By ERIN TURNER
If I could predict sales and rock bottom prices, I’d not only be heading to Vegas to try my luck but I’d be a hero in every couponing household. Unfortunately, I can’t foretell those things but I have learned the different cycles of items in the grocery store and when to buy and when not to buy.
When things are in season…it is time to buy! Especially produce…you will find rock bottom prices on produce when the harvest is at its peak. As a farmer, I know this very well! When our tomatoes first start coming on, we price them higher but in the height of the season, we are almost willing to give them away. If you are serious about saving money, you need to buy seasonally. Yes, that may mean not having strawberries all winter but if you’re really frugal, then you’ll buy strawberries when they are cheap and freeze them for those winter months. (As a side note: buying seasonally also supports the local farmers.)
Most of us know that immediately following a holiday is the best time to stock up for next year’s celebration. Your wallet will hate you if you buy ribbons, bows and wrapping paper in December but it will throw you a party when you buy those things in January. I just picked up some great Valentine decorations at Shopko for 80-90% off.
March is upon us and with a new month, the grocery industry moves into another cycle of sales. Here is the break down of items to be watching for this month on the sale lists:
Frozen food month
Frozen vegetables
Frozen fruits
Frozen dinners/meals
Ice cream
Waffles
(Safeway has sales AND a coupon book for frozen items, making for some cheap frozen food!)
Cleansers and household items (spring cleaning month)
Coupons.com had some great coupons for Clorox products. Matched with the upcoming sales, you’ll be in cleaning heaven!
Easter/Passover:
Eggs
Ham
Asparagus
Horseradish
Butter
Coconut
Some Jewish/Passover items not found during other months
Peanuts
National Peanut Month (Wow, who knew?!)
St Patrick’s Day
Potatoes
Cabbage
Corned Beef
“Irish foods” (Baskin Robbins’ flavor of the month is “Lucky Mint”)
Gardening supplies
Lots of seeds, soil and garden items are starting to pop up
Clearance items:
Winter items (we bought 12 knit gloves for .79 each! We’ll keep a few and donate the rest!)
Popsicle, ice cream, frozen novelties, etc (this is the time when “last year’s flavors” are cleared out, packaging redesigned, etc., to make room for the new products in April)
I have been waiting for this month! I make homemade sauerkraut and since my husband has discovered the digestive health benefits of sauerkraut, he has been eating it everyday since December! We grow our own cabbage but since my supply of kraut has been depleted and our cabbage won’t be ready for months, I’ll be stocking up this month on cheap cabbage in order to get another batch of kraut going! And with my Irish roots, you can bet I’ll be getting a hold of some St. Paddy’s day décor later this month, too.
Timing is everything in couponing. Once you’ve been doing this long enough, you’ll start to recognize the trends and you’ll begin to anticipate the upcoming sales. Another tip about timing is not to use your coupons immediately the week after they are issued. Usually the closer a coupon gets to an expiration date, the more likely you’ll see that product on a great sale. That’s when an extreme couponer goes in for the “kill”!
Speaking of expired coupons, be sure to read the Save-It Club from March 4th. It gives you an address to send your expired coupons to Military families overseas (they can use those coupons for 6 months after expiration). Not only do you get to recycle your coupons but you’re supporting our awesome military families.
Back to Save It blog home page and SAVE IT CLUB (scroll down to the yellow SAVE IT CLUB Box).
Click here to see the Coupon Queen’s “Save It” archive.
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Erin Eisenman-Turner is proud to be a native Missoulian. Along with her husband and three sons, they raise chickens, pigs, rabbits, and vegetables at Turner Family Farms in the Orchard Homes area. When the farm chores are done, the coupons clipped and the blog written, you can find Erin exploring Montana, collecting antiques and trying to maintain a well-run, happy and organized home for her family.
My bet is that you have a pretty decent recipe for corned beef and cabbage Erin….do share!!
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The recipe is from my Irish mom. She got it in 1957 from the Racine Journal Times in Wisconsin! We actually make our very own corned beef! We brine the meat for 2 + weeks in a salt water/pickling spice brine. Then boil it with garlic and onion on St. Patrick’s Day. It is awesome and everyone loves it!
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Okay, I’m a non-cook. So I know that “brine the meat” means you soak it in salt water–but how much salt and water? And what’s in the pickling spice? And when it comes to boiling it with garlic and onion…am I chopping, mincing, smashing or what exactly with the garlic and onion? And how much garlic and onion? Forgive my ignorance. (Oh, and while you’re at it, do you have a recipe for soda bread to go with?)
