I will start posting my wife's Publix and CVS receipts so you guys get a good understanding of the difference this can make to your bottom line. It's absolutely HUGE.

We used to be big time BJ's shoppers. That's how I would go stock up. Since she started the hardcore couponing, we have been to BJ's once. BJ's was always a 200 dollar at least trip. Now we spend much less than we were spending at Publix, don't go to BJ's, and have way more stuff in the pantry than ever.

Champ, dh made them...fried them with a bit of spray olive oil I think. No butter-lol! They're not something I usually eat. However, I did put some butter on the warmed up homemade bread. I tell you, this is the BEST bread receipe ever. I got something called Harvest Grains Blend from King Arthur & substitute 1/4 cup of flour for it...it just takes the bread to a whole other level.

Right now Gold Medal flour is on sale at the commissary for $1.25/5lbs. Dh will be loading up on flour today when he goes to the base-lol!

I'm going to try and get the ingrediants for the Harvest Blend & make it up myself...I think I can make it for about $1.25 instead of the $4/lb that King Arthur is charging.

Mezz, Publix comes out with some good coupons...sometimes I'm lucky enough to trade for them.

By the way, how would you like a tip to save another 10% off your groceries? Starting about 3 years ago, at this time of the year, alot of grocery stores are offering an additional 10% in gift cards. Example, you buy a $300 gift card & you get and extra $30 gift card. Farm Fresh has already started it this year (I guess they do it to get a bit of the tax refund business). I don't think Food Lion or HT have started yet, I'll call today. Publix might do it as well, you should call. Where else can j6p get a 10% return?

The only reason we go to Sam's Club these days, is for (marginally) cheaper gas - usually before we go to the nearby dollar store to buy some Sunday newspapers to clip coupons from. Oh, and each paper at the dollar store is, surprise, $1 - cheaper than a paper subscription.

Wakeup--Do you have a 99 Cent Only store? I use that for several things..but pass on a lot of thier, "****". I also like Fresh and Easy, which is pretty cheap and great food. We now have "Sprouts" in my hood...that is a great store, but holy cow, it is SO expensive but it is more geared like "Mothers" and has some great things if you are diabetic, allergies, etc. Prolly the best breads I have found tho..even tho it is expensive.

No, I've never heard of any of those stores...must be a west coast thing?

I can't wait to get my garden up & running. I think we're going to add a few more raised boxes & the kids can sell the extra produce to our neighbors:-) Every so often I go on youtube & look at that home garden in pasadena. Pretty cool way to live:-)

Do you make your own bread? If not, you should try it. Its cheaper and healthier and yummier!

Edited to add link to video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGEtuh9Pd....

+1 for the Dervaes family!

A word of caution on WalMart and Aldi - literally all of their frozen foods come from China. Especially the fish. And if you don't know the rules on imported fish, it's really easy. Chile and Argentina both have very strict standards on the aquaculture equipment that is used in the raising of farm bred fish, and also includes standards on what is acceptable water for the fish to swim in, and acceptable standards when it comes to what is fed to the fish.

China - there are no standards. In fact, there is no aquaculture. If the fish aren't swimming in massive pollution, they are literally swimming in their own feces, and fed massive amounts of steroids, and masked by massive amounts of antibiotics which is included in the food.

I have also come to figure out that the apple juices are made from concentrate that is made in China.

I am sure Mliu will be by to tell us all about how nobody is dying from eating the frozen fish in China though.

No, I've never made my own bread but I sure would like to try. I do like to cook and bake.

I used to make sour dough bread all the time. And I mean "all the time." Once you get a good starter dough going, you've got to keep making bread to keep it going. I lived in campus housing at the time and all my neighbors would come down when the smelled the bread baking because they knew I'd be handing out hot slices right out of the oven just to get rid of it.
Anyway, I highly recommend making your own sour dough bread. Nothing like it.

Oh Briar...send recipe!!!!! I like Squaw Bread too..Squaw and Chicken Salad...YUM

I just made my first loaf of sour dough last week. Yum!!! I got the starter from King Arthur.

