Join in on the Grocery Classes!!!

I've been wanting to post pictures of some of my classes I teach for awhile now. Finally I remembered to bring my camera to take a shot! My awesome Hostess Kristina had a great class she hosted in her beautiful home! We had so much fun learning how to save hundreds! If you are interested in having me come to your home to teach you and your friends how exciting it is, just give me a call or email me today! I offer great hostess gifts and promise a class worth attending. Remember it's free to everyone!!!



I had to post my shopping trip to Albies for this week. I have been out of a few of my kids favorite cereal for awhile now, and they keep asking me, "Mom? When is the good cereal gonna be on sale again?" Ha ha, to them the nutritious kind I have tons of is not classified as the good kind! I do have to admit that Reese's Puffs is so yummy! We sometimes eat it as a dessert! Anyway, My family was thrilled to see my loot! This week General mills offers $7.00 OYNSO (on your next shopping order) for every $20.00 you spend. The cereal & fiber one bars were on sale for $2.50, so I did my first transaction with 4 boxes of cereal, and 4 boxes of granola bars which was exactly $20.00. Then I gave them my manufactured coupons which totaled $4.80. So out of pocket for the 1st transaction I paid $15.80 with tax. But out pops my 'catalina coupons' for $7.00 and $2.50 for the fiber one bars. My next tranaction was the remaining 8 boxes of cereal. Total $20.00. Gave them $4.00 in manufactured coupons and the $9.50 in Catalinas. So with tax on this transaction I paid $7.10. Then again out pops the $7.00 catalina. Now my last tranaction is the rest of my items. I give them my remaining manufactured coupons totaling $6.75 and my $7.00 catalina coupon. Out of pocket I paid $21.24. So for a total of 3 transactions here is the breakdown.

Total value of purchase $135.81
Total Saved $ 91.67
Total Spent $ 44.14
Total percentage saved 67%
Bam! Right on the money! This is so rewarding!!! Even after 2 years of shopping like this, it's still the biggest high!!!

Stock-up item of the day

I had to quickly run to Wal-Mart for a few perishable items for dinner tonight and I wanted to price match only 2 things. Remember you don't always have to shop huge to save huge. My husband is very particular when it comes to his toiletry items. I don't get it. He was raised a poor farm boy from Clearfield! (Ha ha, no offense honey!) Anyway, he has to have High Endurance body wash, never will try any other brand. It's saddens me, especially when I could've gotten Mens Dove body wash 2 weeks ago for free! So the body wash doesn't come on sale very often. I only see it about every 6-8 months so when a sale arrives...I stock up! So here's the deal I got...

Regular Wal-Mart price $3.99
Rite-Aid sale I price matched $2.99
$1/2 coupon from PG 12/27
Final price $2.49 ea.
savings on body wash $12.00

Regular Wal-Mart price $1.28 ea.
5 Gum is on sale at WalGreens $0.99 ea.
(this is my family's favorite gum and we use a ton!!)
savings on gum $1.16
Total savings $13.16

I know, only $13.16 in savings? Well let me tell you it took me 5 minutes to cut out 4 coupons. Who could pay me $13.16 for 5 minutes worth of work? NOBODY!!!

Are Coupons really worth it?

As I was browsing around the blogosphere last night, I ran into a post about an article found in Yahoo Finance on the use of coupons. There are so many out there that just still don't think that a $0.50 cent or $1.00 coupon are really worth the effort they put into clipping it out. If you are a doubter or know a doubter, please read this article in Financial Fit to help you become a believer! The writer uses all kinds of methods to calculate if cutting and using coupons are really worth it. I bet you know what he found out...Of course it is!!! He calculated that an average coupon is worth $1.44 and it takes 1 min to cut it out (not really, i'm way quicker than that). This would be equivalent to earning $86.40 an hour. That is a really good wage as the average American earns $20.00 an hour. The best part about it is that you can be home cutting them out in front of the TV!
So the statistics show that cutting and using coupons are tremendously beneficial for your finances. The greatest thing of all is that this guy doesn't even know about Grocerysmarts website where we use our coupons with the store sales! In doing this we increase our capacity to save money! Rememeber that our savings are usually between 50%-70% savings!!! Nobody can tell me that it's not worth it!!!

Savings at Walgreens!

Here was a quick trip I took to Walgreens last week. I really wanted the free Men's dove body wash for an overage of $1.50. That means they would have paid me to take it off their hands! Unfortunately they were out and I didn't want to come back later when they were stocking up. But I did buy Gillette Fusion razors for $0.99 each. All the Nabisco snacks were FREE! We love free! and the John Frieda hair styling products were $1.33 each. I had to buy something to use my Register Rewards on and had to buy my kids valentines anyway so I grabbed them to kill 2 birds with one stone! What a successful trip!
If you want to learn more about saving hundreds on all your groceries and toiletry items, you need to book a free class with me! I teach you and your friends and family how to use our FREE website, show you how to clip and file your coupons that's so quick and easy! Plus I offer AWESOME hostess incentives!!! Call or email me today to find out more details!

Jodi Gardner
435-862-5718
jodigardner@yahoo.com

Huggies Deals

If you are a Mommy that is in "diaper mode" right now, you can't miss the Huggies deals going on at Walgreens! All kinds of Jumbo pack diapers on sale for as little as $3.49 a pack. Now remember they will give you a $3.00 RR (Register Reward) at checkout that is good on your next visit. They limit one per household, so be creative!!! (you know what I mean) Check out the Walgreens grocerysmarts list HERE for more info.

I'M BACK!!!

I know most of you are probably wondering why I haven't posted forever, but things have been a little hectic and crazy for the last few months. I am still alive and realizing I'm really not a good blogger. I will still post now and again in case you want to glance at my blog once in awhile. I am still coupon shopping and still loving it in case you were wondering! Here are a few things I picked up this week at Albertsons and Smiths. At Albertsons I stocked up on some staples like Peanut butter, soup, oatmeal, potatoes, and assorted meats. But as you can see I also picked up a few other necessities that I needed. I knew my savings might not be as high because of the regular priced things I needed but it was still a good trip, here is my breakdown...

Total value of purchase $206.77
Total saved $108.70
Total spent $ 98.07
Total percentage saved 52%


Now Smiths is having a mega event. This means that every ten items you purchase you get $5.00 off at checkout. I definitely wanted to stock up on their Plastic cups, diswashing tablets, laundry soap, cream cheese, goldfish crackers, Pepsi (super bowl time!), chili, and pretty much everything you see here! I really felt like I scored with the Quaker Quakes that were FREE! Anyhow, here is my breakdown...

Total value of purchase $205.76
Total saved $118.21
Total out of pocket $ 87.55
Total percentage saved 57%


Remember, don't feel like everytime you go to the grocery store you have to shop with coupons. There might be some weeks go by that you find you don't really use any of the items that are on sale. This is fine, just buy your perishables and necessities you need and don't feel guilty about it. But my advice is to check the grocerysmart lists at least once a week. This will let you know what the killer deals are on that week. You don't want to miss out on the things your families use! Sometimes I only stock up on one or two items that I use my coupons for and the rest is regular stuff I always need! Don't make it complicated and stressful! This is suppose to be rewarding for you!!!