Saving on healthy groceries while keeping the hubby happy

We are in a bit of a health kick around here at this time of year and are trying to make better food choices, yet not get bored with the same healthy recipes over time.

I know it is not easy to buy healthy groceries on a budget. Produce can really cost you an arm and leg. That's why I buy most of my groceries at Aldi! They do have a great Fit & Active line of food, but you can't get everything there. Since both my husband and I are home for lunch ( I am a SAHM and he works from home) we were getting tired of sandwiches. My husband says he needs more MEAT but he doesn't care for leftovers everyday...who does? We were looking for other options for quick, healthy lunches. Frozen lunches are the quickest, but not always the healthiest, UNLESS you invest in the healthy ones.  So I used a coupon database (you can see my post on Couponing  for how to use this very handy feature) to find coupons for some healthy, meaty meals in minutes. Most healthy brands all cost around the same whether its Weight Watchers Smart Ones, Lean Cuisine, or Healthy Choice. You can find coupons for Smart Ones and Lean Cuisines (they are usually $1 off 5 or something similar), but I found several online (and higher value) coupons for Healthy Choice and Morningstar veggie burgers, so I decided to stock up on those. Also, they have more flavor options besides chicken. I was able to print 8 coupons (4 of which were Target store coupons). Walmart is closer to my house AND they honor competitor coupons, so I decided to stock up at Walmart using all my coupons.

What I learned from this:  It was not as easy as I thought to use competitor coupons there so I should have done 2 things:

A) Told them I was using these coupons BEFORE they started

B) Asked for a separate transaction for all my Healthy Choice items (I meant to do this and forgot before they started ringing them up).

See? I've been couponing for 2 years and I'm still learning as I go. :) But I do know that if you're nice to your cashier, they are usually willing to work with you and get you the deals you came in for.

Anyhow, it all worked out and I was able to save $8.48 on  $47.56 worth of healthy meals. Since he doesn't eat these every day, these 16 meals lasted my hubby about a month. The Morningstar burgers are 4 per box so we have eaten some of those for dinner. I figure if he worked in an office and ordered his lunch just once/week for 1 month, it would still cost more than his frozen lunches for a month! AND he doesn't get bored because I bought all beefy meals! No chicken since I cook enough of that at dinner!

I used 7 of these coupons: 6 $1 off coupons and 1 Buy3Get 1Free coupons {I did not use one of the B3G1Free's}.



I bought these meals:



Once we started running low on those meals, I was able to print more coupons, so this week I bought 10 more meals, while saving $6 in additional coupons.

So, aside from eating more fruits and veggies and less snacking on junk food, this is one way we have eaten healthier this year, and saved while doing so!