Good Deals for the Week!

Well, I don’t know about you, but I think we’ve spent enough time on the process and steps of getting good deals, so now it’s time to get to the good stuff – actually using the steps/process to save money! So you’re asking, what are the good deals this week? I’ve wanted to put out the good deals for this week for a couple of days, but I didn’t want to get too far ahead and confuse everyone before I got through the basics. So, based on the websites I’ve mentioned earlier, here are a few good deals worth noting for this week:

Albertson’s:
- Boneless, skinless chicken breasts from the butcher block - $1.77/lb
- Nabisco crackers promo – purchase 3 boxes of Wheat Thins or Triscuits and receive a free Easy Cheese can 8 oz, Velveeta Cheese 8 oz, or Kraft Cheese Slices 8 oz. There are also coupons in the Smart Source pkt from the 1/25/09 paper for $2 off of 2 boxes of Nabisco crackers, so you can get the crackers for 99 cents a box + the free item
- Culinary Circle Frozen pizza deal – buy one pizza for $6.29 then get another Culinary Circle Pizza and 2 2-liters of Dr. Pepper for free. There’s also an internet printable coupon for $1 off of a Culinary Circle Pizza, so you basically can get all 4 items for $5.29. You can print the coupon twice so you can do 2 deal s and get 4 pizzas and 4 2-liters of Dr. Pepper for $10.58. Note, it’s Albertson’s policy that on Buy 1 Get 1 Free promotions they will only accept coupons for the item you are paying for, so you can’t use 2 items for 1 promo. Still a good deal though with just the one coupon.
- There’s a DiGiorno/Coke Promo - spend $20 on participating and get $5 back instantly – participating items are DiGiorno pizza, California Kitchen Pizza, 12 pk coke products, and 12 pk Dasani bottled water – pretty good deal for the items.
- There is also a Pepsi promo – buy 8 participating products and get $5 back instantly – participating items are 12 pk Pepsi and Mountain Dew and Tostitos chips – not a bad deal for the pop, but the chips are probably not the best deal – only ranked as 3 start
- Since ads are from Wednesday to Tuesday, you still have a few more days to pick up items, check out the PYP (Pinching Your Pennies) or GS (Grocery Smarts) websites to see the details and other good deals this week.

Smith’s:
- Mega Event still going on this week – Save $5 instantly when you purchase 10 products. Lots of participating items that are good deals with coupons include 12 pks of Pepsi products, Daisy sour cream, French’s mustard, Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers, Heinz Ketchup, Hormel Chili (great deal on this item with or without coupon – think about stocking up on this since I don’t recall the caselot sales being this low), Kleenex, Nabisco crackers, Pace Salsa, Quaker Oatmeal, Totino’s pizza rolls, and Velveeta cheese.
- Since ads are from Wednesday to Tuesday for Smith’s too, you still have a few more days to pick up items, check out the PYP (Pinching Your Pennies) or GS (Grocery Smarts) websites to see the details on the Mega Event and other good deals this week.

Associated Food Stores (Macey’s, Dick’s, Kohler’s, Kent’s, etc):
- Good deal on bags of apples – B1G1 free and Roma tomatoes – 69 cents a pound
- ShurSaving Milk - $2/gallon – this is the only store that has milk on sale this week
- 12 pk Coke Products – buy 4 get 1 free – makes the $2.80 each
- 2-liter Shasta – 69 cents
- Chex Mix – on sale for 1.25 a bag, but 75 cents after using coupon from the paper
- Nabisco Wheat Thins – on sale for 1.99, if you have the coupon from the paper, the end up being 99 cents a box, but no free items like at Albertson’s.
- Most of the Associated Food Stores run ads from Wednesday to Tuesday like Albertson’s and Smith’s, but some go from Sunday to Saturday, so check your local store so you know when the ads begin and end.

Walgreen’s and Rite Aid:
- I didn’t see much on sale at either of these stores that hasn’t been on sale recently for the same/better deals at the other stores. But since these stores run ads from Sunday to Saturday, unless you’re going out late tonight, the ad will be over anyway. But check the websites tomorrow sometime for the new deals for the week.

Obviously we all buy different things for our families, so this is by no means a comprehensive list. Just a few good deals that I thought I’d point out, so please do take a look at the lists yourself for things you might like to have that I might not have mentioned. I’ll try to put out a little post like this every week (probably around Wednesdays since most of the store ads start then) so that you know what the good deals are for the week.

