SUMMER is HERE!!

I feel like the last two months have been such a blur & my kids just informed me that there are only 4 more weeks of school!!  YIKES!!  That means I had better get cracking with planning fun things for the summer.  I don't know about you, but my life is so much easier when the kids have some activity to look forward to each day.  This may sound like a lot of work, but I am hoping to take some of that stress off for ya.  Last summer I put together a blog specifically geared for summer activities, but it quickly became about saving money in the summer so I am going to just add it to this fantastic Grocery Geek forum.  Bookmark this blog, and watch for posts on these fun activities.  Also, at the very, very, very bottom of this blog is a calendar marked Family Fun.  You will soon see it filling up with loads of fun things for you to do with your kids in this hot Vegas heat!!  ENJOY!!

Super Kids Consignment Sale

If you are a true Grocery Smart-er, you will have no doubt seen the link at the bottom of the list for Pickled Pepper Kids Consignment.  We have had a few local consignment stores close recently, so I don't know about you, but with the arrival of baby #5, I am really looking forward to this!!   If you have any questions, let me know!!  Here is what the founder, Rachel, has to say about the event:

I discovered seasonal consignment sales when I moved to Louisiana 9 years ago for my husband's graduate schooling.  We didn't have any kids yet, but the stopend that we had to life off while he was in school was a whopping $16,000.  We had committed to have me stay at home with the kids when we had them, and so we knew from the get-go that we had to use every opportunity that we could find to make money and save money.

During the years we were there (for a total of 7 years and 3 kids!) I was able to shop and volunteer at a local children's consignment sale, and I just couldn't get over the win/win/win situation if provided:

1) Consignors could get rid of stuff they didn't want and make money!  They didn't have to hold a garage sale or sell things one at a time on ebay or craig's list;  they could gather their stuff and get rid of it all at once, then get paid all at once.

2) Shoppers (that was me at the time) could get the things they needed for their baby, their nursery, and their quickly-growing children at dramatically reduced prices from the retail store, in brands they might not be able to afford otherwise.  They didn't have to spend all year sorting through thrift store clothing or going to garage sales - they could just find it all in one spot, pre-checked for stains, tear, and excessive wear.

3) The sale organizers obviously loved what they were doing even though it was HARD work, and the proceeds from the sale could cover their expenses and hopefully make it worth it to them to hold another one the next season--plus, they were able to gather an enormous amount of items to give to worthy local charities when consignors donated their left over items.

These were the things that gave me the impetus to start Pickled Pepper Kids with my mom, Lori Jones, and two of my sisters who are also now moms like me, Jessica Brown and Christina Dickerson.  We wanted to provide this service to the Las Vegas Valley.

We have grown from a small event held in Lori's home and garage with about 35 consignors, to our approaching Spring event which promises 150-200 consignors in a huge commercial space.  We love getting to know our consignors and volunteers and have made some great friends along the way.  We'd like to invite you to join us!!

Our Spring 2010 event will be held May 3rd - 8th, coming up in just a little over a week.  It is easy to be a consignor.  Register on our consignor page online, check out the list of items we accept, and start entering your tags online.  You choose how much to charge for your items, whether you'd like them to go half-price or not on the last day of the event, and whether or not you'd like to donate unsold items to charity or come pick them up.  Drop them off on May 3rd or 4th, and we'll mail your check for 2/3 of the selling price of your items within about 3 weeks.  We will deduct a small $8 fee from your check to help us cover overhead expenses.  You'll be amazed at how much you can make by cleaning out your kids' closets. 

If you aren't up for consigning, you can also gain early shopping privileges by volunteering at the sales.  If not, you'll want to be sure to shop early and often, as items sell quickly and on the last day of the sale, most items are sold at 50% off.

Check out our web site at pickledpepperskids.com for the location, map, times, and all the details. You can also email us at pickledpepperskids@gmail.com. We are also doing a drawing on facebook this week for some prizes donated by this years’ vendors.

