Mel over at
The Coupon Goddess has a post today lamenting over the lack of Coupons being released for some particular items or types of items lately. You can go read it
HERE.
Go ahead over and read it.
I'll wait. 8-)
I was going to post a comment but I have so much to say....and I didn't want to break Blogger's comment function.....that I thought I'd respond over here in a full blown, if not half assed, blog post.
Now I
know that even though I consider myself the
Queen of the Freakin' Universe, the owners of multinational corporations that produce the products we buy don't give a hairy baboon's blue butt if I don't like the lack of
couponage available for their stuff.
*Sigh*
So I so 'get' what Mel is saying.
But!....I can use my
frugalista super powers and find ways to deal with this problem.
So shall we start?
Let's!
*Trash Bags
Once or twice a year one of my local Weis Markets has had a Catalina Deal including trash bags. While there have been no current coupons during this deal, it has still been advantageous to my wallet to buy the bags during the Catalina period. The savings when buying them during the Deal week, since it combines a sale price and the Catalina savings, has saved me more than the sad value of any coupons these companies release.
Rite-Aid often has Glad bags on sale, plus runs +Up Rewards deals on them...at least once a month. I can use my
Rite-Aid Powers and work up a $25 transaction, using other items combined with other coupons and sale prices with a Rite-Aid $5 off $25 purchase, and get a box of bags for free or very inexpensively.
The other thing I do, is to think of ways around having to buy trash bags. What can I use or reuse around here in lieu of a trash bag? One thing that springs to mind is dog food bags. When we buy those 20lb. bags of dog food, I save them and use them for trash. There are other packaging/bags leftover from other products I use but you get the point.
*Cabot Cheese.
I got nothing here.
*Boar's Head deli products.
I agree that deli meats(and cheeses)have gotten to a ridiculous price point.
Holey head cheese Batman!
While the frugalness in me would never
willingly buy this brand of deli product even with a coupon, deals with coupons at the deli counter on
any brand are hard to find.
Again, I find a work around. I have found that Redner's Markets deli by far runs the best weekly sales on deli items. Ok, you are still at the whim of what they put on sale each week but if you stick to those items, you will save money on your deli bill. It's usually NOT Boar's Head but then again, I guess my
deli meat palate isn't so refined that I can tell the difference between BH or Sara Lee or Hormel brand lunch meats.
Besides just not buying deli meats/cheeses, my frugal work around consists of buying a whole 5lb or whatever size hunk of deli food at the local Restaurant Supply store and slicing said meat or cheese myself.
It's a little more work to buy a whole log of ham and slice it but if I save substantial money, I'm game. Besides, that's what I had children for.....to teach meat slicing skills to.lol
If you aren't feeding a large family and can't eat 5lbs. of processed meats/cheeses before it goes bad, you can freeze these products, but I'd recommend slicing them up first, especially the cheeses.
*Pepperidge Farm Goldfish crackers.
I know many people find the second string brands of this product lacking in quality and taste. When #2 son was younger he was addicted to the PF goldfish. No sure what "
food crack" they put in these to get the kids to
jones for them like a meth addict in rehab.....but they do.
To get "the fish" for cheap, find a PF outlet store within driving distance, rent a U-haul and go fill it up.
We have a PF outlet store about 1.5 hrs. away so anytime we use to find ourselves down that way, we would stop in and fill the trunk. And yes, Goldfish crackers have a shelf-life equivalent to the half-life of plutonium so they keep. Plus you can always throw these into the freezer too.
Another frugal option is to search out one of those taste-the-same recipes and get the kids to help bake their own crackers. Again, teach them some life skills and it makes a great homeschooling project.....as long as mom has two or three glasses of wine nearby.
*Thomas' English muffins and *Bread.
Ok, I'll kill 2 birds with one stone here.
While Sara Lee breads are often BOGO here and that company releases decent coupons on a semi-regular basis, the Thomas English muffin & bread producing company does not. They do however have amazing Bread Outlet Stores!
I
heart my bread outlet store!
There is one 3 miles from my house so I am awash in Thomas English muffins, Entenmann's, Freihofer's, Arnolds, Stroehmann's and Boboli foods on a regular basis. The most expensive items in the store are 3 for $5(must buy 3)for bread products while the Entenmann's baked goods are 3 for $6(must buy 3). Some brands are priced at 3 for $3(again, must buy 3). Even better are the almost out of date items that are priced at $1, $.89 or even less.
