Food from afar..

• She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.

I have been slowly re-learning the grocery game the last couple of months, and sometimes I think I am going off the deep end looking for "steals and deals".

Some background--I used to be really good about looking for deals, shopping the sales, using a list, making menus for the week, all of those good things that "they" always tell you to do. Even when I was single, I loved shopping and cooking. The only thing I never got into much was couponing. I used one every now & then, but I can remember reading magazine articles (this was pre-blog days--probably even pre-internet days!) about "stacking" coupons with sales, stores that doubled & tripled coupons, all kinds of good things that never worked for me. For one thing, I lived in a small town in a rural area--our stores didn't double coupons except for once every now & then, and when they did, it was usually a weekday and I was at work. It just never worked for me like the ladies I would read about. I would read one of those articles, and faithfully start cutting out coupons everytime I found one--most of which I lost or became expired before I used it. So couponing was at best sporadic, but mostly non-existent.

As time went on, we gradually worked our way into jobs that made more money, and at the same time, I became more involved in church activities and other outside interests. It seemed we had more discretionary income, and less discretionary time. Gone were the days of looking and comparing prices, working out which items were the best bargains. I went through the aisles as quickly as possible, reaching for most things without giving a thought for price--convenience was the most important quality, not price. Grocery shopping became a despised task in my life--one I was glad to shove off on my husband or my son when I could. Cooking was almost as bad, and I did it as little as possible. When my husband began working away from home for long periods of time, and then my son went away to college, I had even less incentive to cook, and seldom did so.

Fast forward to a few months ago when I quit my job to go 600+ miles to a new, larger city with my husband. I decided to take a few weeks to get settled and learn my way around our new location before I started to job hunt. As the weeks went on, we realized that while money was tight, we could make it on one income for awhile as long as we replaced our old habits with some new ones.

My first new/old habit---cooking! And what had to come along with that? Grocery shopping! I started off at one grocery store, looking at their sale items, and maybe a trip to the dollar store or produce market every now & then. In order to sharpen up my cooking skills, which had gotten quite rusty, I started looking online at sources for easy recipes, and started learning to cook from (almost) scratch again. One thing led to another, and I discovered on-line weekly ads for area grocery stores, and sites devoted to frugal living and couponing. I started printing a few coupons on-line, and using a few with my weekly sales items. Then I added a second grocery store, buying the sale items and the buy-one-get-one free items at each store. Now I was really cooking! In more ways than one!

So, there I was, going to the dollar store and two big chain grocery stores, and I took an even bigger step--into Wal-greens. At the end of September, I applied for my first Easy-Saver Rebate. I haven't gotten the card in the mail yet, but I have three of the October ESRs receipts entered on-line aleady, and it's only the 5th. I used the "double-dipping" technique last weekend and used a coupon from the October Easy-Saver with a rebate from the September one. I got Altoids for free using the "peelies" on the packages combined with a sale. (I now notice tear-pads and "blinkies" and "peelies" in the stores, and make a bee-line for them when I see them.)

This week, I went to two different Wal-green stores, Publix, and Winn-Dixie. I did my first Wal-greens trip on Thursday, spending about $20 and saving a little over that, even splitting my purchases into two different transactions so I would get two register rewards of $4.50 each. Then I found out Thursday night that there was another $5/off of a $20 purchase coupon on-line. I was heart broken--I knew I didn't really need another $20 worth of stuff from Wal-greens, but how could I "waste" that coupon? And then--joy as I read on-line that Publix takes competitors coupons. So I used both register rewards, plus the $5/$20, and manufacturer's coupons paired with sale items, to spend $50 and save almost $70.

My pantry is full, my refrigerator & top freezer are full, and my extra "stash" in the hall closet is growing as well.

I think I may be ready for the big leagues--this week I think I'll get a CVS card and make my first venture into that un-explored territory.

Am I ready?