that her dh has trapped.  We consider it free because we would still go see my mom.  So far this year we have 12 2-lb packs of ground pork, 6 small whole pigs, 1 larger whole pig, 2 small ones we smoked (and froze more than half), 6 hams, several shoulders, 8 bacon (I cured and smoked myself), 4 loin roasts, and 8 packs of ribs.  Just took us the labor to butcher/process/wrap.  We never turn down anything anyone offers--leftovers from a party, garden extras when dh does a sidejob, etc...Last year a lady dropped of 12 gallons of peaches. We use all bones to make stock and save $ that way.  We go to the Asian market to buy some items like rice, soy sauces, wonton wrappers, etc...I use Amazon Prime for a few items I need and can't find in my town.  We reuse almost everything we possibly can, and have gotten our trash down to one big bag a week, which is good for us.  We burn our paper trash. I reinvent leftovers.  I am back to making my own laundry detergent simply because I don't like what's in commercial ones.  I never ever buy cleaning supplies other than sponges, and we use vinegar and baking soda to clean.  I barter for discounts in the kids music lessons, and once a month feed the teachers supper.  I use cloth napkins and unpaper towels.  I use dryer balls for softening, and hang dry when the weather is not too windy--today it's gusting to 55 mph, and the clothes fly off the lines.

[Harleth]

We live in an area where food is really expensive. So we make our own yogurt and kefir, we have a window garden for herbs that we dry as well as use fresh, and we belong to a produce co-op so six months of the year we get a great share of veggies from a farm. We also buy bulk in other locations when things are on sale and store.

I am also really good at finding deals online and using things like freecycle for things I want but do not deem spend worthy. You would not believe how many toiletries etc. you can get for free if you wait for the right sale. Stores do crazy things to bring you in - Victoria's Secret keeps giving me free underwear.

[FillingMyQuiver]

We buy a lot in bulk.  And I don't mean 40 boxes of cereal at once, LOL, but things like 50lbs wheat berries (we grind our own), 25lbs rice, 25lbs sucanat, 12 free range chickens at a time (we have friends that raise meat birds).  We also split a whole cow for meat w/ 2 other families 2x/ yr.

I make most of our health and beauty products.  Our soap is olive oil bought in bulk, coconut oil bought by the gallon, and tallow rendered from the fat we get w/ our bulk beef order.  The whole family pretty much does "no poo" or uses our homemade soap so we don't need shampoo or conditioner.  We moisturize w/ the coconut oil or w/ homemade lotion bars made of beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, and coconut oil, all purchased in bulk.

Our cleaning products are homemade from combinations of vinegar bought in the big 2.5gal containers, baking soda bought in bulk, borax, washing soda, and citric acid (bought 5lbs at a time).  I do buy laundry detergent and dish detergent for handwashing, but they're bought by the gallon about 2x or 3x/ yr.

We buy straight from the farm when possible and preserve/ can/ freeze for later in the year .  U-pick strawberries in June, 40lbs u-pick peaches in Aug, 120lbs u-pick apples in Sept/ Oct, etc.  If there's no u-pick, we buy at the farmer's markets in the area to get good prices.

We generally don't use disposables, the exception for right now is DH's razor heads, but we're looking into a straight razor for him.  We use cloth almost exclusively.  Cloth dipes, cloth "unpaper" towels, cloth menstrual products (or a Diva Cup), family cloth (though we do have tp for guests), cloth napkins, etc.

[Chicky2]

I forgot to post about Freecycle!  I love Freecycle!  We give things away all the time, and we've gotten some great stuff!  Just recently my 12 yo dd started another puzzle kick after doing one w/her Popop.  I posted for puzzles on FC and got over 20 so far!  Nice ones w/over 1,000 pieces.  And I made a friend, lol.  One of the women who gave puzzles posted looking for seeds, and it was on from there.  I also recently posted for a pregnant woman I met who was sleeping on an air mattress.  Very quickly I got her a mattress-2 of them even, from the same woman.  There were no boxsprings so I figured she could stack them.   I also met a lady very nearby from FC who needed baby things for a woman w/a newborn and the mom had been hit by a car!  The lady who came to get the items ended up buying some rabbits from me later on.  Then she brought me peppers later.....Did I mention I love FC?

