The Quest For Mashed Potato Smiles

When thinking back to high school cafeteria menus, not very many good memories come to mind.  There was one thing I looked forward to, however, those delicious little mashed potato smiles.  I haven’t been able to find them in grocery stores or online (plus how ridiculous would it be to have something like that shipped).  I finally decided, why not make my own.  After our Thanksgiving feast, I’ve been left with more mashed potatoes than any person would know what to do with.  It is with these extra potatoes I’ve decided to stop looking for mashed potato smiles and start making my own (the recipe is posted below). 

I took to the kitchen to pull out ingredients to be added to the mashed potatoes.  My first thought was just roll mashed potatoes into a ball.  That proved impossible.  I knew additions would have to be made.  I grabbed the flour and an egg and decided to make a dough out of the potatoes.  Then I decided to improve even more upon the idea of mashed potato smiles… add cheese.  Cheese just makes thing better.  I had cheddar on hand so I used that.  Finally, I rolled the bites in bread crumbs and sprayed them with butter-flavored cooking spray to give them that deliciously crisp coating that I remember from eating them in high school.  I used what my mom told me is the “magical temperature” to bake them in and popped them into the oven at 350 degrees until they were nice and golden.  The verdict:  not quite what I had in school, but good enough to end the search for the smiles.  Now I have a recipe for mashed potato bites!

Mashed Potato Bites

About 2 cups mashed potatoes

½ cups flour

1 egg, beaten

¾ cup shredded cheese

Bread crumbs

Cooking spray or melted butter or margarine

1.        Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray or coat with butter or margarine.

2.       In a mixing bowl, combine mashed potatoes, flour, egg and cheese.  Stir until well combined.

3.       Pour bread crumbs on a plate.  Take one to two tablespoons of potato mixture.  Roll in bread crumbs until well coated and no longer sticky then drop onto cookie sheet.  The potato bites expand a small amount, so make sure to leave some space between each bite. 

4.       Once all potato mixture is used, spray bites with cooking spray or drizzle with melted butter or margarine.  Bake in oven until golden brown, about 8-12 minutes.  Enjoy!

The Doolin's Couponing Tips

  To begin my very first blog, I thought I would list below a passion of mine and my husband's.  We are passionate couponers and want others to share in the savings.  Recently, we have come up with a couponing guide and want others to share in the savings.  I hope you enjoy!

QUICK COUPONING TIPS AND TRICKS

·         Follow the ads

·         Stock up on stuff you know you use

·         Plan ahead

·         Print AND clip coupons for anything you think you might want

·         Organize your coupons

·         New ads come out on Sundays, plan accordingly

·         Bring your coupons with you whenever you leave the house

CREATING YOUR OWN COUPON STASH

Creating a coupon stash is possibly the most important part of couponing.  In order to create an effective stash, you must not only clip the coupons you find in newspapers, but also get online and print them.  When creating your stash, the more the better.  If you think you’ll use it, keep it.  If you’re not sure, keep it still, you never know what deals you’ll find and what products you might want to try.  Make sure to check the websites for the stores you like to shop.  If you have a shopper’s card for that store, you may be able to load coupons for that store directly onto your shopper’s card to be used at the checkout.  Check out the websites below for printable coupons.

·         www.coupons.com

·         www.redplum.com

·         www.smartsource.com

·         www.kelloggs.com

·         www.proctorandgamble.com

ORGANIZING YOUR COUPONS

                There are many ways to organize your coupons.  We’ll review a couple of methods below, but feel free to create your own.

The Binder Method

This method is used and loved by many.  It’s not the method we choose, but we can see its appeal.  Grab yourself a binder and several sleeves used to hold baseball cards.  This allows visibility to your coupons.  You can fold them and place them in the sleeves.  But don’t stop there!  Organize your coupons by aisles in the store or by categories (such as dairy, bread, produce, etc).  Place each “category” of coupon within a separate sleeve.  You can even use tabbed dividers to separate your categories with labels for easy access.

