I know all you smart shopper's aren't missing Smith's "double/triple" coupons under $1 up to $1! Take advantage and go get your free toothpaste, deodorant and other killer stock up items! Share your finds! Even if you don't need these stock up items, I'm sure you know someone who does. Happy shopping!

Bountiful Baskets

I AM A FAN!!

If you have not heard about Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op then you are in for a treat!  Bountiful Baskets provides families in the valley with CHEAP INEXPENSIVE produce every week.  For $15 you can contribute and receive a basket that is worth anywhere from $30-$50!!  You know how much I love a good deal, so this week I picked up my basket, then headed to Smiths to check prices (yes, I am a geek - it's a known fact).  

Here's what I got (sorry for the glare):

6 ears of corn, 1 head of romaine lettuce, 1 yellow cauliflower, 2 large tomatoes, 2 very large cucumbers, at least 5 lbs of red potatoes, 3 peaches, 2 pints of blueberries, 1 pineapple, 1 seedless watermelon, about 3 lbs of bananas, and 5 pluots (bonus points if you can tell me what the heck these are). 

By my calculations this morning at Smiths, this would have cost me around $30.  They didn't have pluots or the yellow cauliflower so I had to guess-timate those.  Isn't it fun to try new things though!!  And at my classes I always talk about how I plan my meals by what is on sale at the grocery store, right?  Well, now this adds a whole new dimension to that project.  My kids ate (and LOVED) white asparagus, which they thought looked like french fries, and brussell sprouts!  Yes, my 4 kids fought over brussell sprouts!  Who knew!  

You will want to set a reminder on your phone to log onto Bountiful Baskets on Tuesday morning and place your order.  If you wait too long (like I did this week), the location closest to you may be sold out of baskets.  Good Luck and I can't wait to hear how you like this fun little system.  

If you have any more questions, check out their FAQ page

It's ed-ZOO-cational!

I am always on the lookout for fun things to do with the family.  We were at the Natural History Museum a few weekends ago and met a camel named Jafar.  Imagine my surprise when I was also handed a flier for a Zoo out in Moapa that is home to all sorts of exotic animals!  Roos-N-More was started back in 2006 by a husband and wife veteranarian family with high hopes of sharing their knowledge about animals with others.  Their zoo is open to the public on "Zoo Days" which is only a few days a month.  So, pack up the kiddies for a little road trip (click here for directions) and you could wow them with wallabies, and they are sure to love the lemurs.  I will try and keep up the zoo days on the Family Fun calendar so you can add it to your arsenal of fun!!

Zoo Days 

8am-1pm on the following days, $10 admission (children under 3 are free)

Sunday, July 25th

Thursday, July 19th

Sunday, August 8th

Friday, August 13th

Saturday, August 21st

Tuesday, August 24th

They also do private tours and parties! How fun!!

Just a funny for today!  My baby just turned 4 months old and this pretty much sums up my days lately.  With the exception that the nap time is significantly shorter since there WILL be one or more children poking the baby while he is asleep.  But I know in a few years, I will miss these days.  Have a Wonderful Weekend everyone!!

Why it PAYS to get the Paper

I love doing this little exercise every so often to remind me what a good deal I am getting on the newspaper each week.  Sometimes when grocery store sales aren't that exciting, or the coupons are getting repetitive, I like to play a little scavenger hunt to see what other kinds of savings I can find in my Sunday paper.  This week, I took a few extra minutes to really look through some of the ads and here's what I found:

10 FREE McDonalds new fruit smoothies

5, 50% off notebook coupons for Staples

5, $1/2 for Kellogs FiberPlus cereals or chewy bars

55, 40% off coupons for JoAnns (lots of coupons on the back of their ad - stock up time)

5, 15% off entire purchase at Michaels (plus all their 40% off coupons too)

5, 20% off for Bed Bath and Beyond (I'll probably use them to buy some more space bags - I just discovered them and am wondering how I lived without them all these years)

All that added to my SmartSource coupons which I figure I will only use about $15-18 from each one, so that will save me around $90 down the road!  Not a bad deal considering I only paid $123.50 to get all 5 Sunday papers for 6 whole months!  This is why I love having multiple papers! All these savings for less than $5 per week! Seriously, even if you aren't a big couponer yet, how can you pass up a deal like this?

If you do not have your paper yet, get together with a friend and pick a day to host a class so you and your friends can get this great deal on the paper too... Let's get you saving some money!!! 

WINNER!!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment for our first giveaway!!  Randomizer.org selected comment #5... 

Andrea said... I would buy the money pocket chart, place value chart, and calendar chart for my first year of teaching in the second grade. What a great site csn is, I had not heard of them before! 

Congrats Andrea!! You will receive an email directly from CSN.com with all the details on claiming your $40!
 

FREE Children's Museum

Target Arts & Wonder Free Family Event will offer FREE ADMISSION for all ages on Friday, July 16 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Lied Discovery Children's Museum. During the third weekend in July, more than 80 institutions in 30 cities across the country will participate in Target Arts & Wonder. Join us for a free day of family fun!

