25 Grocery Shopping Secrets

Take a look and see if you learn something new!

I agree with almost all and was happy to have more validation with#5 (Beat the Breakfast Blues). I am fortunate to be home with my kids most mornings and we usually have eggs/toast or oatmeal. I have found that it is generally more filling for them the cereal/PB toast routine they have on the mornings I teach.

Come to find out that by eating eggs, not only are they getting a more nutritious start to their day, but it is also 3x less expensive then cereal. Never looked at it at the way, but its nice to know that this particular "whole" food is less expensive then the processed.

Now, if only I can get them to love #25 (lentils). I even tried them BBQ style on Sunday and made them similar to a BBQ sandwich. Well...evidently not similar enough yet, but I am not giving up. I love 'em! Check out other grocery shopping secrets and surprises here.

Savvy Shopper Alert

I remember seeing a list like this when I was younger about the best months to buy everything and thinking it was just brilliant for those who like to plan ahead, shop and save.

I like to think of myself as organized, but this is true organization to the max. Usually when I shop for these types of items it is on a "as needed basis," but now as I have found "the list" I could try to keep it in mind more. Check our the "best time to buy everything" list here!

$10 gift card on birthday

Sign up for your local mall’s email club and you’ll get a $10 gift card for your birthday. They’ll send you an email and you just print it out and bring it to your local mall’s customer service desk to get a free $10 gift card.

I just signed up with Jordan Creek Town Center and will let you know in a few months.

Twitter Books

Today is my hubby's birthday (Happy Birthday, Dave!) and I am super excited about my gift for him. We always have time to talk each day, but in our busy day to day lives it can be easy to forget the passing/fleeting moments and thoughts that often make an impression on us.

That is why we both love twitter. We follow one another on it and I love reading about what he is doing and thinking throughout the day. Then at night, we can focus on the more important matters like our kids and...whats for dinner.

Dave has such funny and thoughtful sides to him and it really shows through in his writing. I love reading his observations on the kids, work and life in general.

Enter the perfect gift: Tweetbookz! It allows you to make a copy of favorite tweets and put them into a hard or softcover book. Dave would never keep a journal, but this is such a fun keepsake of things that he has done, seen and thought of over the year. Did I mention how inexpensive it is? $19.89 for this book here.

Gave it to him last night at our family birthday dinner at Red Robin.
Loved it! He's taking it to the office today to show to everyone.

Summer + Reading Programs = Free Books!

Ahh...summer memories of being a young girl and filling out my summer reading book log. Once a week I would ride my bike to the Jefferson Public Library instead of hitting the swimming pool. I remember digging through the various prize bins based on how many minutes I had read that week and claiming my precious reward. Reading was something I always did anyway, but in the summer it was different. Earning prizes for already doing what I loved? Icing on the cake!

Thank goodness with all the techy/video game stuff around, summer reading programs are still around and in full force. We always do the local library, but the big box retailers have also gotten into the mix.

Half Price Books has the simplest reading form of all (just record minutes read) and you can do it every week. Kids turn in their book log and can pick out any book ($3 value) in the store for their prize. My girls love this and have been building up their American Girl book collection.

Barnes and Noble: Fill out their reading log (available at their stores) and kids can pick out any new book of their choice. Word is that kids can do this at any location (thanks, Lisa!)

Borders Bookstore is now offering a similar one to Barnes and Noble.

Hey, who doesn't love free books?!

click here for more summer free fun and our big Summer To-Do list!

Free $10 gift card at Jordan Creek Town Center

If your local mall is managed by GGP (and the one nearest me is!), you can get a free $10 gift card! Just go here and enter your zipcode to see if there's a mall near you which is participating.

When you enter your email address, you'll receive a confirmation by email which you can print and redeem at your mall on specified dates in order to get a completely free $10 gift card.

Build a Racecar on Saturday at Lowe's and save $10 off purcase

Lowe's is the place to be this weekend! Take your kids in to build this cool racecar as part of their popular Build and Grow Workshops...then shop around and save $10 off a $50 purchase. I know there are spring and household projects out there you guys are working on!

Click here for the coupon. Good through 3/2/09.
Have fun!

FreePINK Lotion at Victoria's Secret.

You don't have to be 16 to get this free lotion from Victoria's Secret Pink collection. Print this coupon and get aFREE 1-oz. PINK Energizing Lotion.

Expires 3/2/09. No pruchase necessary.

Free Cosmetics at Major Retailers

A guy (!?!) actually told me about this. Thanks, Barry! I won't question too much how you ever heard about this...

After doing a little bit of research it looks legit. Because of some cosmetic lawsuit (and lots of yada yada to go with it), beginning January 20th, major retailers (Dillards, Younkers...) and their make-up (Estée Lauder, Clinique, Lancome, Calvin Klein, L’Oréal and Christian Dior...) will give away free products.