Happy shopping . . .

Rachel Snider

pickledpepperskids.com

The Marriage Ref

I died laughing at this clip!! I think I need to call this lady and show her the EASY way to coupon!! She could be in and out of the store, saving HALF her bill, and saving HALF the time. I just love this job.

So this begs the question... How does YOUR husband feel about your shopping trips??

Newspaper Update

EXTRA!!! EXTRA!!!!

BIG Changes are happening at the RJ this past week.  If you look closely at your Sunday paper, you may have noticed the price has increased from $2.50 to a full $3.00!  Another BIG change you may not have noticed is that the RJ is no longer available at the Dollar Stores around town!   

Why am I so excited about this!?!  Well, because OUR price has not increased at ALL!  I used to get excited to tell people at my classes that we can offer the Sunday Only paper at about a 60% discount off the regular price... well, my fellow couponers, our savings is now closer to 70%!  (68% to be exact).  Don't you just love a good sale?!! 

Now, there may be some of you out there who have been Dollar Store faithfuls and getting your coupons there - I know you're out there.  How would you feel about paying LESS than $1 each for your coupons now? AND they come to YOU every week!! 

Call me anytime to place your order, or you can check out my new Online Order Form and you can start receiving your papers in just a few weeks!!   Even better - why don't you host a class!!  Remember at the classes I can offer you a gift card to Albertsons to help offset the cost of your subscriptions & you can earn more great prizes.  Check out these posts for more info on how easy it is to host a class.  

I can't wait to help you start SAVING big money - call me today!  882-0172

I'm Baaaack!

It's been a few weeks and I'm sure you all missed me!  I took some time off to pop out baby #5 (I can't believe it either).  Baby Jaxson was born on 3/23 at 7:40am weighing in at 9lbs and he was 20" long.  Yes, that was 9lbs and no he was not my biggest baby.  He gave us quite a scare though.  I guess being fifth he wanted to make sure we paid him some extra attention.  Well, he got a bit too excited about entering this world and inhaled a bunch of amniotic fluid.  He went into respiratory distress, was treated for pneumonia, and to top it off added some cardiac hypertension.  Our boy won himself a nice long stay at the NICU until he could sort out his issues.  Thanks to some wonderful doctors and nurses at St Rose, and LOTS of prayers from family and friends, Jaxson got to come home just in time for Easter!  Quite a miracle!!

Anyway, life is as crazy as ever, but I thrive on crazy!  I will be resuming classes beginning on the 20th, so if you have been waiting, now's the time to book that class!!  Call me at 882-0172, or email me at thegrocerygeek@cox.net to reserve your date!  If you ask nicely, I just may bring my little man along for the ride ;-)

Diapers Galore!!

OK - Maybe it's because I'm about to have my fifth baby (3 days and counting), but I am on the diaper hunt!  So, here are a few deals I have come across over the past few days...

HUGGIES

There is a great $3 printable coupon for Huggies.  Just become a fan of theirs on Facebook (click here), and check their wall for the link to the coupon.  Don't forget to print it twice.  Now to watch for the sales!!!  Hint: Target frequently has Huggies on sale and they sometime will have store coupons to stack as well.  In fact, if you use the manufacturer's coupon from Facebook with the Target coupon right now, you would save $4.50 per package!  That's almost 50% off ... of DIAPERS! 

PAMPERS

Check your Albertson's ad for this week.  There was an in-ad store coupon for Pampers Jumbo pack diapers for $6.99 (limit 2).  Combine that with the manufacturer's coupon (remember you can stack these - tip from my class): Pampers Diapers or Pants, any $1.50/1 (3-31-10) PG-2/7.  This sale is good until Sunday.

If you miss the Albertson's sale, you can always head on over to CVS (my other favorite store).  Buy 2 packs of Jumbo Pampers diapers for $8.97 each.  Use the $1.50/1 coupon in the PG-2/7 and the $2/1 coupon in PG-2/21 OR RP-3/14.  Well, then, after you buy the diapers you will receive $6 in Extra Care bucks for your next purchase!  Bottom line: $8.44 for 2 packs of diapers!!  

