Frugal????

**prftstrngr** · 07-25-2008, 12:05 PM

Did anyone read this article? Interesting....

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...n100AWeek.aspx

**ctab** · 07-25-2008, 12:35 PM

Interesting article. Though I hate the assumption that coupons are only for bad convience food. I for one have been enjoying Fiber One and Yoplait Plus yogurt for cheaper prices than the generic yogurt with sales and coupons.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 07-25-2008, 12:39 PM

Wow. That lady is a really poor example of asking someone to do a 100/wk grocery shopping thing for four people. I have four people in my family and my grocery bill comes to between 80 and 90 dollars a week. My meals are healthy too. I think MSN Money is sending the wrong message to people in that article.

**McD** · 07-25-2008, 12:52 PM

I wasn't a fan of that article. I can do a lot on less than 100$ per week. I hated her attitude of 'since I cut back this week it made me splurge the next week'.

**kimmy4433** · 07-25-2008, 02:31 PM

I read that and thought it was a poor article. I spent $47.00 last night shopping, and all I need for the next month is some chicken and fruits, milk and lunchmeat. I have enough food to last me for the month of August and I have not even touched the August budget yet! Oh and I got a $2.00 cat. from Kroger last night and with my coupons for Franks Red Hot Sauce the two bottles I bought ended up being FREE!!!!!!!

**Wendy99** · 07-25-2008, 02:44 PM

No coupons. I'm not a big coupon user anyway, and besides, many of these are for things that are too fattening or just too expensive to begin with.

The next week I spent more than ever, to make up for feeling deprived.

But the week did teach me a lot about being more strategic with my shopping and my planning of meals around what was in season or on sale.

It doesnt sound like she learned anything to me? She is use to and set in her ways .. made me roll my eyes more than a few times!

**prftstrngr** · 07-25-2008, 03:31 PM

Yeah it amazed me that they would talk about coupons like that....we dont get alot of coupons here but when I do I often get them on healthy foods!! I see what they were doing by only shopping the big stores everyone has but still...not a great article to promote frugality. I think I could have shopped here with no coupons and still come out better than she did!

**peanut** · 07-25-2008, 03:38 PM

Hmmm...interesting. I spend over $100cdn (about the same in US dollars) a week on groceries...for 3 adults. But I don't spend on the things she does! I do all my cooking from scratch. Prices have just skyrocketed here.

I'm buying a lot of weird healthy style foods though. For example, I'm not supposed to eat sugar anymore - doctor's orders. Means I have to buy expensive replacements like Splenda or stevia. It also means I've cut most sweet baking out of my diet.

I hear her about the coupons. I think it depends where you live though. Some places have really good coupon deals. We don't live in one of them. I've always been amazed at the really good deals people post on the Net for coupons. Though I admit, often the foods they are for are not allowed on my diet - due again to doctor's orders.

So, yeah, I think it is possible to use coupons to effectively lower your food bill. Just don't expect every place in North America to have the good deals some of you have in your home towns.

Jean

**freyadog** · 07-25-2008, 03:45 PM

I thought the article was definitely done in poor taste. I don't use coupons alot because I do 99.9% scratch cooking. Some coupons I can use but the majority I can't but it doesn't mean that I won't. Coupons are cool if they are for what you buy and eat already.

**rachelMcK** · 07-26-2008, 10:59 AM

I thought the article was ok. It had good points and bad points. I especially didn't like how she talked about how much work it was to prepare the meals. I'm sorry, but of course its work. The things you want in life that are any good are not served on a cardboard michelinas tray. We used to eat alot of convenience food. When I switched and started learning how to cook from scratch, the food got better, Dh appreciated it way more and loves (almost) everything I make. It not only saves you money, but, the work you put into actually makes you feel like you've accomplished something and have done a good deed for you family. So the griping, I wasnt too into.
Coupons can be good. If I had a coupon for a product that i actually use, then I'm using it. Sorry.
Finally, the author thought it was such a feat to get her groceries down to $100, then reconciled that even if she spent only $75 less, she'd be happy. Thats great and all, but MSN should be asking some of us at the village. I know we could do way better than that.

**xtena** · 07-26-2008, 12:02 PM

One of my 'favorite' quotes was how her son missed his waffles. I'm assuming she buys Eggo type freezer waffles. She also complains about not getting enough fruits/veggies with her $100. I may be leaping to conclusions but I picture her standard shopping basket full of prepackaged, overpackaged expensive salad greens, portabello mushrooms etc. She must not have much of a stockpile, either despite her usual huge shopping budget.

I wanted to scream HELLO????? as I read the article. When you cook more basic foods from scratch including waffles (which freeze great) you can usually afford plenty of fruits and veggies even on a budget. Well, at least in my neck of the woods, which isn't exactly garden central though we are fortunately close enough to California to get plenty of good veggies trucked in at a reasonable price. Plus frozen and canned veggies never killed anyone; it's only in the past twenty or so years and global commerce that we started relying on fresh stuff year around.

My 48.29 Food4Less shopping trip yesterday (and I used NO coupons this time) netted some tuna, tomato paste, tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce for my stockpile; a couple of mangoes, a bunch of bananas, four lemons, four nectarines, a couple of onions, a couple of portabello mushrooms (splurge!); a family pack of chicken breasts (skin and ribs attached, but for .97 a pound I don't mind dealing with the skin and ribs); sour cream; a few yogurts (.33 each), some sherbet, Mother's Taffy Cookies (very rare splurge, haven't had these in years and wanted to see if they are as good as my childhood memory...they are almost sickeningly sweet!), a dozen eggs, a bag of white chocolate morsels, an overpriced tube of kids toothpaste, a can of butter flavored Crisco and plastic wrap.

I can certainly feed my family through next week without another shopping trip, though I admit my husband gets one free meal a day at the casino where he works and my daughter is seven and a fairly light eater. If we run out of milk, either my husband will pick some up on his way home or we'll use powdered, no big deal. The trick is a decent stockpile and the willingness to spend time in the kitchen.

For the record, I have plenty of veggies (broccoli; cabbage; potatoes, carrots, radishes, celery) left over from last week's $60 shopping trip, a variety of meat, frozen fruit and veggies in the freezer, and my cupboard is full of canned goods, pasta, flour and the usual staples. And I am well aware the super savvy shoppers on this list could do way better than I did.