Black Friday Sales

For those of you gearing up for the sales this Friday there are some websites out there that are posting Friday ads already. Black Friday 2008 has Ad Scans for many stores. They also have a lot of information about pre-Black Friday sales and items that are already priced at Black Friday prices. Check it out, make your lists, and check them twice! There are some great deals to be had.

Coupon Organizing

Recently my sister in law was initiated into the world of coupon clipping. I was writing a long comment on her blog then decided I might as well post it here complete with pictures.

I have been clipping and using coupons for about a year and a half, off and on. There is a kind sister in my ward that is crazy about coupons and has shared her know how. She helps watch the grocery ads locally and lets us know if there are any great deals and what coupons might be available. Until recently I was using the same method of coupon organizing as "the Pro" which consisted of a three ring binder with baseball card sheet protectors and dividers. The sheet protectors allow you to easily flip through your coupons and see what you have. The down side for me was that it was so large to carry with me to the grocery store and because of this I didn't carry it with me regularly (a carnal sin for the avid coupon clipper).

A few weeks ago I read in some random place (blog or magazine, can't remember which) about someone using one of those cheap 4x6 photo album books to carry her coupons in. I jumped on the idea and conveniently had one such book lying around. I divided it into sections using labels folded in half as dividers and then slipped my coupons into the sleeves. Granted it can not hold as many coupons as the three ring binder method, but for me it is more readily usable and limits me from clipping coupons for things I really don't use. The book fits easily into my purse/bag where it stays unless I'm adding new coupons or using it in the store, thus it is always accessible. I can also easily hold it in my hand while going through the store. Because of the smaller size I have labeled some pages specifically for certain brands that I get coupons for often ie. general mills cereal, Pillsbury, Loreal makeup, etc. If I see that brand is on sale I can easily pull out all the coupons in that specific sleeve and pick out the ones that apply.

Overall this new system is currently working well for me. Ultimately it comes down to you finding something that works for you and your particular style and needs.

As far as coupons go... I subscribe to one paper and get coupons on Sunday with a single duplicate packet on Thursday. I check http://www.boodle.com/ regularly for coupons that you can print off online. It allows you to print two of each coupon per computer (ie. I can print two of the General Mills cereal coupons off of my desk top and two off of my laptop even though they are using the same router). Also many stores will take expired coupons up to a month past date (depending on the store and the cashier) and you can combine store coupons with manufacture coupons, especially wonderful at Walgreens.

Please share any tips or ideas you have gained from your experiences.

Happy coupon clipping!

Free Shipping

I am a big fan of online shopping. I find it less stressful and easier to find the best deal without even leaving my own home -which is a big deal with two small children. I have most (not all, I'm holding out to see what Black Friday deals might be irresistable) of my shopping done and all of it was done online. Anyway, shipping can make or break a deal when it comes to shopping online. Hopefully with gas prices coming down -locally ours finally made it under $2- shipping costs will come down too. Meanwhile I came across a website called FreeShipping.org. The website points you to those online stores who are having shipping promotions and provides you with the coupon code if you need it. Pretty cool!

Just throwing it out there!

Check out Christ Centered Christmas for ideas on how to focus your gift giving and keep the true spirit of Christmas.

Good luck with the Christmas shopping.

I didn't have to be a "Rich Man"

We went to good ol' Walmart to buy our pumpkins tonight and wondered around the store in the process (how often can you actually just run into super Walmart to grab one thing and actuallly come out with only that thing). We ended up in the movie section looking at all the cheap $5 DVD's. I couldn't believe my eyes when I found the classic Fiddler on the Roof! To be sure that gem of a classic came home with me and one of these nights in the near future my house will be filled with the catchy tunes of "If I were a rich man", "Sunrise, Sunset", etc. and to be sure these songs will then be stuck in my head for weeks afterwards. MMMmm... something to look forward to.

Screaming Deal

Wow, when I'm back - I'm back! Three posts in one day. Are you sick of me yet?