FillingMyQuiver, would you mind sharing your lotion bar and soap recipes?  Soon I'll have my own goat milk and want to make soap, so I've really been trying to learn about this.  And how do you use the lotion bar?

[FillingMyQuiver]

Chicky2~  for soap I referenced this page a lot and plugged in my ingredients into this lye calculator to figure out how much lye I needed to use.

For the lotion bar, I melt equal parts beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, and coconut oil in a double boiler.  Pour into molds, let harden.  I've also made these w/out the cocoa butter.  To use, just rub it on your hands/ feet/ body, the heat from your skin "melts" it.

[BetsyS]

This is a great thread.  I've been on a couponing kick for the last 6 months or so, but it's on my nerves now, so I'm starting to not do it anymore unless something just jumps out at me.  And you are right--I saw recently on a "healthy" coupon blog that she got boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cream cheese, and skim milk.  Half of the family is dairy free, I've recently moved my boys to raw milk, and we like whole chickens, which are always cheaper than breasts, so even those healthy coupons don't really apply to us. 

One thing I do is preserve grocery store produce.  We do not eat all organic, because of the price, so we're willing to eat conventional produce.  However, I really, really (really!) like in-season produce, and I have a hard time eating it out of season.  So, I just bought a whole bunch of strawberries when Aldi had them for $0.99, and I froze them and made jam from them.  I did the same thing last year when the blueberries were $0.99/pint.  They lasted us about 9 months, so I know to do more this summer.  I buy Vidalia onions this time of year (in the 50 lb bag a few times) and dice them for the freezer, so that I have them all year.  Same with bell peppers when they go cheap in the summer.  I buy tomatoes to preserve in the summer (cause all we grow we eat fresh).  Anytime I can get a good deal on produce I look towards preserving it. 

I haven't made the jump to a side of beef/pork yet, but I'm considering it.  I have to make sure that it would save us money first.  I know the health benefits, but we're also on a tight budget, so I have to make it work. 

We have a small, intown garden, but my dh works hard at the square foot method to maximize what we get out of it.  We have three 4x8 plots.  Right now, we have herbs, cabbage, lettuce, chard, broccoli, Chinese mallow, and one other type of green, as well as onions and kohlrabi in there.  In the summer, it'll be eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. 

[BetsyS]

Oh, and I have a place where I can buy grains and beans and spices in bulk, but in small quantities, if that makes sense.  They package it themselves.  This works for me, cause I don't have room for 50 lbs of, well, anything.  But, I can buy 2 lbs of steel cut oats at $0.99/lb, and that works just great for us. 

I get all my grains, any beans, any spices, and a few other things that way. 

[ChristyMarie]

The best thing I did was to start a stockpile in the basement.  So now I buy what is on sale each week and "shop" from my basement.  It kills me to pay full price for pasta, beans, canned tomatoes, cereal, etc. 

I use sales at the grocery store and Costco mostly.  Buy in bulk then package things in smaller servings to freeze.

For fresh produce I buy what is on sale and shop seasonally instead of my old way of "but I want to make this NOW I don't care if it isn't in season."

We also have access to a restaurant wholesaler so we buy major bulk of some meats (need more freezers to really take advantage but that requires a generator first), rice, spices, salt, etc.  I recently bought a case of kosher salt for about the price of one big box at our specialty grocer.  I lust after their huge cheese wheels but haven't figured out a use for one yet.  At least not a use that justifies the initial cost, lol.

And we've downgraded our wine purchases.  I'm embarrassed to admit how much this saves us.  We've searched out value wines that are still really good.  So we drink more from Chile, South Africa and Australia now instead of France and California. We drink Prosecco now instead of Champagne, Malbec instead of Cab. It works.

[Biscuits & Gravy]

Great thread! I use coupons a ton, but I love reading other ideas because I can always use more info about ways to save money with groceries.

