Today’s Topic Tuesday…..our topic: How do you get healthy food with coupons versus junk food? Is it true that couponers only get junk food with coupons?!
I can’t wait to see others tips and responses to this topic. I know this has been asked by many and a lot of new coupon users may believe that you are bound to junk food if using coupons…..While you can get a lot of free junk food and candy with coupons, there are many ways to save on healthy products as well.
I know of some people who mostly use coupons for personal care items only. As most of you know, you can get a ton of freebies and low price personal items with coupons. You can then consider taking the money you saved on shavers, toothpaste, deodorant, etc and use it for healthier products. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of ways to save on healthy food but you may not get exactly the same product you’re use to.
My biggest tip out there (and I’ve mentioned this before) is to STOCK up on healthy items when there is a coupon or a good deal for them. I have seen coupons for items like fresh strawberries, Driscoll’s berries, fruit, meat, nuts, organic crackers, teas, 100% whole juice and more. I will admit, they do not come out as often as we’d like so that is why I recommend stocking up on them when there is a coupon and then freezing them or storing them.
A unique tip I learned from one of my readers (sorry, not sure of your name) is to freeze your eggs! Yup, I said freeze your eggs….interesting huh? She recommends cracking them all, beating them and pouring them into an ice tray. One cube is equal to about 1 egg!
One more tip…..DARK chocolate is good for you!! 
Right now Driscoll’s is giving a coupon for $0.50 off berries! Just GO HERE and sign up for their e-mail newsletter.
*The coupon link will be in your welcome e-mail.
What are your tips on getting healthy items with coupons?!
How do you use the egg then? Say I wanted to make a batch of cookies? Do I thaw it in the fridge or just toss it in?
My problem with stocking up on produce is that it goes bad before we have a chance to use it. Say lettuce. How do you stockpile lettuce?
Lettuce is an easy vegetable to grow in the winter time and grows very well.
I’m pretty new to couponing, but I don’t think junk food coupons are overwhelming. I focus on getting things to cook with like spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper, frozen vegetables along with things like cereal, fruit snacks, crackers, etc. It’s a lot of the same stuff I would buy anyway for my family. And if you’re opposed to eating anything processed from time to time you can at least use coupons for household items and health and beauty products and still save a lot of money.
I see coupons all the time for organic foods and when you combine it with the right sale, you can eat really well for a fraction of the cost.
Also, keep an eye out for sales that allow you something free if you purchase something else. For instance, Hilander (our version of Kroger) recently had Jimmy Dean sausage for $3.99 but there were coupons to go with it so it made it cheaper. Add to that, they were giving away free eggs with a sausage purchase.
Hi….I just wantd to say I am new to couponing…and I just love your facebook page.
Hi Lydia, Thank you so much! You will love using coupons…
If you can get some free or really cheap lettuce make a meal a day out of it put it on everything you’ll be getting a free meal for how ever long the deal lasts.
That’s a savings right there then you’ll be all lettuce-ed out when you have no more free or really cheap lettuce and maybe saved enough to go grocery shopping lol.
I think this is an issue of eating habits and choice. Yes I have seen the cart on TV that shows a bunch of junk. Does the possibly obese person need to stock pile chips, soda, and candy…. NO. I am not particularly as thin as I use to be (an extra 20 still hanging around from my last baby), but I try not to keep excess of junk food to eliminate the bad choice I would make. There are lots of coupons that can be found for healthy food. I see smart balance coupons constantly and fruit coupons appear on cereal randomly. There is also the chicken coupons I find in my military papers. It is looking for those coupons and identifying the items you need vs those you don’t.
I don’t seem to save as much money w/ coupons as people I know do. I also notice that they get a lot of coupons for candy bars, soda and a lot of things I don’t buy. I won’t clip coupons for things I don’t need to. I don’t see the healthy coupons often either. Plus I’m not real good at knowing exactly when everything goes on sale, except by looking at the circulars. I have been trying to write down prices of everything I buy though. Hope I get better with time. It has been nice even seeing the small change that couponing has had to our grocery/household bill. Thanks for your tips.
Try blog sites such as True couponing and other sites that will take the sale paper and match up coupons that equal the best deal!
My daughter is on a very tight grocery budget and is finishing her degree as a dietician. She and her husband try to eat very healthy. What are the other blog sites that she can try for our area to match up coupons for the best deal?
If you are not finding the matchups you need on this site, try googling your grocery store and “matchups”, for me it would be “Frys grocery matchups” (or grocery coupon matchups) and this will bring up at least someplace to start. The grocery matchups are frequently done by local bloggers so its tough to say specifics on a national site.
