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Posted by Darlene on November 23, 2011 at 10:28 am I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure. Click the image to see this shopping trip! One thing I always hear is “what are you going to do with all that food?” My answer is… eat it!
The food I keep in my stockpile is all part of a plan. I look at the expiration date and buy enough to get me through to that date. Example: most of my pasta has a date that goes out a year. So, I know I’m safe to keep a year’s worth of pasta on hand, rotating stock when I buy more. My mother could eat pasta for every single meal. But, since we have so much other stuff on hand, I limit us to two boxes a week. That means I can have 102 boxes of pasta in my stockpile and I know it will all get gobbled up before the “best by” date. And since I’ve always been able to get pasta FREE or really, really cheap ever since I started couponing, I don’t think I’ll ever pay much for pasta again!
Here’s where the creative part comes in. Pasta comes in various packages. When I bought 120 boxes of Hamburger Helper, others I mentioned it to say “oh, I can’t have all that salt.” I don’t like the salt either! In fact, I don’t care for the seasoning at all. I use just the pasta! Same with Suddenly Salad. You don’t need to make pasta salad. Use the pasta in any dish!
The same goes for flavored rice, couscous, or any boxed “meal helper” out there. Ignore the instructions and use the ingredients the way you want! If you don’t want to throw the seasoning out, use it as bouillon to flavor a pot of soup. Or use just half in the dish and keep the rest. There are no rules! Get creative and use up that food!
Here are some other creative food “recipes” my mother I came up with:
Boxes Dinners, Hamburger Helper, Boxed Rice: A recap of what I said above plus a few more tips… use just the pasta for other dishes, save and use the seasonings for soups to sprinkle on stir fry as a seasoning, use pasta for casseroles, or use just the pasta and seasoning but without meat for a side dish, make as instructed but add veggies, swap the type of meat you use (you can put chicken or pork in a “hamburger” helper.
Flavored Coffee Creamer – use as dessert topping, add to smoothies, add to baking mixes or pancake mix, pour over pancakes or waffles, pour over ice cream, pour over canned fruit (think peaches & cream but you can use any fruit), add a bit to the milk in your cold cereal, add to instant oatmeal (either in the mix or pour on top), replace 1/4 cup of milk with creamer when making instant pudding, add to milk to make flavored milk, add to soda or seltzer (don’t say yuck) to make a sort of egg cream or ice cream float (add ice cream too, if you want), add to hot chocolate.
Cereal – crush it and use instead of graham to make pie crusts, blend it to use as “flour” for baking, make marshmallow treats (no law saying you have to use rice crispies!), sprinkle on pudding or ice cream, use to decorate cakes, make homemade breakfast bars.
Canned Soup – use as a soup starter! Add water and any kind of leftovers you happen to have in the refrigerator. Sprinkle in some of that seasoning you didn’t use for the hamburger helper. You can turn one or two cans of soup into enough soup to feed your family!
Chunky Canned Soup – use for pot pies! One easy way to do this is to just pour the soup into a baking pan, mix a bit of bisquick with milk or water (make it just thick enough so it holds together but will fall off the spoon on its own, like for dumplings), add blobs of mix on top of the soup and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until done (depending on how much you make).
Oatmeal – use for baking! Put it in the blender to make oatmeal flour. Grind it up to use as baby food. Bake oatmeal cookies. Make homemade granola.
Prepared Pudding and Yogurt – add to smoothies, make popsicles, use as dessert topping.
Canned Veggies – blend and add to soup stock, mash and add to other recipes (great way to hide veggies).
Canned Fruit – mash and use as dessert topping, use for cobblers, add to smoothies.
Jars of Baby Food – Veggie food: add to soups and stews to thicken the broth, add to mashed potatoes. Fruit food: add to desserts, baking mixes, pancake batter, use as dessert topping, mix with yogurt or pudding, use as dipping sauce. Meat food: add to meatloaf or meatballs, add to soups or stews, use in homemade dog treat recipes.
Salad Dressing – pasta salad, veggie dip, sandwich spread (thousand island or russian, marinade, add to meatloaf (especially italian), use to baste turkey/chicken, use on baked potato or add to mashed potatoes (bleu cheese is awesome), drizzle over hot pasta, use as dip for chicken nuggets, use as glaze for meat.
Seltzer – Seltzer is almost always free but it’s so blah! Add a bit of juice to flavor it, add seltzer to a smoothie to fizz it up a bit. You can also sweeten seltzer with your favorite sweetener.
Bread – toast it to make croutons, use for stuffing, make a loaf of French toast and freeze it for a quick breakfast (you can pop them in the toaster), feed the birds, make bread play clay for kids (mix with white glue until you have dough, mold and let air dry then paint).
