Choosing a Printer

There are a few things I recommend folks invest in when they begin couponing. One is some sort of filing system. Another is a good pair of scissors (though, honestly, my favorite pair came from the dollar store; the most important thing is to have a dedicated pair that don't get gunked up with kids' projects). Next on the list is a printer of reasonable quality.

I won't bore you with the details, but at one point in time I found myself needing to purchase a second printer with scanning capabilities in order to submit some signed documents by email. I shopped around for quite a while and finally decided on the wireless Canon Pixma MP495. You don't need anything that powerful for printing coupons, but the wireless function is great if you have multiple devices from which to print. I see that Amazon now offers the wireless Canon Pixma MG3220 for about half the price of the one I bought. (Disclaimer: these models state that they can be used to print from mobile devices but I have not tried this function. You'll want to research and read reviews on this point.) The last time I checked, laser printers actually work out better for costs in the long-run, but I tend to be hard on technology (read: I break things a lot) so the smaller investment for an inkjet was right for me.

Some tips I wish I'd known from starting out:

• As soon as you have all your devices connected, the first thing you should do is adjust your default settings. Switch from 'high quality' to 'fastest' and from 'color' to 'grayscale' in order to conserve ink. Stores accept black and white coupons and there's no reason to waste color ink when you print. You can always go back and override your default settings if you have a special project to print.

• Before ordering anything from Amazon, you should see if you're eligible for a free Prime account. If you're a student with an .edu email address, they'll give you six months of free two-day shipping. Once the six months is up, you can renew at half price ($39 for a year instead of $79) and can continue to renew at that rate for up to four years. Once you upgrade (and you don't have to wait for the free trial to expire to do so), you'll get free shipping and loads of free streaming video choices and access to their lending library for Kindle. (If you don't own a Kindle, you can download a free Kindle Reader for PC to read books from your computer.) While I highly advocate keeping shopping dollars local, there are some items that just aren't offered from Mom & Pop stores in town; for these items, I love Amazon.

• Frequent-shopper cards aren't limited to groceries and pharmacies. Check out reward programs like MaxPerks and sign up using your dedicated email account for their email promos. I watch for 'Free shipping when you purchase $20 or more' promos and then order my ink cartridges or paper. I also keep an eye out for the bonus reward items (this is how I got four boxes of ink pens for free to use on campus, because freshmen were walking off with my good pens! lol). If you are an educator -- including homeschoolers -- the program for teachers works out better than a standard account. Remember to hang on to your spent cartridges to recycle with them, because you'll earn rewards for that, too. I put mine in a plastic zipper bag so they don't leak until I can get to the store. Also, read the fine print for emailed offers, because certain items or brands will sometimes be excluded from rewards.

• Speaking of ink... whichever brand of printer you decide to purchase, research your options for standard versus high-capacity cartridges. For my printer, the PG-210 cartridge should print about 200 pages, but the PG-210XL should print about 400 pages (these are manufacturer estimates, but I know that a 1/3-page coupon doesn't take as much ink as a regular one-page document, so they actually last longer). The extended cartridge only costs a few dollars more, or can be found on sale for less than the standard cartridge, and I don't have to change it out as often. Also, bear in mind that store-brand or refurbished cartridges may technically work with your printer, but you may have to fiddle with your sensor settings for each computer and/or manually override warnings each time you print because your printer is a genius that can't communicate with these sorts of cartridges and will tell you that you're out of ink when you're not.

• Finally, don't go for quality paper for couponing. There's no reason to invest in heavy stock paper for this purpose. I keep a case of cheap copier paper for everyday use and couponing, and then just a ream of the good stuff for other projects.

I think that's it. I'm sure I've missed some aspect of printers and printing, but these are the things that come to mind immediately. If you have any specific questions, drop me a line and I'll do my best to find the answer for you!

Printable Coupons

MoolaSavingMom regularly posts new printable coupons. You can find her post from this morning HERE. Now, usually I print coupons as I need them, but some products I love regularly end up being free if I can time it right, so I'll print them before they disappear.

Hormel Cure 81 boneless ham is one of those products. The $2 coupon doesn't expire until mid-April. If we get a Super Doubles event before then, the ham steaks will be free at Harris Teeter. My husband loves these and we usually dice them up to go in omelets.

