I know this is hot on the heels of my post about Week 1, but as I am all out of money for Week 2, I’ll go ahead and post. I made my own menu this week, so I’ll just show you pictures of what I bought and tell you about each purchase in the caption. How’s that sound? (I know . . . why didn’t I think to do that with the last one.) At the end of the post, I’ll give you couponers some tips that helped me this week.
Harris Teeter Super Doubles Spent $50. Saved $53. I'll show close ups to give you the breakdown of what is organic and what isn't.Breakdown of first trip: Photo 1. Everything in this shot is organic. With the exception of the mixed greens (5.99/lb) and the tomato sauce (which was on sale), I downloaded coupons for ALL of these products. Yippee!Breakdown of First Trip: Photo 2. These were my non-organic items. The "processed" items both had short (though more than 5) ingredient lists that I deemed "acceptable", especially since I had downloaded GREAT coupons for them. The bananas are Clean 15 and the juice is 100% juice.Breakdown of First Trip. Photo 3. These are my "cheats." They are not organic and I don't have a ready rationalization other than that the Ortega stuff and tic tacs were free. The coffee is my FAVORITE KIND. The apricots might have some kind of horrific drying agent, but I downloaded a great coupon, so I'm forgiven, right?Harris Teeter Second Trip--Spent $15. With the exception of the salad mix, nothing in this picture is "organic," but I will wash the fruit, mushrooms are clean 15 and the juice is 100%. The dried fruit was under 5 ingredients with no GMO products. Yippee. I had coupons for the juice and the dried fruit.Earth Fare $27. ALL of this is organic except for the applesauce (and that is because The ProvidinaTOR and Anika want to pick it out and opted for the more reasonably sized jar.) We did get the grapes for free with an Earthfare coupon, and as you can see, they were immediately a big hit. I will admit HONESTLY that I felt a bit ripped off by this purchase, but the grapes are DELICIOUS and don't have that sticky coated taste (that I didn't realize other grapes have). Anyway, we are trying this produce to determine if it is worth it. Also, even though I initially said that I wouldn't do weekly Earth Fare because of the drive, I have TOTALLY changed my story now that they have up to SIX Kids Eat Free with only one paying adult, and you can get the meals TO GO. They have completely earned my business with this deal. Either The Providinator or I will be there every Thursday to get a few items and our three Free HEALTHY kids meals. Earth Fare does accept coupons, has online printables, AND everything in the store is already poorganic by their standards. (Except the poor part.)
$6 for 3 dozen Farm Fresh Eggs from a lady at my church. I got the extra dozen since she won't be there next week, and we LOVE these eggs. Unfortunately, we already used 11 eggs in our dinner omelet tonight, which even ANIKA--the egg-hater, devoured.Some garden harvest. The problem with my green beans is that they are so yummy, I end up eating most of them right away and only about 5 make it into the house.More from garden. My basil is practically a tree if anyone wants some.Jeremy also made homemade bread this week. He was disappointed with how it didn't rise very well, but it tasted great AND is quite filling. We all can do with about half a sandwich. I'm not sure if we'll stick to making our own bread, but maybe off and on . . . .
Our grand total for this week was $98 dollars, meaning that we just squeaked under budget. I will say, we are eating great and feeling great. I’m a little concerned what will happen when I have to start buying meat instead of relying on what is in our freezer, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Thankfully, couponing poorganically is not as bad as I expected.
For you couponers who are thinking of trying to Shop Poorganically, I’ll give you a couple hints.
1. Wipe out the “usual” buy price list. Just focus on sticking to your weekly budget overall.
2. Try to do a scouting trip either on foot or with an online shopping service to see what your store’s prices are for poorganic items. See if any of them are on sale. (I used Harris Teeter’s Express Lane where there is a tab that says “organic”. That made it REALLY easy.) Earthfare’s sales run monthly instead of weekly, which is kind of nice.
3. Use a coupon database to search for coupons for the organic or poorganic items you’re looking at. (I used My Coupon Teacher’s database.) There were organic milk, egg, cheese, and meat coupons, which surprised me. See for yourself!
4. Then check your favorite coupon blogger to see if the weekly match-ups include any Poorganic items. (Also, you will probably continue checking your blogger for your non-food items.) Frugally Farming Family is a blog that does Earthfare match-ups, although I haven’t seen a list for the August sales yet.
5. Be patient with yourself. It took me a long time this first week because I’m still unfamiliar with the brands. Plus it takes longer to decide whether I want to buy the “certified organic” item or The Low Ryder approved “poorganic” version, but I’m sure it will get faster each week–just like “normal” couponing did.
6. Don’t compare your results with quantities of food you would have gotten “normally.” Poorganic shopping means that you are trying to balance quality with quantity–not put one over the other.
Be encouraged! We’re in this together, right? Any questions?
3 thoughts on “Week 2: Couponing Poorganically at Super Doubles”
you should freeze your basil in an olive oil puree in ice cube trays, or even whole leaf for the winter. it will save you money on fresh herbs later on! in regards to eating meat… we don’t eat a lot, and what one family would consider ONE dinner, we probably consider 3… beans are nice inexpensive options and cutting the meat in the recipe by 1/2. of course, these are things you already know. but don’t loose heart when it’s time to buy meat again, you can cut corners! also, have you thought about hunting a deer, or asking a local hunter for extra mea they may have?? we hope to eat primarily wild meat when we return, with some grass fed beef for special occasions :).
I freeze my basil that way. It’s an easy option.
I think I will do that! Actually, I saw the 100 days lady went ahead and made up scads of pesto and just froze that. So if you see me buying a whole slew of walnuts or pine nuts, you will know what’s up. 🙂 (Or maybe I will wait till my parents pecans are ready and do pecan pesto–yum.)
you should freeze your basil in an olive oil puree in ice cube trays, or even whole leaf for the winter. it will save you money on fresh herbs later on!
in regards to eating meat… we don’t eat a lot, and what one family would consider ONE dinner, we probably consider 3… beans are nice inexpensive options and cutting the meat in the recipe by 1/2. of course, these are things you already know. but don’t loose heart when it’s time to buy meat again, you can cut corners! also, have you thought about hunting a deer, or asking a local hunter for extra mea they may have?? we hope to eat primarily wild meat when we return, with some grass fed beef for special occasions :).
I freeze my basil that way. It’s an easy option.
I think I will do that! Actually, I saw the 100 days lady went ahead and made up scads of pesto and just froze that. So if you see me buying a whole slew of walnuts or pine nuts, you will know what’s up. 🙂 (Or maybe I will wait till my parents pecans are ready and do pecan pesto–yum.)