Frugal Fridays

Coupons? Not me.

Posted by Michelle on Jul 22, 2010 in Frugal Fridays | 4 comments

A quick survey of the Momblogosphere will quickly reveal a universal love affair with coupons. And why not? Some of the savings that families get from using coupons are made of pure awesome! A smart shopper, armed with a file folder full of clipped coupons, paired carefully with sales, can theoretically save a ton of money. Hell, some savvy couponers can even make money with the right timing and patience. I  personally know that plenty of families are able to save lots with coupons, especially when following couponing bloggers like The Frugal Find (who happens to be local to my area!) and MoneyWise Moms.

With a love of couponing so universal, it is no surprise at this recent article by Yahoo –  8 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Coupons — would raise some eyebrows in the frugal family blog circles. (The Happy Housewife recently posted a very thoughtful rebuttal that is definitely worth a read!)

While I admire all couponers out there, I have a confession to make: I’m not having a love affair with coupons. It isn’t because, as the Yahoo article suggests, that they are too cumbersome, time consuming or privacy risks. Nope. It is because my family just isn’t one of those families that benefits from couponing. Believe me, I tried. I wanted those HUGE savings that everyone crows about. But after weeks of buying newspapers, scanning ads, trying to match up products and all that, I realized that it just didn’t work for me…. not for groceries, anyway. I came to realize that my frugal grocery shopping habits saved us money without using coupons. I go into the exact ways I save money on my food blog Delishiono where I have an article on Five Ways to save WITHOUT Coupons which is a breakdown of my shopping habits but here’s the practical summary:

Most grocery coupons are manufacturer coupons for processed food items. We don’t eat a lot of processed foods. Money has always been tight, even before The Little Empress came around, so I’ve been looking for ways to save money for a long time. Through trial and error, I discovered that buying ingredients rather than prepackaged or highly processed foods was generally cheaper. Bonus — buying ingredients is also a lot healthier!

Another contributing factor is that we eat a lot of ethnic food. Specifically, Asian food. Asian home cooking is frugal by nature — lots of vegetables, a small amount of protein dispersed within the dish, served with rice and/or noodles. Eating Asian saves us a lot of money, even without coupons. I used to be able to feed just The Hubster ™ and myself from the Asian grocery for less than $35 per week.

So really, I’m quite happy not being in love with coupons. I strongly believe in doing what works for you but for better or worse, grocery coupons don’t work for me.

So how about you? Are you a couponer? Does it work for you?

Freecycle Sunday

Posted by Michelle on Nov 9, 2008 in Frugal Fridays | 0 comments

Hello, my name is Michelle and I’m a FreeCycle addict. At least, I will be if this string of good luck keeps coming up. In the last 24 hours, I scored a bag of pillow cases and sheets as well as another bag of fabric scraps and a cordless phone. FOR FREE!! Whoopee!! What a great way to build my fabric stash (if only I could find my seam ripper…)

I know there’s a certain amount of risk involved with FreeCycling but when you use your best judgement, you can really score some great (and needed) stuff.

Frugal Friday: Your All Time Favorite Frugal Tip

Posted by Michelle on Oct 24, 2008 in Frugal Fridays, Life | 1 comment

I’m participating in Frugal Friday and this week’s theme is — Your All-Time Favorite Frugal Tip

And mine is…

Don’t buy what you can make.

This is probably the best known frugal tip and most applicable if you’re decent at crafting. For me, my best craft is cooking so living by this simple rule of frugality saves me a bunch of money at the grocery store.

I refuse to buy most types of pre-processed foods that I can easily make at home for less. If I really want chocolate chip cookies, I’ll get the ingredients and make several batches for the price of a bag. If I want pork chop coating, I’ll buy breadcrumbs, herbs and spices in the bulk bins and get a much better value.