Now that you know the process, you can jump right in to saving money. And don’t worry if you don’t have all of the coupons mentioned in the lists, most of the ads are still a good deal just being on sale or using just the internet printable coupons. So take a look and if there’s something you can use, head out between now and Tuesday to pick something up. Saving a little is better than paying full price! And when you find those excellent deals, send me an email or leave me a comment on the blog so we can post it for everyone to see. If you remember to take a picture, send that to me as well so we can visually see the good deal too! I’ll try to put examples of my purchases as well. It’s so exciting to see what everyone else is saving!

So, let the shopping and more importantly the saving begin!

Example of My Shopping Process Using the 3 Steps

I've had quite a few people ask me how I actually use these steps, so I'm going to run you through how I do it. Of course, your preferences may be a lot different, so don't think this is the only way to do things. But for those of you just starting out, it gives you a place to start and tailor it to you. Here's how I basically do it:

1. I look through the ads to see what's on sale and note a few things that I think I might want to pick up. I like to see the pictures since sometimes it's hard to guess what the websites listed.
2. I take a good look at the Pinching Your Pennies or Grocery Smarts websites to see if the items I'm interested in are good deals and if there are any others that I might want to consider (remember a 4 or 5 star rating means a good deal and it's worthy of stocking up on). I go back and forth between these lists and the ads sometimes to make sure I have the correct item and that it's something I need.
3. I make my lists of the things I want to get based on the ratings, what I need, and what I want to stock up on.
4. Using the coupon column from both websites, I get all of my coupons clipped and ready - either internet or those from the newspapers. Since I keep all of my newspaper coupons in my filing box, the coupon column lists right where to go to get the coupons - quick and easy to find and clip.
5. Once I get everything set, I head off to the store. If you have your list ready and your coupons clipped and ready to go, it goes pretty quick. Make sure to bring your ad with you or pick one up as you go into the store. Every once in a while the items don't ring up right and you have to have the cashier adjust it for you. It's a lot easier if you have the ad right with you to show them. This is also useful if there are a lot of different sizes of that item, the ad usually tells you which size is on sale. Some of the stores are a bit slow in getting the items marked on the shelf, so having the ad with you also helps out with getting the right one.
6. This is the best part - you come home and celebrate based on the amount of money you saved! If you're like me, you put all your food out on the counter, turn to your husband and ask: "Just guess how much I paid for all of this?" To which he will probably guess wrong and then you can tell him how much you really paid and he'll (hopefully) be as excited as you on the amount of money you were able to save.

Again, this is just my way of doing it. If you find something that works for you, then by all means go with it! The point is to stick with the 3 main steps I listed in the last few posts:

1. Watching for sales
2. Using coupons
3. Stocking up

It may take you a few times of doing it to really get the hang of it and get into a rhythm. But once you do, then you're set to save! Good luck and let me know if you have any questions to any of the stuff I've posted about recently (either by comment or email). I know it can be kind of confusing at first and I'll do my best to help you have the most enjoyable experience.

In the next couple posts, I'm going to give you a heads up on some of the good deals out there, some recent purchases of mine and others, and also some tips and tricks that make the process go more smoothly.

In the meantime: HAPPY SHOPPING!

Getting Maximum Savings - Step 3

Finally, we’re to Step 3. If you remember from the last two posts, my 3 main money saving steps are:

1. Watching for sales
2. Using coupons
3. Stocking up

Now that we understand the power in combining coupons with sales, as explained in the last two posts, we can move on the last step and that’s stocking up. Remember that little example I gave about the Pantene Shampoo and Conditioner and that fact that you could get it for 17 cents a bottle? The neat thing about this process is that if you buy in bulk, you can stock up on shampoo/conditioner for months and have plenty until the next sale rolls around and only have to pay similarly to stock up again.

