After a crazy week of packing and moving, we’re finally in our new home (more details to come soon). Our new home is within walking distance of a local farmer’s market, so I went over this morning and found some great bargains on local organic produce. Total spent on everything in the photo: $15

The most amazing find was the apples. One guy sold me a huge basket filled with golden delicious apples for $3! I also got 5 more pounds of apples from another lady for $5. I’ll be peeling, cutting and freezing these for recipes later. I plan on making a lot of oatmeal-apple pudding during the cold months.

So that was my amazing find for this week, what did you get? Share in the comment section or leave a linky. No spamming please.

I blog about a lot of different things, and a lot of random deals.  I don’t do every deal I post (gasp).  If I did, I’d be broke!  Seriously, there are just way too many deals out there (that’s why I always recommend that everything be done in moderation).

But when I talk about the necessity of eating fruits and veggies, I’m not just saying it to have something to say.  I’m very passionate about this!  Having a healthy diet means better overall health.

Here’s what came in our $15 Farmer’s Market Basket this week:

• Organic Blueberries
• Organic Bananas
• Strawberries
• Zuccini
• Onions
• Potatoes
• Tomatoes
• Honeydew
• Corn
• Fuji Apples (yum!)
• Green Beans
• Lettuce

Not a bad deal for $15!  While it’s not all organic, I’m of the mindset that it’s better to have something rather than nothing at all, and to make do with whatcha got.  Find a co-op or local farm near you at LocalHarvest.org.

Today’s Featured Shopper is Lorrie from Natural on a Budget!  Here’s what Lori got for only $.99!!

I went to a local health food store and found Organic Valley Milk marked down to $.99 each and OV juice for $1.99.

5 milk for $.99 each
1 OJ for $1.99
-3 $2/2 Organic Valley coupons
Total $.99

I got 6 Steaz teas for FREE
I found peelies for buy 2 Terra chips get 3 Steaz tea FREE
I bought 4 bags of chips for $1.99
-4 $1/1 chips = $.99 each

So I was able to get 6 FREE teas!

Great shopping Lorrie!

Would you like to be a featured shopper? Send me an email with a photo, and you might just find your deals featured on this website!

Kim from Get Green Be Well found the following deal at Target:

Seventh Generation Disinfectant Sprays are $2.99 at Target. I used this rebate along with three seventh generation coupons – available on their site and in the paper every now and then, to get three all natural disinfecting sprays for .33 each!

Featured Shopper Lisa scored all of the following 28 Jars of Earth’s Best Baby Food for a total of $3.

Here’s how:

Hey, Crystal! I came across an awesome deal today, of course it is hit or miss! Earth’s Best Organic babyfood on clearance for 25 cents a jar at Kroger. Use the $1/7 from their website to score them for 10 cents a jar! That’s as cheap as making it since I’ll NEVER make Spinach and Carrot Chowder or Peach Apricot Muslei! I can send you a pic of the 28 jars I scored for $3!

That’s an awesome find! Let us know if you find this deal at your Kroger store!

Want to be a featured shopper? Send me an email with a photo, and you might just find your deals posted here!

This week’s shopping was done at a local outlet, and I also got in my order from Medco along with Coconut Oil from Amazon.

See more details on these deals here, here and here.

This week’s shopping was done at the local produce stand as well as at a local grocery store outlet.  Everything to the left of the produce that is in the center was .50 cents each.  This included Annie’s Cereal, Barbara’s Bakery Cereal, Spectrum Vegan and Eggless Mayo, Organic Cookies, Garden of Eatin Chips, Biscotti and some Juice.

Besides the watermelon, everything to the right of the produce was either .99 cents or $1.50. Only the Cascadian Farm cereal was $1.50, and the rest was .99 including Coombs Organic Maple Syrup!! Yeah, that was an exciting find to be sure! The organic popcorn was also a screaming deal at .99 cent per package. I also got two bags of Ball canning salt for .99 cents. My beautiful Mother (kiss, kiss), found me a Sears Pressure Canner for $15 at a thrift store this past weekend (pics to come), so I am thrilled that I will actually be attempting some canning this year.