My friends and I went together on some big boxes of peppers at the farmers market. They were all "seconds" basically, ones with spots or smaller than others. We all sliced the peppers up and froze them, and had bags of peppers for use all winter when they are ridiculously expensive at the grocery store. We also bought boxes of apples that were bruised and not perfect. I made applesauce with my share and froze it. I didn't learn about this trick until the end of summer so this year I'll be taking better advantage of it.

I do my best to use everything and not waste food. I save bones and veggie bits, freeze them until I have enough and make stock. I also salvage half eaten bananas and freeze those bits for future use in muffins, bread or smoothies.

[CatsCradle]

I've posted this before, but we belong to a large food co-op. Of course, DH and I have to work a certain number of hours at the co-op every month, but it is worth it not only for the cost savings but access to quality, mostly regionally grown food.  The way I have calculated it, we probably spend about 45% less on groceries at the co-op then we would pay at a regular grocery store.

We're also weird in that we are fairly boring in how we do food prep.  We cook one big pot of something on Sundays and eat it for five nights, and then do salad or grazing on the other two days.  Sometimes I use coupons for dry goods or hygiene items at the drug store, but I also gain and use points at that place and find that if I use my valued costumer card, I get pretty good deals.

[texmati]

for food; you can always try the ethnic supermarkets. There are quite a few in our area.

[velochic]

Originally Posted by FillingMyQuiver 

We buy a lot in bulk.  And I don't mean 40 boxes of cereal at once, LOL, but things like 50lbs wheat berries (we grind our own), 25lbs rice, 25lbs sucanat, 12 free range chickens at a time (we have friends that raise meat birds).  We also split a whole cow for meat w/ 2 other families 2x/ yr.

I make most of our health and beauty products.  Our soap is olive oil bought in bulk, coconut oil bought by the gallon, and tallow rendered from the fat we get w/ our bulk beef order.  The whole family pretty much does "no poo" or uses our homemade soap so we don't need shampoo or conditioner.  We moisturize w/ the coconut oil or w/ homemade lotion bars made of beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, and coconut oil, all purchased in bulk.

Our cleaning products are homemade from combinations of vinegar bought in the big 2.5gal containers, baking soda bought in bulk, borax, washing soda, and citric acid (bought 5lbs at a time).  I do buy laundry detergent and dish detergent for handwashing, but they're bought by the gallon about 2x or 3x/ yr.

We buy straight from the farm when possible and preserve/ can/ freeze for later in the year .  U-pick strawberries in June, 40lbs u-pick peaches in Aug, 120lbs u-pick apples in Sept/ Oct, etc.  If there's no u-pick, we buy at the farmer's markets in the area to get good prices.

We generally don't use disposables, the exception for right now is DH's razor heads, but we're looking into a straight razor for him.  We use cloth almost exclusively.  Cloth dipes, cloth "unpaper" towels, cloth menstrual products (or a Diva Cup), family cloth (though we do have tp for guests), cloth napkins, etc.

Pretty much all of this except dh uses an electric razor, I use disposable feminine products and we all use purchased hair products.  I doubt that we will get to Jenn's level because nobody wants to use family cloth. 

I make my soap from simple lye and lard and use this soap as part of the laundry soap.  I know it's difficult to purchase because of the stupid meth cookers, but I can still get pure lye by the case at my local hardware/general store.  There is no way I could buy soap for cheaper than I make it no matter what the coupon is and the lye soap is much better for our skin type and allergies.

I also have access to an Amish grocery where I can get many things like grains, spices, baking goods, cheese, lard, and much, much more for a really great price.  I can buy from bulk bins, so for some things that I need only a little bit, I don't have to buy a whole package and let the rest go to waste.  I think this is also the benefit of the ethnic groceries that a pp mentioned - buying in bulk, but also buying only small amounts if that's all you need.

I have spent next to nothing for my jars for canning by getting them off of FC or at auctions.

