How’s your last week going? What have you learned so far from doing this Challenge? 

Exit forms will be sent on Monday! To activate your entry for a chance to win, please send the form to grocerychallenge@allyou.com by August 16, 11:59 p.m. EST. More instructions will be included in your Monday email.

Good luck!

Okay, Grocery Challengers—you’re in the final stretch of the four-week contest! In today’s email, we gave you a bunch of our favorite shopping tips, such as: eat before you shop, look high and down low on supermarket shelves for good deals, and bring cash to the store with you.

Do you have any shopping tips of your own that you follow?

We’ve passed the halfway mark, and judging from your comments, it looks like everyone’s going strong!

To help you out with the remaining part of the challenge (and even after it’s over), we encourage you to check out dailysavings.allyou.com—our blog about all things money- and time-saving. There just may be a coupon or promotion code you could use during your next shopping trip! (We’ve even posted some of your fantastic comments here!)

Here are a few recent links we think you’ll like:

Grab a free meal on Tuesday nights

Nab a free McDonald’s coffee

Save on cold summer drinks

Get $5 off at T.G.I. Friday’s

Get a free Jamba Juice

Now, tell us! Where do you get most of your coupons? And how is your Week 3 wrapping up?

It’s the halfway point! How did everyone’s Week 2 go?

In your email today, we gave you our favorite food-related tips. In case you missed it, check them out below. Now we want to hear from you! Have you created any delicious recipes from your pantry so far? Are you planning your menu at the beginning of each week, and has it helped at all?

Buy basics: Canned beans, soup, tomatoes and broths are inexpensive core ingredients that can be used in dozens of meals. Canned fruits are a great option as well—just make sure they’re packed in juice rather than syrup, which is loaded with sugar.

Phase out frozen meals: If you regularly purchase frozen dinners, you’re paying a premium for what amounts to a fairly small amount of food. You’ll save more by freezing individual portions of entrées made from scratch, such as casseroles and lasagnas.

Swap pricey ingredients for cheaper alternatives: If the recipe calls for red wine, use pure cranberry juice instead. For white wine, use apple juice. Macadamia nuts? Use walnuts, almonds or cashews.

Use weekends wisely: Cook at least one entrée on Saturday or Sunday that you can heat up for lunch or pull out on a busy weeknight. Stew is a cost-effective meal, especially if you use less pricey cuts of meat. To save even more money, go meatless once a week with a veggie-based meal, which has less saturated fat, but plenty of vitamins and fiber.

Count on calcium: Milk is the most cost-effective source of calcium—it’s cheaper per ounce than yogurt or cheese—so include more of it in your family’s diet. Calcium is central to bone health. Be sure kids get four servings daily, and adults get three.

Sources: Lisa Bakewell, freelance writer; Elizabeth M. Ward, registered dietitian.

Crystal blogs at thethriftymama.com, where she helps others find great deals and bargains, with the main focus being natural and organic. Find her tips below!

Did you know you can decrease your organic grocery shopping by at least 50%? I am able to say this, because I have done it myself.

Having organic items in my family’s diet is something that is very important to me. It means less pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and chemicals in our food. Organic deal finding and couponing is not for the faint of heart. Don’t think that it is easy. It is harder than regular deal finding, because there are usually less deals and options.

Here are a couple of tips to apply to your organic shopping (notice how some of them are similar to regular couponing):

1. Buy local. Shopping from local farmers will not only reduce your costs on produce, but it will also be supporting farmers and helping our economy. Check out Local Harvest to find local farmers and farmer’s markets in your area.

2. Do some research and find all the possible sources of organic coupons. Some come in the paper, there are a lot of printables, and you can even get them by contacting companies. You want to get your hands on every organic coupon possible. Here is a list that I have compiled on my site of all the online resources for organic coupons.

3. Watch the sales and match coupons with the lowest price.

4. Check for mark downs or clearance items, and match coupons with those.

5. Use your overage from other grocery deals to use towards your organics. This sometimes means getting things you would never eat or use.

6. Use your store rewards to get your organic items. ie. Register Rewards and Extra Bucks.

7. Watch the online deals. Lately, places like Amazon are doing a lot more deals on organic items. There are also companies offering free item coupons more often. An example of this is the free Burt’s Bees lip balm.

8. Use rebates and gift card deals to get your organic items. One example of this would be the prescription transfer coupons that give you a gift card. Use those towards your organic items.

9. Find blogs and websites that help you find organic grocery deals. 

But the biggest thing to remember when you want to do organic shopping, is that it will not be as easy or cheap as regular couponing. We all know that a lot of items end up being free or nearly free each week after coupons and sales. Organic items are hardly ever like this. But, with a little hard work you can decrease your organic grocery expenses. You won’t spend as little as others that don’t shop organics, but you will still be saving money. But best of all, you will be eating healthier!