Smith's and Albertson's in one Day!

I don't have pictures but I had to drop into both Smith's and Albertson's for a few deals before we leave on our trip.

Smith's
Cost : $24.65
Saved : $12.60
Spent : $12.05 51% savings

Got
4 boxes swiss ms hot chocolate
2 boxes fruit snacks
6 2lts of Pepsi
1 box pop tarts
(all things that will be going on our trip with us...well maybe not all of it...)

Albertsons
Cost : $19.95
Saved : $15.00
Spent : $4.95 75% savings

5 boxes of Tyson Chicken appetizers - 3 wings and 2 chicken fries
(these will be easy dinner tonight or tomorrow before we leave)

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!! I will be back to couponing hard core in January. I am however taking my coupons with me in case I can find some good deals while I'm in Michigan!!

Today's Savings!!

Smiths

Cost $44.89
Saved $24.54
Spent $20.35

The cupcakes, buddy bars, and baby food were all FREE!!!

Today's Savings!!

Walgreens

Cost $78.80
Saved $57.67
Spent $21.13 plus I have $2 in rewards to use on my next trip

Giving Back to Others

I love this Thanksgiving / Christmas time of year!! Being able to give to others seems to be the focus of this time of year. As I try to give to others year round I have noticed a change this year in my own life.

God has blessed me in so many ways with Grocery Smarts and one of those ways is I am able to donate more this season.

There is a Military Family on our base that had a house fire this week. Typically when things like this come up my family doesn't have the money or extra food to donate because we were living so pay check to pay check that there wasn't room to do what in my heart I wanted to help other families. Not this year!!! I'm going to be able to go to my pantry and collect a few bags of food for this family in need and still have more than enough food for my family!!

God's blessing keep coming and sometimes he blesses me and my family by allowing us to be able to bless others!!

Have a blessed week and take a few moments to bless someone in your life this week!!

My Kid's

Thought I would share a cute picture of my kids!!

Haleigh is 7 and a vampire...go figure
Austin is 6 and Thomas
Madison is 2 and is a kitty cat

Today's Savings!!

Smiths
Cost : $212.66
Savings : $144.03 67% savings
Spent : $68.63
(had 82 items so it averaged to $.81 per item!!)

A few highlights:

- Ricola's were FREE!!!
- Tylenol PM and Extra Strengths were $1.50 each
- Tylenol 8HR Aches & Pains were $.50 each
- Halls Drops $.15 each
- Evaporated Milk's were $.24 each





Commissary
Cost : $ 126.23
Saved : $32.15 - Coupons only 26%
Spent : $94.08
(I had 87 items so it averaged out to $1.08 per item)

The overall savings is more than that. The commissary doesn't figure in the store savings you get for items that are on sale this month.

Highlights were:
- Hamburger Helper for $.36 a box
- Chex Mix for $.75 each
- Scott Napkins FREE!!!
- Dinner Napkins for $.50 a pkg (they are stacked in the back on the right)
- Cheese for $.75 each
- Halloween Cereal was $.49 a piece....which I hear will be slashed again tomorrow morning

Now a bunch of the items in my pictures are for a Freezer Meal group I'm doing next week so I normally wouldn't have stocked up on some of those items. However, I was able to get them cheap to pass the savings on to the group.

Over all it was a great shopping day. I did venture into Walmart also and saved $8 on Halloween candy for tonight and got my pepsi for $1 yay!!

Hope everyone has a great week!! Let me know how you saved this week!

Budgeting

My husband and I have been following a pretty strict and detailed budget for about 5 year now. This has allowed us to be able to pay off almost all of our debt.

When I started Grocery Smarts our monthly "Grocery" budget was $600 a month for our family of 5 with one still in diapers and one that uses pull ups at night. Now our "Grocery" budget consisted of anything and everything we needed for the house....Soap, towels, food, drinks, socks, toilet paper...pretty much everything but our basic bills and gas.