Anyway, I couldn't go to bed without sharing the screaming deal to be had at Albertsons (this is for Colorado, check your local ads to see if it is going on in a store near you). They are doing a buy 10 items get $5 in register rewards promotion. Some of the items included in the deal are Yoplait yogurt and Progresso soup. The amazing thing is the yogurt is 10 for $5 which calculates to FREE after you get the register rewards! The soup is 10 for 10 making it 50 cents each after the rewards. A great price on an easy food storage item.

There is even a sweetener to the deal! For you coupon clippers, or even those of you who aren't among those of us crazy enough to subscribe to the paper only so you can get the coupons every Sunday, Boodle.com has coupons for 50 cents off 6 yogurts and 55 cents off 2 soups (you can print two of each). Slap those together and get a total of 6 yogurts and 4 soups for about 40 cents (before taxes and factoring in $5 rewards on next purchase, and don't swear by my math here). You can do this multiple times (even without coupons its a steal) but you have to be sure to break each transaction to get the rewards.

Now I call that a screaming deal!

New Camera

Thank you for all your comments about your cameras. I decided to go for the Lumix TZ4 (pictured in my rambling post) and see if I liked it. Costco really sweetened the deal by giving me a $70 coupon which I ended up getting a raincheck for and then an extra $30 off when the camera was back in stock. It was a great package deal with a case, sd card, and 50 free prints. Overall too hard to resist.

I have had the camera a few days now and I am still learning how to use all of it's many features. I'm excited about all of it's capibilities (and sad I didn't have it last weekend for all our fun excursions). So far, I'm liking the camera a lot and happy with my purchase. I find myself taking the same pictures over and over with different settings trying to figure what exactly they do. It's been great fun! I can't wait to take it to Southern Utah for our anniversary trip next month.

Drooling Over Vacation Rentals

I've been looking for somewhere for Josh and I to spend a few nights for our anniversary in the Utah area. I came across this website that features vacation rentals by owners and ended up spending hours drooling over all the rental properties available nation (even world) wide.

The houses are gorgeous, some of the locations are to die for, and the prices are crazy resonable when you compare them to hotel rates. Especially when you factor in how many people are traveling and that you have a kitchen to eat in rather than eating out every meal.

There are so many places I would love to visit and this looks like an economical way to do it! The question now is how to get there, when, and where's the money coming from. But I'm totally there!

Hershey's Chocolate and Movie Tickets

Hershey's is doing a great promo right now. If you buy specially marked bags with Mega Movie Bonus points on them you can send in the points for free movie tickets. It takes 15 points to earn a movie ticket and most bags of chocolate are worth 5 points each. That means you only need three bags of chocolate to earn a free ticket.

To sweeten the deal, Walgreens has a rebate on Hershey's chocolate this month. Spend $15 and get $5 back in a rebate. This week their bags of chocolate (make sure you get the ones with the points) were 2/$4. If you bought 8 of them for $16 you would get $5 back and enough points for two movie tickets (plus extra points). SWEET!

super grocery sales

if you have a Safeway grocery store in your area this week is the week (and i think next week too) to check them out! they are doing a Saving Rally promotion where if you buy 25 flagged items you get a coupon for $20 off your next purchase (the are also doing buy 15-24 items get $10 and buy 10-14 items get $5). Apparently there are thousands of items to choose from. I havent' been to the store yet, but have looked around online and it looks like there are some great stocking up opprotunities to be had. Some include rice-a-roni and pasta-roni 1o/$10; with the promotion you could get 25 boxes for essentially $5 or $.20 each. Basically it's like taking $.80 off each item, and that is before you factor in any additional clipped coupons. I think the same thing works for DelMonte Tomatos on sale 1o/$10 also. I'll let you know if i find anything else when I actually make it to the store.
Please comment if you find anything!
(Sorry to those who doen't get to take advantage of this. Yay for Safeway!)