Welcome Aboard

There are so many good deals out there and so much to cover in this wacky world of couponing, so I have invited my friend (and fellow geek) Shannon to co-author this blog with me!  Shannon is so much fun and I just know she will add a lot to the quality of this blog.  

I asked Shannon to put together a little get-to-know you clip so you could get an idea of the amazing woman she is!  So... here's Shannon....

I'm a SAHM married to my fabulous husband Ken for 7 years. We have two beautiful daughters, Kailey 4 and Madison 2.5. I've lived in Vegas for 8.5 years; my DH was born and raised here. I worked in the corporate world for over 15 years and stopped when Kailey turned 1 and LOVE it! I started using Grocery Smarts to help trim the budget and got absolutely HOOKED! In my spare time (ha, ha!) I do graphic design for our church, maintain my husband's business, teach Grocery Smarts classes, have a side business of producing custom family DVDs and of course love to look for bargains!

Over the next few weeks we will be making some changes to this site to hopefully make it better for everyone.  I am so excited to have a partner in crime who is just as passionate as I am about saving money!  Again, Shannon, welcome aboard!!

Back to School?

Yes! It's time to start taking advantage of those back to school sales! Here are a couple:

Staples
They are having a .o1 sale through Wednesday for pencils, pocket folders and mulitpurpose paper. Also they've got several things on sale for $1 (mini staplers, pencil boxes, ballpoint pens and more!). Check out their weekly ad HERE. Staples' ad also came in the Sunday paper so grab it and clip out the $5/$30 purchase for some great savings!

Walgreens
Walgreens this week also has LOTS of stuff on sale in their weekly ad. You can check it out here and grab one on your way into a Walgreens and pick up some inexpensive school items. Start stocking up!

FREE Springs Preserve

I got this email from one of my readers!  I added this event to the Family Calendar at the bottom of this blog.  Guess where we will be on July 17th?!  Thanks so much Kristen!!

Hi!  
Another Springs Preserve thing.... Target is sponsoring a free admission day at the Springs Preserve! (Yet one more reason to LOVE Target.)

Saturday, July 17th  10am-6pm
Click HERE for more details  

And Target is sponsoring other free/discount days going on throughout the US...So if your readers have friends/family elsewhere, they may want to check this listing.  ENJOY! 

{an easy way to send these kinds of posts to your family out of town is to click on that little envelope at the bottom of this post}

How Would You Spend It?

You know you're a Grocery Geek when...
You lay in bed, wide awake, dying to post on your blog!!

I mentioned in the post about how to make your own laundry detergent that you definitely want to have a food processor on hand to make it the right consistency.  Well... if I was to win a $40 gift card to any one of CSN.com's stores, I would buy one just for making laundry soap!  

(Was that subtle enough? This is our giveaway!!)

Leave a comment on how you would use a $40 gift card to CSN.com and you could be our lucky winner!  It could be a food saver to store all that meat you got super cheap at Smiths this week, or splurging on a new rug for your kid's bedroom.  Peek around some of their many sites and let me know what you think! 

{We will pick the winner on July 17th}

Happy Shopping!!

We Want You!

We are looking for a few good people to become Certified Grocery Smarts Instructors!  Could you be one of them?

Did you know that if you are already a savings addict like me it's easy to get Certified to teach? Did you know that when you count the extra income from teaching to your grocery savings that it adds up quick? Did you know it is SUPER rewarding and fun to teach other women how to save big at the grocery store?

So... if you think you would enjoy teaching, here's a few questions you should ask yourself:

1. Have I been to or hosted a Grocery Smarts class?
2. Have I been using (and loving) the Grocery Smarts website?
3. Do I brag about my savings to my friends and family?
4. Am I excited to wake up on Sunday mornings just so I can get all my papers?
5. Am I surprisingly addicted to 4 & 5 star items?
6. Do 2 star items make me cringe?
7. Is my only regret that I didn't learn how to do this 5 years ago?
8. Do I dream about coupons or shopping trips to Albertsons?
9. Would I ever take a picture of my purchase, even just for fun?
10. Do I think coupons are the next best thing to sliced bread?
11. Has learning to shop this way impacted my life for the positive and do I think everyone should have the opportunity to learn how to do it? 
12. Are you secretly a "Grocery Geek"?
    

If you answered yes to all (or most) of those questions... then we need to talk!  Although Grocery Smarts doesn't openly recruit instructors, we are always on the lookout for those smart shoppers we think would make excellent teachers! Obviously, the single biggest requirement of being a teacher is being a good, smart shopper first. After that, getting trained is a breeze!  As an instructor, you are in control of your own schedule and can teach as much or a little as you'd like. One class a week may be perfect for you... or more if you enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for stay-at-home moms or working moms alike!

If you'd like to be considered.... Fill out this form and someone will contact you for more instructions and to start your training! 

I can't wait to hear from all of you, so don't wait!  Not sure if you are qualified or if I'm hiring in your area? Submit your info anyway and someone will be in touch to let you know!