Speaking of auctions... what a great place to get quality stuff for dirt cheap.  I have a wonderful dehydrator that I bought for $3, much of my cast iron cookware is from farm auctions, and that's another great place to find neat little eclectic things for home or for play.  Dd has a tea set (incomplete, but who cares when you're 5yo... and she's still using it at 9yo) that is real bone china.  I paid a couple of bucks for it, so if she breaks something it's no big deal.  Another great thing about auctions is that people are often getting rid of stuff from a loved one that has passed on who was older.  They don't realize the treasure that they have, as things were just built better "back then".  I have some items that are 50 years old, but still have 50 year's-worth of life left in them.  In particular, an old camping coffee percolator that I got for a quarter and we use every time we go camping and a meat grinder.  I LOVE auctions!  They don't help with food items, but they help be more frugal when preparing them!

Networking with like-minded people for bartering.  Dh is a computer science professor.  He'll help out a friend or neighbor with a computer problem they have and in exchange, when it's harvest time we'll get some extra fresh veg or we'll get some cultured veggies or perhaps a small hand-weaved basket I can use in the garden.

Get to know your butcher.  You can get bones for making stock for free or next to free.  They'll also often give the animal fat for rendering.  (And as an aside... not coupon related, but I get my knives sharpened at the butcher's quite inexpensively.  I have about a dozen knives that I use, including a santoku and 2 other butcher's knives and I can get them sharpened for a dollar each.  Elsewhere it would cost 3 times that.)

I have a basement that is 3 separate rooms.  One of the rooms was originally a coal room.  It's a nice little place for a root cellar, although that's not exactly what its original intent was.  It's cool and dark, though.  Know how to store your food (for example keep onions and potatoes away from each other) so that when you do buy in bulk, your food doesn't age too fast.  If you can, create a cool, dark place for storing root vegetables, fall fruit, etc.

Save seeds and grow a garden from seeds.

Grow an herb garden.  Perennials are especially frugal as you plant them once and they come back year after year.

Compost.

Bake your own bread.

Learn old-fashioned skills.  If you can do for yourself, it saves a lot of money in the long-run.

Cook from whole ingredients because it will save you tons in health care down the line.  Dh was Type II diabetic when I met him.  Through just changing his diet and walking a little bit most days he is now "cured" of diabetes.  He ate a lot of processed (bought with coupons) food when he was single and when we got together, he started eating everything from scratch.  That cure alone has saved us thousands of dollars in health care.  It's also saved YOU a bunch of money because people with chronic health problems cause the cost of health care to be higher. 

Get a dehydrator and dry your own herbs, fruits and veg.  Use oxygen absorbers for storage in both mason jars and in the 5 gallon buckets.  Get your buckets for free from the local bakery/deli.

That's all I can think of now.

[Amys1st]

We also keep a "stockpile" if you can call it that. I  have a large walk in pantry in our basement. I also have a very large upright freezer.  It holds our pork and beef we purchase once a year. Depending on the time of year, that freezer also stores ready to defrost meals or as I say- feed the freezer. After a rough day, emergency whatever, we do "take out" that is, take it out of the freezer!

Where such as that tv show where the person bought 75 mustards, if it is on a great sale (happens close to memorial day, 4th of July etc) I will buy 2 or maybe 3 and donate the 3rd to our church pantry. ne wil go in the fridge and the other on the pantry shelf. Same with those types of purchases.

We do a meal plan, basially a xeroxed calendar on the fridge that we pencil in dinners fo the week. I usually do about 3-5 days ahead depending on what I have in the fridge or on hand. The extra dinner then is packed after into to go containers for DH the next day for lunch.

Just for fun, DH and DD1 went thru the coupons on Sunday and found 1 coupon we might use. On mayo but need to use by May15th. Mayo goes on great sale here in late May and I usually stock up on a few then.

[Chicky2]

Ok, so I thought of this thread yesterday while my dh was saving us TONS of $.  We raise domestic meat rabbits, and we live in TX, which means our rabbits are not happy in the summer.  We live at the bottom of a hill and need to give them A/C in the summer months, and usually that means I cannot breed them thru the summer because our a/c hasn't been so great.  Dh does HVAC and electrical/handyman work for a side business.  In the last month he got to keep enough electrical wire from one job to run more juice from our house to the rabbit barn.  That saved us around $175.  Last year he got a 3 ton a/c unit as payment for doing a small job for a guy.  This unit will come on way less often, saving us $ in the long run.  He saved us roughly $1700 by getting the free supplies and installing it himself.

