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!!