Champ, go on craigslist & get a bread machine. Then go to king arthur & get the sourdough starter and the harvest grain blend and I'd go ahead & get their yeast too...it really makes all the difference. I just use regular gold medal flour & gold medal wheat flour. I figure our bread is working out to about .60 cents a loaf...you can't beat that for fresh, homemade, with whole wheats and grains and no extra unhealthy junk.

Guess what me & dh are making tonight? My very own bread slicing guide:-) Couldn't find one that I liked, that looked like it would hold up; so after a bit of searching, I found this one:

http://www.runnerduck.com/bread_slicer.h....

We had the piece of oak in the garage, free. If it doesn't work out, I'll bite the bullet and get a used Preso or WestBend guide on ebay (they don't make them anymore, but people seem to like them better than the current ones).

Kudos to the deal shoppers!! Though I would keep it on the down low as the 'man' may want to shut down the xtremers. They are migrating over to digital and loading them on your frequent shopper card rather than the paper coupons. I expect this trend to continue. Paper seems to be passe. The counterfeiting could pose problems too.

Needs based shopping versus price based shopping. Wakeupcall breaks it down beautifully.. . I always remember from a Marketing class that the cost of these promos and marketing is reflected in the price of the product. If you don't use the coupons, you are paying for the marketing anyway when you buy the product. Or paying more than necessary, depending on your time.

When private equity gets involved, than you are definitely paying more. Whoever hedge/equity fund bought out Georgia-Pacific years ago. They make Northern bath tissue. Price went up fairly soon after. Gotta pay for it somehow. So many of these examples. My rules of thumb: when the packaging changes, you're going to pay. When private equity takes over, you're going to pay. LOL

Anyway, couponing and selective rebating is necessary to get by or stay even. Except for Wakeup. Is there an "I'm not worthy icon?" Great thread.

Champ, that was 30 years ago!
First you need a starter. Here's a page that tells you how:
http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm
there are others, so look around; there might be a better one.
Once you've got the starter, you basically add flour and yeast and then kneed for hours and then bake. There's also a recipe on that page.
But you've got to take care of your starter and keep it going. That's why i had to make bread 2 or 3 times a week.

I did it... I used all 20 five buck Kohls coupons. Spent a total $51 on 27 items. Including a very nice ski jacket.

I just bought 20 more coupons for 99 cents.

/damn
//it's getting hard to remember what teller I've been to

Can you use them online? Is there another store nearby?

I live near 4 Kohls and a couple more a few miles out. They're all over the f'n place here in Detroit 'burbs.

I've basicly taken everything I fancy from the clearance racks in my size...

/f**kers better restock the clearance racks pronto !!!

Well I jumped in a bought some coupons on eBay. Much better than the Sunday paper. For some of these though I will have to make two trips through the checkout (one per purchase). Still I will save some money on stuff I would be buying anyway.

I got this jacket for 20 bucks... only gave 31 bucks for the other 26 items.

That's a nice Columbia jacket. I wonder how much you could get for it on ebay?

I want to see the other items too:)

You folks turned Lemonaid into a hardcore fanatic apparently.
Might have to join a support group soon...

You know, I've learned something today...

Shopping's not all bad when you can walk into a store and basicly walk out with more or less free ****.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20....

Coupon Queen 22 - Learn when less is more

By Jill Cataldo
CTW Features

Published: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 8:02 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 8:02 a.m.

( page all of 2 )

This week's Super-Couponing secret may surprise you because it goes against just about everything shoppers believe about saving money and shopping. Are you ready for a head-scratcher?

