Winter Palooza

Looking for something fun to do with the kids this weekend? Saturday Feb 6th from 10-7 Utah Kids Club is having their Winter Palooza. It will take place at the South Towne Expo Center. Be sure to purchase your tickets online for only $4! They will also be sold at the door but will be $7. Some of the activities will be:

Jumpin' Jacks Bounce House, Clark Planetarium, Living Planet Aquarium, face painting, chances to meet Sleeping Beauty, Hannah Montana, and Harry Potter and more activities as well.

Sounds like it will be lots of fun! Click here to go to Utah Kids Club to purchase your tickets at the cheaper price!

Parties for Bridal Showers

Are you planning a Bridal Shower?

What better way to celebrate than to have a FREE Grocery Smarts class at your party!

We recently attended a Bridal Shower where the theme was "Kitchen Basics". Each guest brought their favorite recipe on a card for the bride and they gave her gifts to help her set up her kitchen like pots, pans dishes and groceries.

We were invited to the shower so we could teach a mini class on how to save money at the grocery store. It was a ton of fun and Emily and I fell in love with the idea. The hostess of the party ended up giving the bride a year long subscription to the newspaper as her bridal shower gift! What better gift for a bride than helping her save money on her groceries ALL year long!

If you are looking to have a class for a bridal shower, church group, or just for your family and friends, e-mail us at sheshopssmart@gmail.com to set up your class today!

2010 Entertainment Book Giveaway

I am in LOVE with my 2010 Entertainment Book. Last night I just didn't feel like being in the kitchen. We opened up our book of coupons and found one for Arbys. We were able to score 2 Market Fresh Sandwiches, 2 drinks and a large fry for $7 with my coupon. The Entertainment Book is FULL of coupons to local restaurants, retail stores, and attractions in your area.

There is a book available in EVERY ONE'S AREA, not just Utah, but it Utah there are over $16,200 in coupons and they are coupons for places that my family and I visit ALL the time!

Here are some of the coupons I am excited to use:

• $5 off a $15 Purchase at TGI Friday's
• A FREE Longboard ice cream at Cost Vida (A favorite for me)
• 10% off your entire purchase at Downeast Outfitters (Another favorite)
• A FREE day of parking at Airport Diamond Parking
• A 2 for 1 admission to an BYU athletic event
• A 20% off any regular admission to Color Me Mine
• A 2 for 1 Menu items at A TON of malls food courts
• $5 off a signature oil change at Jiffy Lube
• 2 for 1 admission to Jumpin Jacks

And so many more coupons to places like Cold Stone Creamery, Golf Courses, Los Hermanos, Living Planet Aquarium, Mrs, Fields, Magelby's Fresh, Mulligans, Pita Pit, Rocky Mountain Pizza, Seven Peaks, This is the Place Heritage Park, and MUCH more.

We are going to be personally giving away a book to one of our readers!

You can enter this giveaway up to (3) times by commenting with 1, 2 or all 3 of the following options:

1. Become a follower of She Shops Smart. You can do this by adding She Shops Smart as Friend on Facebook, Becoming a Google Follower or Adding our Button to Your Blog. Comment and tell us how you became a follower. If you are already a follower you can comment with; "Follower on Facebook, blog, etc."
2. Send an e-mail to at least (3) of your friends telling them about She Shops Smart! Comment and let us know that you sent out an e-mail, "Sent an e-mail to 3 friends about my favorite blog She Shops Smart."
3. Share with us a "Coupon Confession"! A great example would be, "I dreamed about coupons a couple nights ago."
   

Be sure to make a separate comment for each one that you do! Each comment becomes your entry into our giveaway. We will close the giveaway on Tuesday, February 9th at 1:00pm. We will announce our winner on Tuesday night! Good Luck!

Weekly Meal Planning

This week I am planning my weekly meals around the Smith's List.

Breakfast

Scrambled Eggs and toast

Pillsbury Toaster Strudels
Yogurt, granola bars and apple juice
Cereal and fruit slices
Cinnamon Toast, hard boiled egg and bananas
Oatmeal with chocolate milk

Lunch
Everyone pick their favorite Healthy Choice Entree
Tyson chicken nuggets with homemade french fries
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with cheese and crackers
Easy Mac cups, Capri Suns and goldfish crackers
Lunchables at our weekly play date
Grilled cheese sandwiches, yogurt and raisins

Dinner
Spaghetti and meatballs, fresh broccoli and Texas Toast
New York Steak, Baked Potatoes and tossed salad
Make your own Quesadillas Night (cheese, tortillas, vegetables and sour cream)
Lime Chicken with Lime Rice
Chili and homemade cornbread
Whatever Wednesday


Snacks
Apples and Litehouse Carmel Dip
Mixed Nuts with Crackers and Cheese
Goldfish crackers and raisins

Dessert
Ice Cream sundaes
Let the kids help me make Krusteaz Cookies and decorate with Valentines sprinkles

A Lot for Less

Here is another AMAZING A Lot for Less! Thank you for sharing your picture with us Whitney!

