Whole Foods Highlights

Deals Start Today!!

Organic Cherries $3.99/lb

Farm Raised Tilapia, fresh $5.99 lb

Gatorade Natural Sports Drinks 10/$10

Organic Raspberries 2/$6

Ben & Jerry's All Natural Ice Cream 16oz 2/$5

Nature's Path Organic Cereal or Granola 2/$6
$1.50 off any Boxed Nature's Path Product Peelie

Food Should Taste Good Tortilla Chips 2/$4

Annie's Natural Dressing
$.75/1 Any Annies Dressing(Healthy Clippings Magazine)

Whole Foods Highlights

Organic Red Grapes $2.99 lb


Blue Diamond Almond Milk 2/$5
$1/1 Any size Blue Diamond Almond Milk 5-23-10 SS
$1/1 Blue Diamond Whole Deal coup, Store Coupon
(combine & Save!)


Whole Trade Mangos (from Haiti) 2/$4


Odwalla Food Bars 5/$5


Stonyfield Organic Yogurt 10/$5
$.50/3 *printable*

Just the Thing...

Ask and ye shall receive--
Last night mike complained that he had no pens in the house--
moments later I was browsing the web and found this:

$1/1 Bic Stationary product *printable*
Guess I can add that to my shopping list for CVS tomorrow!!

Well, maybe one of these other finds will be Just the things you're looking for...
$5 off any Evenflow Comfort Select Performance Pump *printable*

Get a free subscription to Rouge Magazine, which is put out my P&G and has coupons, etc.
(thanks, hip 2 save)

Become a fan of GreenWorks on Facebook and get a $3/1 *printable*
These are on clearance for less than $6 at most Target stores, so under $3 with the coup!

New Coupons on Newman's Own Products!

What is a Good Deal?

When browsing couponing websites you will find people bragging about $200 worth of merchandise for which they paid $2.
Sounds fantastic!
When you look a little closer often times they have stockpiled an item like Tilex or Windex, which I don't really even want one of; they have bought 15 or 20 of them!

I guess if that is an item they use frequently and they want two years worth of it in their cabinet then fantastic! But for me, I only want to stockpile items which I will actually use in the span of their shelf life. So a box of cereal will be ok for quite some time, I might buy a bunch if they are really a good price. Example: I bought about 10 boxes of Kashi cereals while they were on sale at publix. After sales and coupons I paid around $1.12 a box for cereal that would normal cost $4. And it is Feingold approved so Maya can have at it! And believe me, she is.

Deals look different when you are talking about higher priced items. Also, smaller companies don't necessarily get promoted through stores as often or put out as many manufacturers coupons. You can guarantee that on any given week either Kelloggs or Post cereals will be BOGO, not so much with Barbara's Bakery or Envirokidz. So we have to start working out what a good deal is for these types of items. Scope out the prices at your local grocery & your local health food store. If you're not good at remembering those sorts of things you might want to have a notebook handy.
Then when you come across a sale or get a coupon, you will know if it is actually a good deal.

Publix Trip April 29th

Just got back from Publix. I went to the Dale Mabry location next to Tijuana Flats(one of my fave restaurants!). I didn't need much, wanted to take advantage of a few sales and we are mostly "shopping from the stash" this week.

I did pretty well, Paid $10.96 after coupons, Saved $39.10
So, about a 79% savings!

For $10.96 I got:

6 Chobani Greek Yogurts
B2G1 Chobani Greek Yogurt *printable*

2 McCormick Garlic Powders
BOGO combined with
$1/1 Mccormick seasoning coup- 04-25-10 RP
Plus $.55/1 Publix *printable*
Use two of each to make both free!

3 Giant Organic Tomatoes(on sale for $1.99 lb this week!)

2 Fresh Express salad blends
BOGO combined with $1/2 coup from Publix Family Style Magazine

4 Vitamin Waters
$1/2 in last week's paper, combined with $.50/1 *printable* Whole Foods Coup

2 Mission Tortillas(10pks)
$.75/1 *printable* Looks like a Kroger coup but prints as a manufacturers- Click the "coupons" link

2 Sambuchan Drinks(acai berry, very yummy!)
BOGO combined with
$1/2 hangtag manufacturer coup
$1/2 Publix coupon from Family Style Magazine

1 bag of Mahatma rice
$.50/1 peelie found at store

1 Mazola oil
$.50/1 hangtag

1 Cascadian Farms frozen peas
$1/1 *printable*

Not bad, I was saying to mike on the way out, we would have easily paid $6 for the two Acai drinks a few months ago. It's amazing what a little information can do for you!

Feingold Finds

If you are not familiar with the Feingold diet, check out this link.

