Every so often, daytime TV will have someone on who explains how s/he has worked the coupon system to buy groceries for almost free. Usually there will be a scene where the person checks out with a full cart of groceries and ends up paying some ridiculously low amount, like $3, for the entire shopping thing.

I find this baffling. I do use coupons sometimes, but I generally find them to be more trouble than they are worth. It may save me $.25 to buy the major brand of salad dressing, but I save way more than that by making my own or buying the off-brand, so why bother with the coupons?

But Jeffrey from Grocery Coupon Guide saw the value of coupons. He decided to see if he could eat well on $1 a day using only coupons. He tried it for a month, and boy did it work. He spent $31 on groceries with a retail value of $598. In fact, he bought so much food that he had to donate some of it to a food bank to use it all up. And best of all, he takes you through exactly how he did it.

For example, on the first day shopping, he explains how he managed to spend only $4.49 on:

2 boxes of Quaker Instant oatmeal
4 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
1 package of Knudsen Light sour cream
10 apples
2 lbs of carrots
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
1 jar of Skippy All Natural peanut butter
2 cans of pork and beans
1 bag of long grain brown rice
2 packages of Mission 100% whole wheat tortillas (10 count each)

And also donate to the food bank:

15 packs of Philadelphia Cream Cheese Minis
4 boxes (small) of Wheat Thins
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner
1 Scrubbing Bubbles Extend-A-Clean bathroom cleaner refill

He also explains where he gets the coupons from and how to use them to the best advantage.

I learned a lot reading this blog, and I can see pros and cons of his method.

Pros:

* Obviously you save a lot of money. I mean a lot of money.

* You can get a pretty good range of food from the coupons. Including vegetables.

* It is possible to get brand name food for almost free. That is kind of nice to know.

Cons:

* This is a lot of work. You have to print out and organize coupons, research all the deals, and shop at various stores to get the deals.

* You are at the mercy of the coupons. You only get what they offer, which means you have to buy whatever the deal is and plan your menu around that.

* Most of this food is the sort I avoid the most. That is, food loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and preservatives. I am not sure how healthy it is to eat this way.

* Some of the food looks gross:

That said, I am impressed with this blog. I don’t see eating this way personally–I prefer to garden and cook for my food savings–but it does make me want to give coupons a second look. I mean, this guy is hardcore about grocery savings.

Read Eating Well on $1 a Day.

In my garden, the zucchini is starting to come in. I always end up with more zucchini than I can eat, and one of my favorite ways to use it up is to make my mom’s zucchini muffins.

This recipe takes 2 cups of zucchini, which is a lot, and because of this, it’s probably fairly healthy, as far as cakes and muffins go. If you are the type to trick your kid into eating vegetables through baking them into sweets, this is a good way to go. And anyway, these muffins taste great with coffee in the morning.

Also, this is a fairly versatile recipe. For example, you can use this same batter to make zucchini bread. All you have to do is pour it into a loaf pan and cook it a bit longer–see note at the end of the entry. Or you can use other types of squash in this recipe. I have tried it with pattypan squash and it came out great. It tasted basically the same, just a bit more tender.

Here’s the recipe:

Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients:

2 c grated zucchini, about 2-3 zucchinis
3 eggs
1 c oil
1 1/2 c sugar
1 Tbs vanilla
3 c flour
1 tsp salt
1tsp baking soda
1 Tbs cinnamon
1/4 tsp baking powder

Directions:

Grate the zucchini using a food processor or box grater. I leave the skin on, since it has extra nutrients in it. Once you grate the zucchini, put it in a strainer over the sink and massage it so that the water drains out. Since squash has a lot of water, this step will keep the muffins from getting mushy.

Leave the zucchini in the sink to drain. Meanwhile, beat the eggs and oil in a bowl. Add in the sugar, vanilla, and zucchini. Mix together.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix together until you have a batter.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a muffin pan. With an ice cream scoop or spoon, fill the muffin pan with the batter. Bake until you can insert a knife into a muffin and it comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Makes about 12-16 muffins, depending on size.

Enjoy!

* Alternately, if you want to make this into zucchini bread, pour the batter into two greased 9″X5″ loaf pans and cook at 325 degrees for about an hour.

** Some people like nuts in zucchini muffins. I don’t. However, if you do, add 1/2 c chopped walnuts or pecans right before you pour the batter into the pan.

Move over chalkboard spray paint. Now we have dry-erase board paint. That’s right, apparently you can now spray anywhere in your house with this paint and have an instant dry-erase board. Office, kid’s room, kitchen, etc.

