Monday, August 30, 2010

Lifestyle Changes= Couponing Changes

I won't spend a ton of time repeating what I wrote in the post below labeled Make it Yourself Monday, but I will encourage you to read my thoughts and get a little more perspective on why I am making some changes in life.   I've been struggling for a few months with the balance between couponing and buying healthy foods for my family.  Yes, there are coupons for healthy food, but not a lot for the foods I want to buy.  For example, I like to eat peanut butter with no sugar.  I have been buying it from health food stores, or farmer's markets, at a cost of $7.50 per jar.  I have also purchased Skippy Natural which is low in sugar for almost $4 per jar.  It took me some time but I figured out I could make my money go farther by purchasing bulk peanuts, with not salt, for about $7.50 and make several jars of peanut butter!  Most coupons for peanut butter are 75 cents off two, not saving me much money and it still has a little sugar so I am not even getting exactly what I want.  I am stretching my food dollars and getting healthy, fresh, wholesome food at the same time.  Most of the time it is as simple as searching on Swagbucks for a recipe and then I can earn points toward gift cards at the same time!  

Another great way I have been saving money this summer is shopping at the farmer's market!  How tired are you of me preaching about this?  I've been able to buy produce in bulk for cheap and have been canning it to have for winter when prices on produce are sky high and they are shipped from hundreds of miles away.  Don't you just hate it when you buy lettuce at the store and it is rotten in two days?  It makes me crazy! I may as well throw money in the trash!  You can also do this by purchasing fresh produce on sale at the grocery store and canning it.  Check out Fresh Preserving's website - there are a ton of recipes and I was surprised to find I do not need to add salt to most vegetables to preserve them!

For me, I am able to spend less time clipping and organizing coupons, and shopping for deals.  I spend less time because I am not traveling from store to store all the time.  That may not be a benefit to you, but it is important to me.  I still seek out great deals on other products, like shampoo, toothpaste, cold medicine, etc.  Much like couponing though,  once I master cooking from scratch and canning, I plan to begin making all natural cleaning products from scratch,  as another layer of this natural lifestyle I am trying to achieve. 

I hope that you will join us and learn a few new things!   Oh, and by the way, in order to make my own peanut butter I just place peanuts in the food processor and process until they turn smooth-and you can make them as smooth or chunky as you like! 

1 comment:

  1. I haven't tried this myself but it might be worth a shot, I'm sure you can get bulk peanuts for cheap too.

    http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/how-to-make-peanut-butter

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