Four Score

This week's paper had four packets of coupons. Be sure you pull all four out before recycling or you'll be sad when sale day comes and you don't have the coupons listed!

Trick of the Trade #1

One of the things I teach at my classes is tricks of the trade with coupon usage. The first trick of the trade is:

BUY IN BULK

You will typically save 10-15% when you buy in bulk at big warehouse stores. When you use coupons and combine them with sale prices at your grocery store you can expect to save 50-70% and even up to 100% at times!

I am not the only one who recommends buying things in bulk when they are on sale. I was excited to see in the Procter & Gamble booklet this past Sunday(found in the Sunday paper, once a month). They had tips from John & Kate Gosselin from TLC's John & Kate plus Eight (I love this show by the way) on how to save money. One of the tips was buy in bulk.

"If your family has must-haves, make sure you keep them in the house and buy them in bulk on sale to save."

I am not saying that Kate uses coupons to save, I have no idea. However I have found that when you can combine sale prices with coupons you save ton's more.

This is where the FREE Grocerysmarts website comes in. The website takes all the store ads and lists the sale items from each store while also listing a coupon if one is available so you get the best price possible (look for the 4-5 star items). Then you can make the decision on what your family uses and buy as much as you can while it is on sale. In one of my previous posts (you can view it here) I explained how I organize my coupons so I can find them using the code from Grocerysmarts. That information is helpful too when using Grocerysmarts.

Watch for 2 more tricks in upcoming posts.

What Happens in Vegas....

......Save in Vegas using Grocerysmarts!

If you live in the Las Vegas area you are in luck! If you would like to learn how to use the Grocerysmarts website or host a class please contact Colette Bomsta at (702)948-7200.

Visit Colette's blog

Sugar, Sugar

At a class last week a discussion was started about pantry staples on sale and if Grocerysmarts can help those who cook from scratch. One of the products mentioned was sugar. It was discussed if or even how using coupons or the website would help get a good a deal on such staples. Well, I was very pleased to see this great deal on sugar at Albertson's this week.

C&H granulated sugar 5 lb. on sale for $2.50 use this special to get the best price of $1.75, Save $3 instantly when you for every $10 you spend on participating items. Mix or Match.
then use this coupon: C&H Sugar product, 2 lbs. or larger .35/1 (10-31-08) RP-8/17
Your bottom line would then be $1.40 for 5 lbs.

If you had 5 coupons you then could buy 25 lbs. for $7!

I thought that was an awesome deal and worth mentioning. See you can use Grocerysmarts and coupons for more than just prepared foods!

Did you know that sugar is a necessary item for your long term food storage?

It is recommended that you store 39 lbs of granulated sugar per person in your household. Sugar will keep two or more years at room temperature. It's often used as a preservative, so it's no wonder that it lasts a long time. Store it in an airtight container to prevent it from hardening and clumping.

If you don't know what your family's long term needs are, I suggest you visit this awesome post from FoodStorageMadeEasy.net be sure to watch the video it is very helpful!

Freebies 9/24-9/30

It has forever since I have done this post. Sorry! Here is a list of possible free items for the week.

Albertsons

*****
"Powerade ZERO" 32 oz. Limit: 6 on sale for .69
Use coupon: Powerade or Powerade Zero, 20 or 32 oz. bottle .75/1 (10-31-08) SS-6/8 and SS-7/13
FREE

*****
Muir Glen tomatoes on sale for 1.00
Use coupon: $1/1 printable coupons at this link
FREE

*****
Nabisco snack crackers 7-10 oz.
With in-ad coupon and $25 purchase.
FREE

*****
Duncan Hines "Carrot" cake mix 18.25-18.5 oz. (**Careful, we're not sure if "Carrot cake" is included in the sale!) on sale for $1 or when you spend $10 on specified items you get a $3 discount making the price .70
Use coupon: $1/1 printable at this link.
FREE

*****
Ken's Lite Accents 7 oz. on sale for 2.00 or save $3 instantly when you for every $10 you spend on participating items making price $1.40
Use coupon: Ken’s Lite Accents Salad Dressing Spray, any 7 oz. $2/1 (9-30-08) SS-8/3
FREE

Maceys

*****

Zone Perfect Power bars on sale for $1.00
Use coupon: ZonePerfect, any single bar or multi-count box $1/1 (10-31-08) SS2-9/7
FREE

Reams

*****

Powerade Drinks 32 oz. Limit: 6 on sale for .69

Use coupon: Powerade or Powerade Zero, 20 or 32 oz. bottle .75/1 (10-31-08) SS-6/8 and SS-7/13

FREE

What Do You Think?

