What Can You Eat for 75 Cents?

Back in my pre-couponing days, 75 cents would not have bought an awful lot- some ramen, maybe a can of condensed soup. Yesterday this was my lunch, and it cost me 75 cents, it was easy to make, delicious and super cheap. It was a chicken stir fry Viola meal, and here is how I paid 75 cents for it...

Husband went to the store for us the other day. They had the Viola meals on sale for bogo $5.50, making them $2.75 each. These are actually really good, so I normally would have thought about getting them for that price, but we have really been trying to watch what we spend this week, so I decided to pass. Then, a $2 off printable coupon appeared online the other day- making them 75 cents each. Husband also grabbed us some of these Bob Evans mashed potatoes. Apparently Bob Evans is also a restaurant, and I have to tell you, if there were one anywhere near me, I would be there. The potatoes are expensive, but absolutely delicious. They were on sale this week for $3 each. I had bogo coupons as well as 35 cents off coupons, which doubled to 70 cents, making them $1.15 each, which is more than what I would like to pay for some mashed potatoes, but really, they are amazing!

We also made a quick trip to Kroger this week. This 8 pond bag of potatoes was only $2.88, which is a steal! We have already used some for chicken skillet, and are making beef stew this week. Kroger also had a promotion for buy $10 worth of participating items and get $2 off your next order. The sausage was included and was $2.50 each, which is already a good price for sausage.

My last tip for the day- buy meat that is close to it's expiration date. You really can save a lot of money by doing this and you won't notice any difference. I have been wanting some cheese burgers lately, especially since we tried them with the Kraft Fresh Take, but ground meat can be really expensive. We have been trying to find some discounted at Kroger because they generally have pretty good prices on their discounted ground meat, but we haven't been able to find any lately. Husband decided we should try Walmart this morning, and I am really glad we did. We found this 5 pound pack of ground beef on discount for $9.09, making it $1.82 per pound. I promise you will not find that kind of price anywhere. It takes a little more work because you have to divide it up (trying to defrost 5 pounds of meat is not a good idea), and freeze it the day you buy it, but if I would have bought this same ground meat at Kroger, it would have been almost $14, and would have been even more at Winn Dixie or Publix. All you need to do is freeze it before the sell buy date and then defrost it on the day you plan to make it.

Why You Should Check Coupons Everyday

I really don't spend all that much time couponing, especially when you consider all the great deals I get. But, I do make sure that I check my favorite coupon sites everyday. While most online coupons come out at the beginning of the month or on Sundays with the paper coupons, there are also coupons that get added everyday. This Wednesday I got up and checked my sites and found great coupons to go with my Publix ad that just started this week. With those coupons I got everything here for a little less than $25. The best deal was the salad dressing, which was actually a moneymaker, of about 50 cents a bottle, so I got paid like $2 to take home this dressing. The ragu was about 30 cents a bottle, and the mayonnaise was $1.67, which is a great price. There are actually some pretty expensive items here, like that rootbeer was $3 and our hummus was $2 each, but that is a good price for hummus. We have been buying pita bread to go with it, but we got some of those flatbread crackers to try with it and they are really good. I did get a good deal on deoderant for husband, the new Publix put a lot of them on clearance, and with a $1 off coupon I got those for 72 cents. The rice is actually from Winn Dixie, they were bogo so we got both bags, which are 3 lbs each, for about $3, which is pretty good.

We also went to Publix and Kroger today, this was about $15. I was able to sign up for the "Savings Club" on coupons.com for a free year, apparently they usually charge $3 per month. It gives you access to some higher value coupons, like th eone I found this morning for $1.50 off an Edward's pie. These pies are delicious, as well as expensive, but Publix has the 50% off this week, making them $4, and I got them for $2.50 with coupon. The steamfresh thing was about 30 cents after coupon. At kroger we got the corn and tomatoes. I prefer the corn at the farmer's market, but it is still relatively expensive and I got this for $2, as opposed to the $4 I paid last week at the market. The tomatoes were on sale bogo, making them less than $2 each.