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!!!