Coupons

I had so many call me or find me at church to tell me how much money they aready saving on coupons!! Very Exciting! Here are a few more tips for you.

* Once a month(at the end of the month) Eric and I sit down together and purge the box. We watch a show..or football:) and go through each envelope to throw away old coupons. Doesn't take long and we spend time together. I have been known to bring them to ball practice along with a trash bag and go through them while I wait...I'm all about multi tasking. You will throw away MANY! It is OK. Don't panic!

* I love ALDI.....Great prices on produce, milk, eggs...I am really funny about my meat...but seriously their 90/10 ground beef is awesome! I also buy spiral sliced hams during the holiday season and they are Yummy!

*To save time I look at my whole week and plan when I will stop by certain stores...I try not to make special trips.....I usually always have my coupons with me!

*My kids eat a great deal of cereal.....not just in the morning but as a snack. Since I do not buy "junk" cereals this is a great option for us. My preference would be Kashi cereal and I stock up when they are on sale...Heart to Heart! Since I can't always get it...this is my criteria... No high fructose corn syrup, less than 10g of sugar, No hydrogenated oils.

*I buy my Toilet paper at Kroger...Kroger brand of Scott...you know sandpaper on a roll :) It lasts so much longer than the fluffy kind and Kroger's brand is the hands down cheapest!

*You will get many coupons for soup...I only buy it when Healthy Request or Select Harvest goes on sale....you will find a favorite! Great for cold winter days with a sandwich and a piece of fruit!

I'm sure that I will think of more later and I will post it!

Coupon's for a cause!

Want to help...DO you live in the Woodstock area??

I am teaching a couponing class for the families who run SWO, in a few weeks. These guys are awesome...Eric and I have been involved with them for 10 years...they are making a huge impact on students and the poor community of Andrews NC. They only have an Ingles there to shop at...so I'm gonna learn that system and go shop and teach!

How can you help?? I would love to bless them with couponing goodies...so here is what I need:

Any of your non perishable extras
cleaning supplies
soup and canned veggies
tuna
spaghetti and pasta
ANY NON PERISHABLE items...you know the stuff I'm talking about!
Any and all baby diapers, wash, wipes, powder
I want to give each of them a coupon box.....I will need $70.00 for this.
If you want to donate money toward this instead of food items you are welcome to drop me a check and make sure to designate that on a separate piece of paper...not the memo line! It is tax deductible as long as you do not designate the money....funny how the gov. works:)
Make check to Driven To Encourage Ministries 780 Neese Road Woodstock, GA 30188

You can drop off any goods at my house and I will take them up in a few weeks.

Check them out here.

Couponing Class!

Hey if you live in the Woodstock area come and join me for a free couponing and money saving class this coming Tuesday September 28th 7-9 pm at FBC Holly Springs. I am really excited to share....seating is limited so be on time! Check out their web site here.

Thhis Weeks shopping Trip.

Weird things are going on with my blog??? I Have random pictures that turn when I upload them....even though they are perfectly right before the upload? Crazy!!! Anyway it is late and I want to go to bed so you can click on the picture to blow it up then turn your computer!!! This is the kind of stuff that I show women how to do EVERY time I speak! It really is so easy!!






Notice the milk is 1/3 gone before I could even take the picture??? That would be Marshall!!!!


4 Quaker Oats
3 Quaker Instant Grits
1Ronzoni Bow Tie pasta
1 Ronzoni Linquine pasta
15 Campbell's Select Harvest soup
4 bags of rice
2 Peter Pan PB
5 Del Monte no salt green beans
3 Kens Steakhouse lite dressing
8 cans Starkist light tuna in water
3 bottles Bull's-eye BBQ sauce
2 lg boxes Orville Redenbacher's Pop Corn
1 lg College Inn chicken broth
2 packages Del Monte Pears no sugar added
1 gallon milk
4 Colgate Total toothpaste
4 Reach Dental Floss
2 Carefree panty liners
2 Edge shaving cream

Total Price: 124.27
I paid: 36.29
Savings: 87.98!!!!!

Paper article!!

Below is the article that appeared in a local paper here in GA!

