Organic/Healthy Savings with the Makeena App!

It’s no surprise to long-time readers of my blog or followers on Social Media that I like a good deal. You probably do too.

I also know that like me, most of you have endeavored to eat healthier over the past few years, and it can be hard to eat healthy on a budget. Most of us have turned to rebate/money-saving apps since the paper couponing industry have effectively written healthy eaters off.

I’m always on the lookout for ways to feed my family healthy food and save money. Makeena is a newer app (owned by the same company that does Common Kindness– Which is an AWESOME printable coupon website that helps give back to the charity of your choice) that features rebates for healthy food, organic food, natural toiletries, and more sustainably produced products.

Makeena can be used at ANY STORE! For use Grocery Outlet shoppers, this means that we’ll be able to save more- I practically live in their NOSH section.

Here are some screenshots I grabbed with some of the products that I’ve seen or purchased recently at Grocery Outlet:

 

 

And at the time that this post was written, there were rebates for what I call “Brandless” or “Any Brand” rebates:

• Any Organic Vitamin K
• Any Organic Whey Powder
• Organic Fennel (fresh)
• Organic or Naturally Derived All-Purpose Cleaner
• Organic Sunscreen
• Organic Serrano Peppers
• Organic Baking Soda
• Biodegradable or Organic Paper Towels
• Organic Cantaloupe
• Organic Mushrooms

And as far as I know, you can also use coupons when you purchase items redeemed for rebates in the app, and there may be the possibility to double dip with other apps like Checkout 51, Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, or BerryCart.

So, Cheers, here’s to another avenue of saving in 2020!

Talk Back: Have you downloaded Makeena yet? Are you excited for an app that has healthy/organic/natural products?

1/23/2020 New Savingtar Rebates!

SavingStar has some awesome new rebates available.

If you are new to SavingStar, it’s different from traditional couponing!

What makes SavingStar different is that you don’t receive money off at the register.  The savings in held in your SavingStar account, and once you reach at least $20.00 in savings you can transfer it to your Paypal Account or donate your savings to charity!

SavingStar is the first national, fully digital, grocery eCoupon service, available for free at www.savingstar.com and on iPhone and Android mobile apps. There’s nothing to clip, nothing to print. Chose offers, shop, and save! SavingStar is currently available at over 70,000 locations!

And it gets better: SavingStar members who redeem 2 offers per month (not counting any Healthy Offers) will unlock a full month of Healthy Offers for the next month! That’s money savings on fruits, veggies, and more!

Here are the latest offers:

Save $1.25 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Green Giant Harvest Protein Bowls™. Any Variety..Expires 2/26/2020.Save $1.25.

Save $2.00 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Atkins® Sweet & Salty Crunch Bites. Any Variety..Expires 1/29/2020.Save $2.00.

Save $1.50 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Atkins® Meal or Snack Protein Bars. Valid on any 5 pack..Expires 1/29/2020.Save $1.50.

Save $1.50 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Select Atkins Endulge® Treats. Valid on 5 pack. Excludes Atkins Endulge® Peppermint Patties..Expires 1/29/2020.Save $1.50.

Save $2.00 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Atkins® Chocolate Banana Shakes. Valid on 4 pack..Expires 1/29/2020.Save $2.00.

Save $2.00 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Atkins Endulge® Peppermint Patties. Valid on 5 pack..Expires 1/29/2020.Save $2.00.

Save $1.50 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Select Atkins® Shakes. Valid on 4 pack. Excludes Atkins® Chocolate Banana Shakes..Expires 1/30/2020.Save $1.50.

Save $0.75 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Select NABISCO Cookies or Crackers. Valid on 7 oz or larger. Excludes Belvita, OREO, Triscuit..Expires 2/5/2020.Save $0.75.

Save $0.50 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Campbell’s® Slow Kettle® Style Soups. Valid on 15.5 oz..Expires 2/26/2020.Save $0.50.

Save $1.00 when you purchase ANY TWO (2) belVita Breakfast Biscuits. Valid on 8.8 oz or larger, any variety. Items must appear on the same receipt..Expires 2/29/2020.Save $1.00.

SAVE $1.00 on any ONE (1) Emergen-C® Dietary Supplement (8ct or larger).Expires 1/19/2020.Save $1.00.

SAVE $4.00 on any ONE (1) Emergen-C® Protein Fuel or Superfoods Product, any variety or size..Expires 1/19/2020.Save $4.00.

