No Inserts Today

Sorry everyone but because of the holidays there are no inserts in today's newspapers. There will be inserts in next sundays paper!!

Home for the Holidays

I am again sorry for the lack of posts, I was really planning a bunch of posts, but as usual life has gone crazy, it is so crazy that I still haven't gone through my sunday papers yet!! We are going to my hubby's parents house and we are having some friends of ours house sit while we are gone. Well I didn't want them thinking I lived like a slob so on top of packing up the suitcases for ten days I had to scrub my house on top of that so it's not that I don't love you guys and don't want to give you tons of information, it is just how christmas time goes. But be prepared because while I am in Idaho I plan on organizing my posts and scheduling them out so at the beginning of the new year you will have a whole slew of coupon information from me :)

No more advanced coupon classes

For those of you who have ever attended a grocery smarts class by another instructor there is a chance you would have heard about a little thing called Advanced Couponing. Well because some instructors offer this and some do not the Management team of Grocery Smarts has decided to nix all advanced coupon classes and are now encouraging us instructors to put any advanced couponing tips onto our blogs so stay tuned over the next couple of weeks and I will be putting a lot of the advanced tips that would have been learned at an advanced coupon class on my blog!!! If you are new to couponing don't stress out, the grocerysmarts class I do is a very basic introduction to couponing so I don't overwhelm you with information, but as you get the hang of organizing, clipping and using the grocerysmarts lists it is nice to learn a few extra bonus tips to help you along your money saving ways! This also means I am going to get out of my comfort zone and start learning about couponing at CVS and Walgreens and give you the lowdown on all of their secrets!

The New Lists are HERE!!!!

I don't know about you guys but I have been dying for today to come!! Not that I didn't love the two weeks of sales that ensured I scored on some great deals even though I was feeling lazy and only went to the store the day before Thanksgiving . . . but I love new lists, and new items being on sale . . . especially when they are items I am in DESPERATE need of!

Some items I am looking at buying this week are:
Albertsons
Milk for 2.09 (We buy 4 a week atleast so this is a must!)
Coke 24 pk for 4.99 (My hubby loves his soda and well let's be honest so do I :P)
Doritos for 1.50
Healthy Choice soups for .63!! (After coupon of course)
General Mils Cereals for 1.00!!! I love that I can get name brand yummy cereals for sooo cheap!
Then on top of all of that there are some huge savings on Proctor & Gamble products! If you didn't get the P&G insert make sure you head on over to couponsbydede so you don't miss out on the killer sale!!

Check out the Albertson's list here

Then Smith's has even more amazing deals on top of this!!
I am really excited about the Marshmallow cream - I add this to cream cheese and a little bit of lemon and it makes the yummiest ever fruit dip!!
Smith's is also having a one day saturday sale so I would make sure you get there early so you don't miss out on the deals! Check out the list here!

Happy Shopping everyone, if you need help with the list at all please don't hesitate to call or email me!

Email: tkmiller81002@yahoo.com
Phone: 702-362-8959

No inserts today

Due to the Thanksgiving Holiday there weren't any inserts in today's newspaper.

Restaurant.com

Are you trying to think of great holiday gifts for friends but are stumped on what to get them? Why not get them a gift certificate for dinner? Right now at Restaurant.com you can purchase a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant for only $2!!! The restaurants are amazing and this is a killer deal! Enter the code SAVE to get your gift certificates for super cheap!

Black Friday Savings

Well I did it! I woke up at 4:30 this morning, picked up one of my girlfriends at 5:30 and was off to the stores! I picked up some killer deals though that made the trip more than worth it!

We went to Wal-mart first because they were price matching other stores ads as long as you had the ad. I really wanted an Ipod Nano and RC Willey had them for 99.96 but they only had 35 in stock according to their ad so I went back to electronics and asked them if they would price match it and they said they would so I picked up an Ipod Nano for a killer deal! Then in the Office Max ad they had Photoshop Elements on sale for 60.00 so I price matched that and scored as well! I also picked up some $2.00 DVD's and a Princess Dress up box for my daughter!

We then headed over to Target and picked up some o.k. deals like hi ho cherry-o for 4.95 and a mickey mouse memory game for 4.95. I also bought a $25.00 Itunes gift card for $20! We also picked up a few stocking stuffers in their dollar spot which was nice.

After Target we went to Kohls and oh my lines!!! It was a mad house in there! But it was so worth it in the end I bought 5 Barbie's, 2 kid Digital Cameras, a Laugh and Learn baby toy which has 4 different toys in it for 88.51! I had a $10 off $20 coupon and a 15% off coupon that I used as well so I saved over $200 in that transaction - plus I earned $10 in Kohl's cash as well!! Not too bad. My girlfriend was waiting in another line so I went browsing after I was done and found a super adorable coat that was originally 78.00 but was on sale 40.80 so I ran it over to her and had her buy it for me. So all in all I would say it was definitely worth the trip. Now it's off to the Outlets to hunt for a leather coat for my hubby!

How did you do? Did you brave the crowds and score some killer deals or did you spend the day inside avoiding the madness and putting up Christmas Decorations? What was your best find? How many of you are completely done shopping for the season? I know I have lots more to go!

Black Friday

Are you a black Friday shopper? This year I am considering whether or not I want to brave the early morning crowds in order to score big. I haven't ever gone shopping on Black Friday so I don't really have any techniques so I was hoping that maybe some of you have gone shopping on Black Friday and could share with the rest of some of your shopping tips and tricks.

Also if you don't get the paper daily and want to get the ads to decide where the best deals are then I highly recommend getting to the news stands super early like before breakfast to pick up your paper or they will be gone!

Give the gift of saving!!

Throughout the Holiday season the biggest focus on most people's minds seem to be what can I give to my friends and family members? What would they love to get from me? We throw cookie parties, white elephant parties, Thanksgiving parties, etc. While all of these parties are great and fun to go to, why not host a class and give your friends and family members an opportunity to learn how to save money by using the Grocery Smarts website and by combining that with the right number of papers for your home! By saving money on groceries it will help free up precious money to spend on Christmas gifts for others!

The class is free for you and not only that but as a hostess you will receive special gifts and a chance to earn free groceries!! Grocery Smarts no longer has a class attendance requirement but rewards hostesses based on how well the classes go! So don't delay, give me a call today and book your class, I can do a class as early as this Saturday! I only have the first two weeks of December available for classes so don't delay, the first two classes to book will receive a free copy of "Shop Smart, Save More" written by the creator of the website The Grocery Game. This book is full of more coupon information than you can imagine and will help you to maximize your savings!!! If you can think of a handful of people that could use this program then you need to call me . . .