The middle produce was $13 from a Farmer’s Market, and the Watermelon was $6 (ouch). Total cost of everything from the Outlet Store was $26.90.

Last week we traded our two baby chickens (you hadn’t seen pictures of them yet) to a local man for 3 dozen eggs. The chicks were about a month old, but we didn’t have room for them after getting the four laying hens. I also ordered organic beans online and bought organic coffee at Cost Plus World Market (our absolute favorite coffee!!) about two weeks ago:

After that and also picking up milk from the local farm, we are set on groceries! Especially since I still have plenty of oats, flour and frozen meat. Now to plan our menu for the week!

More and more I’m moving away from regular couponing (I’m sure you have noticed) and am trying to focus my efforts on local and bulk food shopping.  This isn’t to say I’m not still keeping my coupons and won’t be doing some coupon shopping in the near future.  I will definitely be doing that, and highly recommend it for saving money.

But I’m being adventurous in my buying habits so that I can not only buy healthy foods for my family, but so that you all can see these experiments and hopefully benefit yourself with what I discover.  This week’s shopping was done at a local farm and a local farmer’s market stand.

Total Spent: $30.60

If you are wondering what we are eating as far as meals, remember that I recently bought a whole bunch of things in bulk, and you can look through past shopping trips here.  Though buying in bulk was a lot more money up front, it’s allowing me to spend less time out shopping.  I can focus my efforts on milk, eggs and produce. Nice, right?

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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

This week I only picked up two deals on Amazon.  They were both great bargains with Subscribe & Save:

Bob’s Red Mill Organic 7 Grain Pancake & Waffle, Whole Grain Mix, 26-Ounce Bags (Pack of 4) $11.41 with Subscribe& Save

Navitas Naturals Organic Goji Berries Himalayan Superfruit, 16-Ounce Pouch $11.62 with Subscribe & Save

We have been using Goji Berries a lot for added protein and health benefits. These are great to add to oatmeal, cereal or to just pop in your mouth as a snack.

I normally like to make my own pancake mix from scratch with flour, but this Amazon deal tempted me too much, and it will be nice to have ready-made pancake and waffle mix when I am in a time-crunch.

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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

This week I received an online order from Alice.com and Amazon.com.  My total was $3.16!  See more details on this shopping trip here.   This week we also picked up cheese, eggs and milk from a local farmer. That wasn’t cheap, but still a better price than buying organic from the grocery store. Total cost for that was $32 for eggs, milk and cheese (stocked up a little).  I’ve made room in our budget and cut out a lot of things (as you have seen by our recent shopping trips) so we could buy local organic.  We thoroughly enjoyed petting all of the animals and hanging out at the farm!

See more photos on my Flickr Page here.

The only other spending was done by my husband this week, and he went to the store to get .88 cents Organic whipping cream at Kroger for making homemade ice cream.  More to come in the homemade ice cream department.

So what did you get this week?

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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

Total Cost: $3.16

I received two packages of groceries today.  The first package (which was thrown at our door), was Zoe Extra Virgin Olive Oil that I ordered from Amazon on Saturday.  I did this Amazon deal here, and used my Swagbucks to make the order of olive oil absolutely FREE!

The other items in the photo came with an Alice.com order.  I received a $20 gift card at an event I went to back in February, and the entire order ended up being $3.16.  What I got:

• Pacific Saving Company All Natural Shaving Cream
• Jolly Time Organic Yellow Popcorn
• 20 Mule Team Natural Laundry Booster, Borax
• EconoGreen Plastics Kitchen Garbage Bags, 13 gallon
• Ziploc Sandwich Bags (Green)

Alice.com is becoming very competitive with grocery store prices, and they offer coupons that are similar to what is currently available.  They also offer free shipping with every order, and a free $10 credit once you spend $50.  Wishing you had an Alice.com gift card?  Alice is going to be featured during my Giveaway Extravaganza on Thursday, and you all can look forward to a chance at winning some gift cards for yourself!