I've been reading my coupons and there is one little tinsy sentence that has me thinking deeply as I try to use and encourage you all to use coupons ethically and lawfully. Tell me what you think about this sentence commonly found on most coupons.

"Void if altered, copied, sold, purchased, transferred, exchanged........"

The Best Week Ever!

I wanted to post our Best Week Ever!! I probably need to add so far, as it has only been since March that I have been shopping using Grocery Smarts.

2 Home Erasers @ $1.19 each, 5 Clorox Wipes FREE, 6 409 cleaners @ $2 each, 3 Clorox bleach FREE, 7 Quaker Simple Harvest oatmeal's @ $.50 each, 20 Quaker Instant oatmeal's @ $.50 each, 3 Quaker Oatmeal To Go Bars @ $.95 each, 4 Purina Wholesome Medley dog food 7.5 lbs @ $3.99 each, 2 Clorox hard surface cleaners @ $1.25 each, 1 Cantaloupe $1.30, Green Beans $1.46

Total Spent $50.33

Total Saved $188.58

As you can see I am NOT the one who bought ALL the Electrasol before 6 am on Wednesday morning!

And NO we will not be eating oatmeal for every meal for the next year. That is what I love about this awesome way to shop. I stock up on things that our family WILL eat when they are at the most awesome price, that way we will have them around until they go on sale again. By using multiple coupons (see my side bar for multiple coupon offers) I am able to stock up on tons of food which allows enough for consumption AND food storage.

FYI: Manufacturers generally put products on sale once every three months and they usually put a coupon out about a month before the sale.

Helping Others

Coupon Moms are joining together to help orphans!

Did you know you can help orphans simply by shopping at Albertsons?! A fellow bargain-hunting-coupon-loving mom co-founded One Heart Bulgaria , an organization in aid of 22 Bulgarian orphanages. Bulgaria is a little-known country with one of the highest orphan rates in all of Europe. You can help support this effort and the Bulgarian orphans simply by registering your Albertsons Preferred Savings Card under One Heart Bulgaria. Once you do this, Albertsons will donate 4% of your eligible savings to One Heart Bulgaria in addition to giving you your own usual discounts and savings. It only takes a few minutes, here's what you do:

1.) Go to: https://shop.albertsons.com/eCommerceWeb/CommunityAction.do?action=beginCommunity (or copy and paste into your browser)

2.) click on the "Albertsons community partners" logo on the right hand side

3.) select the "shoppers" option

3.) login by using your preferred card number and the phone number your card is registered under

4.) click on "my account" on the right side of the page

5.) enter the ID # 49001013666 and select "add a partner"

Now, in this small way, whenever you buy food for yourself you will also be putting food in the belly of an orphan and love in their hearts.

Win Win

Box Top Sale at Albertsons this week is a win win situation. You save money on products you and your family will use and your schools earn cash! Here is how it works:

-Save $5 instantly when you buy ANY 10 participating General Mills Products PLUS earn 20 Bonus Box Tops for Education that print out on a store certificate.

-Get $5 off your next shopping trip when you buy $20 worth of participating Kimberly-Clark Products, coupon and Box Top Certificate will print at check out.

When looking at the items on sale always remember that it is not a good idea to stock up on 3 star or less items.

Here is what we got today:

10 Sun Maid Raisin 6 pack @$.50 each (RC), 5 Totino Pizza rolls @ $.50 each (RC), 4 Hormel Compleats @ $1.50 each, 6 Old El Paso Enchilada sauce @ $.50 each, 6 Pillsbury Sweet Rolls-Variety- @$.50 each, 6 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls @ $.50 each, 3 Betty Crocker Muffin Mix @ $1.05 each. 4 Nature Valley Granola Bars @ $.90 each, 6 General Mills cereal @ $1 Each, 1 Scott Bath Tissue FREE, 1 Real Living Magazine (a girls got to read!) $4.95, 7 Dove Extra Hold Hairspray FREE, 1 Portfolio folder $.10, 1 Lbs sliced Pepper Jack cheese $3.45, 1 Lbs sliced Marble Jack cheese $3.35

Total Spent: $51.82

Total Saved $129.86

Making my day happy PRICELESS!

To learn more about Box Tops and how they help your childs schools go to this website.

Last Minute Shopping

Today I went out for some last minute shopping before the sales change tomorrow. (The stores where getting ready for the new sale tomorrow and I can't wait to see what the red star items will be Click Here for a sneak peek!)

4 Hormel Compleats @ $1.50 each, 8 Scott Bath Tissue FREE, 3 Smart Rinse Listerine @ $2.50 each

Total Spent: $12.95

Total Saved: $32.03

Do you have......