Home: 362-8959
Cell: 353-0330
Email: tkmiller81002@yahoo.com

Holiday Giveaway!

Tis the season to have great giveaways! This is a great giveaway for those of you who need to add more subscriptions to their arsenal! I typically will only give away gift cards for ordering papers at a class, but since it is the holiday season then I decided that from now until January 1, 2010 I will give away gift cards for phone or email subscriptions as well! You can recieve up to 5 newspapers for Sundays only for a LOW price of .75 per paper!!! You will not find this price anywhere else!

If you increase your subscription to:
2 subscriptions you will recieve $5.00 in FREE Groceries!
3 Subscriptions you will receive $10.00 in FREE Groceries!
4 or 5 Subscriptions you will receive $20.00 in FREE Groceries!!

So don't delay and call me today! Just mention this post when you call and I will priority mail you your gift cards!

That's what I get . . .

I am a procrastinator, it is rooted deep in my blood I am sure to be a procrastinator and therefore because I am such a huge procrastinator I missed out on some great deals at Albertsons. Now I am not blaming my procrastination for this shopping trip solely on what is rooted in my personality, I actually had a really good reason for procrastinating going shopping. It was my girlfriends birthday this past week and her sister and I decided to throw her a surprise party. I also decided it would be fun to play games with her and her husband on thursday, then go to lunch with them on Friday, then take her to breakfast and shopping for New Moon t-shirts on saturday and throw her a surprise party on Saturday night. Which was very time consuming and so I didn't even have time to sit down and make my list until yesterday morning.

Fortunately for me I am super stocked up on pretty much everything which is why I was totally o.k. with waiting until yesterday to decide what I wanted to spend. I had my list ready and my coupons clipped and headed out to Albertson's yesterday afternoon and unfortunately almost everything on my list was sold out!!! But I still got a pretty great deal on what I did buy. I spent 41.50 and saved $41.64 which equals about a 50% savings, plus I have $15.00 off my next shopping trip in catalina's)

I was pretty bummed on the way home (yes even seasoned couponers like myself get bummed) until I got home and my husband put it into perspective for me. Had I not had any coupons then just for the two boxes of diapers I would have spent $41.05 which is about .45 short of what I spent so it is like I paid full price for the two boxes of diapers and then bought everything else (4 bags of chex mix, paper towels, veggies, onion soup mixes, cheerios and frosting) for only .45!! K I feel better now.

I got mine, did you get yours?

For those of you who have a Rewards card with Smith's you should have received something like this in the mail last week or early this week. It came in a gold envelope and looked like it might have been junk mail, but it wasn't.

Now some of you might be wondering why my certificate is only for $10.00 because I have been shopping at Smith's for a while and this is the first one I have received in the mail and the reason for that is because up until 2 months ago I was using the WRONG fresh values card!!! I was going to the store and swiping my card like always and still getting the benefits of the reduced prices, but I wasn't earning any points until one day a cashier informed me that I was using the old Fresh Values card - you know the one from like 3 years ago that had pictures of produce on the front. She handed me a new application and explained that while that card gives me the lower prices it doesn't accrue points so by switching to the new plan I get the reduced price and earn points which in turn gives me certificates for FREE GROCERIES in the mail.

Why am I telling you this? Because you may be just like I was and hadn't been to Smith's in such a long time because you thought it was easier to go to Walmart and you may be using the wrong card! So if you aren't sure if you are earning points that turn into dollars ask the cashier the next time you go to Smith's and they will help you out!

The other bonus is that not only did I receive a certificate in the mail, but I also received tons of coupons for items that I use everyday!! SWEET!

Holy Hotness!!!!

Have you seen the Albertsons list this week???? It is stocked full of some seriously amazing deals!!! The best part is that a lot of the items you can purchase are with printables so if you haven't started getting the papers yet but still want to take advantage of the deals you still can!! The Early bird gets the worm so get off my blog, check out the GrocerySmarts website, print out your coupons and get on over there!!!

That's the way uh huh uh huh I like it!!

Today I went to Smith's and SCORED!!! I spent 116.36 and saved 180.52. I used 24.70 in coupons today which more than pays for one of my 6 month sunday only subscriptions!! I also received 2 $1.00 off my next shopping trips by buying the Ghirardelli Brownies! Make sure you check the expiration dates on your coupons a few of them expire today and tomorrow!!

Restaurant.com Promo Code

To get $25.00 Restaurant certificates for $2 go here and enter the promo code TREATS Hurry before they are all gone!

My Plan for the week

After checking out the Grocery Smarts lists I am planning on running over to Albertson's to pick up some frozen pizza and Anytizers on Friday and then doing my main shopping at Smith's because their list is amazing! I love that it is that you can get $5.00 off instantly and you can do multiple combinations of that in ONE transaction! Easy breezy and full of savings! Check back in on Friday to see my purchases and savings!!

Couponing at the Children's Place

One of the beauties of being stocked up on groceries is that some weeks I can totally forego going to the grocery store and go clothes shopping instead!! My two favorite clothes stores are Kohl's and the Children's Place! I love going to the Children's Place Outlet at the Premium Outlets because they have a huge selection of all the clothes on sale and it is usually super easy to find clothes in your kid's size! I have 3 kids and 2 of them are boys who grow like weeds so I need to buy clothes fairly often.

At the Children's Place you can use up to 3 coupons to get your clothes for even cheaper! When you sign up for their mailers you can receive a 15% off coupon in the mail or check out retailmenot.com and they will have links to 15% off coupons as well. Then you can sign up for their Place card and you will receive an instant 10% off and then the first time you use your Place card at the Children's Place you will receive another 10% off, then you will accrue points and receive more coupons in the mail for 10% or $20 off etc.

Right now their fall line is on sale for 50% so by adding the 10% off for using the Place card and the 15% off coupon you can get their clothes for 75% off!! That is amazing, the other day I went and bought all the clothes above for 113.00! Not bad!

Pork Loin Roast

Last week Smith's had Porkloin roasts on sale, so I of course decided to try it out and bought a 3 lb. porkloin. The problem is that I don't have any idea how to cook one! So I was wondering if any of you had a delicious and easy to make recipe for a porkloin? Feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email with your favorite recipe! Thanks a million

76% Saved at Albertsons

So I made it to Albertsons yesterday morning with three kids in tow and I scored!!!

