Did you know?

Did you know that..............

Best Buy will match prices. They will do the research online and give you the item for the lower price.
We purchased a camera there and let them know that Sam's club had the
camera for a cheaper price about $80+ and Fry's electronics had the memory
card for a cheaper price too about $60+ cheaper. So they just typed up some things on
the computer to verify and we had a camera and memory card for about $140
cheaper then they were asking. One stop shopping and lower prices.

Walmart - will match prices as well. You just need to be prepared to let them know what store has what ad. Sometimes you need to show them the ad so that they believe you, other times they just key in the change of price and don't ask for verification. The problem I have with Walmart is that they don't always..........know what they are doing. A lot of times I find it easier to just go to 2-3 different stores then to have to deal with Walmart.

Sam's Club - Has a 100% money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with the fruit etc then you just take it back.

Vons - has been sending out additional ads on Thursday that are good for the following Sunday - Tuesdays with some great products on sale. Start looking for them in your mailboxes.

Smiths - twice a year has a caselot sale. Where last year I purchased Jif Peanut Butter for 99cents, Corn for about 58cents, canned Mandrine oranges for 33cents. Etc.

Phonebook - in the back of our Vegas phonebook they have random coupons. Just realized that today.


If I think of anymore I will just add to this. :D

RECALL

SELECT SMITH’S STORE-BRAND AND STORE-PACKAGED BEEF PRODUCTS WITH SELL BY DATES FROM MAY 5 to MAY 24, 2009: BALL TIP STEAK PETITE CUT, LEAN 85/15 GROUND BEEF ST, GROUND BEEF (NOT TO EXCEED 15% FAT), CUBE STEAK, BEEF FOR STEW, BEEF FOR FONDUE, BEEF FAJITA MEAT, AND BEEF FOR STIR FRY
Affected in Smith's stores.

Reason: Products may be contaminated with E.coli 0157:H7, which can cause serious health risks. Press Release
June 25, 2009



http://www.smithsfoodanddrug.com/services/Pages/recall_information.aspx

I gave the link where I found this information because they have more recalls on that site.

Ads 6/24 - 6/30

This is what I found in the ads this week to be interesting.



Albertsons WOW I have found something worth talking about. Not a big one but it is ok.

Kelloggs Cereal select varieties 1.75

Kelloggs Fruit snacks 1.75

Kelloggs Poptarts 1.75

Other then that everything I see on this ad you can get cheaper at another store. Good job Albertsons for at least trying this week. LOL



Vons

Raw shrimp 31-40 count 3.99 lb in a 2 lb bag

Ground beef days

73%lean 99cents lb

80%lean 1.49 lb

85%lean 1.99lb Just a couple of weeks ago the cheapest was 1.89lb but I am not sure if Vons is just a little higher or if the economy is making the prices go up.

strawberries 2lb 1.99

Nothing else from Vons really caught my eye as being a great deal.



Smiths

Is running a promotion right now when you buy 10 certain items you will get $3 off your total right then and there. Now remember you need to have your items in groups of 10 they can be mix and match but if you make a mistake and only grab 9 they will charge you $.30 more on each item because it is not 10 items so be careful. I will * the 10 mix match items. My price is when you get the $3 off so you need to find 10 things or add .30. NO LIMIT!!!

*Mamwich .70

*Boyardee ravioli can and microwave .70

*betty crocker fruit snacks 1.49

*Ritz crackers 2.19

*krogar peanut butter 2.19

*Banquet Brown n Serve Sausage, 6.4-7 oz .58

*Breyers Ice Cream, 48-56 oz. 1.99

*Gatorade Sports Drink, 32 oz .58 My husband wants tons at this price Reg Price $1.08

*General Mills Cereal,

16 oz. Lucky Charms,

18 oz. Cheerios,

17 oz. Cinnamon Toast Crunch,

12.8 oz. Multi Grain Cheerios,

15 oz. Total Cinnamon Crunch,

10.9 oz. Banana Nut Cheerios or

18 oz. Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs all 1.99

*Kraft Barbecue Sauce, 18 oz .69
says it is the last week for these items
Smith's Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, super value pack 1.89