So you're probably asking yourself how on earth can you stock up when you either don't get the paper or only get 1 copy right? Well, the trick to this whole thing is to have plenty of coupons that enable you to stock up. Again, just as a reminder, the internet coupons only allow you to print 2 copies of each coupon. And all the sites are tied together so that they monitor how many you have printed. Not much you can do about that. One thing you can do though, is to start getting the paper and get multiple copies of it. I actually get 5 copies of the paper here in Utah County and that enables me to really stock up when the sales roll around. So for the Pantene I mentioned, I had 5 copies of the coupon - which allowed me to get 10 bottles (5 shampoo and 5 conditioner) for just over $1 out of pocket. For me, that’s almost 6 month’s supply of shampoo and conditioner for just over $1. Not too bad right? That’s the power of stocking up, you need to have enough coupons so that you can buy enough when it goes on sale and it will last you until the next big sale.

So how many copies of the paper do you need? All of the couponing sites recommend that you have 1 set of coupons for every member of your family (so for a family of 4, you should be getting 4 copies of the paper). Now I know that's a little daunting, but there are people who do offer deals, so it's not as expensive as you think it might be (I can give you names and emails when you get to the point of wanting multiple papers). I get 5 copies of the Daily Herald delivered to my house for $16.40 a month. And believe me, if you really do this couponing thing like it can be done, you more than pay for your papers in the money you save. The week of Albertson’s big sale, I spent $50 out of pocket and saved over $260 - that savings alone paid for my papers for almost 16 months! And even though sales like last week's only come along about 5 or 6 times a year, you do save smaller amounts in the off weeks. Imagine all the savings! I used to have a grocery budget around $400 for the month (just buying the things I needed for the month alone) - now that I've been using this system, my actual out of pocket money is somewhere around $200-$250 a month and I'm stocking up on things for months at a time! I’m just now getting to the point where everything is stocked up, so now I'll just be filling in things that I've used and my amount spent should go down even more.

The last thing I want to tell you is how I actually store/clip my coupons. The idea of clipping 5 sets of coupons every week is just ridiculous right? I agree, so I read about and tried an idea on one of these websites. You get yourself a file box and some file folders. This is what I have:



Then you list the date on the folder and put all the coupons from that week inside.



Then when you are making your shopping lists based on the website lists, you know right where to go to clip your coupons - you go to your file box and you clip only the ones you are going to use and leave the rest in there.



That way you are only clipping the coupons you want to use at the time you want to use them and you don't have a bunch of coupons floating around! It's a great system and I love it! I probably spent about an hour printing/clipping coupons in preparation for that big Albertson’s sale - that coupled with the hour I spent putting my list together was only about 2 hours for $260 worth of savings - not too bad! Most other weeks I only spend about half an hour total getting my lists made and my coupons together, so it's usually not that time consuming.

Of course it's perfectly acceptable if you want to clip all of your coupons every week, especially if you only get one paper. It is really nice to have all of our coupons with you when you run into the "unadvertised" and "clearance" deals. A little coupon filer that fits in your purse is one method of storing all of the clipped coupons. I have one and it holds coupons I have been given or ones I clipped by didn't end up using. Just wanted to mention that you don't have to go the file box way, that's just the way I do it and it works for me. As with everything, you have to tailor the process to you and your lifestyle. I just wanted to show you an alternate method to clipping all of your coupons in case you're like me and don't want to clip everything every week. Just keep in mind though, that when you are looking at the Pinching Your Pennies and Grocery Smarts lists that the location of the coupons wouldn't apply and you would have to go through your coupon organizer to find the coupons you need, so that can be a drawback too. Whatever you choose is fine, just wanted to lay all of the options on the table for you.

One other thing I wanted to mention was to have a couponing party with family and friends! My mom, sisters, and I get together and trade coupons and such – that way if someone isn’t using some of their coupons, the others can benefit. So that’s just a thought.

Well, that's it. I know that's a lot, but you really have to get the big picture in order to see the maximum savings you can get. I've been doing this about 6 or 7 months and I’m hooked! I started out using just the websites and the internet coupons - you can save quite a bit by doing just that. Then I added 1 paper a week and saved even more. Then when I realized that the multiple coupons was where you were really able to stock up, I contacted one of the ladies and got 5 papers coming and that's where I've really started to see maximum savings. So try each step if you want and see if it's something you want to get more and more into. And you can step up when you feel comfortable to do so.

So those are my main money saving steps. In the next post, I’m going to walk you through my process on shopping using these 3 steps.