I have been lazy this past month and have been stacking up my receipts in a pile on my desk...in an attempt to get organized I sat down and put them all into my spreadsheet and noticed that prior to July we did spend every bit of that $600 on groceries and always were struggling three days before payday to get milk, bread, and the essentials.

Here is what I've spent on groceries the past few months:

August $487.60
September $356.91
October $305.48

WOW I hadn't realized we had cut back to almost half what we normally spend!!! Because of this savings in September when I had to put two new tires on our Car I was able to go down with Cash to pay for them and I didn't drive away wondering how my family was going to eat for the rest of the month.

What a blessing this Couponing has been for my family!!!

I just wanted to share this with you guys and hopefully inspire you to look into ways you can save money for your family!

Albertsons

I'm so upset....I had all my items on the table ready for a picture and got side tracked....doesn't take much for me....and then I started organizing my freezer and pantry and put everything away....so guess what...I forgot to actually take the picture. I'm so bummed I had a lot of items.

Anyway here is a run down.

Cost $228.79
Savings $138.28
Spent $90.51
60 % Savings.

here is what I got for $90.51
- 6 Marie Callender Pot Pie's $1.55 each
- 10 Marie Callenders Pasta meals $1.38 each
- 3 Betty Crocker Cookie Mixes (17.5 oz) $.60 each
- 8 Betty Crocker Warm Delights $.50 each (OMG I'm in heaven these are the best!)
- 4 Betty Crocker Specialty Potatoes $.60 each
- 3 Cans Green Beans $.45 each
- 8 Pillsbury Crescent Rolls $.75 each
- 6 Pillsbury Grands Cinnamon Rolls $.80 each
- 8 Pillsbury Savorings $1.45 each (I like these for fast appetizers for parties)
- 8 Totinos Pizza Rolls (40 ct) $1.65 each
- 6 Mac & Cheese...not on sale but I needed them...Austin eats mac & cheese about every day lately.
- Banana's

It was a good trip I did multiple transactions and it did pay off in the end. I need to find the perfect time to go to Albertsons when they are not too busy. Doing coupons like this is fun and worth it but can be very frustrating if the store is busy or if you feel rushed at the check out. I'm starting to run into the same cashiers so that helps because they know what I'm doing when I come up.

I hope you guys enjoy my posts. I'd love to hear about your great deals!!

Let me know if you want to find out how you can save over 60% on your grocery bill!!

Learning as I go

I've been doing Grocery Smarts since July now and it has been wonderful!! I had to adjust to shopping every week instead of twice a month but that has gone pretty well.

I did learn a lesson this month though. Because of an unexpected financial expense we hadn't planned for I didn't go shopping the last two weeks of September because of lack of Money. We had plenty of food in the house but because of that bill I wasn't stocking up on the sale items those two weeks. Well come this week I needed so many staple items just for us to make it thru the week I ended up spending almost double what my weekly budget usually is to get caught up.

Not a big deal I haven't gone over my grocery budget but did spend more than I would have liked to this week. Lesson learned!!! Shopping every week and only getting the 4 and 5 star items really does save you money not only on a weekly basis but a monthly basis too. Some of the items I bought this week were on sale last week but I didn't have the funds to get them.

On a positive note we had an unexpected Financial expenses and we were able to pay that bill and still eat for two weeks even though we didn't have money to go get more groceries. Having a stocked pantry really takes some of the stress out of an already stressful financial situation. Unexpected things are going to come up and usually a financial blunder leads to a grocery blunder and it just trickles down. This time we had a financial blunder but I didn't have to stress about how I was going to feed my family until the next pay day.

God is Good and I am truly blessed to have found Grocery Smarts and found a way to be better stewards of the money he has entrusted to us!!

Smiths

Well it's pay day and off to Smiths I went.

Cost : $156.72
Saved : $62.56
Spent : $94.16

40% savings

Not the best trip I've done but still good. I picked up Strawberries, pull ups, diapers, pop tarts, and my husbands favorite spaghetti sauce without coupons so that didn't help my totals at all.

