New Pet Project

I'm going to branch off from my "here's what the kids are up to" blogging for what I hope to make a regular feature on my blog, and possibly a totally new blog itself once I create enough content for an archive and I prove I can stick with it.

So welcome to .... well, whatever this feature should be called. Maybe you can help me.

Some background:

As the daughter of a bonafide (and proud) "cheapskate" — or to be more fair, the daughter of two fiscally responsible parents, and in particular, my very frugal and resourceful dad — I’ve never been a big spender. I’ll splurge now and then, moreso on my kids than on myself, and rarely pay full price on things like clothing and accessories. But when it comes to groceries, I have rarely given prices a second thought. Until Dave Ramsey and his live-within-your-means-and-get-rid-of-debt budget strategy entered our life a couple of months ago and I set an ambitiously cheap grocery total of $300-per-month for our new family budget.

Enter my new strategy to grocery shopping – if it’s not on sale or I don’t have a coupon to reduce the price, I don’t buy it, unless I absolutely need it (and by “need” I pretty much am referring to the foods my toddler is willing to eat, and coffee). So far, I’m doing OK, especially for a newbie. I am averaging about a 30% savings on my grocery bill each week when shopping for our family of four, with the use of two tools: the Sunday newspaper and social media.

I use the Sunday paper for two things: coupon inserts and the weekly circular for Meijer, my shopping center of choice. Because our local paper doesn’t have all the possible coupons available out there, social media has been a great tool to help find printable coupons to add to my growing stash. I follow several couponing sites on Twitter and mark tweets I may want to pursue when I set aside time to print coupons. And I also visit a few really good websites devoted to couponing and how to combine coupons with existing sales, as well as take advantage of Meijer’s mPerks couponing website.

I won’t ever be an extreme couponer – I have no time and no desire, and I prefer to have a part of my grocery cart each week include fresh produce and meat or poultry, for which no coupon exists (usually). So I’m pretty happy with saving 30% right now just by shaping my shopping list around weekly sales and a few good coupons.

My goal is to post a couple of the best deals I’ve found locally for others to also take advantage of, and also a frugal but healthy/fresh/easy recipe using ingredients I’ve bought for cheap. The key, I’ve found, is to start hoarding coupons early, as you might not want to use them until that item goes on sale a few weeks after you cut it. So if you want to follow along, start collecting today!

This week’s best deal: 4 boxes of Kelloggs cereal for $6 at Meijer. To get this deal, I first printed two coupons available on Kelloggs.com (you must register first, but it’s harmless) — one for $1 off two boxes of Rice Krispies and another for $1 off two boxes of Frosted Flakes. Then I headed to Meijer. One of the store's deals this week is 4 boxes of several selected Kelloggs cereals, including these two brands, for $10. But if you buy 4, you automatically save $2 more, putting you at 4 boxes for $8. Apply the two coupons, and your total is now $6, or $1.50 per box! If you want to stock up on even more cereal, you also can print a coupon for 70 cents off a box of Raisin Bran or Raisin Bran Crunch off Kelloggs’ site. Combined with the 4/$10 offer at Meijer, you’d pay $1.80 for one box. And these are for at least the medium-sized boxes of cereal, so you get a good amount of name-brand cereal for less than $2 a box. Not too shabby!

This week’s frugal meal is super cheap, simple, flavorful and great for a cool lunch on a warm day, and it uses several ingredients you may already have on hand:

Orzo and black bean salad

Ingredients:

1.5 cups Orzo, cooked, drained and cooled ($1.19 for a box at Meijer, which I’ve thus far used for two meals)

15-oz can of black beans ($1 during Meijer’s 10-for-10 sale last week), drained and rinsed

1 red bell pepper ($1 during Meijer’s 10-for-10 sale; this week they are $1.50), cut into small pieces

½ cucumber, chopped (I had this leftover in the fridge; feel free to sub in defrosted frozen corn if you have that)

2-3 Tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro (79 cents for a large bunch)

1-2 green onions, chopped (50 cents per bunch)

1 lime, juiced

Mix all ingredients with the following seasonings from your pantry/fridge (feel free to substitute with what you have):

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup any vinaigrette dressing (I used roasted tomato vinaigrette)

Garlic powder and cumin to taste

Eat right away, or chill to let the flavors mesh!