15% off at Children's Place

Here is a coupon for 15% off at Children's Place. Last time I went to my store they had a TON of clearance items. Combine clearance items with an additional 15% and you got some awesome clothes for a great deal! We are taking a trip over there today to check it out and maybe even pick up a new Easter Sunday outfit!

Mega Swag Bucks Friday and How Much Closer We Are To Our Goal

A couple months ago I shared with you about a new way to search the internet called Swagbucks. You get paid in "swag bucks" to search the internet the same way you already search for things. After you earn your swagbucks you can redeem them for gift cards and other prizes from the swag store. You can read my post about swagbucks here for all the details.

As if it was already sweet enough to get rewarded for doing something you are already doing, how about having a MEGA swag buck day!

"Every Friday, Swagbucks gives you a chance to win huge, gargantuan, oodles, tons of....Mega Swag Bucks with your searches. From 3 to 100 Swag Bucks, we give away up to 10,000 Swag Bucks in Mega Bills every Friday!"
Taken from Swag Bucks official blog

So, make sure on Friday's you do some MEGA searching to win MEGA swag bucks! Be sure to check out our Swag Bucks tips here.

If you don't already have Swag Bucks go here to sign up. After you sign up check your e-mail and they will let you start searching!

Emily and I can't believe the amount of Swag Bucks we have earned since we first started. We plan on surprising our husbands with airline tickets from Swag Bucks! So far Emily and I have $350 to Southwest Airlines! Swag Bucks is seriously like having FREE money! All you have to do is search the Internet using Swag Bucks and you earn the bucks! I almost always win at least one Swag Buck within my first three or four searches and on Fridays I am sure to throw in tons of extra searching! There was one Friday when I did win 50 Swag Bucks in one search!!!!!

Our hard work is totally paying off though! You can check out the prizes you can earn from Swag Bucks, but Emily and I are only interested in the Swag Bucks gift cards they offer. Each week we are going to share with you how much closer we are to our Swag Bucks Airline tickets!

• Goal $1000.00 in Southwest Airline Gift Cards
• We will need 20 $50 Gift Cards to Accomplish this goal
• Each $50 to Southwest cost us 550 Swag Bucks
• That means we still need 13 gift cards or 7150 Swag Bucks

Be sure to jump on this and start earning your Swag Bucks too!

FREE UTA Ride Today Only

Looking for something fun and free to take the kids too! How about riding the UTA for FREE today! The Governor is trying to encourage us "Utahans" to take advantage of our public transit system. By using our public transit system we will be helping improve our air quality and helping our community! Today only you can ride for FREE so you can see how easy using our public transportation system can be! "The Utah Transit Authority will offer free transit throughout its six county service area for one day on Friday, Feb. 12. UTA services, including buses, TRAX light rail and FrontRunner commuter rail, will be free for all riders that day as part of a special Learn to Ride promotion; UTA ski buses will not be part of the promotion and will still require a paid fare.

"We hope that by offering a free Learn to Ride day, new people will try transit, learn that it can work for them and become regular riders." Inglish said. "By riding transit or carpooling just once a week, collectively we can make a difference in regional air quality.""

Here is website link for all the UTA schedules and times!

How to Make Homemade Bread- EASY

If any of my readers asked my family what kind of cook I am, they would be nice and just tell you I have really bad luck, but truth be told I am not a wonderful cook. I have a few things that I can make really well, but other than my cooking ability is limited.

My sister in law shared this amazing homemade bread recipe with me and my initial thought was that there was no way this was going to work out. Just a couple months ago at Christmas time I tried making a family bread recipe that went horribly wrong.

For some reason I thought I would make a second attempt at bread today and guess what! It went well! Good news for you, if it worked for me, it is bound to work for you too! I bet all of you even have the ingredients on hand too!

Ingredients:

• 2T. Yeast (I used the SAF yeast that you can just mix into the recipe without letting it rise! If you haven't used this before I swear by it)
• 2 1/2 C. Warm Water
• 3T. Sugar
• 2T. Oil
• 2t. Salt
• 6 Cups Flour

1) Mix everything together except 3 cups of flour. I used my stand mixer, but a Bosch would work wonderfully too!

