Monthly Savings Tracker

I had a friend come by last week while I had coupon inserts, scissors, and piles of coupons spread across my table. She asked me how much money I saved by using coupons and I didn't have an answer better than "lots."

It really got me thinking and I've given myself a challenge. I'm going to track my savings during the month of August.

If you're up for the challenge, I'm posting a link to the excel spreadsheet I made. It's really basic, but I thought I'd share what I'll be using.  I'd love to hear at the end of the month how much you've saved!

The Monthly Savings spreadsheet can be found HERE.  There is an example at the top so you can see how to fill it in.  This can be downloaded by going to File, Download, and then using the spreadsheet to fill in your own numbers.

FREE Clothing Fair - Saturday August 6th

(picture credit)

The Annual Sparks Stake Clothing Fair is this week! This is a great opportunity to clean out your closets and donate unused clothing, as well as "shop" (for no charge) for clothing items for you and your family.

Clothing donations can be dropped off at the LDS church (2955 Rock Blvd, Sparks, NV) any time from 2:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. on Friday, August 5th.

"Shopping" is open to the community from 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m on Saturday, August 6th.

You do not have to donate clothes to be able to shop. You do not have to show ID, be a member of this church, or give your firstborn child. There are no strings attached.

I've been to this clothing fair before when my boys were moving up in size and I needed a few things that fit. The clothing was arranged by size and it was fun to sort through and find treasures. It's like my boys keep quoting from Bedtime Stories, "For FREEEEEEE? Sounds good to MEEEEEE!"

Hope to see you there and feel free to spread the word to your friends and neighbors!

Zucchini Bread

(My boys of summer enjoying a slice of zucchini bread.)

I missed the boat on my garden this year. I managed to get a few things planted before prego sickness hit but nothing like usual.

Lucky for me, I have generous gardening friends. When Sheila brought me a beautiful zucchini earlier this week, I knew I wanted to turn it into some yummy zucchini bread.

I found an AMAZING recipe on allrecipes.com that turned out so moist and yummy. The recipe makes two regular-sized loaves but I'm sure it would make great muffins or mini loaves too.

This bread also freezes well if you're wealthy in the zucchini department (which many people tend to be this time of year) and need to use it all up.

You can find the recipe HERE. Enjoy!

It's Been a Long Time...

since I've been on the blog. It's been a long time since I've been couponing! In fact just this week I eased myself back in with a little Walgreen's shopping.

You see, we're having another baby around here! With pregnancy comes sickness for me, so we've been laying extremely low. I'm hoping to be feeling back to my normal self very soon.

While I've been sick and not able to do much, I've thought a lot about how nice it is to have a stockpile for times just like these. I couldn't even look through the grocery ads without feeling ill...there was no way I was stepping foot inside a store!

Willie would bring home milk, bread, fruits & veggies, (and odd cravings I had now and then) but I'm sure he's glad he didn't have to do the FULL shopping for our family of six. He had enough on his plate caring for us while I've been down for the count.

I also figure having our stockpile on-hand saved us money. Had Willie needed to purchase typical needs for our home, he would have stopped at the closest store on his way home from work. No time for bargain shopping! Buying diapers, wipes, toiletries, and food all at full price would have really put a ding in the budget.

Once again, buying ahead when things are on sale and saving them for when needed (so you don't have to pay full price!) has saved the day. I've missed couponing and I'm excited to get back in the game!

I probably won't be blogging very often. There are so many couponing blogs out there, why repeat it all? Plus, my friend Jill (who often did posts for the blog too) has moved, leaving me once again to be a lone blogger.

On the sidebar is a list of my favorite blogs if you need more to read, and I was just emailed about this new one too if you want to check it out. It's called The Swap and it's a blog done by local Northern Nevada gals looking to swap info about great deals.

Happy couponing!

Save Mart (5/18-5/24)

There are a few good deals worth mentioning this week at Savemart! This sale ends Tues. 5/24.

Strawberries, 1 lb. - $0.97 (Fri., Sat., Sun. ONLY)
If you missed this, Wal-Mart had them at $1.00/lb. when I was there.

Iceburg Lettuce - $0.37 each!

Guerrero Corn Tortillas, 30 ct. - $1.39
$1.00 printable coupon (register, log-in, then print)
Final price: $0.39 each!

Bar-S Jumbo Meat Franks, 16 oz. - $0.78 with in-ad coupon
$1.00/2 printable coupon
$1.00/2 from 5/22 RP
Final price: $0.28 each!

I'm a Groupon Junkie

I think I'm officially hooked on Groupon. I just can't help myself. There are two deals right now that are awesome.

#1. $150.00 for 6 Laser Hair-Removal Treatments at Sierra NV Wellness Center in Sparks. This is an $894.00 value! The site says it's for new clients only and valid only for forehead, lip, chin, ears, toes, or underarms. Must use all treatments on same area. What a smooth way to get smooth!

#2. $25.00 for $50.00 at Coldwater Creek. This is showing up in Kansas City, but it's a national deal and you can use it online so you can purchase it no matter where you live. I'm saving mine for a great sale!

To get in on these deals just head on over to GROUPON!

Safeway: Strawberries $0.33/lb!

Be sure to log into your Safeway Just for U account (or sign up for one if you haven't already) to check your "personalized deals."

If you have strawberries priced at $2.49...you are in luck! Add the price to your card and take advantage of the Buy 1 Get 2 Free deal that is going on through Tuesday (4/19).

Here's the GREAT part...for some reason it rings up all 3 pounds for a total of $0.99! That is just $0.33/lb. Talk about sweet.

