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!