Check it Out!

'Tis the holiday season and everyone is looking for a great deal. Gift cards are very popular and I like to receive them...hint, hint. But if you are trying to decide which ones to get/give, I think that it's always best to lean towards the ones that pay you back. For example, Red Robin has a deal going for when you buy a $25 gift card, you get a $5 card to use between January and February.

What I've done in the past is buy the gift card before we eat and pay for the meal with the gift card on the same day--with the perk of a gift card to use in the new year.

I know that many of the restaurants are doing this and it's a great way to kill two birds with one stone...and enjoy the gift of giving, especially when it comes back to you. I guess this would be the perfect example of a "piggyback" deal.

Veteran's Day Spectacular

Ok. I'm on the road. Rhode Island to be exact. But I couldn't help but throw these tidbits out there for those who've been in Military service--currently or in the past. Tomorrow is the day you need to take your sweetie to lunch because so many of the local restaurants are offering free meals for Veteran's with ID--Applebee's and Chili's. Outback Steakhouse is offering a free bloomin' onion and drink, free donuts at Krispy Kreme's, and free subs at Subway too!!

My mom is a Veteran--Air Force. We are on the road and you know--I know where we are going to eat tomorrow. Thank goodness there are Subways in every airport :)

Super Stock-Up Items at Albertsons

It's not very often that I promote a generic brand item to stock up on. But starting tomorrow at Albertsons', they have their store brand cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soups on sale for 29 cents when you buy them in increments of 10. You pay $2.90 and you have 10 cans of cooking soups on hand. The other tremendous deal is on the store brand chicken and beef broths. Same situation--buy 10 and they are 25 cents a piece...you pay $2.50 for 10. I don't know about you, but holiday cooking is just around the corner and it seems like you need broth and cream soups for every recipe. And being that these are canned products, the expiry dates are going to be well in 2012, 2013. So stocking up on these kinds of staples is SMART shopping!!

Most of the brand name items in the "Buy 10 items, Save $5" promo have coupons to match. These kinds of sales are fabulous ways to start building a reserve. And being that we just had double coupons in this week's ad, most likely there won't be any for next week...so think about which items are a great deal with available coupons. Our family loves the Betty Crocker potatoes that are on sale for 79 cents a box when purchased in any combination 10 of the advertised items. There are coupons for save $1 on 2 items. That makes them 29 cents a box. That's a hot deal and it wouldn't take very much money to see the exponential results in your pantry.

Another great find is the Dole Pineapple that's on sale for 75 cents a can (in the combination of 10). I just ordered coupons from http://www.ebay.com/ that saves $1 on 3 cans. That makes each can 42 cents each. That's a huge improvement over $1.25 a can. Four or five cases of fruit that will last quite awhile will run me about the same as if I had bought 20 cans at regular price. Shopper with coupons is like having my own personal sale as my disposal.

I fell asleep last night dreaming about all the possibilities for double coupons. Today is the last day for the double coupon deals at Albertsons. And it's absolutely thrilling that there are 4 instead of 3 this week.

What was my dream about? A tall, frosty glass of sweet nectar on the rocks with a straw...ie. coca-cola. It's on sale till the end of the day--buy two 12-packs ($5.99 each) and get two 12-packs for free. The coca-cola deal includes Barq's Root Beer, Fanta, Crush, Ginger Ale, Sprite, and others. On the Fanta cases at the store yesterday--there were $2 off peelie stickers for 1 case of pop each. It was good for 5-6 different kinds of soda pop. So if you bought 4 cases of pop--$12.98 with tax--you can use one four of those $2 coupons. The Albertsons' I frequent let me use the four double coupons from the ad for $1 off each as well. That's $3 off per case. [See where the dream is going yet?] That means you can get 4 cases of sweet nectar for sales' tax--about a $1!! That's newsworthy today.

The possibilities of double coupons on sales' prices and combined with another great coupon is endless. When I teach coupon classes, I tell people to keep a "grocery journal" to watch the cycles of the sales' on their favorite products. If you do this--you'd start to see a trend on when the doublers come out. It looks like every other week so far in the pattern and holding. That's great because you can plan your double coupon experiences ahead of time when you are shopping for coupons. It's an amazing way to think and plan with savings in mind. Just think of how your home food storage would increase gradually and consistently if you were to have a plan of how to buy some necessary food items at a tremendous savings. And like I always tell people- food is my savings account. If I didn't have to buy groceries for my small herd every week--do you know what kind of money I would be saving!? Food/grocery money is discretionary spending--you can spend as little or as much as you want. Be smart, build a supply, and save a lot of cash roll with a little work. What does it all mean? Peace of mind, money in my pocket and a sense of stewardship over the income we have.