Coupon Insert Tenative 2010 Schedule

This is a great tool for all of us Coupon Divas. For The Mommas has listed a tenative listing of the Sunday newspaper coupon inserts for 2010. If you notice on the list this Sunday's newspaper (1/03/2010) is slated to have 2 Smart Source inserts, 2 Smart Source inserts, and a General Mills insert. So this is a newspaper that is worth asking your neighbors and family for the coupon inserts if they don't use them. So click here to see the list over at For The Mommas.

Do You Meal Plan?

At the end of each month I plan my meals for the following month. That's right, a whole month. This is important since I do only one major grocery shopping trip a month. I use a day planner that has each day broken down individually. I started doing this 2 years ago and can't imagine living without the meal plan. Of course things happen along the way on a night or two, but for the most part we stick to it. After I write my meal plan out. I do a search for ingredients in the pantry and that is how my grocery list comes to life. This method helps me stay on budget and still have enough meals to last until the next month.

So I am throwing this out there to all of you. Do you go by a meal plan or do you just wing it? Also, does that method work for you and your family?

Kroger Mega Event Sale Gift Card Giveaway

The Kroger Family of Stores is holding a Mega Event Sale between August 16th and Sept 2nd (Click Here to see the participating stores). This sale offers $5 off your ticket for every 10 items purchased from the list of participating brands. There will not be a limit to how many times you can receive this reward. Just look for the double-yellow tags in your local store and make sure to swip your Plus Card.

Participating brands include: AMP Energy, Aquafina, Betty Crocker Baking Mixes, Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks, Cascadian Farms Cereals and Bars, Cap'n Crunch, Cheerios, Cheetos, Chex Mix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Dole Juices and Juice Drinks, Fiber One, Fritos, Gatorade, Golden Grahams, Green Giant, Hamburger Helper, Life , Lipton Tea, Nature Valley, Old El Paso, Pepsi family of 2 Liters, Pillsbury, Progresso, Propel, Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Quaker Chewy Bars, Starbucks, Sobe Life Water, Totino's, Trix, Tropicana, Yoplait and MORE!

Here is a look at the deals that I picked up last night.

My daughter loves Pizza Rolls when she has friends over on the weekend, so I couldn't pass this up. Hamburger Helper paired with the potatos is a great quick meal for weekdays. We eat biscuits with any meal. (My daughter is a big bread eater)

Soup makes for a fast lunch. We drink a lot of O.J. in our house and I thought that the cinnamon rolls would be a great weekend treat.

This is a great deal on the cereal and me and my daughter both love these cereals. The warm delights are going to be a snack for my daughter's sleep over on Friday night. Quakes have become my favorite go to snack. They are better than the regular rice cake.

Coupons I used were:

Hamburger Helper- 75 cents off 3 boxes

Totino's Pizza Rolls- 40 cents off 2 boxes ( I used two of them) Doubled at register

Grand Biscuits- 40 cents off of 2 cans (I used three of them) Doubled at register

General Mills Cereal (selected assortment)- $1 off of 2 boxes

Betty Crocker Warm Delights- 50 cents off of 1 (used 3 of them) Doubled at register

Pillsbury Sweet Rolls- 40 cents off of 2 (I used 2 of them) Doubled at register

Betty Crocker Potatos- 40 cents off one (This was a shortcut coupon that was on my card)

To maximize Kroger savings along with your Kroger Plus Card, remember to load coupons onto your Plus Card at Shortcuts.com and Unilever Kroger eCoupons

Shopping Trip Totals:

Coupon Savings: $7.55

Plus Card Savings: $32.77

Mega Savings Event Discount: $15

Total Savings: $55.32

I spent: 29.45

As you can see this sale offers a big savings. Now for the giveaway....

GIVEAWAY

PepsiCo & General Mills have teamed up with My Blog Spark to offer me and 1 of my lucky readers a $30 Kroger Family of Stores Gift Card.

Rules:

1. Your entry should be in by Sunday night (8/23/09) at Midnight CST

2. Leave me an email address so that you can be notified of your win

3. I will announce the winner on Monday 8/24/09 before 10am CST

4. The winner will have 24 hours to respond before another winner is choosen

How to Enter:

1. Leave me a comment below letting me know how much you think you can save on your next trip one of the Kroger Family Stores?

For Additional Entries You Can Do the Following Task:

2. Follow my blog and leave a comment letting me know (if you are already a follower leave me a comment letting me know)

3. Subscribe to my blog (if you are already a subsriber leave a comment letting me know)

4. Grab my Blog Button and leave me a link to the website or blog

5. Talk about this giveaway on your site or blog and leave me a direct link to the post.

6. Tweet this giveaway on Twitter and leave me your Twitter ID

7. Stumble Upon or Digg this giveaway and leave me your username

Save Money On Groceries- Order From AngelFood Ministries

I learned about Angelfood Ministries in November of 2008 through a friend that had been doing it for a year. AngelFood Ministries began in Monroe, GA when two pastors, Pastors Joe and Linda Wingo, wanted to lend a helpful hand to 34 families affected by a layoff in 1994. Since then it has grown to help over 500,000 families in the United States. AngelFood's doors are open to all financial backgrounds.

Every month they have a "Regular Box" for $30 that has a variety of food that ranges from meat, veggies, other staples, and even a dessert.If you were to take the list of things that you get in the $30 box for February and go to the store and pick everything up you would end up spending an extra $25 to $30 more. Think of the savings each month that you can save if you order from them monthly.

There is more than just the "Regular Box". there is a "Fruit and Veggie" themed boxes, "Meat" themed boxes, and a "Senior Convenience" Box. Check out their website for the menu for February HERE.

Frugal Tip: Family Cell Phone Plans

My friend was over last night talking about how much her family of four,that has 3 cell phones, spends monthly on phone service. After talking to her she stated that each of them text a lot (she doesn't have free texting) and they have individual bills. She has a Verizon wireless plan that offers 450 minutes with $0.20 cent texting incoming and outgoing. Their bills altogether is around $350 each month. We then looked at the Verizon website and did a little research and we discovered by joining the Nationwide Select Nationwide Plan for two lines and then the Nationwide Select Plan for the third phone would save them around $100 a month.

My tip is this.......reevaluate your current bill and see if you can change your plan to make it cheaper and more sensible for your cell phone usage. Call your customer service and ask for their help if you have questions, but check out their website first to see the plans available.

Welcome!

I have started this blog to share what I have found on and off of the Internet that will save you money, earn money, and anything else that I think will interest you. When I decided to become a Work-At-Home Mom (the greatest job ever!), I knew that I would need to find a way to live like I wanted to for less. So I sat down one day and started my long search for ways to get things that I wanted and ways to make extra money. I quickly realized how much info was out there and that I would have to weed through the sites to find the ones that were trustworthy. I want to share the info that I have learned along the way in hopes of helping others gain some knowledge on ways to achieve their goals. I ask that you share any feedback or tips by emailing me or commenting to a post.