More GG Savings...

I thought I would post more of the GG savings for anyone interested.


Albertson's:
Products worth: $132
Total Paid for Items: $55.08
Savings from club card and Bonus Buys: $60
Coupon Savings: $18
Total Savings: $78 or 59%


This week at Safeway:
Products worth: $81
Total Paid for Items: $35
Club Card Savings: $23
Coupon Savings: $18
Misc Savings: $?
Total Savings: $46 or 57% PLUS 20 cents off fuel discount PLUS 2 free movie tickets worth at least $13 in our area, plus 1 free large popcorn when you buy two fountain drinks. So those savings are awesome!


I am doing pretty well with it and that is even with a fairly limited amount of coupons! I can't wait to see how I do after the first 3 months where we are stocked up on more things and can start simply spending less. Right now we are spending the whole budgeted amount for groceries and household (but we are staying in budget well unlike before) but yet we have TONS more food and household items than we did before!!! It is great!

Here is what I have stocked up on so far.....this is with staying in budget AND only 3 weeks of doing the GG. Drum roll please.....

BBQ sauces 10 @ 30 cents each
Mustards 8 total
Mayo 3 large jars
Popcorn 4 boxes of 3 each
Prego sauces 6 jars
Toilet paper 36 double rolls
Paper towels 5 packages 8 ct each
Marinades for BBQing 6 bottles
Cereal 17 boxes
Deodorant for both of us 8
Toothbrushes 2
Shampoos and conditioners and hair products 8
Band aids and Neosporin 3
Rice mixes and instant rice 4
Granola Bars 2 pkgs
Frozen Pizza's 8
Frozen Chicken Breasts 3- 4lb packages
Pork and Beans for BBQ season 6 cans
Sunscreen 3 bottles
Toothpastes 6 tubes
And a few other's I can't think of off the top of my head.


I find that amazing in less than a month I was able to acquire that much stuff at really low prices....I am trying to save at least 50% in order to justify stockpiling it. So I am doing good saving anywhere from 40% to 60% so far on all my receipts! I love that giddy feeling when we are carting out to the car as I am looking over my receipts and checking out the printable coupons they give you with the receipt! It is a rush in some ways and it is a game......it sure makes shopping for the family more fun too....it made a boring chore into something challenging and FUN!!!


The secret is to NOT use the coupons on any regular price item.....save them until it goes on sale and don't be afraid to let the coupon expire if you won't save enough to make it a good deal even with the coupon unless you just have to have it right now. It is hard to pass up using a good coupon but it really is better to wait if you can for a real sale and combine the coupon with it. It is always exciting to see something on sale that you have a coupon for.

Oh I have a couple more....last night we went as a family and we saved BIG! We went to 2 stores and here's what we saved just in % this time. Safeway transaction #1 61% , #2 58%, Albertson's #1 93%!!!!!!!!, #2 30%. Let me explain the 93% one......Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce was on sale for 10/$10 a couple weeks back....I knew I had seen a coupon online for Sweet Baby Rays so I was sure to get a rain check when I noticed they were all sold out. So I went home ordered some coupons CHEAP, then went back to the store after they had arrived and I managed to get each bottle for $1, then used my coupons for $1 off any TWO bottles, then used store doublers and they ended up being only 20-30 cents each so basically 10 bottles for the prices of 1! I also got several tubes of toothpaste for free as well.:) Mr Wonderful was impressed with the savings too which is always nice.

Thanks for sharing in the fun!

Mushrooming 2008 Trip #1....

We love to go mushrooming and we try to go at least 2-3 times in the spring. This is our first trip as a family this year and we had such a great time....I was able to enjoy some photography and the kids got to play in puddles and hike around and find all kinds of interesting things. The mushrooms were few and far between but we managed to fine one small skillet full to fry up when we got home.

This is typical when we go hiking......"Mom, are you coming?" LOL Which isn't what was really going on....more like this...."Kids turn around......smile!" "Ok that didn't turn out let's do it again.......smile....!" "Ok ONE MORE TIME, I'll get it this time.......SMILE!!!!" "Got it! Thanx Guys!"