To print coupons from various sites, you'll probably need to make sure your JavaScript is up to date, and you may need to install a small program like couponactivator or similar one time in order to begin printing. It's worth it! Remember that some coupon sites are optimized for Internet Explorer and may not keep up with changes in other browsers; if you haven't had a problem printing from Firefox or Chrome, etc., and then suddenly do, it may be due to browser updates and companies haven't had time to respond. (This is the main reason why I haven't deleted IE from my computer!) If you really want particular coupons, you may need to log in on IE for a day or two to access them until companies update their settings for your preferred browser.

In case you missed one of my very early posts on how to get started couponing, you might want to check out AFullCup (registration is free but required to access their database; search for coupons and you can limit results to just printables) and the KrazyCouponLady (wait for the page to load and then you can use <CTRL><F> to search for specific items). 

Don't forget that most coupon sites will allow you to print two like coupons. Please remember that each coupon will have its own serial number, and that copying (xeroxing) any sort of coupon is illegal. Stores with older systems may not recognize fraudulent duplicates at check-out, but they won't get reimbursed for them by the manufacturer, which means they lose money and will become more strict with their coupon policies. Stick to ethical couponing and we'll all be happy!

Be sure to check out the next post on how to choose a printer.

Fast Food Would Cost More

Happy Friday!

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and it had come to her attention that they'd been eating too much take-out lately; she's trying to transition to more home-cooked meals but the dollar menu as a fallback plan is quick and inexpensive. There's a misconception that buying ingredients and cooking at home is more costly than picking up fast food.

So, to address this, here's dinner from Thursday...

Pork chops from Harris Teeter... $1.67
Mrs. Dash Caribbean Citrus... Free
Fresh broccoli crowns from Aldi... $1.79
Canned corn from Food Lion... $0.25

Look how GREEN that broccoli is!

...and then there's dessert...
Three cups milk... $0.56
Jello pie mix... $0.68
Keebler pie crust... $0.50

Chocolate 'Pi'

That's a total of $5.45, or about $1.36 per person.
Add milk for the kids and a glass of wine for the hubbie (I'm drinking water) and the whole dinner, plus beverages and dessert, comes to $6.79, or an average of $1.70 per person. You can't even feed a family of four with fast-food sandwiches and beverages from the dollar menu for that. 

And, no, we didn't finish it all. We have leftover broccoli and pie for today. (The last pork chop evidently became someone's midnight snack - LOL!)

Finding Recipes

One of the most difficult things to do when you start to transition from fast food, take-out, or prepackaged entrees to from-scratch meals and snacks is find recipes that you and your family will use, and for which you have the ingredients. As you begin to build up a pantry of inexpensive ingredients (did you see in the post yesterday that sugar is on sale at HT?) it will get easier, but with the advent of the internet, you don't have to rely on a box of recipe cards or musty old cookbooks. Some of my best friends are musty old cookbooks, though. 

Have you gotten a chance to check out AllRecipes yet? It's a great resource. You can set up a basic, free account, and then start saving recipes to your online recipe box. The best part? You can perform an advanced search in order to find recipes that use what you have on hand. That's how I discovered a recipe for crockpot Lemon Thyme Chicken a couple of years ago, and my family loved it! (Even if you don't drink wine, you should consider grabbing a couple of bottles of Winking Owl from Aldi for cooking purposes.)

Here is my process: I find a recipe that looks interesting. I print out the full-sheet recipe. I use a heavy-duty magnetic clip on my exhaust hood to pin the recipe up for easy reference while I cook (please don't use a weak magnet and drop paper onto your stovetop!). I try not to make substitutions the first time I make a recipe. We eat, and then I ask for feedback. Every once in a while, my family will choke down a recipe, force a smile, and vehemently ask that I not make that dish again. Half the time, they will say that it was a good meal but that they wouldn't want to eat it all the time (those get saved in the online recipe box). The rest of the time, we stumble across dishes that they love; those recipes get three-hole-punched and put into my hard copy binder for more frequent use.

I posted a few weeks ago about the fabulous recipe I found for flavorful pizza dough. That one went in the binder, and I'm glad, because the kids and I were craving cheesy breadsticks.

Make the above pizza dough recipe and let it rest for about half an hour. Divide it in half and roll it out to fit two pans (tip: sprinkle the pans with plain cornmeal to keep the dough from sticking!). Poke the dough in a few places with a fork to prevent it from turning into a big ol' fluffy pita. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees F for about 8 minutes.

Top with mozzarella cheese and your choice of herbs/spices. I used garlic powder, salt, pepper, and dried parsley.

Pop the pans back in the oven for 6-12 minutes, depending on your desired level of browning.

Slice into sticks and call the family down for a substantial snack!

