How I learned to use coupons, and save $30-$70 a trip

This is a bit off topic for my blog, but well, this was asked by a friend, and this was the easiest way to share the info, so I figured I'd post it here. I like to use coupons, because in my opinion, not doing so is like throwing money away, and if you're smart, you can save quite a bit. I average between $30-70, and that's with some very half-ass focus and I could probably save a lot more if I tried harder.

I'm no extreme couponer, but I've been known to save a bit here and there. There's a couple of things you need:


Information

Unless you like tracking sales papers, spreadsheets, and such, you don't want to keep up with prices. I'm lazy. ;) I use Southern Savers for my tracking needs. It's got all the local stores for us in the southeast (including Food Lion, although that's been closed here now), but there's a number of large ones out there! I like Southern Savers because it also has printable shopping lists and does all the matchups for me. With careful planning, doubling, match, you can save a huge quantity of cash.

Coupons! 

There are several ways of getting them. Newspapers, of course; a weekly subscription is the cheapest way. Some people pay for multiple subscriptions, but honestly I don't have room for huge stockpiles, so one subscription is plenty. Make sure you're on your store's mailing list; I regularly get mailings from Kroger and Publix. I signed up for the Publix stocking spree even though I don't have one, because we're getting one eventually, and I can trade them online if I should need to. (Yes, you can trade coupons. It's fun!)  There are also hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of printable coupons. With a bit of ink and a decent printer, you can save tons of cash with printables. Be careful where you get them from, though; some sites take advantage of the coupon craziness and will put out scam coupons.

I use either Southern Savers for  my links, or I use my MyPoints account to print coupons. The best part about MyPoints is I also get 10 points per coupon printed and redeemed, and I can save up points (doing other things on the site, too) for gift cards. I won't spam you or anything, but if you think that's something you'd like to do, let me know and I'll refer you. That's a complete tangent, though, and not relevant. Depending on where you get your cards, the odds are it comes from Coupons.com - most sites get paid for referrals, but that's usually the source. You'll need to install a browser plugin to use the printer, because there are limits to printing. Most coupons can be printed twice, and that's it for that computer. YOu can, however, get squirrelly and print from multiple computers. The really dedicated couponers have as many as 5 or more... that's 10 prints per coupon. I'm... not that dedicated.

You can also visit online sites and get eCoupons for many stores. Kroger.com, for example, has a bunch that you just point, click, and load to your card, and it comes off automatically at the register. No clipping, no sorting, just saving. I find it hard to remember which is which sometimes, though.

CVS is a magical land of savings. With some planning, you can abuse the hell out of their ExtraCare Bucks system and stop paying for things like toothpaste, shampoo, etc. I use the ECB system to get a good chunk of my kids' Christmas gifts for free. (This will of course end as they get old and care abouts things like brand names, but hey, right now? CVS brand dump truck is enough to keep them thrilled.)

Organization

As you can imagine, juggling coupons is annoying. I don't cut them all out; there's a few ways of doing this. I like the accordion file method, where I file the inserts whole, and only clip as I need to. Some people like to do the baseball card sleeve method, where they use a three ring binder and sort them. I find this tedious and can't be bothered. LOL. I do all my planning before I leave, paperclip my coupons together, and hand them to the cashier at once. I can't stand trying to flip through a binder in the store. Plus you look like a lunatic. Everyone's different, though, so try different methods to see what works for you.

Getting the Money!

The trick to getting the best deals are to save the coupons up, and match them up to the sales and price cycles. you see, as you've no doubt noticed, prices are rarely the same at the store. There's actually a method to the madness! There are cycles, and the price of a given item will rise and fall to a max and minimum price. Your goal is to buy things (preferably with coupons) at the lowest point in the cycle whenever possible. Even without coupons, it's going to save you a bundle; after all, which is better, buying split chicken breast at $3.99 a pound, or $.99 a pound? Even without a coupon, that's going to save you some serious cash.

Don't buy things you don't need; I refuse to be wasteful, and it's not a deal if it's not something you would have normally bought anyway. Sure, you can save $2.50 on $5.00 worth of bear asses, (50% off!) but if you didn't need any bear asses, you've wasted $2.50 that you weren't going to spend.

Now, I'm lazy, and I don't give a rat's behind about sales cycles and such, so I let someone else do the hard work for me. Why reinvent the wheel? I check the Southern Savers website, get my printable list, add the things I need, print and/or clip the coupons I need, and go. They do most of the work, and you can find an even more detailed walkthrough written by an actual expert who does this sort of thing for a living.