Hey There! For my family, we live in a place where I can drive 15 min and go to an Organic locally owned produce stand. The prices are much cheaper and you know you not only are supporting local farmers but there won’t be any additives or gross fertilizers! We stock up on fruits and veggies almost weekly because we are vegetarians as well. I have noticed when Ricotta cheese or Soy Milk go on sale I stock up as much as I can. Also pasta and sauce that us couponers see for free often, can make healthy meals! You just have to use you’re best judgement when couponing, and make sure that if you have 5 bags of chips stocked away for whenever, you don’t go buy more just to use the coupon, because you’ll be tempted to eat more of the junky stuff. Thanks again for your blog! Keep it up!<3
I have only been couponing for a couple months. However, I have found that because I save so much money on things my family uses all the time we are actually eating healthier. We are able to purchase more fruits and veggies because we don’t have to pay as much for the other stuff!!! Thank you for all that you do!!
I just bought Fiber-One English muffins and bread with coupons, that’s healthy! I also stock up on Perdue coupons and get boneless chicken breasts for next to nothing. There are plenty of coupons for frozen veggies (just as healthy as the fresh ones). There are always coupons for eggs, yogurt, smart balance products, juice and cheese- all healthy foods! I am stocked up on whole wheat Chex, which I got for free with my coupons. I just got free Italian ice, which is healthier than ice cream. But the best way to get fresh produce is to take advantage of the catalina deals. I get a lot of coupons for a product that is giving away a catalina. I now have 25 Reach toothbrushes that I paid .19 each for, but for every 4 I got, I got a $4 catalina that I used to buy fresh produce and meat. Many coupons are for junk food, but there are also plenty of coupons for healthy foods, too.
Lauren–great idea. I just did this for the first time the other day when I got a Catalina for Viva Paper towels at Albertsons and I needed bread.
I am not so new to couponing as my grandmother is one of the origional couponers lol. but i am not sure how to start out to do it on my own. My family is about to be on our own and i want to save as much money as we can so that we can have nice things and i know i only shop when things are on sale and i know to check prices and i can price match at walmart. but i dont know how to start collection coupons, how to store them, how many papers to buy. things like that
any help?
Thanks Megan
Most of that stuff comes trial and error with experience as you clip and shop week to week. My biggest tip and the one I share all the time is make sure you have a grocery budget in place, and stick to it. period. When I first started couponing I spent quite a bit more because I couldn’t pass up a deal. If you have $100 do the very best that you can with that $100, but don’t go over. Plan meals around what is on sale to strech your budget. Buy what you need for those meals and use what’s left to stock up on the items you will need in the next 4-6 weeks. Another mistake I made early on was to overestimate what I would use. Only buy what you can use/freeze before it goes bad. So you can get dressing for 50 cents each – are you really gonna go through 25 bottles before it expires? Also don’t buy 10 of something you don’t know that your family will eat using “but it’s such a good deal” as an excuse – it’s only a good deal if you aren’t throwing it away 6 months from now. Use that $ somewhere else. Good luck!!
email or call companies to get coupons that your not finding for the items you want, like driscoll for berries, dole for bagged salads, fruit cups, etc.. just because the coupons arent in the papers doesnt mean they dont exist
I like your tip Elleen!
so true!
Exactly Eileen! Usually, I will just an email a company and ask if they have any coupons and where can I find them. I have been sent numerous coupons in the mail for organic foods and natural products. You never know unless you ask, politely of course!
I agree since we have been couponing we are eating at home more often and that in itself has caused us to eat healthier. Watch for your coupons on frozen and canned veggies and stock up. I dont/wont buy a bunch of junk food, if its here i will eat it. Ive also noticed fresh veggie stands are much better than the box stores, sure you cant use a coupon but you don’t need one as they are almost always cheaper and the produce is always better.
Why buy produce at all at the grocery store, make your own in a garden. Takes some time, but it’s worth it and tastes so much better! Have you ever had a home grown tomato? Try it and then try going back to the store for theirs. You will not want to buy them at the store anymore.
Such a great tip I didn’t even think about!
we hope to have a garden one day, but currently rent a home and they are quite strict on what we can and can not do to the land.
I have a friend that lives in a rental and she does container gardening. She grows her own tomatoes, peppers, onions and carrots in large pots on her patio. She also has an herb garden in a very small space. Nothing beats fresh home grown.
