The continuation of the crazed coupon-er's savings

And so, I'm not just crazy with saving money in my pantry but also with household items.  But, first things first.

Freezing your veggies:
Choose your fav veggies.  Bring a pot of water to an active boil and dump in your fresh green beans, bell peppers(best to buy them when they are on sale for freezing purposes), broccoli, asparagus...etc.  Make sure they are chopped, diced or minced how you like them.  Let them boil for approx three minutes.  You don't want them to fully cook.  Then, quickly, dump them into a colander/strainer and run them under cold water.  This is called blanching.  A fool proof method and way easier than canning!  Make sure to mark the date on your freezer bag, along with the name of which veggie.  Voila.

Potatoes and Rice -- Now, I mentioned potatoes and rice.  First, I have often frozen a batch of mashed potatoes but there is another way to freeze your taters.  Dice them and wait for your water to boil.  Dump them in for 3-5 minutes.  Once they're done let them set in icy water for 5-10 minutes.  Package and freeze.  So easy and it saves you from having to throw out your potatoes because they have eyes growing in their heads...

Rice -- Well, the only experience I have with freezing rice is with a certain Russian dish I make, Ploff/Plov.  I make a huge batch of this dish and then freeze the rest.  How many times...too many to count and the turn out has been great upon the re-heat.  You can freeze rice casseroles, too.  Wait, I just remembered that I've frozen just pain white rice.  Either way, it's fully cooked when it goes into the freezer.

 
No, you're not looking at a shelf in CVS or Walgreen's.  But this is my laundry closet.  Eight, yes, eight bottles of detergent.  There is one hiding in the back...And half of those I got for free.  They run close to $8 for the smaller bottles and $12 for the larger.  I don't pay more than $5.99 for the smaller bottle.  CVS is my friend.  I get amazing coupons for being a member of their rewards system on top of clipping coupons from the Sunday paper.  I wouldn't recommending stepping two feet inside that store without a coupon...they are just too expensive otherwise.  But, you couldn't find better deals when you're armed and ready.

All together now...the underside of my kitchen sink is lined with dish soaps!  Dishwasher and dishwashing.  I also have an arsenal of Clorox spray bottles, Clorox wipes, and all other sorts of cleaning paraphernalia.  And, once again, half of it was free.
The beauty of couponing is your coupons usually coincide with your local grocers sales.  And, if some of the coupons you clip don't match with the sales the store is having that week, don't worry because the next week they will match.  It's a game and you have to be smarter than the system.  Make them pay you.

I do.  I get free money every time I push my cart down the aisles.

This is how I shop. Like a crazed coupon clipper who listens to the rhythm of her pantry.

It took me over the course of six months to get this crazy.  Mad hunting for coupons, sitting the library filtering through miralax, puppy chow and Excedrin coupons to find the gold nugget -- .55cents off Land o' Lakes Butter.  Yes, I'm that crazy.  But I don't mind.  Even my four year old understands how important those "coopuns" are to me.  I faithfully buy two, yes two, Sunday papers.  One from the town I live in and one from a neighboring town.  The coupons are not always the same in each paper.  The $3.25 I shell out every Sunday, except for Holidays because they don't print coupons, pays for its self ten, sometimes twenty times over.  

So, that is step one.  TWO papers, every Sunday.  Not too shabby.  Because I know when I go shopping I will save NO less than $30.  The most I have ever saved in one go was $98.  Yeah.  I gulped.  Waited until I was outside, did the shout dance and called my husband.

Now, on to the nitty gritty.

