Being a stay-at-home mommy I do my best to keep our biggest expense down as much as possible: groceries! For a family of 4, soon to be 5, we all tend to eat a lot. My youngest eats more than I do most days! I try to make healthy meals that everyone will eat, but now that I am on a restricted diet, it makes it a little more challenging.
However, I have some apps on my phone that I use along with coupons that do help keep the cost down. Usually our household grocery bill for the month ranges from $300 to $400 per month. It's a challenge because we do live in an oilfield area so the prices on everything are marked up and my options for shopping are limited because there are literally 3 grocery stores in a 45 minute drive from us.
I use couponmom.com for my coupons. It's a really great site and it's FREE! Free is always a good thing. I try to check it at least once a week because some coupons are only on the site for a week before they are taken off. Granted they don't have coupons for fresh veggies or fruit, but I can get coupons for other staples like almond milk, coffee creamer for the hubby, or graham crackers for the kids. I've been trying REALLY hard to make their snacks, when they get them, as healthy as possible. Or just make homemade snacks like muffins. With my new diet, we always have fresh fruit and veggies around that they are all starting to eat more of, so that's one plus!
For my fresh fruit and veggies, and even our whole grain bread if I'm not making it myself, I use Bountiful Baskets. If you haven't looked into this program yet, do it NOW! I order ours on either Monday or Tuesday of whatever week they run to Hobbs and will pick it up on that Saturday. I know that I will be getting a ton of food that is really good quality for waaaaaaay less than what you could buy at the grocery store. Just the plain conventional basket is only $15 and it comes with a ton of food. All total this week my total basket contribution was about $55, I also bought 5 loaves of bread that are not pictured. Because of this program, I rarely buy any produce at the grocery store, except bananas, I think my youngest is part monkey.
This is just the straight conventional basket ($15). It is different every time.
This is with all of the "add-ons" that I purchased. Lots of yummy-ness to eat for the family!
The apps on my phone that I use are the Wal-Mart Savings Catcher. It does help, even with the limited competition in the area I still end up with money back of some items. My goal with this one is to gain enough money back to have Christmas paid for this year. I'm getting there and should have no problems by November/December :)
Ibotta is a pretty cool rebate app that has everything from alcohol to fresh fruit and veggies. You can look through it either before you go shopping and select the rebates that you know you will use or after and snag the ones that you did. I sometimes only have 1 or 2 rebates, but they do add up. Ibotta is store specific, so you would need to make sure you are in the correct store section before checking off rebates. Also with Ibotta, the more people you have on your "team" the more money you make faster. If you want to sign-up with my referral code it is iphfxoy. Hopefully it works. Ibotta pays out through paypal once you reach the minimum amount of money.
Checkout 51 is another rebate app I use, but it is NOT store specific so you can use it with anyplace that sells what is on the app. As long as it lists the name of the item and the price on the receipt, you'll be golden. The rebates renew every Thursday. I haven't made as much money with this one, but I'm still up to almost $7 for only using it a couple of months. Unlike Ibotta, they do not have a "team" feature.
I recently downloaded Shopkick which gives you "kicks" for just walking into certain stores and scanning (don't even have to buy anything) certain items on their list. If you link your cards to it you can also get points for every dollar. Being that there isn't much competition in my area, I have only used it in Wal-Mart, but it's not too hard. I even get "kicks" for opening the app everyday. Sometimes it's only 1 kick, other times its 4 kicks! The more kicks, the more money towards a gift card of your choice on their list. I'm working towards a Wal-Mart card for Christmas. With Shopkick you can add friends and earn kicks. My link is http://getshopkick.com/cone71089 to be a friend with me on Shopkick.
The last app that I recently downloaded is BerryCart. It is for organic/Non-GMO kind of foods. I figured it would be a good one to try out with my new diet. I haven't had to use it yet, but it sounds like you can earn money with a "team" like Ibotta. My referral link is https;//www.berrycart.com/rf/nQCmRBpmzq. For every friend that signs up with my link we each get a $2 bonus. Don't know if it works, but never hurts to try :) BerryCart pays out through either gift cards or PayPal. Hopefully I can use it more this year.
The other thing that does save a lot of money, but I haven't done it since this summer, is a meal plan for either the week or month. It's amazing what happens when you go through your cupboards and freezer and find food you can use for recipes without having to buy any extra at the store. Hopefully my butt will get in gear and I can start meal planning again, because it really does help, just takes time.
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