Check out this press release or this release or this. If you are heading out to do some shopping, check it out (its just good while supplies last).

Spending Freeze Finale

This experiment is over and lessons are learned. There are a few things that I want to clarify and share what I have taken from this. As I said in the beginning, I wasn't going to feed my family generic mac and cheese and powdered milk to "keep us from spending money." We continued to eat the same healthy and mostly fresh food. That wasn't the point. I also wasn't going to keep us from "doing anything fun" for weeks while we sat around and watched Max's toe nails grow. That wasn't the point either. We are each already trying a new activity this year with Megan's piano lessons, Lucy's Tae-Kwon-Do and my triathlon training.

What was the purpose of the spending freeze? To become more aware of our expenses and our day to day spending. I also wanted to evaluate and grab a hold of more impulse buys. Sure I want new workout pants, ipod, spice rack, and shark vacuum, but can't I get by with what I have for now?

I learned that it really is harder to part with your money when it is in cash. As you recall, I did not want to break that $100 dollar bill. Once I did, I became painfully aware of where each bit went; gas, birthday party gifts, lunch out, groceries, a car wash...

I am not opposed to spending money. I love to spend money on experiences and travel. I would much rather spend $10 and take Lucy to the Des Moines Playhouse like I did last Friday, than spend it on some new smelling lotion. I am just more mindful of expenses and since I have figured out how to never pay for toothpaste, shaving cream, or deodorant (thanks to Wendy and introducing me to Walgreens Shopping) that is just all the more we have to spend intangible things. I love introducing my kids to new and different things, places and experiences.

I am also going to begin paying for things in cash. I know of a lot of people that do this and follow the Dave Ramsey approach. It is just too darn easy to whip out the debit card and lose track of what you spend. I was amazed when I looked at our bank account over the past few weeks and saw how boring and nonexistent our transactions had been.

The Spending Freeze was actually kind of fun. It was almost as if we were in pioneer days and we just didn't go shopping.That is a huge accomplishment for me consider our proximity to so many stores. It's over, but a new more responsible way of spending has begun.

Spending Freeze Update

Yesterday was Day 7 of my self inflicted spending freeze. Due to a salt shortage it was broken and continued to thaw quickly as I ran to the grocery store to restock on fruits and veggies. Milk was more expensive because I purchased soy milk for the first time. We are currently on a trial and error process at our house trying to determine what is causing Lucy's frequent tummy aches. We are cutting out dairy for 2 weeks to see if that will help. Then I had to get the car washed. I wanted to put it off, but it was filthy and I couldn't see out the back window. The kids were walking by the car in the garage and dusting it off with their coats. It was time.
Total Damage: $26.76
Yikes...that was a lot of perishables, but we have been trying to eat more of a variety of fruits and veggies. The kids can't live on raisins now can they?

One item that will break the Spending Freeze

One thing. One measly little item. It even costs less then a buck.

Salt.

Way back at the beginning of the year, I signed up to be the January Play-Doh mom for Lucy's school. She came home from school super excited with the big empty play-doh bucket and couldn't wait to make it and take it back to school. I agreed that it would be a fun project for us and something Max and Megan would enjoy playing with also. Who would have thought that homemade play-doh would needs 2 cups of salt? We barely eked out one cup and Lucy suggested we empty our salt shaker to try to get another cup. That didn't get us anywhere close. She was disappointed, but handled it well. She set aside the blue food coloring and the glitter we had gotten out to add to it.

I had allotted myself money for instances like this as part of the spending freeze, but the point being that I will now break my crisp brand new $100 dollar bill that I have saved for a whole week for a staple (but necessary!) item. Now that its broken how fast will the rest of it go??!

Spending Freeze Saturday Style

Uh, oh...the weekend. Weekends can tend to be a bit more spendy for us, but I am proud to say we had a great day and had strong to the freeze. Grandma and Grandpa were in town and offered to play with the kids Saturday afternoon so Dave and I could go do something. We were thankful to get a little couple time and will take it at any chance. We headed to Outback Steakhouse for lunch (thanks to a Christmas giftcard) and then to the bookstore to browse. I was tempted to get a coffee (nothing beats a Starbucks coffee and reading at the bookstore), but I was strong. This evening we taught Megan's Sunday School class at church, had supper and watched a movie. The $100 has still not been broken, but know that will happen in the near future as we need to replenish veggies, fruit and milk.

To spend or not to spend?

We are living in a tough time. People are worried about their jobs, investments, retirement and even concerned about grocery shopping. The economy is down. A recession is here. What is the message that is being sent to us by the big guys in the White House? Spend, spend, spend! I understand that money needs to be circulating and people need to be buying for the world to go round, but are buying unnecessary items and putting things on credit that can't really be afforded the answer?

