Free e-book

I found this on Money Saving Moms site. Thought it might be interesting!

The Stay-At-Home Mom's Guide to Successful eBay Selling. It is a free ebook offered by Suzanne at her blog, eBay Selling Coach.

Feeding a Family on $50 per week!

I found a link to this post from BeCentsAble. It's titled "Feeding a Family on $50 per week"! Very informative article and very cool website.

I'll be up and runnin' next week.

Sorry to everyone that I have been so slack on my blog lately. I started a new job and had to go through 3 weeks of orientation. I am sooooo not used to having to work every day. I don't know how you full time working mommies do it. But now that I truely get a sense of exactly how little time you have during the week, I hope next week (when I am back to just working weekends), that I will have plenty of money saving tips for you so you don't have to spend your valuable time finding them yourselves. My goal for next week is to have CVS and Ingles deals up by Monday, Publix deals up by Wednesday, and start our Supermom Saturday by a week from Saturday.
Thank-you for your patience and if there is anything I can do to help you be a more frugal shopper, please let me know.

CVS deals

Not much going on at CVS again this week, so I will probable skip it.
You can go to this link to see this weeks deals.
BeCentsAble

Last 2 weeks shopping trips.

This trip cost $70. Not too many deals, but got lots of fruits and veges. I did get 4 packs of Brat's for Ben for $7 after sale and coupons. The 2 soft soaps were free after coupons. Each yogurt was $1 after sales and coupons.

This shopping trip took place last week when Ingles had triple coupon week. On this trip I had the cashier ring everything up before she scanned my Ingles card, and the total was $146. After she scanned my card, it came to $102, and after all of my coupons the total was $61.57.
I splurged and bought Boston Butt for $10 (less than $2/lb), and I bought Tyson chicken tenders for $1.97/lb. I got each Minute Rice for $.62/box, pringles for $.65/can, Quaker Chewy Bars for $1.50 /box, Capt Crunch Cereal for $.50/box, Nature's Own bread and bagels $2/each, Cottonelle tp $1.22/pack, VIVA pt $.50/roll, Scotties facial tissue $.50/box, 9 boxes Totino's Pizza Rolls- FREE, 5 bags of BirdsEye Steamfresh veges for FREE.

I'd say I got a pretty good bit of food over the last 2 weeks for $131!

My $57.74 shopping trip

This week I shopped at CVS, Ingles, and Publix

At CVS, after coupons and ECB's, I spent $3.49 oop and got: 1 package of Huggi's Goodnights, 2 nasal saline drops, Skittles, 2 gummy bears, Garnier Fructis hair treatment, Children's Tylenol, Children's Tylenol Cold, Children's Motrin, and Sudafed PE.

I spent $13.75 at Publix.Here are some of the good deals I got at Publix : 4 boxes of Betty Crocker brownie mix for $.35 each, 7 boxes of Betty Crocker potatoes for $.10 each, 2 large boxes of Nature Valley bars for $5.49 ( I would have gotten them for $3.49, but I left the coupons at home).

I spent $40.50 at Ingles. Most of the items were Ingles brand. I also got 2 lbs of ground turkey for $1.98 each, and 10 lbs of potatoes for $2.00.

My New Year's "Revelation"

As I was laying in bed the other night, tossing and turning, near anxiety attack, until 3:00am, I realized that I was definitely the one trying to control my life. And it obviously was NOT working!

I’ve always had some control issues and I like to micro-manage everything. I know in my head, that I need to give God complete control over my life, but how to do that is the question. So finally, in desperation, I told God to take the control from me, I did not know how to give it up, but for Him to show me how and guide my decisions.

A few days earlier I had been watching Joyce Meyer. Her talk that day was “The Grace of God”. (Go here to see the episode.) One statement really spoke to me: Grace, is the power of The Holy Spirit, coming to us free of charge, to help us do with EASE what we could never do ON OUR OWN with any amount of STRUGGLE and EFFORT.
WOW! My life right now does not seem to be happening with ease, but definitely is a struggle and taking a lot of effort. I feel as if I am on a treadmill, working as hard and as fast as I can and getting absolutely no where. I definitely need to give up the control. And although, I definitely don’t know how to do it, I know through lots of prayer and reading God’s word, He will show me how.
Here are some other points that really spoke to me from Joyce’s message.

1 Peter 5:5 says: Likewise, you who are younger and of lesser rank, be subject to the elders (the ministers and spiritual guides of the church)--[giving them due respect and yielding to their counsel]. Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of a servant, [b]so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance] toward one another. For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful)--[and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble.(A)

We (I) need to humble ourselves (myself) and stop trying to do things independantly. Say to God, I need your power and grace, I cannot do this on my own.