I think you get the idea. If you really want to start a stockpile, sit down and figure out how much food you go through. Then when something is free or really, really cheap, you will know how much to buy!
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Posted by Darlene on November 22, 2011 at 10:06 pm I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
I took a little trip to Shaw’s tonight and low and behold, they had holiday flavored International Delight on SALE. I hope you printed the coupons for the creamer when I told you to. I blogged about it twice, so you had two chances… just sayin’ ;o)
I bought a lot of stuff, but I’m pulling these items out for the photo so you can copy this mini trip. If you didn’t print the International Delight coupons, you can still pick up the other stuff because the coupons for those items are still available to print. The creamer coupon might be there too.
You will have to do this shopping trip on Wed, Nov 23. Shaw’s is closed Thursday then the sales change on Friday.
Buy these items:
2 Flavored International Delight Coffee Creamer on sale for $1.99 each
2 Sargento 8 oz Shredded Cheese on sale for $2.00 each
2 cans Spam on sale for $2.50 each
1 dozen Shaw’s large eggs, reg price $1.99
Use these coupons (they will all double):
Use (2) $.75/1 International Delight – check zip 90210 and click on beverages to see if it’s still available
Use (2) $.55/1 Sargento Shredded Cheese
Use (2) $.55/1 Spam product
The eggs are FREE when you buy 2 Spam (store special)
If you were to buy this food at regular price, the total would be $20.33
Buy waiting for a sale, you bring the total down to $14.97
Buy using coupons on top of the sale and by getting a credit for the eggs, you will pay only $5.58!
See how it’s done? This is not the best savings, but if you are a beginner, it’s a good start! Do me a favor… TRY IT! Buy only the stuff above and pay attention to the screen at the register to make sure all is going as planned. If your total does not come out right, figure out what went wrong. Did all the coupons scan? Did they all double? Did you buy the correct items? By keeping the transaction small, you can make sure you get it right. Let me know how it goes!
If you don’t have the International Delight coupons, skip the creamer and just get the other stuff. Your total should be $4.60.
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Posted by Darlene on November 16, 2011 at 2:30 pm I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
I have two computers so I was able to print FOUR of the lovely $5 off $25 Shaw’s coupons. Those are the coupons that made a quick appearance on coupons.com and had NO restriction on the minimum purchase. So, I was able to bring each transaction as close to $5 as possible, and after the $5 coupon, I got food for practically NOTHING including a fresh chicken! It’s in the oven as I type. I hope it comes out looking like the one in the photo!
1st transaction:
8 boxes rice and couscous (all free with coupons)
3 lbs of apples (reduced produce)
5 lbs of potatoes (reduced produce)
3 lbs of carrots (reduced produce)
Box of Wholly guacamole (reduced produce plus coupon)
Big tub of Sabra hummus (reduced produce plus coupon)
Total before Shaw’s card and coupons was $28.44
I paid 32¢
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2nd transaction:
14 boxes rice and couscous (all free with coupons)
1 bag No Yolks (with coupon)
2 Heluva Good dips (with coupons)
1 bag fresh broccoli and cauliflower (reduced produce)
Box of fresh mushrooms (reduced produce)
2 packages celery (reduced produce)
Total before Shaw’s card and coupons was $42.21
I paid 20¢
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3rd transaction:
18 boxes rice and couscous (all free with coupons)
3 packages english muffins (B1G2 FREE)
2 packages celery (reduced produce)
Total before Shaw’s card and coupons was $55.09
I paid 29¢
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4th transaction:
18 boxes rice and couscous (all free with coupons)
5 pound fresh organic whole chicken (with $3 stickie on it)
Total before Shaw’s card and coupons was $52.91
I paid $1.69… I hated to spend that much but the chicken was sooooo worth it!
—–
Grand total before Shaw’s card and coupons was $178.65
I paid only $2.50 for everything!
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Posted by Darlene on November 14, 2011 at 9:15 pm I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
I finally got around to using one of my $5/$25 Shaw’s coupons that I printed from coupons.com. I’ve had several people tell me they were not able to use the coupon at their Shaw’s. I showed my coupon to the higher ups tonight (that’s you Mrs. P.), explained where I got it, showed the veri-fi verification and all that jazz. Mrs P. stayed with me to see if it would scan and it didn’t. And that’s probably because that bar code is missing. No problem, my cashier entered it manually and I was good to go.