The Accordion Folder Method

                We use the accordion folder method.  Accordion folders allow for easy access and quick “thumbing” through coupons.  We like this method because you can see the full coupon and organize by expiration date.  We even took it a step further and use separate accordion folders for different types of coupons.  For example, we have a food accordion folder, a toiletries accordion folder, a restaurant accordion folder, and a cleaning and paper supply accordion folder.  We like this method because we can quickly grab only the food accordion folder when heading to the grocery store or just the toiletry accordion folder when going to the pharmacy.  Since accordion folders have handy tabs at the tops, you should use them to categorize your coupons (as explained in the binder method).  And of course, make sure to organize by expiration date so that you know which coupons are good and for how long.

                The most important thing of all in coupon organizing is to use what works for you.  You may find your own method or find that combining several methods work for you.  Whatever you decide, make sure it is functional and easily accessible.  Never leave your coupons behind.   You never know when you’ll find a great deal!

LEARNING COUPON POLICIES

Local Stores   

Learning a store’s coupon policies will save you money and horrible surprises.  Many stores double coupons, which will allow you to double your savings.  Take for example our local Kroger.  Any coupon 50 cents or less doubles.  That means if I have a 50 cent coupon, it truly values a dollar at the checkout.  Some stores allow you to use more than one coupon on one given item, however, most stores allow only one coupon per item.  This means if you have ten items and ten coupons, you’re good, however if you have ten items and eleven coupons, one of your coupons will not be valid.  Make sure to ask an employee their coupon policy.  If they say that they are unsure, ask to please speak with a manager.  Explain to the employee or manager that you plan on couponing at their store and would like to do it fairly.  Most likely they will be more than willing to explain the dos and don’ts of their store.  Also, keep in mind, many stores allow you to go online and ad coupons to your shoppers card.  For example, our local Kroger allows us to go online and add coupons to our card.  Once our Kroger card is scanned, the coupons come out once the item is rung up.

Reading the Fine Print

            Most manufacturer and store coupons have fine print.  Make sure to read your coupon thoroughly before hitting the checkout.  This saves time, money and embarrassment.  Many coupons only allow so many like coupons per transaction.  For example, we have a few coupons that say “Four like coupons per transaction.”  This means we can only buy four of the items and use four of the same coupons.  Coupons also have other special terms.  We’ll list a few below.

·         “One Coupon Per Purchase” – This statement means you can use one coupon per item.  One item is considered one purchase so if you have two items and two coupons you can use one coupon per item within the same transaction.  This also means that only one coupon can be used on any one item, so if you have two coupons and one item, this will not work.

·         “One Coupon Per Transaction” – A transaction is the close of a sale, where you pay for your items and leave, or begin an entirely new transaction.  When a coupon says this, you are only allowed to use one coupon for your whole transaction.  In order to use another like coupon, you must begin a new transaction.  While this may be troublesome, it is in many cases “worth it.”

·         “One Coupon Per Visit” – If a coupon says this it means you can only use one coupon per trip to the store.  In order to use another coupon, you must leave the store and then return later.

SHOPPING THE ADS

                We have found that shopping the ads is extremely important in couponing.  It is important to keep track of the normal and sale prices of items you buy regularly so you know the best time to stock up.  Also, the sales run on a cycle so the same sales will repeat themselves in a month or two meaning there is no need to buy things at full price.  The ideal situation is when something is on its best sale and you have multiple coupons on that item.  This way you can get multiples of them for the lowest price.  Check out this website for lists of daily and weekly deals:  www.savingwellspendingless.com.

Buy and Save

Some of the best grocery deals are the buy so many items, save so many dollars like buy 10 items save $5 getting 50 cents off per item.  The best way is to get seven or eight cheaper items and then a few more expensive ones that you have coupons for so you still get a lot of items but don’t spend much.  We get the most for our couponing dollar during these sales.  A lot of the items we use most are on these types of sales, such as pasta, yogurt and cereal.  The items we just listed also have some of the best coupons, so we really bundle up on the savings.

