My filing system

Okay, so a lot of you wanted to know how I organize my coupons. Well, here it is... I use this hanging file box that I bought at Wal-Mart for around $10.00. This fits 5 months of my coupons perfectly. Remember I get 6 newspapers each week, so this works great for my situation. As you can see each hanging file holds one weeks worth of coupons. I do put a manila file in with that weeks coupons so I can see the date just by glancing at them. I write the date with pencil so when that week is 5 months old and ready to throw away, I re-use the file. I just erase the old date and add the new date. Piece of cake!

This file box just sits on the floor in my office so it's out of the way, and I love the lid so my 3 year old can't get into them. This file box contains thousands of dollars of potential savings for me so it's very important to stay organized and on top of things.

If you have a great filing systems that works great for you, email me at jodigardner@yahoo.com so we can all enjoy seeing other methods of organizing our coupons!

preview to albies sale tomorrow

Okay! whew! I'm finally back from one long vacation after another. Life is rough! Me and my family have had so much fun from baseball tourneys to Lagoon to Park City and Lake Powell. It is very nice to be back home. I am truly thankful for Grocerysmarts which I feel has made it possible for us to take a break out of life to make some memories with my family. I save so much money grocery shopping that I can take these vacations and not feel guilty about spending money! Anyway, Click HERE to preview tomorrows sale. Just FYI, don't get frustrated with seeing the same things on sale week after week. Some manufacturers will promote items for a month at a time. Or they will put their items on sale one week and back on sale again a month later. It does seem like we see the same items week after week. Don't worry! Soon enough we will see other items popping up on sale. REMEMBER... Everything goes on sale! On an average an item will go on sale every 3 to 6 months! Just be patient, and check out other stores in the meantime!!!

Preview Albies sale this Wednesday!

Click HERE to preview Albertsons sale this Wednesday. Is it just me, or does this look a lot like this weeks sale? Anyway, we continue to have great savings and another chance to get these great buys in case you missed out on them!!!

Before and After

I love before and after pictures! This week there wasn't alot I needed at the stores but I had to take advantage of the free cereal at Albertsons, and picked up a few other things while I was there. Here is my list with clipped and printed coupons ready to go. Remember I write out in the column on my list how many I wanted of each item.

and Voila!! After... I came home with a few prizes! My total for this trip was $33.55! Now do you know what was the best part? I still had $40.00 worth of Catalina coupons from my last shopping trip! So technically they paid me $6.45 for all this!!! Now Albertsons will never give you money back on trips like these. Knowing I would be in the negative I threw in some gift cards to make up the rest! Shopping is so much fun!!!

P.S. My husband and I were both over in the Santa Clara area today so we took advantage of my gas savings at the Albertsons over there. I had $1.00 off a gallon I had earned! I filled up my van with 16 gallons and he pulled in after me and we topped off his car with the remaining 4 gallons you are allowed. So a total of 20 gallons we purchase and saved $20.00 on gas!!!

Vacation Savings!!!

So, obviously i've been vacationing for awhile (hence the lack of posts). I've been wanting to post ways to save money while spending time with your families on vacations. One of the biggest expenses is food, right? Well, Last week I went to lake powell with my extended family. Each sibling is assigned one dinner to feed the entire family, and every individual family brings all their own breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. The entire week was so cheap for my family! I brought 3 boxes of cereal which cost me about $0.25 each. I brought deli meat, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch which was also in my pantry and freezers when I stocked up. Then I made chinese chicken salad for dinner for about 25 people, which was my biggest expense but still didn't cost me much! On top of all that I brought water bottles, capri suns, pop, and all kinds of snacks which mostly came from my pantry!!!

We are also going to Park City over the July 4th weekend to spend a few days in a condo. This condo has a kitchen!!! Guess what that means? Yes, I can bring lots of food from home to save money! I am actually gonna make up a few dinners from home so I won't have to spend my time cooking! Who wants to cook while on vacation? Definitely not me! I am going to make 3 lasagna dishes. We'll have one tonight, one to take on vacation, and freeze one to make up when you get home. I definitely need a break when I get home too!

By planning your meals around items you already have in your food storage and freezer, or from those items that are on sale for the week, you can save hundreds of dollars! If you have a large family like mine, you can spend $50+ every time you take your family to a restaurant. Save that money for more fun activities, be frugal with your food budget and you can make your vacation inexpensive and still fun!!!

Please add a comment if you have a great idea you'd like to share for saving money while on vacation!!

Another last day shopping trip!

I had to take 2 pictures of my groceries cause I bought so much stuff! I was pleasantly surprised that everything was in stock that I wanted except the go-gurts. Not bad for a last minute stock piling trip! Here is my breakdown...

Total value of purchase $265.28
Total amount I paid $118.16

Total amount saved $147.12
Total percentage saved 55%

The best part about this trip was that I left the store with $40.00 in catalina coupons that is good for my next trip (see picture above)! If I figure this into my trip today it would leave me with a total percentage saved at 70%!!! If you noticed also I got quite a few items that were not on sale that I needed for our Lake Powell trip this week. So this kind of savings is why I shop with Grocery Smarts and spend 30 min to prepare for a grocery trip. I just saved technically $187.12. What kind of job can pay me that for just grocery shopping!!!

FYI - I won't be posting til Monday cause I am vacationing in Powell! Have a great week and email me pictures of your shopping trip success so we all can admire!

jodigardner@yahoo.com

Preview Albertsons Sale!

Click HERE to preview Albertsons sale from 6/17-6/22. Looks like there's some good stock-up items on sale. Here are a few things I will be stocking up on!

Kellogg's cereals .49
Pillsburg brownie mix .50
Hillshire farm rope or link sausage 1.23
Hillshire farm summer sausage 2.00
Sara Lee white/wheat bread 1.00
Chef Boyardee pasta .48
Dannon drinkables 6-pack 1.20
Dreyers fruit bars 6-12 count 1.49 (My favorite)
Dreyer Dibs 1.00
Eskimo pies 6-12 count 1.00
Nestle drumsticks 4 count 1.49
Skinny cow truffle bars 1.99
Hunts Ketchup .60
Hunts manwhich sloppy joe sauce .40
Hunts Spaghetti sauce .60
Marie Callender pasta Al Dente .50
Orville Redenbacher 3-pack .50
Wesson Cooking oil 48oz 1.80

I'd say it's another good week for stock piling your pantries (and freezers)!!!