This actually dates back to last week and it is both good and bad news. The good news is that I got free food toward my $1 Thanksgiving for 6 meal challenge, but that bad news is that had I been a little more prepared, I could have done much better.
Last week Del Monte Fruit Smoothies and Betty Crocker Fruit snacks were on sale, so I ended up buying about $600 worth of them (spending about $19 out of pocket) for local food banks. Because I don’t run stores dry when I buy these (I always leave plenty on the shelves so others can take advantage of the deals as well), I ended up going to a number of different stores. As I was getting a shopping cart at one of them, this caught my eye in the basket:
When I looked closer, I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the coupons was for $5 off anything:
The problem was that it was late in the evening when I found it and the coupon was expiring the next day (but I already had plans so I knew I wasn’t going to make it to the store). Since the only coupons I had on me were for the fruit snacks and fruit smoothies, I couldn’t make the deals better by stacking it with some manufacturer coupons. To top it all off, I hadn’t decided what I was going to try for the menu yet, so I couldn’t use it to go after some of the spices or other odd ingredients I may eventually need.
I decided to play it safe and go for stuffing ($2.00 each — which really hurts since the stuffing is available at Target this week for only $0.25 a box) and gravy ($1.00) which meant I got all three for free.
I’m pretty disappointed in myself for not getting more with the $5 coupon since had I been a little more prepared, I could have come away with a lot more. While stuffing and gravy are now taken care of, I simply have to keep my fingers crossed that I come across a lot of good deals these first couple of weeks in November so that I can pull this challenge off — or I will never hear the end of it from my sister.
That’s so great about finding the coupon in the cart! I cracked up! So stuffing and gravy are done (you could have made your own gravy with a bit of flour and the turkey drippings though, but this isn’t my Thanksgiving, it’s yours). Keep going – you’re doing great!
@Tiff
I decided that I am going to go for easy basics to start and if I can manage to do that, then expand on making my own. Since my cooking still leaves a lot to be desired, I want to have a back-up if I totally screw self made stuff up (a very likely scenario)
Wow. This is what I call a challenge. I forget where you live, but if there is a Macey’s (grocery not department) store around they give out turkey vouchers. Every time you shop you ear $0.50 to $1 same as cash toward any turkey purchase.
Good luck!
you can still exchange the items if you find a better deal along the road. 😉
I think you might need more gravy. Iirc, a pack of gravy mix makes one liquid cup or 16 tablespoons. That would be about 3 tablespoons per person, which may not be enough for your guests.
That’s amazing!