Friday $avings: Discount Produce

Since going on this new eating trend (or diet - whatever you want to call it), my grocery bills have been consistantly higher than when we were eating high carb/sugar foods. There are all sorts of lovely coupons out there for pasta, high-sugar granola bars, easy breakfast foods, and processed meats, but not too many for fresh vegetables and meat from the butcher. So until our garden is growing and producing this summer, I'm just stuck with a higher produce bill, right? Not quite...

 

I'm aware that my grocery bill will probably stay higher than my "ideal", but I have (with the encouragement of some fellow bloggers) found ways to cut corners. I've purchased lots of chicken or lean ground beef when I see it on super sale and stocked our freezer for later. I've also focused more on the grocery sale papers (seeing what's on special for the week), as well as keeping a sharp lookout for these little green stickers in the produce section:

 

 

Last week I scored big with my green sticker friends, plus a good weekly special on peppers. For $0.99 each I got: 

• 4 packs of fresh button mushrooms
• 2 packages of fresh portabello mushrooms
• 3 packages of salad lettuce (three types of lettuce)
• 2 packs of grapefruit (4 to a pack)

The best deal was getting eight grapefruit for $1.98 because the previous week they were on "special" for $0.98 EACH! By holding out for a week I was able to get FOUR for one penny more! WHOO HOO!! We've never had a problem eating all the produce before it goes bad (it keeps a lot longer than you might think), and it always tastes just fine. In addition to the green stickered items, I also got eight bell peppers (2 orange, 2 yellow, 1 red, and 3 green) for $0.88 each (a savings of $2/pepper!). Finding deals like this helps to ease the "pain" of not having as many coupons to use...and losing weight while doing it is like a little bonus! :-)

 

 

I'm linking up to Life as Mom's Frugal Friday post. Head over there to check out a lot of other great money saving ideas!