The fact that I can now breed thru the summer saves us more on meat, because by the end of Fall, we are running very low on meat until we can breed again (usually not until Oct!).  AND this can potentially make us lots of $ later because it has a good heater and this last Winter we lost $600 of rabbits to a sudden cold snap.  Those rabbits were to be sold for a county show order I had, and that would have paid for our feed this past winter. 

[mnnice]

Originally Posted by Chicky2 

Ok, so I thought of this thread yesterday while my dh was saving us TONS of $.  We raise domestic meat rabbits, and we live in TX, which means our rabbits are not happy in the summer.  We live at the bottom of a hill and need to give them A/C in the summer months, and usually that means I cannot breed them thru the summer because our a/c hasn't been so great.  Dh does HVAC and electrical/handyman work for a side business.  In the last month he got to keep enough electrical wire from one job to run more juice from our house to the rabbit barn.  That saved us around $175.  Last year he got a 3 ton a/c unit as payment for doing a small job for a guy.  This unit will come on way less often, saving us $ in the long run.  He saved us roughly $1700 by getting the free supplies and installing it himself.

The fact that I can now breed thru the summer saves us more on meat, because by the end of Fall, we are running very low on meat until we can breed again (usually not until Oct!).  AND this can potentially make us lots of $ later because it has a good heater and this last Winter we lost $600 of rabbits to a sudden cold snap.  Those rabbits were to be sold for a county show order I had, and that would have paid for our feed this past winter. 

Your DH is ingenious, but I don't think AC for rabbits is in my future anytime soonsince we live in rental on a small town lot in a place that refuses to warm up at all this spring (we are expecting 5 inches of snow tomorrow.
 

[Ragana]

Great thread! Thanks for the reminder about Freecycle - I have to get back on there.

I am very impressed with the skills some of you have. In my own small city-dweller way, I have been trying to acquire some old-time skills as well, which has come in handy for one expensive item - gifts. Over the past few years, I have learned to knit, relearned to crochet & have a start on sewing. I did homemade Christmas last year & made almost all of the gifts I gave, including some food gifts like vanilla extract and flavored vodkas, plus got a few deals - kind of like coupons, I guess - by saving stamps at the store for cookware & a couple 2-for-1 magazine subscriptions.

I do cook from scratch, but am not a great baker (I can make muffins!) - could really save on snacks if I did, though, so it's on my to-do list. I have also tried my hand at sprouting, making yogurt, making laundry detergent (have to give this another shot, maybe w/ the gel recipe - the powder didn't work well for me), making quick pickles & some similar stuff. Am a convert to cooking beans from dried and a slow cooker devotee. We live in the city & don't have a garden, but we did u-pick blueberries last summer & had yummy frozen blueberries all through the winter. Definitely want to do that again. Maybe some other fruit, too - or ideally tomatoes, because we have stopped buying canned tomatoes and beans due to the BPA issue.

Otherwise, I do use coupons occasionally along with the grocery store loyalty card, which now has some electronic coupons. I shop at ethnic markets a lot, particularly for meat, produce and condiments - it's much less expensive. Bulk buying doesn't work for us due to space issues. We did a beef share once, but it was just too much meat & not really cheap although excellent quality and very tasty. I may stock up on up to 6-8 of something if I find a good sale.

Edited by Ragana - 4/19/11 at 7:22am

[Chicky2]

It's supposed to be near 100 today here.  Ick.
 

Originally Posted by mnnice 

Your DH is ingenious, but I don't think AC for rabbits is in my future anytime soonsince we live in rental on a small town lot in a place that refuses to warm up at all this spring (we are expecting 5 inches of snow tomorrow.
 

[phathui5]

One nice thing is that our grocery store card gives us a discount on gas for every $50 spent.