NOTE: This dough recipe is halved for making pizza, too, so it's possible to make one pan of pizza and one of cheesy breadsticks for dinner. Just remember to use only half the sauce on the pizza and use the other half for dipping breadsticks.

Best Deals This Week

It's Wednesday! That means a new week of sales at local stores.

Now, I don't make a practice out of listing the best deals, and usually just direct readers to the website matchups. However, a few of you have asked that I walk you through the process, so here goes. On Wednesday mornings, I grab a cup bowl of coffee and go to MoolaSavingMom and SouthernSavers to check out the deals on things we use. The first site will place a green checkmark next to best-price items, and the second site will place an acorn icon next to them. I don't just go through the lists and pick those items, though, because I have to evaluate what we have on hand and what we actually need or will use. I highly encourage you to do the same, because what your family uses will not be the same as mine, either. Additionally, I have a modest stockpile here and can wait until the best prices come across on items before restocking.

ALL THAT SAID, these are the things that caught my eye at each of the following stores this week:

ALDI

Does not accept coupons

Sales

Cantaloupe $0.99 each

Grapes $0.99/lb

Baby carrots $0.69/lb

5-lb bag of Red potatoes $1.29 each

Regular prices

Winking Owl merlot, shiraz, cabernet, chardonnay, or zinfandel $2.89/bottle

Clancy tortilla chips $1.19/bag

KROGER

Doubles coupons up to $0.50 in face value, for up to $1.00 off items. Final amounts paid at register result in fuel points that you can use to save at the pump at Kroger gas stations (Roxboro off MLK, here).

Sales

Tyson chicken $0.99/lb

With coupons

50 oz. Tide detergent $3.99 each

Gallon Hawaiian punch $0.89 each

Annie's mac & cheese $0.30 each

Possible milk scenario

Buy 4 Post healthy cereals, use newspaper coupon for free gallon of milk, also qualify for store offer for free gallon of milk. Pay about $14 for four boxes of cereal and get two gallons of milk for free.

See SouthernSavers for full matchup, but remember you are looking for MidAtlantic deals only and sale runs through Saturday, 3/16.

Also included in our circular

Proctor-Silex electric griddle (great for making hot breakfasts in a flash) $19.88

Haier 5 cubic foot chest freezer (great for stocking up on frozen goods) $159.99 less $10 rebate

HARRIS TEETER

Doubles coupons up to $0.99 in face value for up to $1.98 off items, limit 20 doubled coupons per day.

Sales

Store-brand shredded cheese, buy 2 get 3 free $1.10 each, limit 10 total per visit

Store-brand fresh pizza dough, white or wheat, $1.00 each

Sales with coupons

Chex mix $1.00 each

Betty Crocker cookie mix $1.15 each

4-lb Dixie Crystals sugar $1.49 each

Hungry Jack syrup $1.87 each

Cereal scenario

Buy 4, get $4 off... different flavors of Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Cocoa Puffs are on sale for $3 each, and there are printable coupons... making it $1.50/box WYB four.

See MoolaSavingMom for full matchup; sale runs through next Tuesday, 3/19.

CVS

Coupons accepted at face value. ECBs are rewards for purchasing specific items, and you use them toward your next purchase. Prices in matchups generally indicate the 'net' price, not what you actually pay out of pocket at the register! It takes a bit of planning, but CVS will let you roll those ECBs into multiple transactions during one visit to maximize savings.

Gold emblem jelly beans FREE

Pringles chips $1/can

Pepperidge Farm Goldfish $1.40 each WYB 5

Mars Easter candy $1.60 each WYB 5

See MoolaSavingMom and SouthernSavers for matchups and scenarios; sale runs through Saturday, 3/16.

Follow-up to Yesterday's Post

So, here's the follow-up to the Super Doubles post yesterday.
Retail prices on the items pictured below, plus tax, would total $37.40 without sales or coupons.
I paid $10.68.

That's two store-brand gallons of milk, two 18-packs of fish sticks, two containers of cinnamon apples, and two 3-packs of pork chops.

Here's how I did it.

Harris Teeter milk is usually $3.89 per gallon, but was on sale for $2.97
Mrs. Paul's fish sticks are usually $4.79, but were on BOGO and I had two $1 coupons that doubled... making each box $0.395
Hormel sides are usually $3.99, "on sale" for $3.97(?!) but I had two $1 coupons that doubled... making each container $1.97
Bone-in pork chops are usually $4.99/lb. These packs were on BOGO. When HT runs a meat sale like this, try to get packs as close in price as possible for maximum savings. These were 1.13 and 1.14 lbs, and would have cost $11.33 on a regular week. Instead, they were half price and I used two $1 coupons that doubled, so I paid $0.835 per pack. (Get your $1 off fresh pork printable coupon HERE.)