It's a
Gluten-y Gluttony Wonderland!
And if you life in 34 of the lucky states in the US, they have a similar Outlet Stores in your state! So go find the one near you
HERE.
And as for the
Bimbo bread name? It's pronounced
'beem-bo' and it's Spanish. They are a massive multinational corporation(founded in 1945 by a guy in Mexico)and now largest bakery in the world. They bought up the companies of many American brand names in the bread/bakery products line.
We first saw the
Bimbo bread this past summer at the Bread Outlet. They gave out free loaves with purchases. The name always makes my 14 yr. old cackle evil-y......I won't mention the nickname he has for this bread. ;-)
*Bacon.
Great minds think alike here, don't they?lol
I was just lamenting the sad state of bacon prices/lack of product in my freezer just last week
HERE.
Forget the roadtrip....I've already cleaned off the bacon shelves at Price Chopper so there is nothing left to buy. j/k
Though I haven't had to resort to a frugal work around on bacon in the past 2 years(knock on wood), in the past I would troll the meat counter at the local grocery stores for markdowns on meats that were coming close to their sell by dates. If you are antsy about buying bacon that is close to a sell by date, don't be. There are so many preservatives in most conventionally processed bacon that it can safely be used after it's date. If you throw the bacon directly into your freezer you can stop the clock basically on your bacon's date and give yourself some more time to enjoy it's porky goodness. Even better, repackage the bacon into smaller portions using freezer bags or foil so you only thaw and use the amount you need.
*Peanut Butter.
We have only ever gotten the $1 off 2 Peanut Butter coupons here. Even though the grocery stores double to $1 here, we've never had the good fortune of getting a $.50 or $.60 on 1 item coupon to double. You can't miss what you haven't had, right?lol
The frugal work around?.....make your own in a blender using fresh peanuts. Of course, this just means you have to find a deal on peanuts instead!lol But then again, you can control what goes into your peanut butter(no preservatives and lower sugar content)so there is an upside here.
The 2 other comments I have on this
*ahem.....sticky subject are to find a SuperValu owned line of grocery stores in your area and pray to the couponing
powers-that-be that they run another Catalina Deal like the ones in 2009(in Aug. and again in the weeks before Thanksgiving)that included Skippy Peanut Butter with a double dip. That's how I ended up with 32 jars of Skippy...I could have gotten more in the Nov. Catalina deal but this was plenty for us plus enough for some food bank donations.
And secondly, if you can find creamy Skippy at your local Rite-Aid store with the UPC #0 48001 00643 0.
Have the cashier price check it for you as it may have been marked down to 75% off clearance for .74¢. If it hasn't yet, it will so watch it. Plus it's been reported that many of the clearance items at Rite-Aid are being restocked from the warehouse(until the warehouse is out of them), so keep watching for those cheap food & cleaning items to reappear on the shelves.
Even without a coupon, peanut butter for .74¢ a jar ain't half bad.
*Fresh Express salad.
This brand of bagged salad goes on sale here often so we are fairly lucky in that. However, I don't much care for bagged greens since if they have been sitting for any time, the sealed bag raises the condensation inside and that makes your salad
cross over to the slimy dark side quicker. Having to throw out wet gross green food into my compost pile is not cool.....well, the composting part is but not the spending money on compost part.
My frugal work around is to grow my own salad greens. Since we can't do that year round(northern location and a lack of having a greenhouse or cold frames yet), we only buy the bagged stuff on good sale, buy whole heads of lettuces and make our own mix or just eat something else.
Someone told me once that if your grocery store has a self-serve salad bar, to buy your greens there rather than bagged. Think about it....you pay by the weight at a salad bar in store. What weighs the
least of things that go into a salad?.....
the greens! By comparison with the bagged stuff, your salad procured at the bar will cost less.
*Kraft Mac and Cheese.
Yah, the Kraft corporation has more money than g*d.
They also have a product(Kraft Macaroni & Cheese)that my kids refer to as
crack noodles(long story...lol).
I still have a stash of Kraft mac/cheese in my pantry from the Catalina Deal at Price Chopper in April when I got it for almost free.
Of course, as soon as I load up for free, my kids stop eating it....figures, right?lol
It's been awhile Mr. Kraft.
Time for some couponage.
So what do you think? Leave a comment and share, won't you?
Sluggy
