Saturday, August 28, 2010

Couponing For Health Foods Update

A few months back I posted about how I was saving close to 50% on my groceries by shopping at Publix.  Well, that's when I was able to use two or more competitor coupons from Target, CVS, Family Dollar, Harvey's and Save A Lot. 

Now both Publix stores that are within a 2 mile radius of my home will only allow me to use ONE of those competitor coupons per grocery visit and I can no longer use CVS ($5 off $25 purchase) and Harvey's ($2 off $5 produce) coupons.

I guess the couponing rage has caught on to more shoppers in my area because not only are they tighting policies, they are also getting cleared out of inventory on BOGO's the first two or three days of the sale!

So, now my savings is around 30-40%, still better than what it was when I was not paying attention to sales flyers or using coupons.  And now I am asking myself, do I really need this item even though it is super cheap or free?!  For example, I bought about 20 boxes of the Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes and Puffs because they were .50 a box with coupons.  The cereal, though healthier than most, is essentially processed food and not really all that high in nutrients.  My family would be better off eating oatmeal or home made granola in place of the cereal.   Of course the preferred breakfast is the Green Smoothie!

So, now I'm being more careful about what I buy.  Some of the things I have been buying on sale and lightly stocking with coupons are:

-Eden Organic Beans, Tomatoes, tomatoe paste and Pasta Sauces (BPA Free Can)
-Cascadian Farms Frozen Fruit and Vegetables
-Bob's Redmill Whole Oats
-Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta
-Texas Organic Brown Rice
-Lundberg Farms Organic Rice
-Unsweetened Almond Breeze
-Annie's Natural's Fat Free Dressings
-San-J Organic Low Sodium Tamari
-Nuts and seeds on Amazon.com
-Wildwood Sprouted Tofu
-Wildwood Organic Soy Yogurt and Probiotic Soymilk
-Food for Life Sprouted Whole Grain Breads
-Lightlife Organic Tempeh
-Tribe Organic Hummus
-Organicville Salsa
-Larabars (for the kids :)

And I'm not just shopping at Publix, I am back to shopping at Whole Foods and occasionally Hoover's Essential Health Market when I have a coupon for something I need that never goes on sale at Publix.

2 comments:

Aiden said...

I've found I save roughly 30% when very diligent. I went through the same process of buying too much just because it was on sale for a while, but have streamlined the process a bit now.

Gretchen said...

Patience, thanks for your comment! What percentage of your grocery bill are you buying from your co-op vs. the grocery store?