Stay tuned! This post was to reinforce how much you can save with coupons and sales. I'm going to finish my coffee and then put together a huge post of the best deals this week at local stores, in order to walk you through the process step-by-step.

Last Day of Super Doubles

Did you get over to Harris Teeter for Super Doubles this week? I made one final trip today.

**Time for a guessing game!**

Retail prices on the items here, plus tax, would total $37.40 without sales or coupons. Can you guess how much I paid today?

That's two store-brand gallons of milk, two 18-packs of fish sticks, two containers of cinnamon apples, and two 3-packs of bone-in pork chops.

Leave your guess in the blog or Facebook comments and I'll post the breakdown tomorrow.

Container gardening

So, the only thing better than buying food with phenomenal savings would be growing your own, right? (Have you SEEN the price of produce lately?)
Maybe you think, like I did, that the only way you can have a garden is if you have appropriate yard space. Let me put that myth to rest. Container gardens are very easy to maintain with even the tiniest bit of patio space, provided you have a modicum of sunlight.
Maybe you also think, like I did, that container gardens are too expensive to set up. Well, it can be, but let's discuss some alternatives.

First, much of what you'll use are one-time expenses. The containers, the soil, and the plant supports are all re-usable. Second, if you learn how to collect seeds from your produce the first year, you don't have to purchase seeds or seedlings for subsequent years. Third, think outside the box. You don't have to purchase the $10 planters from the hardware store for each plant. A friend wrote to me this week and said she was able to pick up several used five-gallon food-grade buckets from local bakeries for free, which she'll use to start her first container garden this year. If you can find the right kind of plastic, you can do what we did and use mop buckets from the dollar store; the handles are convenient for rearranging your garden as it grows.

If you are using nontraditional containers, you will need to make a few alterations. For our buckets, we drilled about five 1/4" holes in the bottom of each for drainage, poured about 1-2" of coarse gravel in the bottom of each, and then filled the remainder with potting soil.

Here is our garden last year on March 31st:

Here is our garden at the end of April:

...and here it is toward the end of May:

We particularly fell in love with the buttercrunch lettuce last year, so toward the end of the season, we allowed a few of the plants to bolt in order to collect the seeds. It took maybe a half hour to sit down and break apart the blossoms at the kitchen table in order to put aside about 300 seeds (200 for us and 100 for friends). I sent some off last autumn to a friend who has a year-round greenhouse and she's been enjoying her lettuce all winter. The great thing about this variety of lettuce is that you can harvest individual leaves as they mature, and leave the centers to continue growing.

This is the point of this post: If you want to start plants from seeds, now is the time to prepare. 
First, check out when your last anticipated frost will be by entering your ZIP code HERE.
Next, determine how far ahead of transplanting you can begin seedlings indoors. For our lettuce, it's ideal to begin 4-6 weeks ahead of the last frost in order to harvest as early as possible. Ours are just starting to sprout:

 Bell pepper seeds started in left column and lettuce in the right column

For what it's worth, though, some plants are particularly hardy. Here is our strawberry plant today, which survived winter:

...and here is a 'volunteer' lettuce plant, which planted itself from a stray seed and also survived all winter:

What are you planning to grow at home this year?

Lunch with my sister

Those of you who have a sister probably know that every once in a while, you just need to go sit at her table and drink coffee together. My sister and I both lead hectic lives but in different ways. I imagine that visiting my house does for her what visiting her house does for me: it's a safe little bubble where I can feel comfortable, speak my mind, and not be responsible for anything in the immediate environment for a little while. My sister dropped me a line earlier this week and said she needed some kitchen-table time, so we agreed on a lunch date.

I mentioned to my husband before I went to bed last night that she'd be here for lunch today. He asked, "What are you going to feed her?" and then caught himself. "I'm sure you'll figure out something -- you always do." After almost four years of my couponing, I think he's finally catching on that I stockpile staples so I can rely on having the ingredients for various recipes.

I got up this morning and got to work on this recipe for Guinness chocolate cupcakes, which pair very nicely with coffee.

While they were cooling, I threw together chicken salad (with celery) and tuna salad (without).

