I am food obsessed - I admit it. I love to cook, I love to shop for food, I love to feed others. I read cookbooks like some people read romance novels. As I teach to my children, food connects us. You can understand a culture from its food. You can comfort someone with food. We celebrate with food. It's an essential part of our lives.
The challenge, then, for me, as a foodie and a tightwad, is to combine these two tenets harmoniously. Take, for example, my daughter's kindergarten class. There's 27 children in her class, so you're looking at four or five dozen cookies for each party. That adds up to a lot of chocolate chip cookies.
Today's score de jour was M&M's. As I browsed my local supermarket, I noticed Christmas M&M's (only red and green candy) on sale for 75% off. Originally 2.99, these 14 ounce bags were marked to 75 cents each. Planning ahead for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, I picked up two bags. Separate the red and green and substitute them for chocolate chips, and you've got festive holiday cookies at a rock bottom price for the chocolate bits. At the register was my big score. The cashier handed me a freshly printed Coupon for $1.50 off three bags of M&M's. I zipped back to the display and picked up three more discounted bags. With the coupon (not including tax), I paid 75 cents for three bags. Not a bad score, but it gets better. The machine at the register prints another coupon for $1.50 off three bags. So again I zip through the express checkout and spend another 75 cents for three bags. Another coupon prints out, but I called it quits, flush with victory. I walked out of the supermarket with eight bags of candy for $3.00. At regular retail, it would have cost me $24. I knocked the price per pound from $3.42 to 43 cents, which is far cheaper than any chocolate chips, even on sale. The challenge is to know when to call it quits. I could have kept purchasing candy, but at some point you have to decide when to stop feeding kids that much sugar. Bargain candy is not worth it if you end up with diabetic kids! When I'm through holiday baking for family, friends and my daughter's class I might have a bag left to last until Easter, but if I planned correctly, I will run out before then.
Jennifer Gandon spent over 15 years in New York City in the advertising and cosmetics fields in both marketing and product management roles. Jennifer left the corporate world to become a full-time, professional mom and CFO of her Small Business Called Home (SBCH). As a full-time pro mom to two beautiful daughters under the age of five, Jennifer happily accepts the challenge to get more for each SBCH dollar that she spends by seeking out sales, clipping coupons, searching for online offers and writing humorous complaint letters to nationaly recognized companies if they dare not meet her expectations. Jennifer lives in the Bronx with her two daughters, three cats, nine goldfish, two algae eaters, two newts and her one somewhat annoying husband whose primary redeeming quality is that he eats any of her cooking experiments that don't quite work out.
