Stretching your Food Budget….

Times are tough for a lot of us right now. Coupons and deals are drying up left and right. Here are some ways that you can stretch your grocery budget without wasting time or energy.

My Top Ten 99 Cents Only Buys

The eternal question at Costco: Is Bigger Better? Learn about Price Per Unit here. 

In addition to price per unit, you might consider starting a price book as well.

If you live in San Diego County, check out this list of Neighborhood Distributions all over the county. You can pick up 15-30 lbs of free produce each week. No proof of need is required. Just show up with your reusable grocery bags!

If you are low-income, have kids under 5, are a senior citizen, or a college student struggling with food insecurity, there are programs out there that can help you! Don’t be afraid or ashamed to admit that you need help!

There are also food share programs in almost every community in the US.  They provide low cost food boxes to families and individuals. A quick google search can help you find one near you!

In San Diego County, there are monthly distributions through the San Diego food bank at various locations. Colloquially called “commodities”, it’s officially called The Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP). Locations throughout the county distributes USDA food each month. If you live outside San Diego County, check with your local county or municipalities food bank network for more info on this service.

Don’t forget there are tons of money saving and rebate apps. My list is here.

Bartering: Most of us know someone with a backyard garden. Trade your skills (housecleaning, organizing, babysitting, car washing, you get the idea) for some home grown produce, or eggs (some of us live in areas where backyard livestock is ok).  This may not be available to everyone.

Menu Planning is another great way to cut down on food waste- It’s a lot easier than you think once you get started.

Talk Back: I’d love to hear your tips for stretching your grocery budget!

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New Month, New Coupons!

Now that we’ve settled into July, it’s time to post about some of the new printable coupons! Last month I posted that the coupons weren’t that great. This month, they are slowly but surely getting better to ramp up for back to school.

Here is your monthly reminder!  A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!

Check out the following sites:

• Coupons.com (printable an e-coupons),
• Redplum (printable),
• SmartSource (Printable),
• SavingStar (E-Coupons)

One of my favorite website is the Sunday Coupon Review.  It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!

Here are just a few of the new coupons that have me excited:


This coupon is great if you have a Dollar Tree location near you. These little boxes are $1.00 each and contain 8-10 packets. With this coupon, it’s like buy three, get one free!

 

If you use this coupon, check your Target app to see if there is a cartwheel/savings deal in addition to this coupon- The best way to save money is to stack deals.

Perfect for Back To School Shopping, especially if your school is peanut-free or you have a peanut allergy in your home.

These cookies are so delicious.

 

 

And if you live in California, check out the CA Dairy Board’s website! Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and look for this:

You can print two coupons per computer, every thirty days. It’s a great way to save a little bit of money if you already purchase milk and other dairy products.

What coupons or deals are you excited about?

6 Tips for Combating the Mid-Year Frugal Slide

It’s July, and for most of us, Our New Years Resolutions are a thing of the past. Mr. and I were talking today about ways we could reign in our budget. We’re not making it rain by any means, but… we could make a few changes. Here are my top ten tips, and trust me, I’ve already started incorporating some of these. I’ll have all of them back in the works by weeks’ end.

1. Back to meal planning and sticking to it. No more trips to Denny’s when I am feeling lazy in the morning, or Mondays after group therapy.  That means I’ll be back to meal planning posts and new recipes too. And I’ll have several “back up dinners” on-hand in case the day gets away from me, or it’s too hot to cook the original meal. I took advantage of the sale on chicken breasts at Smart & Final the other day, and picked up 10 lbs. I came home and cut up the whole half breasts into more manageable sizes, and marinated some of it with different spices and put it in ziploc bags in the freezer. 10 lbs of chicken should get us 5 dinners, plus leftovers from each meal.
2. Back to maintaining a robust snack bag in the car, refilling it daily, and remembering our water bottles when we leave the house. I fill our water bottles (we have these for the kids and these for the adults- in 40 oz) with water and ice before we leave in the AM and refill them as needed throughout the day in various places.
3. In conjunction with #2, start taking surveys on receipts for deep discounts and free stuff again. I am Sonic’s text list, so when they have a daily deal that I have change in my car for, the kids and I stop for .50 ice cream cones, 1/2 price drinks (cherry limeade!). Frequently when you check out, there is a survey on the bottom of the receipt that will score you an XL (Route 44) size beverage for free! I really need to get back into stretching the buck.
4. Check all my apps before I go shopping. I’ve been bad about this over the past few months. I’m sure I’ve missed out on Ibotta deals, Checkout 51 offers, and Cash Dash promos. No More! I’m back, baby!!
5. Allowance. Yup, just like a teenager, I’m putting myself on an allowance, and Mr. is going to as well. I’m sticking to $40 in the summer, and $25 once we are back to school. This will just be for “fun money”. I still shop around for gas to stay within budget for gas each week. Costco is usually the cheapest.
6. Keeping eyes open for cheap entertainment. Big Dude is in ESY (summer school) for the next few weeks, so a lot of the traditional summer things that are fun and cheap we haven’t been able to do (like Regal Summer Movies). We’ve mostly been doing fun stuff at the library, which is free, but I think we need to look beyond that. It’s starting to get too hot for park play dates!