I'm not linking the recipes to these. If you don't know how to make chicken or tuna salad, go track down the nearest grandma you can find and she'll tell you. (Edit: If you can't find a grandma nearby, drop me a line and I'll give you the recipe.)

So, we had sandwiches on toasted bread (she opted for tuna; I chose the chicken) with fresh pineapple for lunch.

If you missed the post on easily prepping pineapple, check it out here.

We finished up with the cupcakes and coffee.

And, since I was bustling around in the kitchen, I also made a pitcher of tea and homemade chocolate syrup for the kids (no HFCS!). The halved recipe fits nicely in the Wilton squeeze bottle.

That's it. That was my morning in the kitchen. How's your day going?

Dinner on the cheap

You may have noted that Durham is one of the regions included in Harris Teeter's Super Doubles promo this week. I headed over after class Wednesday night and snagged some frozen fish sticks for under 50 cents. So, last night, we pulled out those plus the salmon I got for under a buck a couple of weeks ago, and used the other half of the 10-lb bag of potatoes we bought from Aldi for under $4. The bulk of our dinner cost 70 cents per person.

A side note: don't be afraid to use tools in nontraditional ways. I got three free scrub brushes during a promo last year. We keep one at each of the bathroom sinks for hand-washing, but we keep the third one at the kitchen sink for washing produce. It's made from all-natural materials and is gentle enough to wash the most delicate mushrooms but also sturdy enough for scrubbing potatoes.

Forgive the spatters. I should have photographed before using it on the potatoes!

And, since I just learned this myself, I'll share a tip with you. You don't have to wrap potatoes in foil to bake them! That actually steams them instead of baking them. When you skip the foil, they turn out SO nice and fluffy! Wash them well, poke each with a fork, place them on a baking sheet, and pop them in the oven at 400 degrees for about an hour. If they're evenly sized, they'll all be done at the same time. I took our smaller ones out about 20 minutes before the larger ones.

Also, don't be afraid to cook in larger quantities than what you'll eat. Why fire up the oven multiple times? We put the leftover potatoes in a storage container and then they warm quickly in the microwave for lunches or sides for dinner.

Because they've been scrubbed thoroughly, the skins are edible. That's where so many of the vitamins are found!

Again, you don't have to stick to butter and sour cream as toppings. We sometimes add cheese, bacon bits, and/or broccoli to ours, but my mom-in-law loves hers with salsa. Experiment!

Super Doubles - Select Areas Only

Huge thanks to MoolaSavingMom for a heads-up on this. We just had Super Doubles at Harris Teeter in February, but select regions will have this promo again starting Wednesday, 3/6/2013. The Triangle (Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill) is expected to be included! Check out her matchups HERE.

Wednesday ads and muffin recipe

It's Wednesday! That means new ads for some stores.

MoolaSavingMom has posted matchups for Harris Teeter, for Lowe's, and for Food Lion. 
SouthernSavers has also posted matchups for Harris Teeter and for Food Lion. Their Lowe's matchup should be posted shortly.

If you have kids, you probably buy bananas every now and then. They're a perfect fruit: very portable and pre-portioned. I don't know about you, but every time I buy bananas, there's at least one sad one at the bottom of the fruit bowl at the end of the week. I have a sneaky suspicion that my kids leave it there so I'll make muffins or banana bread.

I don't know what it is about this generation that's coming along. Maybe the National Prune Council or somesuch has done a great PR job, but kids today don't shrink back in disgust when you say 'prune' like we did when we were kids. It's no longer associated with that vile juice that your great-great-aunt once drank. They are now dried plums or prunes with orange essence.

Our generation still does the grocery shopping, though, so coupons abound. I snag a couple of bags every time they're a good deal, because I found this recipe for Banana Prune Muffins that my kids adore. It works well with regular prunes or the ones with orange essence.

...And, let me just say that the Prune Council and my kids have almost convinced me not to shudder every time I hear the word 'prune'. In this recipe, they taste kind of like big, juicy raisins. Good stuff!

New subscription promo from N&O

The Raleigh News & Observer is offering $1 Sunday delivery again with the promo code. Head over to MoolaSavingMom to check out the info she just found!

Super Doubles Trip #2

If you live in my town, be aware that the Harris Teeter on MLK, while usually open 24/7, will close tonight around 11pm and reopen early tomorrow morning; they're shutting down briefly for routine floor maintenance.

