Would you actually use more than a half-pound of cheese in that dish, though? The cheese sauce recipes I’ve used usually call for 1/4 cup (1oz by weight) of grated cheese per cup of sauce. Using that whole block of cheese would make half a gallon of sauce, which seems rather excessive for a single pound of macaroni.
I’d think you’d be more likely to use 2 cups of sauce for that amount. For that you’d need 3 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp flour, 2 cups of milk, and 1/2 cup cheese. At your online grocery, that would be about 70 cents of butter, maybe a dime’s worth of flour, 75 cents of milk, and $1.10 in cheese. So you’d actually have $4.40 in your 8 servings of mac and cheese. $4.40 versus $7.28= over 40% cheaper.
I think most of the issue here is that it’s not actually possible to replicate the quality of shelf-stable processed foods. If your local grocery store carried cheese powder, I’m sure you could buy it for less than $8.75/lb. But it doesn’t, so you’re forced to use actual cheese, which is of course better, but is also more expensive compared to the product made with cheese powder.
Of course, you’re right that actual fresh fruits and vegetables are more expensive, because they’re more expensive to transport.
Not directed specifically at Tom Tildrum, just addressing this particular point:
When I referred to processed foods, I was speaking mostly of what I believe the marketers call convenience foods, your Whatever-A-Roni’s, bottled spaghetti sauce, name-brand cereal, and so forth. I don’t have any bias against couponers, extreme or otherwise (especially since I do my grocery shopping at 2 a.m. and don’t have to stand behind them in line), and I don’t judge their character based on the foods they buy. My only point was that the extreme couponers I’ve seen always seem to have warehoused these products to ridiculous degrees. I live on a diet of Jell-O and popcorn, so I really don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to nutrition debates.
That said, it would be cool to see more coupons for fresh foods, though, maybe put out by some of the produce companies, because a limited budget shouldn’t mean you miss out on fresh fruit or a good salad.
Well, there’s that, and there’s economies of scale. Processed and/or pre-prepared packaged foods may be cheaper because you get just enough of everything in proportion, with nothing left over.
For example, I could probably buy a frozen supreme pizza for a lot cheaper than I could make my own from fresh ingredients, because I can’t just buy one pizza’s worth of fresh mushrooms, one pizza’s worth of green peppers, one pizza’s worth of sausage, etc.
I think that its important to understand that extreme couponers are a minority. They are an interesting minority, but a minority. Most people use coupons in a much more average fashion…which isn’t to say that they don’t buy what they don’t need, or that they don’t buy a lot of processed foods (most Americans do that with or without coupons), but that they aren’t stockpiling 64 jars of Ragu and 97 boxes of Cocoa Puffs that they got for almost free.
That’s true. And that’s why it makes sense to eat out or buy processed meals if you’re only going to be somewhere briefly.
But it’s not like green peppers, mushroom, and sausages are inedible when not combined in pizza form. None of that stuff has to go to waste if you have extras.
True. They’re kind of like people who harvest fish and seafood–grossly over-represented on television.
As I said somewhere upthread, I do use some coupons, usually for items where I always buy that brand of that item. The coupons I see now almost always expire so quickly that they aren’t very useful to me unless I buy that item every time I go to the grocery store, and that pretty much limits it to pet food and store coupons for meat and so forth.
I coupon much like Claire Beauchamp - I don’t spend much time on it and I only clip coupons for products that I will buy. I’m brand conscious on some things but not others, so sometimes that’s a savings and sometimes it isn’t. I do try to watch the store circulars and combine the items they have on sale with a coupon I have for it, but it doesn’t always work. But just being more aware of sale items and when to buy vs. when to wait does save money.
It’s worth stating that extreme couponing just really isn’t possible in some places. Here in Minneapolis, there’s only a couple of stores that I know of that double coupons, and then only up to $1, and then only on specific days for a specific quantity of coupons. And it’s most store policies around here to never refund money - you can take the total down to 0.00 using coupons (maybe; I’ve never done it), but you won’t get money back.
I coupon. In Canada, coupons can be hard to come by and good coupons even more so.
I collect coupons for anything I would concievably buy before the expiry date. When and if I need that items (say, toilet bowl cleaner), I pull out all my toilet bowl cleaner coupons and take them with me when I go shopping. If there is a brand that is cheaper than what I can get for my coupon, I buy it. If I can get it cheaper with a coupon, I use it.
I only save about 10 dollars a week at this but I spend about 20 minutes a week to organize them. Worth it for me.
I save far, far more by shopping sales. Stock up on the shelf stable items, work the fresh items into the menu for the week.
I can understand a few arguments against coupons. Like if you just don’t want to take the time to clip and organize them or if you really don’t eat ANY packaged foods. Couponing probably isn’t for you.
But I simply don’t understand the reasoning behind someone being anti-coupon because it’s an advertising ploy or because there are coupons for “bad” stuff out there.
Who CARES if it’s an advertising ploy? If I can take the coupon, stack it with a store coupon and use them together when the item is on sale and get it for free or almost free…well then…what’s the harm?
I don’t go crazy. I don’t buy things I’ll never use. I DO save 50-75% on my grocery bill every week. I DO save money on fresh meat and produce through store promotions and coupons. During tough times I’ve been able to keep food on the table and it’s because I was able to get certain things for free, like boxes of pasta. I was able to get toiletries like toothpaste and shampoo for free. That gives me extra money to buy a bunch of bananas or a couple of pounds of beef.
You do have to be willing to try new things sometimes. I had coupons for a brand of pickles I don’t normally eat. I was pretty brand loyal before that. But I tried them because they were such a good value. It turns out, they’re great! If they hadn’t been, no good deal would have been enough to get me to buy them again.
So I really don’t think that someone who’s serious about coupons but isn’t “extreme” is much different than any other shopper. We DO buy things we need, even if there’s no coupon. But we recognize the potential to save a ton of money, and we don’t waste it.
I save so much money every week, and I am always astonished that so many other people can’t be bothered, yet in the same breath will announce that it is unrealistic for people to have a year or two’s worth of living expenses in the bank and that living paycheck to paycheck is normal because modern life costs so much. :rolleyes:
I also think that the people who complain that there aren’t any coupons for things like fresh fruits and veggies just don’t know where to find them.