Then they must concentrate to not "accidentally" get wet in the puddles.....what is it with boys and mud puddles? We let them play in a few towards the end of the hike when we knew we were close to the rig but we wanted their feet dry for the majority of the hike.....it was tough but they managed to stay out of them until we said it was ok.

I loved this old broken down log cabin......it was right on the edge of a meadow and unfortunately all behind it had been heavily logged so it kinda ruined the surroundings but the new little seedling trees have been replanted so maybe someday soon there will be more beautiful trees surrounding this old cabin ruins.

Here is what we were in search of.....few and far in between....

Here is what we were NOT in search of...but I had to take a pic of this one.....weird huh? Mr Wonderful told me the real name but I have long since forgotten it...looks like a burnt shroom to me.

"Hey guys! Look at ME!!!!"........Alarm bells go off in my Mommy radar....."Spud Man?" Spud Man yells from a far off place "Look at me way up here guys!"..........Mommy terror surfaces and I yell "Spud Man, GET DOWN here!! What are you doing clear up there?" This is his favorite thing to get me all worked up....he climbs to the top of a tree and then sways it around saying "Hey Mom this is what a tree does in the wind huh?" Did I mention I think I am getting grey hair? Notice the child leaning way out from the top of the tree!!!!!!

Here he is on his way down closer to the ground...once I knew he might survive the fall I could then snap a calmer picture....not as shaky as the first.

Isn't this scenic picture great? I have always loved this view. Now wouldn't that be neat to wake up to every morning?

It's Worse Than Ever!....

I have been drooling over a digital SLR camera for quite a while now but lately it is getting worse....this week I am stuck on the Pentax brand. I like the K200D and the K100D Super models. I reeeeeaaaaally want one but once again patience comes into play......um ya, still can't find it.

So why am I wanting one so bad moreso now than before? We went mushrooming as a family last week and I was all excited about just being able to take pics along the way....here are some I was able to capture with my little Nikon Coolpix 4300.....I just REALLY wish I could get better close ups...I LOVE close-ups. I am glad I was able to take pics of such great things because the mushrooms were few and far between.

There seems to be a theme in the first few pics....bugs.....bugs everywhere! Do you see the little catapillar?

Here I cropped it and enlarged it some to you can see what I am talking about...it gets grainy when I do that though.

This seems like the best I can do for a close up with my current camera but to me it looks washed out and still slightly out of focus....not to mention in this shot I have cropped it and enlarged it at well so you can see what the heck I am looking at! LOL

I liked this pic, these flowers were all looking down so I had to tip this one up so I could take a pic of it and of course in keeping with the theme of the day there was an ant on it......

We found this furry creature along the trail, it must have sensed our footsteps and curled up for protection. It was a very large catapiller about 1.5" accross in it's balled form. I have never seen one that big! This next photo is of the corner of an old log cabin! It was beatiful with all the moss growing on it and half rotten. I love the textures and the almost black and white quality to it.

I love sky shots too....I love big white puffy clouds, thin white whispy clouds, but dark threatening thunder clouds are my favorite...they stir me deep in my soul!!! I feel so alive when I see a sky full of the dark deep blue gray clouds......then add to that the thunder and lightening and I am one happy girl!

Lookey who we encountered along the way. He was in a heck of a hurry to get out of there...I have no idea why.......I mean it wasn't like there were 2 boys rather intent on "studying" him or anything.......So my question of the day is do I go a new camera first or do I get Photoshop and try to play with the pics I can manage to get with my current camera and enhance things etc......then worry about a bigger camera in my future when I have more knowledge on how to actually use it and I am absolutely sure I have used my camera to it's fullest potential...... So what should I get first Photoshop or a digital SLR camera?

If Only....

If only I had tried out the Grocery Game when I first heard about it.......which was approximately 2 years ago.