We actually own our home but I’ve found it’s easier for me to keep up with a container garden. We planted all varieties of peppers and about 9 tomato plants as well as cucumbers, herbs, strawberries, and blueberries. The price of the plants is so small in comparison to what we used to pay for fresh produce that it was well worth it. We just work with what is ready any given day!
I can’t get the hang of couponing. I’m really interested in learning but i need a couponing for dumbies training. I did get 11 boxes for bandaids for free at walmart but thats it on the coupon happiness. HELP ME!!
I haven’t been couponing much lately because we just bought a house and moving in and getting things fixed up around the house has taken a lot of time, but because I did coupon before the move we had a lot of food storage to make the lack of time to go grocery shopping easier. We had lots of pasta and pasta sauce on hand and lots of frozen veggies. We also like to use Bountiful Baskets (bountifulbaskets.org) for fresh produce they are really inexpensive and gives our family opportunity to try healthy foods we wouldn’t have otherwise tried.
I also try to use coupons to stock up on good deals on household items, that way I’m never running to the store at the last minute for laundry soap or toilet paper or something like that. Paying full price for those things seems silly now that I’ve been using coupons.
Plenty healthy coupons out there to use and yes, I heard that before to freeze eggs, same as milk as long as it is in a carton..And if you have a good deal on any berries, do not wash them, put them on a cookie sheet, place in freezer in single layers till frozen and simply bag them up and wash them once thawed for usage…
I myself do not buy any veggies other then broccoli and cabbage, we have a garden and I can or freeze all but if a store has a great deal on lets say corn, simply freeze those in the husk, just throw in your freezer and use as needed..I agree with eileen, contact the companies you like to get a coupon from, I have, and almost always received a few.But just think about the starkist promotion they had awhile back, you could print 2 coupons every friday, I did and got the tuna in the pouch for almost nothing at walmart and made me a stockpile while it lasted.
I find coupons for salads, fresh fruit, healthy dressings, and more, and produce does go on sale.
Going back to Jenny’s comment about the garden, It is such a great idea and in the end a great investment because of what you can get out of it. I mean the first time you plant the garden you will have to wait for your produce to start growing, but once you harvest it you can CAN it and start your own stockpile of your own fruits and vegetables
Ex: peach jam, salsa, canned tomatoes, pickles and those are just a few!
If anyone has the land availability to do this you should! You will be rewarded in the end!
Was just sitting here and glancing through my coupons for my saturday shopping trip. I had some for chicken breast,Zone perfect nutrition bar,Pineapples,weight watchers yogurt, whole grain bagels and breads,low fat cottage cheese, smart balance milk and butter, cheerios and my ever loving dove dark chocolate so far, so yes, there are coupons out there for healthier eating and I still have a few days left to collect more lol
I think it more has to do with what you are looking for..I may not get fresh veggies…but frozen are a good alternative and steamfresh always has coupons (and we stock up when I find them). English muffins, bread can all be put in the freezer (so stock up when they are on sale). Yogurt is healthy and there are always coupons for that (and you can put that in the freezer and the kids will think its ice cream..and Im not talking about the kid yogurt, Im talking about yoplait, my son doesn’t eat the dora/trix those types..we bought 20 of them for about $8 the other day and I didn’t think that was too bad at all. Im still new to major couponing and generally get great savings on non-food items, but I know as I get better I will be able to save even more (with the right coupons, store and sale you can save quite a bit). I did my first major grocery shopping with coupons the other day and saved almost 50% and considered that a success.
I started couponing so I could afford to feed my family a mostly organic deit and so far it has work great for me! I am saving enought money on my non food stuff to cover the cost of organic food with out exceeding my budget! You can also get some great coupons by writing or going to the websites of the brands you want. Thanks you raining hot coupons for showing me how to coupon!
This is exactly the same reason I started….I cut my costs on non food items to be able to afford an almost all organic diet for my family! And I seem to find a decent amount of organic coupons on as well as more and more companies are coming out with a few organic products…..for example ragu has organic pasta sauce and there coupons can be used on the organic varieties as well!
WE BUY WHOLE GRAIN BREADS AND CEREALS,OATMEAL,RAISINS,CANNED TOMATOES (LOW SODIUM),WHOLE WHEAT PASTA,LOWFAT CHEESE AND MILK,EGGS,PORK LOIN,CHICKEN BREAST,TURKEY,YOGURT,FROZEN VEGIES AND FRUIT,CANNED FRUIT PACKED IN FRUIT JUICE,100% JUICE,SEASONING,ORGANIC VEGIES,AND SO MUCH MORE.jUST PAY ATTENTION TO THE NUTRIENT VALUE.a LITTLE MORE THOUGHT I SUPPOSE.