Hi Tori and Emily,

I started couponing in October after attending one of your classes and I just wanted to share my shopping trip to Smiths today! I had a HUGE cart full and when I went to check out I was getting nervous about how much it was going to cost. Well, the total came to $220.88 and I started to sweat, so I handed over my fresh values card and the total dropped to $117.84 so I started to feel a little better. Then, I handed over my huge stack of coupons and the total came to a whopping $74.16!!! I was so excited! That is a 67% savings!!! I saved $143.32!

2 loaves of bread

1 gallon milk

apples,

romaine lettuce,

cucumber

1 can enfamil formula

4 bags shredded cheese

2 bags mission tortillas

5 bags lunch meat

8 yogurts

4 boxes capri suns

6 boxes kleenex

3 bags solo plastic cups

1 bag solo plastic bowls

1 sour cream

5 boxes cereal

3 Mott's apple juice

1 Welches grape juice

4 boxes kraft mac n cheese

4 boxes delux mac n cheese

5 boxes quaker chewy granola bars

4 boxes fiber one granola bars

10 sobe life waters

1 box of butter sticks

2 cans green chilis

2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes

1 can cocoa

2 hershey bars

4 philadelphia cream cheese

I got 89 items for $74...that only $0.83 per item.

Confessions of a Couponer

Last week I confessed to you readers that I had experienced some "Coupon Burnout".

The response to that post was overwhelming! We appreciate all your wonderful comments and e-mails. We are lucky to have such supportive and relate able readers.

We had so much fun with that post we thought we would launch a new post idea where we will make a weekly

"Coupon Confession"

We want you guys to know that we are "normal" too. We aren't some super human coupon girls. We have families, laundry and errands to run too. It would be nice to be able to suck in coupon air every minute of every day, but face it, our houses would be disgusting if we did that. We update the blog as often as we can. When we do update it is usually between nap times, coloring time, breakfast and afternoon walks with our kids. That's why occasionally there are grammar and spelling errors. We do our best with our little ones banging on the keyboard as we edit our posts. We wish we could sit and update our blog all day, but our poor kids would miss their mommies.

Coupons are wonderful and yes, we seriously do save $6,000 in a year at the grocery store, but we also enjoy photographing our kids, going to the mall, meeting up for play dates, watching movies with out families and turning off our computers for a day.

So, my coupon confession this week is......

The deals that we post here on the blog, we only personally participate in about 25% of them. GASP, SHOCK AWE! When we tell you about things like .13 goldfish it doesn't mean we ran out to our cars and ran into the store to just buy goldfish. I printed off the coupons and if I make it to the store to use them I will be sure to put them in my cart, but I NEVER make a special trip for a coupon cheapie. Can you imagine if you looked for coupon freebies all day and than you ran out to go buy everything. Coupons would become a FULL time job. You really could drive around town and pick up freebies all day long and eat freebies at fast food joints while you were out, but let's face it if you did that you would be coupon burned out ALL the time. You would want to throw the towel in. Not to mention how expensive that habit could end up getting. Coupon blogging and shopping can be addicting and that's why Emily and I limit our shopping trips to once a week. Whatever we buy in that week that's it. We rarely go back for an item that was out of stock. We figure it will go on sale again someday and we'll hope to buy it then.

So what's your "Coupon Confession" this week?

What a week for shopping!

I LOVE SEEING MY TOTAL DROP AT THE CHECKOUT!

I had so much fun today! I ran into Smiths to pick up some things on the Mega Sale. At the checkout the total was 108. and dropped to 32.00! And a $2.00 off catalina printed out too! I am not going to lie, it brings a smile to my face that sticks all day long when there is savings found like this!

This week we stocked up on crackers since they are a favorite snack at my house!

Here is what I came home with:

2 boxes Ritz Crackers

2 boxes Wheat Thins

10 Bags of Goldfish crackers

2 packages Solo plates

2 packages Solo Cups

2 Packages Deli Meat

2 bricks of Cheese

2 bags of Cheese

1 bottle of Tide

1 box Toaster Strudel

2 Flats of Arrowhead Water (not pictured)

and a big smile on my face!

