Farewell for now . . .

OK so I have been stressing and stressing and stressing and I feel horrible about doing this, but I have decided to no longer blog about the deals. I know that there are people who appreciate this Las Vegas friendly blog, but I literally am ridiculously sick lately that if I do go shopping the minute I walk in the door I am throwing up and leaving my hubby to put the groceries away. I don't feel like I am doing anybody any justice by blogging once every month and so I feel like I need to take a break for a while. For how long I am not sure.

I also feel like there are so many other amazing blogs out there that give better information and more frequent information than I do and I feel like I am letting all of my followers down every week by never updating. So I am going to refer you to another amazing Las Vegas blog which is done by the manager of the Las Vegas region. She is the Grocery Geek and between her and one other amazing lady they update their blog atleast every other day. You can check her out here.

Thank you so much to all of my faithful followers and friends that I have made. Hopefully I will start feeling better soon and can return to the wonderful world of blogging.

Do you price match?

I have recently started price matching at Wal-mart for produce. I love love love fresh veggies and fruit, but am very picky about the produce I eat. I was talking to one of my fellow couponers and she told me that she price matches her produce from the Hispanic store ads. I thought I would give it a try and I love it! There are so many good deals on produce. Some of the items I picked up this week were:

6 lbs of oranges for .97
4 lbs of roma tomatoes for .99
3 iceberg lettuce for .99
cucumbers for .50
10 lbs of watermelon for .99

Right now I am going through the best part of pregnancy (morning sickness, which is not only in the morning but all day and night) and the idea of eating anything is absolutely revolting. Especially if I have to open my mouth too wide to eat it. So I have been eating a lot of finger foods and produce hits the spot perfectly for me, so it is nice that I can have a ton of produce for a little amount of money every week.

Some tips on price matching:

Learn the stores policy before attempting this. Often it is found on the stores website. Currently at the Wal-mart next to my house they have a display of all of the ads in circulation and they will cross out any items that they will not price match.

Wal-mart will not allow you to price match and use a coupon for the same item, so I still go to Smith's and Albertson's to hit their promotions or pick up any item that is on sale with a coupon. I mainly just price match produce, meat and dairy.

You don't have to have 6lbs of oranges to get the rate - the store will figure out what it is per lb and then weigh and charge you accordingly. One time I got 3 jalapenos to make pico de gallo for .01

I make a list of all items I am buying and how much the item is and what store ad I found that price in and I bring all ads in the store with me. I have never had to show the person the ad, but I still bring it just in case someone asks I am prepared.

I put all items I am price matching at the end of the belt and tell the cashier immediately that I will be price matching, these seems to be the least stressful way of doing this so I am not holding up the line at all.

Typo on Smiths ad

so if you are like me and was super excited to see cereal for forty eight cents a box, then like me you will be disappointed to learn that it was a typo and cereal is two ninetynine a box.

however, there are still some killer deals at smiths so check out grocerysmarts lists and have fun shopping. i stocked up on powerades, sunnyd, sobes, and sodas. no one will be thirsty at my house.

btw if you are wondering why my grammar is so horrible i am typing this on my phone.

Busy Busy Busy

I feel like I am always apologizing for the lack of posts and for that I am truly sorry, but life has been so hectic lately that even though I have been scoring some great deals I haven't had the time to share any of them.

Some of the things that have been keeping me busy are:
1. a trip to Idaho for a week
2. Our ward being dissolved and we were realigned into a new ward. I was the first counselor in the Primary presidency and didn't lose my calling (there are currently two first counselors) and there are 90 kids in the primary so we have been trying to figure out all of the logisitics of that.
3. My daughter was in her first dance concert at Cashman Field, and we had rehearsals every Friday, dance class every Saturday and the week of the show we had rehearsal Wednesday, Thursday, and then Friday was the show, then on Saturday my cousin was married.
4. On top of all of this I just found out that I am expecting our final baby! I am only six weeks along and am EXHAUSTED! Literally I could sleep all of the time.

Life has finally calmed down and looking at the ads this week there are some killer deals, if I were I would be checking out Grocery Smarts tomorrow (especially the Smith's ad) and check here throughout the day where at some point I will be putting together a list of my picks!

Free Tortillas at Albertsons

Mission Tortillas are on sale at Albertson's for 1.49, and in this Sunday paper there were coupon doublers for Albertson's and in the Smart Source in that same Sunday paper there is a coupon for .75/1 Mission Flour Tortillas. When you combine both that coupon and the doubler at Albertson's it makes the tortillas FREE! I picked up 4 of them yesterday all for free!