What I got tonight was $5.32 worth of reduced produce and deli which included 3 lbs of apples, 5 lbs of potatoes, 3 lbs of carrots, a box of Wholly guacamole, and a big tub of Sabra hummus. Then I picked up 8 boxes of Near East couscous (I had coupons to make those FREE). After my $5 coupon, I paid only 32¢ for everything!
I totally plan on using my other three $5/$25 Shaw’s coupons. I’m also going to post on Shaw’s facebook page to see why the coupons didn’t print with all the bar codes and to also see if Dan the Shaw’s facebook man has any tips for those who are having a difficult time using the coupons.
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Posted by Darlene on November 13, 2011 at 5:52 pm I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
I just got back from walking around Shaw’s to get shelf prices on some items (working on a plan of attack for the $5/$25 coupons). Anyhoo, as I walked by the reduced dairy section, I noticed a bunch of Yoplait yogurt 4-packs… all marked down to $1 each! And guess what? I had coupons to go with the deal!
I picked up (8) 4-packs of reduced Yoplait for a total of $8
I used (4) $.75/2 Yoplait 4-packs
After coupons doubled I owed $1.85 (it should have been $2 but for some odd reason it subtracted 15¢ for tax??? Sometimes the Shaw’s scanners do strange things like that with tax when you use coupons, even if it’s not a taxable item)
I used a $1 catalina to pay it down.
I paid 85¢ for a total of 32 yogurts!!! And yes, I put that tiny amount on my credit card… LOL
If you have some of those Yoplait coupons (I can’t find any for the 4-packs that are currently available to print), you can run to the Sanford Shaw’s to pick up some 4-packs too! They also had about 20 4-packs of the Yoplait Splitz and you can also use the coupons on those.
Remember, you can freeze yogurt then use it in smoothies! I just pop them out frozen and blend with a bit of milk, juice or even seltzer. If you get yogurt that comes in the inverted cups, be sure you pour them into plastic bags if you want to use them frozen. You can’t pop them out of the inverted cups. You can also make yogurt ice cubes to use in smoothies. Delish!
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Posted by Darlene on November 11, 2011 at 9:30 am I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
I have been meaning to post my Hannaford road trip but I’ve just been too busy with my little granddaughter here. I have a few minutes while she’s playing with her Grand Memere. They are getting in some last minute quality time because I take Skylar back home to Mississippit today :O(
Anyway, I was not able to shop much during Hannaford’s awesome annual Buy 4 Get $1 Back catalina deal. However, I was able to get out there a couple of times.
One mini Hannaford trip!
My friend and I managed to hit Hannaford to shop for our Sanford Food Pantry. She asked for my help with my coupon skills and I jumped on the donation band wagon with her! Together we got 80 cans of veggies and soup for only $2.04. We’ll be doing more shopping for the pantry… probably a monthly thing.
One big Hannaford trip!!!
When the Hannaford deal first started, I went on a road trip with my sister. We hit 6 different Hannafords, hitting Biddeford more than once. This is the list of what I got (her list was equally impressive, but different).
18 cans baked beans
6 boxes elbows
4 boxes mac & cheese
8 bags of rice
2 containers of salt
4 bottles of vinegar
30 cans of dog food
8 cans mixed vegetables
5 cans of beets
7 cans of spinach
8 cans of creamed corn
10 cans of corn
3 cans of potatoes
4 cans of carrots
8 cans of peas
12 cans of green beans
2 cans of black beans
2 cans of fruit cocktail
6 cans of peaches
8 cans of tomato soup
12 cans of chicken noodle soup
The grand total for all this was $112.77.
I paid ONLY $1.77!
I did this by using coupons from the Hannaford coupon booklet and rolling over the catalina coupons! I did lots of transactions that got down to zero and lots that were only 4¢. I think the most I paid in any one transaction was 10¢ and that was including tax on the dog food.
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Posted by Darlene on October 22, 2011 at 2:48 pm I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
If you follow my posts, you will know that I was all over the General Mills catalina deal that Shaw’s had last week. I just added up all my receipts and here is my grand total:
I did 10 separate transactions over 1 week
I bought $545.71 worth of groceries
I paid $84.10 out of pocket.
I have one $10 catalina left over
This was the first time I shop during this type of deal, and I know that next time I will do much better. I think spending $84.10 in one week is way too much, even though I got a lot of stuff. You can see the list of everything I got below.