Buying Coupons on eBay

You know you are a couponer when your week starts on Wednesday (the day of the new sales) not Sunday. You shop FIRST thing on Wednesday's. You know what a shelf clearer is. Your Sunday morning is almost like Christmas morning when you see your newspaper on the driveway. Your husband asks you what language you are using when you drop words like Catalinas, Red Plum, and P&G.

Now, here is another method to acquire coupons that may cause your friends and family to wonder what habit you have gotten yourself into! We all know you can buy just about anything on e-bay, but did you know that you can buy coupons there! I shared that with a grocery store clerk and they about fainted right at the register.

There really is a whole little coupon universe out there isn't there!

Why Buy Coupons on EBay

I highly recommend that if you are trying the coupon thing that you get at least 1 set of Sunday newspaper coupons per person in your home. Newspaper coupons are guaranteed and reliable. Bottom line I couldn't save the kind of money I am without my newspaper coupons.

However, there are acceptations where people may not live in an area where newspapers are delivered and you may need to purchase your coupons through a 3rd party like e-bay. If you live in an area where coupons are in the paper it would be silly to buy your coupon inserts from eBay because they cost more than they do to just buy the Sunday paper.

The main reason why I purchase coupons on eBay is to maximize a sale. I never buy an insert from eBay, but rather if I see an item I want A LOT of and there is a corresponding coupon I check out eBay to see what deals I can get on MULTIPLES of that ONE coupon.

How to Buy Coupons on EBay

If you E-bay coupons you wouldn't believe the amount of listings that will come up. When I just searched "coupons" 31,023 listings were available! Wow! You will want to search for a specific coupon. Maybe you noticed a coupon that was high value on Sunday or maybe you are looking for an item you know you use a lot of, or maybe you wait until you see the item go on sale and then you purchase the coupons.

After you search for your coupon be sure to do your homework. Be sure to figure in the cost of shipping on the coupons, the cost you are paying to buy the coupons and the expiration date on the coupons.

Also be sure if you buy coupons on eBay (or any other online purchase) that you use your ebates account to get a percentage of cash back from your purchase.

When to Buy Coupons on EBay

After I saw that Quaker Rice Quakes were FREE after coupon this week I took a look at some of the coupons on eBay to see if I could get a deal on some extra coupons. The best deal I saw was for $3.75 for 10 coupons and then .50 for shipping. The total cost would have been $4.25. I figured out that after my coupon each package would end up costing me .42. Well, without a coupon at Smith's each package only ends up costing me .49. To me those coupons wouldn't be worth buying.

On the other hand I know that I use Electrosal Dish washing tablets and that I wanted as many boxes as I could get my hands on. They were on sale for .49 after coupon at Smith't this week and I ended up being able to buy 10 more $2.50 coupons for $3.50 and I would get FREE shipping. After I factored in the cost of buying the coupons on eBay each box would end up costing me only .84. That is still a great deal! I love that I have 18 boxes sitting underneath my sink now!

Word of Caution

Be careful when you buy coupons that you aren't buying online printable coupons. Not all stores accept Internet printables and you might end up paying money for online coupons that you won't be able to use.

Be aware of the expiration date. Don't buy coupons that expire on 1/31/10 on 1/29/10. That would be a risk and your coupons may not make it to you on time for you to use them at the store.

And as always with eBay be sure to check the sellers credibility when buying from them.

Maybe you are thinking this is CRAZY! Who buys coupons on eBay and I do agree with you! I am crazy and no I don't make a habit of buying coupons on eBay. I think I have bought coupons on eBay maybe 5 times. Does the idea of this scare you to death, but you like the idea of having extra coupons? Try out a Coupon Train!

.13 cent Goldfish Crackers

Be sure to print this .75/1 Goldfish coupon! This week at Smith's Mega Sale goldfish are on sale for .88 after mega sale savings and after the .75/1 coupon it would make them .13 a bag. In the past the Mega Sale has ran for two weeks, so if you have already been shopping you might be able to wait until next week to use you coupon.

FREE Discount Drug Card

This FREE discount card will come in handy! All you do is enter in your name and e-mail address here. On the next page you can print off your FREE pharmacy savings card. You can save up to 75% on prescription drugs and the card is accepted in over 75,000 drug stores.