Or, the short version is that Feingold makes my life so much better. And it can help you avoid unnecessary chemicals and additives in your diet. The major things being eliminated on the Feingold diet are artificial colors, flavors & preservatives, all things that have been proven to cause behavioral or learning difficulties in children. And in my experience, even an adult can react to foods with these ingredients. Also, in the first stage of the diet all natural Salicylates are removed and then slowly reintroduced.

In my family we have not yet been able to reintroduce those foods. It seemed like a challenge at first but compared to the challenges we face when Maya eats those things, it's small fries.

So, these items may not seem like health food, and many of them are not that at all. But you can be assured that they are free of synthetic colors, flavors, BHA, BHT, TBHQ, and synthetic sweeteners. Sometimes these items are not listed in the ingredients of a product, so having my Feingold Foodlist has been priceless.
I can't specifically list which items are feingold approved so you will need to refer back to your food list.

Current Deals at Publix:

Kashi Crackers 2/$5
Kashi TLC Honey Sesame Crackers
There are a ton of Kashi coups going around, peelies on many items in the store. Publix has a Kashi coupon booklet with $1/1 Kashi Crackers, and many of the cereal boxes have a $3 coupon booklet peelie which has a $1/1 coup in it for crackers.

Kashi Cereal $2/5
Go Lean Crunch, Go Lean original, Honey Puffed Kashi, Puffed Kashi

Tostitos Tortilla Chips
Check your foodlist for approved types.
Buy one Get one Free
There have been a variety of coupons available for these lately including peelies on the bags themselves-- be on the lookout!

Mazola Corn Oil 2/$5
Remember than many oils are preserved! Always use an approved oil.

Kelloggs Crispix 2/$5

Let me know if you see anything else! I'll keep adding/updating after my shopping trip today if I see anything else!
I'm off to shop!

Publix Healthy Highlights

4/29-5/5

Juicy Juice All Natural 100% Juice, 64 oz BOGO $3.65
-$1/2 Juicy Juice *printable* you must register

Fage Authentic Greek Yogurt $1.25
-.50/1 off any Fage product *printable*
OR become a fan of Fage on Facebook and save $1/1
With the Facebook coupon you are getting yogurt that is normally $1.66 for $.25!!


Chobani Greek Yogurt $1.00
B2G1 Chobani Greek Yogurt *printable*
This will make yogurt which is usually $1.33 cost $.66 each!!

Glaceau Vitaminwater 20 oz bottle $1.00
-$1/2 Vitaminwater 20 oz. SS 4/11, 4/25

Fresh Express Salad Blends, 4.5-12 oz BOGO $3.99
-$1/2 Fresh Express Salads “Family Style Magazine” Publix Coupon
-$1.50/2 Fresh Express Blends SS 2/21


Not too much is on sale this week that I could even pretend to call healthy.
But I noticed at my store that there were a lot of really great items on clearance, including some Avalon Organics shampoos and conditioners. These often retail for $8-10 bottle. They were priced at 2 for $6.49 and 2 for $9 I believe.
At any rate it was a great price for a really nice product. They also had some Gaia baby items, Badger sunscreen for $3.50( an awesome price for this chemical free sunscreen!), and a lot more.

So search your store for a clearance table, it's not all junk!!

In the meantime I will keep updating whenever I see a deal worth mentioning!

Getting Started

One of the first things you will need to know as a beginning couponer is where to shop. I typically shop in three stores on any given week: Publix, Target, & CVS.

Before I started couponing I hadn't set foot in a CVS for years-- it was a money-suck for me, I'd go in there and suddenly lose half an hour and $40. I could spend $10 on hair dye, because the box was pretty, never even checking the clearance section or the store flyer. So I quit going in an effort to reduce my habit of shopping just to shop.
Well, couponing feeds that same need for me to browse and spend time shopping, it's just that I do the majority of it at home, in flyers and online. I have discovered that between these three stores I can get most of my needs met for the least amount of money-- be patient, I will get to the "how" of it eventually.

I chose Publix as my primary grocery store for one main reason- the coupon policy is very flexible. In fact, although the overall company policy is good, much of the decision making is left up to the manager in each store. So my first step was to find out directly from customer service desk & the store manager exactly which coupons my Publix takes and how I can use coupons and still be within the rules.
My publix rocks because:

They accept competitor coupons(and they consider every single other grocery store a competitor!)
They accept both a store and a manufacturers coupon on each item purchased.
When you are getting a BOGO(buy one get one) deal, you can use coupons on both items, YES, you can use a coupon on the item you are getting free!
The publish a lot of store coupons.