Now, you can get super crazy with this, spend hours and hours a week, and end up on a TV show like Extreme Couponers, have a hoarder-style stockpile, and whatever. I honestly am not that dedicated nor do I care that much. I have the time, but not the willpower. ;)  At most, I spend an hour or two a week poring over a website, printing, clipping and preparing. But that pays off! Today, I made a trip to Kroger, bought $230 worth of groceries, including some much-needed meats and veggies, and paid $160. That's $70, for the math impaired. $70 of free groceries, for two hours worth of work. That's $35 an hour.

I'll take that.

Healthy living is about more than what you eat!

Before: It's easy to toss stuff aside to deal with later, right?

As I've walked this road and grown in this journey, I've taken a lot of deep, introspective looks into my life. Part of that has been dealing with my home. As some of you who have read my blog in the past know that I have issues with clutter. To put it bluntly, I live at the step just before you get on TV with a camera crew and a bunch of junk trucks at the house while you scream at people for touching your stuff.

So I'm trying to battle these tendencies, and beat back the clutter. Because taking care of my body in the *inside* isn't enough. I have to take care of it on the outside, too. My home is a reflection of my inner being, and I'm no longer depressed, carrying too much dead weight, and unmotivated to clean.

But I have years worth of clutter to work through. And I'm doing it alone; my girls are too small to be of much  help (though they enthusiastically try, they end up making more work.) My husband is too sick and wrapped up in his own issues to be of much use, either. I could scream and nag and yell, or I can just do it and hope he joins in.

So I've made it a goal each day to tackle one trouble spot in the house. There's a lot, so this'll take a while. ;) But I am making progress. Last week, I spent 3 1/2 hours doing dishes. We now have a clean kitchen!

Then, I tackled a shelf that was cluttered from a previous cleanup attempt elsewhere. It's now neat and tidy.

I organized the headboard of my bed, which was a rickety stack of half-read paperbacks, into a neat and organized shelf uncluttered with random junk.

I also attacked a box of clothes that had sat untouched for months... Everything in it went into a drawer or a donation bag.

Today I got a wild hair... I was feeling really motivated, so I folded all the laundry my husband washed and didn't fold. Then, I cleaned up the pile in the hallway by his desk that was creeping along the floor and becoming a hazard. Finally, I called my husband and asked if he minded me cleaning up his desk.

He gave me the green light, and I did.

So, a full bag of donation clothes, three trashbags, and a lot of 409 later, the  hall spot is clean so the girls can hang up their book bags and coats without leaning over junk, and he actually HAS a desk, instead of a teetering pile of papers. I didn't mind helping him with that, since it contained a lot of my stuff from before I got the dining room cleared out and set up a work station.

This is also my way of trying to help his recovery. You see, the clutter in our home is constant stress and cognitive dissonance. It triggers unhealthy reactions in both of us. Anger, binging, even drinking (in his case.) I can't tell you how often I've thrown a temper tantrum over the clutter and then reached for something in the fridge to compensate.

You see, the same principles that have applied to my growth in healthy living can be applied in all aspects of my life. Baby steps! I can't clean this whole house at once... it's too much for one person, I can't afford a personal organizer, and it's not bad enough to end up on TV. ;) So, I take it in bite-sized chunks, the way I did when I started trying to lose weight.

We get SO wrapped up in all or nothing. We look at the sum-total of what we have to do, and we get discouraged. I've been there! You see, I've lost entire rooms to this clutter problem. I've stood there, looked around the house, and couldn't fathom how I'd ever do it. I've stared at my fat in the mirror naked and turned away, discouraged because I can't make it disappear, right now.

But you know something? I can focus on the next pound. I can pick up those socks over there. I can make it a habit to take something to the trash every time I get up from my desk. I can clear a 3 x 3 space in my home.

I've found that like clutter, clean spreads. If you make a nice, neat space, you're more likely to pick up the pile of papers beside it. This is the principle behind clean-living guru Flylady's program, too. You start with a shiny sink, and magically, the dishes tend to get done because you want to keep that sink shiny. Then you wipe the counter, because who wants a dirty counter next to a shiny sink? And well, you might as well wipe the stove too.

And the floors need mopping.

Which takes you to the dining room. Better empty that trash.

Healthy living is the same. What's the point of eating whole wheat spagetti if you're going to load it down with two pounds of cheese? (Guilty!) So you eat a little less cheese. You put a little less sugar in your coffee. You eat another vegetable or two instead of second helpings of fried chicken.

