Couponing Meets Menu Planning

That's right ladies and gents....she's back!  I interviewed Jereka, the Coupon Queen, in the post titled: Couponing for Jesus, where she gave us some basic instructions, best places to find coupons, and her reasons for couponing.

Today we'll be showing you how we developed a dinner menu plan for a week, and we found coupons and grocery store sales to match.  You can save more money if you develop your menu plan around the coupons and sales that are out there, but I'm kind of a spoiled princess when it comes to my food, so we did it the other way around.

This week we've had temps in the upper 90s and even over 100 degrees, so we designed a menu to accommodate not turning on the oven so we didn't have to heat our houses any further.  I could have picked meals that didn't require the stove top either, but like I said, no matter the temperature, I'm still a spoiled princess (my men are spoiled too) when it comes to my food.

Here's our menu:

Monday- Gourmet Chicken Salad with pecans, dried cranberries, celery, and a diced apple & Chips

Tuesday- Blackened Tilapia, rice, and mixed veggies

Wednesday- Chicken Caesar Salad with homemade garlic toast

Thursday- Pepper Steak, mashed potatoes, and corn

Friday- Breakfast for Dinner (pancakes, bacon, eggs, cream of wheat)

If you would like any of these recipes, please e-mail me at tianna.mae@gmail.com

There's enough food to have "Clean the Refrigerator Out" meals for Saturday and Sunday.  I know ya'll have heard about cleaning the refrigerator out; you either eat what's leftover or freeze it!

Also, if you'd like to save the maximum amount of money you should consider going to more than one store.  However, due to extreme allergies, heat, and church, we went to one store called: Hilander, which is in the Kroger family.

Here are the stats on our Couponing Meets Menu Planning Adventure:

• I saved approx 13% off of my grocery bill for this past week's dinner menu using coupons and sale ads
• I paid about $11.67/meal for these wonderful heat friendly gourmet style meals, which of course is way less than eating at a restaurant
• Per person, I only spent $3.89!  Wow!
• I only used 5 coupons, and I was able to take advantage of at least 10 sale promotions going on at the store

I saved more money than I ever have just by having a list (menu plan), using coupons, and going to the store with the best sales on the items I needed.  Here are a few couponing etiquette tips.

• If you have a coupon that you are not going to use, leave it on the shelf by the item that it is for.  Someone will surely be blessed by your generosity.
• Don't be so eager to use your coupons.  Oftentimes, a store may be having a sale on a different brand than your coupon, and it's cheaper to just use the sale price for that item.  You've hit a jackpot if you can match a coupon to the store sale, but it's not always possible.
• Only buy what you are going to use, unless you plan to give away some items.  Now, if you have some coupons that allow you to get an item for FREE, then by all means, get as many as you can.  
• Make sure you know the store's coupon policy.  Many stores are modifying their policies due to shoppers coming in and wiping out their inventory
• When your BFF comes to your town and finds the bread store and tells you that they have $.75 gourmet bread, take heed!

I'm obviously still very green at this couponing thing, and I know I'll get better and save more and more money.  Jereka and I will definitely keep you updated on our couponing adventures.

Do you coupon?  What tips do you have?  

Savvy Wash by Guest Blogger Nikia Maltbia

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not the domestic type.  I have domestic tendencies, but it really isn't my thing.  In this article, Nikia Maltbia, of Good For Me gives some great tips on how to clean the green way.  Enjoy!

Dishes and laundry are two household tasks that we all know well.  These are chores we picked up on way back in our teen years, if not younger.  You have probably got them down to a science, but how about I give you a few interesting facts and tips that can save time, energy, money, and protect  the environment.  Read on!

We have an understanding that using the dishwasher is greener than washing by hand. This is true in most cases, and even more so if you have an energy-efficient dishwasher.  Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind to be even greener and cut costs on your water and electricity bills.

Reduce your water consumption: Avoid pre-rinsing and only run full loads.  If you are neat freak and just hate to go to bed with a disorderly kitchen, throw the dishes in the dishwasher and run it once full.

Try using the cold-water setting if this is an option on your dishwasher.

Also let the dishes air dry, versus using the heat dry option.  The heat actually puts a lot of wear on your dishes as well, so avoid if at all possible.   Simply run the wash and rinse, then open the door until the dishes are dry.

