The Thriftiest Vegan

2009-08-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

I've been in contact with Whole Foods about the incident. Although its not going as smoothly as I wished, I am still going to practice my coupon rights!

Here's some match ups with the new Whole Deal!

Back to Nature Mac and Cheese (only on sale until Tuesday?) 1.00, 12 in a case
Use 1.00 coupon from Whole Deal
Use 1.00 Back to Nature coupon found here
-1.00 each, or -1.10 each if you buy a case

Back to Nature Cookies 3.69 a box, 6 in a case
Use 1.00 coupon from Whole Deal
Use 1.00 Back to Nature coupon found here
1.69 a box, or 1.32 a box if you buy a case!

Back to Nature crackers 2.99. 6 in a case
Use 1.00 coupon from Whole Deal
Use 1.00 Back to Nature coupon found here
.99 a box, or .69 cents a box if you buy a case!

Back to Nature Juice boxes 5.99 (10 pouches per box) 4 in a case
Use 1.00 coupon from Whole Deal
Use 1.00 Back to Nature coupon found here
3.99, or 3.39 a box if you buy a case

Method Dish Soap 3.99, 6 in a case
Use 1.00 coupon from Whole Deal
Use 1.00 Method coupon found here
1.99, or 1.59 each if you buy a case

Organic Valley Soy Milk half gallon 3.69, 6 in a case (mine rung up 3.00 on sale, but it wasn't marked)
Use 1.00 coupon from Whole Deal
Use 1.00 coupon found here
1.69 each or 1.32 each if you buy a case (or .70 cents each if they are still on sale and you buy a case)

Other coupon matches, but I'm unsure of the price:
Bear Naked Cereal or Granola (coupon in WD, and one here)

Now get to Whole Foods and use those coupons!

Whole Foods is NOT coupon friendly.

2009-07-31T11:39:00.001-07:00

I have found many more GREAT Whole Foods deals but will no longer be posting them until I receive an apology letter from Whole Foods.

When I attempted to check out the other day, I was halfway through using all my coupons, when I needed the manager to key them in and she simply said no. In my opinion, shes not very nice. She said it was too much of a hassle. I feel that the flaw in the system was pinpointed on me. No other grocery store has this problem. I was had to put everything back.

Also, I asked to talk to the store manager, and she said she was looking at my purchase from the other day, and I was ripping off the store. She said that I wasn't allowed to use coupons and the BENEFIT of a store discount. I'm pretty sure an employee benefit should in fact, benefit the employee.

It's not as though I am making fraudulent coupons or using them the wrong way. I am using them the way they were intended, one per item. I like to buy cases because I get them even cheaper. Ripping the store off? The store offers these discounts and coupons, if they're afraid for people to use them they shouldn't be offered. A lot of time and energy went into planning that trip as well. I went earlier in the day, wrote down prices and how many were in a case. I then went home, found coupons online, matched them with store coupons, cut tons of coupons out, went back to the store, found everything, waited to get checked out, half of my coupons rung it for them to say - No. For NO reason. The whole process took about 4-5 hours and they treated me like a criminal.

I will not be going back until I get an apology letter, and be able to use my coupons in peace.

If nothing is done, I will contact every manufacture that I tried to use a coupon for and tell them Whole Foods denied me the ability to use their coupon.

2009-07-29T22:57:00.001-07:00

Steaz tea is 5 for 5.00 at Whole Foods

There's a BOGO coupon here. This would make them .50 each, or .40 each if you buy a case.

2009-07-29T22:23:00.000-07:00

Total: 24.00!!!
I got this down from 141.20, and that was after the case discounts. I got an additional 28.24 off from employee discount. The rest was all coupons. Usually you get a 10% discount if you buy things in a case. I get an additional 20% for an employee discount.

Puffins cereal 2/6.00
Coupon in WF coupon book 1.00
Coupon found here 1.00 (Actually, I found out this was only for Canada. There are coupons for Puffins in the Go Organic coupon books, which is where I got mine from)
1.00 each or .70 each if you buy a case (mine was .10 each)
case: 12 boxes for 8.40 (my case was 1.20)

Organic Valley soy milk 2/6.00
Coupon found here 1.00
2.00 each or 1.70 each if you buy a case (mine was 1.16 each)
case: 6 for 10.20 (my case was 6.96)

Rice Dream Ice Cream Pies (1.00 each, sale over now 1.39 each)
Coupon found here .75
Coupon found in WF coupon book 1.00
Money maker of .36 each or .50each if you buy a case
case: 24 for -12.00 (mine would be -24.72)
I didn't know about the .75 off until after I paid, or else I wouldn't have paid 24.00 out of pocket, I would still have had 24 dollars to spend! I do have one more case to buy and will be using this method.