After: Days of cleanup and countless trash bags later.

And suddenly, you're 25 pounds lighter, your pants are loose enough you need to use a belt hole you've never used before, you can walk through your house without tripping, and you're going to bed with a smile on your face.

Am I done yet? Not by a long shot. I have a lot of growth ahead of me. A lot of weight loss. A lot of cleaning.

But I know I CAN do it, because I AM doing it.

Oh, and my husband? He's helping too. ;) He's started picking up things he finds here and there... and he's been helping with the dishes. And making salads for dinner.

We can do this. Together.

The perils of self-delusion

A lot of us try to figure out where, exactly, all this weight came from. How we got so big. When it happened that we accepted being fat. How do we not see what we're doing to our selves?

My theory is that you DO see... you just don't want to acknowledge it. Even when directly confronted with it, you aren't ready to accept it, yet.

I can use my own husband as an example of this. He has been in denial about his weight gain for quite some time now. He still tells people his sizes are "large" and "34 waist" even though he hasn't been either for years, and wears ill-fitting pants that look terrible on him.  He's between a 36 and a 38... probably bearing down on 38, though his belly is far larger. IF I had to guess, he's probably easily 46 around his belly button.

When asked how much he weighs by someone the other day, he said "185" - when I'm almost 50 pounds lighter than he is at 190, and I know this because he was just weighed a couple of weeks ago at 235 by the doctor - which I was present for. He honestly heard 185, because that's what he wanted to hear.

He says his large gut is because of bloating (because he has a medical condition that can and has caused bloating in the past, but it's always gone down after a few days... this has been persistent for over a YEAR. It's fat, hun.).

He says his butt hangs out of his pants because they shrink in the dryer.

He's finally starting to have to admit that there's a problem, though. It's gotten badly enough that his too-small pants are rubbing open sores on his stomach scar, that his belly is hanging out of his too-small shirts. He said earlier today that he's going to have to start buying XL shirts. He missed the XL boat 20 lbs ago. He's a 2X or I'll eat my hat.

I love him, but he's very self-deluded right now. He knows I'm very health conscious, and count calories, and I've made a lot of progress, but he's not willing to trade in his plates of fried food and refusal to eat regular vegetables yet, nor start exercising. When he's ready, I'll be there with him, but until he's ready, it won't happen.

It's so difficult when I'm struggling to stay on board this train, and he's refusing to acknowledge he needs to be on it at all. If we could do this together, we could help each other so much. Instead of fixing his favorite high-calorie low-nutrient meals, we could make healthy things together. I've gotten him to eat a little healthier, by subbing salads for baked potatoes now and again, or always making veggies when I cook, but since he's the primary cook, it's always fried pork chops, steaks and taters, french fries, and macaroni and cheese. He's always downing sodas... at least 2-3 per day.

It doesn't help when he sabotages me. It's not on purpose, ever, but my willpower is very shaky these days. I just can't always say no when he presents me with my favorite foods, like Velveeta shells and cheese (360 calories a cup... and that's not even considering the sodium overdose.) He'll surprise me with treats. He bought a bag of powdered donuts "for the kids" and when I asked him what they were for, he said "breakfast."

Really? We have two young children, one of whom is confirmed ADHD, and you're feeding them powdered sugar for breakfast?

It's not that he wants me to fail (not consciously, at least) but he genuinely has no idea how what he brings into this house affects me. I can even see the difference on those rare occasions we go to the buffet. his plate is always BROWN, and I always load mine and the girls' up with colorful veggies. The problem is when he fixes one of their plates, it's just as brown as his. It doesn't help that we live in the south, home to fried chicken, fried fish, french fries, and vegetables so drowned in fats and meats that whatever healthy might have been in them is long gone.

It's an uphill battle that I'm fighting by myself. I can't make him join me until he's ready. If he can't even accept his own weight when he sees it on the scale himself and is told by a nurse, how can I expect him to do it at home?  So I struggle within the bounds I'm given, and hope and pray that he'll eventually join me. I ask him to join me on walks, I talk about my calorie range and hand him celery any time I'm nomming a veggie tray. He knows, he's just not ready to join me.

I can't make him see, all I can hope is that he'll see the way I did. And when he's ready, I'll be there to celebrate with him and hold his hand through the process.

Photo courtesy of John Hyun

Back from hiatus... a family update

I feel like I need to get these thoughts out somehow, in blog form, and while this blog is fitness related, this somewhat relates, and well, it's my blog, I can go OT if I want to.

