Reducing Your Grocery Bill

We are so grateful to Sister Herring for her time and her patience and, frankly, for sharing her amazing ability with all of us.

Sister Herring saves quite a bit of money through the use of coupons. I know what many might be thinking, because I have been one of them. I have kept coupons and saved a bit here and there but really nothing to herald. I also am guilty of collecting my store coupons (the ones that come out with your receipt) and forgetting to look at them again, thus letting some really good ones expire.

If you are like me in that respect, you will appreciate the first thing I noted from Sister Herring. She takes her coupon box with her EVERYWHERE she goes. That way, she always has her coupons with her if she spots a good deal. I mean, I generally keep a book in the car. How difficult would it be to keep coupons there instead of in a nice place in the house that I never remember to look?

The following is from the handout Sister Herring gave us, "buy the newspaper. It is really worth it even if you just subscribe to the Sunday only paper. That is where you will find the coupons, except before a major holiday." I haven't taken the paper in some time due to the fact that I don't read it and therefore don't want to be bothered with the expense. The Sunday only option is a very good point though.

In addition to the newspaper, you can swap coupons with friends taking those they don't use and passing on those you don't use but they might. Furthermore, Sister Herring goes to the recycling center from time to time to get extra coupons. Hooray for recycling. There is a recycling center on McIntire just off of the 250, and there is one in Fluvanna County.

For the Charlottesville area stores, not all ads come out on Sunday. Some come out on Wednesday. The good news here, is that several stores have their ads available online. Kroger and Food Lion both do. I am not sure about Giant. In fact, many stores have additional coupons available on their website to print out. For example (thanks again Lisa) Food Lion offers a program called shoppers companion, and they will send you a weekly e-mail that you can print coupons to use. You already have a value card so why not right?

About those store coupons. Obviously you can't use a Food Lion coupon at Giant and vice versa. However, you can use a store coupon and a manufacturer's coupon on the same item.

You can also use coupons on sale items. We are all familiar with the buy one get one free and the 10 for $10 that happens at the store. The items ring up separately, and if you don't not want two items that are buy one get one free, the single item rings up for 50% off. The 10 for $10 items ring up for $1 each. You can use coupons on EACH item as long as you have that many coupons. Therefore, if you are buying ice cream that is buy one get one free, and it's original cost is $5.00, it rings up for $2.50 for each ice cream you buy. If you have a 50 cent off coupon, you are down to $2.00, and with doubling, you are down to $1.50. Note: If you want the free item, you can use coupons for both items if you have more than one coupon. Because they ring up separately, you will still save money on the free item and thus your overall bill.

What was that about doubling? Here in the Charlottesville area (check your local area to find out what the policies are there) some stores will double your manufacturer's coupons every day with your store value care. You are most likely already shopping with a values card to get the specials anyhow.

Kroger will double a coupon up to 50 cents everyday

Giant will also double a coupon up to 50 cents everyday

Harris Teeter will double up to 99 cents everyday. Furthermore, Harris Teeter triples coupons up to 99 cents about 4 times a year. This is another good reason to look at those ads. That means a 50 cent off coupon becomes $1.50 off and so forth. These are times that Sister Herring has bought $60 worth of items for $5. Once, she only paid the sales tax.

A special note about Harris Teeter: They will limit you to 20 coupons. However, they will also gladly split your order.

A special note about Super Walmart. They do price matching. If you have your other store ad with you, and can show that that store is offering an item for less, Super Walmart will match that ad price at the register. The only downside is that Super Walmart will not double your coupons. In fact, I am not sure they will even take them. You might need to check.

There are also good sources for online coupons. Two are smart source and coupon cabin. Of course, you can google coupons and probably find many more.

Finally, a couple of tips for using coupons in the store. Count your coupons, and pay attention as they ring up. You went to the effort of collecting, organizing and using these coupons. You want the benefit for it. Also, if you buy an item in the store that has a coupon on it. Take it off yourself and give it to the cashier. More often than not, they don't stop to notice there is a use now coupon on the item as they ring it up. (This has happened to me many times). Also, look at those coupons in the aisles in the stores. They may end up being just what you need.

I hope this helps inspire you to collect those coupons, get them organized and take them with you. You are going to be the next person they gawk at at the store because of your awesome saving prowess. Look at those ads and comparison shop to make the deals even better. Good luck. Let us hear about your successes!