I might have saved $8,500 in 2 years! I figured that we spent roughly $500 to 700 per month in groceries/pet care/household items (we never budgeted that much EVER but there were always so many things we NEEDED that we had to run and get and they added up).

I think a safe average for GG if you were stockpiling properly and after you got started might be around 30-50% depending on how much we used the list to the T. Anyway this is what we might have/could have saved in that 2 year period..........between $3,600 and $8,400!!!

Now this is of course depending on the average percentage saved and how much we actually spent each month! Any number in that above range is enough to make me regret not at least trying it when I first heard about it!

That could have been a used car! That could have been a couple family vacations! That could have bought us LOTS OF FUEL! That is lots of date nights! Or a lot of medical bills paid off! We really could have used that money.......so I won't make that mistake from now on........I have heard some people even save like 70% on GG but I am not that savvy and won't even pretend like I could be. LOL

Grocery Game....

I did not know what I was missing.....I looked into the Grocery Game (GG) several years ago when we first started trying to get out of debt but it seemed like a whole lot of hassle for some coupons and a couple dollars in savings here and there, what is the point right? Plus I was convinced that the only things there were coupons for were packaged foods or things I wouldn't buy anyway.

We tend to eat pretty healthy when it comes to meals, lots of homemade from scratch stuff with a few prepackaged things to help in there too. So I figured anyone that didn't cook like I did would surely save tons just not me.....the other thing that turned me off was paying for the GG membership.....I just shy away from those sort of things in general. So I missed out, went along with my little life and didn't look back.

Then a couple Mom's from our homeschool group got some of us together and they shared how they got started with the GG and then went beyond that further to save money, they had receipts to look at and examples of how they did this coupon shopping sales combining thing and I was just in awe! It was amazing I just had no idea there were all these tricks! After the meeting you could tell several of us were sitting there just processing all the info in our heads trying to get it all straight because they gave us some really awesome info and some great tips to get started and it was so much fun. So I still had some reservations (still do a little) because I am kinda timid about coupons I hate taking up extra time or making people wait. Plus I had to tell myself that just because junk food was going to be on sale and an excellent price did not mean that I need to buy it! So I have to be careful about that added temptation, the good news is though that if the junk food isn't on sale it is less of a temptation if I am in the coupon shopping zone.

So here I am several years after hearing about the grocery game (funny thing is the two moms that gave us the presentation also had heard about it several years ago and decided not to pursue it then either.) Anyway I had Mr Wonderful grab me a Sunday paper early Sunday from the local mini mart. I started clipping and organizing my first set of coupons (I was never really a coupon shopper before). It was kinda a rush wondering what would be on the next page of the coupon pages and when I was all done there was an odd let down and a desire to go find more coupons! LOL Anyway I printed of THE LIST from the website http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ and then went to town, I went to Rite Aid and Safeway. I did well for my first trip and only having one Sunday paper's worth of coupons and a couple printable ones in my possession.

Here is my very first shopping trip with GG:

Rite Aid~
Total regular price $78
Coupon Savings $7.60
Savings after rebates $17.50
Total Savings combined with sales $52 or 66%

Safeway~
Total regular price for the items I bought $ 196.64
Savings just with club card $69.80
Coupon Savings $18.70
Total Saved $88.50 or 45%

Remember all this savings from the GG list (which simply helps you combine your coupons from the Sunday paper with the sales at the store to get the best deals) and ONE Sunday paper's worth of coupons! I am amazed.

I looked back thru a few of my last receipts from Safeway from BEFORE GG and my club card savings were only around 15-20% ( know sometimes when there is alot of Buy One Get One Free sales it goes up to like 30% then). So I must have been really bad at the sales shopping, I just was getting everything I NEEDED and not paying much attention to the sales because if it wasn't on the list I wasn't buying it but yet if I had planned out meals by the sales fliers more or also stockpiled when it was on sale it would have been so much better but I was so focused on not buying excess I lost out all this time! Live and learn.