Here is a list of items that I buy consistently to stock:
Chicken broth/ Beef Broth
Cream of Mushroom, chicken, celery
Tomato sauce, paste and diced tomatoes
Beans (black, pinto and pink)
Noodles (jumbo shells, mini penne, vermicelli)
Tuna
Marinated artichoke hearts (for casseroles)
Salsa
Ketchup
French Fried Onions
Water Chestnuts
Jelly
Oatmeal
Cream of Wheat
Juice
Flour (depending on how often you use it, I now make my own pancake batter so I tend to use a little more)

Here is a list of the items I buy to freeze:
Shredded cheese (sharp, mild cheddar, colby jack, mozzarella, parmesean)
Bread
Bacon
Butter (yes, I freeze butter)
Chicken
Pork (shoulder, and center cut pieces, labeled frozen and cut according to how much we eat)
Ground Turkey rounds
Bell Peppers
Broccoli
Potatoes (if I made too many mashed potatoes over dinner, I freeze the remainder...I will go more into depth about other ways to freeze your 'taters')
Rice (more on this later)
Asparagus
Green Onions
Store bought, Pre-bagged mixed veggies (for soups and stir frys)

Store bought, Pre-bagged frozen corn (for soups)

Ok, there is SO much to talk about concerning these lists.  I buy a whole lot more than what I listed, but it varies.  It depends on what type of foods I'm cooking and what time of year it is.  I tend to buy more beans and frozen corn in the winter...all of the soups I make.  And in the summer I buy more hamburger buns(bread) and ketchup.  Either way, you will find the rhythm of your pantry.
One trick is to -- take advantage of the B1G1.  That is: BUY ONE GET ONE FREE.  Shoot.  If it's something you use a lot, get it!  Especially if it has a long shelf life like: ketchup, soy sauce, juice, mayo.  Also, the bread( know it doesn't have a lot of shelf life but it's expensive and is frequently B1G1).  We eat a fair amount of bread.  Not so much sandwich breads but when it's on sale I buy three loaves and pop two in the freezer.

O. that's the other thing.  My freezer. 
It's a life saver/money saver.  Invest in a freezer.  There has to be some room in the garage for a small freezer.  That's what makes all of my "stocking up" work so well.  My freezer.

Back to the food...  It also comes in handy to freeze your leftovers.  I make rather large batches of homemade spaghetti sauce, chili, ploff and a few other things.  How many times have I NOT wanted to make dinner, or, been a little short on ingredients and it's not convenient to run to the store?  Too many.  So, I pull out my reserves and dinner is served!

I am going to stop here and do a second post on how to freeze some of these veggies.  And also talk about some of the other non-food items I stock up on.  I don't want to system overload everyone.  I hope this has been helpful.  If you have any questions...

Coupon Diva

I'm not QUITE a diva. But I'm getting close. The amount of money I save every time grocery shopping comes around just makes me smile. I started putting away all of the extra money that I saved into our savings account. Novel, huh? The picture up top is my coupon envelope. I love that thing and wouldn't be caught day or night without it. Since I don't have a proper coupons organizer I had to reinforce my envelope with packing tape. It's transferred from bag to bag and never far from my finger tips. I spend about two hours a week scouring coupon sites and coupons from the newspaper. I recently found that the library, here, offers coupons to those who have the patience to filter through, literally, hundreds of coupons that have been clipped and donated by the community of library goers. Granted, most of the coupons I find there are for Miralax, Centirium and dog food. A testament to the dense population of fifty and older in this area. Every once in a while I happen upon a nugget of gold like a $1.50 off Huggies. And then, I hope and pray that Huggies are on sale in the stores. Sometimes, I call the store to see if they are having a sale because not all Targets or Walmarts participate in the sales that you find online. Saves me a trip. Somehow the hunt to find coupons and match them to the sales going on in the stores has become a wonderful game of hide and seek between the hunter(me) and the hunted(those juicey sale items). I challenge myself to see if I can save more and more each time I go out. The most I've saved in one outing was $45. I couldn't believe it. The more I do this, the better I get. I've learned to look at the CVS insert and try to match my coupons to what they have listed on sale that week. I shop and find the items that gaurantee when I check out my receipt will be accompanied with a print out of coupons I can use on my next visit.

I would be remiss if I didn't share a couple of the sites that I frequent regularly. Have fun and try to save a buck or two.

http://sisterlysavings.net/

http://bargainhuntingmoms.typepad.com/

http://print.coupons.com/couponweb/offers.aspx?pid=13903&zid=xh20&nid=10