Great Deals this Week....

I just wanted to let you know that there are some GREAT deals this week at Smith's. 

2 Free Gallons of Milk with the purchase of 4 Kellogg items

American Beauty Pasta .49 or Free with Coupon

Ronzoni Garden Delight Pasta, Healthy Harvest, Smart Taste Pasta .49 or FREE with Coupon

Use Grocery Smarts to make your list and get your printable coupons.
Click on the link, then click START to highlight the spreadsheet, simply select the items you want to add to your list and when you are finished click SHRINK and PRINT. You will have your own PERSONALIZED grocery list. Remember to get your coupons from Sundays paper and use the links from Grocery Smarts for printable coupons.

If you have any questions email me at: magenkeller@Hotmail.com

Free Coupon Class....

Because of the response I have gotten about couponing and saving money....

I have decided to start teaching FREE COUPON CLASSES! If you are interested in hosting a class for your friends, family, neighbors, as a bridal shower, church group etc. Please email me: magenkeller@hotmail.com

The classes will be totally FREE, I will show you exactly how I get, file, and use coupons and answer any questions you may have.

(Remember when I posted about this....and I paid only $37. 53?!?)

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Christmas!

Couponing 101... FAQ

I appologize for not  making this post earlier, our family has been plagued by some HORRIBLE stomach bug, I will spare you the details, but know that I am sorry and we are doing better.

I received a few questions after my last post on couponing:

What newspapers do I get?
 It doesn't really matter WHAT paper it is, as long as they deliver the sunday coupons. I live in Utah and I get the Deseret Morning News and the Salt Lake Tribune. I know that some local papers offer the Sunday coupons, so I would contact your them and ask.

Do I need to get the paper everyday?

No, the only newspaper we really care about (at least for couponing) is the Sunday paper. Most newspaper companies offer a SUNDAY ONLY or WEEKEND ONLY. Ask for it and I would ask for a deal, you can probably talk them down on a newspaper subscription.

How many papers should I get?

For Couponing, it is best to get ONE paper for each person in your household. So, if there are 4 people in your house, it would be ideal to get 4 papers. Most newspapers won't let you subscribe to more the 4 or 5 papers, but the more papers you get the more coupons you have. Remember, you can use one coupon per item. So, if you have 4 coupons you can buy 4 items.

What if the store brand is cheaper?

Then BUY it! I personally don't get caught up on the brand. I buy what I can get for the least amount of money. For example: I had a coupon to buy Fleischman's Yeast, with the sale and coupon is made the yeast about .76 per strip. Which is a good deal, but when I got the store the Kroger brand yeast was on sale for .52 per strip. So I bought that kind instead. No big deal, I saved even more money.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Happy Couponing and Saving $$$

Couponing 101...

This is a really LONG post, but I needed to explain a little bit so hang in there with me.

I would LOVE to answer any specific questions you may have, so please leave a comment if you have a question.

A few weeks ago I posted about how I have been shopping with coupons on our family's blog and I had a lot of comments asking how I do it. So I decided that may be a great topic to blog about here. First let me show you the end result:

Here is a shopping trip from about the first week on November.

This is everything purchased: 2 Gallons of Milk, 2 Liters 7up, 2 Liter A&w's, 4 Bags of Ricola Cough Drops, 1 bunch of bananas, 12 Yoplait Yogurt Cups, 4 Microwavable Soup Bowls, 18 cans Chunky Soup, 1 Sour Cream, 4 lbs. Cheese, 3 boxes of Noodles, 4 boxes of Jello, 2 Boxes of Granola Bars, 10 Cans Swanson Broth, 8 cans Crm of Chicken soup, 3 colgate toothpaste, 1 (75ct) Clorox Wipes, 2 Loaves of Bread, 2 refill packs Pampers Wipes...... My total before my coupons was over $150 (gulp, that is over budget)....But after my coupons I paid......

$37.53! (WOW! I know!)

This week I bought:

2 Gallons of Milk, 2 (3qts. each) Clorox Bleach, 1 roll Bounty Paper Towels, 3 Bottles French's Worsechire Sauce, 2 big boxes Rice Chex, 2 boxes Honey Nut Chex, 1 box Mom's Best honey Nut Toasty O's, 1 box American Beauty Pasta, 2 pkgs. Hershey Chocolate Chips, 2 pkgs. Heath Bits, 4 Pkg Betty Crocker Cookie mix, 2 pkg. yeast, 2 boxes Huggies wipes, 1 box Chamomile Tea, 1 box Ronzoni Pasta, 2 boxes Christmas Lights, 1 blistex, 6 Cartons Greek Yogurt, 3 pkg. Bumblebee Tuna, 2 boxes Kleenex Tissues, 4 Yakisoba Japanese Noodles, 3 pack Wilton Cookie Cutters, 1 pkg Rubber Gloves....

and the total before coupons and fresh values $115......

After Coupons and Fresh Values: $46.85

So, How did I do it?

The first step is SAVE your Coupon Packets.

There are coupon packets that come in the Sunday Newspapers. There are Smart Source (SS) Packets, General Mills (GM) Packets, Proctor & Gamble (PG) Packets....

Then there are the Red Plum (RP) Packets that come in the mail.

When a coupon packet arrives take a Magic Marker and write the date on the front. That's all you do right now and put it in your file.

I file my coupons by type of packet and by month. I label my files like this:

SS (Smart Source) NOVEMBER

SS DECEMBER

SS JANUARY

etc.

PG (Proctor & Gamble) NOVEMBER

PG DECEMBER

etc.

How easy is that?

How about we get to making our list and going to the store....

the real trick to all this is this site:

www.grocerysmarts.com

When you go to this site you first choose the State you are in. Then you choose the store you want to shop at. It will bring up that store's current ad. Along the top of the spreadsheet your will see a START button. Click start.

Now look through the spreadsheet, when you see something that your family is in need of you click on it and it will be highlighted. Once you have made it all the way through the spreadsheet your go back to the top and click the SHRINK button. The spreadsheet will shrink to only the items you have selected.

Now hit PRINT.

Now you have your grocery list. I usually hand write the few things at the bottom, like Milk if it isn't in the ad or anything extra we need that week, like Christmas Lights.

The with your grocery list in hand you can clip your coupons.

There are multiple columns on the list the first one shows you STARS. Everything listed in the ad is rated by stars, letting you know how great of a deal it is.

The next column tells you exactly what the item and what size is on sale. The next column show you the price it is on sale for.

The FOURTH column tells you exactly which coupon to clip.

It will tell you: exactly what item the coupon is good for, how much it is good for, expiration date in ( ), then where to find it.

For example:

Nestle Tollhouse Refridgerated Cookie Dough, $1/1 (12-31-10) RP-10/3

So to find this coupon I would go to my October Red Plum File. Find the packet labeled 10/3 and then clip my coupon.

When I have clipped my coupon, I then will write on my shopping list how many items I need to purchase. (Because some coupons require you to purchase more than 1 item).

Now simply go to the store and purchase what is on your list.

***The real trick to couponing is knowing this: YOU CAN USE ONE COUPON PER ITEM PURCHASED.***