VistaPrint Freebies Receipt

So, I just went through VistaPrint and finished placing my order. A couple of the things like the mouse pad, sticky notes and tote bag that I uploaded pictures to didn't end up costing me any extra! I was pleasantly surprised! I ordered all the FREE things except the photo book and I ended up adding mailing labels for $1.49. My total came to $31.11 and I saved $104.38!!!! I did choose slow shipping which means my items won't be here in time for V-Day, but I have other plans for my freebies!

How much did you end up saving on your order?

Free Vista Print Products

Go to Vista Print and you can get FREE samples of their following products!

250 FREE business cards
4x6 FREE photo flip book
25 FREE checks
1 package 3x3 sticky notes
1 package regular notepads
100 FREE Standard size postcards
10 FREE invitations
1 FREE mug
1 FREE mouse pad
1 FREE canvas tote gag
1 FREE T-shirt

You only have to pay for shipping and processing on your order. I went through and ordered one of every FREE item. Some if the items I made I fully intend on using for Valentine's Day gifts for the grandparents in our lives! To make them personalized I did end up uploading photo images on some of my items so I did have to pay a little extra for that, but I couldn't get a better deal on a personalized photo gift!

These offers go quickly so be sure to snag you FREE items.

ANOTHER A Lot for Less

Here is another A Lot for Less from She Shops Smart reader Cindy! I met Cindy at an Enrichment night about 5 months ago and I have since taught a class for her friends and family. Cindy is so awesome at using coupons and gave some of the best advice to her friends that were new at using coupons. She told them to stick with it for more than a month! So many times I see people "try"their hand a couponing and if they haven't seen AWESOME results in 2 weeks they give up. Cindy told her friends to at least stick with it for 3-4 months and they would notice a drastic difference in their budgets and pantries! Cindy keep the awesome advice coming and I can't believe what an amazing trip you had this week! Thanks for sharing with us! I bet your glad you stuck with coupons! BTW- I love that Cindy didn't have enough room on her counter to get all her groceries into one picture!

3 bags Armour Meatballs
4 bags birds eye steam vegi’s
3 loaves of smiths bread (love this stuff)
Bananas
1 tub of I can’t believe…butter
1 box of I can’t believe…butter sticks
10lb bag of potatoes
Baby back ribs
2 4ct dannon activia
5 4ct danimals
3 gal of milk
3 bags of buddig lunchmeat
4 24pkcs of arrowhead water
2 6 pcks of arrowhead water ….FREE!
4 10pcks of Capri Sun
2 16oz Daisy Sr. Cream
4 boxes of Electrasol dishwasher detergent
5 Milk chocolate hersey bars
5 Hershey bars…FREE! (these will be great for my emergeny packs!)
5 bags of shredded kraft cheese
3 bars of kraft cheese
9 boxes of kraft mac&cheese (riley loves this stuff)
3 boxes of kraft mac&cheese…FREE!
5 boxes of krusteaz cookie mix (which I was able to use on muffin mixes too)
1 bag lays potato chips
2 cans of Lays stacks
4 boxes of toaster Strudels
6 boxes of Quaker chewy bars (we love these)
2 bags of Quaker rice cakes
5 Solo plastic items (cups & plates)
4 Tide Laundry detergent
1 tub of sanitizing wipes
2 honey bears
4 tubs of Philadelphia cream cheese
4 boxes of Nabisco crackers

114 items

Total $329.64
Paid $137.81
Saved $194.83

Online Coupons Reset

It is the first of the month, so you know what that means! The online coupons, Group A-Group C have reset. Here are some tips about online or Internet printable coupons:

The IPS (internet printables)

• Manufactures set limits on the amounts of coupons printed. When the limit is reached they pull their coupons off. That means occasionally you will go the print a coupon and it will be gone unless you printed it off at the beginning.


• This is even more important toward the end of a month. Coupons group A-C are reset at the first of the month, so on the FIRST, when the coupons reset, they start out at zero.


• Sometimes manufactures will reset their coupons after the limit is reached, but don't count on it. Just consider yourself lucky if they do.


• I know some people are having problems with IPS. I wish I could help out in that area, but I am not tech savvy enough. I have heard that switching browsers can help. Example: On Internet Explorer and they won't print try Fire Fox or vice virsa. Another great resource is pinching your pennies. They have an entire forum to troubleshooting your IPS.

Some questions to commonly asked IP questions answered:

• Where are online coupons located? All over! You can see over the the left hand side of this there are online coupons, group A-Singles . You can also find coupons on manufactures websites, you can receive them via-email and sometimes websites will give them to you after you join their mailing lists or take a survey for them. When the Grocery Smarts lists are up you will see links that take you to online coupons. The best part about those lists are that if there are coupons online, they are on the lists. You will never have to search for coupons for items on the list yourself! Grocery Smarts lists do all the work for you.
  
