I went for the cheap spuds and came back with this!

Safeway is running a fun little deal-a-day promo. Ahh, gotta love the gimmicks! Today, a 10 lb. bag of potatoes is 88¢, which is a pretty stinkin’ good price.

So, I went in for the potatoes and left with all of this!

Quick breakdown for ya:

Potatoes on sale (Saturday only) for 88¢.

There is a Buy 5, Save $5 promo on the crackers which is a teensy bit different than last week. I really wish I had held on to my coupons for this week! Wheat Thins and Triscuts are only $1.00 after promo savings. Add in the $1/2 MC (Do Not Double) and they were only 50¢ a box! Plus, there was a $1/1 MC on the Ritz Munchables (which I coupon fairy-ed for you locals!!), making them 49¢. Remember that with these gimmicks, you HAVE to buy in increments of 5, or you will end up paying full price. OH, how I wish I would have had the courage to tell the older couple in the isle about this!! They bought 2 boxes and paid $4, but they could have bought 5 boxes for $5!! It pays to read the signs, even if you don’t use a coupon.

There is a Buy 1, Get 1 FREE Better Oats coupon. Safeway is having a BOGO sale!! I got 4 boxes for FREE!

I had the $1/1 MC for the Ronzoni (which doubled), for four FREE boxes.

PLUS, I had the FREE box of Barilla Plus from Vocalpoint.

AND, I had a 1 FREE Bright Green product Catalina coupon that spit out at the register.

And, I learned about how to get a ton of FREE candy bars from the comments under this post at Frugal Living NW. Use the BOGO Hershey’s coupon from 12/12 SS. Buy in increments of 6 (so, 3 Reeses & 3 Hershey’s), or do what I did and buy 12!! This is how I stocked up on Hershey Bars for camping smores last year!!

Factor in a little overage from the FREE product coupons (and I don’t know how that happened, because I put the coupon right on top of the free product so my checker could see the price and right it down on the coupon right away).

I ended up paying $2.38 Out Of Pocket!!!

Pretty good for a run to the store for some cheap spuds, eh?

Okay, I sound all nonchalant, but I did PLAN this trip.

BTW - Did you see that TODAY ONLY, you can get Monopoly U-Build for only $2 at Walmart? I picked up two, and I can confirm for the locals that they were putting a bunch of boxes on the shelf. Tomorrow, they will be “on sale” for $15!!

The Swagbucks Final Count of 2010

Today is Super Swag Bucks Friday, so I thought I would give you all an update on my Swag Bucks earning status!!

Remember my goal to pay for Christmas 2010 using Amazon Gift Cards earned through the search engine called Swag Bucks? Well, I will confess to you that I actually used the gift cards to pay for a lot more than Christmas. Let’s see . . . I bought Mitch a Father’s Day present in June, I sent my sister a $25 code for her birthday in August, and then in October I bought a new instant hot water heater (for my kitchen) to replace the one that broke. THEN, for Christmas, I ended up buying The Princess Bride (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) and a Black Nintendo Wii, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, plus some Kid Friendly Remote and Playchuks for a “family gift”. My boys have absolutely NO idea, because I told them I would never get them a video game thingy, but my friends, family and husband wore me down. I am SO excited!

When all is said and done, I have earned $475 worth of Amazon Gift Cards earned through Swag Bucks this year, and all I did was change my search engine from Google to Swag Bucks.

Some things I’ve learned along the way:

  • Tell your friends. Most of my SBs come from referrals. When you sign up for Swag Bucks using my link, I get a couple of Swag Bucks whenever you win!! You can tell your friends by posting about it on your blog, or linking up to Facebook, or just send them a quick email. If they “get it”, they will thank you. Promise. (I’d love to know how many of my readers signed up under me and how much you have earned this year!! Tell me in the comments!!)
  • Download the toolbar. Swag Bucks makes it VERY easy to make them your search engine of choice by giving you the option of downloading the Swag Bucks toolbar. Every time I open the internet, a little window pops up that says that I earned 1 SB just for using the toolbar! Woo Hoo! What is even better is that I don’t have to do anything special now. I just search like I normally would have back when I was using Google. Check out my computer screen.
  • Don’t get all weird. No, seriously. I know people who hunt down codes for 30 minutes or who play all kinds of games or do surveys just to win a Swag Buck. Okay, you can do that if you have time to kill, but I don’t, and I still earn Swag Bucks!! The one thing I DO is that when I notice a message in my “From TSG” on the toolbar, I click it and copy and paste the code to grab some quick Swag Bucks!! Totally brainless.
  • SEARCH. There are a few websites that I frequent (The Digichick, Frugal Living NW and The Krazy Coupon Lady, just to name a few!), and instead of clicking on some link off of my blog or from my Google Reader, I will actually go ahead and enter them into the search box. I can’t tell you how many times I have won Swag Bucks from these three places! You have to actually search to earn!! AND, Super Swag Bucks Friday is a wonderful day to get started on searching, because you could win a BUNCH of Swag Bucks all at once!! I think my highest was 45. Woo Hoo!

Swag Bucks is a totally legitimate way to earn money via the internet. It is simply a search engine, and you are simply doing what you would normally do on the internet, so there is no risk and no reason not to sign up!! Imagine being able to pay for Christmas 2011 using your Swag Bucks!! Wouldn’t that be cool!? I’d love it if you would consider signing up using my link to get me started on 2011, but if you don’t feel comfortable doing that, just go to swagbucks.com and sign up for yourself!!

Use the code: JoinIn2010 to get 60 SBs just for signing up!

Okay, so spill. How much have you earned through Swag Bucks this year??

Lots of Crackers!

Well, it’s Wednesday, and you know what that means: new Safeway ad, Awana night, date night at the grocery store. Well, okay, it was not exactly date night because my date was still at work, however I did have a lot of fun!

It is SLOW at Safeway this week. I might go back on Friday for some cheap apples (4 day sale) and some BOGO meat. In the meantime, this is what I picked up tonight!

Oh, yeah. That looks like a crazy score. Some of you are thinking, “What in the world??” Yeah. It’s nuts. But, hey! I’m stocking up!!

Let me break it down for you:

I did this in two transactions to take advantage of the doubler savings (in Oregon and SW Washington). I went late at night (well, probably about 7:00pm) and there was NO ONE in the store, so no line behind me. Sweet!

Refresh Root Beer - FREE with a Catalina that printed out on one of my last transactions. It was pretty random, but I’ll take it!

2 Coffeemate Creamers @ $1.99 with in-ad coupon. Used the $1/1 MC from coffeemate.com (which reset for me!) plus doubler to make the creamers just 49¢ each! (My count is now up to 11 in the freezer, two in the refrigerator. I’m sick. I know.)

Then, there is the Buy 3, Save $6 Promotion on some teas and coffee and drinks (like Ovaltine). The details are in the ad. It is a SWEET promo (but only if you have the coupons. Otherwise, eh.).

9 Tasters Choice 20 pack instant coffee (which is like the Starbucks Via packs) in Hazelnut and Vanilla - 99¢ each after promo savings - $1/1 MC from the 9/12 RP (exp. 12/12) = FREE (or a moneymaker with the doubler)!! There is also a 75¢/1 printable at TastersChoice.com, which would make it 25¢, or a moneymaker with the doubler. These are awesome donations for stocking stuffers for the elderly in your community, or to hand out to people on street corners. I keep a couple in my purse and toss them in with the camping and hunting gear, too!

2 Ovaltine @ $1.99 after promo savings - $1/1 MC (linked up at Krazy Coupon Lady) plus doubler = 49¢. We checked out A Christmas Story from the library this week which references Ovaltine, so Grant’s eyes lit up when he saw this!! Then, he tried it. He’s not a fan. However, Mitch loves malted milk, so it will definitely be used!

1 Lipton pyramid tea @ $1.89 after promo savings - 40¢ MC from 11/14 RP plus doubler = $1.09. Decent price. Not free, but it should be yummy! (I didn’t waste my doubler on this coupon, actually, so I paid $1.49.)

And then there is the cracker promo. Woo hoo!! We actually don’t buy crackers all that often, because they are not exactly high in nutrition, but they are pretty expensive. However, when I can get them super cheap, I totally stock up. I have lots more coupons, so I might go back.

Buy 5, Save $5, Mix and Match!