I still will have to make a trip to the commissary this evening for a few essentials that I couldn't get at smiths.

Walmart

Walmart
9-27-09

Cost : $8.79
Savings : $7.00
Spent $1.79

80% Savings!!

Average of $.26 per item!!

Commissary

A few things I had coupons for that were going to expire.

Cost $15.75
Savings $5.60
Spent $10.15

Betty Crocker Potato's $.59 each
Ocean Spray Oatmeal $.35 each
Lunchables $1.40 each
The milk and Pepsi where full price but we needed those items.

Walmart

Walmart 9-22-09

Cost $7.39
Savings $5.00
Spent $2.39

Bagel-Fuls $.88 each
Floss $.12 each

Smiths

Smiths 9-20-09

Cost : $38.82
Savings : $28.06
Cost : $10.76
73% Savings

Disclaimer....No I do not have a cat!!! I picked those up for a friend who couldn't make it to the sale!!

Commissary Case Lot Sale

For those that Haven't heard....The Nellis Commissary is having their Case Lot Sale this weekend. Friday thru Sunday. They open at 8am!!

They usually have coupons to match up with the deals on Friday Morning but I've gone the second day of the event before and gotten good deals.

Commissary Deals

Commissary
9-16-09

Cost : $45.85
Savings : $16.45 +
Spent : $29.40

37% Savings

As I feel I get a great deal of savings at the commissary the percentage is a bit incorrect compared to my other store receipts. The other stores will factor in the "Store" Savings...ie...what you saved because the item was on sale and not full price....where the Commissary only factors in what it rang up as so my total savings of $16.45 was straight coupon savings. It doesn't take into account that the full price for the Toaster Strudel's is possible another $.75 above what it rang up as.

So for me a 37% savings at the Commissary is good and I know that if I had the full non sale prices factored in it would most of the time put me up over a 50% savings.

The Pull Ups alone would have cost me $29 at full price!!

Target

I'm so excited to try these new
Bounce Dryer Bars!!

I was able to get two of these
at Target for only $1.24 each!!

Smiths

Smiths
9-15-09

Cost : $ 104.42
Savings : $38.73
Spent : $65.69
37% Savings

I got good prices on each of these items individually but over all my savings wasn't what I had hoped it would be. However, I came in way under budget and I am fully stocked on a lot of items now.

I love the case lot sales and the fact that you don't have to buy a whole case of the items. The items that are in the isle's are priced the same per item as if you were buying the case. Major bonus since we typically don't need as many as come in a case.

Just realized my picture is missing the 12 rolls of paper towel....you'll just have to use your imagination for that one.

I also with this trip earned $.10 per gallon savings on gas.....When I filled up our car it ended up saving me $10 today!! Gotta love extra Gas perks!!

Commissary Deals

Commissary Trip!!

I made my random trip to the Commissary
today with all three kids in tow...
I typically do not take my kids when I coupon shop
due to the fact that I get distracted
easily and end up with non coupon items in my cart.

We survived the trip and look at these great deals!!
Soup for $.50 each
Jam for $1.25 Each
Body Wash for $.64 each
Shampoo/Conditioner for $.29 each

Was a successful trip and everything I
purchased was on my needed list for my
stockpile.

I went in with $15 cash and knew I had to stay below
that so when it rang up at $15.01 I was so excited!!
Cashier thought I was nuts...lol..I probably am...

I matched up all these coupons and deals from
the http://www.hip2serve.com/
Web site so check it out.
(not all the coupons are the same because she
is in a different region but I've found them to be
very close to what we have.)

Insert Bonus Day!!

Look at all those beautiful inserts!!!

Love bonus Insert days!!!

Can't wait to save a ton of money with them!

5 Inserts!!

So this weekend's paper will make up for not getting any coupons this past weekend...there are going to be 5 inserts in each paper this Sunday!!

