Recyclebank--easy way to score coupons!



If you haven't heard of or signed up for Recyclebank, you should!  It's free and easy and it's a quick way to earn points to put towards coupons, gift cards, and other prizes.  I haven't been a member for long, but so far I've printed coupons for Honest Tea (that's why the free bottles keep showing up in my pictures :)), Kashi, and several other hard to find coupons.  The website is geared towards teaching people the benefits of recycling and rewarding you for learning about ways to make your life a little greener.

After you sign up, you have the opportunity to take short quizzes, watch videos, or make a pledge to earn points.  You can cash in your points for the prizes.  It's very easy to earn enough points to download coupons; quizzes range from 5-50 points each and point values for coupons and prizes start as low as 10 or 15 points at times.  You can choose to spend your points on printable coupons (current coupons include Coke, Honest Tea, Kashi, Ziploc to name a few), magazine subscriptions (i.e. Cosmo, Food Magazine, Whole Living, etc.), gift cards to restaurants (Olive Garden, Ruby Tuesdays), gift cards to retail stores ($10 off $30 at Bed Bath and Beyond, $10 off $50 at Macy's), or my recent purchase of $10 off $50 at Harris Teeter for only 195 points!

Click on the picture above to join! 

Disclaimer:  The link above is my referral link, so I will earn points if you join.  Don't feel obligated to click this link, but it's appreciated!

Grocery Trips 7/13

Today I went to Harris Teeter and Farm Fresh to pick up a few sale items.  Harris Teeter didn't have much going on sale-wise that was worth getting, so most of the items in the picture are from Farm Fresh.

I bought:

From Harris Teeter:
2 boxes Duncan Hines brownie mix: $.50 ea (Don't ask how many boxes of brownie mix I currently have.  I heart brownies from a box.)
2 boxes Suddenly Salad: $.50 ea
1 bag HT rice: on sale for $.89 (not pictured, I forgot about it until I looked at the receipt to write this post)

Total after coupons: $2.99

From Farm Fresh:
Emerald Trail Mix: $.50
2 boxes Carnation Instant Breakfast: $2 ea, plus I got a $2 coupon at the register off my next purchase
2 bottles Honest Tea: free
1 value pack bonesless chicken breats: $1.99/lb=$8.26 (not pictured, obviously)
8th Continent Soy Milk: $1.59
Tyson Grilled Chicken Strips: $.89
They have an advertised deal where you purchase four General Mills products for $10 and receive a coupon for free milk as well as a $2 coupon printed at the register, so for this deal I bought:
2 boxes Fiber One bars: $1.70 ea
1 box Honey Nut Cheerios: $1.50
1 box Golden Grahams: $1.50

Total cost after coupons: $21.86
Only saved 44%, I can't seem to do much better than that lately.

There was a little issue at the register where my coupons and free milk coupon didn't print and apparently they hadn't been printing all day.  I had planned on just taking my stuff to the car and going back in for the milk since we need it.  The cashier was trying to write a note on my receipt for next time so I could get the discount on my next trip.  That seemed like another issue waiting to happen, so I told her about my plan just to go get the milk and $4 worth of stuff.  Fast forward to me getting a gallon of milk and 2 cartons of ice cream for $2.05 after discounts.

I've put myself in a tad bit of a budget crisis for the rest of the month.  I only have $34 for the rest of the month for groceries and household items.  That's $17 per week.  It will be tight, but it can be done.  Luckily we're good on meat and paper products for the rest of the month.  Next month I'm attempting to get our grocery bill down to $200.  It's a challenge I'm willing to try.  I'm pretty sure hubby would owe me at least an ice cream date if I was able to make that goal.  Hmm...

Menu Planning

One of the easiest ways to save money on your groccery budget is to work from a menu plan.  I'm not very good at doing this consistently, but I've done it enough to know that it works.  There was a time that I planned out meals for a month at a time, but that can be overwhelming.  Plus, it's easier to go week by week based on what you have on hand in an attempt to use only what you have or what's on sale. 

I haven't bought meat in a while, so we're down to several small bags of chicken, 1 bag of ground turkey, and 2 bags of ground beef.  Since hubby works night shifts for half of the week, I usually just eat leftovers or make something easy (my go to favorite: buttered noodles) on the nights he's not home.  Here's what I plan to make this week (3 days) for dinner:

Monday: Basil Chicken with Pasta (it was yummy!)
Tuesday: Chicken Kabobs with veggies
Wednesday: Turkey Burgers with French Potatoes

A co-worker just shared with me a link to a website called Food on the Table.  It seems like a great tool if you're trying to meal plan based on grocery store sales.  You choose the grocery store you prefer, then site tells you what's on sale and provides you with recipes containing whatever item you choose.  Then, you can plan out your meals for the week.  Best of all, it's free!

This weekend I'm looking forward to making my own bagels.  I've never done it before, so I hope it goes well!     

Great Magazine Website

If you enjoy reading magazines, but don't like paying for a subscription due to the cost, check out this website.

They have great prices and if you subscribe to their newsletter they send a $5 coupon at least once per month that you can use towards a subscription.  I just received a $10 coupon for their "Christmas in July" promotion and was able to get a subscription for free!  Other subscriptions I've received cost between $.97-$5.00 thanks to the coupons they regularly send.  (They also send a $5 coupon for your birthday.  The downside is you can only use 1 coupon per order, but it's still a great deal!)

Happy reading! :)

Free Betty Crocker Downloadable Cookbook

Get some of 2011's best Summer and Spring recipes from Betty Crocker, all in an easy to download PDF file!

I have to say, some of the desserts look REALLY yummy.

Free Sample of Febreze Set and Refresh

"Like" Febreze on Facebook

I just bought 2 of these and so far I really like the one I opened!  There are only 3,000 samples though, so get on it if you want one!

Farm Fresh trip 7/6/11

There are quite a few good deals at Farm Fresh this week.  The only thing I didn't have coupons for were the bananas, juice, chicken, and bread; however, all were on sale this week and there was a $1 off coupon on the juice (expiration date is this week).

I bought:

2 Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad: $1 ea.

2 Mueller pasta: $.15 ea

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser: $.79

2 Febreeze Set & Refresh: $.79 ea

Farm Fresh sandwich bread: $.88

2 Uncle Ben's Whole Grain Rice: $.50 ea

2 bottles Honest Tea: free

Hormel sandwich meat: $.99

Perdue Oven Roaster: $.79/lb ($6.31)

Bananas: $.55/lb

Richfood orange juice (been craving OJ, noticed a $1 coupon on the carton): $.99

I saved 50% off my total and paid about $16 out of pocket, with over $6 of the total coming from the chicken.  Not too bad, but I'd like to get that to at least 60%.  I'm still new to this and miss a lot of small details.  This was also the first time I actually remembered to take a reusable bag-- note to self: get more bags.