Luna bars .99 each
Coupon in WF coupon book .50 cents off 1
Coupon found in Go Organic coupon book 1.00/3
.49 each or .06 each if you buy a case (mine was a money maker of .12 each)
case: 12 for .69 (mine was a money maker of 1.12 a case)

Also got:
2 vegan Boca burgers
Mixed Greens
Florida Avocado
Todd's Beer
Applesauce
Hummus
Whole Wheat Tortilla wraps
2 packages of Tofu

Note: You can find the WFs coupon books at the store. Mine are near the enterances.
Whole Foods will be replacing their mambo sprout books at the end of July- so hurry! The coupons in them don't expire until 8/31/09 but they will be placing new ones out.
Also, when you use more than one coupon of the same kind from Whole Foods book, it WILL beep, and a manager has to key it in. This isn't usually a big deal, it just takes time.

2009-07-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

Meal planning this week is kinda tricky. Todd is doing a 24 hour bike race.

Monday - Homemade veggie pizza
Tuesday - I'll be at my sisters and Todd will be working
Wednesday - Tofu Scramble
Thursday - Indian dish
Friday - The race begins Friday night.
Saturday-The race ends at 7pm
Sunday - Veggie Lasagna with mash potatoes

2009-07-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought about not doing the contest anymore. But I realized you can't plan for everything in life. This weeks total was around 53.00.

I've been rather lazy with the whole dinner photos and recipes. I prommmise I'll be better this week!! We still haven't worked on this weeks dinner plan yet. Tomorrow we're having homemade pizza.

2009-07-15T21:23:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a few days because I've been studying for my psychological stats final. But I did manage to find time to do a little bit of shopping.

Total: 1.61 ( there was another can of soup, but it didn't last long enough to make it to the picture)

Total: .93 cents (It was a bit more than I planned, but still a good deal!)

Total: 28.92 (There are 2 more cans behind the smart sausages...and we were also disappointed to find that they contained eggs...blah! And the white kitty in the picture was not included...haha)

So far this week my total is: 40.37

Great Circus Parade

2009-07-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

2009-07-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

I made my first purchase of the challenge.

I know some people went out the night before and stocked up. I thought about it- but it defeats the purpose of the challenge. Going out before and spending tons of money would mean you're not really saving money and challenging yourself. Ideally, I'd like to get my grocery spending down to $50.00 a week.

My first purchase was from Pick N Save:

Kashi Rice 1.09 - 1.00 coupon = .09 cents
Red Bell pepper 1.35
Wheat Tortillas 2.09
1 bag of Yellow Onions 2.69
Natural Ovens Whole Wheat Bread 3.19 -.50 coupon = 2.69
Total = 8.91

I'm somewhat disappointed, because the onions were suppose to be 1.99. Ohhh well.
What makes up for it was the Kashi Rice!! There are coupons for Kashi products on Kashi cereals. The rice was marked 50% off, to 1.09. This is going to be nice on double coupon day. I'll make around 5.00 which I can use towards produce!

2009-07-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

Tempeh Fajitas
Instead of using seitan, I had tempeh in the fridge.

1 medium onion cut into strips

1 green pepper cut into strips

1 red pepper cut into strips

1 package of tempeh (8 oz)

1 teaspon cumin

1/2 - 1 tablespoon chili powder (to taste)

2 tablespoons taco seasoning
whole grain tortillas

Saute onion and peppers in a bit of oil until tender. In another pan, saute the tempeh in a bit of oil until lightly brown. Add the tempeh to the onions and peppers. Add a bit of water to the cumin, chili powder and taco seasoning, so it's a watery paste. (I used about a half cup of water)

Continue to cook for about 5 more minutes, or until the vegetables are as soft as you like them.

You can top it with whatever. I topped mine with some vegan sour cream, and my boyfriend put lettuce, hot peppers, etc.

This makes about 4 big fajitas.