***Important message reported at  www.Ecolife.com (a guide to green living) website: Did you know that about 10% of all calls to poison control centers are because of exposure to household cleaners; dishwashing liquids being the chief culprit among children. Conventional dishwashing liquids can contain diethanolamine (DEA) which can combine with other substances to form carcinogenic nitrosamines.

These natural dish soap brands are highly reliable for their eco-friendly reputations and will get your dishes as clean as conventional products:

Click here for a list of eco-friendly cleaning products.

5 Tips for Successful Menu Planning

For me, there’s nothing worse than coming home to an emaciated husband and child searching for dinner, only to find that there’s nothing thawed out and the food that we have in our house won’t make a complete meal.  Then there’s the grueling follow-up questions of: “What should we do?” and “Where should we go to get something to eat”.  I admit, my men are spoiled, but they depend on me for nourishment, and I don’t mind that because I know how to cook a balanced meal at the cheapest price, and they on the other hand have a long way to go in learning how to do that.  Everyone is drained of energy and time zapped these days.  Between an hour commute to work, overtime, soccer games, and dance practice, that leaves dinner some where between a McDonald’s drive thru and Hamburger Helper.  Which, I’m not bashing either option, but obviously you can’t live healthily on those choices alone.

Menu planning has helped me to save an average of $280/ month, I don’t throw as much food away, my family definitely eats better and we stay within a reasonable daily calorie count, and I have more time to do the things that I want to do, like exercise.

Here are five tips to help you get started.

1.  Plan ahead in reasonable increments.  For instance, I menu plan for two weeks at a time, because I do my household budget in two week increments, and I know I probably won’t make it to the store any more frequent than that.

2.  Choose your meals wisely and give yourself grace.  So, you saw a stuffed porkchop with pear sauce and asparagus and garlic mashed potato recipe that you’d like to try, but you’ve never made it.  It’s always great to try new things, however, don’t plan to make this meal on the day you have Zumba class at 6:30 pm, you get off work at 5 pm, and have to get your kids from daycare at 5:30 pm.  That is not a realistic goal, and you will only discourage yourself.  Plan to make a meal like this when you have more time, possibly a Sunday dinner.

 3.  Build your plan with insurance.   Build in leftover days, date nights, and “fun” food nights.  I enjoy cooking, however, the meals that I prepare can be time consuming.  Therefore, I build my men-plan to accommodate 3-4 cooking days and 3-4 leftover days, which works beautifully for my schedule.  Depending on my evening commitments during any given season, I tend to cook Friday thru Monday and have leftovers Tuesday thru Thursday.  Also, if you know you only have a small window of time to prepare dinner, then make sure you schedule that day as a leftover day, eating out day, or even better…frozen food day.  I really enjoy Stouffer’s Lasagna’s and Bertolli pasta.  These meals are quick , not too bad for you, and don’t require much prep work or clean up.  Although, if you have a large family, these options may not work for you.

4.  Build your plan with sales, holidays, and parties in mind.  If you know you’re having a huge family Thanksgiving dinner party and there will be a ton of leftovers, make sure to have as many leftover days as your family can stand, then freeze the rest, and bring it back out in a month or so.  We all know that it costs to put on a dinner party, and let’s not mention all the prep work; capitalize on all the time and money spent by giving yourself a break through leftover days.  Also, if you are an avid couponer or really search through the sale ads, then plan your meals around the reduced cost items that you find.  For instance, leading up to Memorial Day you can find meats, corn on the cob, barbeque sauce, and paper towels for a lot cheaper than they normally are, and that is the time to stock up on those items and put them into your plan

5.  If you fall off the wagon…GET BACK ON AGAIN!!!

Here is my menu plan from January of this year.  Please notice the scratch outs and write-overs; that’s called…GRACE!  If something happens and your plan changes, don’t be so rigid that you can’t modify the plan.  Wow…pizza 3 NIGHTS in a row!!!  I can’t remember, but I must’ve been VERY busy at that time.  Also, notice how there’s plenty of leftover days, and we also planned to have a meal out on certain days.  This schedule is posted on my refrigerator for all to see; so it takes a lot of the uncertainty away for the hubsters and TrentMan. 

 Do you menu plan?  What tips could you share that would be helpful in regards to menu-planning?