Yesterday, my 7 year old daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, and anxiety. These are not a surprise, we've suspected for years, but fought getting her diagnosed. She's only in 1st grade, and frankly, in Kindergarten and Preschool, it wasn't an issue. This year, though, we had to admit that there is a serious problem, and it's starting to affect her grades and ability to function in school, not to mention the other children in her class.

So we took her in to be evaluated. It's been a painfully slow process, with sometimes months between visits because of the popularity of the particular practice. But we got a cancellation last week, and Monday, we went in for the results of her screening.

The short of it is that we'll be trying medication first. The psychologist hopes that by treating the ADHD, the other issues will fade away, that they're caused by the ADHD and her inability to focus. I can agree with that, and we're just going to take this one step at a time.

The psychologist also offered us some excellent tips for managing her schoolwork in the mean time, including very practical, specific steps. Because she's so kinetic, she needs movement, and sometimes, it's better not to fight it.

One of her suggestions was to get a big white board, and let her use that to work out her school problems. She can write large, and really engage her motor skills to help her focus. I'm willing to try anything!

So today, my daughter started edging towards one of her frustration meltdowns because of the sentences she had to write. So, I got out their old chalkboard/whiteboard easel, handed her a marker, and told her to write it out up there! She was instantly all smiles. Each time, she stood up, wrote the sentences in big letters, then transcribed them to her page.

It worked. She really focused, and at the end, she was smiling.  Another meltdown while doing her math homework was averted in the same way. By drawing it out on the board, it helped her focus, and the motion helped her discharge some of that energy.

It feels good to have a name, and concrete steps to take to get her functional. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. I don't want her on medication, but I can't deny the positive effect medication has had on my husband. No one wants their child on medication. But this isn't about what I want, or what my husband wants, nor even what her teacher wants. It's about what she needs. And I'll do what it takes to get her that.

In fitness related news, yes, I've been completely off the wagon. This is one of the reasons I haven't been posting. However, I'm back on it... or will be as soon as my damn ankle heals.

See, I fell. I wasn't even doing something cool, like training for a 5k, or doing jump squats, or any of the other million dangerous exercises I've done over the last year. No, I feel and sprained my ankle walking to the car on the way to see the Hobbit.

Like a true LOTR fan, though, I fought through the pain, and went to see the damn movie.

It was not, fortunately, a bad sprain, I could walk on it, and I avoided the ER (no insurance, and well, they're just going to wrap it and give me some painkillers.  I have ibuprofen.

I had just completed week one of Six to Start's new Zombies, Run! 5k training (yes, the sister app to Zombies, Run!) and was ready to hit week two when this happened.

I'm ready to get started again, but my ankle still hurts when I put too much strain on it. I probably need to start walking soon to rebuild strength.

Ah well. Here's to 2013!

I want a do-over for today

Today has officially been one of the worst days I've had in a long time. I even called my aunt to lament my day.

It started off kinda sucky; I didn't get much sleep last night, and I was down in the doldrums, lonely, and a bit depressed. I decided to shake it off, and go for a walk. Grabbed the leash, and enjoyed a LOVELY walk (which I'll post about separately) with my dog. 40 minutes, very relaxing.

But I walked into a shitstorm when I returned home.


Four missed calls... two from the school, four from my sister in law.

Turns out my youngest was sick, and I'd forgotten my cell phone, so the school wound up calling her when they couldn't raise either me or my husband on the phone.

I managed to catch my SIL before she left work to pick up my daughter, thankfully. I went to the school, to find that my four year old was COVERED in spots!  So, straight to the doctor. Turns out, she had an allergic reaction to her antibiotic! So we had to stop t hat, and start the antihistamine. VERY unpleasant. The pharmacist was a little startled, it was a pretty nasty one.

So, we left the pediatrician, and lo and behold... FLAT TIRE!

Seriously, universe?

I nursed the car up the hill to the Fountain Car Wash, where they very kindly refilled the air in the tire (slow leak, thankfully... I can limp it along till hubby's home).

So, finally made it back home. Called the hospital to check on my husband.

They won't tell me when, but they did say that he won't be home today.

This sucks, because they don't really do releases on the weekend, so at the very soonest, it'll be Monday.

