Living Well Spending Less | Saving Well, Spending Less | Project Simplify 365 | PrintHotCoupons.com

June 2011

I was beyond thrilled with this week’s Publix ad.  Maybe it was the $1 Goldfish–a favorite of all kids everywhere–or the great deals on fruit, made even sweeter by the oh-so-rare $2 off produce coupons Publix issued last week to those who signed up for the Stocking Spree coupon booklet.  Or maybe it was because despite filling my cart with only the week’s hottest deals, everything I bought was stuff that my family doesn’t just like, but honestly loves–Goldfish, Cinnamon Life, shredded cheese, pasta, Sabra hummus, Pretzel M&Ms (yum!)  It almost felt like a “normal” shopping trip, you know, the ones where you just go and buy the things that sound good, except for my tiny total at the end.

One of the most common complaints about coupons is that there are no good food coupons.  I’m sure most of you are already familiar with LWSL’s sister coupon matchup site, SavingWellSpendingLess.com, but (almost) every day I post a Coupons to Print Now list of the hottest printable coupons that I can find around the web.  I try to focus on finding as many great food coupons as possible, so if you aren’t already checking out that list daily, you should definitely start.  I try to have the list posted by 8am EST.

And now that I’ve piqued your curiosity, here is what I got:

At Publix I spent $34.99 for $168.48 worth of groceries, a savings of 80%.

For Publix stores that count Save-a-Lot as a competitor, I discovered recently that you can sign up here to get a $5 off $25 purchase coupon!

Grocery Breakdown:
$5/$25 Purchase Save-a-Lot Coupon
8 Beech-Nut Stage 4 Steamies, BOGO @ – $2.00
(3) $2/2 Beech-Nut Stage 4 or Juice Product printable
(2) $0.75/1 Beech-Nut Stage 4 Steamies printable
Final price: $0.06 each
2 Sabra Hummus, BOGO @ – $3.99
(1) $1/1 Sabra Hummus (Become a Brand Ambassador & complete tasks to unlock Q) or (SS 6/26/11)
(1) $1/1 Deli Item (Publix Baby Club)
Final price: $0.99 each
1 Kashi Granola Bars – $2.99
(1) $2/1 Kashi Product Recyclebank printable
Final price: $0.99
10 Mueller’s Pasta, BOGO @ – $1.53
(10) $1/1 Mueller’s 100% Whole Grain Pasta Facebook printable
Final price: FREE + profit
4 Quaker Life Cereal, 15.4-20oz, BOGO @ – $5.07
(4) $0.75/1 Quaker Life Cereal, exp. 8/31/11 (RP 06/19/11 R)
Final price: $1.78 each
4 M&M’s Brand Chocolate Candies, Large Bag, 15.4-19.2oz, BOGO @ – $4.89
(4) $1/1 M&M’s Brand Pretzel Chocolate Candies, exp. 7/31/11 (RP 06/19/11)
Final price: $1.44 each
2 Reynolds Wrap, assorted varieties, BOGO @ – $4.29
(1) $1/1 Reynolds Wrap Foil, exp. 6/30/11 (SS 05/15/11)
(1) $1/1 Reynolds Wrap Non Stick Foil, exp. 6/30/11 (SS 05/15/11)
Final price: $1.14 each
2 Fab Laundry Detergent, BOGO @ – $3.99
(1) $1/2 Dynamo, Ajax, Fab or Niagara Product, exp. 8/22/11 (SS 05/22/11)
Final price: $1.49 each
Kraft Shredded or Chunk Cheese, 7-8oz – $2.00
(2) $1/2 Kraft Cheese Product Target printable (NLA)
(4) $1/1 Kraft Natural Shredded Cheese w/ Philadelphia
Final price: As low as $0.50 each
6 Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Snack Crackers or Grahams – $1.00
(2) $0.35/1 Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Grahams printable
(4) $0.55/1 Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Grahams
Final price: $0.52 each
2 Emeril’s Bam! Meals, 14.5-15oz can, BOGO @ – $1.49
(1) $1/1 Any Emeril’s Product printable (Rachel Ray EveryDay June/July ’11)
Final price: $0.24 each
2 Cool Whip Whipped Topping, 8oz, BOGO @ – $2.03
Final price: $1.01 each
1 Publix Sweet Cream Butter – $3.00
1 Athena Cantaloupe – $2.50
Del Monte Gold Pineapple, each – $2.00
Driscoll Strawberries, 16oz pkg – $2.00
(1) $0.50/1 Driscoll’s Berries printable
Southern Blueberries – $2.50
(3) $2 off Publix Produce (NLA)
Final price for 4 produce items: $2.50, or $0.63 each
1 Johnsonsville Brats or Italian Sausage – $4.00
(1) $1/1 Johnsonville Italian Sausage printable
(1) $1/1 Fresh Meat Item (Publix Baby Club Mailer)
Final price: $2
Pillsbury Moist Supreme Cake Mix (excludes sugar-free) – $1.00
1 Publix Cocoa Butter @ $3.49
(1) Free Publix Cocoa Butter (Publix Baby Club Mailer)
Final price: FREE
1 Publix Hand Sanitizer @ $0.99
(1) Free Hand Sanitizer (Publix Baby Club Mailer)
Final price: FREE
1 Publix Rubbing Alcohol @ $1.49
(1) Free Publix Rubbing Alcohol (Publix Baby Club Mailer)
Final price: FREE
1 Yoplait Yogurt @ $0.75
(1) Free Yoplait Yogurt (Yoplait Mailer)
Final price: FREE


