Grocery Coupons ... Again

When my son, now 5, was a baby, I used grocery store coupons to save tons of money on my grocery bill each week. It was not uncommon for my receipt to go from $300 (before sales and coupons) to less than $100 after the savings.

However, I have to admit that what we ate was not always the healthiest choices. But since I could get certain frozen processed foods for free ... well, I bought them.

Now that we have changed our eating habits to embrace natural, organic and traditional foods, I actually buy much of our food through a local natural food co-op and from local farmers. We get our milk from a local Amish family and our most recent side of beef is from a small rancher in nearby Maryland.

However, I still make my way into the grocery store, for a smaller set of purchases than before, about once every two weeks. I buy some organic and natural foods, as well as household goods and things we've run out of from our other sources.

As many others in America are doing as we face a recession, I'm watching my money more carefully. It's not going as far these days, and I have to make every dollar count. I was please to see that The Coupon Clippers website is still offering a simple service: clipped individual manufacturer's grocery coupons, mailed directly to your door.

Rather than spending $2 on a Sunday paper that only has a few coupons you'll use, go to The Coupon Clippers and buy the quantity of each coupon you want. I recently ordered 20 Daisy brand sour cream coupons and several for household goods. Since I'll save over $20 from the coupons, the couple dollars I spent was well worth it. And I didn't even have to pick up my scissors.

I've Started Seeds for the Spring!

My friend Erika very generously shared her bounty of new seeds with me. She went all out with her order -- herbs, vegetables, squash, fruit ... and with the seeds, she gave me an excitement for spring. I am looking forward to the warmth and sunshine, and having my little seedlings already coming up makes me very happy.

As I planted the seeds (thyme, lavender, eggplant and few other early varieties) I documented it for the purpose of making a how-to video for a website I write articles for. I'm including it here as well... my first Blogger video.



Because we have very rocky, clay soil that is hard to cultivate, I will be primarily a container gardener this year. I am also going to make a couple raised beds for the squash and eggplants, that like to spread out with crawling vines. But the tomatoes and herbs will sit in large pots on my deck, a few steps away from my kitchen and ready to be harvested fresh for the night's salad.