Grocery Coupon Guide

Day three had to be better than day two, because if it wasn’t, there was no way that I was going to be able to complete this challenge (or stay alive). Luckily, it was much better and I learned a few more things about my eating along the way.

I started off the day deciding that I needed to get two things: some eggs and some bananas. I used the Philadelphia cream cheese coupons I had found from the blinkie coupon machine the day before to help bring down the costs of these.

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This is part of a month long challenge to eat well while spending an average of only $1 a day on food. You can find the beginning and the rules of this challenge here

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The bananas came to $0.02

and the eggs came to $0.79.

I also decided to buy some cereal. The local Lucky grocery store was having a deal where if you bought 4 boxes of cereal of Kelloggs Corn Flakes, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks and Corn Pops, the price for each box would be $1.39 each. I also had a few Blinkie coupons for $0.70 of of 1 for Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks or Corn Pops and two (since that is my limit rulebuy over 600 boxes of cereal for local food banks (if I didn’t, I would have had to pay out $3.00, but I would still have the $3.00 coupon to spend which is the same as cash). I did this transaction 2 times to get 4 boxes of Corn Flakes, 2 boxes of Fruit Loops and 2 boxes of Apple Jacks:

Since I won’t be able to eat all that cereal in the next month, I will be donating the 2 boxes of Fruit Loops and 2 boxes of Apple Jacks to the local food bank. Since I already have 14 packs of cream cheese, I will also be donating all 30 packs of cream cheese to the local food bank:

With morning shopping out of the way, it was time for breakfast. I decided to take a portion of the rice I had left over from the day 1 dinner, mix it with a couple of eggs I had just purchased and put it in a whole wheat tortilla with a half apple on the side:

The rice and eggs was pretty bland and since I don’t have any salt, pepper or other seasoning, I had to get a bit creative. I went and got the box of Wheat Thins that I had finished the night before when I wasn’t feeling well and took all the excess salt at the bottom of the bag and put it into the rice and eggs — perfect!

For lunch I had peanut butter and a banana wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla. I have also discovered during this challenge that I am much more aware of when I am full and stop when I am (as opposed to forcing everything down on my plate that I would have done before). That left half of the morning tortilla to eat as well. I added the other half of the apple and Wheat Thins as well:

It was wonderful – I love peanut butter and bananas and together you can’t go wrong.

For dinner I steamed a couple of carrots. I then reheated the rest of the rice, cut up half a avocado, added a bit of sour cream and wrapped it in two whole wheat tortillas:

Again, it was a little bland at first bite and I had to go to the Wheat Thins box to extract the last of the salt to give it a bit of flavor. I actually filled up after the steamed carrots and one of the avocado and rice tortillas, so I have the other one in the refrigerator for day four meals.

This is the current list of what I have purchased:

Money Spent $5.68
Money left to spend: 25.32
Retail Value of everything bought: $242.32

4 boxes of Corn Flakes
1 dozen eggs
2 avocados
2 boxes of Quaker Instant oatmeal
14 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
1 package of Knudsen Light sour cream
10 apples
2 lbs of carrots
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
1 jar of Skippy All Natural peanut butter
2 cans of pork and beans
1 bag of long grain brown rice
2 packages of Mission 100% whole wheat tortillas (10 count each)

Donated Food to Food Bank that was purchased with my $1 a day

4 boxes of cereal
45 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner refill

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The Beginning ::: Day 4: Berry Smoothie (but not the type you want)

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