I watched a couple of episodes of extreme couponing and was intrigued and appalled at the same time. Intrigued to get items for cheap or free and appalled by the stuff some of them accumulate. Like buying 86 bottles of hot sauce, really? In addition some of the math may be flawed. While they may have gotten their groceries for free, they have likely spend money buying 20 or so newspapers for the coupons, 20 to 40 hours a week are spend on driving to the store to check for hidden deals and the flyers for advertised deals and matching them up with coupons. Then they spend 3 to 8 hours in the store executing their strategy, separating the items into multiple single transactions and hope the store did not change their coupon policy. Hmmm, I guess a hobby for some. Coupons are usually for highly processed foods, and there are none for fruits and veggies.
While not organic, one of my favorite grocery stores had lots of 10 cent fruits and veggies, so I got a great amount of food incl coffee for only $17. The citrus will go into my evening smoothies and will last for a couple of weeks.
I tried a new recipe and had great expectations for those cauliflower breadsticks, but it was just ok. I had my doubts getting all the moisture out of the cauliflower to make it crispy and it didn’t. Probably not something I would try again.
How to Prepare, Peel, and Cut a Butternut Squash
Tonight I tried a normal meal instead of a shake for dinner again and it does not seem to to work so well. I needed a dessert afterwards. I am going back to my protein shake tomorrow.
M1: egg and kale omelet with pineapple and 1/2 avocado
M2: Cucumber salad, red potato and onion and chicken sausage
M3: Cauliflower bread sticks with chicken sausage and tomato, Greek yogurt with strawberries, mini choc chips and sprinkles of coconut
I find the extreme couponing a bit disturbing as well. They all seem to start with 50 bottles of sugary sports drink. Perhaps free in the monetary sense, but definitely not when it comes to health!
I know its kind a crazy, even all the chemicals that they accumulate via cleaners, laundry soap, etc. And I am torn on using coupons for items I personally would not use but give to charity, like pasta or cereals.