Coupon Class

*updated email address, I typed it in wrong, sorry!

I will be having a coupon class at my house on
Saturday August 14, 2010.

If you are interested in coming to learn how using coupons will save you a TON of money please
email me at

frugallivininglv@yahoo.com
and I will give you more details!

New email address

I have a new email address for this blog, it is frugallivininglv@yahoo.com feel free to email me anytime about any questions!

RJ Issues

I have been meaning to do this post for AGES! I get calls and emails all the time about having issues or questions about their papers. Unfortunately, most of the time I can't really help since I don't technically work for the paper. I simply process your orders. Once they are turned in, they are out of my hands. However, I understand the frustration that can come if your papers aren't delivered properly (we NEED our coupons dang it!), or you have issues upon renewal. After some research, I found that the RJ online is SO easy and a great way to ease those frustrations. Below is a little tutorial on how to register online and manage your account. I really hope this helps! Thanks!!

Step #1 - Go to www.lvrj.com and click on the link at the to of the page that reads "Subscribe or Manage your account"

Step #2 - Click to Register

Step #3 - Locate your account by entering in 2 pieces of information. You don't even need your account number! Just try your phone number and/or house number and/or zip and/or last name. Any 2 will do. Then enter your email address and create a password. Super easy!!

Step #4 - Managing your account. When all your info pulls up you should have 2 accounts. The first is your account if you already had one before adding more Sunday papers. If you signed up at a class, this is your $45.50 account. The next account is for you additional Sunday Only papers at $19.50 each.

Now, the cool part!! On the left side (circled in red) are some really neat options.

Vacation holds - remember how the paper doesn't have coupons on holidays? Just click on that tab and set your delivery date you want for the hold (the next one will be July 4th). SUPER simple, right?!

Service Issues - You can send them a note if your paper came delivered wet, late, or was missing the coupon inserts or heaven forbid they delivered the wrong amount of papers. You can even send a message to the carrier. So handy - and I am pretty sure this is a new option.

I sure hope this helps! Happy Couponing everyone!!

p.s. if you click on the images above, you can see them full size

I scored at Albertsons!

This week I scored at Albertsons! I spent 52.77 and saved 113.19! $48.85 of the savings was in coupons alone!!! So what did I buy? I will tell ya:

Refer here for a printable shopping list and reference of where coupons are located

5 John Freida hair products - used $2/1 coupon from SS
5 John Freida Root Awakening hair products - used $3/1 coupon from SS (this is not on the list but these products are on sale as well and the coupon is next to the $2/1 coupon)
4 Jello mix - used 4 .50/2 coupon from SS
5 Kraft salad dressings - used 5 $1/1 coupons from SS
4 Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce - used 4 $2/1 coupons from SS
2 Kraft Mayo's - used 1 1.50/2 coupon found in SS - 6/20
4 12 packs of coke
1 quilted northern bath tissue
1 15 lb watermelon.

Today is the last day you can take advantage of this amazing sale so get off the computer and get shopping!

wow 2 weeks in a row

After looking at both the Albertsons and Smiths List I am way excited - THERE ARE A TON OF GOOD DEALS!!! The best part is that there are a ton of coupons from the Smart Source which makes having multiple coupons sooooo worth it! I haven't been posting pictures lately of my shopping trips because of the heat I just want to hurry and get my food put away before it spoils but this week I will make a list of what I purchased and how much I saved - it is going to be amazing!

Smiths is AMAZING

Finally something worth blogging about is going on! Smith's is doing an amazing coupon promo!! All coupons are worth $1.00!!!!! That equals killer savings! Can you imagine how much you are going to save just by having four of each coupon? A TON!!!!!!

Albertson's has doublers!

So as I walked into Albertson's this week I spotted a packet of store coupons so of course I grabbed one and noticed that on the back there are 2 coupon doublers! You can only use two per transaction so that's what I did, I added it to the $1/1 Handover pretzel coupon and was able to get two of them for only .50! Not too shabby huh. I was too hot when I got home from grocery shopping so I didn't take a picture, I just put the groceries all away and hopped in the pool but here is what I picked up . . .

4 bags Malt o Meal cereal - after store coupon .50 each
10 weber Marinades - after $1/2 coupon from SS FREE
5 Hunts Pudding Pack - after promo .80 each
2 Papa Tortillas - 1.49 each
5 Hunt's Ketchup - after promo and .20/1 coupon from SS .60 ea
1 Albertson's olives - 1.29 each
1 Vanilla Coke Zero 12 pack - used catalina coupon from previos week - free
4 bags Handover Pretzels -after $1/1 coupon from SS 1.50 each (used two doublers making 2 .50 each)
5 Hunts Spaghetti Sauce - after promo .80 each
5 Banquet Chicken Nugget Meals - after promo .80 each

Total After Coupons and Promotions - $28.84 Saved $44.39

Great article for you to check out.