Combined with my Sunday shopping trip, this week I spent $83.75 for $328.61 worth of groceries and drugstore merchandise, an average savings of 75% for the week.

*   *   *

And now it’s your turn! Seeing others’ examples is one of the best ways to learn new couponing strategies, hints, and hot deals.  If you have a blog, please link up your coupon savings here.  If you don’t have a blog, feel free to share your shopping experiences in a comment below.

Shopping list prepared at:

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Printing a coupon or ordering a product through this link may result in a commission, which helps pay for the cost of running this site and keeps the content free. Read my full disclosure policy here.

{ 12 comments }

Last week I received an email from a reader who wondered what she could do to get her husband more enthusiastic about using coupons.  It was a great question, and one that I hear quite a bit.  It got me thinking about how important it is to be on the same page as your spouse & kids when it comes to money.

By now you’ve probably learned (or are still learning) that saving money with coupons takes consistency & persistence.  Though your savings will be dramatic over time, those savings don’t happen overnight.   It takes time to build up a plentiful stockpile that will allow your family to eat nice variety of food.  It also takes time to get the “hang” of couponing, to figure out what is a good price for different items, and to build up a reserve of coupons.

For some people, waiting is difficult.

It is especially difficult for family members who may not see the “big picture” when it comes to coupons.

From their perspective, the favorites that normally stocked the fridge and cupboard have been replaced with 30 boxes of noodles and 20 bottles of mustard, and more tubes of toothpaste than they’ve seen in their life.  And frankly, it is hard to get excited about spending only pennies on the dollar when you’re hungry.

Perhaps your teenagers have gotten used to an ample supply of the snacks they love, or maybe your husband is a picky “meat and potatoes” man who balks at any variance from his normal menu.  Perhaps your wife insists on buying nothing but organic produce, without even considering what’s in season, so she can cook a gourmet 5-star meal every night.

So what’s the solution? How can you please your family and still save money?

The truth is that there is no easy answer.  Extreme savings with coupons does require making some drastic changes in the way you shop.  After all, if it was that easy and obvious, everyone would already do it automatically.  And unless you live alone or you and your spouse have decided together to commit to extreme coupon shopping, you need to get your family on board if you want to succeed.

Start a Conversation

Talk to your spouse and your kids about money.  This is so hard, but so necessary.  If times are tough and your family is struggling to make ends meet, then it is important to have a discussion about it.  I’m not saying you need to scare your kids, and obviously there is a level of age-appropriateness, but it is okay for your kids–even younger kids–to understand that they might not be able to have certain things because you are trying to save money.

Living in denial and spending more money than you have to on food is not going to help the situation.  The sooner you all face the reality of your own financial situation, the more willing everyone in the family will be to make sacrifices where needed.

Set a budget

Decide together how much you want or can afford to spend each month on groceries.  This will determine how much wiggle room you will have for those items & brands your family is willing to give up.   You may decide to put aside a certain amount each week for “impulse” or “special request” items.  That way most of what you buy can be with coupons, but no one needs to feel too deprived.

Make it fun

Try to satisfy that age old question, “what’s in it for me?”  Perhaps you can decide, as a family, to collect whatever money is leftover from your grocery budget each month to save towards a fun reward, like a trip to an amusement park or a new big screen TV.  Make it something fun, something that everyone in the family really wants but that you’ve been unable to afford.  You may suddenly find you get a lot fewer complaints.

Involve your family in the process

Keep your family updated on how much money you’re saving, especially if you are all working towards a collective goal.  Put up a chart that shows how much you’ve saved and how far you have to go.  Talk about it frequently.  Make it real.  Stay enthusiastic.

If your kids are old enough, let them help!  School-age kids can help clip and sort coupons (I’m so excited for mine to be old enough for that!), while teens and pre-teens can help look for deals & coupons online, help prepare shopping lists, or help organize your stockpile.  Teaching your kids how to use coupons is not only a time-saver, it is a valuable lesson that will help them immensely when they leave the nest.

My own husband, though extremely supportive of using coupons, has always been overwhelmed by the reality of coupons and therefore reluctant to help.  However, one evening I really needed to get my Qubie binder in order, so I asked Husband if he would mind folding my printable coupons into thirds while we watched TV.  It made the process go so much faster and he didn’t mind doing it and now he helps me automatically every time.  It turns out he just needed to find a specific task.