If you want to see each individual transaction, you can use these links:
Transactions 1 and 2
Transaction 3
Transactions 4, 5 & 6
Transactions 7, 8, 9, and 10
Here is what I got during the GM catalina week:
GM items that went toward the catalina deal:
6 boxes Hamburger Helper
13 boxes GM cereal
38 boxes Betty Crocker potatoes
8 boxes Betty Crocker muffin mix
8 cans Green Giant vegetables
32 boxes frozen Green Giant vegetables
10 boxes Betty Crocker fruit snacks
10 boxes Betty Crocker brownie mix
11 boxes Betty Crocker cake mix
11 tubs Betty Crocker frosting
8 pouches Betty Crocker cookie mix
4 boxes Fiber One bars
4 bags Bugles snacks
8 boxes Totino’s pizza rolls
Other items I picked up on these receipts:
60 rolls of Charmin (got five 12-packs)
10 pound bag of potatoes
2 more pounds of potatoes
10 jars Cains mayonnaise (full size jars!)
6 big jars Cains pickles
2 jars fig spread
4 Lunchables snacks
7 tangerines
1 fresh eggplant
1 big tub cottage cheese
1/2 gallon whole milk
1 full stalk fresh celery
1 bag Frootee Ice (plus 4 more bags on other receipts for the rebate)
1 king size loaf wheat bread
1 bag potato chips
Not bad for $84.10, eh? By planning my shopping, I was able to get TEN $10 catalina coupons… that’s $100 of FREE FOOD!!! By matching the sales to coupons and using my catalinas, I was able to save $461.61. And remember, I just started couponing in May! If I can learn how to do this, anyone can!
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Posted by Darlene on October 21, 2011 at 3:43 pm I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
Sorry this post is after the GM sale is over, but I shopped Wednesday night and was away from my computer all Thursday. So, if you were following my scenarios, it’s too late to try these.
Before I list my shopping transactions, I want to mention that I spoke to both Rob and Mike (awesome night team at my Sanford Shaw’s) and explained that I wanted to test the GM deal to see if the catalina was being triggered at shelf price and not just sale price. It’s with their permission that I tested these transactions knowing that I’d return the product if it didn’t work.
Transaction 7 – I bought these items:
8 boxes Betty Crocker potatoes: shelf price $15.92, sale price $10
4 pouches Betty Crocker cookie mix: shelf price $11.16, sale price $8
Total shelf price was $27.08 (testing to see if this would trigger the catalina)
Total sale price was $18.00 (coupons are deducted from this amount)
I used these coupons:
(4) $.60/2 potatoes (those doubled)
(4) $.50/1 cookie mix (those doubled)
Total after coupons was $9.20
I knew I’d be paying with a $10 catalina, so I needed to spend an additional 80¢. I bought a jar of Cains pickles on clearance for $1.50 and used my $.35/1 Cains coupon which doubled which brought me to $9.99 (the pickles are 50% off $2.99 so they actually ring up at $1.49).
My new total was $9.99 – I paid using my $10 catalina and got everything above for FREE (they even insisted on giving me a penny change)… and I got my $10 catalina for next time!
I tried the catalina deal again by buying cereal and using shelf price. I hesitantly used the express lane and didn’t stick to my lucky #7 register and this time it did not spit out the catalina, so I returned that order (they gave me cash back for my coupons and catalina but I turned right around and used it on my next transaction). I did my final 3 transactions using sale price, not shelf price, just to be sure I’d get my cat. It was a fun experiment just the same, and I was able to get one entire transaction for FREE and a round of applause, which always feels good :O) Oh, and that lovely penny! LOL
I’m not listing all the coupons because it’s after the fact and it takes too much time. Any of you who have been doing this deal will recognize the items and know which coupons were available for them. All the transactions dipped well below $25 after coupons… and my Sanford Shaw’s totally approves :O)
Transaction 8 – I bought these items:
For the GM deal:
5 boxes Cookie Crisp cereal
8 boxes Betty Crocker muffin mix
Other stuff:
2 jars Cains pickles
I paid $3.19 out of pocket (using the catalina refund from returned transaction) and I got another catalina for next time!
Transaction 9 – I bought these items:
For the GM deal:
6 boxes Betty Crocker fruit snacks
4 boxes Betty Crocker cake mix
4 tubs Berry Crocker frosting
Other stuff:
2 jars Cains pickles
1 jar fig spread
I paid $5.69 out of pocket and I got another catalina for next time!
Transaction 10 – I bought these items:
For the GM deal:
4 boxes Fiber One bars
1 box Cookie Crisp cereal
4 bags Bugles
8 boxes Totino’s pizza rolls
Other stuff:
1/2 gallon milk
I paid $3.29 out of pocket and I got another catalina for next time!
My total for the night was $174.19.
I paid only $12.17 OOP for everything! (I mean $12.16, ’cause they gave me that penny).
And I have a $10 catalina remaining for anything else I want to buy!