Local coupon mom shares strategy

By: Janet Pelletier

Published: 01 September 2010

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Michele Helms has an assortment of groceries splayed on her kitchen table, everything from salad dressing to diced tomatoes to cereal and wheat bread. And she only paid a jaw-dropping $10.80 for it all.

Janet Pelletier | Ledger-News.

She didn’t have to beg, borrow or steal. It was all in the art of coupon clipping. She’s become a sort of guru in it.

The Woodstock mom of five and her husband have a full-time ministry. Through that, she began speaking about women’s issues, more specifically the topic of modern-day families and the importance of everyone eating at the dinner table despite their busy lives.

“A lot of families find themselves at a drive-through or sitting in front of a television because they feel like, to prepare a meal and to sit down with their family, is just something you did in the ‘50s when you had more time or when women didn’t work as much,” Helms said. “I think that’s a myth. There’s lots of ways with proper planning. Planning sets you free. You think it won’t but it does.”

Free is the operative word, as Helms regularly finds deals on items at the grocery store where she doesn’t have to pay a cent. She credits a girlfriend of hers, who encouraged her to start clipping coupons.

Helms said she used to be vehemently opposed to coupons. In fact, a book she wrote, “Time around the table,” which stressed the importance of family dining, featured a chapter about saving money in which she said “as a rule, I do not clip coupons because I find most are junk and prepackaged stuff.”

Her friend was persistent and eventually, Helms gave coupon-clipping a try, vowing if it didn’t pay off, she would write it off for good. She’d always considered herself frugal, having lived on a shoestring budget her whole life.

“I thought, I’ll give it a month. If I don’t see something significant in a month, I’ll stop,” she said. “That was about three years ago and it’s unbelievable.”

Helms said she spends $5,200 a year on groceries and toiletries, and estimated the average family spends more than double that, $12,000, on just groceries.

“The real thing I tell women is this: I could probably feed my family of seven on $50 a week if I had to, and feed them a lot of pasta and you know, just cereal,” she said.

“For us, on $100 a week, I can feed us well and a lot of good-for-you stuff, tons of fresh stuff and good meats,” Helms said.

It all starts with the Sunday newspaper, where she said she gets 90 percent of her coupons. She buys four papers and simultaneously opens them side by side, scissors in hand.

The Internet has also been a big help, as she said she uses a Web site, southernsavers.com, which lists the deals for the week at the local grocery and drug stores. Armed with her deals of the week, she then pairs that savings with coupons.

“I sit down, and I look at the things and I say to myself, would I use this if it was free or almost free?” she said.

She then files the coupons in a bin that has dividers for different categories.

“What I’m doing is, I’m basically waiting for the items to go on sale because almost everything you see on (my kitchen) table here has a six-week cycle, where it goes back on sale,” she said.

When it does go on sale, she stocks up, storing the rest she’s not going to use right away in a cabinet or the freezer.

Recently, she bought 10 loaves of wheat bread for 39 cents apiece. “I’m going to make batches and batches of French toast that I put in the freezer, and my kids can pull out and pop in the toaster,” she said.

Another tip she suggests is finding grocery stores that offer double coupons. At least one major supermarket offers double coupons up to a 50-cent limit per coupon.

Instead of sitting down to prepare what she’s going to make for dinner for the week, she said she first takes an inventory of her kitchen and decides what meals to make based on that.

“There’s almost always fresh stuff I’ve got to add,” she said. “But because I save so much on the other stuff, when I add the fresh things that we use, that’s where the bulk of my $100 a week goes.”

Helms recommends people stick with their favorite store because each one will have a cycle of sales it runs.

Helms, like many others, felt overwhelmed with coupon clipping, but she got the hang of it.

“Most people don’t realize that it’s really this easy, and they feel very overwhelmed,” she said. “I learned it myself; anybody can do that.”

She spends 45 minutes preparing for the store and saves about $150.

Because she feels so strongly the benefits of coupons, she gives free seminars to groups.