Here's what I got from Harris Teeter last night:

(1) pack of pork ribs at $3.55 (marked down to 1/2 off and $1 q that doubled)
(1) loaf of bread at $0.99 ea
(4) Blue Diamond almonds at $2.59 ea (splurge item)
(4) Dole 4-pk fruit at $1.00 ea
(3) Dole pineapple slices at $0.32 ea
(2) Oreos at $1.50 ea
(2) U for ladies at $1.50 ea
(4) Naturals for ladies at $1.49 ea
(4) Trix at $0.65 ea
(2) Simply Pure half gallons at $1.49 ea
(1) Smart Balance half gallon free
(2) Kraft Singles at $2.19 ea (not a stellar deal but the hubbie requested)
(1) Smart Balance spread at $0.19 ea
(1) Gorton's salmon (not pollock) at $0.97 ea

My total OOP was $44.55
I saved $64.84, or 59.27%

This was not a great trip for Super Doubles. All of my priority items were sold out, and most of my second-tier items were sold out. I still snagged some good deals, but I'll have to go earlier in the day if I stand a chance at getting any of my priority list items.

Have you been to Super Doubles yet? How did you do?

Homemade pizza

When you find yourself with leftover ingredients from other recipes, you need a way to use them so they're not wasted. We do a fair job of planning meals around here to minimize waste. For example, we might make BLT sandwiches one night, have the leftover bacon with breakfast the next day, and use the leftover lettuce and tomato in tacos for dinner. Another favorite around here is salad bar night; if I have veggies, fruit, and meat, I'll chop it all up and let everyone build their own salads.

I made that special bean dip for my husband the other day, and had a little bit of onion and black olives left over. We also made calzones last week, so I had pepperoni and shredded cheese.

I put ingredients in the bread machine for pizza dough using this recipe I found online, and mixed up a batch of sauce using this recipe. It turned out pretty good, for my first attempt. Next time, I'll divide the dough and the sauce into two pizzas; ours turned out pretty thick. The flavor was spot-on, though, and our younger kid raved about it for days. I think she's looking forward to helping with the next homemade pizza.

 Onions on only half, for the adults

Next up: Trip #2 to Super Doubles

Super Doubles Trip #1

I unintentionally lied to a friend who is new to couponing. Apologies to you, 'Lois'! I honestly didn't think I was going to get to the store today. My husband popped in this afternoon and it gave me just enough time to run to the store before he had to head back out. 

Here is an example of what $35 in groceries looks like, retail prices, without sales and without coupons:

Now, if you have a store card at Harris Teeter and keep an eye out for their buy-one-get-one promos and weekly sales, you can stock up on things before you need them. Here is an example of what $35 in groceries looks like with sales but without coupons:

BUT if you shop the sales, plan for the Super Doubles events, and use coupons strategically, THIS is what $35 will get you:

That's two canisters of coffee, two bottles of extra-virgin olive oil, two half-gallons of milk, two half-gallons of chocolate milk, two packs of zipper bags, two bottles of shampoo, two packs of pepperoni, two tubs of really good salsa, one tub of butter spread, three packs of juice boxes, four jars of sunflower seeds, and a five-pound bag of grapefruit. 

First trip to Harris Teeter for Super Doubles:

Spent $35.42

Saved $71.33

Percent savings: 66.82% off retail prices

Have you been to Harris Teeter today? Leave a comment and let me know how you did!

Next: Homemade pizza

Find out what your family likes

Most folks decide to start couponing because they realize they can put in a little bit of effort and score some really great deals at the store. It's only a good deal if you're going to use what you buy. When you first start looking at matchups online, it's really easy to get pulled into the allure of 'saving'. You might try to rationalize: It's only a dollar! or It was only 30 cents! Logically, you know that those pennies add up. If you're not careful, you'll end up hoarding stockpiles of food and personal products that will never be used. That, my friends, is the very definition of waste.

One way to avoid this is to figure out what your family likes. It's a really novel concept, right? Before I started couponing in 2009, there was no such thing as meal planning here. If we wanted a particular dish, one of us would drive to the store, purchase those ingredients, and use them. Other days, my husband would head to the store without a plan, just to pick out whatever looked good. Another night, I might get out of class and pick up something from the drive-through because we had to eat something.

Hear me when I say there is NO judgment here. I get it. It's hard to strike a balance with time, money, nutrition, appetites, and motivation. It's not reasonable to cater completely to kids' whims, or our diets would consist solely of cookies, chips, and chocolate milk. On the other hand, adopting an attitude of Eat it or starve! introduces animosity around the whole concept of healthful eating. What works for us is that we've never insisted that kids clean their plates, but we do require that they at least taste new dishes. We let them serve their own portions, and ask that they eat what they take. If they really hate what's served, they're welcome to substitute by making a peanut butter sandwich and/or having a cup of yogurt and/or fresh fruits/veggies.