My first transaction I purchased:
2 Simply Pillsbury refrigerated cookies
2 Refrigerated chocolate chip cookies
4 Fiber One yogurt multipacks
2 Gogurts
Total after coupons came to - 17.20
I then received a $10 and a $2.50 coupon off my next purchase

My second transaction I purchased:
2 Pillsbury Pie Crustd
5 Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls
4 Boxes Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3 boxes Golden Grahams
1 5 lb. Bag Gold Medal Flour
I used both the $10 and the $2.50 coupons plus manufacturer coupons
Total after coupons came to $11.75
I then received another $10 and a $3.00 coupon off my next purchase

My third Transaction I purchased:
4 Warm Delights
4 Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes
7 bags Chex Mix
I used both the $10 and the $3 coupons plus manufacturer coupons
Total after coupons came to $7.43
I then received another $10 coupon off my next purchase

My fourth and final transaction:
3 2 liters Diet Dr. Pepper
15 Jars Beechnut Baby food
1 Albertsons salt
Total came to 9.49 and after using my $10 off coupon it was all FREE! Can't beat that!

You still have time to take advantage of the killer sale at Albertson's go here to look at the Albertsons list and have fun SAVING!!!

FREE MEN'S DEODORANT!!

This week at Walgreen's Sure for Men is on sale 2 for $3.00 which makes it $1.50. Well in this Sunday's Smart Source there is a coupon for $1.50 off one Sure Men;s deodorant - so that makes it FREE!! My girl Jen called me last night and had just picked up her 4 Men's deodorants and wanted to pass the word along - thanks Jen!!

Busy Week

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. My husbands brother's company closed its doors a while ago but they kept him on to continue working until January of 2010 but they gave him permission to move to Idaho and still do the work so my brother and sister in law found a house in Idaho and then had a week to pack up all of their things and get moved. They have been more than just family to us, but have been amazing friends to us and our kids have grown up together so I tried to give as much help as possible to them this week by watching their kids and then helping them load up the moving truck and clean their house. It was a busy and hard week. They have seen my husband and I through all of our trials and helped me to change and grow into who I am now. We are going to miss them like crazy.

With that being said I didn't have a chance to do much shopping last week, but I now have my list ready and my coupons clipped for Albertsons and I will have pictures and a shopping breakdown ready for you tomorrow afternoon!

A great article about couponing!

So this morning as I do my usual website routine I was on Yahoo! and saw a great article about shopping at cutting your grocery bill in half and I thought I would share the link with you so you can read it and get some more ideas on how to slash your grocery bill in half (or more!)

Tips for slashing your grocery bill at the store

I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think!

70% Saved at Albertsons!!

As many of you know Friday is my shopping day and today was a very successful shopping trip!! After looking at both the Smith's list and the Albertson's list I decided that I was only going to go to Albertsons today and I SCORED!!! My goal was to spend less than 100.00 and I succeeded. As you can see on my receipt I spent 99.81 and saved 229.23 for a total of 70% saved, NOT BAD!!! Luckily you have 4 days left to take advantage of these amazing deals!

Albertson's list is AMAZING!!!

I love weeks like this where I wake up on a wednesday morning, check the Grocery Smarts Albertson's list and see stars!!! Literally, there are sooo many amazing items on sale this week that are 4 and 5 star items. I can't wait to get my list ready, my coupons clipped and get on over there to take advantage of all of the KILLER deals!!

Proctor & Gamble Giveaway!

For the first 5 people who call or email to host a class I will mail out 5 of the latest Proctor & Gamble inserts to you. In order to qualify you must set a date with me for an October class. I also will offer a special where you can earn up to $20 in free groceries with a gift card for ordering the right amount of papers for your family. I can sell you the papers for a super DISCOUNTED price so this makes it a killer deal! I look forward to hearing from you. I also do enrichments and church events!

Home: 362-8959

Email - tkmiller81002@yahoo.com

Raspberry Syrup . . . SOOOO YUMMY!!

For those of you who checked out the Albertson's Ad this week I am sure you saw that they have raspberries on sale for .99! Well I never buy raspberries, but I decided this week since they were so cheap I would. I ended up buying two and then not having the slightest idea of what to do with them. This morning we were having waffles so I decided to run a google search and make Raspberry Syrup. I found this recipe and made it and it turned out sooooo good! Here is the recipe. You can also check out here to get this recipe and more syrup recipes!

Raspberry Syrup
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup light corn syrup

Puree raspberries in food processor or blender and strain to remove seeds. Measure and add enough water to equal 1 cup.

Combine puree/juice with all other ingredients and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for exactly one minute, counting the time after the mixture comes to a rolling boil that cannot be stirred down. Skim foam. Store in refrigerator.

I hope you enjoy this delicious recipe as much as my family and I did!

Expiration Dates!!

I just glanced at the Albertson's and Smith's lists and wanted to encourage you to watch the expiration dates! There are quite a few coupons that expire this weekend so make sure you don't procrastinate too long and then you are unable to use the coupon!

Last Chance to earn $10.00 in FREE GROCERIES!!

If you have been thinking about hosting a class but have been sitting on the fence about it then it is time to hop off and give me a call! You have until tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. to call and book a class to earn $10.00 in FREE GROCERIES just for hosting a class then once you host the class and get 8 NEW ladies (or gents) there you will earn an ADDITIONAL $20.00 in FREE GROCERIES!!! Plus if you don't get the paper already and decide to sign up for the papers from me you have the potential of earning another $20.00 IN FREE GROCERIES!! That is a total possibility of earning $50.00 in FREE GROCERIES!! So don't delay and give me a call now to book a class for October!!

Home Phone: 702-362-8959
Cell Phone - 702-353-0330

$45.00 at Albertsons - not too shabby!

So I totally scored at Albertson's this week and bought 10 boxes of poptarts (the 12 ct size) 10 boxes of nutrigrain bars, 10 packages of Keebler cookies (my guilty pleasure) and 10 boxes of Rice Krispie treats for a grand total of $45.00!! I saved 122.00 just by shopping the sale and using coupons. Plus for those of you who received the Kellog's insert there is a rebate form where if you purchase 10 kellogg's products then you can recieve a $10 rebate so I will be mailing that in and it will be like I bought all of those delicious treats for $35.00 - can't complain about that!