Phew - that ought to get me through the first week or so with the new baby!  I probably won't be posting for a bit, but do watch for some pictures come next week...

Is it Christmas??

Merry Christmas!!  

What?  It's only March?!  Oh, well I just found out that the P&G insert will be in the Sunday paper this weekend!!  To me, that ranks right up there with Christmas.  The insert this week is worth $162!  Multiply that by the number of Sunday papers you are getting and that is money in the BANK!  

If you are still trying to decide whether or not to order the paper, check it out - if you ordered a 6 month subscription for 5 Sunday only papers it would only cost you $123.50!  On weekends like this, you just covered the cost of your subscription x5!!!  What a deal!!  

Call me anytime to place your order over the phone, or call me if you are interested in learning more and would like to host a class with a few close friends and family!

Freezer Meals

I am all about making things easier, faster, and cheaper for myself.  I call it lazy, some may call it being efficient.  Either way, it has proven to be a very helpful quality for me.  

My new passion: our new freezer meal group!!  

A freezer meal group is where a group of a few moms get together, decide on several meals to prepare, then each person in the group prepares the number of meals for each person in the group.  Then we meet to exchange and come home with a freezer full of meals that are ready to be thrown in the oven on any given night!  Here's an example of our group:  There are 9 women, we each chose a recipe to make enough for each woman (I had a pork chop dish).  I prepared enough pork chop meals for everyone, we met for about 30 minutes to exchange meals - which was like trick-or-treating for meals and way more fun than I could imagine, and now I have a Chicken Pot Pie dinner, Penne and Cheese dinner, Sweet Pork dinner, and so many more!!  You get the idea??  For a few hours of work, I now have enough meals in my freezer to feed my family almost half the month if I really stretch it!   

And the best part is.... We will be using the Grocery Smarts lists to find the best deals on meats, and other ingredients so our meals are super cheap.  Even for our first month (not a lot of time to find deals, I got each of my meals for about $4.75!!  

See - cheap, fast, and easy!!!  I LOVE IT!!!!  

(If you would like more information on this, I would be more than happy to email you some more tips - simply leave me a quick comment or email me)

QUICK! Book your class!!

Ok everyone!!  I only have 22 days left before this new baby joins our family!  If you have ever thought about hosting a class, now's the time to do it!!  I have a few openings between now and 20th. 

Do you know about our new hostess incentives?!? 

When you invite just a few friends over so I can teach you all how to save time and MONEY, you will get this super fab filing box to hold your 6 month supply of coupons!! If you have at least 6 news moms there who have not yet been to a class, I will give you a $10 gift card to Albertsons!!  At the class you will be taught just how far that $10 can be stretched!

Like I said though, you want to hurry!!  I won't be back teaching classes until mid April and you don't want to wait that long to start saving $$$!!  Call or email me today to reserve your date!

882-0172 or thegrocerygeek@cox.net 

This Week's Deals

Oh boy, do I have a treat for you!!!  Well, as part of my duties as the Grocery Smarts NV manager, I get to scoop up the Smiths and Albertsons ad for the new week and ship them up to our list maker.  I kind of had an "AH-HA" moment this week and thought, I get a sneek peek at what's coming up and you should too!!!  So, this week, I brought my camera along for a ride and took a few quick shots of some things that stood out.

Albertsons is having a few different promotions where you can earn $10 checkout coupons for your next purchase.  Smith's is having a super meat sale & a Cartbuster Savings deal. You will want to check out the Smith's and Albertson's preview lists tomorrow night and start getting your coupons organized early. Or, if you can't wait that long, check out the Alphabetical Coupon Index and search for your favorite products! 

If you think this is something you would like to see every week, leave me a little comment.  This may just have to be a regular post.  

HAPPY SAVING!!!