Budget and michelindas entrees .83

Krogar potatoes 10lb 1.73

suave shampoo and conditioner .88

Krogar cottage cheese and sour cream 1.00

Krogar white bread 1.25

Natures own bread 1.89 other stores about $3.19

Milk 1.89

krogar cheese 8oz 1.67

Food for Less

well this is going to be a first for me. I never shop there but I am going to give it a try this week

Rosarita Refried beans .88 (Sams club comes out to be .89 a can)

Powerade .48 Mix and match 10 (same as Smiths promotion but they limit 30 items)
Krogar oil 1.98
Popsicles select varieties 10 - $10 You don't need to get 10 items
Kraft singles 1.50

also check out this site http://www.grocerysmarts.com/nevada/lists/indexg89ccb.php?f89oo2
and pick Food for Less as your store (you can do this with all the stores) This site says
1 lb bag of carrots for .25
Jicama .33lb These items are not in my ad but I am going to go and check them out.

This week I really am not going to do alot of coupons use. My main shopping item is Gatorade for my husband with the 100 degree weather here.

Happy shopping.

What is your goal?

I was thinking today about our goals. What is the reason for you reading this blog?
~Do you want to get current on your bills?
~Do you want to raise your credit score?
~Are you on one income and finding it harder and harder to make it?
~Are you wanting to pay off the credit cards?
~Are you wanting to get the $1000 emergency money in your savings?
~Are you wanting to get 1 weeks of bills in your savings?
~Are you wanting to get 1 month of bills in your savings?
~Do you want to stop living paycheck to paycheck?
~Are you wanting to .............................

whatever you are wanting we are all in the same boat just different sides of it. :D

What can you do this week to get yourself closer to your goal? (this is where you respond)

US Bank

The US Bank promotion of $75 of free groceries for opening up a new account is over, but I talked to the tellers yesterday and they said that they will probably do this promotion again in 2-3 months. So if you did not have enough time to open an account, don't worry, just start saving some money so that when they offer it again you can get your account.
:D

3 months

I thought I would explain what I am doing for my family.

After reading "The Total Money Makeover" and while I have been working on step 3, I decided that why can't I take advantage of the sales and stock up my pantry, freezer, frig like I am with my bank account. So I have been just getting a couple of extra things everytime I go to the store. Then I found this website http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/babysteps/step-3-three-months-of-normal-food/ and downloaded the 3 month excel program. (also, a tutorial video is on that site) I filled out all the meals and ingred. that I needed for the month, and now I know how much more I need to have a 3 months supply of food in my home. (now only if I knew 30 different dinner recipes :D) Now I am just getting 5-6 different things that I need so that I have that list completed.

June 17 - 23rd

Well the ads came out today and I am not really impressed.

Once again Albertsons is doing a fantastic job of lowering the prices of thousands of products. Now if they could only be lower then any of the other stores and I might shop there.

Vons
corn on the cob 4 - $1
Ribeye steak 3.45 a lb (limit 2)
Lobster tails 5.99 each 4oz
honestly I really didn't find anything else in the ad that was worth mentioning.

Smiths.
Milk 1.89 gallon
rib eye steak 3.99lb NO LIMIT
chicken breast 1.89lb
hot /hamburger buns $1
eggs 18 count 1.50
shredded cheese krogar 16oz 2.99
krogar yogart $.40
suave deodorant $1
Aquafresh toothpaste $1
Now if you ignore me on everything else don't ignore this. GO to http://www.aquafresh.com/Savings.aspx and print out as many coupons for $1 off toothpaste and get yourself FREE TOOTHPASTE. it will not go bad and I have never had a problem using any of the coupons with any of the Aquafresh. Also, smartsource has aquafresh so get as many as you can they are FREE.



I am not sure if it is because I am pretty stocked up right now or if the stores really don't have that great of deals this week either way I can tell you my shopping trip is not going to be that large this week.

Do you......

Do you remember the last time you checked out what you really have in the back of your freezer, frig or pantry? Do you have the "otter pops" in there but you can't even remember what century you purchased them, the Tupperware that you cannot identify the "food" inside, or the Ziploc baggie that has so much ice in it you have no idea what it is. If you don't know what you have you could be spending alot of money on more of the same.

