Couponing for Healthy Food 101! Great post on how to find the good deals you want on healthy foods! Lots of tips, tricks, and websites to use!

Couponing for Healthy Food 101!  Great post on how to find the good deals you want on healthy foods! Lots of tips, tricks, and websites to use!

Couponing for Healthy Food 101!

 

This is a guest post from Emily at TheUnextreme.com. Emily is a nurse and also a money-saving fanatic. Check out The Unextreme for unextreme ways to save an extreme amount of money!

It’s easy to get caught up in the thrill of saving 75% or larger on your grocery bill. However, if you are a health-conscious individual, it is extremely rare to get anywhere close to that amount of savings. In the end, ask yourself what matters the most: saving money or your health?

The best piece of advice is that you shouldn’t compare yourself to other people. You will find many people bragging about their massive savings everyday on coupon blogs. But take a look at what they purchased. More than likely, you aren’t going to want those groceries in your home- free or not.

If you want to get your healthy groceries for free, then couponing isn’t going to help you achieve that. However, you can still save a nice chunk off of your grocery bill with coupons. What you don’t save on groceries, you will save on probably not seeing the doctor as often as these prepackaged food freebie-loving extreme couponers.

Here are tips on how to save on healthy foods and household items:

1. Sign up for emails.

This is probably the best way to receive coupons from your favorite brands. Sometimes, brands will post coupons available to everyone on their website. Other brands will only send coupons to people who have subscribed to their emails. A few brands that you can start with are Bolthouse Farms, Noosa Yoghurt, Udi’s, etc.

One tip that I highly recommend for couponing is to definitely create a separate email account. Have one specifically for your hobby of couponing. I have an email that I use only for coupons, freebies, and sweepstakes. This helps so that you
don’t miss an important email in your regular account because you scrolled past it.

Aside from your favorite brands, make sure that you sign up emails to the stores that you shop at the most. They will notify you of sales, promotions, and possibly send coupons too!
2. Facebook

Facebook is extremely useful in the coupon world. Many brands post coupons on their Facebook pages. Plus, you will be notified in your feed of everything they post. Sometimes they only let so many copies of their coupon be printed so you

will need to know as soon as they post it. Make sure you “Like” them and you will start receiving their updates.

I’ve printed a lot of rare, high-value coupons from brands’ Facebook pages. I’ve also won a lot of sweepstakes from my favorite stores’ pages as well. I won a Big Green Egg smoker grill from BI-LO’s Facebook page last year! It is valued at over
$800. So make sure you “Like” your favorite store as well!

Other pages that you will want to like are couponing blogs. Now mind you, many of them will post deals about anything and everything. They focus on cheap, not healthy. However, sometimes they do post great deals on items that are healthy. They also post a lot of deals on household items, clothing, and more, which will help you have more money for fresh foods.

I actually got my first job as a coupon writer from a post on Facebook. So not only can you save money on Facebook, but you can make money too!

3. Competitor Coupons

Competitor coupons are coupons from one store that you can use at a different store, assuming they accept them. Start by checking your stores coupon policy regarding what types of coupons they accept and how many you can use per transaction.

Most stores accept store and manufacturer coupons. Some stores will accept competitor coupons as well. You can find your stores coupon policy on their website. If you have any questions regarding it, you can contact them by phone, email, or sometimes even Facebook. I have had to contact stores many times so don’t worry if you aren’t sure.

I shop at BI-LO regularly and know that they accept competitor coupons only from stores that are a certain distance from the store that I am shopping at. For instance, I can use coupons from Whole Foods because they are within BI-LO’s coupon policy.

4. Newspaper

Start buying a Sunday newspaper or two if you don’t currently do so. They are my favorite source of finding coupons simply because it’s quick and easy. I will caution you though: most of the food products are for junk food. Not all, but
most.

A lot of household cleaning supplies, personal hygiene, and beauty coupons are also in your Sunday’s newspapers. Like mentioned earlier, saving on these items

can help you save on healthy foods like fresh fruit and vegetables, organic products, etc.
5. Trade coupons.

