Join a Co-op!

I recently had the opportunity to join a Produce Co-op. I thought it might be a way for us to have a variety of fresh fruits and veggies in our diet but not with the cost of buying it at the local store. And boy is it a good deal! I have been spending a good $30-$40 every 2 weeks JUST on fresh fruits and veggies and it's the same ol' same ol' thing. But with joining this co-op I am able to get MORE than I would normally buy for ALOT less! And I get the surprise of different items each week. I can't believe I haven't found something before this to get involved in!




This first time around my sisnlaw, momnlaw, and I all just split 2 shares as we where not sure how much fruit and veggies it would turn out to be. As it turns out we decided after goign thru what we got, we will all be getting our own fruit and veggie share separate. For the cost it is WELL worth the amount and variety that we get. I'm happy! Can't wait till 2 weeks from now when I get my full share along with the fruit share for more fruit! Looked good! Will have to live on what we got this week. :-)

Have you looked to see if you have any local co-op's around you? If not maybe start one! I have heard of organic, meat, milk, produce, and even whole gain type co-op's before! Try it out and you just might find that you save while your at it! Share

Year End Spending Tally

Can you BELIEVE this????

I have keep track of EVERY penny spent on grocery's and household items over the last year and here is the end tally of what I spent, saved, and made!

Retail was a total of $12,948.44- I saved a total of $11,205.76 and made a total of $1,569.22 to spend a total of $221.05!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I also have a total of $51.53 in CVS and Walgreens money to start this new year off with! Not bad!

This is to a new year of savings!

And if you want to check out the spreadsheet I have designed to keep track of all this go here.

Total CVS SAVINGS:	$7,962.64
Total Retail:	$8,084.81
Total after Sales:	$5,496.04
Total Paid OOP:	$122.17
ECB's Left:	$24.61

Total Walgreens SAVINGS:	$2,602.26
Total Retail:	$2,797.06
Total after Sales:	$1919.91
Total Paid OOP:	$194.80
RR & Gift Card	$26.92

YTD 2008 SAVINGS TOTALS

2008 YTD Retail Grocery's:	$12,948.44
2008 YTD Manf. coupons used:	$5,065.38
2008 YTD $ spent on coupons:	$47.59
2008 YTD OOP Grocery spending:	$1,742.68
2008 Money Made On Selling Stock Pile Items:	$1,354.74
2008 Rebate Checks:	$214.48
2008 YTD OOP Grocery After Rebates & Selling:	$221.05

	Retail	After Sales	After Rebates and Selling
Monthly Average	$1079.04	$145.22	$18.42
Weekly Average	$249.01	$33.51	$4.24
Daily Average	$35.48	$4.90	$0.62

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Just cause I can....

:-D

Everyone who e-mails me by 3:00 today (Central Time) (June 30th) will get a copy for FREE of my e-book : How to be a Savvy Shopper at CVS

So hurry up!

Pass on the deal!!

Just cause I love sharing my shopping for almost nothing success! :-D

Hurry Hurry Hurry!!!!!!!

Tell your friends! Tell your blogging buddies! Tell your Family! Share

I NEVER thought of looking for expired items at my local grocery store to get a
free item for having found it! But at our local Heb its their policy that if you find
an expired item bring it up when you check out along with a same item that’s
not expired and you get it for FREE! And they keep the expired one!

So today when I went to get some meat on my way home from a church function
that I was doing nursery for I stopped and had a look around just to see! And Yah!I found a big carton of Half and Half (there was actually 3 of them but they only had
one unexpired one so I just grabbed that one lol) and a thing of fresh parsley!
Yah for great Heb Policy! :-D About $5.00 in free products!

So don’t forget this next time you shop! Or find out what your local stores policy is on this!
I will always keep my eyes open now!

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Where do I find my deals?

I get this alllll the time while I'm shopping. Or people who know me. Or from the
reader who just started trying to save money on grocery shopping.

So I figured I would just write up a little list of what I do!

#1 To start out usually Fri.-Sat. before the sale week starts I hit the Slickdeals Ad Forum.
They have every drug store on there with ads that go out weeks and sometime months!
I only have CVS and Walgreen’s drug stores in my area but if you have Rite Aid and many
many others in your area they have those to!
I find the week’s ad I am looking for and then just skim over it. And if there are any printable
coupons I print them as sometimes if you wait to long they limit they allow of how many coupons
they put out gets reached.

#2 I hit Hot Coupon World because sometimes they have others deals that aren’t mentioned
at slickdeals.

#3 I head on over to Money Saving Mom because she has great input from people all over
on what’s working and what’s not! Specially when it comes to the hidden deals!

#4 I take a quick peek at these sites because you never know what you might come across
Attention Target Shoppers, iMommies , The Coupon Mom Blog, and Becentsable.

#5 I go to these coupon sites and if I see anything I need or anything that I thought I saw in
an ad that will be a good deal I print off coupons
Betty Crocker
Cool Savings
Coupon Bar
Coupons.com
Coupon, Inc.
Coupon Loop
Red Plum
Smart Source
Target Coupons
Taylortown Coupons

#6 The day I am going to go shopping I make sure I check each site JUST in case something new came out that I didn’t see! And I head out with all my deals and info in hand and walla to my great deals! :-)


I don’t spend a TON of time doing this!
Just like I would check my email or read a friends blog I go check the site see if anything I want is there and that’s it! People think I spend a ton of time doing this but it’s really easy! At first it is a bit more of a time hog because you are trying to figure it all out. But once you get into the swing of it, it’s pretty fast and easy. Share

Swaptree.com

Mark over at Swaptree.com emailed me with his cool site the other day when he came across my site, So I went to go check it out!

"Swaptree.com, allows you to get the media you want for free. At Swaptree you can trade the books, DVDs, video games and CDs you have for the ones you want, for free. You simply list the items that you have to trade and the items that you want and Swaptree’s two and three-way trade algorithms instantly shows you all of the items you can receive in trade. We've been told that it's sort of amazing and a lot of fun.

Parents in particular find Swaptree interesting as what parent hasn't been frustrated when they buy a $55 dollar video game for their child, only for them to get bored of it 2 weeks later and want another, or when they spend $100 on Baby Einstein DVDs, only to have their child quickly move onto the Dora stage. With Swaptree, parents can just list what their children are no longer interested in and trade them for the items they want now.

Swaptree even simplifies the mailing process, by providing you with a perfect postage label that can be printed right from your computer, so you never have to go to the post office. Best of all Swaptree, not only saves you money and allows you to discover new authors and artists, it is also environmentally friendly by reducing consumption and promoting sharing and recycling."

It looks pretty good to me! Go check them out and see what you can find! Share

The Slang for Savy Shoppin

A few slang terms for shopping that we use in the Coupon world.
Let me know if I've missed any!

BOGO: buy one get one. You may also see it B1G1. Also sometimes BOGOF for buy one get one free.

CRT: Cash Register Tape

DND: Does not Double

ECB: Extra Care Bucks from CVS

FAR: After rebate

IR: Instant rebate

MFG or MFR: Manufacturer

MIR: Mail in rebate

OOP: Out of Pocket

OOS: Out of stock

P&G: Procter & Gamble

Q: Coupon, you may also see CPN or CP.

SS: Smart Source

V: Valassis or VAL as seen sometimes.

WYB: When you buy.

YMMV: Your mileage may vary Share