A word on stars

If you have ever looked at a Grocery Smarts list you have noticed that next to each item there are stars. The stars are a rating system and help you to know if an item is an amazing deal, a great deal, an average deal or a not so great deal. I have several people lately ask me how I decide my shopping list and if I ever buy 3 star items, so I decided to do a post on this.

When I first started using the Grocery Smarts website I would buy 3, 4, and 5 star items because my cupboards were bare at the time. When it came to buying 4 or 5 star items I would always buy enough to last me 12 weeks and sometimes even more. However when it came to buying a 3 star item I would buy the items I needed but I wouldn't stock up on them at the price they were listed at. The reason I didn't stock up was because I didn't want to use all of my coupons for that item at a 3 star price and then have it go on sale at a 4 or 5 star rating two weeks later and then I wouldn't have any coupons to buy it with. Plus how much of a bummer would it be if I bought 4 packs of yogurt at an o.k. price and then the following week they were a killer price? I would have been very upset.

After about three months of consistently shopping at Smith's and Albertson's and getting my cupboards to the point where I felt like we were stocked up on all of the items we use on a daily basis I then started shopping only 4 or 5 star items - however - I still occassionally will buy 3 star items if I need them, I just rarely need to do that at this point.

One last thought on star ratings. Star ratings are based on the bottom line price so if you don't have the coupon it drops a star rating and if you aren't buying enough items to qualify for a promotion then the star rating drops as well. This is why I go to coupons by dede and stock up on inserts that I don't receive in the mail (P&G and Red Plum) so I have the coupons I need when they go on sale.

I hope this helps clarify any questions you might have had about shopping based on star ratings. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me or call me.

Email: tkmiller81002@yahoo.com
Phone: 702-362-8959

Add more to your savings

Have you ever been out to the store and found a killer deal that you wanted to spread the word on but didn't know how to spread the word? Or was there an error on a list and you wanted to let the listmaker know but wasn't sure how to get ahold of them? Are you ever unsure about where a coupon is or how to maximize your savings? Well if you have ever been in this situation then just head on over to the pinching your pennies website and feel free to post and share any tips or questions you might have about couponing and deals in Vegas. This is a great way to share with others your great finds and clarify any questions about the lists you might have. I encourage all of my readers to add this website to their arsenal. So don't be shy and head on over to pyp to see what's happening!

More Campbell's soups

If you checked the inserts in todays paper you would have seen that there are more Campbell's soup coupons. Because the lists are only made once a week these new coupons won't be on the Albertsons lists but you can still clip them and use them to get a ton of great soups for cheap - plus it even had some chunky campbell's soup coupons in there! Check them out and give me a call if you need help figuring out the best way to save the most. I am definitely going to be making another trip to Albertsons by Tuesday so I can pick up some more soups and some V8 Splashes that were sold out the other day!

I scored at Albertsons!!!

I am back Ladies and Gents! I have a teething infant and a potty training 3 yr old right now so I apologize for the lack of posts this week. My goal is to post at least every other day and that was my intention on Sunday but teething babies make it hard to get anything accomplished. But I am back and what a great way to update the blog than with an AWESOME trip to my favorite store . . . Albertsons!!
I bought about 75 items (not counting each individual diaper but the pack as a whole) for 86.30 today, which averages out to be $1.15 per item. Now you tell me where you can buy a big box of pull-ups for $1.15??? I saved about 154.10 for a total of 64% savings!!

How did I do this transaction? I went on the grocerysmarts website last night and made my list. I then printed out and clipped any coupons I was going to use (which I had a ton of!!) then this morning I loaded up the teething infant with my list in my purse and went shopping. From the time I walked into the store till I walked out was about 45 minutes so not bad for all the great items I bought. I also tried the self checkout since I did 4 different transactions and rolled my rewards into the next transaction. If you have never tried the self checkout I highly recommend it. I received awesome customer service by three different employees - they even helped ring up all of my soups so I didn't have to do each one individually! They were so impressed with my savings I handed over my information so they could start saving as well! I love great shopping trips and what a way to start the weekend!

How did you do at Albertsons this week? Leave a comment with your spent/saved and other great tidbits you discovered while shopping this week!

Just an idea

Do you have tons of cake mixes and canned frosting in your pantry like I do? Buying cake mixes and frostings are seriously one of my biggest weaknesses! Well, I have always wanted to learn how to decorate cupcakes and cakes super cute - but if any of you have tried to pipe canned frosting onto anything you know that it is pretty difficult, because it doesn't set right and it isn't firm enough to do much with except to spread it across the top then add some sprinkles and there you go.

So the other morning I didn't have anything planned so I decided to bake! And since I was baking I decided to experiment with the canned frosting and cupcakes. I googled how to firm up canned frosting and I learned a new trick from the Wilton's cake decorating website. Apparently if you mix 1 can of frosting and 1/2 cup of powdered sugar then chill for about 10 minutes or longer (I chilled it while the cupcakes were baking) you can achieve the same result as if you had made the homemade frosting that cake decorators use. So I tried it and the result turned out amazing!!! I had so much fun frosting all the cupcakes and then even more fun eating them! The picture above is an actual cupcake I made and was super delicious. Oh and when you a buy a can of frosting for about .50 yo can afford to experiment and mess around with it to see how it all turns out.

So give it a try and send me your pics. I will then do a posting of everyone's cupcakes! Have fun
baking!!!

How do I buy cake frosting for only .50/can I use the grocerysmarts website and have multiple papers delivered to me every Sunday. Give me a call and I will teach you how!

Wow . . . 3 of them!!!

I hope you didn't throw your ads away before you noticed that there were THREE inserts in the papers today!! There were 2 smart sources and 1 General Mills. I love the way I organize my coupons because I don't have to clip any of the coupons and sort them at all! I just flip through the ads, pull out the inserts and another ads that catch my eye, write today's date on it, then file the whole insert, uncut, into my coupon binder! I love that it takes me less than ten minutes to put my coupons away!!!

Hey! Where's the lists?

If you logged on to Grocery Smarts this morning and noticed that the Albertson's and Smith's lists were missing it is because they are slightly delayed in making the lists due to the holiday on Monday . . . so don't freak out and be patient. The lists should be up later today.

Oh and by the way . . . Smith's is having their fall annual caselot sale so watch the ratings and the prices! Also make sure you check expiration dates - it would be a real bummer to buy a case full of something that would expire before you could use it all!

Yesterday I went to Albertson's and used my coupon doublers to pick up some much needed chicken nuggets and yogurt. They also had hamburger on sale for a pretty good price and a coupon for 4 cokes for $9.00. My goal was to spend no more than $30.00 and I did! I bought all of this for 25.41 and saved 50.96 for a total of 67% saved!! I love saving more than I spend!!!

