Smith's Shopping Trip 8/31/11

Today marks the start of Smith's P&G sale! Buy 4 participating Procter and Gamble items and get $4.00 off at the register.

I was very excited to get stocked up on some of the basic toiletries we use all the time! Deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, hair spray, shower gel... And some air fresheners and DayQuil and NyQuil as well!

Grand total before coupons = $131.37
I paid just = $47.79
Saving = $83.88 or 64%

If I can use coupons, anyone can! If you still need to learn how, you can contact me to set up a free coupon class for you, your family and friends!

Take advantage of this great sale going on right now! To see the full Smith's (Utah) list, Click here! Or click here to see the full list of Utah stores. If you live outside Utah, Click here then click on your state in the upper left-hand corner for a list of stores in your area!

FREE Items This Week

We've got some AWESOME deals this week at Rite Aid and Walgreens!

At my Classes, I always tell you two big secrets:

1)You will NEVER use just one coupon when you go shopping
&
2) There is ALWAYS something for free

Once in a while, there will be a week without something free, but then you get weeks like this week that more than make up for that. We've got available to us 10 free things this week (through Saturday the 3rd) between Rite Aid and Walgreens.

At Rite Aid:
Mitchum Men's Anti-Perpirant
Mitchum Women's Anti-Perspirant
Trident Layers Gum
Colgate Sensitive Pro-Relief Toothpaste
Colgate Manual Toothbrush
Oral-B Complete or Action Power Toothbrush
Nivea Women's Body Wash
Nivea Men's Body Wash

At Walgreens:
Carmex Moisturizing Lip Balm
Estoven Dietary Supplement
Crest Complete Deep Clean Toothpaste

To see the details on these items go to GrocerySmarts.com and click on Walgreens' and/or Rite Aid's store name in the drop down menu.

If you don't currently get the Sunday paper (for the coupons inside) Let me know, and I can help you get a deep discount. I'm a Strata-band Affiliate with Newspapers in Utah, Las Vegas and Parts of California. Message me for prices in your area.

If you haven't attended a Free Grocery Smarts Coupon Class, and would like to book one at your home for your family and friends. Message me and I'll get you on my books!

Happy Savings!

Staying Social and Saving Money at the Same Time: Book Club

Being a Stay-At-Home mom, I know how important it is to have that "girls night out" at least once a month. But even going out just once a month with the girls can add up over time. $10.00 here, $20.00 there. And once in a while, maybe $50.00 under the rationalization that "I need to be out with other adults, and it is only once a month." But you can't not go... you'd drive yourself crazy (if your kids didn't do it for you).

So, the question then becomes: How do I stay social without spending money?

Lots of ideas may come to mind, at least they did for me, but my favorite so far; a Book Club!

Starting a book club can solve a few problems at once.

• First, you get together with your girl friends and can talk about the book you just read, visit and have a great few hours together.
•  Second, it takes the stress out of planning each month. No more having to wonder who can afford to go where or even just deciding where to go to eat. Hold it at your house, and each month you're set!
•  Third, the best part about a girls night (at least for me) is getting to know new people! But what if you are all new? At a restaurant it could get awkward if you don't know each other and silence can be deafening if you just met. But at a book club... The topic is already set. Once you start talking about the book and discussing it, the topic will naturally shift into other categories and you may just find out how close of friends you can become.

This article at Vocalpoint  has some great ideas on how to start a book club and get the ball rolling.

Another great thing a bout a book club for me (even though this may still be spending money) is that it helps me expand my library! I love books! Some may argue that it is a waste of money to buy books when you can read them for free from your library; but I strongly feel that owning books can be a great and priceless investment.

Let's say that a natural disaster occurred and you are without power for a while. If you have books, you automatically have entertainment and information (if you have encyclopedias, medical books etc.). Just the fact thst you own books encourages children to invest their time in the written word.

Even if I spend $5-$12 on a new book each month, I am going to be saving a lot by not eating out and going to the movies or the spa each month with the girls. I'm still getting my social cup filled as well as pushing myself to read more (which I think is a very important think to do). Not to mention all the calories I'm saving from eating a few snacks at book club vs. all the fatty goodness of a restaurant.

Happy savings! (and happy reading)

News Paper Molds

Making a short story long:
My niece had a birthday party a few weeks ago, and with our tight budget I thought it would be great if my kids and I could make her some home-made jewelery! I looked online for clay recipes, but then realized we were out of salt! One of the key things in making those clays... so then I wondered what different ideas there were to use newspapers to make beads. I found this site: A Story Book Life and they had this awesome post about how to make beads out of recycled newspaper. I was just thrilled! This was perfect.
Well, I didn't like the texture of those beads very well, but I figured maybe if I did it a little differently I could get a smoother texture? Anyway... Rather than bore you to tears about what I did and tried and the fact that we didn't end up getting things just right for the birthday gift... I did end up coming up with a great variation on the recipe and technique that I like quite a lot and can't wait to do it again!

First, I took the paper as they said to on their site and tore it up into tiny little pieces. ( I wish I had taken pictures of my process but didn't think about it at the time.)

Once I had my large sauce pan full of paper pieces I filled the pan with water. more than enough to cover the paper and then some.

I brought the water to a boil on the stove then reduced the heat and let it simmer (covered) for about an hour or so, stirring occasionally. About half way through the simmering, I added red food coloring to the pan to help the paper pulp have a more even coloring when it was done. I used about 20 drops of red food color.

Once it was done simmering, I let it cool completely (I actually let mine sit on the stove covered overnight, because I didn't get to it till later that day, and was too tired to try to do anything with it then)

You'll want to drain as much water out of the paper as you can, I used my pasta strainer and some pressure. Reserve about half a cup of water.

Add flour to the water you set aside, I used somewhere between 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups. Mix this well until you have a smooth paste. Then add the flour paste into the newspaper pulp, mixing until evenly blended.

Once I did that, I tried a million different ways to make beads and I hated them all! But didn't want to waste all my hard work, so I went to my drawer and got out my letter cookie cutters!

I placed the cookie cutter on an old towel (one I didn't care too mush about) Then I took a generously sized blob of paper mush, and pressed it into the cookie cutter as hard as I could, adding more mush if I needed too. Be sure and press as much water out of the pulp as you possibly can at this point... it will help with the drying process.

Once I had the cutter, or mold, filled to capacity, I removed any excess paper pulp from the edges and popped the shaped pulp onto some freezer paper to dry. After a couple days, they are ready to paint!

I just used regular craft paints that I had laying around:

And this is what it looked like when I was all finished:

I made letter banners for each of my children's bedroom doors. I'm so excited, I can't even stand it! :) I think it turned wicked cute!!!

So that concludes my first idea on what to do with all of those newspapers that you get... just to use the coupons inside!!! And if you are like me, you don't even read the paper itself. So it's nice that it can be good for something.

Happy saving... and happy recycling! :)

I'm Back!

I really and truly hope all of my wonderful readers survived in my absence, but I am back and am hoping to be back to full swing within the next few days.

I plan on posting a bunch of different craft ideas as well getting back into the habit of taking picutres of my chopping trips etc.

I was wondering if there are any crafty tips you guys would like me to share? If so please, I'd love to hear your comments! :)

Some of the crafty ideas I plan on posting in the next month or so are:
Newspaper Molds
Home-Made Beads
Cheap and Fun activities for Kids?
Toddler Walking Harness (Child Leashes, or whatever else you want to call them)
And other crafty and fun projects you can do with all of those Newspapers you get just for the coupons inside! (Any help with ideas for that one would be fabulous!)

I look forward to hearing from you all in the comments section! So don't be shy, sharing is good :)