I am looking for the coupons for Hormel Compleats meals, SS 8/17. I would be willing to trade another coupon for as many of these ones as I can get. I will be glad to pick them up from you! Email me at theobsessiveshoper@live.com. And yes, shopper is spelt wrong, so much for being obsessive!

You Are What You Eat

I had a question asked of me this week that has really been on my mind. At a class on Monday one gal asked me what we eat. I told her we try to eat semi-vegetarian. What I mean by that is that when I cook I try to only have meat every other day. We eat a lot of veggies and fruit. Cheese and milk for cereal are the basis of our dairy but not consumed in huge amounts. Truthfully some weeks we eat better than others. It depends on the work load at home, the places we need to be each night and/or my mood!

I love trying new foods and recipes-I hate repeating meals and especially having left overs. When I cook I like to try to please everyone without cooking seven separate meals, however this is almost impossible so to make it justifiable in my mind I try to customize my cooking for my family making someones favorite one day and another's the next. I want our family to cut down on processed foods and meats so instead of start World War 3 I just settle with vegetarian every other night or at least twice a week. (I sometimes just pick the meat out of my food or I don't have that piece of steak that everyone else is enjoying.)

I guess the reason I am sharing this is to tell all of you out there that you know your families best and you must be able to choose for yourselves what to feed your families. I am lucky I don't have very picky eaters and my husband is extremely supportive and rarely complains over our food choices. He told me once he really doesn't feel like he can complain since he doesn't do the cooking as long as he is fed he is happy! (I know his least favorites and I do try to keep those choices to a minimum just to be nice.)

I will share with you a few things that have really helped me in meal preparation but please feel free to do what works best for you:

• Keep a list of favorite meals in a note book, recipe book, white board etc... when your in a pinch you can always start there to decide what to make. I broke mine down into categories like: Meatless, Beef, Chicken, Pork.
• Stock up on the things that you need to make these meals. I love, love, love this Excel worksheet from the website foodstoragemadeeasy.net it helps with breaking the meals down, giving you an idea on what you need to store for 3 months.
• Instead of planning meals then looking for what is on sale I look at what is on sale or in my pantry and ask, "What can I make with that?" I use websites like Kraft, Food Network (my favs are Ellie Kreiger and Robin Miller), Family Fun and Betty Crocker as well as Google.
• I never plan what we will have on a certain day, something always comes up or maybe we (I) don't feel like Italian that night. Instead I just make a list, usually on the back of my shopping list, of meal ideas for the week. I make sure I have all the ingredients to make the meals then plug them in when I can. I only plan about 5-6 meals to make room for left over night(sometimes you just can't avoid the dreaded lefter night!) or eating out.

I hope this helps someone out there. If you have some tips that help your family please share!

I guess if it is true you are what you eat then I would say our family has multiple personality disorder!

Smelling Twice as Nice

Thanks to another Obsessive Shopper, Megan, telling me about this deal we can all have sweet smelling homes and fatter wallets!

At Wal-Mart Regular Price $4.13, with the coupon found in SS 8/3, $4 off one regular Plug-In, Expires 9/13/08

With the savings and the product your home will be smelling twice as nice!

Thanks Megan.

If any of you ever see a great deal like this let us know. You can email me or you can post it as a comment.

Focus on Food Storage

This week I noticed a lot of items on sale that would be wonderful for food storage. I did not want to overwhelm you all but I also don't want to make the decision on what was useful for your families. I decided to just highlight the food storage products on sale this week at Macey's. These items are most likely useful for your long term storage. If you are faint hearted and get overwhelmed easy, take a deep breath and just keep in mind your personal budget and the items your family uses.

Please go to the store list and look for other items that would be great with food storage. I am only showing you the items that are 4 or more stars, which means they are a great buy for Maceys.

I asked my friends at Food Storage Made Easy to help give suggestions regarding this sale.
This was their suggestion:

We would probably suggest for "beginners" to look at the following items:
-Morning Moo's Wheat 45 lb. Pail hard Red or White (3 star, but very necessary - red has a stronger taste, most people prefer white in breads)
-Morning Moo's Rolled Oats Quick or Regular 50 lb. Bag (4 star and versatile)
-Morning Moo's Vital Wheat Gluten 27 oz (4 star and great for helping make bread fluffier)
-Morning Moo's Corn Meal 72 oz. (4 star and can be used in a lot of recipes)
-Saf-Instant Yeast 16 oz. (4 star - for the bread)
-WF Sugar 25 lb. (4 star - for the bread)

We have found the first place people tend to start is figuring out how to make bread at least. You could sustain yourself for not much money with ingredients for bread. For people who are more experienced and have more of the basic needs covered, there are a lot of other food storage items such as: freeze dried fruits and veggies, potato gems, sour cream powder, honey power, egg whites, dry milk.

