I have made a new discovery that I am so excited about! With the economy going the way it is and having to tighten our belts a little I have become more aware of ways to save money that I would never have considered before. Coupon-ing is my new thing and I LOVE IT! I started out by trying to cut out coupons and use them the way I thought people did, but I quickly discovered that I was wasting my time trying to figure out which products I wanted, cutting the coupons, holding up the line at the store and then really not saving any money. In short I HATED it and decided it was not worth my time and effort just to save 30 cents on a product.

A few days after giving up the coupon thing I was at the newspaper depot folding my papers when the ladies were around me started talking about a website they used that helped them save a ton of money on groceries. I told them I hated coupons and they assured me that this was so easy that even I would like it. They gave me the website address and the passport code to get in. http://www.grocerysmarts.com passport# g84cht . My friend Sara also told me that they give free classes to learn how to do it. When she started telling me that she was saving about 80% on her grocery bill I got interested. I looked at the website and didn't really get what I was looking at so then asked Sara about the class and she told me she would have one at her house so I could come learn. THANK YOU SARA!!!

I was blown away by the class! I was taught the easiest way to use coupons in conjunction with the free website and I am so excited by the results that I just had to share. Unfortunately grocerysmarts is only in Utah and Las Vegas for the time being, but they are planning on expanding in the future. At any rate, this method allows me to not only buy name brand food at a fraction of the cost, but for the first time in my adult life I am building a food storage! This is absolutely thrilling to me! I have never managed to build a food storage because of the cost, sometimes we barely had enough money to eat as it was. The way this works, it will take me about 3 to 4 months to build a comprehensive base for my food storage that has everything we need in it, (this is because all the items in a grocery store go on sale in a 3 to 4 month cycle and you only buy things on sale and with a coupon) and then it will just grow from there. OK, so enough story, I want to share the results of my last shopping trip!

This is what is in the picture above:

29 Cans of Progresso Soup

12 boxes of Hamburger Helper

7 boxes of cereal (the good kind my kids love)

7 cans of Betty Crocker frosting

5 boxes of cake4 boxes of brownies

4 large cans of Carnation evaporated milk

3 boxes of Progresso chicken broth

2 boxes of Culinary Circle entertainment crackers (vegetable)

2 bottles of All Small & Mighty detergent (32 loads per bottle)

2 Digiorno Stuffed crust pizzasGrand

Total before coupons: $276.40

What I actually PAID: $48.88

TOTAL SAVINGS: $227.52

AMAZING!!

And this is all stuff I actually use! This was actually my third shopping trip using grocerysmarts so I had my daughter run downstairs to the pantry to count up some of the things we are starting to build in our storage. So far we have over 20 boxes of cereal, over 30 jars of baby food, 10 liters of pop, tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes galore, over 30 cans of vegetables, several bags of frozen vegetables and frozen skillet meals, a growing supply of flour and sugar, and all of this for less than $150.00 total. My food storage was completely non-existent just 2 weeks ago. Also, it takes all of 2 minutes to file my coupons and about 20 minutes to get ready for a shopping trip, including cutting the coupons.

WOOHOO!!!