NOTE: It is important to know this is not a multi-level company or opportunity. There are no levels or teams and no recruiting opportunities available. Instructors are selected based on their shopping experience and enthusiasm to teach others. There is no fee or package to buy to become an instructor.

LAUNDRY SOAP!

You know you are a Grocery Geek when....

You sit up late at night making laundry detergent because you are way too excited about how cheap it is!

At one of my classes a few weeks ago, my friend Shannon gave me a recipe for laundry detergent that she swears by and is super cheap and easy to make.  Honestly, my first thought was - sounds good, but will I ever really do it?!  However, seeing as how laundry for a family of 7 has begun to rule my life, and laundry detergent isn't cheap (even with coupons and sales), I figured I would give it a whirl.  So, I went to Glaziers to pick up the key ingredients - then I saw them at a Smiths by my house too if you don't want to drive that far, and there they sat for like 4 days.  All the while, every load of laundry I was doing I was thinking in the back of my mind how much cheaper it will be once I just MAKE the dang stuff!  So I did.  I made 2 batches.  I used it.  I love it!  And then I sat up very late one night calculating how many loads I was gonna get out of those 2 batches (I told you I'm a geek - I do math while laying in bed...lame).  So, here ya go...

Most Excellent Laundry Detergent

1 Cup Washing Soda

1 Cup Borax

2 Cups Fels-Naptha Soap

Directions:  Cut up the Fels-Naptha and put in your food processor (about 1 1/2 bars will be your 2 cups).  Blend it until the soap forms tiny little balls.  Then add 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing soda to the food processor.  (Tip: Use a damp hand towel and wrap it around the food processor so you don't get any "dust" floating around the kitchen).  Blend it for about a minute and you will have a nice light yellow fine powder.  Store it in an airtight container.  

Guess what?!  You will only use 2 TBSP per LOAD of laundry!!

Now, the whole box of Washing Soda, Borax, and 4 bars of soap cost me about $12 and with using only 2 Tbsp of powder per load, I am looking at 128 loads of laundry!!  Then when I run out - I'm gonna keep track - I will only have to spend about $3 for a few bars of Fels-Naptha and BAM another 128 loads!  You can't beat that deal anywhere!!

Don't have a food processor to make this soap?  Don't worry... check back VERY soon for our first GIVEAWAY and you could WIN ONE!!!

(I feel like we have finally "made it" in the blogging world now that we are doing a giveaway - stay tuned)

What a Deal!

CVS is having a great deal on Huggies, Kotex and Poise products. Buy $20 worth and get $10 Extra Care Bucks back!

Deal scenario:

Buy 3 Huggies Pull-ups, $9 each

Use 3 $2/1 from here or from the 6/13 SS

Get back $10 ECB

Only $3.67 per package!

Thanks Hip2Save!

Lowe's Build and Grow

I love the FREE crafts at Lowe's, and this one will be a winner for sure.  Since (almost) all of my kids can make one, they can play this game with each other and hopefully I'll get at least one afternoon of entertainment.  We'll see... Head down to Lowe's on July 10th to build this old fashioned game.

Click Here to register.

Happy Building!

4th of July

(This is one of my favorite holidays)

Not sure where you will be watching the fireworks this year?  Check here if you live in the Summerlin area, and for those of us in Henderson, here is our list. 

Above all, let's remember why we get this special day to celebrate the freedom we truly cherish - Happy 4th everyone!! 

Monkey Bread

Did you notice that Smith's still has a bunch of 5 star deals even though the big coupon even ended on Tuesday.  Well, one of those items is the Pillsbury biscuits.  I scooped a bunch up last week (with coupons), but now what to do with all those biscuits??  The answer is a crowd pleaser - especially for the kiddos - MONKEY BREAD!  

You will need:

2 packages of Pillsbury biscuits

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tsp of cinnamon

3/4 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

Cut the biscuits into quarters, and toss them in a ziploc bag with sugar and cinnamon.  Shake the bag to coat each piece of dough (my 2 year old helped with this part and she did a great job).  Place all the dough pieces in a greased bundt pan (or other deep dish baker).  Melt butter and add brown sugar.  Pour brown sugar mixture over all the dough and make sure to coat well.  

*Another option is to put chopped nuts at the bottom of the pan before the dough pieces and/or sprinkle nuts throughout*.

Now, my original recipe said to bake at 350 for 25 minutes, but with my Pampered Chef bundt pan it did NOT turn out well the first time I did this.  So this morning I did 325 for about 45 minutes and made did the knife check trick to make sure it was all cooked through.  It turned out GREAT!!  Plus the kids love to just get their little monkey fingers in their and just grab their bites.

FREE Slurpee Day!!

Don't forget to stop by your local 7-11 on 7/11/11 to get your FREE Slurpee!!

Make a fun afternoon of it - teach your big kids how to be a navigator, read a map, and plot out several 7-11 locations (if 1 free Slurpee is good...5 is even better). Here's our map for tomorrow's festivities!

Happy Seven-Eleven Day!!