Trading coupons helps you get rid of the coupons that you don’t use in exchange for more of the coupons that you do use.

If you are comfortable trading with people via the internet, you can find groups on Facebook or find trades on Instagram. Personally, I don’t mess with this way of acquiring coupons. I tried it once and got burned by the other person. I sent mine out and they didn’t send the ones they promised to trade with. So I don’t do this anymore. It was a waste of time and a stamp and it just wasn’t for me.

6. Coupon printing sites.

You can find a lot of coupons on sites have a database full of printable coupons. The most popular is coupons.com. You can also find coupons on
smartsource.com and redplum.com. Again, not packed full of coupons for healthy foods but you can save on other things a lot of times. Even though most of the food coupons are for junk food, I have still found a lot of great coupons for
healthy foods as well. They’re just not in abundance.

Also, you can only print 2 coupons per computer on these sites. They do this to avoid coupon abuse. It prevents someone from printing 5,000 copies of a certain coupon and trust me, someone would do it.

A great website to print healthy coupons is mambosprouts.com. They have a variety of healthy and allergy-free coupons for you to choose from. You also have the option of sharing coupons with friends via social media.

You can also find organic coupons, healthy coupons, and more at recyclebank.com. At Recyclebank, you will need to complete tasks to earn points. Your points can be cashed in for rare coupons for healthy or organic products, retail stores, restaurants, health & beauty, and more. Or you can cash your points in for gift cards, magazine subscriptions, etc.

The biggest piece of advice that I can give everyone on couponing is to not become an extreme couponer. There is a “high” that comes along with paying almost nothing at the register. However, nothing is actually free in life.

7. Apps.

Apps that you can download on your phone or tablet are also great ways to save on healthy foods. There’s no clipping, organizing, or printing. I usually browse all

of my apps before I head to the store. Then, I write down the items that I would like to purchase and see if there is a coupon to use.
They are like using coupons, only you get reimbursed after you make the purchases listed on the app. Some apps you can use a coupon in combination with and some you cannot. Here is a quick breakdown of my favorite apps:

SavingStar:
SavingStar is great because they usually have an offer or two on fresh foods to save on. They also have coupons for household items and other healthy foods too.

When you sign up for SavingStar, you will need to add your rewards card numbers to your account. Then, you add the coupons that you would like to use. (I just add them all because there is no harm done and it’s quick).

Then, after you purchased an item from that app, your cash back will electronically appear in your account. According to their FAQ page, it takes between 2-14 days for the money to appear.
SavingStar does not allow for coupons to be used in combination with savings from their app.

Ibotta:
Ibotta is a little bit different. Once you sign up, you will get to select the store that you plan on shopping at. Then, you can browse all of the current offers that Ibotta has listed for that store. If you make any of those purchases, then you can submit your receipt and scan the label for proof of purchase.

A couple things I LOVE about Ibotta: they offer bonuses and you can use coupons on top of the Ibotta savings.

For anyone that is health-conscious and refuse to feed themselves and their family junk food, shopping can become a bit pricey. Personally, I have made the change to a gluten-free lifestyle. Like many people, I had to become fed up with doctors, doctor bills, and feeling like garbage to come to the conclusion that my diet was awful and needed changed. Fortunately, I still find ways to save at the grocery store.

Aside from using coupons and apps to save money, the biggest money-saver has been shopping at my local farmers market. I used to buy all of my produce at my local grocery store for one reason: convenience.Green bell peppers are $1.00 each at my local grocery store. I can buy 3 for $1.00 at my local farmer’s market. Not only is it significantly cheaper, but most of it is organic and it benefits small businesses, including local farmers.

A lot of time is spent finding free stuff. Time that is taken away from actually making money, spending with your family, or simply relaxing, is time wasted, especially if you spend it chasing deals for items that you will never use.

Print and clip the coupons you and your family use and need. Don’t get caught up in the thrill of scoring free cat food, especially when you don’t even have a cat.

Displaying me-262x300.jpgYou can check out Emily’s website for great deals or go like her on page on Facebook! Go on over and say hi! 

1 COMMENT

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here