2 Premium Saltines @ 99¢ after promo savings. I had the $1/1 printable (no longer available), so FREE!

5 Wheat Thins @ $1.49 after promo savings
2 Triscuts @ $1.49 after promo savings
1 Ritz @ $1.49 after promo savings
I used (4) $1/2 MC’s (The printables doubled, but the ones from the Albertson’s Holiday Book and the 11/14 RP do not. I linked you up to the printable in the comments over at KCL.)

I paid $5.90 for ALL of the crackers shown here. That breaks down to 59¢ a box.

Of course, I couldn’t double ALL of the doubleable coupons, because Safeway limits you to 4 per transaction, so this evening’s score totally could have gone better, but I’m feeling just fine about it!!

What are you stocking up on this week?

Safeway Score 12/6

If I seem a bit non-chatty lately, that is because I just got back from celebrating Thanksgiving with my family in Texas!! (Thanks to the wp-calendar plug-in, I was all “miss organized” with my scheduled blog posts! Woot!) I am composing a blog post in my head about the whole Texas adventure, so stay tuned. Teaser: Some crazy things happened in the airports involving a hidden razor blade, a bearded man, and chocolate scented toes.

We arrived back home on Saturday, and I was so thankful for my nicely stocked pantry and the milk I had picked up on my free vegetable run to Albertson’s before we left. But, alas, I needed sandwich bread and fresh produce. Thankfully, this was the week to buy these things at Safeway!!

Let me break it down for ya:

Transaction #1 -

5 Honey Bunches of Oats @ $1.69/ea with in-ad coupon (last week’s ad, I think, and it expires tomorrow) = $8.45, and I earned a $4 Catalina (coupon to use on the next purchase just like cash). Honey Bunches of Oats people!! For only 89¢ a box after Catalina savings!! Okay, yeah, that is a bit above my cereal target price, but this is HONEY BUNCHES OF OATS! Only rich people eat this stuff! Well, rich people and couponers . . .

I applied that Catalina into Transaction 2. And, by the way, I did these back to back and told the cashier what I was doing. She was cool with that. (Hometown gals, I love Dyana, don’t you?)

Transaction #2 -

I bought a bunch of produce. The good deals were mangos 2/$1, green onions for 50¢ and bell peppers 2/$1 (and now I remember that I have a year’s supply of bell peppers in my freezer thanks to my friend’s overly productive summer garden. Argh. It was a total impulse buy. That’ll teach me!) Grapes are also $1.49/lb, which is decent.

I bought some crescents so I could make another Turkey & Cranberry Ring. YUM! I didn’t take advantage of the Catalina promotion (because Pillsbury isn’t exactly the best food for you, and if it is in the refrigerator we WILL eat it), so I only bought what I needed for the recipe. They were on sale for $1.49 each and I used the $1/2 coupon from the Thanksgiving coupon book + doubler so I ended up paying $1.48 for both (74¢ each).

The Green Giant Peas are part of a Buy 3 Save $3 promotion, which makes them $1 each when you buy them in increments of 3. NOT a good deal unless you have coupons . . . and I do. 6 @ $1 each = $6 - (3) $1/2 MCs (from Thanksgiving book) - doubler ($1.50) = $1.50 for 6 or 25¢ each. That’s better.

Eggs = 99¢

Milk = $1.99/ea (time to make more yogurt!!)

Egg Nog is close to the sell by date, so I got it for 99¢! The boys love it mixed into milk, and of course we love our egg nog lattes!

Safeway Bread is on sale with an in-ad coupon for 99¢ each, so I bought 6 loaves and will freeze them until I need them. This is weird. The 5 Seed Bread rang up at 99¢, but the Whole Wheat and the Potato Bread rang up at $1.09. WEIRD. But, I’m not gonna freak over 30¢.

My grand total for both transactions was $25.18!

Not bad for a fairly last minute trip to Safeway!

Ah, yes. It feels good to be home!

Did I miss any good deals??

12 Days Blog Hop: Sugar Scrub Tutorial and FREE Printable Tag

Who says you have to spend a lot of money to give a great gift?! I certainly don’t buy into that myth!! In fact, many of the most welcomed and meaningful gifts I have given to others have been handmade by me! And, although I’d like to devote a lot of time to each individual gift, I only have so many hours in the day, and I have a HUGE family. Spending hours and hours on making gifts is just not realistic.