My goal is to be careful and not be lured by sale items I don't NEED, because even if I could have saved 90% I'd still be spending 10% more than I would if I hadn't bought it! I have to be careful and also not bring home too many things we don't need even if they were great deals. I want to stock up on the items we definitely need but since storage is an issue I have to be careful, I already have plans to add a second shelf up high in almost every closet and maybe some under bed storage. I am also thinking about moving my sewing supplies somewhere else so I can have the utility shelves in my walk in closet for stockpiling. I think I will move the sewing items to the large linen cabinets in the bathroom, for some reason sewing supplies in the bathroom is not quite as weird as food storage in the bathroom, although it might be handy....doing my hair realize I hadn't eaten anything and just pop open the cabinet and grab a snack right? I draw the line at food going in the body at the same time it goes out. Some things should not be combined! So hence the reason only paper products, hygiene products and sewing supplies will be in the bathroom cabinets....it is really a shame too because there is a LOT of storage in there. So the dry goods food will go into our walk in closet on a set of 4ftw X 7 ft H X 2ft D shelves. That should be plenty of storage to get me started.

I am so excited for the next week's fliers (tomorrow is the day) and of course the Sunday paper again, this time I think I might buy 2 papers. My goal is to plan out our meals from the flyer and also look for some bargains to stock up on. This GG thing is addictive and FUN! What better hobby than to save lots of money on groceries....sounds like a pretty safe "addiction" to me!

My incentive is that we will be continuing to budget the same amount for groceries and household and anything I save and don't spend on that I can have for what I like to call "fun" money for either a weekend getaway, some new clothes, makeup I can't normally afford or some other luxury item like that, or even stuff for the kids' homeschooling that we would love to have but it is not a necessity etc. I am looking forward to it for sure!

If YOU decide to try out the Grocery Game I suggest to start buying the Sunday paper a couple weeks before you sign up so you can be rearing at the gates when you get your trial month membership for $1, you can take full advantage of more sales and savings that way and you get the most bang for your buck (literally a buck!). Plus if you want to sign up, use my email (thesummerfields@yahoo.com) as a referral! I can get some free weeks of membership (and so can you for referring others which makes it EVEN better of a deal as if saving all that money in one day wasn't enough reason.) I saved enough in one day to pay for the GG membership for 1 entire year!

New Vacuum!

My new vacuum is finally here!!! Ahhhh it feels like a Cadillac after my other one!!! The self propel is really nice but not as powerful as I figured it would be ( I have never had a self-propelled one), which is probably good otherwise it would run over my toes! I LOVE that dirt sensor light, it really encourages me to take my time and wait until it is more clean before moving on. The carpet is so light and fluffy underfoot now.

So that was the excitement for the day.....the rumble of the UPS truck coming up the street and he delivered our long awaited vacuum then he asked me if he could please borrow our hose (it was running in the front yard) to cool down some. It is really hot lately, unusually warm this past few days, we are all trying to adjust. So after he sprayed the hose in the air and let it rain back down on himself he was back on the road (hopefully a little cooler) and we were excitedly opening our package. There is something about the thrill of a new machine......albeit it means work, like you know I actually have to vacuum!!! No more excuses......I might kinda miss my old excuses some days.

We spent part of the early afternoon cleaning up the living room from the piles and piles of folded clothes we'd been working on, so that I would not be embarrassed to have someone stop by unexpectedly...or expected like the UPS man, since those big packages they tend to carry all the way into the house for you. Which is so nice of them by the way. So the dilemma of Mt Washmore is better but Mt Fold Me was huge! Now they are both manageable and we should have them scaled in no time....I hope...unless that mysterious multiplying thing happens overnight....where you go to bed with just a few loads left in the pile and suddenly in the morning there are 10 loads......it isn't possible that each of the 6 people in the family wear THAT many clothes in one day is it?

Why is it when the A/C is on everyone leaves the door open? It is driving me nuts! It is like they sense there is $ to be wasted and they seek to fulfill their mission in life.

Vacuum Woes...