Related Links:

* Watch Coupon Queen get more than $100 of groceries for about $30
* Coupon Queen 21 - Build coupon ‘library’ by saving weekly inserts
* Coupon Queen 20 - Year-long guide to what's cheapest when
* Coupon Queen 19 - Are photocopies of coupons legal?
* Coupon Queen 18 - Best-kept secrets include maximize the match
* More Stories

External Links:

* Follow us on Twitter: @StarNewsShop
* Click here for more shopping news
* Click here to get online coupons from the StarNews
* Click here for more on cooking, dining and other food news

Super-Couponing Secret: Smaller-Size Items are Often a Better Value

Yes, you read that right. Buying the smaller size of a product, with coupons, is often a better deal than buying a larger size of the same item. When I teach my coupon classes, this statement is almost always met with disbelief. I completely understand why, because it runs contrary to just about everything shoppers believe. To get the lowest price, we are very conditioned to buy the largest size of something - the "family size" cereals, the "value-pack" of refills or just the largest package we can find. It does seem that you'll need to buy that item less often if you buy a larger size - but you're also likely to spend much more than you need to.

When we have a fairly high-value coupon, applying it to the relatively lower price of a smaller-sized item will often result in a significantly lower per-ounce cost. I know that this surprises many people. It surprised me, too, as I became a more experienced shopper. Over time, I noticed that many of the items I was able to bring home for free or for pennies were usually in smaller-sized packages than their so-called "value" or larger counterparts. Adding to the confusion, the larger packages often tout in big, bold letters that they are the better buy!

A few examples will help you understand why this works. A certain brand of aluminum foil is on sale at my local store. The 70-square-foot box is $3.79 and the 20-square-foot box is 99 cents. With a coupon that states "$1 off any aluminum foil," I have my choice as to which size box I'd like, the larger or the smaller. While my dollar coupon will, indeed, give me a discount on the larger box, the smaller box will be free. And I prefer free any day.

The rule of thumb that it's better to buy the smaller size especially holds true when we stack a store's coupon and manufacturer's coupon. With the two coupons, we receive an even larger discount on an item. For example, baby wipes are on sale at my store this week. The plastic tub contains 77 wipes and it's on sale for $2.99. The "value-pack" of baby wipe refills contains 231 wipes and it's on sale for $5.99. My store offers a $1.50 store coupon good on any size of the wipes. I also have a $1 manufacturer coupon for the wipes. Stacking these coupons gives me $2.50 in savings on either size item. With the coupons, the plastic tub with 77 wipes will cost just 49 cents. The "value-pack" refill will cost me $3.49 using the same coupons. The "value-pack" contains three 77-count wipe packages; that works out to about $1.16 for each 77-wipe package. I'd spend more than twice as much on baby wipes if I purchased the larger, so-called "money-saving" size.

An even easier example involves coupons for items that come in a trial or travel size. A $1 coupon good for any size deodorant will certainly give you a discount on a full-size deodorant. But a 99-cent travel size will be free using the coupon. Again, any time a coupon states that it will work on any size of a product, remember that the trial and travel sizes are included. Free always makes better financial "cents" than spending more than we have to!

Jill Cataldo, a coupon workshop instructor, writer and mother of three, never passes up a good deal. Learn more about couponing at her Web site, www.super-couponing.com. E-mail your own couponing victories and questions to jill@ctwfeatures.com.

Copyright © CTW Features

If you are in Florida, publix has the sale on bp gift caress again. Make a 25 dollar purchase at publix, get a 50 dollar gift card at BP for 40 dollars. That's 20 percent off the price of gas...

i just scored big on my new GE dryer.

chase is offering 5% cash back on appliance purchases. I went to fatwallet.com to find a site that had the dryer i wanted. search showed a site homeeverything.com. fatwallet offers 2% cash back if you purchase from them, and they had a list of coupon codes. Long story short, i just grabbed my ge dryer for a total of $636 to my door (not counting the cash back), with a $100 gift certificate to the resturant of my choice.

I one up'd ya Matt... I replaced the motor on my woodgrain laminate Kenmore dryer from the early 80's with a motor I picked up on Ebay for 20 some odd dollars.

Good as new. As a mechanical engineer I know the products of today are engineered to get past warranty with cost reductions up the ass.

The older appliances are "over engineered" because no-one gave a damn about cost.