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Okay, Carol! Here is scoop on the Corned Beef: 6lbs of brisket of beef (of course you can use wild game too). Add the meat to the following brine: 1 cup of salt, 3 T brown sugar, 2 cloves garlic, 2 oz pickling spice, 1/4 tsp saltpetre (you can omit this if you wish…it is a traditional preservative). Take all the dry ingredients and add to 1/2 gallon of water and mix well. Pour over meat and keep adding water until brisket is under water. Make sure your meat is in a sealable container or cover with tin foil. Place in refridge for 2 weeks. Remove meat from brine after 2 weeks, rinse off and place in large pot. Cover meat with fresh cold water. Add 1 large onion, cut up and 2 tsp cloves (whole or ground) and 2 cloves of garlic (whole). Bring to boil, then simmer slowly for 4-5 hrs. Remove from pot , sprinkle generously with paprika and slice. Our family likes to serve this with a horseradish/sour cream sauce!
Here is our family recipe for Irish Soda Bread:
4 cups Flour 1/3 cup Butter or Oleo, melted
1 cup Sugar 1-1/3 cup Buttermilk
1 tsp. Baking Soda 1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. Baking Powder
¼ tsp. Salt
1 cup raisins or currants or dried cranberries and/or chopped nuts.
(I usually use ½ cup cranberries and ½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts.)
Mix Dry ingredients together. Then make a “well” in the dry mixture and add wet ingredients, plus the raisins and or nuts. Mix well with wooden spoon, then shape into a ball (of sorts—it’s sticky) Place into a GREASED 10-inch iron skillet or a greased 9-inch cake pan. Flatten Ball slightly, if desired. (Have hands greased if you do this.) Cut a cross on top of dough before baking. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees (or until set). Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Makes 1 large loaf….or 24 large muffins. I use well-greased muffin pans. I filled the muffin pans with the dough and baked for 20 to 22 minutes.) This bread freezes well and is a super yummy soda bread!
Hope this helps! Enjoy and as always: Erin Go Braugh!
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I have given up FB as “electronic entertainment” but I can still read books, magazines & yes – blogs. nothing with a video. I can even listen to the radio on line so i have noise when working. soooo keep up with the blogging and I WILL FOLLOW. MY FIND for the week – our local grocery had 1/2 off all kellog items. I had coupons stocked up from some time this summer (the ones that come in the box and most people toss). I got $1.00 off coffee and milk while paying 1/2 price for “good” cereal my kids should eat. I also printed coupons off the net for the more recent kellog items (sp k bars, fiber bars, etc.) I ended up buying 14 boxes cereal, 5 boxes poptarts (jsut the dessert ones we use instead of cookies for a treat), 8 boxes of nutri-grain bars, 6 boxes of special breakfast bars. I had other coupons & I’m not good about deciphering my receipt but I spent $80 & had saved $44 so I thought that was good considering I’m still considering myself a newbie. This week the store has colgate .88 and I still have .75 coupon from last week….I’m stockin’ up for the redcross hygiene drive! feeling good already just thinking about it.
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Way to go Robin! Wow, 1/2 price Kelloggs…that is awesome! See everyone: when you match a killer sale with your coupons, you are slashing your bill considerably! And I got butterflies in my tummy hearing about your 13 cent toothpaste! Looooove it! And so glad that you are stocking up for the Redcross drive! I’m going to blog about donating soon. When I hear people say, “I’d never buy that much toothpaste because I wouldn’t use it”, I always remind them they can donate the items they don’t use! That is one of the absolute best parts of couponing…is sharing the love in a very generous way without killing the budget! It’s a win-win for everyone! So, I’m super glad to hear you are doing it!
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If you want to use the salt peter–it is spelled like the name peter–it’s actually potassium nitrate–which is in powder-type form. You may have to buy it in a drug store. That’s where I bought mine several years ago….I think it keeps for a long time. I always use it in my brine. This is a wonderful recipe &, as Erin says, works great with elk or deer or antelope brisket or roasts. I usually use the roasts, since we grind up the briskets for hamburger.
Hope you all have lots of IRISH LUCK with the Corned Beef (or, as we call it when we use game meat–Corned Beast).
And may the Leprechauns bring you luck & not their mischief as you bake the Irish Soda Bread, which is my brother’s recipe. I’ve found it works best when I make it into muffins. Shaking green sprinkles atop before baking certainly adds to the holiday. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all…..and may you be in Heaven 1/2 hour before the Devil knows you’re dead! (One of our favorite old Irish prayers.)
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Erin, I do have a question about the coupons we donate to the troops. I assume they should be only the manufacturers’ coupons & not store coupons….like the ones at Safeway, Albertsons, etc.?
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Great question! Yes, the coupons which we send to the troops need to be ONLY manufacturer coupons. No store coupons or printables can be used. So, any which you get from the Sunday inserts, on the products or in the mail are acceptable. I read a blog a while back where a wife of a solider talked about how helpful these were when her family was stationed overseas. Since most families only have one income over there and prices are so high, the coupons are appreciated and used! So send them in to the address listed on my main blog page in the yellow “Save-it Club” box!
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In my blog above, I should have said salt petre is also spelled salt peter. (Checked on Google) I apologize to Erin for not making that clear. It’s a case of “Mom & Daughter” are BOTH correct. Nice, eh?
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Are you looking for coupons according to season? then please click here for more coupons.
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