Check out this blog for more details!!

http://www.moneysavingmadness.com/2009/09/insert-alert-5-inserts-on-913.html

Albertsons

Albertsons
9-8-09

Cost : $18.43
Savings : $17.43
Cost : $1.00

95% Savings - Avg $.14 per item

This was the most successful trip I've made to
Albertsons since I've started coupons.
I used 4 double coupons on the pasta and
dressing...and there was a coupon in the store
for buy two of the dressings get a free bag of
cole slaw!! Major bonus!!

My last experience at the Lake Mead/Hollywood Albertsons
wasn't a great one but this time wasn't so bad.
I was there right at 9am and there were maybe
4 cars in the parking lot....maybe that's a better time to go...

Commissary Deals

Commissary
9-4-09

Cost $92.20
Savings $49.00
Spent $43.20

53% Savings - Avg $.74 an item

I went to get just a few coupon items and got some really good deals

30 Country Time / Koolaid Mixes for - $.50 each
4 Fish Sticks/nugget boxes for - $.25 each
6 Disinfectant Wipes - $1 each
6 Nabisco Snak packs - $.63 each
2 Lysol All Purpose Cleaner - $1.00 each
5 Hormel Compleats Michrowavable Meals - $.69 each (not pictures....missed a bag)
4 Pop Tarts - $1.50 (not pictured...and not on sale but needed it)
1 Window Cleaner $1.79 (not on sale but needed it...)

I don't go to the commissary often but this trip was a success for me and all the items I got were items that were low or non existent in my stockpile. My goal was to only spend $30 this trip but I found the Country Time sale and couldn't pass that up so I decided to not get as many of the other item's I had coupons for to help bring the cost down. Not too bad.

Late Night trip to CVS and Smiths

CVS trip with a Plan
3 Tide and 3 Dish soap
Total Cost :$33.99
Saved : $23.00
Spent : $10.99
68% Savings - Not Bad

Smiths trip without a plan
(don't recommend going without a plan)
Total Cost : $57.41
Saved : $27.31
Spent : $30.10
47% Savings

Smiths I got (sorry i didn't get a picture)
10 2 liters of Pepsi products
5 small things of Baby Wipes
3 bags of doritos
1 bag of snack size doritos
3 loaves of bread
2 Summer pool toys for birthdays in March
24 items averaged to $1.25 an item...not too bad

I went to Smith's with no plan other than I needed stuff for the kids lunch tomorrow and I knew I wanted more of the Pepsi that was on sale. I don't typically go to any grocery store with out a very detailed plan of action so this was out of my comfort zone. But I am pleasantly impressed that still did so well. All the items I got were on sale and I knew there weren't any coupons to match up with them.

My Stock Pile!!

Is this not the best sight you have ever seen!!!
Yes Count them 12 PEPSI's!!!!
(not including the one I put in the fridge to get cold)
I am in my glory and geared up for anything that might come my way!!

I had to make one more trip to Smith's tonight to get
more since they were on sale for $.75 a piece.

What Would You Do??

So I've been thinking.....What Would You Do if you had an extra $50 to $100 a month??

Doesn't sound like much but for me and my family an extra $50 is like Gold!!

Here is my top 5 list

1. Pedicure
2. Dinner out with My Husband
3. Take the Family to the Movies
4. Stock my fridge with Pepsi....lol
5. Take a Friend to Lunch

I saved $100 on my Grocery Bill this month by spending a little extra time and planning and using Coupons!! So maybe next month I can do a few of these fun things that are treats to me and my family.

What would you do with extra money every month?? I'd love to hear about it!!

FREE Bacon

I went and got my Free Bacon today at Von's !!!

Check out Nichole's blog for all the details

http://thefrugalchick.blogspot.com/2009/08/free-bacon-at-vons-starting-wednesday.html

Looking For - Huggies Coupons

Does anyone have extras of the

$0.50/1 Huggies Baby Wipes, exp. 9-30-09 (SS 7/19/09)??