However, this gift is quick, easy, FRUGAL, classy and luxurious! Anyone can make it - even non-crafty types!

Today, we are going to make a batch of sugar scrub for the ladies in your life.


What you will need:

  • 1 Cup of Vegetable Oil
  • 1 Cup of Sugar
  • One or two drops of an essential oil like peppermint, orange, lavender, etc.
  • The oil from a vitamin E capsule (optional)
  • A mixing bowl, measuring cup, and spoon
  • A small, decorative jar with a lid

In a mixing bowl, combine the vegetable oil and sugar. Add a drop or two of essential oil, and mix well. Stir in the oil from the vitamin E capsule, if desired. Fill small jars with the sugar scrub, and tighten lid.

My cost: 1 large bottle of Vegetable Oil cost me 25¢ after coupons, and I used about 2¢ of it. Sugar cost me $2.09 after coupons, and I used about 25¢ of it. I asked my Facebook friends if they had any essential oils that I could use, and a couple of them offered theirs, so it was FREE for me. I opted not to add the vitamin E capsule, and I decided to package my scrub in used baby food jars that I picked up at a garage sale for free last summer. I painted the lids with black spray paint that I already had. SO, this batch of sugar scrub, which I divided into 2 jars cost me 52¢, or just 26$ per gift.

{Little tip - stock up on all of your baking items this time of year!! Even if you are not an extreme couponer, like me, you will still save a lot of money!}

To make it pretty, I simply printed out this FREE printable gift tag set and tied it on with a little ribbon!

Click on the image to download your free printable gift tag designed using my Ornament Cuts template set and digital designs by Pamela Donnis.

You can purchase this printable Canister Box to hold your luxurious sugar scrub gift! Include a spoon that you picked up from Goodwill for 29¢ and you’re all set!

Looking for more frugal gift ideas?

Merry Christmas to you, and come back tomorrow to grab the next freebie in the 12 Days Blog Hop!

You may want to subscribe now so you don’t miss anything!

12 Days Blog Hop: Christmas Cash Envelope

Welcome to the first day of the 12 Days Blog Hop hosted by Mari Koegelenberg of My Digital Art Studio, Melissa Wilson of Domesticated Lady, Pamela Donnis of Keeping Life Creative and myself, Kelleigh Ratzlaff of Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs. We are all designers in the digital scrapbooking and papercrafting industry and we are SO excited about the next 12 days! We plan to bring you frugal gift ideas, fun tutorials, free downloads and lots of great inspiration to put you in the Christmas mood.

All of our freebies are designed to coordinate with our 12 Days of Christmas digital scrapbooking Grab Bag, which is available at The Digichick. Digital papers come in jpg format, so you can print them out right on your regular ol’ printer at home! You will also find files that come in png format, psd format (for use in Photoshop) and pdf format, which can be opened up using the free download, Adobe Reader.

I’m honored to be kicking this blog hop off with something that is as cute as it is practical!

My regular blog readers know that I am totally down with using CASH to pay for groceries, gas, haircuts, gifts, fun stuff . . . pretty much anything that is not paid through online bill-pay. When we pull out the plastic, it’s easier to overspend, but when we hand over cash, it hurts! It makes us really think hard about each purchase, which makes us better stewards of the resources God has given us. I explained that a little bit yesterday when I released my new envelope template, the Tab Envelope Template Set and Cutting Files.

Today’s FREEBIE is an envelope that was created specifically to help you keep on track with your Christmas spending. I used my brand new template and some digital paper and elements designed by Mari Koegelenberg which is available in the 12 Days Grab Bag.

Click on the image above to download the Freebie, and then make sure you keep reading to see what I did with it!

First, open up the jpg file. You could open it in your preview mode or in a photo editing program, and then just print it out on white paper. I printed mine on matte photo paper so that the colors would be vibrant and I would conserve my ink, however you can print yours on regular copy paper or white cardstock.

Next, I used my ruler and a bone folder to score on the lines where indicated. If you don’t have a scoring tool, just use the dull edge of your butter knife or a single tine of your fork!