Have you used Alice.com before?  How do you think their prices compare to other stores that you shop at?

It doesn’t look like a lot, but this is a great shopping trip for Mr. TTM.  This time instead of me just laying out all the coupon deals, he actually helped me and added in his own thoughts on what to get.  He found $1.50 coupons for the chicken (hormone-free, anti-biotic-free, etc) in my coupon folder that were about to expire, so he stocked us up on fairly inexpensive chemical-free chicken.  He bought the smallest packages to make the most of those $1.50 coupons.

He also got the Cascadian Farm Vegetables for .33 cents each, Snyder’s Pretzels for .50 cents, discounted Organic Milk, and used a .50 cent coupon on the eggs that doubled at Publix.  The organic coffee was something I got with some purchases at Cost Plus World Market.  I used a total purchase coupon on that deal.

Total Spent: $30.02 (most of that being the meat)

And over on the right of the photo you can see some of my organic produce that I got from a local co-op.

Now it’s your turn to share!

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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

Today’s find was a case of Clearly Natural Glycerine Soap bars for $8.50 plus tax.  I paid a total of $9.01 for 24 bars of this soap, or .37 cents per bar!  These sell for $1.89 each plus shipping online.  Check out the info on these bars:

• High glycerine content
• Non drying; will not leave skin dry or itchy
• Rinses off easily; leaves no sticky film on your skin or your tub
• All-vegetable formula (no pore-clogging animal ingredients)
• No Artificial Ingredients
• No Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)
• No Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)
• Hypo-Allergenic
• Cruelty-Free
• Biodegradable— from making it to using it, these glycerine soap bars don’t harm the environment

It just goes to show that you should always keep your eyes peeled for green and natural deals, because they can even be found at thrift stores!

This week I purchased nine containers of strawberries, since they were only .99 each at Aldi this past week. You can see some pictures of me preparing and freezing them here. Since things are slow around here in the grocery shopping category, be sure to share with everyone your deals!

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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

I’m on the hunt for bargains this year with garage sale and thrift store shopping.  I thought I’d make myself a list so I can stay focused and not overspend.  Even with bargains and incredible prices, it’s possible to overdo it.  Here’s what I’m looking for this year:

• Waffle Maker
• Glass Containers for food storage and canning purposes
• Blend Tec or Vitamix (I’m dreaming here right?)
• Pots for plants and gardening (I think cool pots are my own little obsession)
• Summer and Winter Clothing for the family
• Outdoor storage building for lawnmower and gardening supplies
• Great bargains for reader giveaways and Christmas gifts.
• And a washer and dryer if I can swing it, because ours are on their last legs.

What’s on your list this year?

Continuing on with my experiment of buying in bulk, this week I made an order on Amazon.  I bought the following:

• Chia Seeds 5 Pounds (Chemical Free)
• Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, 15-Ounce Unit (Pack of 2)

Amazon gave me personalized daily deals on these items (I always check the daily deals), so I bought them. I used gift cards that I earned with Swagbucks, so the entire order was FREE!
Chia seeds are great for their Omega-3′s and Fiber, and has some incredible nutritional value and health benefits. Search it on Swagbucks to find out some great information the benefits of Chia Seeds. The coconut oil is something I love cooking with, and use it for almost everything. See some of the benefits of Coconut Oil here.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone, and be sure to share your deals and steals you got this week!
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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I’m experimenting with bulk organic food purchases, to see how I can manage financially. This week my cost was under $70 for 6 gallons of organic rolled oats, 7 lbs of Organic Popcorn and 5 lbs of Sucanat (natural sugar).  This was all I purchased this week in the way of groceries, and I didn’t do any shopping last week.  So this still puts me under my normal grocery budget.

While I usually get oatmeal (non-organic) free or really cheap with coupons, I felt that this was a good deal for organic bulk and am excited to see how long 6 gallons will last our family.  Stepping into the organic bulk purchasing realm is difficult when done all at once.  So, I am taking small steps each week, and these items are going to last me a while.  I’m trying very hard to see if I can stay under my normal budget of $40-$45 a week in grocery bills, and so far I’m managing pretty well.