Each fajitas has:

2 servings of grains - each whole grain tortilla counts as 2

1 serving of vegetables - a half of a pepper is 1 serving

1 meat substitute - I had a hard time with this, is tempeh a grain or a meat? It's known as the "wheat" meat. However, it's main ingredients is soybeans, although it has a lot of grains in it.

With the corn, that was another vegetable per half cup.

Overall a pretty balanced meal, 2 grains, 2 vegetables, 1 meat.

Toppings can add to it too, for example soy sour cream could count as a dairy substitute.

2009-07-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

There's a killer deal at Target right now - but hurry!! It expires tomorrow!!

Buy two Kashi Cereals at 2.66 each and use:
2 1.50/1 coupons from Kashi.
1 1.00/1 coupon from Target
1 B1G1 coupon from Target
Which comes out to be FREE plus an overage of -1.34

Then you can buy two Kashi TLC Bars at 2.66 each and use:
2 1.50/1 coupons from Kashi
1 1.00/2 coupon from Target
Which comes out to be 1.32. If used with the overage above, they're both free! (plus you still have .02 cents of overage)

2009-07-13T10:29:00.000-07:00

While talking about the importance of respecting your body and its needs - the same idea plays into the environment. Reusies understands this and sells reusable sandwich bags! We already know that plastic shopping bags are hurting our environment, what about plastic sandwich bags? The Thrifty Mama can help you score four of them. Go to the Reusies website and tell her what your favorite design is. You can enter her contest here.

2009-07-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

I've got my meal list for the next week. I usually do my shopping on Wednesdays. I'll have to run to the store tomorrow for two things.

Monday 7/13 - Seitan Fajitas and Corn

Tuesday 7/14 -"Chicken" Burgers and Fruit

Wednesday 7/15 - Chick Pea Curry and Rice

Thursday 7/16 - Tofu Scramble

Friday 7/17 - Taco Pasta

Saturday- 7/18 - Stir Fry and Rice

Sunday- 7/19 Leftovers

I'll post the recipes the day of, along with pictures.

For breakfast, we usually just eat cereal. Depending whatever I can get in bulk from Whole Foods. Right now we have a lot of Nature's Path Optimum. However, probably in a week I'll go pick up a case of Kashi. I have a manufacture's coupon and a whole foods coupon for it. Usually you get an extra 10% off for buying a case but I get 30% off, including the 20% employee discount. I usually do the same thing with soy milk. But we have enough for now. I'll probably get more in two weeks.

For lunch, its usually fruit, salads, sandwiches, soups, frozen meals (like Kashi, which I get for $1.25 each on double coupon days at Pick N Save!), or hummus. This week I'm going to be making a big batch of Quinoa Salad which I can just grab and eat. Todd (BF) usually works different hours, so it's hard to say if he'll be home during lunch. He'll bring leftovers to work, or other things we have. Usually he spends about $6.00s a day for lunch, but he's really been trying to break that habit. Hopefully this challenge will help!

2009-07-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

While planning my next week's meals, I've decided to incorporate the food pyramid into it. I'll be using Canada's since well, I find it to be more balanced than the US version.

According to their guide I should be eating:

8 Servings of Veggies and Fruits
7 Servings of Grains
2 Servings of Milk Alternatives
2 Servings of Meat Alternatives

And my boyfriend should be eating:

10 Servings of Veggies and Fruits
8 Servings of Grains
2 Servings of Milk Alternatives
3 Servings of Meat Alternatives

If you want to know your numbers, go here. You can also make your own pyramid and fill it with the foods you like to eat. Posting it on the fridge can really help you get close to those numbers!

When I post my weekly meals, and recipes I'll include how many servings of each category are in one serving.

All You Grocery Challenge

2009-07-12T10:07:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard about it yet, All You magazine is doing a 4 week challenge. I decided what better way to stay ontop of this challenge than to start a blog. Rules can be found here.

Right away I knew this would be tough, as everyone knows living a vegan and healthful life can be expensive! But over the past few months I've been learning how to cut my grocery bill in half, and sometimes up to 75%. Through the use of coupons (yes! there are some out there for healthy food!), Whole Foods (stacking their coupons on others), double coupon days at Pick N Save, and many many other ways - it is possible! Each week I'll be able to get $50.00 to spend.

This blog won't only be about my challenge, but also my day to day life, thoughts and helpful tips.