I used my craft knife (glorified Xacto knife) to cut the template out, and then I got all lazy and used my 1 1/4″ circle punch to cut the circular portions of the template. Of course, scissors work just fine.

Fold on the scored lines until it starts to look like a little tab envelope. I used my favorite liquid adhesive to adhere the tabs to the inside of the back. Of course, you could always wrap the tabs around the back, too! Do what feels natural to you. A glue stick might not stick very well, but some Elmer’s white glue should be fine if you don’t have “good” scrapbooking adhesive!

Add the little label, and there you have an adorable cash envelope that will hold your Christmas cash! Of course, this would also make a cute little gift all by itself (with cash tucked inside, of course), but keep reading so you can see what else I did with it!

The first envelope is free, but if you want to get serious about managing your Christmas spending, you might need more than one category, so I created an entire printable set which is included in the 12 Days Grab Bag.

Using designs by Mari Koegelenberg, Pamela Donnis and Melissa Wilson, I put together a set of 5 printable tab envelopes that you can slip into your wallet. Let me show you!

First, I printed, cut and assembled all of the envelopes. Then, I used some clips to hold them together on both sides to stabilize the stack.

I cut a piece of cardstock 6.5″ x 3″ and added that to the back of the stack. I used my Crop-o-dile (a super strong hole-puncher and eyelet-setter that can punch through a thick stack) to punch 7 holes across the bottom of the envelopes.

Then, I used some ribbon to “sew” up the envelopes to hold them together, tying the ends in knots. (Which, of course, I did after I took this picture. Just pretend, okay?)

And, here they are slipped into my wallet!

There are lots of possibilities for this little Christmas Cash Envelopes set. I plan on putting the initials for each of my boys on the tabs and slipping our budgeted amount into each of their envelopes. I’ll do the same for my husband, and then have one envelope that is just for Christmas supplies like wrapping paper and tape. The other envelope will be for random expenses like admission to an event or charity giving.

The cool thing is that I have been setting aside money in our “gift” category in savings all year long! I’ll just withdraw some of that cash, put it into the envelopes and have it with me if I come across a big sale. (Don’t freak out, though! It’s not THAT much money! LOL!)

PLUS, I can fit these envelopes right behind the cash envelopes that I use to keep track of my regular monthly budget. Awesome!!

If this whole concept of using cash to help you control your spending, or, to put it another way, only spending money that you have, is new to you, I’d like to invite you to explore my blog a little. I’m a work in progress, so I’m certainly not an authority on the subject, but I’m excited to report that this month marks the 1 year anniversary of cutting our grocery budget down to $200 a month for a family of four using cash and by extreme couponing, thus saving our family over $2400. It’s been SO freeing to live this way so that we can be more generous with our giving, more deliberate with our spending and more intentional with our savings.

Some posts you might be interested in:

If you like this little template and want to see the rest of my papercraft template designs, go check out my store at The Digital Press.

Above all, enjoy your Christmas season and remember that this holiday is not about spending money and buying gifts. It’s about celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas to you, and come back tomorrow to grab the next freebie in the 12 Days Blog Hop!

You may want to subscribe now so you don’t miss anything!

Cash Envelopes Just Got Prettier!

Update: I opened up an Etsy shop!! Go purchase your pre-made cash envelopes!

It has been a little over a year since the Cash Envelope system of money management changed our lives. It’s amazing how actually handing over a bill instead of a plastic card will impact your decision making. “Do I really NEED this bag of chips?” Probably not. Especially when it means that I won’t be able to afford that gallon of milk. Make sense?

As you all know, we literally carry our cash around in envelopes that I created to tuck inside my wallet. (Don’t worry. It’s not a lot of cash! LOL!) You can still pick up the free cash envelope template that I did a little tutorial with way back in January 2010, and create your own!! (Or, if you have a digital die cut machine, go grab the brand new cutting files!! It will make things so much easier on you!)

After all the great feedback I received on that post, I realized that some of you prefer a different type of envelope, so I’m excited to show you my new cash envelope template!! It’s a Tab Envelope, and I’ve included Cutting Files for your digital die-cut machine!