Today's challenge if you choose to accept, is to throw away all the rotten food, such as the left overs in the frig from March. :D
If you do not have time to go through the whole frig (pantry or freezer) then go through one shelf at a time. I usually go through mine on a day before garbage day. That way I don't have to have the food getting warm and smelly under my sink for days.

I think you would be surprised at what you have in them. Especially if you have an outside freezer, I bet you could find dinner for a couple of nights if not a week in there that you don't even know about, and it didn't even come out of your month grocery budget.

:D

Groceries sales starting Wednesday, June 10th

Well well well...

Albertson is doing great this week. I am once again not going to even bother when them or the lower prices they are claiming. (whatever are they thinking is lower)

Vons - has the mix and match again. Something are different but the same concept. Check out the ads and see if any of the items are what your family would eat.

Smiths.

Chicken breasts are still at 1.89 lb

Milk 1.89

dozen eggs 99cents

cant believe it is not butter. 1.69 ~~~ normal price is 3.19

Ground beef 85% 1.89lb

Kraft Cheese 6-8oz 2 for $3

Berries 3 for $5

10lb potatoes 1.79

So really it is not much different then last week. That is the jist of the ads.

So what I do next is think of what kind of meal I want to cook next week that will go with the sales. My son said yesterday that he wanted Tacos so it just great that ground beef and cheese are on sale this week. (I will pick up about 5-10lbs of ground beef and divide them up and wrap them up with the food saver then I will freeze them for when I do need to cook with them later in the month.) So that is one meal done. Then chicken breasts ummm Maybe I will make chicken Pad Thai or chicken stir fry. I have ALL the ingredience to make that so I will just get more chicken. That is 2 meals. I just do that until I have at least 5 meal ideas in the house. My kids are still small so 5 meals in my house a week are plenty.

Does that make sense?

What kind of shopper are you?

How do you shop?

~ Are you the person that if you are out of milk you will go to the corner store and pick a gallon for $5.00?

~Are you the person that goes to the store on a daily basis because you always "forget" something there?

~Are you the person that plans the weekly menu and sometimes you will forget somethings so you are off to the store?

~ Are you the person that makes a weekly planner but if you forgot an ingredients you have another meal that you can replace that one with that you have all the ingredients for? So you don't have to go to the store.

I personally used to be all of them, but now you will not catch me getting "milk" at 711 paying $5.00, when I can get a gallon for $1.89.

No matter where you are, we can all work on being better stewarts with the money we have to provide for our families.

I challenge you all to try and plan your meals before shopping that way you know what you need and can plan accordingly. If you can then I would suggest to have a little extra stock in your pantries, frig, or freezer. You never know what kind of emergency could arise, such as, overage on the food budget for the month, pay cut, loss of a job/ pay etc.
It would be nice to know that if any of these happened that you would not have to worry about these items. That is the same with household items, ex shampoo, conditioner, hairspray or laundry detergent etc.
If you see a great deal on things you ALL READY BUY and you are not going to go into debt, then just get 2. If you do that with everything you would be surprised how many items you could get and stay in budget. (It does no good if you are stocking up on items you and your family hate just because you got a great deal on them)

For example: I was cruising around the aisles of Smiths and went down the shampoo and conditioner aisle. (why? I have NO idea) I saw that they had V05 shampoo and conditioner for 10 - $6.00. I checked in my coupon book and noticed a coupon from Smiths that read... Purchase $15 of health and beauty items and receive $3 off. (I usually do not use V05 but for 60 cents I can switch) I did the math and figured out that $15 divided by $.60 was 25. I picked out 25 bottles of shampoo/conditioner and it only cost me $12.00. That was in my budget and I will not need shampoo for about a year now for $12

I had pretty much the same thing happen at Vons with Tide. So right now I have 3 unopened 64 load Tides.

THE WORD ON THE STREET IS THAT GROCERY STORES HAVE THE SAME THINGS ON SALE EVERY 12 WEEKS SO IF YOU CAN STOCK UP ON THEM WHILE THEY ARE ON SALE FOR 3 MONTHS THEN WHEN YOU ARE OUT THEY WOULD BE ON SALE AGAIN.