Why do you?

I would like to start adding other couponers stories onto this blog to help show people how couponing can help improve their lives so I would like for you to send me an email with your story about why you coupon, how you came across couponing and what your best spent/saved scenario is. My email is: tkmiller81002@yahoo.com

Hey! Where's the Smart Source?

If you opened up your newspapers today and didn't find any smart sources that's because it is a holiday weekend and there are never inserts on a holiday weekend.

I'm thinking Smith's is my spot for this week

I just took a quick look at the lists and after browsing the four and five star items for the week I am thinking I am going to be shopping at Smith's for a few of the needs - like sunny D for 1.00, apple juice for 1.00, soda 4 for 10.00. If you know me and my family we love to drink a wide variety of beverages (minus alcohol) so whenever I can get juices and sodas for cheap I am there! I will probably stop by Albertsons for their great capri sun deal but it looks like this week is going to be a great week for me to spend very little on groceries and a whole lot on new clothes! I love being to the point where I can look at a sale and say, "Do I really need that or am I stocked up enough that I only have to spend maybe 50.00 this week on groceries and put the rest to fun?" If you follow what you learn and my classes and get the right amount of papers then after a few months you will be able to do the same!

Do you need papers? I can give a KILLER deal on SUNDAY ONLY papers so give me a call and I can get you set up - you don't have to come to a class to order papers I can fill the order over the phone with a credit card! So if you want to start saving like I do call me!! 362-8959

Do you stock up on meat?

I don't know about you but before I discovered couponing and grocery smarts meat was my biggest expense. On days where my grocery bill was way high it was typically because I had to buy meat. Now I love getting a great deal on pretty much everything I buy, so it is hard for me to pay full price for anything so whenever I see meat and cheese go on sale I stock up!! I love buying fresh chicken breasts, hamburger, steaks, roasts whatever. I don't like paying a fortune for it though, so what I do is as soon as I see these items go on sale, (Smith's has ground beef on sale for 1.69/lb and fresh & easy has boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for 1.67/lb) I stock up!! Typically when the meats go on sale they are in a "max pack" which means you can't just walk in and buy 1 lb of hamburger and be good. Typically you are going to be buying about 4 lbs give or take. Obviously you don't want to freeze it all as is when you get home so here are some options.

1. Separate the meat into 1 lb quantities (unless you have a food scale this is a guestimate) and then place in freezer bags and freeze.

2. Separate the meat into 1 lb quantities or for chicken I typically put either one or two chicken breasts in a bag. After you separate the meat you can premarinade them . . . I do this by preparing my marinades and then placing the marinade in the freezer bag with the meat. This way when you want to cook dinner your meat is already marinated and flavorful and becomes even more so as you are defrosting it!

3. Prepare the meat and cook immediately, then freeze. I personally have never done this but I know a few women who do it all the time. The idea is basically the same as premarinating and it makes cooking dinner a whole lot quicker. Imagine if you are making tacos for dinner one night and the meat is already cooked, all you have to do is reheat it and there you go.

For those of you who don't have room in your freezer to stock up on meat don't worry you can still find ways to save money on meat. One thing you could do is to check out what meats are 4 or 5 star items and then plan your menu for the week based on those meats. This week Albertsons had tons of beef cuts on sale so you could buy some steaks and roasts and make a wide variety of meals . . . fajitas, french dips, kebabs, pot roast, etc.

Don't throw those papers away yet!!!

Did you see the 1 page Albertsons coupon insert?? Did you see the coupon to double up to three coupons??? That means if you have a coupon for $1.00 off you will actually get $2.00 off and you can do that with 3 coupons!!! Now if you are like me and get multiple papers then you will have multiples of this coupon -for me I get 4 papers so I can double the value of 12 coupons!! I am so excited about this. So hold on to it, use it and save save save!!

Sorry this is a late in the day post I have a super sick 6 month old so I just barely had a moment to sort through the ads.

$50.00 or less

K I am a slacker and promised you this on Wednesday but life has been hectic and so I am sorry it is delayed, next week I will be better!! But here it is as promised . . .

I am going to give you an example of how you can get a great variety of groceries from Albertsons for $50.00 or less. The first example is by buying only staples such as produce, milk, cheese and meat and the second example is by only doing the promotion and rolling the rewards.

Albertsons
Example 1
2 lbs of cantaloupe @ .29/lb = .58
2 bags of baby carrots @ .49 ea.
2 lbs of Honeydew Melon @ .29/lb = .58
4 lbs of Watermelon @ .19/lb = .76
4 lbs of Albertsons Blade Cut Steaks @ 1.79/lb = 7.16
4 gallons of Shoppers Value Milk @ 1.89 ea = 7.56
2 packs of Kraft Singles @ .99 ea with in store coupon = 1.98
5 pepsi 12 packs @ 2.39 ea = 11.95
2 bags of Doritos @ 1.49 ea = 2.98
4 Mission Tortillas @ 1.49 ea. use 4 .75/1 off mission tortillas from SS 8/9 = 2.96
2 Knudsen sour creams @ .99 ea with in store coupon = 1.98
10 Tina's burritos @ .20 ea = 2.00
4 Barrilla Pasta @ .99 = 3.96
Total cost for entire transaction is 45.43

Example 2 - rolling transactions
Transaction 1
4 Keebler fudge shop cookies @ 2.50 ea use 1.00/2 from Kellogs 8/2 to bring to 2.00 ea = 8.00
6 Poptarts @ 2.50 ea. use 1.00/2 from Kelloggs 8/2 to bring to 2.00 ea = 12.00
Total cost for Transaction is 20.00 plus you will receive a 10.00 off your next order coupon

Transaction 2
12 Chef Boyardee Pastas @ 1.00 ea use 4 .35/3 coupons from SS 8/2 = 10.60
3 Hunt's Ketchup @ 1.00 ea = 3.00
5 Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce @ 1.00 ea = 5.00
2 Kelloggs Cocoa Krispies @ 2.50 ea. use 1.00/2 coupon from Kellogg's 8/2
Use 10.00 catalina from previous transaction
Total cost is 12.60 plus 10.00 off next order coupon

Transaction 3
5 cans Manwich @ 1.00 ea = 5.00
8 Marie Callendar's pot pies @ 2.50 ea = 20.00
Use 10.00 off next order coupon
Total cost is 15.00 plus 10.00 off next order coupon
Total cost for all 3 transactions = 47.60 plus you have a 10.00 off next order that you can use again for either the first example or save to use next week

The instore coupons mentioned above are from a booklet you can get in any Albertsons store!


