The Deal with Deals to Meals

People have asked me about Deals to Meals because I have a button for it on my sidebar. Deals to Meals is an online service you pay for. In return for about $5 a month you can get lists of sales for all the stores in your state along with menus, customized shopping lists, and recipes that use the food you buy on sale. Can you do this yourself by using free sites and the newspaper? Absolutely. Do I? No.

I signed up for Deals to Meals maybe a year ago and I loved it. I can log on to their site from my iPhone or just print out the lists of sales for the stores where I shop. It helped me build up my pantry and food storage because the lists are color coded--the items in red are really good sales that you can't pass up. The blue items are good deals if you need the products. I love the format of the lists because they show what a year supply of each sale item is and how long it can be stored. It also tells you when something is cheaper at Costco.

Like I said, you can certainly do this through Savy Shopper or with your own coupon system. And that's exactly what I thought after being on Deals to Meals for several months. I was feeling poor so I canceled my subscription thinking I would just do it myself. But I can't. And I don't. I hate reading the sale fliers that come in the mail because they are on cheap newsprint and I never know what the best deals are. I'm sorry. Glossy catalogs have ruined me for ugly bargain fliers.  If you are naturally good at this then Deals to Meals might not be for you. But if you hate it and can't do it and don't remember how much things normally cost and don't know what to do with the food once you buy it then you might just love Deals to Meals. I got in the habit of buying the red sale items no matter what. And I found that I had treats and cake mixes on hand whenever I needed them for unexpected school parties or scout camp-outs. I always have eggs and I have salsa and chips and butter in the freezer and jars of spaghetti sauce--which I never bought before because I could make it homemade--which comes in handy when making one hand meals while holding a baby. In fact, I got a lot of ideas for not-very-good-homemakers from doing Deals to Meals.

So when I realized I was running out of everything that I had stocked up on while using Deals to Meals I decided to sign up again. I noticed they had redesigned their site and had a cute button. So I e-mailed them and asked them if they would trade a membership for me posting their button on my blog. They wrote right back and were happy to do it. I was so excited because they are the first "sponsor" who has even responded to my request.  I'm not saying you should ask them to do this for you, but I wanted to explain how the button came about and how it's something I really use and how I'm now in the awkward position of just leaving it there forever and hoping they keep renewing my membership. I'm not sure what will happen. I also just divulged that advertising on my blog is only worth 4.95 per month. At that rate Christian can quit his job just about 25,000 sponsors from now! (Because I need his help maintaining this blog and my 25,000 sponsors.)

It really must be said that Christian loves Deals to Meals too. I logged in on his iPhone for him once before he went to the store and he came home with every 5/$1 thing the store had. "Guess how much all this cost!" That's a pretty fun game to play and I'm glad he's into it. Maybe it's obvious to other people that you can plan meals around deals and stock up when things are on sale but to me it was a revelation. Cuz I'm dumb (Math 99).