Getting Maximum Savings - Step 2

Ok, now on to Step 2. If you remember from the last post, my 3 main money saving steps are:

1. Watching for sales
2. Using coupons
3. Stocking up

I think the 1st step was fairly obvious to us all, you save more when things are on sale. But step 2 combines those sales with using coupons. Now I know a lot of you aren’t that excited about couponing and believe me, I wasn’t either at first. I hate clipping all those coupons and shuffling through them at the store as I shop, but there are a few ways to do this different and that’s what I want to share with you. Between this post and the next one, I’ll show you a completely different way to do coupons that keeps your time spent clipping and preparing to a minimum!

First of all, you need to find a place/website that lets can help you with this new process. I like either Grocery Smarts or Pinching Your Pennies. I have a link to both of those sites on the right hand column of this blog. Grocery Smarts needs a passcode to get you to the Utah page (the link on my blog has the passcode already entered in) and Pinching Your Pennies doesn't, but you have register at PYP (don’t worry it’s free). They both use the same lists, so it really doesn't matter. Personally, I like PYP better since there are forums you can read and see what deals others are getting (I’ll post more about this later on when I get done with these basic steps). Grocery Smarts is probably easier to use for beginners since it's a lot more simple and doesn't have all of the extra stuff.

The great thing about these sites is they go through the ads for you, determine whether the sales are a good deal or not and tell you where you can go to get a coupon for the item if it's available. And the best part? Both are FREE to use. I can't imagine how much more time it would take me to actually do all of this on my own. It's such a blessing that those who do it are willing to share with the rest of us!

To use Grocery Smarts (http://www.grocerysmarts.com):
Simply click on the link on my blog or use passcode g84cso (for Utah) from the general website page. Select the store from the pull down menu and look at the list.

To use Pinching your Pennies (http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com):
Go to the website, click on the "State Forums" link along the top menu, then scroll down and select "Utah's Screaming Deals." From there select the thread with the store and dates of sale you want to view (like Albertson's 1/14-1/20), then in the first post there will be a link to the list - usually it says "old style list" or something like that. Since they work with Grocery Smarts, they will sometimes post links to the pages on their site as well. The pages are exactly the same, just available on both sites, so there's no difference. You'll notice that there is a pull down menu at the top of this page too and if you click it, you can select different stores and dates of ads to view.

When using these sites, you'll notice there are a couple of columns. The first is a ranking - 4 or 5 stars are good deals and you should stock up on these items as much as you can. Items that are ranked as 3 stars are ok deals and if you are in need, you can feel good about grabbing one or two of these until the next sale rolls around on that items. 1 and 2 star items usually aren’t even listed – those aren’t good deals at all and should be avoided unless you are desperate and need the item right away. The next column is the item description - obviously. The next column is the sale price. The next column contains coupon information. Some are internet coupon links - these are great and you can get to them and print them (usually twice) without any additional effort.

I want to pause right here to talk about internet coupons for just a moment. These are great and require relatively little effort to obtain. Sometimes you have to sign up for certain sites in order to print their coupons – I’ve had pretty good luck with this and recommend it in order to get the coupon. The good thing about these internet coupons is that they are usually a bit better in savings than the coupons from the paper. The bad thing about these is, like I mentioned before, you can only print 2 copies of each coupon. So it’s really hard to stock up a whole ton with just internet coupons, but if you have a small family and don’t need a big stockpile of a lot of things or if you don’t want to bother with the Sunday newspapers, these are great!

Now, back to where we were. Some references in that coupon column are to coupons found in the Sunday Paper. For example you might see something like this in that column:

Nestlé Toll House Refrigerated Cookie Dough, any $1/1 (3-1-09) RP-12/7

This means you can find a coupon for Nestle Toll House Refrigerated Cook Dough good for $1 off of 1 package in the Red Plum (RP) coupon packet that came in the 12/7/08 paper and the coupon expires on 3/1/09.

I’m going to make another slight pause here to talk about newspaper coupons. Usually, the Sunday papers contain a Smart Source (SS) and Red Plum (RP) packet. Every once in a while you will get an additional packet from Proctor and Gamble (P&G) or General Mills (GM). There are however, weeks that you don’t get all of the packets (especially after a big holiday), but for the most part, you can count on at least the SS and RP packets almost every week.

