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!