 

kelleighr_tabenvelopes

Isn’t that awesome!?! No more fumbling with a flap or having to flip through the envelopes to see a specific category. Plus, it’s the same height as a standard envelope from the bottom to the top of the tab, so you can even use it in conjunction with what you already have. A little set of these babies would be so perfect for special occasions like vacations and gift-giving times (like Christmas!!).

They are SO easy to put together, too. Of course, you can always print the pdf template out like I did on that other envelope tutorial, or you can use the psd files to add digital paper to the template, OR you can use the cutting files like I did on this sample!

I love my Silhouette Cameo! It is the best thing EVER. It comes with some great software that is so easy to learn (especially with the help of YouTube videos) AND, you don’t even need the Designer edition of the software to open up my files! If you DO have the Designer edition, just open the SVG files. No biggie. BUT, if you don’t want to fork over the extra money for the DE, just open up the DXF files. File>Open>and grab the DXF files. You’ll need to ungroup them, and then just click “Cut”. SO easy!

And, yes, you can use scissors. The important thing is just to cut it out and then score the envelope by matching up the lines. I am trying to design my templates these days so that the lines are not very noticeable. Of course, if you are using psd, please change the colors of the lines to match your project! If you are using the pdf “lines only” version, you can print on the back of your pretty paper and no one will ever see the lines. If you are cutting with your fancy-schmancy machine, you’ll get little slits that you would use as guides to “connect the dots” while scoring from one slit to the next. Make sense? I flipped my fancy paper over and scored on the back.

Next, fold it up and glue the tabs to the inside of the envelope using your favorite adhesive.

And, that’s it!

Of course, I mass produced, because I wanted 10 envelopes for my cash system of money management. I also used my 1 1/4″ punch to punch out circles for the tabs.

Then, I cut a piece of cardstock that is 6.5″ x 3″ to act as the flap to tuck into my wallet, and I glued a pretty printed paper to it!

I gathered the stack of envelopes (well, half of them anyway) and clipped them together to keep the stable while I punched holes in them with my Crop-o-dile hole puncher. Then I grabbed the other 5 and did it again.

I “sewed” them together with a loose blanket stitch, knotting the ends.

I love how it turned out!!

It’s all ready for you to add your spending categories!!

As we approach the New Year, maybe this is the time for you to try the cash system!! Or, maybe you just need prettier envelopes to whip out at the grocery store. In any case, go pick up my new template today!!

Come back tomorrow for an exciting freebie and another fun tutorial!


FREE Veggies? Oh, yeah!

‘Tis the week for saving at Albertson’s!! Albie’s released some Twice-the-Value coupons in Sunday’s paper (however, you can also pick them up in the store for free), and they are good until Thanksgiving Day!! Twice-the-Value coupons will double coupons up to $1.00, even the ones that say “Do Not Double”. Of course, if your coupon is for $1.01, you are out of luck.

Luckily, I had some $1/4 Green Giant canned veggies coupons from Safeway’s Thanksgiving coupon book (which I saw at both the Dallas Safeway and the West Salem Safeway this week).

Let me tell you, if I can get free canned vegetables I am SO totally willing to drive 25 minutes to the splendiferous McMinnville Albertson’s. Yes, it is a rare occurrence that I would drive more than 5 minutes to coupon, however we’re talkin’ FREE vegetables, here. Oh, I know that some of you are going to turn up your nose because they are canned and not fresh or frozen. That’s totally okay with me, because canned veggies are better than NO veggies, right? LOL!

Once again, I hopped into my friend’s mini-van and had a pleasant drive through wine country with two children in the back seat: her baby, and my moody 7 year-old (who was actually quite wonderful!!).

We had our game plans and were in and out of there in no time at all. I ended up with all of this:

I ended up with 44 cans of veggies. Most of them are green beans, since there wasn’t much corn left and I don’t really need corn (hee, hee!) and my friend wanted corn rather than green beans. No problem! My boys LOVE canned green beans!

The veggies were a teensy money-maker, making the vegetable oil only 25¢ each out-of-pocket. The milk was 49¢ each, and the oats cost me 99¢ (since I totally missed the Safeway sale. ARGH.).

So, yeah. Free veggies!! LOVE that! Do you know how awesome it is to be able to go to your pantry to grab a bunch of food for a canned food drive and not feel the slightest hesitation? Very awesome.