I’ve been couponing for a few months and I’ve noticed there are a bunch of coupons for junk food. We’re not really junk food people (the kids wish we were). I’ve noticed that we’ve saved so much on the “down the drain” stuff that we have more in our budget to buy more fresh produce. I’m so grateful for this site Sarah!
I don’t usually buy junk food. I seem to always get some good food q’s too. Fresh Express Salad and Lean Pockets are 2 of my latest favs. Foster Farms chicken breasts, Steam Fresh veggies….. I can tell you, when the Lean Pocket q’s were available, and they were on sale at my store, I really stocked up… it was a great savings.
Just because there is a coupon for junk does not mean you have to buy junk. Remember the key to eating is portion control.
Well, it’s not a coupon but it is great savings. Sunflower Market allows their ads to overlap on Wednesdays. The wole store practically goes on sale and they always have their produce extremely cheap. Also Pro’s Ranch selects a fruit to go on sale every Thursday. Last Thursday they had cherry’s for only $0.99 a lb!
Most of my savings on fresh fruits and veggies are from price-matching at our Wal-mart. I think Wal-mart is particularly bad about putting things on sale but our little local grocery stores have great sales on produce. For meat I always stop by our small local grocery store first thing in the morning when they are marking down their meat from the previous day. I recently purchased 25 lbs of ground hamburger for .99/lb but my lasting haul was 1.99/lb…still cheaper than they are running their sales.
Thanks for the Driscols Link I buy 2 packages of these strawberries every week all year long no matter the cost. Its great that I can save a little money now.
Basic canning is not hard at all and all you need are some basic supplies (usually found on sale this time of year and there are coupons from time to time too).
I scoffed at Kroger when that sale bag of $2.97/lb cherries rang up to over $7 but now that I made 6 1/2 half pints of jam from it, I think I’ll make my money back when I don’t have to buy jam for the rest of the year.
I find that sticking to the perimeter of the grocery store, and avoiding the aisles (or middle of the store) works way better for me then using coupons. Generally stores are set up with grain products, dairy & alternatives, produce, meat & alternatives around the perimeter. It’s in the center isles where the “distractions” are, and what a lot of coupons are available for. Of course there are exception to every rule, and I do venture into the center aisles for items such as toilet paper, soap, and household cleaning products.
you can get great prices towards the end of the day at a farmers market because they would rather sell it all then have to take stuff back with them, not only is it HEALTHY foods, but you are supporting your local economy too.
Kroger and Meijer have sent me coupons on produce in the mail. I love to shop clearance items and dented cans. Also local farmers markets or veggie stands always have good deals.
I have been couponing for a while. My family does not eat a lot of “unhealthy” snacks nor do I purchase a lot of processed foods. However, I do utilize my coupons for non edible items…shampoo, deodrant, toothpaste, etc. This allows me to be able to purchase my fresh fruit/veggies and my “healthier choices”.
Depends how you define Healthy. We dont eat much packaged anything. I make dressings, marinades. We dont eat grains for the most part so no pasta, bread, rice, cereal.
I do buy canned beans and tomatoes, veggies, meats and fruit. For the most part there is 1 or 2 coupons a month that work for us for food in the traditional circular.
I used to do a lot of couponing last year and have recently just cut down due to the fact that most coupons are selling processed foods which is unhealthy. You may try to rationalize all you want but all the food products even the frozen one are processed food which is not good for the body. And here in California you rarely get things for free. So instead of spending money to buy processed food, I spend it on fresh food and veggies.
If you want to coupon reasonably and for good health, just use the health and beauty coupons.
I would hate to start the bad eating habits of my kids if they ate frozen pizza, cookies, canned food, frozen pastries and cookies, chips daily. Especially that they already give them that in school.
Coupons cone out regularly for healthy choices. Nuts, whole wheat pasta, breads, eggs, almond milk, teas, frozen veggies, cereals like chez mix and kashi, and always yogurt. Healthy is a broad definition though. All those listed are healthy for my family’s needs because we are doing just that, being healthy… Not losing weight. I love to buy organic and that’s a major dent on the wallet; I don’t pay for toiletries so the money I save there goes towards porganic produce! Also, kroger sends me a postcard of 6 coupons every few months, like 5 off 25. Recycle bank is amazing for offering 10 off 50 at Harris teeter too! Save where you can and take it for a win!