For those of you who want to learn more about shopping at the drugstores (CVS/Walgreens) I recommend checking out this article at money saving mom's website. It is a great start to help you feel better prepared. Just remember when you are looking at nonVegas websites their deals are different than ours, but the principles are still the same. Happy learning!

NO COUPONS TODAY

Due to Memorial Day there will be no coupon inserts in today's paper. But flip through the ads and see if there are any major sales you want to take advantage of this weekend!

Incredible Opportunity for you!

Have you been wanting to learn more about how to save money at the grocery store? Have you been saving money at the grocery store and now you want all of your friends to be able to save like you? Well you are in luck. The owner of grocery Smarts is in Las Vegas and he is an AMAZING instructor and he has offered to teach any class in Las Vegas as long as you have 8 or more NEW moms (meaning they aren't doing grocery smarts already) at your class! So if this is an opportunity you want to take advantage of call me NOW!!! His schedule and mine are filling up fast and I really don't want you to miss out on this opportunity.

The same hostess incentives that are offered will be offered to you, which is a box of brownies and a drink mix for your party, invitations, and a letter explaining what to expect and what he needs from you. Then at the class you will receive a surprise gift and a $3 gift card per family that signs up for the paper. If all eight ladies sign up for the paper that would be a $24 gift card for you to Albertsons!

I don't think I can stress enough to you the value of having the owner teach you and your friends how to shop smart so call or email me and let's get you on the calendar!

Cell: 375-1445
Home: 362-8959
email: tkmiller81002@yahoo.com

I only have a few dates left so call today!

$50 or less shopping trip

Here are some ideas for a $50 or less shopping trips for Smith's and Albertson's

Smith's
8 corn on the cob .25 ea
1 Tomatoes on the vine - 1.50 ea
2 Kroger Chicken Boneless Chicken Breasts - 6.96 ea.
2 Kroger Cream Cheese - .88 ea
4 Coke 12 packs - 2.50 ea
8 Nabisco Crackers - 1.67 ea use 4 $1/2 Nabisco Crackers SS 5/16
4 Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce 1.00 ea. use 4 $1/2 Sweet Baby Rays BBQ SS 5/23
3 Cool Whip Dips .99 ea
2 gallons 1% Mountain Dairy Milk 2.09 (approx)
1 gallon whole mountain dairy milk 2.29 (approx)
1 dozen smith's eggs - .88
Total: 50.86 - I have a $5 off catalina from the water promotion from last week so I will use that and my total will be $45.86

Albertsons:
2 lbs grapes .89
1 cucumber .79
2 bell peppers .79
2 Moran's Hamburger Patties 5.99 ea
8 weber marinade mix use 4 $1/2 Weber Seasoning Grinder or Marinade SS 5/23
4 coke 12 packs 2.50
1 free hillshire farm smoked sausage free when you purchase 4 12 packs coke.
Total: 30.05

Happy Shopping Everyone!

Albertsons or Smith's

So I just checked out Albertsons and Smiths lists and I have no idea which one to pick from, they both are having great sales sooooo I am probably going to go to both and stock up on some much needed groceries. I am loving Smith's water sale and I am loving that Albertsons has mission tortillas on sale . . . oh it is going to be hard to stay within budget this week there is so much I want :). I will let you know what I decide on whenever I get around to deciding!

No major savings this week

So this week I went to Smith's with my family and the problem with that is when you are thinking I am only going to spend x amount of dollars but you have more than that in your wallet, it is easier to say yes to things you don't have planned out. So I ended up spending about 94.00 and saved 50 which isn't bad - especially considering the fact that smith's is a lower priced store so the savings are rarely as big as albertsons. But I did take advantage of the P&G promo and bought

2 pampers cruisers diapers
2 tide laundry detergents
2 olay quench body washes
2 olay quench body lotion

And even though these alone were forty something dollars combined - I love these products so I didn't mind splurging on a good product that will last a while

I am back and ready for action!!!

My Hubby and I having a blast together!

The beautiful ocean

Well after a week of preparing for my amazing cruise, a week of enjoying an amazing cruise and a week of detox from an amazing cruise I am back and ready to get back in the coupon groove! It was nice to go on a vacation and reconnect with the love of my life and experience another culture, but it is also nice to be home! My calendar is completely booked for the rest of May but if you are interested in learning more about saving money on groceries give me a call and we can definitely set something up for you!