The other advantage of shopping the matchups is that you'll end up with variety. If you're able to foster culinary experimentation with your family, all the better. Eventually, they'll not only express what they dislike but what they like. Build on it. Chances are, if you have a kid who loves pizza, it's not a huge leap to try lasagna or tortellini with different sauces. If another kid loves muffins, stock up on packaged fruits to try custom recipes. (Believe it or not, my kids are in love with Banana Prune Muffins!) Even if you have a finicky spouse, you can likely find certain dishes he or she likes and begin to build your repertoire.

One of my favorite tools is AllRecipes. You can create an online recipe box, search by ingredient, search by category, etc. I'll find a recipe I want to try, print it, and stick it to the exhaust hood over the stove with a very sturdy magnet while I cook. After we've eaten, I ask for feedback. If the family hates it, the recipe gets tossed. If they love it, I punch holes in the page and it goes into my recipe binder. There's always plenty of room in the margins to make notes, including who in the family loved it, what needed to be tweaked, and how much the recipe actually yields using my measurements and bakeware.

Today's recipe is a variation of my mom's Seven-Layer Bean Dip. I snag refried beans, salsa, and olives whenever they're on sale. I also keep an eye out for deals on cheese, which freezes very well. We also buy the bags of onions when we find a deal, because the excess can always be diced and double-bagged for the freezer (if you don't mind onion-flavored ice cubes, feel free to single-bag your onions). Then, all I have to do is watch for a deal on sour cream, and we have everything we need. This week, Kroger is running a Daytona Promo; you can load digital coupons to your store card on a whole slew of items. Unlike most weeks, with this promo you can actually use the digital coupon up to five times. In other words, you can buy five of a particular item and the discount will come off of all five at the register, but would not for the sixth one. This made the 16-oz Kroger-brand sour cream $1 today. I bought four, and came home to make dip.

This is what I recommend; my mom adds green chilies, and I'm sure you'll want to swap out something which you can do because once you collect a recipe you get to alter it to fit your and your family's tastes. 

Step one: heat the beans in a saucepan with a pinch of cheese and half the diced onion. Once it's smooth, spread it in the bottom of your serving dish. Sprinkle a bit of chili powder on top. This souffle' dish doesn't get used for much else.

Step two: Spread sour cream on top. Add the other half of the diced onion and black olives.

Step three: Spread salsa on top. Sprinkle cheese all over. Garnish with black olives and jalapeno slices.

Step four: Cover and refrigerate about half an hour.

Step five: Serve with tortilla chips. Be pleased when your spouse proclaims that you did a really good job on the dip, even though that's what your spouse always says because it is a favorite dish.

Next up: Super Doubles Trip #1

Updated matchups and improvisation

Super Doubles starts tomorrow at Harris Teeter! MoolaSavingMom has updated her list, and SouthernSavers now has their first list and one to match the weekly ad. I probably won't be able to go until I get out of class tomorrow night, so don't clear all the shelves, okay?

When you're planning your trips, you might be hesitant to stock up on particular items that you use less often. I'll admit there's a balance in there, somewhere. It's fabulous to get a great deal on something you'll use; getting a great deal on something that you'll never use is just a waste of time and money. Even though I've been doing this for a few years, I still end up with odd quantities of stuff now and then. This is when we improvise in the kitchen.

It snowed here this weekend. We were low on milk, but we were snug indoors and neither of us felt like braving the stores to jostle in line with the Bread! Milk! Beer! folks who crowd the aisles any time weather threatens. This is a perfect example of how couponing comes in handy.

The hubbie rummaged around in the pantry and came up with a box of hamburger helper. No hamburger or beef, and no milk in the fridge. However, I do keep cans of evaporated milk in the cabinet. Our younger kid is a milk monster, and I never know when I'm going to wake up and find the carton empty. I cannot function without milk for my morning coffee. Evaporated milk is great for cooking and an acceptable substitute for my morning java.

• Tip #1: Keep an eye out for deals on any shelf-stable basic ingredients, especially around the holidays. Though less common than coupons for other products, every now and then you will find deals on flour, sugar, salt, spices, evaporated milk, vinegar, baking powder, baking soda, etc. These staples just make sense, on their own merit, and are the key to pulling together meals you otherwise couldn't.