In December, we received several restaurant gift cards (from the restaurants themselves) beckoning us to come on over for dinner. I have never seen so many stores offering huge sales and deep discounts before Christmas. Those kind of sales are usually reserved for after the holidays to rid the shelves of surplus. These places want us in their establishments. Once we are in, then we will probably spend more. I know that was the case for us when we used our $25 gift card to Flemings Steakhouse.

Restaurants want us to spend. Stores wants us to spend. Guess what? So do the car manufacturers and the housing market.

There has to be a better a better way and I do not mean huge bail outs for irresponsible companies. I don't know what the right answer is, but until things get settled, this family will be doing the opposite of what all of the manufacturers and government want.

Recap Day 2 of Spending Freeze

I couldn't ask for a better way to start out with most stores and restaurants closed on New Year's Day. Temptation be gone! Except for the all too convenient online shopping, but there is nothing we need right now! It is a great feeling.

Dave went to watch the Hawkeye Bowl Game at a bar. The place they were meeting at just happened to be on that I won a gift card too several months ago. The girls and I had a friend over for lunch (chilli, Lucy's Loaves bread) and other then that we enjoyed a nice restful day playing some of the games the girls received for Christmas and doing experiments with Lucy's new science kit.

Day 1 Recap: Spending Freeze

Part of my celebration in ringing in the new year includes a "see how long I can go without spending money experiment." Read more about it here.

Since I usually a pretty timely person, I started this money freeze on December 31st. I did this for a couple of reasons. Since we have been on school break, I have pretty much had all three children with me for every shopping trip for the past week and a half. This has hindered quick little get in and get out stops. When I stopped at Hy-Vee on the 30th at 5 pm my decision to start a day early was sealed.

I stopped at the grocery store the day before New Year's Eve. With all 3 kiddos. To get one forgotten item for dinner that night. So in the midst of the crowds at the store and with the girls "helping" by pushing their individual carts and and with company coming for dinner at 5:30 that night, I pretty much decided then and there I was done shopping for awhile. Yes, I could have stockpiled more food or tried to anticipate more costs for the month, but this will just make my shopping freeze all the more interesting.

Day 1:
Took the kids swimming at Prairie Life (had a free pass that expired on the 31st!). Our normal Wed. lunch with the grandparents was canceled as they weren't feeling well. Of course, I was sorry that they weren't up to par, but since I buy our weekly lunch it was okay this time. Isn't that a terrible thought?! Made an apple pie to take over to friend's for New Year's Eve (already had ingredients on hand) and made it through the day fairly easily! Maybe this won't be too bad...;-)

Spending Freeze

I am tired of shopping. Tired of stores, the crowds, the cost. As a tribute to the new year, I am going to go on a Spending Freeze. As I type, the cupboards are full, meals tentatively planned out for the next three weeks (!), the gas tank is full and January is birthday free for our family.

I have given this some thought the final weeks of December and feel this is as good as time as any to try this experiment. We purchased 1/4 of a cow last month so we are good to go on meat. The kids are set on clothes (thanks to Christmas). I have a small surplus of personal items stocked away (thanks to Walgreens deals). Diapers have been restocked, lunch money and preschool tuition paid for in January,the bills are current, piano lessons and basketball league are covered for now.

This all sounds like its going to be a piece of cake, but I am going to be realistic about this. I know that we need milk and fresh veggies and fruit every week. I have a weekly lunch date with my grandparents, I have a hair cut already scheduled and we like to have fun and embrace unexpected plans and invitations. Life is too short and uncertain to live like hermits so I plan to allot myself $100 cash to carry me through however long. This will cover anything we haven't planned on. When it is gone it is gone. Paying in cash instead of using a debit card is something I have wanted to do for awhile so it will be interesting. Very interesting...

40% off any book at Borders

Need a last minute gift idea for a book lover? Click here for the coupon.
Offer good Dec. 19-21st
Thanks, Wendy!

Take Advantage of Free Shipping!

Free Shipping Tuesday, December 18th
Click here to find the participating stores:


Thanks, Wendy!

What am I supposed to do with this old computer monitor?

I was already the self-proclaimed Costco Queen before, but now with this new green movement and the opportunity to get free cash cards, I knew it was a match made. Costco has a new trade in and recycle program for used electronics. With my hubby in the computer business, an old digital camera lying around and an ancient video camera, I am definitely curious. I wonder if they take old cell phones? On the other hand, Max gets such a kick out of talking to "da-da" on those phones and attempting to pull the antennas out, I may just have to hang on to those for awhile. Click here for the details on how you can get your estimated value for your old electronics, ship it for free and get your gift card within a few weeks.