Smith's
This week their promo is super easy because it is 5.00 off instantly so you don't have to do multiple transactions! Here is one example of what you could get for 50.00

5 lbs 85/15 ground beef @ 1.69/lb = 8.45
3 lb pork loin @ 1.99/lb = 5.97
4 bags of Simply Potatoes @1.25 ea = 5.00
The following items are part of the buy 10 get $5.00 off instantly so I will base the price off of you getting the 5.00 off
6 boxes Hamburger Helper @ .89 ea use 2 .75/3 coupons from GM 8/9 = 3.84
4 boxes Golden Grahams @ 1.99 use 2 1.00/2 coupons from here = 3.96
10 cans Progresso Soup @ 1.00 ea = 10.00
12 Sobe or Sobe lifewaters @ .39 ea = 4.68
4 Wanchai Ferry Dinner Kit @ 2.49 ea use 2 1.10 coupons from here and here = 5.56
4 Quaker Rice cakes @ .49 ea = 1.96
Total Cost for transaction is 49.42

So how did you at the grocery store this week? Leave a comment with how much you spent and how much you Saved transactions!

It's a great week for Couponing!

Holy Cow did you check out the Albertson's lists today? They are having an AMAZING sale right now!!! I hope you didn't throw your ads away yesterday because there are some awesome deals with the in ad coupons that you can't get in the store. I am also super excited that Smith's sale is the same as last week because I ended up going clothes shopping instead of grocery shopping so I missed out on some great deals.

Stay Tuned for later today I will be posting several $50.00 or less transaction scenarios!!

Restaurant.com Promotion Code

Hey do you want to go out to dinner but are strapped for cash? Just go to restaurant.com, select the gift certificate you want and put in the promotion code Taste for 80% off - that means you can get a $25.00 gift certificate for 2 bucks!!! Make sure you read the requirements on the certificate and you tip based on what you would have spent if you didn't have the coupon!

Host a Class

Do you want to learn more about how to save money while grocery shopping? Are you already saving tons of money but wish your friends and family members could save as much as you? Then host a class! I am doing a special promotion for hostesses in spirit of going back to school. The benefits are as follows:

Just for hosting a class

Receive a $10.00 gift card to Albertsons or Smith's
I will personally help you plan out your shopping trip using the grocery smarts website and coupons
A box of brownies and a koolaid packet so refreshments are already taken care of

For hosting a class with 8 NEW attendees
(meaning they have never been to a grocery smarts class before)
You will receive the same benefits as above for hosting a class
PLUS
a $20.00 gift certificate to Albertson's or Smith's

For hosting a class with 12 or more NEW attendees
You will receive the same benefits as above
PLUS
A reusable grocery bag
5 Proctor and Gamble Inserts
The book Shop Smart, Save More
A pocket size coupon organizer
A small calculator
Scissors


For hosting a class with 20 or more NEW attendees
You will receive all the benefits listed above
PLUS
a $20 gift certificate to the restaurant of your choice
(this will be mailed to you after the class is over)

So give me a call today and book your class in September! I am available to do a class for you any day except for Sundays!
362-8959

I knew better

Today we were out running errands and we were close to a Wal-mart and it was hot and I just wanted to be done shopping, but I had to buy some things for a barbecue and I was in desperate need of diapers so I figured, whatever I will just run into wal-mart and grab the necessities and just go home. I am blaming this thinking on the 110 degree weather outside!! So we go in and immediately I am regretting the decision as I am looking at the produce and its prices which were all slightly higher and then the hamburger patties that were a dollar higher and so on and so forth. Now this isn't typically a big deal because I always take my ads with me when I go shopping but I forgot!!! I know better than to go shopping without the ads because then you have to pay wal-mart's price and not the super low discounted prices of items that are on sale at other stores :(. The good news is that I did have my coupons with me and therefore I saved about $30.00. The savings would have been much higher if I had brought my albertsons and smiths ads with me so heed my advice, learn from my mistakes and NEVER go shopping without your ads!

It works!!

I had my very first coupon class on August 8th and one of the ladies that came to my class and ordered her 5 papers and followed what I taught her emailed me this today:

I did it! I did it! I did it!!!

Albertsons. I did a total of 3 transactions.

First Transaction: Spent $31.57, saved $42.19…. BUT I had a $5 coupon that printed out, plus the $20.00 mail in rebate (so really I only spent $11.57 on this transaction) (I also had a $4 coupon, among other coupons that I used, which was earned purchasing some ice cream last week.)

Second Transaction: Spent $3.64, saved $13.72 (I had a $4 coupon that had printed out from some ice cream I bought last week, so I used that on this transaction)

Third Transaction: Spent $1.57, saved $7.43 (I used my $5.00 coupon that printed out of my first transaction.)

Total after all of my coupons/rebates/sale items? Value of items: $100.12, spent (after my mail in rebate) $16.78

THANKS FOR SHOWING ME HOW TO DO THIS!!!!

FREE GROCERIES FROM ALBERTSONS!!

Yesterday I hopped onto the Grocery Smarts website and checked out the sales at Albertsons. I didn't need a ton of stuff because we are pretty well stocked. Right now they have a promotion where if you buy $25.00 worth of purchases then you get $5.00 off your next shopping trip and a $20.00 rebate - essentially making all those items free. Now here are some tricks you need to know when there are these types of promotions . . .

1. The $25.00 that you have to spend is BEFORE you use any manufacturer coupons!
2. The $5.00 of your next shopping order can be used immediately, you don't have to leave and then come back!
3. If you are going to receive a Catalina (the 5 off coupon) you can either do multiple transactions called Rolling or you can do one big transaction and save the Catalina's for your next shopping trip

Knowing these two tricks here is what I did to get these groceries for dirt cheap:
Transaction #1

I bought 10 California Pizza Flatbread Melts on sale for $2.50 bringing the value to $25.00
I clipped 10 $1/1 any California Pizza products making each item only $1.50 making my Out of Pocket only $11.50
I then purchased these pizzas on Friday where Albertson's gives you 20% of any pizza purchase which made each pizza onle $1.00 instead of $2.50
So for $10.00 I got 10 delicious flatbread melts (we had them for dinner - so good!) and I received a $5.00 off catalina

Transaction #2
This transaction didn't have any promotions attached just a few items that I was running low on or was completely out of.
I bought 4 Ken's salad dressings on sale for $1.69
I clipped 4 $1/1 Ken's dressings from the Smart Source making them .69 a piece
I bought 2 3 lb boxes of corn dogs on sale for 3.99 this item had no coupon
I bought 1 Albertson's ranch dip packet on sale for .73
My order rang up to $11.47 after the Albertson's rewards were applied.
I then used my $5.00 catalina which is used like a coupon and it dropped my price down to $6.47 essentially making the dressings and the dip packet and a portion of 1 box of corn dogs free!