• "Are IP'S worth it? It seems like a lot of paper and ink to be wasting." My answer is it depends. I think after you have a couple months worth of newspaper coupons its hit and miss. I only print ones of that make things close to FREE or if it is something I really like or know I will need. You'll never catch me printing of cereal coupons or toothpaste coupons. That is because I have DOZENS of them from my newspaper.


• Now, if you are staring out and only have a few coupons from the paper on the list then I definitely recommend using IPS to maximize your savings. My sister in law started out and only had a weeks worth of coupons, but wanted to start saving right away, so she maximized her coupons by using IPS. She told me her husband was frustrated by all the paper in ink she was using, but after she shopped she had saved over $50. That paper and ink WAY over paid for itself. IP'S are a great way of subsidizing newspaper coupons, but not a great substitute! Newspaper coupons will benefit you way more in the the long end.


• "How long do IP'S last". IPS have expiration dates on them the same way other coupons do. Most times they expire WAY faster than the ones in the paper. That's why I only print the ones off from the list that week. Otherwise they tend to expire before I have a chance to use them.


• "Can we print them off in black and white?" It depends on your store. Some stores will take black and white, some will not. Be sure to ask if you are planning on trying black and white. There reason behind that is they are trying to protect themselves from illegal photocopied coupons.


• Do all stores take IP's and the answer is no. Not all stores do take IPS. I do know that Albertsons and Smiths DO and as of August first Associated Foods started accepting IP's again. My suggestion with other stores is call ahead and ask if you are planning on using them on your shopping trip.

Also don't forget the two IP's per HOUSEHOLD rule! Have fun printing!

Babies R Us Trade in Event

"From Friday, January 29 through Saturday, February 20, all Babies"R"Us and Toys"R"Us stores nationwide will accept returns of used cribs, car seats and other baby products in exchange for savings on a new item during the “Great Trade-In” event. The event is designed to draw attention to the fact that certain used baby products can carry potential hazards, but are still in circulation."

You can return your baby items in exchange for 25% off certain baby gear and equipment. You do not need a receipt to exchange your items and you did not have to purchase them from Babies R US. There is no limit, so you can trade in as many items you would like.

To read about the participating brands and products check out Babies R Us' website for all the details.

Hershey's Pieces Pouches at Kmart

I was surprised to see some deals worth mentioning at Kart this week.

My favorite deal is to buy 4 bags of Hershey Pieces Pouches on sale $2/5.

Use (4) $1/1 from SS 1/31.

Kmart will then give you a $10 Gift card when you buy 4 bags.

• Pay $10 for the pouches
• -$4 in coupons
• Factor in the $10 gift card and you have a money maker of $4 on hand.

After you finish eating up one of your bags be sure to save your wrapper. Take that wrapper, fill out this form here and you will recieve a coupon for a FREE bag up to $3.69.

After your rebate this deal turns into a $4 moneymaker on 5 bags of Hershey's Peices.

Thanks Money Saving Mom for the scenario!

In the fine print it does say that the gift card will come via mail in certificate and that the gift card is for a future purchase of Hershey products. I am not sure if that means we can only buy Hershey products with the gift card or not.

Kmart also included some in store coupons in their ad this week. There was a coupon that made Oreo's $1.88 (limit one), Angel Soft Toilet Paper 12 pack for $4.49 (limit 1) and 2 liters of Pepsi for .77(limit 2). They require you to purchase a minimum of $10 before taxes, discounts and coupons are applied to use these coupons.

Parade Magazine Coupons

Be sure to pull out the Parade Magazine out of your papers today! There is a coupon for $1/1 package of Keebler Club Crackers 9oz or larger any flavor. While I was browsing through the ads Walmart had them on Rollback for $1.94 each. Use this coupon and it makes them only .94 a box!

Has anyone seen somewhere else to use these coupons at? I can't remember if these were apart of the Mega Sale at Smith's.

Coupons in Sunday's Paper

In the Daily Herald you should have received:

1 SS insert
1RP insert
In the SLT/DMN you should have received
1 SS insert

To read about how the Red Plum coupons are distributed click here!

To start your newspaper coupons right away, learn about the awesome newspaper deal we can get you here.

*If you ordered the paper and you didn't receive your paper or didn't get the correct number of papers please call the newspaper company first and let them know. Their numbers are on the left side of the blog. Occasionally if you are new to a route your carrier may miss your home. The newspaper companies are super easy to work with and will make sure your papers are delivered.