The paint comes with a warranty guarantee and claims to go on in one coat, with no cracking or peeling. And, unlike the chalkboard walls, when you aren’t writing on the wall, it looks like just another white wall in your house.

I can see a lot of creative uses with this paint. Has anyone tried it?

Or if you haven’t tried it, how would you use it?

There are a lot of recycled t-shirt crafts out there, but these rugs made out of old t-shirts from Talking Squid on Etsy are among the best I’ve seen. Looks like the t-shirts have been cut up and sewn to a cotton jersey t-shirt base. Nice. Prices range from $58-$598. (Via Design Milk)

I like that this one looks like a dandelion.

Wendy from Obsessively Stitching is making toy spaceships out of what she calls “junk”–bits of plastic from toys, electronics, and other things.

First she pries the objects apart:

And glues them together to make spaceships like this one:

Great idea. With a coat of silver spray paint, they look as good as any spaceship in the toy store.

I am taking a little trip to Santa Barbara, California to celebrate my 8th wedding anniversary. Hurrah! Blogging will resume Thursday, June 24th.

Have a great week.

A sock monkey pet bed! Perfect for a dog or a cat.

I wish I had known about this pet bed before I bought the one I have. I am sure my cats would love it.

$29.99 at Amazon.

ReadyMade has a great round-up on how to re-use ceramic dishes. They range from the teacup lights above to mosaic furniture to jewelry. Check it out here.

My dad likes steak, potatoes, and vanilla ice cream. You could take him to a fancy French meal, if you wanted. He would eat it. But you would really be wasting money because he would rather just have a good hamburger.

Here are five burger recipes to consider making this Father’s day:

Hamburger with Double Cheddar Cheese, Grilled Vidalia Onion and Horseradish Mustard by Bobby Flay. Covered with cheddar cheese, grilled onions, and spicy mustard.

Spicy Cheddar-Stuffed Burgers by Southern Living. An interesting take on the cheeseburger–the cheese is stuffed inside the meat.

Greek Lamb Burgers with Spinach and Red Onion Salad from Bon Appetit. I love lamb burgers. They are one of my favorites.

Salmon Burger from Oprah. For a healthier alternative, this recipe explains how to make salmon burgers. I would use regular mayonnaise, however.

Finally, I am not sure how this Garbanzo Beans Burger would taste, but the picture looks good. It’s an interesting veggie alternative to the portobello mushroom burger, anyway.

Now I’m hungry.

I always look through the books at thrift stores. I often find bestsellers for a fraction of the price that way. I also find a lot of works of classic literature, usually in old paperbacks. For example, I am slowly accumulating a full set of Shakespeare by purchasing the plays at thrift stores.

I love old paperbacks. The older they are, the better. For example, this version of Howard’s End by EM Forster was originally published in 1921 by Knopf.

I picked it up for $.30 last weekend, and I think the green cover with the black trees is the bees knees.

I wish I still had my paperback of Days of the Locust by Nathanael West to show you. It might have been an original version of the book–anyway, it had this great modern, abstract cover. Unfortunately, the book fell apart while I was reading it, and no amount of tape could fix it up. I ended up recycling it, and it made me sad, because the book had survived for so many years, and it is such a good book, too.

There are often great things tucked inside these books as well. In a version of Coriolanus by Shakespeare that I have, someone left the top of a plastic bag that held scan-tron test sheets in it, which must have meant that a teacher owned the book. I have also found family photos, receipts, and once, a part of someone’s painting, which the artist ripped up and left inside the book for someone else (me) to find.

This is a hilarious version of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. The novel is a classic piece of literature, but the publishers, Signet Book, decided that it would sell better if it was packaged as a steamy romance. On the front, it says, “The romantic classic about a wayward beauty and her scandalous affairs with three dazzled lovers.”

If you have read Far From the Madding Crowd, you know that’s a bit of a stretch. The book is about marriage and love in the English countryside, true, but it’s no Lady Chatterley’s Lover. And then, take a look at the back of the book:

SHE WAS A WANTON WHO NEEDED TAMING

This is my favorite thrift store book find. It’s a small paperback that has been studiously covered with prim lavender wrapping paper. Why?

It’s the scandalous book from 1956, Peyton’s Place by Grace Metalious, about sex and other bad things in a small American town. The original owner probably covered this book so that she could read it in public without anyone knowing what she was doing.

I love to imagine this woman carefully lining the book and carrying it around with her so she could read it on the bus or at her lunch break without any shame. Or maybe she just did that to all her books. Who knows?