Welcome CW2 Daybreak Viewers!

Today Panda Express is offering a free single serving order of their Peppercorn Shrimp with this printable coupon. No purchase is necessary.

Weekly Plus is offering a Birthday Party deal for your little prince or princess. For only $129 you will get Enchanted Party Package for up to eight children that includes professional face painting, dress-up, activities, picture time and more. A value of $325. They also have 2 tickets to an exotic car show in Littleton for only $10, a $20 value. Head over here to sign into or create your Weekly Plus account to get these fun deals.

The Red Lion Restaurant just west of Boulder is offering a three course meal for only $25 through March 15th. The Daily Camera has a printable ad that you can bring with you to get a glass of house wine or beer for free to go along with this dinner! The meal sounds delicious with your choice of appetizer, entree and dessert including items like Wild Game Appetizer Sampler or Escargot, Trout, Bison Sirloin or Wild Mushroom Potato Gnocchiand Creme Burlee or Apple Strudel and many other choices too. Now I just have to find a sitter for my kids and I'll be there!

Thursday, February 23rd the Nuggets take on the San Antonio Spurs and it is Family Night with four tickets and four family meals for $69. Wednesday, February 29, they play the Portland Trailblazers and the promotion is Youth Night, with kids 14 and under admitted FREE with the purchase of a full-price adult ticket. Head over here for more information about these deals or to purchase your tickets.

Through today at Chili’s you can get up to 2 free kids meals with the purchase of an adult entrée with this printable coupon. This is good for both dine-in and carry out orders.

Entertainment coupon books are only $19.99 shipped – regularly priced at $35. This sale runs through 2/26. Get additional books for only $15 each shipped. This is the best sale you will see on this book until it gets closer to the coupons expiring. Most coupon in these books are good through November and include tons of great deals including restaurants, attractions, shopping, and tons more. I usually buy 2 books each year as I like to have duplicate coupons for my favorite places. These make great gifts and it only takes using 1 or 2 coupons to more than pay for the book. Get yours today, before this great sale ends!

Welcome CW2 Daybreak Viewers!

Wow, it has been a while! Today we talked about Using Coupons...What not to do!

Here's a recap of the information we discussed...
Using coupons that are not valid. Whether it is an expired coupon or a coupon that you are unsure of it's origin. If it is a coupon that you are unsure of, pass on the savings you would get - it isn't worth it. Deal sites sometimes link to printable coupons that are not authentic. I don't use a coupon unless I can track it to the companies website and verify it is not a fraudulent coupon.

Incomplete coupons - Make sure when you are cutting out coupons, you don't cut off any part of it. Retailers need the expiration date, fine print and all bar codes in order to get reimbursed for the coupon.

Using coupons for products other that what the coupon states it is valid for. There are many coupons that are valid on all kinds of products and many coupons that are only good on one or two products. Make sure to read the fine print and only use the coupon as intended.

Printable coupons - Most printable coupons allow you to print the coupon two times. Photocopying these is illegal. Each printable coupon has a unique number to it so that it can be tracked and monitored.

Peelie coupons are the ones are attached to products. Don't take them off of a product you aren't buying. Taking these coupons off of products you aren't buying is the equivalent of stealing. Saving a bit of money just isn't worth it.

Dumpster Diving - many cities and counties have rules against getting items out of dumpsters, whether it is a trash or recycling bin. There are tons of other ways to get multiple copies of coupons. Ask friends, family, neighbors that don't use coupons if they would mind giving you the coupons from their Sunday paper.

Taking coupon inserts out of newspapers. It's becoming more and more common to find Sunday newspapers where the coupon inserts have been taken out of from newspaper machines and store copies.

Not following store policies. Most stores have a corporate coupon policy and if not individual stores have rules and policies in regards to coupon usage. If you are unsure of your stores policy - ask! Not knowing and following couponing policies is a big no-no! Make yourself aware of the policies of the stores you regularly shop.

Don't try to be the Extreme Couponer. The show does not set a good example as to how to coupon effectively. Don't buy 200 tubes of toothpaste, unless you plan to donate it to organizations that can make good use of it.