“I show people routinely how to cut $400-500 out of their grocery budget a month,” she said. “For us, being full time in our ministry, it’s been a lifesaver. We showed a woman whose husband had to take a pay cut and she had her two children in private school and wanted to keep them there. She completely did it by cutting their grocery budget.”

Helms will be teaching a free class titled “Time and Money Saving,” on Sept. 28 from 7-9 p.m. at First Baptist Holly Springs, 2632 Holly Springs Parkway, in Canton.

For information, call (770) 345-5349. For more information on Helms, visit her blog at the Driven to Encourage Ministry Web site, http://michelehelms1.blogspot.com

Buying $100 of groceries for $2.00?????

I am asked all the time about getting a ton of groceries for almost nothing. Let me first say that there are many things that I get every month and I pay 0 or almost 0: hair care, shaving products, dental products, body washes, deodorant, all cleaning products, condiments, frozen veggies, rice and rice mixes, pasta, spaghetti sauces, salad dressings, over the counter medication, feminine products, make-up

Other things I routinely get for 50 - 75% off: soups, canned veggies and fruit, yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, protein bars, peanut butter, jelly, salsa, taco dinner kits, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, butter, brownie and cake mixes,

Now back to the original question....could I buy groceries for my family and spend 10 a week......yep I sure could but I do not because to do so I would not buy fresh fruit and veggies or any meat. Above is a picture that I found on a popular web site showing how this person didn't pay anything at the register for those things. Now PLEASE hear my heart...I am not legalistic about food and if we didn't have any money to budget for food for whatever reason.....my standards would be different. BUT....I would not feed most of those things to my family on a regular basis. Have I ever given them boxed mac and cheese...you betcha....but I do not routinely buy it. I do buy processed foods sometimes but I really try to limit the amount I feed my family. You notice that I have cake and brownie mix on my "routinely get" list......I always have those things on hand for a special treat or to take to parties and get togethers.

I do not buy coke, candy, chips, sugar cereals or sugar filled bars and I never buy pop tarts :) I have not found that it is very realistic to think I could feed my family a healthy, balanced diet on 10 a week. My family gets enough junk in their diets from other sources so I try to feed them good stuff at home. What couponing does for me ....it cuts my overall bill by 50% or more even buying the healthy stuff.

More meal ideas with coupons

I make ooddles and ooddles of french toast all at once. I buy 5 or 6 loaves of bread on sale...I just got 10 loaves for 39 cents each at Kroger. I buy 3 dozen eggs and use about 6 cups skim milk, a little cinnamon and 1 stick of butter. The total cost is less than $6 and I make 100 - 120 slices of French Toast . I serve it with eggs, grits, and the toast on the night I make it and I freeze the rest. My kids pull it out in the mornings and pop it in the toaster. I very rarely cook breakfast in the mornings......besides scrambled eggs which we make a few times a week.

Grilled chicken or grilled flank steak.....I am always looking for a sale on these meats because we eat them all the time! My family is a real meat and potatoes kind of family....so these things are staples here! I use Italian dressing and Teriyaki sauce for a marinade.( I routinely get these for free or almost free with coupons) Here are some things I serve with the meat. Frozen veggies....I buy all the time with coupons for around 25-50 cents a bag. Green beans...again I collect them when they are on sale. Some kind of potatoes...I love potatoes I could love on them alone! Therefore we eat them alot! (I get lots of sour cream for free or almost free if I want to use it for these.) Salad....we eat alot of salad and raw veggies so I look for sales. I try not to buy items that are not in season and have a higher price tag. Mac n cheese..(pasta cheap with coupons...cheese on sale.....freeze in the bag for baking)

OK I will think of more later!

Couponing

It has been a busy week! Spoke at the Galleria..that went great! I spoke twice to packed rooms. Boy do I love to be able to encourage women! I read something the other day that said 95% of adults are fearful about speaking in front of people. I am in the other 5% for sure...the bigger the crown the more I feel I can let loose!

Started homeschool this week!!! Great start!

Had an interview with a local newspaper and that went well!