Coupon Class

I am having a Coupon Class at my house on Saturday August 29th!!!

I would love to have everyone join me. Please pass the details on to any friends you think might be interested!!! Even if it doesn't fit in for your family it might for your best friend or neighbor!!

Date: Saturday August 29th
Time: 10:00am
Place: Melinda's House...Send me a msg for the address

Kids are welcome. The Class is only about an Hour.

Savings for Aug 14th

I hit two stores this morning all before 9 am!!!

Totals Combined :
Cost $228.75
Savings: $144.23
$29.00 in Coupons
$5.00 in vouchers used
$110.23 Store Sales/Instant savings
Spent $84.52

Albertsons
I qualified to mail in for a $20 rebate I can use at a later date
So with the rebate factored in I only in the end will have paid $35.19
(this was a two transaction trip)
Also figured into this but isn't pictured was a Frozen Lasagna and garlic bread which were not on sale but I needed lunch for my Son's Workshop So I got what was easy for today.

Smiths
was a two transaction trip.
The muffins were not on sale but Again I needed snacks for the workshop today.

Commissary Deals

Successful trip to the Commissary!!

The Cashier did a double look when I handed her the $2 Chinet Coupon...
I got worried for a sec that she wasn't going to take it....
But she did.

The Coffee Mates where and online coupon for buy one get one free...
the regular ones were $.77 and the French ones were $.93
She took $.93 off for both coupons I gave her.
(was nice of her I thought!!)

Food 4 Less

Tried out Food 4 Less today......Not gonna be
one of my regular stops but they had
a couple of deals I couldn't pass up.

Chef Boyardee's were $.76 each

Toothpaste 5 of them were FREE
Toothpaste 6 of them were $.25 each
(or $.13 each if you avg together)

The meat was $7.25 for 5 steaks
(I marinade them for Chad so that is 5 meals for us)

A few things I liked....
- The shelves were stocked very well
- The product was marked really clearly and matched the ad!!! (makes a difference)

A few things I didn't care for....
- you have to bag your own groceries...lol
- The Receipt doesn't show your savings due to a sale
- The guy gave me a little bit of trouble with the coupons but did take them in the end
- The one I went to wasn't the cleanest but I would go back if the sale was good

Colgate Toothpaste

Food 4 Less has Colgate Toothpaste for $1

- Use Coupon from 8/9/09 Smart Source for $1 off 1 - FREE
or
- Use Coupon from 7/26/09 Smart Source for $.75 off 1 - $.25 each

Chinet

There is a coupon in Sunday's 8-9-09 Smart Source for $2 off Chinet paper plates.

Kristi said they are around $1.69 at the commissary right now.

Free Paper Plates....can't beat that!!

Thanks Kristi you rock!!

Walgreens

The Walgreens on Nellis has redeemed themselves to me!!

The Cashier was awesome and I even passed the coupon
Web Site on to her when I was done.

I had to do 4 transactions so I could roll over the vouchers but here are the totals:

Cost $62.50
Savings $45.60
Spent $16.90

73% Savings!!

All these Items I was out of so it's nice to
be stocked up on those items!!

August Totals

These are my totals so far this month. I have just reached the stage where I have enough stock of enough items that I should be able to Lower the Actual amount I spend each week on Groceries.


Cost $749.37

Savings $419.92

Spent $331.45 (my budget for the 1st thru 15th is $300.....so I'm just a little bit over
but diapers had to be bought...lol)

56% Savings on what I bought.....0% savings if you look at my over all grocery bill vs budgeted amount.

Albertsons Trip

I ventured out to Albertsons with all Three....Yes, All three kids today!!

Got Awesome Savings though. Was so worth it.

Cost : $57.23
Savings : $45.84
Spent : $11.39

80% Savings!!

The Water was full price but the kids were thirsty....lol

Beginning

Not sure how much I will use this blog....or in what way I will use it....But this is a start...