Also - I hope you are all taking advantage of the amazing sale at Albertson's this week! There are a lot of catalinas printing out for ice cream - much appreciated with this warm weather - and cereal - by the way there is an additional $3.00 off you next shopping order catalina that prints out when you buy four boxes of Kellogg's cereal so you actually get $7.00 off your next shopping order - not bad huh! I did two transactions of the skinny cow and haagen daaz ice cream special - I love the small little cups because then I don't overeat :), then did the kelloggs promotion and used all of the catalinas I received from those first three purchases to buy all my necessities like meat, cheese, bread and produce - not bad! You've got one day left so if you haven't taken advantage of the sale I highly recommend you do!

If you need more papers, are interested in booking a class, or have a question please don't hesitate to call me! 702-375-1445 or email me at tkmiller81002@yahoo.com! I look forward to hearing from you!

Out to Sea

I just wanted to let you all know that I am off to Mexico in a few days and since I will be busy getting my house in order, preparing menu plans, packing, etc. I know I won't be posting anything this week and obviously I won't be posting anything while on vacation - so happy shopping!!! See you all next month!

Haven't been doing a lot of grocery shopping

For those of you who may be frustrated with me because I haven't posted pics of my shopping trips lately it is because I haven't been grocery shopping in two weeks! I am going to go this week to buy a few essentials - like the Hunt's pasta sauce, some peanut butter (I know it's not a four star deal, but we go through peanut butter like most families go through toilet paper), definitely getting some Life cereal and granola bars and milk of course! Other than that I am pretty well stocked up.

I also am saving as much of my spending money as I can because I am heading off to Mexico on the 25th and I wanted a new wardrobe for that and I want to bring as much extra cash as I can because my hubby has me on a strict credit card budget so this way i can still have fun and not stress over the end bill! That is the beauty of coupon shopping, I can take two weeks off and still be o.k.!

Another and final reason I have been M.I.A. on here is that I have a started a new business selling Premier Designs jewelry, which is high fashion jewelry, and I have been crazy busy getting all of that stuff organized so now I am good to do to do coupon classes AND jewelry parties (separate of course)!


I also know that you guys love to get ideas for the week so if anyone has any killer ideas on how to save mega bucks leave a comment and put your list on there, or your shopping trip. If you want to take a picture, email me the picture and all of the details (how much you spent/saved) and I will happily post it on here.

Quaker Promotion

O.k. ladies and gents the reports I am getting from people who have done the quaker promotion is that you can only buy 5 per day, so you cannot roll the transaction! The sale is probably linked to your card so if you do another transaction it will charge you full price.

Bye Bye Dollar Stores

BIG Changes are happening at the RJ this past week. If you look closely at your Sunday paper, you may have noticed the price has increased from $2.50 to a full $3.00! Another BIG change you may not have noticed is that the RJ is no longer available at the Dollar Stores around town!

Why am I so excited about this!?! Well, because OUR price has not increased at ALL! I used to get excited to tell people at my classes that we can offer the Sunday Only paper at about a 60% discount off the regular price... well, my fellow couponers, our savings is now closer to 70%! (68% to be exact). Don't you just love a good sale?!!

Now, there may be some of you out there who have been Dollar Store faithfuls and getting your coupons there - I know you're out there. How would you feel about paying LESS than $1 each for your coupons now? AND they come to YOU every week!!

Call me anytime to place your order, or you can check out my new Online Order Form and you can start receiving your papers in just a few weeks!! Even better - why don't you host a class!! Remember at the classes I can offer you a gift card to Albertsons to help offset the cost of your subscriptions & you can earn more great prizes. Check out these posts for more info on how easy it is to host a class.

I can't wait to help you start SAVING big money - call me today!

I love Albertsons

Sorry the picture isn't the best but here is my shopping trip from today! I spent $45.31 and SAVED $101.57! The chips, lunchables, crystal lights, 5 can of dog food and 3 gallons of milk were all FREE after coupons!

Just a few shopping tips this week

We have had a major run of the allergies this past week and have felt very unmotivated to do much, but today I am feeling good so as soon as I get ready for the day I am off to the store to do some shopping! As I was printing out my list this morning I was thinking about some things I could post about and I had these two thoughts running through my head . . .

1. DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE COUPON DOUBLERS!!! You can get chips, lunchables, crystal light, canned fruit etc for free this week by using the Albertson's coupon doublers! They are good for two weeks so it is up to you if you want to use them all this week or hold on to them until the next weeks sale. I am going to use all of mine today so I have extra money to shop for the easter bunny :).