2) After it is mixed, add the remaining 3 cups slowly until it falls away from the bowl.

3) Cover and let raise 10 minutes.

4) Put the dough onto a floured surface and divide it half.

5) Divide each half into thirds.

6) Roll the dough out into pieces long enough to braid.

7) Braid your 2 loafs of bread.8) Cover and let rise for 15 more minutes.

9) Put each loaf onto a separate cookie sheet and cook for about 15-20 min or golden brown in an oven at 415 degrees.

10) After you take your bread out of the oven brush with butter.

11) Impress your family and friends by sharing with them your wonderful bread making skills. Then eat your yummy bread! Mine was super yummy with some raspberry jam on top!Enjoy!

A big thanks goes to my sister in law Mariam for sharing with me this recipe and ENCOURAGING me to give bread making another shot!

Coupon Confession

Last week when I brought home all those groceries I seriously had to "find" places to put it. We had so much in our food storage already I had no idea what I was going to do. It seriously made me wish I had participated in Money Saving Mom's Eat From You Pantry Challenge the month before. I ended up having to go through my pantry, freezer and fridge and purge. I couldn't believe the amount of stuff that I was able to throw away. Between the 3 locations I filled up 4 garbage bags(that's why I am glad to see garbage bags on sale at Smith's this week) .

My confession this week -Some of the stuff I threw away wasn't old or expired. It was just stuff I needed to get rid of the make room for my new stuff!

I know that is horrible! I did call a friend down the street who just got married and she took most of it, but I still felt so bad. It was like putting money into the garbage can.

My new goal is to be much more selective about what I buy unless I plan on donating the extras. Emily and I do our shopping together frequently and something I admire about Emily is how disciplined she is. She literally only buys what she KNOWS her family will use. So many weeks I get caught up with the idea that it is only "a few pennies". But something I am learning is that pennies add up to dollars. And those dollars can end up in the garbage if you don't use the stuff your are buying. If you don't plan on using it, don't buy it!

Another thing that happened to me as I was cleaning out my pantry was I noticed some of the food was expired. We all know how important it is to buy in bulk, but to buy 5 years worth of salad dressing when it expires in 6 months isn't going to do you any good! As I am buying things now and planning for food storage I am becoming much more conscious about expiration dates! It has helped me a ton!

Last thing- Keep your pantry, freezer and fridge organized, so you can see what you actually have on hand. Some of the stuff I would have eaten if I had been able to see that we even had it!

What's your coupon confession this week?

The photos for this post came from the blog Grasping for Objectivity. I was kicking myself for not taking pictures of the mess I cleaned out yesterday, so I googled cleaning out the pantry. I found Rachel's blog and these photos and had to share them with you. No joke, the 4 garbage bags picture is really just a coincidence. I felt so much better knowing that I wasn' the only one who had a messy pantry, but really Rachel's blog was a ton of fun reading and she has a great take on being a stay at home mom!

Meal Planning

Last week I bet we all did a TON of stocking up at the Smith's Mega Sale, so lets put some of the food to good use. I just plan on running into the closest store to me to by some produce and milk for this weeks meal plan. There weren't really any fresh food items I felt like were worth stocking up on, so I am just going to be using what I have in my freezer.

Breakfast

Scrambled eggs, bacon and toast

Bagels and cream cheese with orange

Oatmeal and canned peaches

Pancakes and smoothies

Cereal and toast with jam

Cinnamon rolls and milk

Lunch

Healthy Choice Entree of your choice

Lunchables at our weekly play date

Chicken Nuggets and homemade french fries (my kids love helping me season and salt homemade fries)

Peanut butter and jelly, with cheese slices and goldfish crackers

Easy Mac cups, Capri Suns and Ritz crackers with cream cheese spread

Tuna Sandwiches and pickles

Dinner

Italian Sausage Stew and homemade rolls

Chicken Enchiladas, rice and homemade salsa and chips

Chili and cornbread

Crock pot pulled pork sandwiches with pasta salad

Roast with potatoes and steamed broccoli and carrots

Stuffed Red Peppers with homemade salsa and chips

Snacks

I bet our pantry's our stuffed with snacks now!