Gardening summary

We had such a great night learning about gardening basics from Brother Carlson. We only began to pick his amazing brain, and I for one, learned so much. As a result, I am really excited to give a small garden a try this year. We are very grateful for the Carlsons' sacrifice allowing us this fabulous and educational evening.

LOCATION

The first thing Brother Carlson talked to us about was location. Obviously, being from all over the United States, we all have different references for soil, growing seasons, and the like. Brother Carlson focused us in our location here in Virginia and talked to us about how to be successful in our gardening efforts.

We learned that our soil here is fairly good for gardening. Yes that red Virginia clay is good (I know! Who would have guessed?) It is good because the clay holds water and nutrients rather than having them bleed out as is the case in more sandy soil. The answer to making the clay soil more workable and nutrient rich is to amend it prior to planting. This means you need to get some good compost material and work it into your soil. This provides the soil with the nitrogen necessary to help grow your garden plants.

COMPOST

Did you know that here in Central Virginia many of us have an abundance of material to provide our soil with adequate compost? It is the leaves that fall everywhere each autumn. Brother Carlson has built a compost heap using palates and stakes. He suggests piling up your raked up leaves and turning them with a pitchfork occasionally through the winter. When they are good and black and have a nice earthy smell, they are ready to be tilled back into the soil. Make sure they have composted adequately if you choose to try this yourself. If they are still brown and resemble leaves, they are not yet adequately composted. They will, as a result, take more nitrogen from the soil as they continue to compost. You will, therefore, need to add nitrogen fertilizer to compensate. Brother Carlson says that this composting takes very little space. I suggest asking him for details if you want to try this yourself this coming year.

Many kinds of organic material can be used as compost. The idea is get organic matter into the soil. Among other items, Brother Carlson mentioned old sawdust.

How do we know a good compost? It should smell earthy. It should also be a deep brown or black in color. Brother Carlson recommends against cow manure. Because of the way cows eat and digest, cow manure compost will contain a lot of weed seeds adding to your weeding duties unnecessarily later. Horse manure, on the other hand, works well. Again, it should have an earthy smell not a strong manure smell. Good compost should also have a crumbly texture.

NOTE: DO NOT AMEND YOUR SOIL WITH SAND. THOUGH MANY ARE TEMPTED DUE TO THE WATER RETAINING NATURE OF CLAY, MIXING SAND INTO THE CLAY SOIL WILL YIELD BRICKS NOT GOOD GARDENING SOIL

Also as a side note. We learned that if you have perennials and such already planted, but would really like to enrich their soil without digging everything up, you can add compost material on the top. It will take longer to amend the soil, but it will help, and the root systems will work up into the good healthy soil as the compost breaks down into your topsoil.

TYPE OF GARDEN

For nearly all of us, the primary issue we have when it comes to planning a personal garden is space.

Stay tuned. I will complete post as soon as is possible.

February - Gardening

This month, we will be focusing on Basic Gardening. Brother Norm Carlson has graciously agreed to teach us some basic gardening skills. Are you, like me, from somewhere other than Virginia and would like to learn what grows best here? Would you like to learn what to plant and what to avoid? How about what times of the year are suitable for which plants and flowers? If you live in the Lake, you might want to learn about keeping a garden from becoming deer food.

Whether you have specific questions, or want to learn the basics, whether you want to start something larger or something small you can do with your children, come out and enjoy the opportunity to learn skills, techniques, and facts from Brother Carlson.

It will be at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 26 at Amy McLaughlin's home.

Welcome

Welcome to the Rivanna Ward Provident Living Group blog. It is my hope to use this to keep sisters informed of what is coming up and what has occurred. It is also a way to facilitate some limited conversation about each month's topic as desired.

The vision behind this group is to focus on the many aspects of provident living. We hope to offer a variety of choices to enrich our lives and educate us in ways that may improve our homes with an eye toward the future. It is also an opporutnity for us to learn from members of our ward (and others) who have talents they can share and teach that can better enrich our lives. We hope that through this group, not only will we be enable to come together as sisters for enjoyable activities but that we will also be able to provide experiences that will allow each sister to better plan for her future and the future of her family.