2. The only rule with the coupon doublers is that you can only use 3 per transaction and they can't match higher than a dollar.

3. At Smith's Tresemme is on sale and if you are at Smith's you will see that the Tresemme Naturals are also on sale. There is a $1.00/1 coupon in the 3/21 SS so you can use that and make the Tresemme products 1.88 - not bad!

Hope this helps everyone this week - I will make to sure to remember to post my shopping trip when I get home!

Triple Perks in the sunday paper!

Yesterday in the paper there were some great perks! First there were 2 smart sources to be found because next week there won't be any inserts due to Easter. The next thing I found was an Albertson's Ad filled with store coupons and three coupons to match the coupons you already have!!! These coupons are good until April 13th so we have some time to use them. The best part is that because I get four papers I now have 12 coupons I can use to match other coupons and I received 8 smart sources! Not too bad.

New Phone Number

I have a new cell phone number so if you need to get in contact with me you can reach me at 702-375-1445.

My picks for the week

One thing I always think about while I am planning my shopping trip is first how much money am I wanting to spend on groceries. A lot of my budget is based on what I need to spend money on other than groceries, for example this weekend I am taking my kids to Chuck - E- Cheese for a nephews birthday so I am going to spend money on that, we are going to order the UFC fight and have a party where we are providing the burgers so I am going to have to spend money on the fight and on the fresh condiments to go on the burgers so I need to make sure I have money for that before I make sure I have money to go crazy on killer deals.

Once I have a budget in mind I look at my fridge and pantry to see what I need to buy. Every week I have to buy bread, eggs, fresh produce, and 6 gallons of milk (yes we drink that much milk in our house). Then if there are any ingredients I might be low on I will plan for those as well. As nice as it is that pizza is a killer deal if I spend a majority of my budget on that and am therefore unable to buy the necessities then I blew it. You have to plan for the necessities first always and then what is left in your budget you can use to stock up on the killer deals.

With all of that in mind, that is why I love Smith's. They are notorious for running a promo for two weeks running, so the first week they have a sale I buy the most important items, like the killer deal on kid's toothpaste, and then the next week I will buy more of my wish list items. Albertson's never has the same deal two weeks in a row so when they have a killer promotion I will do the majority of my stocking up at Albertsons.

This week I am going to be picking up toilet paper, paper towels, and crystal light at Albertsons and then I am going to head on over to Smith's and pick up some apple juice, poptarts, digiorno pizza and some Tresemme.

What are you going to pick up this week?

The lists are up

The lists are up for Albertsons and Smith's now. I will post my picks tomorrow!

Sorry for the delay . . .

The Grocery Smarts listmaker lives in UT and if she doesn't get her ads in the mail then she can't make the lists. This week that is what happened so if you go to check out the Albertsons and Smith's lists and there isn't anything there that is why. I will be watching the lists like a hawk today to see when they are posted and then I will let you all know!

CVS 101 part 2

This is a continuation of last weeks CVS 101 article and is more for novice CVS users. You have your card now and have attempted at least on trip to CVS. Now for a few more tips

There are a lot of blogs out there that do weekly CVS deals, the most popular is the $5 CVS challenge found on many blogs, but you have to be careful when planning out these trips because every region (Utah, California, Texas, etc) has VERY different coupons delivered to them so it may get frustrating when you are trying to plan out your shopping trips because the scenarios just won't work for Las Vegas. I am thinking about starting a $5 CVS challenge specifically for Las Vegas so if you would be interested in participating in these leave me a comment, if there is enough interest then I will do it.

The single best place to find the best deals for CVS for our region is GrocerySmarts because they have a list of all of the coupons we have available to us!

There is a coupon printer at the store, they look like the price scanners at Target, and if you swipe your card under it then coupons will print out of the machine! You can use these at the store the same day you get them!

There are two ways to shop at CVS the first one and most complicated is to roll your transactions. I try to never do more than three transactions in one shopping trip in order to save my sanity. The idea behind rolling is to recycle all earned ECB's back into subsequent transactions, leaving the store with no ECB's. It is best to have your highest earning ECB's in your first transaction, but try to spend the least amount of money as possible.

The second way to shop is where you complete your purchase with only one transaction and then use the ECB's on next week's trip.

At the bottom of your receipt it will summarize which deals have reached their limits (some are more than advertised)

Just a little FYI

If you are headed out to Smith's this week to take advantage of their madness promotion then be aware that you can only do up to 3 $4.00 off instantly at checkout per transaction. So if you are planning on purchasing more then split them up!!