At some point, I will list all the items I bought during the GM sale because I’m very curious as to exactly what I got and how much I paid. Everything is still in bags all over my house! When I figure it all out, I’ll post it.
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Posted by Darlene on October 19, 2011 at 10:26 am I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
I was busy at Shaw’s yesterday! I took advantage of the General Mills sale once again and did three more transactions. How it works is if you buy $25 worth of participating GM items, you will get a $10 catalina coupon to use on your next purchase. The minimum purchase is supposed to be $25 after scanning all other coupons, but the catalina is triggered if your total hits $25 before coupons. I dipped below $25 after coupons 6 times now and I got the cat every time.
In case you are trying to copy scenarios, here is what I bought this time around to get the $10 catalinas:
Transaction 4 – I bought these items:
4 boxes Premium Brownie mix: $8
6 boxes Hamburger Helper: $6
8 boxes Betty Crocker potatoes: $10
I used these coupons:
(2) $1/2 brownies
(2) $1/3 Hamburger Helper
(4) $.50/2 potatoes (those doubled)
Total before coupons was $24.00 (I just realized that I made a boo boo on my scratch pad and this did not even reach $25 before coupons but I still got the catalina, so it must be triggered by shelf price, not sale price!)
Total after coupons was $16.00
I used my $10 cat from previous trip and paid only $6.00 and I got another $10 catalina for next time!
Transaction 5 – I bought these items:
3 boxes Betty Crocker cake mix: $4.50
3 tubs Betty Crocker frosting: $6
3 pouches Betty Crocker cookie mix: $6
6 boxes regular Betty Crocker brownie mix: $9
I used these coupons:
(3) $1/2 cake mix and frosting
(3) $.40/1 cookie mix (those doubled)
(3) $1/2 brownies
Total before coupons was $25.50
Total after coupons was $17.10
I used my $10 cat from previous trip and paid only $7.10 and I got another $10 catalina for next time!
Transaction 6 – I bought these items:
4 boxes Betty Crocker cake mix: $6
4 tubs Betty Crocker frosting: $8
1 pouch Betty Crocker cookie mix: $2
2 boxes Betty Crocker fruit snacks: $4
3 boxes Cheerios: $6
I used these coupons:
(4) $1/2 cake mix and frosting
(1) $.40/1 cookie mix (that doubled)
(1) $.60/2 fruit snacks
(3) $.50/1 Cheerios (those doubled)
Total before coupons was $26.00
Total after coupons was $17.00
I used my $10 cat from previous trip and paid only $7.00 and I got another $10 catalina for next time!
During these transactions, I also picked up
48 rolls of Charmin toilet paper (Hallelujah! The girl’s got TP!)
1 big jar Cains pickles
4 jars of Cains mayonnaise
7 tangerines
2 pounds potatoes
1 fresh eggplant
1 jar fig spread
My total for everything mentioned above before discounts and coupons was $163.11
I paid only $32.17 OOP for EVERYTHING above (including tax) and I still have a $10 catalina for next time!
Oh, I almost forgot, I grabbed 2 more bags of Frootee Ice so I can do the rebate again. That’s makes 5 bags for me so far. I plan on doing 10 total.
See my GM transactions 1 & 2 here
See my GM transaction 3 here
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Posted by Darlene on October 16, 2011 at 6:24 pm I use affiliate links in some of my posts. I may earn a commission if you use my links. Full disclosure.
I just got back from a quickie shopping trip at Shaw’s where I did my 3rd General Mills catalina deal. The deal is if you buy $25 of participating GM products, you get $10 back. The minimum purchase is supposed to be $25 after scanning all other coupons, but this is the third time I dip under $25 after coupons and I got the cat each time!
Today I bought these items:
6 boxes Betty Crocker potatoes
2 boxes Betty Crocker fruit snacks
16 boxes Green Giant frozen veggies
I used these coupons (they all doubled):
(3) $.50/2 Betty Crocker potatoes
(1) $.60/2 Betty Crocker fruit snacks
(4) $.80/4 Green Giant frozen veggies
Total before coupons was $27.50
Total after coupons was $16.90
I used my $10 cat from previous trip and paid only $6.90!
In the same transaction, I also picked up:
1 big container Hood cottage cheese
Used coupon for FREE cottage cheese
1 bag potato chips
Used coupon for FREE bag potato chips
1 pack 12 rolls toilet paper on sale for $4.99
Used $5/$25 for total order which made the toilet paper FREE
1 full stock of celery from reduced produce for 75¢
My OOP total for everything above including the tax on the TP was just $7.85! And I have another $10 catalina from the GM deal to use next time!
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