It gets even sweeter if you use the $1.00 off $5.00 coupon from the Simple Nutrition pamphlet (I found mine at both customer service and at a display by the shopping carts).

Happy jam making!!

Thanks, The Frugal Find.

Yummy New Groupon: $5 for $10.00 worth at U-Swirl!

This isn't turning into a Groupon Site, I promise. BUT I have been wanting to go to U-Swirl! Now is my chance...I just bought 2!

Pay $5.00 to get $10.00 worth of frozen yogurt at U-Swirl. Just go HERE.

Expires Jun 15, 2011 Limit 2 per person, may buy 1 additional as a gift. Limit 1 per visit. Not valid with frequent buyer cards. No cash back. Not valid with other offers.

Pump It Up: $2.40 a Visit with GROUPON!

Right now over at Groupon you can purchase a voucher for 10 visits to Pump It Up for $24.00! That's only $2.40 a child! Guess where we're going over Spring Break?!

You can use the 10 passes all at once or spread it out over multiple trips.

The pass doesn't expire until August 31st.

Any of my play group friends reading this?

To buy this deal just go HERE.

(Thanks, Natalie A.!)

Nestle Pure Life Water $1.54/case at Smith's!

Water is an essential for life and a good thing to store in case of any type of emergency. There is a good deal on water going on right now at Smith's.

The 24-count Nestle Pure Life water bottles are included in the Buy 10 Save $5 promo. at $2.79. (See other items included in this sale HERE. Thanks, Centsible Sisters!) You will need to throw in 6 other items included in the buy 10 save $5 promo. to get the $2.79 sale price on the water. Think of using 6 free pasta or $0.39 Powerade...

There is also a Catalina Promo. running on this water until 4/3/11. When you buy:

2 cases - $1.00 back on your next order

3 cases - $2.00 back on your next order

4 cases - $5.00 back on your next order.

So basically when you combine the sale with the Catalina, you end up paying $1.54 per case (about 6 cents per bottle)!

Here's the breakdown:

Buy 4 cases of Nestle Pure Life (24 ct.) at $2.79 each - $11.16

+ price of 6 other participating products

Total price: $11.16 + price of other items, Get $5.00 back

You can then use this $5.00 Catalina to buy four more cases of water (and 6 other promo. items) to pay $6.16 out of pocket on the water and get another $5.00 Catalina back.

If you happened to print the coupons availabe last month for this water (no longer available) your deal will be even sweeter!

WATER STORAGE

Want to know how much water your family will need? HERE is great booklet from FEMA. They suggest storing at least one gallon of water per person, per day, for two weeks. (Each person needs 14 gallons of water.)

14 gallons of water = 106 bottles

(Thanks, Prepared LDS Family and Centsible Sisters!)

GROUPON: $5 for $10 worth of books, music, movies at Grassroots Books!

I've posted about the GREAT deals to be found at Grassroots Books (fabulous used bookstore) before and now it's even better!

For $5.00 you can get $10.00 worth of books, music, or movies. This is a sweet deal because their prices are already reasonable. The books run from $0.99-$2.99, VHS tapes are $0.99, and DVDs are $3.99, or three for $10.

I'm excited that it can even be used at their monthly warehouse sales (when more than 10,000 items are $0.99 each). There's nothing better than a deal on top of a deal!

The coupon has a one-year expiration date and only one coupon can be used per visit.

To get in on this deal, just head on over to GROUPON!

(Thanks, Janet!)

Warehouse Booksale

Thanks to Shirley for sending me the information on this library booksale!

This weekend (March 12 and 13) there will be a booksale to benefit the Washoe County Libraries at 125 Gentry, Reno.

Here's the info from the Friends of the Library website.

Warehouse Booksale:

Friday & Saturday, March 12 & 13
Friends Warehouse, 125 Gentry Way, Reno

In these tough economic times, Friends Booksales are great opportunities to take advantage of a wide selection of inexpensive books, movies, and music, and at the same time help the library. Prices start at just 50 cents, with with ficton, non-fiction, cookbooks, children's books, books about Nevada and the West, and lots of jigsaw puzzles, as well as loads of "nearly new" books and both rare and autographed collectibles.

This all volunteer, non-profit group's sales are generally offered on the second weekend of the month, rain, sleet or snow, at 125 Gentry Way (off South Virginia) in the rear of the building.

For additional information, call 324-5522 or see the website HERE.

Read Across America

If you need something free to do on Saturday morning, you may want to consider going to Target for their Read Across America celebration. There will be read-alouds, treats for the kids and there should be coupons for the grown-ups. I've taken my kids before and it certainly wasn't a Broadway production, but it was something to do that took us out of the house. Saturday, February 26th, from 9-11am.

Grand Sierra Resort: 2 Free Nights!

(Update: I guess now the code is not working for locals. Sorry! I booked our rooms back in January and the total balance was $0.00.)

You can get up to two FREE nights at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino using the code 2FCH at checkout.

This offer works for dates now through March 31, 2011. Some dates are already sold out and it looks like it doesn't work over the weekends, weekdays only from what I can tell.

When you get to the main page of the GSR website just click on your arrival and departure dates (up at the top) and add the offer code in the third box. Voila! Free room! I did have to enter my credit card information but my grand total was $0.00.

We're going on a family vacation staycation next week to the Grand Sierra Resort! There's lots to do there: bowling, movies, laser tag, arcade, golf, go karts, ultimate rush, and spa. Sounds like fun!