CVS 101 part 1

This is going to be a three part post with one new post each week. This post is dedicated to those of us who are newbies and don't typically shop at CVS. CVS is a great place to stock up on every day household and hygiene items for a small amount of money and rewards!!!

The first thing you need to do is to get a CVS card and make sure it's registered online to your name, address and email.

After you have received your card go here to read about all the benefits of having a card and also a list of FAQ's.

Next understand the lingo. Just like Albertson's and Smith's CVS runs promotions where you can earn money off your next purchase. These are called ECB's or Extra Care Bucks. These are like store coupons and can be combined with manufacturer coupons. They do expire so watch the expiration dates!!!

You can earn ECBs by purchasing certain products, quarterly rewards (2% of spending) and filling prescriptions.

You can find the ECB deals in weekly ads and in the monthly ad and also on the grocery smarts website!

Busy Busy Busy

Life has been crazy busy lately with my new calling and my new goal of teaching at least four classes a month so again I apologize for the lack of posts but I wanted to give you a quick run down of my killer deal at Albertsons this week!

Last week I was feeling kind of lazy and didn't want to roll my transactions because that would require more effort than I wanted to put into my shopping trip. So I bought everything on one transaction and after it was all said and done I spent about $80.00 and walked out with $22.50 in catalinas to use for the next week.

So this week I was looking at the sales and nothing really super popped out at me, except for the chill promo going on at Albertsons so I decided I would use my catalinas and coupons to pay for the items I wanted in the chill promo and then use the catalina I received from that to pay for my miscellaneous items so here is what I bought (sorry for no picture)

4 boxes of Red Baron french bread pizzas
4 Healthy choice frozen dinners
2 breyers ice cream (this is my family's favorite ice cream especially the triple chocolate so YUMMY!!!)

After coupons this came to exactly 22.50 so I used my catalinas and it made all of that FREE
I the received a $10.00 catalina and bought

1 roast
3 taco seasoning packets
6 candy bars/ m&m's that were on sale for .50

That equaled out to $10.07 so I used my catalina and bought all of the ingredients listed above for only .07!!!!

Not too bad huh!

THE EARNING POTENTIAL IS UP TO YOU!!

How would you like to receive a minimum of a $6 gift certificate to Albertsons and a maximum of as high as you want? All you have to do is host a class, invite your friends, coworkers, church members, relatives, running buddies, etc. over to your house, which I am sure you do on a regular basis already, and invite me over as well to teach the people you love and care about how to save MEGA BUCKS at the the grocery store! Literally the only thing you have to do is invite your friends over and I do the rest!

In fact I will even provide the dessert and drink! I will then give you a $3 gift certificate to you for every household that orders the paper from your class! I will also surprise you with another gift just for you during my presentation.

I promise your friends and family will be grateful for you inviting them over to learn how to save them money! So call me today to book your class!

As an added bonus if you book your class for either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week I will also give you the book Shop Smart, Save More which is full of couponing tips and recipes! This is a must have book for serious couponers!

Call Today my schedule is filling up fast! 702-362-8959!!!

P&G INSERT THIS SUNDAY!!!

I just found out from a little birdie that there will be a Proctor & Gamble insert in this Sunday's paper!!! I am so excited!!!! because I get four papers so I will receive 4 P&G inserts on sunday which is AWESOME!!!

Albertsons is AMAZING this week!

If you haven't had a chance to check out the lists this week then you better hurry over and check out the Albertson's list! There are three amazing promos this week and a sweet 8 hour promo sale on Thursday as well! If you don't get the P&G inserts be sure to head over to Coupons by Dede and order them right now they are only .35 an insert!

Also if you check out here you can find even more great promo's and hints for shopping the sales this week!

Happy Shopping!

p.s. be on the lookout tomorrow for a $50.00 or less shopping example . . .

It's a breakfast kind of day

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and if you took advantage of the sale at Albertson's this past week you definitely won't be hurting for breakfast food for a while!

Today I went to Albertson's and picked up the following items:

8 boxes of frozen Aunt Jemima waffles
2 boxes of Frozen Aunt Jemima breakfast entrees
13 boxes of General Mills cereal (lucky charms, cheerios, reese's puffs, cinnamon toast crunch)
2 Grands biscuits
2 boxes of BarS Corn Dogs
1 Orbit pack of gum

I picked up all of this for only $37.30 and saved 56.75!!! Hurry in to Albertson's before the sale ends it goes till midnight!!!

20% off any frozen pizza on Fridays At Albertsons

Did you know that every Friday Albertsons runs a promo where you can get 20% off any frozen pizza? If you are ever thinking about picking up some frozen pizza the best time to do it is on Fridays at Albertsons. Match it up with a Manufacturer coupon and you can save BIG!