Works of the flesh = FRUSTRATION

Matthew 11:28-30 says: 28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will [o]ease and relieve and [p]refresh [q]your souls.] 29Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest ([r]relief and ease and refreshment and [s]recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.(E) 30For My yoke is wholesome (useful, [t]good--not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

If I’m frustrated I’m out of the will of God, b/c God is not the author of confusion or frustration.

Worry= If I try hard enough I can figure this out.

God doesn’t give us grace ahead of time, He gives it to us fresh every morning, what we need for that day. (I have a constant problem of trying to plan the future, what I want to happen next week, next month, next year.)

The minute we feel frustrated we need to realize that we have gotten into some works of our own and we need God to work in us.

1Peter 5:10 says: And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you.

I’ve exhausted all my own effort, I realize I can’t do this on my own. God I need you to help me.

James 4:6 says: But He gives us more and more grace ([a]power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).(B)

Bible verses from The Amplified Bible.

Here is an old post I did on how I organize my coupons, hope this helps.

It took me months to figure out a way to organize my coupons. I tried many different methods, and today I will show you the one that I finally picked. This may not be the best for everyone, but it works the best for me.

First, I get all of the same inserts together and I separate all of the pages.

Then I stack each of the like pages on top of each other.
Next, I staple each of the coupons.

Then, I cut them out and put them in my coupon box.

My coupon box is actually a photo box that I had. It came with category separators, and then I added envelopes for each subcategory. For example, I have a separator for Cleaners and the envelopes within that category consist of air, all-purpose, laundry, dishes, etc.

This makes it very easy to find and organize my coupons.
I would love to hear feedback on your organizing method.

Download "Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan" for Free

Get your copy of Suze Orman's latest book, Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan, for free!
The offer expires on Thursday, January 15th.

Spending Less

Check out this great guest post on Money Saving Mom ,"It's not about how much we save, it's about how little we spend."

Saving Money in 2009

One of the biggest changes my family has made to save money is to make a grocery budget and stick to it. I can't tell you how many years, we aimlessly threw money away at the grocery store, buying what we are buying now, but not paying any attention to the sales add or using coupons. We have now made it down to $60/week. I alotted more in the beginning while I was getting used to decreasing our budget. The $60/week includes food, paper products, toiletries, cooking supplies, pull-ups, wipes, medications, and personal products.

How, you may ask, is it possible for a family of 4 to live on $60/week? It really isn't all that hard with some work and dedication. I have learned how to shop frugally from some of my favorite blogs (see my sidebar).

Here are some of the shopping tips that help me out the most:

I buy multiple copies of the Sunday's AJC and keep mostly all of the coupons(see my post later on how I clip and organize these),

I look on blogs that post sales items for the different stores and matching coupons;

I am familiar with the different stores policies, for example-

Publix and Ingles double all coupons that are a value of $.50 or below,

Publix accepts any competitor coupons(Target, Ingles, Food Lion),

At CVS, Publix, and Ingles if an item is 2 for $5, for example, you don't have to buy two items, you can only buy one and pay $2.50,

At Publix and Ingles, if an item is BOGO (buy one get one free), then you can only buy one if you want and pay half price, you can also use 2 coupons if you get 2 items.

When something is BOGO and I have coupons that double, then I can get the item very inexpensively. When this happens, I usually buy 5 or 6 for what I would have paid for one full price. This way I can stock up and not have to buy that item for a while.

I usually also have a price in mind that I will not pay over for a product, such as $.30 for Betty Crocker boxed potatoes, $.30 for Uncle Ben's rice, $1.98/lb for ground beef, boneless chicken, or ground turkey, $2.00 per 8oz of cheese and so on. I usually also get all of my Green Giant frozen vegetables for free! A good idea I have found, that I plan on putting into practice, is keeping a food log with the prices of a certain item from different stores, that way I can keep track of what store usually has that item for the cheapest. With so much going on these days, and so much to remember, this log will definitely help out in the memory department.

I hope these tips really help and feel free to ask me any questions!

Do you have any money saving tips you use at the grocery store that you would like to share? Please feel free to do so!

Ziplock "Back to Basics Gift Pack"

The first 5000 to respond will receive a "Back to Basics Gift Pack" from Ziploc. It will include 1 large, 1 XL, and 1 XXL.