I am about to blog about a household appliance....I do realize this is scraping the bottom of the subject matter barrel, but it is what it on my mind lately.

I have a Bissell Powertrak Revolution vacuum.

IT was supposed to be a good one, it features a Turbobrush for cleaning stairs and pet hair...(.never mind that I don't have stairs). It is a bag less model which was a must for me as I liked seeing what I got out of the carpet each vacuuming session. It has about 5 different filters and all kinds of special features right? Well it is a terrible vacuum, the suction is poor (because it has so many filters that get clogged that have to be washed out periodically), the beater bar/brush bar has had to be replaced once already and needs it again, the thing clogs up all the time I have to stop vacuuming and either get the shop vac to suck out the clogs of hair and dirt from the hose section right behind where the beater bar is or I have to dig it out with something......it is a VERY messy process and annoying for sure. Then when it comes time to emptying the dust cup it is THE most messy process, you dump it into the garbage can but get to enjoy the poof of dirt all over and you are lucky if all the dirt actually gets into the garbage can, why did I think bag less was a good idea? It is really messy even if you carefully take the canister out, dirt still falls all over the vacuum itself so you end up vacuuming along and probably dropping more dirt here and there with the emptying process. So I beg to question, why do we have a HEPA filter and 5 means of filtration if when you empty the canister it gets poofed back into the air worse then ever? What is the point?

So I just finished picking out my new vacuum. I at first wanted a Dyson or Oreck.....then I got to reading reviews and I actually used a Dyson for a while at church. I am not impressed with the Dyson, it does have good suction I will give it that but it is awkward to operate, the buttons are hard to figure out and it was incredibly hard to push on low pile carpet of all things. Plus the way the front rounds down you can't vacuum under anything it is too bulky.:( Anyway the Oreck had so many negative and mixed reviews I opted against it to because of price, bag costs, and the fact that you have to have two machines to do the job of one normal vacuum since the upright does not have a hose you have to use the little canister vacuum they send free. Anyway I went with a Hoover, I spent less than I was going to on a Dyson or Oreck and it seems to have some nice features. I had a really basic Hoover from our wedding 11 years ago and it lasted 9 years without any problems or repairs.....my current vacuum I had less than 2 years and have needed to replace the beater bar two times and am constantly unplugging it. So I kinda went with the brand I knew worked alright for us. I found it on Walmart.com for $220 and free shipping and handling. Then I also looked on Ebay and was able to find it for $144 and $20 SH so I bought it off Ebay with a Square Trade Extended Warranty so if it breaks they pay to fix it or if it can't be fixed they reimburse me what I paid for it, it is a 3 year warranty so I hope it works ok. The warranty was cheap so I figure it was worth it for a little extra piece of mind. This is the most I have spent on a vacuum so I am hoping the more you spend the more reliable right? LOL

Here is my new vacuum that I should be getting in a week or two. Hoover Windtunnel Bagged Upright U6439-900.

Here are the specs in case you feel like reading a boring list of specs. LOL

The Hoover WindTunnel self-propelled vacuum features an on-board powered hand tool for cleaning stairs and upholstery, agitator on-off switch for cleaning bare floors, filter bag check indicator to let you know when to change the bag, and HEPA filtration, which is great for allergy sufferers.
Self-propelled for effortless cleaning
Deluxe stretch hose and on-board powered hand tool for above-floor cleaning, stairs and upholstery
Embedded-dirt finder system lights up to let you know when the carpet is clean
Agitator on/off switch allows for cleaning bare floors
Bag check indicator lets you know when bag needs to be changed
HEPA filtration traps 100% of dust mites, 99.98% ragweed and common grass pollens
31-foot cord with quick release
Wide, 15-inch cleaning path
Headlight
Model No. U6439-900
Top-rated by a leading consumer magazine
Available at Walmart.com; not available in Wal-Mart stores

Day Two With Short Hair...

We played with Sunshine's hair a little today and it looks cute, we put some hot rollers in it for just a few mins and this is the style we came up with, does she look older or younger than before?