I love being stocked up!!

So after looking at both the Albertson's and Smith's list this week I realized that the only thing I really need is Milk and fresh veggies soooo guess what that means? It means I will spend at most $40.00 this week on necessities and I have $140.00 to spend on whatever I want, hmmm the possibilities are endless, in fact I think hear Kohl's and Ross calling my name . . .

What are you going to splurge on this week?

How did you do?

So because I stocked up so much last week I didn't really buy a lot this weekend, just the necessities with a few stock up items - I love the Tyson anytizers that were on sale this week. So I was wondering how you guys did? What were your costs and savings? I am dying to hear!!

Huge Savings over the weekend!

This weekend I went first to Albertsons to take advantage of their amazing soda and produce deals! I bought 8 2 litres of Coke, 2 heads of lettuce (1 romaine, 1 iceburg), 1 3 lb bag of onions, 1 1 lb bag of baby carrots, 2 Rootbeer 2 litres, 2 boxes of popcorn and 4 12 packs of 7-up brand sodas. After we rang up these transactions we received a catalina for a FREE pack of albertsons brand diapers so of course we ran back to the diaper aisle and grabbed a bag of diapers, then after we bought those another catalina printed out for $4.00 off the same diapers so we went back and grabbed another pack of diapers. After all that we walked out of Albertsons spending 32.54 and saving 62.44!!

After we went to Albertsons we went to Smiths for their HUGE stock up sale and well you can just look at the picture to see what all we bought for 110.09! We saved $138.98 and walked out with 2 carts full of food and beverages! One trick I use when planning out my buy ten get $5 off transactions is I create an excel spreadsheet where I list the quantity I am buying, the item, the price of the item before the coupon but after the promo and the value of the coupon. This way as I make adjustments to the quantities I want to buy I can make sure I am still buying within groups of ten and it is easier to look at while I am at the store. I still bring the grocerysmarts lists so I can make sure I grab the right items!

So after all is said and done I spent a total of $142.63 and saved $201.42! I spent more than I normally do but I didn't have anything else I needed to spend money on this week so I splurged!

Value of the Newspaper

I have had several people tell me that they use more printable coupons than they do from their paper. Some weeks that may be the case, however this week that is definitely NOT the case! After making my list and clipping my coupons I found that I am using $26.75 worth of coupons just from the paper and ONLY $1.00 from the online coupons! Considering the fact that I get one additional subscription to the newspaper for less than $20.00, this week alone I more than paid for one 6 month additional subscription and a fourth of another paper!! Now some of the coupons you could print or clip, and when deciding which one to do for me, I always think that it is better to clip then print because I have already spent money to get the coupon in the paper and to print it costs extra money (ink and paper) so I will always clip it first and then if I want more then I will print the coupon.

As a side note for those of you who are using coupons from the paper watch the expiration dates some of them expire SUNDAY!!

FAQs of Printable

Printable coupons are one of the easiest ways to begin couponing because you don't have to wait for a paper to come, you just have to go to the grocerysmarts website and click clip and print and you have a coupon. Sounds easy enough right? Well actually you will be surprised by how much drama these coupons can cause if you don't know some simple facts about them.

1. The best way to guarantee that you will have access to a printable coupon when you need it is to print it the minute you see it!! The reason this is is because manufactureres will release a set number of online coupons (like 50,000) and as soon as that number is reached the manufacturer will pull the coupon from the website it is located on. So if you see a 1.00 of Wanchai Ferry coupon and you think hey I might want to try that but it's not on sale print it anyway because it doesn't cost much to print and if Wanchai Ferry goes on sale two weeks later the coupon may have also disappeared two weeks later! So if you think you might want it print it the minute you see it! This is what happens when on the grocerysmarts website it says coupon is on this link and you go to the link and the coupon isn't there, it is because it has been pulled from the internet.

2. To save yourself money in ink the best way to print a printable coupon is to set your printer settings to print in black and white only (no one cares about the colors they just need the barcode) and to put it on the lowest setting available. I have a Lexmark printer and so the lowest option for me is to set my printer to quickprint. This will save you loads because it uses the least amount of ink as possible!

3. You can only print 1 or 2 printable coupons from your computer!! This is important because in the Grocery Smarts class I teach that you need to have 1 coupon per consumer in your home however the most you can print out of a printable at one computer is 2. This is to ensure that the coupon can go out to a lot of people instead of one person printing out 20 and others feeling frustrated.

4. If your printer jams up you are out of luck, because the website will read it as though you have already printed it so make sure your printer is functioning properly before you select print.