SAVE $1.00 on any ONE (1) Barilla® Protein+™ or Chickpea or Red Lentil or Gluten Free Pasta Product (8.8-14.5 oz).Expires 2/29/2020.Save $1.00.

SAVE $5.00 when you spend $25 on any flavor General Mills cereal listed: Cheerios™ • Cinnamon Toast Crunch™ • Lucky Charms™ • Reese’s Puffs • Chex™ • Cocoa Puffs™ • Trix™ • Cookie Crisp™ • Golden Grahams™ • Kix™ • Fiber One™ • Wheaties™ • Raisin Nut Bran

Save $0.50 when you purchase ANY ONE (1) Russell Stover Sugar Free. Valid on 2.4oz Bag or Larger. .Expires 3/25/2020.Save $0.50.(Only at Walmart)

Are you ready for National Fish Taco Day?

January 24th and 25th you can score a Coastal Trio for just $6 at Rubio’s!  in honor of National Fish Taco Day! I know a lot of you love fish tacos, so I had to share! The Coastal Trio includes Fish Taco, Salmon Taco, and a Shrimp Taco!

If you are wondering about Rubio’s Birthday Freebie and why it wasn’t included in my recent round-up, they have changed their birthday freebie, and I haven’t yet downloaded the app, so I’m not sure what it is.

Unless you have Rubio’s Rewards App, you are not able to receive the birthday freebie.

 

Talk Back: Are you excited for 

New Deals from Checkout 51!

Checkout 51 is rad! Most of the deals/cashback rebates are not store specific, so I can save at stores that don’t accept coupons, like Grocery Outlet and 99 Cents Only.  You can also stack with store sales and discounts.

It’s the beginning of the year and that means lots of diet stuff is on sale or on cashback apps for additional savings.

This week on Checkout 51, there are lots of healthy foods and TONS of Atkins products!

New to Checkout 51? Check out my post with more details here.

New Year, New Opportunities to Save!

For years, I’ve been posting about printable coupons, highlighting some of my favorites at the beginning of each month. As the years go by, sometimes it’s harder to find printable coupons or any coupons that excite me.

Couponing rules have become restrictive in-store, combined with the terms and conditions on each coupon, making the tried and true couponing advice of old (gather a lot of the same coupon, wait for a sale and stockpile items that you eat or use frequently), no longer a solid way to save money.

So this year I’ve decided at the beginning of each month, I’ll be highlighting some of the money-saving apps I use and their new offers. Their offers change monthly, just like coupons. Most of the money-saving apps also offer bonuses or deals from time to time as well.

 Ibotta has a new year referral bonus going on right now. You’ll earn 100% of what your newly referred friends earn through the end of January. Ibotta also has online offers too. You can shop through the app to earn more cashback. I love that they have offers at stores like Joann’s. I can earn cashback for my craft addiction!

Fetch Rewards has a pretty sweet deal right now- Refer friends with your referral code (mine is ND2TB), You’ll get 4,000 points for each referral, and your friends get 2,000 when they snap their first receipt! (In order for you to qualify for the increased referral bonus, they must enter your referral code and complete a valid receipt now through 11:59 PM PT on 1/7/2020. After 11:59 PM PT on 1/7/2020, the referral bonus will expire)

Checkout 51 is sweetening the deal too- When you sign up here and scan in your first receipt, you’ll get a $5 bonus! If you are already a Checkout 51 user, refer your friends and you’ll earn $10 when a new user scans in their first receipt (and they still earn $5).  Everyone wins!

And I’m not completely discarding the notion that printable coupons aren’t useful. In fact, while working on this post I discovered a couple printable coupons that I would 100% use and printed them out:

I try to keep some of these on hand for lunches or nights when I’m too tired to whip up what I’ve meal planned for that night. They have vegetarian entrees too!

For us CA peeps, this coupon is super useful!

Those Veggie Tots- So tasty!

Talk Back: How do you plan on saving money this year?

Tips to Reign In An Out Of Control Family Budget: Let’s Start in the Kitchen!

Until the end of the year, I’ll be posting some articles with realistic tips and methods to save money and reign in spending. None of these are going to the same old “Clip coupons, grow your own garden, etc.” that’s all over the internet- and honestly, here in Southern California, the old, standby advice isn’t going to help you. Grow a garden to save money? Water is so expensive here!