So, if you won't be going to Publix, look for a store with similar policies. Often times it will be one of the more expensive stores.
The other reason I love Publix is that for a mainstream grocery they have a large selection of natural and organic products, and they also have Greenwise stores, which are like the health food store version of Publix, and which have the same coupon policy as regular Publix. We are lucky enough to have one in driving distance.
I'll touch on my reasons for visiting both Target and CVS in future posts, in the meantime start thinking about this: if you plan to use coupons you will probably start using more and more of them(it's very rewarding!). So choose a place to shop that will welcome your coupons and make it easy for you. My choice in Tampa is definitely Publix, but remember also that it depends quite a lot on the manager in your location.
So ask some questions and you will be much better prepared when you're at the checkout.

Last Minute Publix Healthy Highlights

So, one of the things I intend to post here on Purely Saving is a shortened version of the Publix weekly ad, focusing on super deals for healthy products. Publix ads switch over on Thursdays(wednesdays in some areas), so you just have one day to take advantage of these deals.
If you are new to couponing, look for my upcoming posts on couponing basics, organization & getting started. In the meantime, stick to easy things like printable coupons and buy one get one free deals. I will write a post detailing the Publix coupon policy as soon as I can.
SS refers to the Smart Source booklet in your Sunday newspaper, RP refers to the Red Plum booklet.

Deals end 4-28

Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Pasta, Assorted Varieties, 12 to 16 oz pkg, BOGO $1.79
-$1/.2 Healthy Harvest *printable* you must register
-$.75/1 Ronzoni Healthy Harvest, Any – 04-11-10 SS

Pompeian Olive Oil, Classic Mediterranean or Extra Light Tasting, 32 oz bot, BOGO $10.99
-$1/1 Hangtag
-$1/1 Pompeian *printable*

Whole Fruit Sorbet, Assorted Varieties BOGO $2.89
-$.50/1 Whole Fruit Sorbet – 03-28-10 RP

Silk Soymilk, half gallon, 2/$5
-$.55/1 Publix coupon *printable*
-$.75/1 Silk Soymilk *printable*
-B1G1 Silk Soymilk – 04-11-10 SS
Buy two, use one buy one get one coupon, one $.75/1 coupon, and two publix coupons!!

Horizon Organic Milk, half gallon, 2/$7
-$.55/1 *printable* you must register

Cascadian Farm Frozen Fruit, Vegetables, or Potatoes
OR Cascadian Farm Granola Bars or Cereal, $1.99
-$1/1 Cascadian Farm *printable*
-$2/3 Cascadian Farm Fruit/veg Publix coupon *printable*
-$2/3 Cascadian Farm Cereal/Granola bars Publix Coupon *printable*

Kashi Cereal or Granola 7.5 to 17.5 oz box, 2/$5
Kashi coupon book in stores has $1/1 coupons for just about every Kashi product-- mine was located near the Kashi bars. Also look for peelies on Kashi cereal boxes

Snyder’s of Hanover Organic Pretzels, 8 oz bag, 2/$4
-$.50/1 Snyder’s Oganic Publix coupon *printable*
-$1/1 Snyder’s of Hanover Organic Pretzel Sticks - 04-11-10 SS

There were a lot of organic & healthy deals this week around Earth Day.
Good luck going out & getting some last minute deals!!

Welcome!

Hi!
Welcome to Purely Saving.
My intention is to create a blog for those of us who want to eat healthy foods and still live on a budget.

I'm meli. I'm thirty years old and have a 4 year old daughter who is on the Feingold Diet. You can read up on that here or just watch this video.

My husband and I were vegan for the past six years, until a recent health scare made me adapt back to a vegetarian diet. We definitely have plans to stay mostly if not entirely vegan in the near future. For the time being, we are selective vegetarians trying to eat right on a very small budget.

Even if you are not following a special diet, who doesn't want to save money? We've cut back in every area of our lives but food was one thing I did not want to compromise on. My hubby always says "You pay now or you pay later". It's true-- we will either eat well now or suffer the consequences later. But sometimes we just couldn't afford to eat well. That's where couponing came in. I have cut my grocery bill by at least 70% and still managed to eat healthy food.

So, what can you expect to see here?
Deals from national stores like Whole Foods, Target, Walgreens, and CVS. Local deals from Publix, for those of us in the southeast. Ways to use competitor coupons to get the best deal. How to find coupons for organic and natural products. Recipes for ways to use all those yummy healthy things you have stockpiled. A special section on sales/deals for Feingold acceptable items. Deals on environmentally friendly household products. And hopefully a lot more.

So, let me know if you are out there and what it is you need to start living a healthier life.
-meli