One of the questions I was asked over and over again this weekend was...what meals do I make with my couponing stuff... I have a few meals that I make with almost all couponing stuff but for the most part I use that stuff for supplementing my dinners. Where couponing saves me the most money personally is.....cereal, toiletries, cleaning products, snacks, yougurts.....below are some meals that I regularly cook with couponing stuff.


Spagetti...I wait until I have enough jars of sauce(they go on sale a lot!) to make a HUGE pot...while I am collecting those jars i pay attention to ground beef that goes on sale and I buy it along the way and freeze. I make as much sauce as my largest pot will hold. I usually add some spices to the sauce and also some crushed or cubed tomatoes either from a can(coupons) or fresh from Emily's garden, and the ground beef (tip: rinse the ground beef in a colander to get as much fat as is possible off before adding to your sauce) Freeze in gallon size freezer bags for meals later. Noodles are all from coupons. I add a salad and bread.

Taco's.....Taco kits routinely go on sale and I am always looking for ground beef just like for the spaghetti....When I find a good sale on the GB I bring it home and cook it all at once in a super large frying pan...I rinse it as well in hot water...season it and freeze what I do not use the first night in family serving sizes...make sure that you write on the bag what it is and a date. Now you have another quick meal for another night. I use the taco kits hard and soft...I take the seasoning packets out and store them to use next time I brown meat. I add cheese(which I routinely get on sale and freeze or store unopened in fridge...it has a long enough date to do this)Add lettuce, sour cream(another coupon regular with a long shelf life..... unopened) Any left overs are served the next day as taco salad.

Another post tomorrow...I need to school the kiddo's! Love you guys!Remember some days may feel like an eternity but you only have one shot with your babies and it goes so quickly...don't wish it away....embrace it with gusto!!!!

Oh Yes I did!

I might have gone to Publix last night and pulled 8 of the $2.00 off 2 Kraft shredded cheese coupons from the blinkie and left the store...maybe empty handed.....and drove across the street to Kroger and used them for the buy 8 kraft cheese for 99 cents each. I might have put 16 in my cart and used the the 8 / $2 off coupons and I might have gotten them all for free. If I was the kind of gal to do that sort of thing....and I AM!!

I did buy yougurt and a box of cereal....my total 67.01 out of pocket 6.23 I can honestly say, that has never happened before!

My stash!

I'm not sure why I have been asked to show off my pantry and storage areas??? but believe it or not I get many emails asking all sorts of things...hardly ever on my blog comments...why is that??? Well here goes....it may look like a mess but it really is organized!









Ha No that is not mine!!! Some day when the ship comes in as I tell my kids! But for now........

Where is your identity

OK....do you feel more powerful swiping a credit card or handing over a bunch of coupons? I must say that I have been doing this long enough that I get a total thrill handing over my stash and watching my total go down...down.....down. But there is truth is our perceived status with using a "gold" or "platinum" card. We need to move so far away from that thought! There is great power in being free from debt and having money to give......I want to use my extra savings to do amazing things and not pay off credit card interest!!!! We need to understand that our "status" needs to be found in our identity with Jesus and not in the things of this world.

Saving Money!

It is NUTS......just how much you can save using coupons when items are at their lowest prices! I bought all of the items you see here.....327.00 for 87.23.....Yes you saw that correctly...that is a savings of $239......I love it!!!! It frees up so much money for us....actually it just helps us live on the very small amount that comes in for the ministry. I feel like it is a great contribution that I can make for my family! We are living on a really small amount of money but I am able to feed my family like we are making so much more all because of coupons!

Coupon Boxes

What is a coupon box you might ask?? Well when I go to speak about cutting your grocery budget in half....Yes! I really can show you how to do that!! So many people asked about my box so I decided to sell it! It really is an ordinary box with legal sized envelopes...but the great part is all the pre-printed categories. When I first started couponing I had a small box with dividers.....broad categories.....I then went to the envelope system and as my envelopes would get so crowded I would make new categories and divide again. This box is made up of 50 categories so that you can file your coupons and easily find them when the items go on sale. It sells for $10 when I speak and $12 through my web site to cover postage.

You can order one here...Driven to Encourage Ministries

If you host a "Money Saving Mama" workshop..I'll give you one for free!