Clipping coupons and shopping grocery store sales/circulars will save you a fraction of the amount that it used to. In years past, I was saving 60-80% with coupons and store sales. Now, I’m lucky to save 50%.  With all of the restrictions on coupons (example: limit one like coupon per day- LAME), stockpiling to save money isn’t always possible without a lot of work/trips to different stores (and that’s not saving time). We’re moving past that, and delving into other ways to save money and take advantage of opportunities that are out there.

Today we are going to start with my pet project: Saving in the kitchen! If you feel like you’re spending too much money on food and groceries, here are my recommendations for getting the grocery spending under control:

1. Go through your refrigerator/freezer and pantry. Make a note of the food that you have on hand. I like using the kitchen inventories here. This will also give you an opportunity to clean out food from the kitchen that has expired or that you won’t eat. Unexpired food that you won’t eat, can be donated to a local charity.
2. Now that you have a handle on what you have in your kitchen, take a look at the list and come up with some recipes or meals that can be created with what you have on hand. You’d be surprised by how many meals you have in your kitchen! Make a list of the meals that you can make with what you have. And plan on having one or two of those per week. This will help keep grocery spending down. Make a list of meals that you can make but require one or two ingredients (like fresh vegetables), and add those ingredients to your next few shopping lists. By relying on what you already have in your home, you will be keeping your out of pocket down.
3. Before you head to the store, take a look at the sale flyer which is available online, and see what is on sale. Plan meals around food that is in season and on sale. Continue to use coupons, but don’t go out of your way to subscribe to multiple newspapers per week to get a hold of lots of the same coupons.  Don’t forget rebate apps! Use of these apps gets us $10-$20/month cashback, sometimes double that, depending on what bonus offers are available- Fetch Rewards and Ibotta often have Bonus offers.
4. Track your spending over a few weeks to see how much you are spending, and what you are buying. If you still find that you’re spending a lot of money on food, I would try shopping at a different store. I find that even with club card sales, and rebate apps like Fetch Rewards, some grocery stores (like Vons) are just too expensive to do my weekly shopping. I love starting my shopping at $.99 only. I am able to get a lot of snacks, name-brand treats, and fresh fruits and veggies there, and I am still able to stay on budget. Another fun place where I save money is Grocery Outlet. They have great prices on cheese, fruit juice, coffee, and frozen meat. They also have an interesting selection that changes weekly: snack food, protein bars/cookies, and cereal. If you are in the military, a military family, or a veteran, consider shopping at the commissary. Here is my article about saving money at the commissary. 
5. Consider cooking more from scratch. It is healthier, and pantry stables are generally pretty cheap (the ingredients for a batch of chocolate chip cookies runs about $3.00 and yields 4-5 dozen cookies, while a package of chocolate chip cookies from the grocery store is about $4.00+ and is usually 3 dozen or so).  I buy fruits and veggies whole and break them down and pack them into serving size bags. You can learn more about that and Batch Cooking here.

If you are still having a hard time keeping your grocery budget in check, or if you are finding that the ends don’t meet, consider the San Diego Food Bank Neighborhood Distribution Program. No documentation is needed to receive food assistance from a
Neighborhood Distribution site where people can receive fresh fruits, vegetables, and bread, based on availability. Families are encouraged to bring reusable bags or
a cart with them to carry the food items.

There are programs out there to help those struggling to feed their families here in San Diego County. Here is my list of San Diego County Food Resources.

I work very hard to keep my family on a budget, I work very hard to make sure that we are saving money and taking advantage of as many deals and opportunities that present themself. I know that this is not something that everyone wants to do or something that everyone can do. There are so many programs and discounts out there available for various groups of individuals.

Tomorrow, we’re tackling saving money on the entertainment budget.

Checkout 51- New users get $5!

Checkout 51 is a great cashback app that I don’t think I give enough attention to.

For the most part, you can use it at any store (which is great for those of us who shop at Grocery Outlet or other non-chain grocers a lot).

How Checkout 51 works

1. Browse your offers and buy products at any store.
2. Upload your receipt using Checkout 51.
3. We’ll confirm your purchase and credit your account.
4. When your account balance reaches $20, you can cash out and we’ll mail you a check. Please see Terms for more details.

Checkout 51 is sweetening the deal too- When you sign up here and scan in your first receipt, you’ll get a $5 bonus!

If you are already a Checkout 51 user, refer your friends and you’ll earn $10 when a new user scans in their first receipt (and they still earn $5).  Everyone wins!

To learn more about all of the Cashback apps I use, click here.