Finally, only buy what you will use or donate. Even if it is free, it is wasteful to get a bunch of items that won't be used. If you aren't going to use it, donate it to someone who will! Buying items just because they are a good deal but are products you won't use is a great way to waste all of the money you will save using coupons!

$10 Papa John's Gift Card only $5!

If you love pizza then this is the deal for you. Head over to Weekly Plus to score a $10 Papa John's gift card for only $5! Hurry as this deal had limited quantities and will sell out quickly! Make sure to check out the fine print as it is only valid on zip codes 80000-80640 and excludes Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley customers.

Go here to log into or create your Weekly Plus account and get in on this deal.

Papa John's is my favorite pizza, so you know I grabbed one for us!

Eversave: $22 + shipping for Shearling Boots!

This is a great deal! For the next 2 days, Eversave is offering a voucher for shearling boots (like the ones pictured above) for only $22, up to a $100 value! You can redeem this voucher for a number of shearling boots that you choose and only spend an additional $5.95 to have them shipped. $27.95 for a pair of these boots seems like a great deal. The notes on these boots say to buy one size larger than you usually do as they tend to run small.

Head over here to sign up for or sign into your Eversave account.

I'm getting the short ones with the single button - I can't wait to try them out in our chilly weather!!

Super Cute Kids Cookbook Set Deal!

I was wandering around the daily deal sites and stumbled across this super cute deal! The Savvy Source, a great deal site that gives 5% of your purchases back to the preschool of your choice, has a great deal on some super cute kids cookbooks. They have Handstand Kids Italian Cookbook kits, Mexican Cookbook kits and Chinese cookbook kits on a huge discount (usually $25) for only $10 each with $5 shipping. These kits not only come packaged super cute, but also come with kitchen utensils to help with the preparation of the dishes.

After being intrigued by these, I checked out reviews on these books. All 3 of these sets have 5 star ratings on Amazon! It looks like they are great sets to give to your little ones or give as gifts. They were also priced at $28 each on Amazon, so the $15 these will run you through The Savvy Source seems to be a great deal, not to mention the 5% that will go to the preschool of your choice!

I know my kids tend to be more adventurous and whine less about what is for dinner when they are involved in choosing and preparing it and this looks like a super fun way to do just that. I'm ordering a copy of each one for our family and considering buying a few as gifts for other families!

If you are interested in this deal, head over here to sign into your account or create a new account with The Savvy Source. Once you are logged in, you may need to click on the 'Cozy Up' deals to find these fun sets.

Welcome CW2 Daybreak Viewers!

Shell gas stations have a promotion going on right now where you buy 10 gallons or more of gas and get voucher stamped by clerk to get buy one, get one free ski tickets at Copper Mountain, Crested Butte, Loveland, Monarch, Sunlight or Winter Park. Certain blackout dates apply. Head over here for more information about this deal.

This Saturday, January 14th, IKEA is having a BYOF (Bring Your Own Friends Day) and if you RSVP on their facebook page here you will be able to print an offer for a free blue bag, free breakfast until 11 am and buy one, get one free lunch from 12-4pm. They will also be doing gift card drawings throughout the day.

Buca di Beppo has a printable coupon good for $10 off a $20 or more purchase good through Sunday, January 15th. Get this money saving coupon here.

Go ice skating for FREE at Southwest Rink at Skyline Park through February 14th. Skate completely free if you have your own skates or rent skates for only $2. Fun events like DJs on Friday nights, learn to skate on Saturday mornings, Saturday brings in live entertainment and Sunday afternoon is family entertainment. Head over here for more information about this fun activity.

Jamba Juice has some great printable coupons good through January 19th get a Fit 'n Fruitful 16-oz. smoothie for $2, a 12-oz. Probiotic Fruit & Yogurt Blends and a 16-oz. Coldbuster Smoothie for only $2. Head over here to print out these great coupons!

Mimi’s Café has a printable coupon good through Friday for a free 4 pack of muffins with any $7.99 or more breakfast or $8.99 or more lunch or dinner purchase. These 4 packs of muffins usually retail for $5.99, so this is a significant savings with this coupon.