So I'm on my own for the weekend. I was hoping to have a family trip to the Ocmulgee Indian Festival this weekend; I'd even invited some cousins and my aunt. It looks like they probably won't be able to make it. I'm still going... it'll distract the girls, and frankly, me. It's always a wonderful treat. I'll take lots of pictures to share with you guys.  Basically, we have these special monuments here, Indian burial mounds, and every year, several tribes return home to celebrate. There's food, stands, performances... the whole area really comes alive. There's a weird sort of energy; the sound of the drums, resonating off of those ancient mounds. It's very moving, and enjoyable.

We'll still go, and we'll enjoy it, but we'll miss my husband, and my family.

A lot.

Nummy side dish, inspired by my 6 year old

As I mentioned yesterday, my oldest daughter (6) came up with a cool idea for a salad, and as promised, today I made it for her! I've shared the recipe on Sparkpeople right here.

Here's the spiral slicer I used to make magic. I did the carrots with the flat blade, which makes neat little ribbons and chips out of them.

The carrots, all chipped up and ready to be mixed

Freshly peeled zucchini! 

I use the small blades to make angel-hair-sized zucchini. This mixes great with pasta, or substitutes for pasta entirely!

After mixing the carrots and zucchini, I chopped up some very crisp roma tomatoes!

Added a smidgen of cheese to the stuff (maybe an ounce, total) and tossed with her favorite dressing: Italian! Seriously, ever since her first salad at Olive Garden, it's her favorite. Give her the choice, it'll almost always be italian.  Makes every waiter we meet give a second take.

The mastermind trying her brilliant idea

The youngest (4) devouring her zucchini

Not just attractive, but fun to eat! She wasn't as crazy about the zucchini as she thought she'd be (she likes it better sautéed with garlic and olive oil, the little foodie), but she ate all the carrots and tomatoes, and her little sister ate her non-dressing-version with great gusto! 

Added bonus: The delectable ribs grilled by my grillmaster husband. And yes, they were every bit as good as they looked. I will say with pride I only ate a small portion of these! 

Personally, I had two bowls of the salad myself (with ranch dressing) and plan to add this to my regular rotation! Without dressing, this salad is about 60 calories. About 100 with dressing.

Leading Horses

Most, if not all of us, have loved ones who are not healthy. As we walk our own troubled paths, we crave companionship, especially from those who are closest to us. For those of us who are married, this is often our spouse. Our need for them to be with us is not just about companionship, either; it's also about worry, about wanting them to live forever and be with us forever and be healthy. It's love. 

But what do you DO? 

I've found in my journey thus far that you can't force them. There's no amount of nagging that will make my husband start being healthier. In fact, most people respond negatively to nagging, and will do the opposite just to spite you! 

You can't treat your significant other (or indeed, anyone else in your life who is an adult) like a child, and expect them to thank you for it. 

What CAN you do for a loved one you're afraid of losing to bad health? 

Be there. Do what you're doing. Set an example. If you're the cook, keep making healthier things that accommodate their tastes, while improving nutritional content. I've switched our family completely over to 93% lean ground beef, for example. We were at the grocery store the other day, and my husband saw me get it, and he said "Trying something new? I thought that stuff was dry." I smiled and told him we'd been eating it for months. 

I've bought low-sodium ham. I keep fresh, raw veggies on hand for snacks for the kids. I talk about the things I'm doing. I mention that I want to start making our plates based on the government food plate. Never do I tell him what he needs to do. I talk about what *I'm* doing. 

And it's working. As time progresses, he is starting to be more aware of his choices, and is slowly but surely making more healthy ones. At a buffet, he still goes for nothing but deep fried veggies, fries, and brown things (seriously, the whole plate will be brown) but he's more likely to add veggies when he's cooking, or eat them first, and he's trying to get more exercise. 

One change that I have made? I buy him 2% milk. He drinks a lot of milk, and it's healthier for him. He asks me specifically to get him whole milk sometimes, and I do when requested, but absent his request, it's 2%. At a minimum, every other gallon is 2%. 

The other day, we were at the store together, and it was time to get milk. The last gallon was 2%. He looked at the whole milk. Then glared at me. And picked up the 2%. 

He knows. ;) He's a big boy. But he has to make the choice to be healthy. I can't make it for him. Through my example, I'm helping to slowly change his environment, but in the end... he has to make the move to good health. He knows I'll pay for a gym membership if he wants one. But until he's ready... he won't take it. And I'm okay with that. I can deal with waiting patiently, as long as eventually we're on that road together. 

Will we be riding bikes together or lifting weights together? I don't know. I hope so, though it's a slim hope. 

But I'll be happy to see him choose some green veggies at the buffet one day. :) 

Photo courtesy of Canadian Veggie