Next, I looked in the freezer. I tend to snag a variety of meats and store the spares away for later. I came up with a bag of beef meatballs I'd gotten with coupons for about 50 cents.

• Tip #2: Freshly butchered meat is not usually a couponable item. Breakfast meats, frozen chicken, frozen meatballs, and frozen fish are frequently on sale and if you can match a coupon to them, you're paying less than a buck for something that can anchor a meal. 

I popped the meatballs in the oven and got started on the pasta. When I substitute evaporated milk in a recipe, I use approximately equal parts canned milk and water to reach the measurement needed for a recipe.

Verdict? The pasta was a little more flavorful than usual, but it hit the spot. If I were to try this again, I'd probably add extra pasta to balance it out a bit.

Next up: What does your family like?

Homemade bread

First... in case you missed it, I posted direct links to four different matchup lists for the Super Doubles promo starting at Harris Teeter this Wednesday. It's a lot easier to use matchup lists than to find your own deals on an event like this.

When I went to talk to folks last week, I happened to mention that I make homemade bread. Of all the things I talked about, that was the one that they made me promise to post about. We go through a reasonable amount of plain loaf bread around here with sandwiches, toast, French toast, etc. It's nice to be able to make a loaf of sandwich bread at home, though, and I finally found a decent recipe.

First, let me reiterate that I am not Suzy Homemaker. I do not have the time or patience to grind my own flour or invest half a day in some of the artisan loaf recipes floating around the web. I do, however, appreciate being able to customize recipes and to feed my family things with fewer preservatives. Homemade bread allows for experimentation, and it's ridiculously easy if you have a bread machine to mix the dough.

I mentioned several years ago that I was looking for a breadmaker, and my sister kindly gave me hers, saying that she never used it. I have gotten so much use out of it since. If you don't have an amazing and generous sister with a spare bread machine sitting around, I suggest looking on Craigslist. You can probably snag one for under $30. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled for yard sales. Bread machines are the sort of thing that folks either use all the time or want to get rid of to free up storage space. I recommend getting one that offers a two-pound loaf capacity, just to have the room for yeasty breads to rise properly.

1-lb loaf of dough in 2-lb machine

When I first started using a bread machine, I followed the instruction manual meticulously, and only baked loaves in the machine. A couple of years ago, I started to branch out, and learned that it's most valuable for making dough. Pop the ingredients in (liquids on the bottom, followed by sugar/salt/fat, then the flour, and the yeast on top), and select the 'dough' setting. When it beeps, you pull out your dough, shape it, let it rise the second time, and bake it. Easy peasy.

Liquids, then dry ingredients, then flour, then yeast

Another thing I discovered is that tiny little packets of dry yeast are a pain. You can get a good deal on them with coupons, but they come in 3-pack strips and you really have to watch the expiration date. Here in NC, summers are humid and one damp packet means you've just lost all your other ingredients on a failed loaf of bread. One day, I was at the warehouse store and stumbled across the 1-lb packs of yeast. They sell at under $5 for two pounds. A pound of yeast has lasted almost a year for us.

The packs are vacuum-sealed and shelf-stable until you open them, and I just keep the opened yeast in a mason jar in the freezer. The last thing I do before starting the bread machine is pull out the jar, measure my yeast, and immediately put the yeast jar back in the freezer. It hasn't deteriorated at all.

I found this recipe for plain white bread and halved it. It's probably the closest I've found to sandwich bread. I made a loaf this morning to share with my sister over coffee.

Straight out of the machine, kneaded slightly to remove air 

Shaped and ready for loaf pan 

Seam side down

40 minutes later, doubled in size

After 30 minutes in the oven 

 

It continues to rise as it bakes

Cool on a wire rack for a few minutes

 Inside texture is just like a fresh loaf of sandwich bread

So, is making your own bread at home going to save money? If you factor in the ingredients plus the electricity to make the dough and bake the bread, plus the cost of a machine (used), versus an 89-cent loaf from the store... probably not. If you actually enjoy dabbling in the kitchen, though, the machine and bulk ingredients are a worthwhile investment, and you have the option of making fresh sandwich bread. Once you've practiced with one recipe for a bit, you'll want to move on to whole wheat bread, multi-grain bread, pizza dough, soft pretzels, challah, dinner rolls, and sweet dough. That's where you'll realize greater savings. Why pay $4 for Texas Toast when you can make a loaf and slice it as thick or as thin as you'd like?

Plus? Nothing's nicer than the smell of yeast bread baking on a weekend afternoon. It just puts everyone in a good mood.

Next up: Improvising a recipe