Finally, we talked about shopping sales and clearance and this can save you lots of money. I shop after holiday sales to stock up on items for the next year. This year I snagged some full sized Nutcrackers for only $1, down from $20, some PJs for my kiddos for next Christmas for 90% off and several ornaments and decorations. Our family has a tradition of giving the kids new PJs on Christmas eve to wear and by buying them a year ahead of time, I save a significant amount of money. This year I spent $5 on 4 pairs of PJs, if I would have waited to get them before Christmas next year and paid full price for them, I would have spent closer to $50 on them!

I also shop at the end of season clearance for clothing and items for my kids. I always keep my eyes open for winter jacket clearances as these are pretty pricey. This year I snagged a couple of dress jackets for $8 each, down from $27 each and 2 winter snow jackets from Children's Place for only $14 each, after clearance price and 20% off coupon. If you shop at certain stores regularly, it pays to sign up for their loyalty club, as this is how I got the additional 20% off of my purchase coupon. These jackets retail for $70 each - so I saved a ton of money and was still able to get my kids nice warm jackets for next winter. I also do this for clothing for my kids. Now that retailers are getting out their spring merchandise, they are marking down their winter clothing and shopping ahead for their clothes for next year can save you tons of money!

Feel free to look around this website for tons of other money saving ideas and tips. Some of my favorite ones are here, here, here and here. Please feel free to contact me directly at thriftymomincolorado@gmail.com with any questions you may have after looking around the site!

Tom's of Maine Toothpaste and Deodorant? only $1 each!

This week (through Tuesday) Albertson's has Tom's of Maine toothpaste on sale for $3. There are $2/1 coupons available at the store to get these for only $1 per tube. My store had the coupons at the register and just scanned them when I checked out. Other stores are reported to have the tearpads of coupons out for you to grab yourself.

They had both kids and adult versions on sale, these are usually $3.99 at Albertsons. This is about the lowest price I've seen on this brand of toothpaste, so if you use this - stock up!! I heard that the deodorant is also on sale for $3, but forgot to look when I was there. If it is, you can use the same coupon to get it for only $1 each too!

While you are there check out their 3 lb. bag of oranges for only $1 and their frozen Tilapia (1 lb. bag) for buy 1 get 2 free this week - making it $2.66/lb. when you buy 3 packages. If they are out of either of these items just ask for a raincheck and pick it up on your next trip there.

Welcome CW2 Daybreak Viewers!

Happy New Year!!! We thought we'd kick this year off with a segment that discussed how to save money on your grocery bill. It's a bit of a novel, so let's get started...

I think grocery budgets are an area that most people would like to see cuts in their spending. With a little bit of learning and some planning, you can drastically slash your grocery budget. This first step to starting to save money on groceries is to track what your family eats. Doing this serves a few purposes, you will know what how much of items you eat and also may point out just at a glance a few areas you could instantly save money on. Beverages are an area that many families tend to spend tons of money on without even thinking about it. In our home we offer the kids milk or water as their regular choices. Juice is a special treat for any of us. We always have tea on hand for the adults but I spend very little of our grocery budget on drinks.

I suggest tracking your meals for a couple of weeks to see what you really are eating and drinking. Once you've done this, you now have a way to create a list of food items your family regularly eats. Do you eat chicken 3 times a week? Are canned tomatoes a staple used in a bunch of your meals? Sometimes we don't even realize what we are using so regularly without looking at it. Once you have this list, you can now use the weekly store sales flyers to begin meal planning and stocking up on items that are on sale. Did you know that Wal-Mart and Target have price matching policies. This is a great way to get all the great deals each week without having to run from store to store. Just bring in the sale flyers with you and let the clerk know that you have some price matching to do. I usually put all the items that I am not price matching at the front of my order and separate the ones I need to price match so that it is easy for the cashier and for me. I have each ad ready to go to show the cashier what the price should be. Price matching saves lots of money and time and energy running from store to store.

