Mom feeds family on $4/week. [video]

[John Headstrong]

I just saw this on facebook, amazing frugalism !

Mom feeds family on $4/week.



I never remember coupons, but maybe I should.

[Bikil]

That is pretty amazing, but what about the quality of food? We, of course, try to grow a lot of our own food, but for things like eggs, cheese, meat, we get organic, local stuff. I would be really interested to see someone who could do even anything near that and get all whole-grain, organic food! THAT would be super impressive! Has anyone ever heard of people who do that? Or do that themselves? Our food budget is what kills us every month and I fully admit that it's because we like to eat well. Growing our own helps, but not as much as I'd like!

[fran]

Wow that is good. Just one question - does she have to buy the newspapers to get the 'free' coupons? Seriously though, I do use the internet to look for money off vouchers on things that I buy and quite often there are vouchers for free stuff. A good starting place is MoneySavingExpert.com

[crowsashes]

love it!

i did these a while a go, clipper tea was on offer , half price or something and it came with a 50p off coupon so i have a cupboard full of clipper tea for about 50p a box thankfully it keeps well.

no you dont have to buy a paper or a magazine for a money off coupon, i 'steal' them from relatives magazines and papers! some come through the post as junk mail or even in the free paper we get here. then theres always the doctors surgery.

had a coupon for £2.50 off at the aquarium and if you gift aid your ticket you also got a money off coupon in the gift shop so i effectively saved £5 on a £11 ticket.

t£$co, M&S, Boots + others all have there own in store mags which apart from being free reading material also have various money off coupons.

when i order online i always google money off coupons to see if theres any active codes etc out there. the last time a ordered through water stones i had a £10 order for £2.50 because of a code glitch theres also though really good bonus point loopholes to take advantage of.

[Keaniebean]

That's amazing, she must work hard to do that every week. I'm not sure you could do that over here mind you, I think our supermarkets are far less generous with their coupons and money off offers.

[Green Aura]

You're right,Sarah, they'd just bar you. While the thought of getting nearly £300 worth of shopping for 1p is strangely tantalising, what do you get for your 1p.

We used to have one of these loyalty cards, which quarterly sent us a range of vouchers offering fairly substantial deals. Unfortunately they were so rarely for anything we eat I think I only ever used two out of hundreds.

It seems to me that, despite (or presumably because) of their having intimate knowledge of my shopping habits, they were trying to get me to broaden what I bought - for example I always bought a huge tub of plain, organic, full-fat yoghurt. They sent me vouchers for individual low-fat, coloured, flavoured, starch-riddled yoghurt.

It felt like a plan to get me to by their crap by stealth, a little here a little there until you're on the full processed diet, only obtainable from them.

Adds a whole new perspective on junk pushers

[Bikil]

It felt like a plan to get me to by their crap by stealth, a little here a little there until you're on the full processed diet, only obtainable from them.

Exactly Maggie! That's why I'm wondering if anyone has gotten as good of a deal, or even gotten the bill down to 10 or 20, by buying only whole grain, organic, non-processed food. THAT I would LOVE to see! And then I would replicate it for myself!

[liskeardjane]

We don't do coupons like the Americans, not many Americans do it as brilliantly as she does! American food is so much more expensive than ours and if I lived there, I might succumb to some processed food if I had lots of kids to feed. I can shop for two of us for £15ish a week anyway and that's three home cooked meals a day. I make everything which is cheap anyway, grow a bit and buy bargains when I have to....not given in to the packets yet though!

[Green Aura]

I must (very quietly) admit that I'd love to buy that much stuff for 1p, even if it was all garbage and went straight in the bin, just to get one over on T£sc0.

[Shirleymouse]

Did you see her store cupboard??? In the event of the 4 minute warning I'm going round to her house!!
To think that this morning I was proud of myself for remembering 2 vouchers - one got me £1 off my shopping and the other saved me £1.50 off my petrol - hardly a massive saving. I always buy things that won't go off and that I'm not fussy about (e.g. shower gel, toothpaste, loo roll) if they are 3 for 2 and last year we used all our Nectar points for xmas shopping - we got about 70 pounds worth of food and drink and gifts for free although that was with about 4 years worth of Nectar points, I don't think it'll be quite as good this year. MoneySavingExpert is brilliant - well worth signing up to their email. It's also worth filling in customer surveys in pubs and restaurants as they send or email vouchers too - I once went to a really nice Thai restaurant when the Times were doing their "eat out for £5" offer. I filled in a customer survey which then won the monthly prize draw and I won a voucher for £20 to spend at the same restaurant so I ate there twice in one month for 5 quid! Happy saving!

[Keaniebean]

Did you see her store cupboard???

It did have the feeling that she was doing it for the sheer bloody mindedness rather than the actual need for food.

[123sologne]

Another thing you can do to get money off food is to do surveys with the various companies which organise them; you have to go for the ones where you get points. Most of them have a scheme where you exchange your points against vouchers. I have used a few £10 vouchers at Sainsbury and then you can buy whatever you prefer... It is not a top saving thing but if you get a couple of vouchers a year, it is still nice. And I must admit, I like doing surveys... Sad person that that I am...

[oldjerry]

Am I missing something here? Just because she's getting the sustainance,I won't call it food, for nothing doesn't mean it's any good.Don't you grow your own food because it means you know what you and your kids are eating? You may win a small skirmish with the supermarkets,but they won the war years ago.

[red]

It felt like a plan to get me to by their crap by stealth, a little here a little there until you're on the full processed diet, only obtainable from them.

Adds a whole new perspective on junk pushers

I'm sure this is how it works.. i used to use a loyalty card too, when i used to go to big supermarkets, and the vouchers were always for things we did not buy. there is no advantage to them to give us money off on the products and brands we do buy, they were trying to entice us to other products

coupons you do see are usually for some junk food i would not buy anyway - and you have to wonder how much she is buying that no one actually wants.. like that candle for example.

[Cligereen]

I agree that what that lady 'bought' didn't look too wholesome to me. I am a Tour Director in my spare time, taking groups of American High School students and adults on tours of the UK and Ireland. We always make sure that the meals in the restaurants are good, wholesome and high quality. It is horrifying how many of them either won't eat what's on the menu, or worse still have never actually seen whole food before. They usually end up picking at the meal and then buying cr*p to feast on afterwards.

One really lovely family loved learning about 'our food' and did try most things. They promised to send me a food hamper of their everyday foods when they got home. The parcel duly arrived and apart from some dried beans (which were very useful) most of the other stuff was packets of various chemicals disguised as food. I realise they couldn't have sent a parcel of fresh food from the USA, but I think all of those packets can't be good for a body! You never see coupons for dried beans/pulses/flour etc. Probably because they have little added value to the supermarkets. Processed means profit. Having said that T£kso's does send us coupons for 'extra points' on fresh fruit and veg most times.