If you don't know what your families long term needs are I suggest you visit this awesome post be sure to watch the video it is very helpful! Thanks Julie for your help!

Freebies 8-20 thru 8-26

Albertsons

*****
Ken’s Lite Accents Salad Dressing Spray, 7 oz.
2.00
Ken’s Lite Accents Salad Dressing Spray, any 7 oz. $2/1 (9-30-08) SS-8/3
FREE

*****
Beech-Nut Stage 1 Cereal, 8 oz
.40
Beech-Nut Cereal Product, any $1/1 (9-30-08) SS-6/15
FREE

*****
Powerade 32 oz.
.69
Powerade or Powerade Zero, 20 or 32 oz. bottle .75/1 (10-31-08) SS-6/8 and SS-7/13
FREE

Harmons

*****
Powerade, 32 oz
.79
Powerade or Powerade Zero, 20 or 32 oz. bottle .75/1 (10-31-08) SS-6/8 and SS-7/13
FREE

*****
Pert Plus "With Botanical Extracts" 2 in 1 shampoo, 13.5 oz (**Careful, We're not sure if "With Botanical extracts" is included in the sale)
2.50
Pert Plus with Botanical Extracts Shampoo Plus Conditioner, any excluding trial size $3/1 (8-31-08) SS-6/29
FREE

Maceys

*****
Powerade 32 oz.
.69
Powerade or Powerade Zero, 20 or 32 oz. bottle .75/1 (10-31-08) SS-6/8 Powerade or Powerade Zero, 20 oz. or 32 oz. bottle $1/1 (11-30-08) SS-7/13
FREE

Reams

*****
Powerade 32 oz. assorted drinks
.60
Powerade or Powerade Zero, 20 or 32 oz. bottle .75/1 (10-31-08) SS-6/8 and SS-7/13
FREE

Oh Happy Shopping Day

Here are the details from today's shopping.

Albertsons

5 Jolly Time Better Butter Popcorn $.20 each (the store did not allow us to use all of our coupons and have an overage on this one :(, 5 Kraft BBQ Sauce $.50 each, 2 Lipton Dry soups $1 each, 2 Wisk Laundry Detergent $1.75 each, 2 Bertolli Frozen Entrees $3 each, 4 Cottenelle Toilet Tissue $5.24 each, Bounty Paper Towels $3.99, 16 Yoplait yogurts $.35 each, 1.87 lbs Grapes $1.83

Total Spent: $51.54

Total Saved $62.10

Extra, Extra II

This was a bonus week in the Sunday paper. We had two Smart Source books a Red Plum and a General Mills book. You will see the code for the General Mills book like this GM 8/10.

Treats for your 72 Hour kits

This week you can pick up bags of Life Savers Candy for $.75 a bag after coupon at Albertson's. I like to put these in each of my 72 hour kits. Let me explain why, it gives me a good reason to rotate my kits. You may ask why, this is what I do (at least try to do). At conference time we pull out our 72 kits and update them, check expiration dates, etc. To get the family involved I let them eat the candy that I packed the last time and replace it with the new stuff. This way everyone wants to help and we can see what we have, need and update.

Check this website, Foodstoragemadeeasy.com out for more ideas on how to make a 72 hour kit and to rotate and store them.

Shopping Day

Albertsons

4 Jolly Time Popcorn's FREE, 2 Curves Cereal @ $1.25 each, *Tide Detergent $7.49, 4 Kraft BBQ Sauce @ $.50 each, 6 *Pringles @ $.75 each, 3 *Puffs Tissues @ $.50 each, 4 Softsoap handsoap @ &.65 each, 8 Lifesavers @ $.75 each, 2 pkgs Grip pens (not shown) $1, 2 pkgs Wheat Pita Bread @ $1.50 each (not shown), 90 ct corn totillas (going to seperate and freeze) $ 2.49

Total Spent $36.26

Total Saved $61.38

*Bottom Line prince includes a $5 coupon toward our next shopping trip

Smith's

8 Malt-O-Meal Cereals FREE, 2.13 lbs of red grapes $2.13, 2 Pampers Jumbo Diapers @ $7.99 each, 4 Pampers Easy Ups @ $7.99 each, 6 loaves Grandma Sycamore Wheat bread @ $1.50 each,

Total Spent $61.61

Total Saved $61.33

Come see me at the Cache County Fair!

This weekend I will be at the Cache County Fair with a booth just for teaching people how to save money on their groceries and household items.

Come visit and enter a drawing for $100 in free groceries. Sign up to be a hostess and enter twice!

I can't wait to see you all there.