The Great Coffee Debate - Traditional vs. Keurig

   This morning, our beautiful red Kitchen Aid coffee maker that was a wedding present finally died. It gave us 4+ solid years of morning pick-me-up. Now that we must lay it to rest, the question is do we replace it with another traditional coffee pot, or the ever popular Keurig? After polling Facebook and getting a unanimous vote for the Keurig...I did some research. I know the K-cups are hella-expensive. But I just learned there is a reusable cup insert to put your every day brew in there. So we can keep buying the giant can of Folgers French or Columbian medium roast at Sam's Club for $9.88. Holler. I also believe this will cut down on waste because I brew more coffee than I drink, religiously, every day. Why I continue to scoop the same amount of grounds is beyond me. I only drink half of my Tervis tumbler full. Without fail. #wasteful The Keurig reusable cup holds .3 oz of grounds for one cup of coffee. I was using an entire ounce (2 tbs. scoops) for a Tervis of coffee. So lets say in the future I use .5 oz (1 scoop), so it's still strong but I'm only brewing the actual amount I drink. I would still be cutting down on the waste. It seems like a no brainer.

   Just for personal education, I crunched the numbers to share with fellow coffee lovers. Here they are:

Loose Grounds: Folgers 27.8 oz can at Publix runs around $11.99. You can score the 35 oz. can at Sam's Club for only $9.88 so I definitely recommend that steal. You can get the reusable cup insert at Bed Bath & Beyond for $12.99 and a double pack of reusable filters for $8.99 or a pack of 50 disposable filters for $4.99. Use a BBB coupon for additional savings :)

K-Cups: First of all, there are 100 different brands of K-cups and 150 different flavors and roasts. The average 18 pack of Folgers medium roast runs $11.50 at Publix. Starbucks 16 pack is $12.99. Occassionally you can find $4 off coupons in the paper for Starbucks. Wait for a sale on them and sweep in there like a ninja with all your coupons. Otherwise, I would just go run-of-the-mill coffee to save money. Again, Sam's has the better deal of 80 K-cups for $34.98.

Conclusion: The Keurig will cut down on waste, thus saving money. It's also very convenient if only one person wants coffee or if everyone in your house (or guests) like different brews and flavors. Doing your own scoops from a can of loose grounds using the insert will cost you about $.14 per cup of coffee. Purchasing maufactured K-cups even at the bargain price is still more expensive at $.44 per cup. If there are 2 people in your household drinking coffee every morning, you save $4.20/wk or $16.80/mo on coffee just by doing the reusable cup and packing it yourself.

**If you want a breakdown of brewing at home vs. buying a daily latte from a drive thru, check out my "Coffee Costing You Lots?" blog from when I first starting my savings project. http://rubbingpennies.blogspot.com/2012/01/coffee-costing-you-lots_09.html

Buying vs. Making Baby Food

   In our house we eat (*mostly*) fresh and healthy foods. I buy organic dairy (always) and everything else organic when it's on sale. Organic baby food is stupid expensive. But I don't want to feed my son jars of chemicals and preservatives. So I choose to make his food. It is significantly less expensive than buying it - unless it's on sale and you have a stack of coupons - and it's really not that hard. I invested in a bagging station made by Infantino that I scored on clearance at Target. $15 for the station and $7 for a box of 50 bags and caps. #winning

   I strictly breastfed until Baby G was 6 months old. That was a HUGE savings by itself because the average formula-fed baby consumes $1,200 in formula in one year. Ouch. So when he was ready for solids I started with plain sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots, green beans and sweet peas. Most of those went over well except for the peas. ::bleh:: After introducing fruits and saving berries for last, I started experimenting with recipes. Spinanaberry = 1 bag steamed fresh spinach, 1 whole banana, 8 whole strawberries = 10 bags of baby food. **This is G's favorite flavor and mine as well because spinach is loaded with all the best nutrients. The banana sweetens it enough to make him nuts for it. Don't waste your time fighting babies to eat peas! Spinach is where it's at!! You can add apples or banana to just about anything to sweeten it to baby's satisfaction and still sneak in the good stuff they need.

   Recipes I tried that bombed: Sweetpoturkey = Sweet potato and turkey. It tasted fine when I made it but after sitting in the freezer for a few weeks, the meat flavor became overwhelming and it was disgusting. Cinnappleturkey - Apples, cinnamon and cooked ground turkey. Same outcome. Yuck.

Savings breakdown: The average 4 oz. bag of organic baby food is $1.39. They range from $1.09 up to $2 per bag. To make my own I bought spinach: $1.99/large bag, strawberries $1.50/half carton, and a banana for $.59. To make 10 - 4 oz. bags of Spinanaberry cost me $4.09 ($.40 per bag). (The cost of different recipes vary but this is just one example) Currently Grady eats a whole bag at every meal, $1.20 a day. If I was buying organic baby food in the same size bags, he would be consuming $4.17 each day. This is a savings of $20.79 every week and $83.16 every month. Just by making my own baby food. Wash it. Steam it. Process/puree it. I label bags with the date it was made, the flavor and his name so I can send them to school. I keep a variety of flavors in stock in the freezer and whip up another batch when I run low.

P.S. I do stock up on store bought organic baby food when it's a good sale. They have better flavors (I'm not a chef) and it saves me some time. But overall, I highly recommend making your own.

Back on the Wagon

  

I am finally getting back on the blog train after almost a year hiatus. It's easy to fall off the savings wagon because it can be tedious and time consuming to think about saving $.50 here, $3 there. But at the end of the month, it matters. All the dollars and cents matter!
   My new obsession is diaper deals. Those suckers are expensive! If I can find a sale on diapers and use coupons, stand back while I do a happy jig. Check out this awesome trip to Publix where I was able to double stack my coupons on a Pampers sale and saved $77+ JUST ON DIAPERS!
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Diapers are one of those things (like razors) that are worth the money you spend on them. You really want the landing pad responsible for holding in nuclear baby poo and 30+ oz/day of milk and other liquids to be a quality item. I currently buy Pampers (only on sale and w/ coups) because I believe they are tested, tried and true. All other brands have let me down at this point. I have a 5 box stash right now, but when I run low again, I do plan to try the Target brand UP & UP - I've heard good things. We shall see.

Speaking of spending more money than you should every damn time you go there, Target has a Cartwheel app for your phone that allows you to "clip" digital coupons and put them in your cart. Then at checkout, they scan a single barcode that calculates all your coupon savings. This is in addition to in-store sales and other manufacturer coupons you might already have! Get on it!