So for all of these items I spent out of pocket 16.47 BUT I also received a $20.00 rebate form from the pizza's so after mailing that in and recieving the $20.00 it is like I received all of these groceries FREE PLUS 3.60 BACK!!!

Have questions? Email me and I will be happy to answer any questions you have about couponing or using the grocery smarts website

Smith's is where I go for my staples!

For those of you who do not know this about me . . . I have been using Grocery Smarts since March of 2009 and I started doing Weight Watchers at about the same time. I have lost 25 lbs by following the Weight Watchers and by making sure that every week I find the best deals on my meats, dairies and produce so I have healthy staples on hand! I have found that I love both Albertsons and Smith's produce, I believe they are equal in taste and freshness but Smith's typically has the lowest priced produce and milk and more sales on cheese, sour cream and butter than Albertson's. So every week I stop by Smith's and buy my milk, veggies, and sour cream then whatever fruit is on sale I buy as well. I wasn't going to buy any treats at smith's until I saw that cookies and Rice Krispies were $1.00 after the promo and coupons I had . . . and well I couldn't pass that up!!!

As a side note your savings percentages are never high when buying meat, dairy and produce because it is based on market value.

Using the Grocery Smarts Website

For those of you who haven't attended a class but want to start saving money let me tell you the very basics of using the Grocery Smarts website.

The first thing you are going to need to do when you get to the website is to enter a passport, the one for Las Vegas users is G89CKM. By entering this passport it takes you to a Nevada page where you can access information for the stores in Nevada and also for the alphabetical coupon index that is an entire compilation of all CURRENT COUPONS Nevada residents have received in their inserts.

Once you have entered the passport you should see a page with a NV map and an option to select a store. The stores you can select from are CVS, Walgreens, Albertsons, Smith's, Food 4 Less, Vons, Wal-mart and Sunflower Market.

After you have chosen your store you are going to click on the START button at right hand top of the page! By clicking on the start button the entire grocery list will be grayed out. After clicking on the gray button click on the STAR above the words stock up sale. This will make all four and five star items white.

You can now go through the list and click on any items you want and unclick any items you don't want. The items that are white are the ones that will stay on your shopping list, the items that are gray will go away when you shrink your list.

After you have made your selections you can type in any other needs you need from the store at the bottom of the list where is says: type other items and notes here

Now go back to the top of the page and click SHRINK. This will get rid of all the gray items and you can now review what you have selected to buy. If there is anything you need to change click on UNSHRINK and make the correction, then shrink it again.

You can now print out your own personalized Grocery shopping list! I hope that helps you all!

JACKPOT!!!

Holy Cow did you see the coupons in today's paper? First there was the Smart Source that is in every Sunday's paper, then there was a bonus General Mills insert plus two McDonald's coupons for a free medium fry and drink with the purchase of a triple angus burger! Because I get 4 papers each sunday I recieved 8 Mcdonald's coupons 4 Smart Source and in one of my papers there were 3 General Mills inserts so I recieved 6 of those!! Talk about HUGE SAVINGS!!!

Get Your Inserts!

Are you one of the lucky ones who gets the Red Plum and Proctor & Gamble in your mail? If not then head on over to Coupons by Dede and pick up your inserts! If you looked at the Albertsons list this week there are tons of coupons used from the Kellog's insert (which came in last week's junk mail). If you looked at Smith's they have their Proctor & Gamble sale going on still so make sure you pick up the August 2nd P&G inserts! Click on my side link to head over to Dede's website and pick them up before they run out!

What do you want to know?

Because there are so many different money saving and couponing blogs and websites out there I thought I would post a question to my viewers . . . If there was one thing you would want to learn or read about in regards to couponing what would it be? I will then take what you want to learn and do posts about them. Leave me a comment with one thing you expect to learn from this blog! Thanks!

How to decide between needs and wants

My biggest struggle when I first started using the grocery smarts website and coupons was deciding what was a need and what was a want. It definitely helped that I avoided Wal-mart like the plague once I got going because their prices are fairly cheap for all items and so I would often buy items that I didn't absolutely have to have but thought it would be nice to have and hey it's affordable so why not buy it? But at a grocery store you are less tempted to buy items that aren't on your list because regular price is so expensive! Of course I still had to run to Wal-mart because I ran out of items that hadn't been on sale yet but I was much more determined to buy only what was on the list because I was then in the habit of only buying what was on my list and not bothering to browse the aisles. Now, I can't remember the last time I went to wal-mart because I have been using coupons long enough that I am well stocked on most items.

So back to the original question how do you decide between a want and a need? As a beginning couponer it all felt so overwhelming to me! The first thing to remember is the stores sale rotations, which basically means how often are items going to be on sale. For example, Pasta will be on sale at an incredibly low price once every 12 weeks. Keeping this in mind there were certain items that I knew I would never ever use and so it wasn't a temptation to buy (any and all seafood for example), but what about pasta when it goes on sale for 88 cents? Should I buy 10 packages of them because it is such a hot deal? Or should I buy 30? How do I decide? Well I bought 10 because we do love pasta at our house, but I know it will go on sale again in 12 weeks and I don't make it every week. If I made pasta more, then maybe I would have bought more but I figured I will make it once a week best case scenario so that would be 12 packages I would buy, however I know that more than likely there will be two weeks in there where I don't make any pasta especially since there wasn't any pasta sauce on sale at the time. Is this making sense? So the first thing to look at is will I use this item and how often will I use this item in the next 12 weeks? Don't just buy it because it is on sale and is a good deal and therefore you have to buy it.

My other saving grace is that I only use cash when I go to the store. If I know I only have $50.00 and I have to buy produce, meat and milk then I am going to budget in those items FIRST and the sale items next. If I miss out on a deal then IT IS O.K. BECAUSE IT WILL BE BACK IN 12 WEEKS!! Sometimes even sooner. Cereal is one item that is easy to pass on a deal for because it tends to go on sale more frequently than say pasta sauce so if I have to choose between cereal or pasta sauce and I only have 1 jar of pasta sauce in the pantry but 6 boxes of cereal that i bought from the last sale then I am going to use that money to stock up on pasta sauce.