Today I am planning on going to VONS for the mix and match I told you about earlier. I figured out that if I purchase 6 boxes of cereal, 2 bbq sauces, and 2 brownie mixes. (10 items) That will total $12.08 I found 4 coupons for $1 each for these items that will bring my total to $8.08 for 10 items. Sure I will get another 6 boxes of cereal even though I already have 9. My family will eat them and the normal price is about $3-6 a box. You do the math.
:D

DH has figured it out!

I can't believe I am turning into one of THOSE people that need to blog, but I have to tell you all what happened today.

After 5 1/2 yrs of marriage my husband has it figured out. :D

My husband got a check from a side job. (we have had problems in the past with checks being deposited into our personal account and they had NSF, so now the rule in our house is you go to the bank that the check is from and cash it there so we don't have to pay a fee because they wrote a bogus check.) Anyway, DH went to the bank that the check was written from. (I have an account there but DH has not had time to get the paperwork to be on it joint with me) The bank was going to charge him $5 just to cash the check. My husband is learning and I love it! He told them that I had an account there and could they waive the fee. At first the banker said that she could not, but DH said the magic words, "so you are telling me that if my wife came in here and closed up her account because of not waiving a fee of $5 you would be ok with that?" I have never been prouder of him. I know it is only $5 but that would have really made me mad. It is our money not the banks.

Groceries

Regarding how I shop for groceries. I just get the ads on Tuesday or Wednesday and see what is on sale, and pick what I am cooking or stocking up on. For example.

Deals right now June 3 - 9

VONS right now they are having a mix and match sale. If you purchase 10 items on the sale you will receive $5 off instantly. NO LIMITS So, if you want 100 items you go for it.
For example. GM cereals (cherrios and Cim. Toast Crunch) are $2 a box if you purchase 10 then you will get them for $1.50 a box. If you go on coupons.com you can print out a $1 off coupon for 3 boxes. If you used 3 of those coupons (for the 9 boxes) then you are spending $12 and receiving 10 boxes of cereal. $1.20 a box. Even the prices of generic can't come close to that.

FYI every time I go to any store I go to the cereal aisle and see if they have any coupons in those machine thingys.

Smiths. Chicken Breasts $1.89 lb

Milk $1.89 What I have found is that Smiths is the cheapest on milk.

Kelloggs cereal or poptarts 5 - $10 Coupons were in the red plum this week for $1 a box (3 of them in there)

Krogar tuna $0.59

Albertsons is claiming that they are lowering prices on THOUSANDS OF ITEMS up to 20%.
Well...... I have not found anything in there ads that are on sale or cheaper then any other store. I think they are trying to go out of business with those prices.
for example Albertsons advertised cheerios for $3.19 a box. If you read above that is NOT CHEAPER OR LOWERED! Good job Albertsons on trying to be "my store"


PS If you do not receive the ads in the mail every week, just log on to the individual stores and view the ads. FYI the ads change every Wednesday morning at 6am.

More later :D

First Post

Y'ALL are killing me about starting a money saving blog. LOL

Here I am. I really have no idea what to tell you or what you want/need to know. I guess I just assume that everyone is doing the same things I am and they are just not that important.

Incase you haven't heard (but being my friends I know you have) US bank (in most grocery stores) are having a promotion right now. If you open a FREE checking account, they will reimburse you up to $75 in free groceries. Either you use there debit/credit card for $20 here and $24 there until you get to $75 and turn that in, or you can do what I did. I went MAD shopping stocking up on all the meats and fish that were on sale. I had my list and my total came up to $77.80. I swipped my card to pay for it and got out of line and with my cart and all got into the US bank line, gave them my receipt and got reimbursed (took 24 hrs) but that paperwork stuff was done and I got a cart FULL of groceries for a total of $2.8.

I am having my man go in there on Monday and open himself an account so we can do the same thing. I think I should add that US bank is not our main bank. I only have the initial $100.00 I opened the account with (you don't need that much) minus the $2.80 from the overage of the groceries. I only keep it open now because if I need to cash a check and I am at the grocery store I can because I have a bank right there. So no need to decide with the men to totally switch banks etc. If you want to do that then that is fine but not the point of this post information.

I will be back with grocery shopping tips later.