Since I have a stockpile of coupon deals, I don’t need to buy a whole bunch of bulk all at once, and I can slowly add different things every week.  Seeing me buy like this is probably shocking some of you, but I’m hoping that this experiment is going to help you see a different way that you can purchase organic deals.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a die-hard couponer.  That is something that will  never change.  However, since I am also a natural mama that likes using raw ingredients and making food from scratch, this is something that still works for our family as long as I can keep within our budget.

See my previous bulk organic purchases here and here.  What should I go for next in the way of bulk purchase?  Share your thoughts.

By the way, these items were bought from Bread Beckers, and they have local co-ops throughout the U.S.  I’ll be doing a follow-up post on this company later.
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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

Besides the free samples that have actually started coming pretty frequently with my paper, yesterday I received a $10 off $20 purchase coupon for Kohl’s with my Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper.  I mentioned this coupon yesterday on my Facebook Page.  Unfortunately there is no online code for it, and it apparently only went out in a few states (CO, FL, GA, NC and TN).  I also received a 20% off coupon from Kohl’s in my snail mail.  I asked the cashier if they allowed me to use both coupons in a transaction, and she said yes!

So I bought two Twin Sheet Sets @ $9.99 ea.
Used the 20% off coupon (made sure she did this one first)
Used the $10 off $20 coupon
Total : $7.40 out the door for two sets of sheets!

Now the kids have nice summer sheets for their beds, and Mama is convinced, yet again,  that a newspaper subscription is worth having.

In the past week I have discovered a blog that has just captivated me.  It’s GreenAndCrunchy.org, and Sheri does an all Vegan and Organic diet for her entire family.  She makes incredible smoothies, and has awesome raw meals (even for her young kids).  She buys all of her food in bulk, so that she saves money on her food.  So this week I experimented with just buying a few items in bulk from Amazon.  I used Subscribe and Save on these items, so that I received a 15% discount.  What’s pictured:

Raw Organic Agave Sweetener
Nutiva Hemp Protein Powder
Nutiva Organic Goji Berries
Cacao Powder
Cacao Nibs
Organic Dates:  Work as a natural sweetener when you remove the pits.

It was just a few items, so the cost wasn’t too bad (especially considering I save so much regularly with coupons), but these will last me a while.  I’m going to experiment with different smoothie concoctions, and see how our energy levels change as well.  I’ll report back with you all and share some of the smoothies we make.

I absolutely love smoothies, but don’t normally purchase them anywhere because they are so expensive.  I usually make banana, carrot and apple smoothies at home, but will be branching out in the coming weeks on the types of smoothies I make.  Stay tuned!

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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!

Earlier this week I shopped at Target and spent $42.13 and saved $192.38.  You can see that shopping trip here.  I went back to Target yesterday to get more Ovaltine (used $1/1 printable HERE), Honest Kids Organic Drinks (used .75/1 printable HERE), and a 17 lb. bag of Kibbles and Bits dog food that I paid $5.99 for after coupons (used $2 coupon from the 2/21 RP insert and $2 Target coupon from a 2/28 paper flier).  See the Target deals for the week here.

And pictured above you see my 25 pounds of organic wheat that I purchased from The Granary Store.  Cost for 25 pounds was $25 or $1 per pound of organic wheat.  Total was $25.50 after tax.

I will use my Wheat Grinder and grind my own flour out of this.  Buying wheat in bulk like this and grinding it myself saves me a lot of money, and allows me to purchase organic wheat.  Our flour is fresher too, because I only grind what I need and freeze any flour that is leftover so that it doesn’t go rancid.

Do you grind your own wheat?  What kind of wheat grinder do you use?

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Are you a superstar when it comes to shopping? I can’t wait to see the deals you snagged! Please link directly to your posts and not the main page of your website. Don’t have a blog? That’s okay. Tell us how you did in the comment section.So that we stay encouraging and inspiring for others, this post is meant for deals that you personally were able to get. Posts that are mainly promoting affiliate links or spamming will be deleted. Thanks! No Giveaways please!