Last but not least if it is something you have never tried but would like to then wait for it to be .50 or less because then it is like you pulled out two quarters from your change jar and if you don't like it it's not that big of a deal and if you do like it then SWEET! For example, I never buy disposable cleaning gloves because I think they are a waste of money, I have pretty good skin so cleaning doesn't bother me, but when playtex disposable gloves were on sale and I had a coupon that made them free I grabbed them because they didn't cost me anything and I do use them when I have them.

I have heard so many people tell me that they were buying things they would never use because it was on sale and I am telling you DON'T DO IT . . . JUST BACK AWAY FROM THE SALE ITEM AND SAVE YOURSELF THE $1.00. If you aren't going to use the item leave it for someone else to buy and only get what you will use.

How do you decipher between your wants and need?

My savings this week.

I usually only go to one store but this weekend I had time and both Smith's and Albertson's had things I needed so I went to both. I was very happy with both shopping trips as I got things I was running low on. I was completely out of macaroni and cheese - this is my kids favorite thing next to chicken nuggets, so I got a pack of 5. I could have saved even more if I had paid better attention because on the box of macaroni it has a coupon where you can get one free capri sunrise with the purchase of a 5 pack of macaroni - oh well. To put the Albertson's savings into perspective: the max pack of steaks without being on sale was priced at 20.05. So it's like I bought the steak full price and got everything else for .84!

What's your favorite day of the week?

When you coupon there are so many days in the week that are amazing! Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday they are all great in their own special way. Here is why I love them:

• Sunday: The morning that our bundles of gold (newspapers) come. My kids love to run outside and gather up my four Sunday papers. Then we unroll them and browse through every ad looking at all the saving possibilities that are out there this week. I especially love the Target ads! Then I gather up my Smart Source inserts, mark the date and file them away!
• Tuesday: The day the grocery ads come! Before I started couponing I would occassionally glance at them, then throw them away. I never knew what was a "good deal" so I would just make a list, run to Wal-mart, spend more than I meant to then would try to rationalize to myself and my husband why I spent way more than we budgeted and whether we really needed everything we bought. Now when I get the ads I pour every page and love every minute. On Tuesdays I try to place an order on Dede's website to get any inserts I might be missing as well, and if there is something in the ad that is really amazing then I stock up on coupons for those item as well!
• Wednesday: In the morning I wake up, feed my kids, then hop onto the Grocery Smarts website to browse through all the wonderful lists that are on there. Based on the ads I browsed through on Sunday and Tuesday I decide what lists to look at first. This morning I checked out Walgreens, Albertsons and Smiths!
  
• Thursdays: My coupon inserts arrive in the mail! That's one thing I love about Dede - she mails your coupons out usually the day you order them or the first thing the next morning so they arrive in time for you to use them with the sales! Thursday nights I also print out my lists and get my coupons ready to go.
• Friday: SHOPPING DAY!!! We wake up and get ready as fast as we can then we are off to the stores! Sometimes we just go to one store and other days we run to multiple stores. We go to Burger King for lunch (my kids love their nuggets) and enjoy some great family time. The best part is that no one is grumpy because we are SAVING MORE THAN WE SPEND AT ALL THE STORES WE GO TO!!
  

I am curious to know what your favorite day of the week is and why? Do you even bother to look at the ads or do you just hop on the website and look at the deals there?

Smith's was my pick this week

Every week I look at both the Albertsons and the Smith's lists to see who has what I want most for the week and this week Smith's had the upper hand - I got all of this yummy food (I know there is a lot of junk in there but hey there is also some healthy stuff too) for guess how much . . . go on keep guessing . . . o.k. I'll tell you . . . I SPENT $132.75 and SAVED $179.25 for a total of 58% SAVINGS. The cashier told me that I broke his record for the most saved that day! Want to know how I did it? I used the grocery smarts website and had the right number of coupons and that equaled lots of food for a little amount of money!

Why I Coupon

My husband is a man who loves to save money. He grew up in a home with seven kids and his mom stayed home as well. If he wanted a Nintendo he had to buy it with his own money which he earned by selling items, weeding gardens, mowing lawns, delivering papers, etc. Whatever he had to do to buy what he wanted he did. They never had brand name foods in his home growing up and for the most part neither did I. My husband wants to be financially secure and that is his driving force in life. I am very fortunate to have a husband like this because he has taught me how to budget, invest and save in ways that no one else has taught me. However, because he is "obsessed" (for lack of a better word) with money when we were spending way too much money on what he calls "doodads" (a Robert Kiyosaki term that refers to anything that doesn't put money back in your pocket) we started to argue. It got so bad that we went months without even talking about money because the minute he started to talk I tuned him out. I tuned him out because I felt like I was doing everything I could do and no matter what it wasn't good enough. I shopped at Wal-mart, never bought new clothes, only bought generics and rarely bought any meat except for chicken and hamburger. Finally I had enough. I suggested that we out the credit cards away (we pay them off every month but were using them like crazy) and we used cash for everything. Every week we would take out a set amount of money and that was what we had for the week. If we used all of our money on clothes for the kids we ate out of our pantry for the week even if that meant we had Top Ramen every day. The weeks we had to buy groceries I was spending all of the money we had alotted for the week and had nothing left for anything fun. Then back in February my good friend invited me to her coupon class and that changed my life!

I wasn't going to attend the class because I was nine months pregnant - I had my son 7 days later, but she was so excited and was saving TONS of money so I thought what the heck, I'll check this out. I signed up for four papers and thought we'll see how this works. For the first month I set the inserts aside and kind of glanced at the website but never did much else. Then one day I thought what the heck let's see how this works. I made up my shopping list and clipped my coupons and just hoped I did my math right because I only had about $96.00 left for the week. We went to Albertsons and bought everything on the list for about $83.00 and I saved about $83.00 I was then convinced! Since I have been using the coupons the "RIGHT" way my husband and I no longer fight about money. He comes with me every week, or stays home and entertains the kids and he is just as excited about my savings as I am. He even went shopping for me one day! We now have money to go on dates, play golf, buy new pots and pans and still get the groceries we need each week! Using coupons and the Grocery Smarts website has brought us a little closer to being more financially secure.