Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Wanna-Be Prudent Housewife




The woman on the left is me.  Soon I am going to be the woman on the right!  Lately I have been perusing the many sites on couponing.  When I look at coupons, I can not see how women get $100 worth of groceries for under $20, but I am going to find out!  Most of the time the coupons that are out there are not for items that I buy.  But perhaps with some study I can make this work.  I am going to start, first of all, by doing the Choystercash.com couponing class that will start next week.  Do you want to join me while I learn how to do the CVS and Walgreens deals?  Sign up here: www.choystercash.com.  I recommend that you set up a separate email account just for your internet coupon emails and that sort of stuff -- they can really jam up your inbox.  Choystercash sends out an email every time they are alerted to a good deal, sometimes several each week.  Their couponing class begins this coming Monday and runs for ten weeks.  Another good site for couponing is CouponMom.com.  She supplies you with all the deals AND all the coupons, too.  It's all overwhelming to me right now, but with God's help I am going to get it!!

Also, for any of you Texas dwellers, do you know about HEB's "fresh or free" policy?  My brother-in-law is constantly going into HEB and walking out with $100 worth of groceries for absolutely FREE.  Here is their policy:
"We guarantee the freshness of all products in our store.  If you find a product with a sell date earlier than today, we will gladly exchange it for a free FRESH replacement item (not redeemable for cash). Limit one free item on any like UPC. On bulk items normally sold by the pound you will receive one pound free."

Their clerks cannot stop you from going through the merchandise for the out-dated stuff, but they might go ahead of you and start rotating the stock a little better.   If the check-out person gives you any trouble, ask them to call the management.  This policy is good for anything in the store, including meat, dairy, HBA, grocery, etc. Note this:  YOU GET A NEW ONE FREE,  NOT THE OUTDATED ONE!  Google HEB for some "fresh or free" tips.

If only we lived in Texas.


House and riches are the inheritance of fathers:
and a prudent wife is from the LORD.
Proverbs 19:14

7 comments:

  1. Charlotte is the one who will scour the Walgreens, CVS, and grocery ads for me. It is a good math project for her.


    We have all kinds of things that we got for "free" - you still have to pay for the tax.


    I love watching Charlotte making a list, busy digging in the coupon box, and showing how much it will be and what the end cost is.


    Our Wal-Mart opened in town and we can use the grocery ads to our advantage. They will match it and then we use those coupons on top of it as well.


    Don't forget when you go to the stores to look for those clearance items to use those coupons on top of them. We have loads of tooth brushes, deoderant, tooth paste, and other stuff all for just pennies!!!


    On things we don't normally eat... well, I have learned that if we can get it for 90% less than we normally would... well we learn we can eat it. Plus it is a treat. Like Charlotte got some microwave brownie mix. I think if I remember right the end results was like .30 per mix. No, I would have never bought the mix at its price before, but Albertsons was running a special... Wal-Mart honoured it and then we couponed it. Then with the heat outside I thought that would make a great snack without having to turn on the oven!!!


    Well, I could ramble on and on, but I shall hush for now.


    Have fun with it. Your girls will love it. Plus it makes for a great math experience. With 4 girls and all of them will love being bargain hunters - I know my daughter loves it.


    Merlynn

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  2. What's overwhelming to me is keeping up with it all: coupon expiry dates, sales days, etc. I think I could manage a coupon organizer, but after that...lol I'm lost. And there's a lot more to it than that. I don't just want 55 cents off a box of Cheerios -- I want them for under $1. I AM going to figure this out!

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  3. We too try and get the very best buys that we can when grocery shopping. But you're right so many coupons are for products that we don't use. I buy so many off-brands as it is. We're on a budget with all of our household expenses and I would really like to try and get our grocery budget down as it seems we're spending more than I like. It's just so hard for me without constantly scanning the newspaper ads and coupon sections. I've tried some of the online sources but it seem they want so much information and quite honestly I'm not one to give out phone # or address. I may look into this site you're speaking of and see what I think of that.

    No, I haven't read any other of Nesbitt's books, I googled her name once to learn more about her and thought the bio I read on her was a bit questionable. I'm pretty conservative also about what the kids read.

    Right now my biggest delimma (sp?) is a good solid language arts curriculum. We've been using Learning Language Arts Through Literature but I just feel there is too much fluff and not enough LA content. Any suggestions, I hope to make a Rainbow Resource order soon with the change.

    So Emily is counting by tens?! That is impressive, what a smart little sweetie.

    Just wanted to add that Aubrey has wanted to get a letter off to "Betsy" for the last couple of days and the holdup is me as I haven't been by the post office lately to get stamps. She so wants to meet her someday and even mentioned that she wished that she and Betsy could both qualify for the Bible Bee Nationals just so they could meet, LOL.

    Wow, I went long...sorry. I hope you're having a beautiful day and the temps are cooling off.

    Julie

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  4. I also got into the coupon thing a couple years ago. It went over very well. I'm not sure why quit doing it. I guess it was just getting busy. I don't have a CVS near me, so I didn't get the chance to try that, but I know a lot of people that get amazing deals with coupons there. I also use to write various companies and tell them how much I liked their product. They would in return send coupons for totally free products, and also $'s off coupons. It's a lot to keep up with, but also a fun hobby with great rewards :-)

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  5. Yes, every little bit helps. I emailed a sausage company once to tell them I loved a certain variety of sausage. I told them how many people are in my family and that we use their sausage every week. They sent me 2 coupons for free packs of sausage any size. The total was almost $18.00!!! That was a sweet deal, LoL.

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  6. Here is a great help in saving money on your family's grocery bill. It's a blog called Money Saving Tips for the Keeper at Home . You can find it at www.lookingwell2009.blogspot.com


    You'll love the great ideas and store bargains presented to help you save your husband's hard earn cash! The lady who does this blog is our administrator for Beautiful for Thee, our online newsletter.

    Enjoy!

    Sheryl Shaffer

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  7. I have been considering it...and would like to see more of how your coupon jouney turns out? :)

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