I’d love to hear from you about how you combat the frugal slide. What do you do when you feel yourself slipping off your track?

New Month, New Coupons!

I’m a day late, I totally forgot it was the beginning of the month!

Here is your monthly reminder!  A new month means new printable and electronic coupons!

Check out the following sites:

• Coupons.com (printable an e-coupons),
• Redplum (printable),
• SmartSource (Printable),
• SavingStar (E-Coupons)

One of my favorite website is the Sunday Coupon Review.  It helps me plot out scenarios in advance and I can email friends to ask for coupons in advance. Remember if clipping coupons isn’t your thing, but saving money is, check out my list of Smartphone apps that can save you the big bucks! New offers are added on the Smartphone Savings Apps all the time!

Here are just a few of the new coupons that have me excited:


The kids love this cereal, esp. straight from the box.

There aren’t too many new coupons this month, sadly, however, if you check out the Smartphone apps link above, you’ll find that there are plenty of ways to save and earn money. I recently cashed out $20 on Ibotta and $25 on Dosh!

New Dosh Promotion: Refer Friends, Get $15

In January, I introduced you to Dosh, a new Cashback app that you can use at tons of stores and restaurants all over.

I opened my email yesterday to discover this:

Limited Time Promo: Get $15 for each friend you refer to Dosh who links a card and gets in-store cash back for the first time.*

Promo ends April 13th at 12pm CT, so start referring! Click for details.

So get Dosh-ing!  I now I’ll be saving my referral $$ to bankroll my next giveaway (Hint- it rhymes with Smamazon Smiftcard).

I’ve earned over $60 since January just by doing my normal shopping.

 

Ibotta: April is Referral Cash Match Month!!

Ya’ll know I love a good Cash Back app, and Ibotta is pretty high on my list. In fact, prior to writing this post, I cashed out for $32.58. I had to share this latest promotion!

April is Referral Cash Match Month!
During April, get $5 for every friend who signs up with your code and redeems an offer AND we’ll match their cash back for you — whatever they earn this month, you’ll earn too! Sounds pretty sweet.

If you aren’t sure about all this Cash Back App stuff, check out my post here. But here is just an example of how you can earn money for stuff you usually buy:

And this offer is available at over 50 stores (including Costco). There are also offers for fresh fruits and veggies, fresh meat, breads, shelf stable food, canned goods, frozen food. There are 75+ offers on the Ibotta App at any time.

 

Disclaimer: This post contains my referral link, and if you sign up and complete the offer, I’ll get the deal too. I use the money I earn from referrals on the blog to pay for hosting fees and giveaways- And also my weekly trip to Starbucks. You can check out my Disclosure for all of the deets.

Earn Cash back with Dosh!

I love a good cash back app.  Dosh is the latest, and it’s a little different than the others out there right now. Dosh is primarily for restaurants (including Denny’s, which is the kid’s favorite), but there are retailers like Hallmark, Forever 21, Cost Plus World Market, and Sam’s Club.

Signing up is easy, and there are no receipts to scan, or photos to take.  Sign up here, then link your credit and debit cards.  Once you use one of the cards at a participating retailer, you’ll get a push notification from Dosh, and in just a few days, you’ll have cash back!  The Cash Out threshold is $15.00 which is pretty easy to get.

Right now when you sign up and link at least two cards, you’ll get a $10 bonus!  Refer friends and receive $5 per referral that signs up and receives their first cash back!

Thanks to my kids and their love of Denny’s, plus all of the other great extra ways to earn money with the app, I’ve already cashed out $20!

Here is my pro-saving tip for the day: Double or triple dip on this by using coupons (There were Denny’s coupons in the mail recently, and many of the retailers that participate also have coupons out there) to lower your Out of Pocket (OOP), and then scan your receipt into Receipt Hog, and check apps like Cash Dash to see if there are any cash back opportunities. And if you shop at Sam’s Club, check out Ibotta, Fetch Rewards, and Checkout51 for more rebate/cash back opportunities! You’ll be earning in NO TIME!!

(The Dosh Link is my personal link, if you sign up and complete an offer, I may earn $5. This money helps me run the site and offer contests and giveaways. You can see my Disclosure  info here.)