Desserts

I plan on using my Breyers Ice Cream, Sara Lee Delights.

For Valentines I am going to make homemade chocolate moose.

How to Organize a Coupon Binder Part 2

Here is Part 2 on How to Organize a Coupon Binder. I didn't realize how loud the kids were being in this video!

Be on the lookout for our upcoming post on the Binder Method vs. the File Folder Method!

Great Internet Coupons for this weeks sales

Here are some great internet printable coupons to use with this weeks sales to make for some great 4 and 5 star deals!

Find them here to print them off. Remember that you can print each coupon 2 times!

Group A
$.75 off any brand yogurt
$1/2 Genereal Mills Cereal
$1/2 Lighthouse products
$1/1 Loreal Lip Products
$2/1 Natures Bounty Your Life Multivitamins

Group B
$.55/1 Trix Cereal group B

Group C
Kelloggs Cereal $1/3

Remember that the high value coupons and those that make for 4 and 5 star deals disappear quickly, so be sure to print yours off before they are gone! Go here to print them off.

A Lot for Less

Last night I ran in to take advantage of the Mega Sale, just one last time. Before coupons and Fresh Vales cards savings my total came to $181.00. After coupons and card savings my total came down to $34.00! I was so proud of myself. I ended up with:

Bananas
Lettuce
2 Artichokes
1 package chicken breasts
5 Sobe waters
2 bags Tostios chips
2 Tostitos dips
2 bags lunch meat
4 boxes of Cheezits
2 bags of Goldfish
3 boxes of Electrosal dish washing tablets
18 bags of Quaker Quakes
2 Sara Lee Single Desserts
2 bags of chocolate candy
1 California Pizza
1 Digornio Pizza
3 boxes of Kleenex
4 tubs of butter
1 clearanced Chocolate cake =)

I saved 82% on this shopping trip!

Smith's Rewards Envelope

I was so excited to get my Gold Envelope, Smith's Rewards in the mail this week! Did you guys get yours yet?

I appreciate a grocery store that rewards me for shopping at their store! I received $21 in a reward certificate and a TON of coupons, with many of them working great with the Mega Sale!

2010 Entertainment Book Giveaway Winner Announced

Thank you so much for everyone who commented in our

2010 Entertainment Book Giveaway this week!

Our winner is
"Neisha said...
coupon confession-I am obsessed with good deals and have such a hard time buying anything for full price because I know I can get a better deal. This drives my husband mad."

Congratulations Neisha!

You have won a FREE 2010 Entertainment Book to the location of your choice!
Please e-mail us at sheshopssmart@gmail.com with your contact info so we can get in touch to get you your prize.

For all of you that didn't win you can order your copy of all those coupons here. This book will pay for itself within your first couple coupon uses.

Binder Method Part1

Okay, for months now you readers have been begging us to give you our opinions on how we feel about organizing coupons in a binder vs. the file folder method! We have finally taken the plunge and decided to share our thoughts with you. Here is a video we made of us sharing with you exactly a little about how my binder looks and how I organize it. Enjoy!

Be sure to be on the lookout for Part 2 on exactly how I add NEW coupons to my binder each week!

Vista Prints Freebies

I just got an e-mail that told me my Vista Print freebies were shipped out! I can't believe all the FREE stuff they are giving away right now. If you haven't taken advantage of your freebies be sure to order yours!

Giveaway Ends Today!

Just a reminder that our 2010 Entertainment Book Giveaway ends today! Be sure to enter before 1pm! Anyone can enter!

Coupons in Sundays Paper

IT IS A BIG COUPON WEEK! In your paper today you should have found 3-4 inserts (depending on what paper you get). 

In the Salt Lake Tribune/Deseret News you should find

1 Smart Source, 1 General Mills 

1 Proctor and Gamble

The Daily Herald also has the Red Plum insert. 

Want in on all this coupon fun? :)

If you are interested in getting the paper at a discounted rate send us an email 

at Sheshopssmart@gmail.com for more information! 

*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 deliver