5. I have only had about an 80% success rate with printables so I don't rely on them. Once upon a time I felt like I was saving more with the printables than with my newspaper but now I hardly ever print out printable coupons and am saving just as much as before. The only guaranteed coupon is the one that comes in the mail or the newspaper.

I do not return phone calls in regards to printable coupons because it is not something I have control over so if you have any questions about printables that I didn't talk about here leave a comment and I will answer it to the best of my ability!

There is a new Proctor & Gamble out

For those of you who are lucky enough to get the proctor and gamble insert in the mail you should have received one today, if you aren't one of the lucky ones (like I used to be) then have no fear you can head on over to coupons by dede (see the link on the right side) and you can order as many as you want!

I scored at Albertsons!

We were running low on fruit snacks and cereal and now we are well stocked on the above items! I did 3 transactions and spent 52.68 and saved 89.61! I went over to Smiths to pick up milk and produce items because well let's be honest here they are cheaper and I spent 30.00 on that (plus I picked up 4 bags of hostess donuts and refried beans and hunts spaghetti sauce since they were such a good deal!) Not bad to spend a little over $80.00 at two stores for a ton of groceries!

Want to teach your friends and family members how to save like I am? Give me a call or shoot me an email I am looking to book classes for January and February and the new hostess incentives are AMAZING!!!

email: tkmiller81002@yahoo.com
phone: 362-8959

Alphabetical Coupon Index . . .

Have you ever needed to buy something but it wasn't on sale and you didn't want to go through every one of your coupon inserts to see if you had a coupon for it? Well luckily for you Grocery Smarts has this wonderful thing on their website called an Alphabetical Coupon Index. This is a list of every good (meaning nonexpired) coupon that has been distributed to the Las Vegas valley either in the Smart Source (SS), the Red Plum (RP), the General Mills (GM), or the Proctor & Gamble (P&G) inserts. It doesn't matter when the coupon came out if it hasn't expired then it will be on this list!

This is a great tool because let's say I am out of shampoo and it isn't on sale but I don't want to pay full price for it, then all I have to do is click on the alphabetical coupon index link at the top of the home page and it will display a list of all coupons in suprise alphabetical order! I can then scroll down to say the H's for Herbal Essence and it will show me if there is a coupon available and what insert I can find it in. I can then go to that coupon clip it and head on over to Wal-mart to pick up some shampoo. The items are listed by brand name and not by type so if you need toilet bowl cleaner you are going to need to know the brand name. i.e. scrubbing bubbles, to see if there is a coupon for it.

Now obviously if this item is not on sale then I am not going to stock up on the shampoo by using all of my coupons but I will buy one to get me by until it goes on sale at a great price!

Triple Bonus!!!

Did you guys see that there are THREE coupon inserts in todays paper? That is triple the savings in just one week! Also in one of the smart sources it has my FAVORITE coupon of all time . . . 2.50 off of electrasol dishwashing tablets, SWEET!

If you didn't receive these inserts in your paper today go ahead and give the RJ a call at 383-0400 and they will redeliver your papers for you!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wow can you guys believe it is the new year already? It seems like last year flew past us and now it is 2010!! I personally love January because it gives me the opportunity to reflect on the previous year and see what accomplishments I have made and what I need to improve upon. Last year the two best things that happened to me were the birth of my adorable Owen and the opportunity I had to attend a couponing class. Both of these events happened for me in February and literally changed my life! Before attending the coupon class every time the idea of spending money, getting out of debt, saving, investing, anything to do with money was literally a fight and now, because I am able to save so much money on the daily necessities we no longer argue about what to buy or when to buy it. Not only that but we have so much more fun as a family because every week we have money to take the kids and do something enjoyable!

At the beginning of last year I was taking out $260.00 every week for my family of four and most weeks that entire amount was spent on groceries and household items. After attending my very first grocery smarts class I was able to not only buy groceries and household items with that amount, but was also able to buy clothes, toys, take the kids out to eat, go to movies etc for the same amount.

Now 10 months after attending a coupon class I am taking out $180 a week, putting 20 a week in savings and still have a STOCKED house!! I am still able to go buy a new pair of shoes if I desire, order out some pizza hut or even take the kids out to Chuck E Cheese!

I honestly believe in the power of goal setting and plans to go with this goal so I want to encourage you to set your own goals this year in specific regards to financial goals and determine how you can attain those goals. Is your goal to spend less money every week or is it to be able to spend the same amount you are already spending and just stock up and build a year supply of storage?

I would love to hear what your goals are so leave me a note and hopefully I can help you achieve it!