Agree to Try New Things

One of the neat things about using coupons is the frequent opportunity to try new products because very often the new items get promoted heavily by both stores and manufacturers.  Decide as a family that you will all be willing to try anything once.  If you really don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it again and you can go back to your old favorite brand.

Determine your priorities

How much you save each month will be largely dependent on how ardently you stick to buying and using only what is on sale.  Keep in mind that I am not saying that buying only sale items is “right” and straying from the week’s matchups is “wrong.”  Every family has to decide upon what you are willing to save on, and what things you can’t live without.

For instance, if you or your family loves meat and can’t imagine a meal without it, than you will probably experience lower savings than a family that is willing to eat meat-free meals several times a week.  Likewise, if you can’t stand eating frozen vegetables and only want fresh veggies, even when they are out of season, you will end up paying more.  But then again, what brand detergent or shampoo or toothpaste you use may not matter to you at all, so you can save money on those items.

Ultimately, your top priority should determine what you buy.  Most of the time, my own family is pretty easygoing about what we eat.  We eat from our plentiful stockpile and we don’t really have any “must buy” items beyond milk, eggs, butter, & bread.  Thus, as those of you who follow my shopping results each week already know, my savings are usually somewhere in the 75-85% range, and often even higher.  Last week, however, having just started Weight Watchers, I was more focused on buying diet-friendly items.  I still saved over 50%, but my priorities had changed.

And if after all this, your significant other still says “I don’t care about the money, I want what I want,” then honestly maybe an extreme couponing lifestyle isn’t quite right for you.  In that case you might just want to do it as a hobby and find a local church or food bank to donate the things your own family won’t eat or use.

Now I want to hear YOUR thoughts on the subject!  Does your family participate in the coupon process?  Is your spouse supportive?  What other ideas do you use to get your family on board?

Affiliate links may be used in this post. Printing a coupon or ordering a product through this link may result in a commission, which helps pay for the cost of running this site and keeps the content free. Read my full disclosure policy here.

{ 8 comments }

our alaska cruise {photo essay}

June 28, 2011

They say a picture is worth a thousand words…. (I suppose this was more like a novel.  Sorry if I went a little overboard!) Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend

8 comments Read the full article →

sunday shopping 6-26-11

June 27, 2011

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a wonderful & relaxing weekend.  Ours was action-packed & went way too fast and now I’m facing this Monday morning with a messy house to clean, 2 (still!) jet-lagged girls to contend with, a huge stack of yet-unopened mail & bills to sort through, several weeks’ worth of [...]

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stockpile meals: roasted eggplant flatbread sandwich

June 25, 2011

This sandwich makes me very happy. Not only is it delicious, filling, and super easy to make, it is Weight Watchers® friendly.  (I know, I know….I’m a little obsessive.  What can I say?  When I get enthusiastic about something, I just can’t help myself.)  It makes me so happy, in fact, that in the past [...]

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thursday shopping 6-23-11 {& weekly shopping linky}

June 23, 2011

Wow, two trips to Publix in two days–I hardly know what to do with myself!  Lucky for me, my sister-in-law is visiting this week and kindly offered to watch the girls both days so I could grocery shop in peace. Today’s savings were slightly better than yesterday, though in my newfound Weight-Watchers enthusiasm I couldn’t [...]

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wednesday shopping 6-22-11 {weight watchers® edition}

June 22, 2011

After 3 weeks away, our poor little refrigerator was completely bare and I had no choice but to make a run to the store. I am not normally one to count calories. (If you’ve ever tried one of my butter-and-cheese-laden (but oh-so-good!) stockpile recipes you probably can already attest to that!)  I like things to taste [...]

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5 tips for flying with young children

June 21, 2011

It’s finally here, the very last day of Take 5 in June!  I hope you have enjoyed this little break from my normal posting schedule (but hopefully not so much that you’re not glad to have me back.)  Tomorrow I’ll be back to my plain old boring self. Our vacation is officially over.  After a [...]

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5 tips for personalizing your home without breaking the bank {ashley ann @ under the sycamore}

June 20, 2011

It is a little hard to believe that after almost 3 weeks away this very loooooong vacation is coming to a close and tonight we will finally be sleeping in our own beds again.  Trouble has taken to saying “go” anytime we are in one spot for longer than an hour and I think what [...]

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5 tips for dressing well and spending less {valerie @ charmed valerie}

June 17, 2011

I first met Valerie Rowencamp, today’s uber-chic guest blogger when we sat next to each other during a blogging seminar at Blissdom.  I remember taking in her absolutely adorable outfit–a striped shirtdress paired with Chuck Taylors–and feeling utterly frumpy and inadequate in comparison.  And then I found out she was a fashion blogger and I [...]

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