It’s being discussed again on hcw and it’s a comment I hear quite a bit. The “I’d love to save money with coupons like you do, but we don’t eat Hamburger Helper.”
Guess what? Neither do we.
Or the “well, we don’t really eat processed foods.”
Ha ha. Yes you do. Find me something, anything, that is in today’s supermarkets that isn’t processed in some way. You can’t. I suppose you could drive up to Lancaster county and get yourself some raw milk. Barftastic.I’m not really a fan of diarrhea, so I’ll take mine pasteurized thankyouverymuch.
But I get what you’re saying. You don’t want to eat or feed your kids foods that have a lot of sodium and other preservatives in them. Neither do I. I try to strike a balance. Not going to lie, my kids eat (probably too many) spaghettios. But they also eat tons of fresh produce from the growers market too.
The Today show did a segment on what they called “Schizophrenic Shopping” this morning. I didn’t watch all of it, but the gist of it was–there’s a new trend (not new to me!) to save money on the things that aren’t important to you, so that you have extra money to splurge. Hmmm, that sounds familiar!
That’s what I try to do. These are the things, that literally, I have not paid for, in years: breakfast cereal, diapers, wipes, printer ink, paper, pens, pencils, tape, deodorant, shampoo & conditioner, hair spray & other products, razors, batteries, tampons & pads, most office supplies and crayons, baggies & ziplocs, soft drinks (Snapple, Gold Peak, Fuze, Sobe), spaghetti sauce, macaroni & cheese, lotions, body wash, facial cleansers, any home cleaning product you can think of, paper towels, napkins, toilet paper, most of my greeting cards, photo prints & photo books, granola bars, kids juice boxes, laundry detergent, fabric softener, dish detergent, dishwasher detergent, movie passes, makeup, ice cream, frozen veggies, canned soup……..and I’m sure my couponing friends will think of more items that we get for free.
So while I certainly do bargain my way to free macaroni & cheese and spaghettios, as you can see, it’s not all about the Hamburger Helper. Yes, it is very easy to find deals on the processed foods. I could build a house out of all the free Poptarts I could get this week if I wanted to. But I also scored free whole wheat bread and skim milk too. I get lots of very cheap or free yogurt.
It is possible to eat healthy and save money. Because I’m not spending $5 on a box of Cheerios, I don’t bat an eye at the fresh mozzarella at $8 per lb. I don’t want to pay $4 for a stick of deodorant, because I don’t have to. I’d rather spend that $4 on fresh cantaloupe at the growers’ market.
I’ve even gotten FREE organic vodka.
According to this article from the Wall Street Journal, your average extreme-couponer “tend to be females under the age of 54 with college degrees and household incomes above $70,000.”
Unfortunately, the people who need to be doing this activity are not. Those folks are eating Hamburger Helper. Because sadly, that’s all they can afford.
I've been following that conversation on HCW, too. I know almost everything in a grocery is processed to some degree, but I'm just guessing that a can of tomato sauce isn't processed quite as much as one of those ready-to-microwave meals.
It makes me sad when I think of all the people I know who really need to be spending coupons but don't think it's worth the trouble.
Well said!! People don't get it:)
Shannon
Very well said. I started couponing in mid January. I have saved so much money that it is crazy. We are a single family income with 3 kids and 1 dog. I have decided we will no longer use credit for anything besides our mortgage. I have a 10 year plan to pay that off.
You can do it! Good luck & keep us posted on your progress.
And in all honesty, even if WE don’t eat the Hamburger Helper, the food pantry cannot use fresh food and our FREE Hamburger Helper can help someone else. Great post.
And I forgot to say…..I would love to find a way to help people who DON’T know how coupons can stretch their miniscule budget. In college my husband and I were spending $10 a week on groceries. He had free breakfast and lunch (5 days)through college and I did work study in the lunch line to get my free lunch(5 days plus breakfast on Saturdays). Still, we ate chicken legs and potatoes A LOT!!! I didn’t eat breakfast much. I wish I knew about couponing then.
Really, with these rising food costs, I don’t know how people are doing it. Buying generics? Eating less?