Meal planning is exactly how it sounds - make a plan of meals. This will give you an opportunity to buy items that are on sale and use them to make meals instead of deciding what you want to eat and paying full price for the items. Using what is on sale to make your meal plan is a HUGE step to saving a bunch on money on your groceries. My family eats lots of boneless, skinless chicken and I never pay more than $1.99/lb. for them because I buy them when they are on sale. I buy them in large quanities and take them home and divide them and freeze them so that I always have some on hand. This saves me from running out and having to pay $4 or more per pound for the same product. Also, be flexible with meal planning until you figure out what works for your family. I initially started out with a plan saying that on Monday we would have X and Tuesday we would have Y. Well it would be Monday and X didn't sound good to me at all and I'd forget my whole plan. Now I plan 6 dinners per week but don't assign them to a day, I just look at my list in the morning and try to decide what would be tasty for dinner that night.

Did you know that store sales run on about a 6-8 week rotation? This is where the tracking of your meals also comes in handy. If you know your family eats chicken 3 times per week and the sales come around about every 6 weeks, you should stock up on enough chicken for about 18 meals or so when you see that price at rock bottom! Stocking up on items at rock bottom prices and starting a "stockpile" of goods is a great way to save money - as long as you are stocking up on items you will actually use! Having a stockpile means that when you meal plan, you probably won't need to purchase everything the recipes require to make your meals.

The next step to saving money on your grocery bill is to use coupons when they are available for items you already use. Don't use coupons to buy items you don't use unless they are free or very inexepensive and you plan to donate them. To save the most money, pair coupons with sales to get items for pennies on the dollar. If you are shopping at a store that offers store coupons, you can "stack" store coupons and manufacturer coupons to save even more money.

Bigger doesn't always mean less expensive. Check unit pricing on the items you are buying, especially if using coupons. You usually get more bang for your buck if your purchase smaller items when using coupons. Also, try not to be too brand loyal. In my house there are only a select few items that I am brand loyal to, like ketchup. Otherwise, if I need pasta sauce and usually buy Prego, but Barilla is cheaper that week - then Barilla it is for us.

Planning and being organized is what will you the most money on your grocery budget. Minimizing trips to the store, as these trips for one item usually ending up with more than just that item in your arms. Follow these steps and stick to your shopping list and you will see drastic decreases in your grocery bill. When I intially started shopping like this and couponing, I cut my grocery bill in the area of 60% compared to what I was spending before.

If you are interested in couponing but are not quite sure what it is all about, I suggest reading this post to get your feet wet.

If you have questions, you can always contact me at thriftymomincolorado@gmail.com - Happy New Years, now let's save some money!

Tons of printable coupons - woo hoo!

Head over here to check out a TON of great new printable coupons that were just released. These coupons are completely free to print and can save you tons of money.

I'm super excited about these ones, but there are tons of other ones too...
$.50/2 any Kraft Natural Shredded Cheeses
$1/2 Big G Cereals (Cheerios)
$.75/1 Muir Glen Product - who said there aren't great coupons for natural/organic/healthy products??
$1/1 for 2 different Kashi products
$1/2 Ziploc brand bags
Buy 2 Play-doh 4 packs and get 1 free!
$1/1 Bear Naked product
$5/1 for 2 different Enfamil products
$4/1 Chuggington Train Video - rumor has it you can score these for $4.99 at Best Buy right now and if they will accept this coupon, they would only be $.99 out of pocket!

...plus a bunch more. Head over here to get them while they last!

Happy New Year!

I took a few weeks off from blogging to just enjoy the holidays and I really did, but now it is time to get back to the great deals! If you are like lots of people and looking to be healthier in the New Year then I may just have a couple of deals for you! Both deals are for meal planing to help making eating healthy even easier.

Weekly Plus is offering 3 months of meal planning made easy by My Weekly Fig for only $12 - a $30 value. Head over here to get more information or to get this deal. You may need to look on the right hand side of the page that lists multiple deals to find this.

The Savvy Source is offering 1 year of meal planning from Food on the Table for only $35 - a $70 value. Head over here for more information or to get this great deal. Click on the 'offers' tab at the top of the page to find it.

I'm really thinking of taking advantage of one of these great offers, what about you?