Pharmacy Rewards

            Many drugstores have “money back” incentives.  For example, if you buy an item, you will get a print out coupon for money off your next purchase.  Many pharmacies will “stack” their rewards coupons with manufacturer coupons.  When you have the option to stack coupons during a sale, do so, and do so shamelessly.  What we mean by this is that take total advantage.  If the coupon allows four coupons per transaction and the sale is unbeatable plus you have pharmacy rewards, stock up and use all four coupons and your pharmacy rewards.  Some pharmacy rewards require that you spend a given amount on a certain brand of items to get their incentive back for your next trip.  Only do this if the price of the item is worth it.  If the item only decreases a few cents, this may not be worth it to you, however, if the price drops noticeably and you have coupons on all items on the pharmacy’s ad for a specific brand, go ahead and stock up to receive your coupon for your next purchase.

PLANNING AHEAD

Menu Planning

                We have found that planning a menu for the week or weeks ahead helps us to limit the items we do not have coupons for.  Once you have created a “stash” or “stock pile” you can plan meals around what you already have in your cabinets and only buy a few extra ingredients you may not have coupons for.  Some of the items we stock up on when they have a good sale price are meats and produce.  These items generally don’t have coupons, but they do freeze well.  A trick that we have learned to limit the amount of waste you have after a meal is to portion your food before freezing.  Use zippered bags to separate meats into meal-sized portions.  This makes it last longer since you only thaw out the portion you need for each dinner.  Another trick is to cut chicken into tenders, cubes, breasts, etc for different types of meals.  It saves you time and money when dividing your meats this way. 

Produce is the same way.  Berries generally freeze well, however, there are a few items, such as lettuce that do not freeze well.  You can get the freezable items while they are on sale and stock up.  Make sure to keep a running list of things you are low on, that way you can make sure to check out the sales before you run out, lowering your chance of buying that item full price.

Shopping Trip Planning

                Organizing a shopping trip can be time-consuming, but there are ways to make it less so.  Make sure to compare your ads.  When you see an item you use a lot or you would like to try, circle it in the ad and make sure that ad has the lowest price.  Once you find the lowest price, scan through you coupons to see if you have coupons that match the on-sale items.  Separate these coupons from your coupon stash and paperclip them to the ad for the store you plan on using these coupons.  You could also use a separate accordion folder to organize by stores for the week.  For example, if you have coupons you plan on using for CVS, put them in the CVS tab of your accordion folder, Food City coupons can go in the food city tab.  This makes them quick and accessible when you get to the store. 

Always make a list of what you need before going shopping.  We have wasted money once in the store when we don’t have our list due to going overboard with sales on things we just don’t need or use.  Even though you separated your store coupons from your big stash, make sure to bring in the big stash of coupons.  Most ads don’t show all the sale prices and you really don’t want to miss out on the sales.

                Last minute things to do once your cart is full include:  reviewing your cart right before checkout.  Match up all items with coupons in your cart to the coupons you have to make sure you are using all coupons necessary and you didn’t leave something out.  Review the number of items in a buy 10 save 10 type of sale.  If the sale requires you buy 10 items to save $10, for goodness sake, have all 10 items or else you miss out on your savings.  Also, keep in mind you may have loaded coupons onto your shopper’s card.  Make sure the coupons on your shopper’s card are of greater value than the paper coupons you may be using, otherwise you are wasting money.  We have found mistakes right before checkout and fixed them before purchasing our items.  This is why we think reviewing your items prior is so important.  Another quick tip, hand the cashier your shoppers card before your coupons.  If your store doubles coupons, the coupons won’t double if the shoppers card has not been scanned.

A FINAL WORD

                Initially couponing can be frustrating, but also lots of fun.  Don’t get carried away.  In getting carried away, you end up spending more than you are actually saving.  If your intuition tells you it’s a good deal, go for it if you have the coupons to spare.  Also, when you start getting frustrated, don’t give up, couponing does get easier the more you do it.  Just like the old saying, practice makes perfect, couponing gets easier and more natural the more you do it.  After you start noticing deals, you will know what a good price is on that item and know that it will go on sale again.  If you run out, use that as a lesson to stock up with a few more next time.  Now get out there and start saving!