Publix deals 01/07/09-01/13/09

Here are the deals and coupon match-ups I found this week. I don't keep track of which ad the coupons came from like the other sites, but if you keep all your coupons each week, you should have them. These probably aren't all of the deals, go here to search for more, just scroll down to Publix.

Remember Publix:

doubles coupons up to $.50;

accepts competitor coupons;

if something is on sale $5/5, for example, you can buy 1 for $1;

if something is BOGO, you can get 1 for half price, and use 2 coupons for 2 items (1 for the buy one and 1 for the free one.)

Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast

$1.99/lb

Carnation Instant Breakfast

$3.99

use $1.00 coupon

final price=$2.99

Fiber One Cereal

BOGO

use $1/3 coupon

Welch's Grape Juice 64 oz bottle

2/$6

use $1 coupon

final price=$2 each

Vaseline lotion

BOGO

use $1.50 coupon

EXPIRES 01/11

Jennie-O 93% lean ground turkey (20 oz package)

$2.99

Perdue Short Cuts Chicken Breast- 9oz package

2/$6

use $1 coupon

final price= $2

Kellogg's Special K Cereal

BOGO- $3.99

Use $1/2 coupon

final price=$2.99 for 2 boxes

Kellogg's Special K Cereal Bars

BOGO- $3.19

use $1/2 coupon

final price=$2.19 for 2 boxes.

Pasta Roni or Rice a Roni

BOGO- $1.65

use $1/4 coupon

final price=$2.30 for 4 boxes

Campbell's Select Harvest Soup

BOGO- $2.39

use $.50/2 coupon (coupon doubles)

final price=$1.39 for 2 cans

Campbell's Soup (selected varieties)

10for$10

Use $.50/5, $.40/4, $.25/3, $.40/2

final price=varies

Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks

BOGO- $2.59

use $50/2 coupon

final price=$1.59 for 2

Pringles Potato Crisps

5/$5

use $.30/3 coupon

final price= $2.40 for 3

Dannon Yogurt 6oz cups

10/$4

use $1/10 coupon

final price=$3 for 10

Pillsbury Ready to Bake! Cookies

2/$5

use $1/2 coupon

final price=$2/4

Smart Balance Spread

BOGO-$2.79

use $1/2 coupon

final price=$1.79 for 2

Eggland's Best Hard Cooked Eggs-6ct

2/$3

use $.35/1 coupon

Final price=$.80 each

Jell-O Snacks-6 packs

3/$5

use $.50/1 coupon

final price=$.67 a pack

Pillsbury Grands Biscuits

4/$5

use $.30/2 coupon

final price=$1.90 for 2

Aunt Jemima pancakes

BOGO- $2.49

use $1/2 coupon

final price=$1.49 for 2

Gerber 2nd Foods 2-pk

10/$10

use $1/4 coupon

final price= $3 for 4 packs

If anyone sees anything else or has any questions, let me know.

CVS deals starting January 4th

Go here to see some of the upcoming CVS deals.

Last weeks $90 shopping trip.

Not my best shopping trip by far, but I haven't really been shopping in a few weeks and I had to buy breakfast items for Sunday School, so I let myself go over. I wasn't planning on going this far over though. I spent a total of $90. Next week I will have to cut way back.

CVS

This was done in 3 transactions. I paid 3.06 out of pocket, used $12 in coupons, $33.93 in ECB's, and earned $24.95 in ECB's. I made a mistake though and the only reason I bought the items in the first picture is b/c I found 9.19 in ECB's that were going to expire on 12-27-08 and had to use them that night. So technically, I would have come

out even in ECB's had I known, but I came out $9 ECB's below what I started with.

Publix

Grand Total OOP=23.65
Total Savings=55.23(24.34 stores sales and 30.89 in coupons)

I paid $.99 for each Frosted Flakes after coupons, $.10 for each Betty Crocker potatoes, $.45 for each can of veges, $.40 for each jar of pickles.
After coupons I paid $2.00 for the Covergirl foundation and received 3 CG lipsticks, 1 pack of Revlon emory boards, 1 Revlon file, and one Revlon finger nail clippers for FREE.

Ingles

Grand Total OOP=62.98

Total Saving=38.59

I paid $.25 for each frosting, $2 for each cereal(I usually never pay more than $1), $.35 for each yeast packet, $1.18 for Pure Vanilla Extract, $1.50 for Skippy PB, $.99 for each package of lunch meat. Not a whole lot of great deals. And looking at my receipt, I realized I was overcharged $5 for the TP b/c it was on sale.

Hopefully I will do better this week!