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.