Ok, back on subject. The last column is then the total price after sale and coupon that you can get the item for. Now, just imagine how good some of these deals can be! For example, the week of January 7th – 13th, Albertson's had a big Proctor & Gamble Promotion - if you spent $30 on certain products, you could get $15 in catalinas for use on your next purchase (catalinas are the coupons that print from those little printers at the register after you make your purchase - the little printers are owned by a company called Catalina, so they are referred to as catalinas). That in and of itself makes everything you buy an automatic 50% off! Now imagine how much better it gets when you combine that deal with a coupon! Here's an example of one of the many tremendous deals that were available that week:

(Click on the image to enlarge)

So Pantene Pro-V Shampoo or Conditioner - normally priced at $4.29 by the way - was on sale for 3 for $10 or $3.33 each - with the $15 back, that gives you 50% off - which makes them $1.67 ($3.33/2) - now if you have coupons from the 12/28 paper in the Proctor & Gamble insert, you have coupons for $3 off of 2 or $1.50 off of each bottle, so that makes them $1.67-$1.50 = $.17! Yes, that's 17 cents a piece! See how this works??? It's amazing when you couple sales with coupons! That's just one example of the things I was able to stock up on during that week's sale. And there were many, many more for similarly good deals.

Check back tomorrow for the final step on stocking up and some new ways to store, clip, and organize your coupons!

Getting Maximum Savings - Step 1

Before I get into too much, I want to take a few days to explain some ideas on getting maximum savings on groceries, health and beauty aids, cleaners, paper products, etc. Those of you who requested my little write-up will already know these steps, but for those who are new to the blog or who haven't seen the write-up yet, I really think these 3 steps are the basis to really saving money. The 3 steps are:

1. Watching for sales
2. Using coupons
3. Stocking up

I'm just going to start with the first one for this post, in order to keep things manageable.

So the first step is to shop the ads. Mostly we're talking Albertson's, Smith's, and the Associated Food Stores (such as Macey's, Kohler's, Dick's, etc.). The ads for Albertson's and Smith's run from Wednesdays to Tuesdays (at least here in Utah). You can get copies of the ad from your local Sunday newspaper or in the mail, I actually get mine on Tuesdays in a Red Plum Ad that comes in the mail.



If you don't live near a Smith's or Albertson's, then it might be difficult to get an ad delivered to you, but if nothing else, you can view the ads online. Here are the websites for the ones that I know are available online:

Albertson's: http://www.albertsons.com
Smith's: http://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com
Dick's: http://www.dicksmarket.com
Macey's: http://www.maceys.com

The rest of the Associated Stores are pretty hit and miss with their ads, I know that the Kohler's ad wasn't online last time I checked. On each of the sites, there will some kind of a link that says View Weekly Ad or Weekly Ad - something to that effect. Simply click on it and follow the steps either clicking on other links or entering your zip code and you should get to the ad to view.

By shopping the ads and buying things when they are on sale, you can save a bunch of money. In order to figure out if things on sale are a good deal or not and how to use the ads with coupons for even better savings, check back tomorrow to see the next post about using coupons!

WELCOME!

Ok, you know you've become a fanatic when you actually start a blog dedicated to one specific subject. Oh well, I guess I'm a fanatic. Here is my new blog dedicated just to getting good deals, shopping smart, food storage, and emergency preparedness. I know it sounds corny, but I have really been obsessed with all of this the last few years and it has become a hobby that I've really enjoyed.

I thought it might make more sense to actually start a separate blog for all this stuff instead of having it clog up my family blog. That way I can post stuff about all of my shopping and preparedness adventures here for all who want to see them, instead of sending out emails and such to everyone.

Here are my thoughts on how I was thinking of doing things. I'll post things like good deals for the week, purchases I've made (because we all like to see actual out of pocket vs savings right?), tips and tricks, and things like that. I would hope that all of you reading this would send me your successes too so that we all can be excited.

Once we spend some time on groceries/health and beauty aids/cleaners/etc and get a good handle on that, then I'd like to branch out and post some information on food storage and emergency preparedness. I am constantly searching the web for new ideas and this will give me a good place to put all of the information I find. Again, feel free to send me any additional info you may have or find so that we all can benefit.

So I think that's it. Hopefully you all are as excited about saving money and being prepared as I am! If not, then hopefully as we go on the journey together, you'll become excited and find yourself a fanatic like me!