I recently got the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois out of the library, and decided to try it. I had tried making bread once before, but it was such a pain and was so time consuming, I didn’t think I would ever try it again. Once I heard about this book though, I knew I had to try it.

First off, there is no kneading, or anything else complicated. It took me less than 5 minutes to mix up the ingredients with a wooden spoon, and put it in the fridge overnight. The next day all I had to do was take some of the dough out of the fridge, let it sit for 40 min, and then cook it. It couldn’t have been easier.

One of the big questions is…was it any good? I was shocked. It tasted REALLY good. I was really excited! I loved having the bread, and to know that I have enough dough for 3 more loaves sitting in my fridge makes me happy!

The next question is - how does the cost compare with buying a loaf of bread at the store? Well, I can’t exactly compare it since this is more of a nice bread you’d get at a bread store instead of a loaf of white bread, but let’s try to compare them anyway. At the store, you can spend anywhere from $1.00 - $4.00 for a loaf of bread. With the ingredients used in this loaf, a plain regular loaf of bread cost me about $0.55 a loaf. Granted, the loaf is a little bit smaller than a regular loaf..but it tasted really great. Plus, you know exactly what is in it since you made it yourself. Which also means you can add additional ingredients if you like a special type of bread.

Also, that was just me buying the ingredients at my local grocery store.  If I decide I’m going to start making bread more (which I probably will), I might get the yeast and flour at Costco, which I’m sure will save me a lot  more money.

One of the things I really liked was the size of the bread. Every single time I buy a loaf of bread, I always end up wasting at least part of it. There is no way 2 of us can go through a whole loaf before it goes bad. Here, I have up to 2 weeks to make and the 4 loaves, and this way it works out perfectly.

I will note that depending on what you have in your house, you will need to buy a few items if you don’t bake often.  You’ll need a pizza peel and a baking stone.  I got both of them together for $15.00 and then 20% off at Bed Bath and Beyond, and it worked well for me.

So from an economical standpoint…is it better to make your own bread, or just buy it? I’d say there really isn’t too much of a difference, especially if you just buy what’s cheapest. But if you like being able to control exactly what is in your bread, and you enjoy making homemade items, then this book is really for you! I really can’t stress enough how easy it was. I look forward to trying a few of the other recipes before I return the book.

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A&P has some great deals going on this week with their “Bonus Bucks”. The way this works, is that you have to spend X amount on certain products, and then you’ll get x dollars back (in the form of a catalina when you pay for your groceries). For example, there are a certain number of Nestle products where if you spend $30.00 on them, you’ll get $7.00 back. That might sound like a decent deal, especially if you have coupons…but it’s really even better than that.

The $30.00 you have to spend is BEFORE sale prices. So you don’t really have to SPEND $30.00, to get the $7.00 back. Here’s a great example. For the Spend $30 Nestle and get $7 back, one of the items is Lean Cuisine. At my store they are all over $4.00 regularly…most being $4.19, and some even more expensive than that. In the ad, they are on sale 5 for $10.00, or in other words, $2.00 each.

The way you would THINK it would work, is you’d have to buy 15 of them, spend $30, and get $7 back. Well…since it goes by regular price, you can buy just 8 of the Lean Cuisine, spend $16, and get $7 back.

I did this earlier today, and it worked fine. Not only that, but I got an additional catalina (the coupon that comes out after you pay to be used for your next trip) for $1.50 when I buy more Lean Cuisine! So if I go back later in the week (which I will…) I can buy another 8 Lean Cuisine, give them my $7.00 catalina from that offer, use the $1.50 catalina that also came out, and I will only have to pay $7.50, and will get another $7.00 off my next order (and while I’m not 100% sure, since I’ll be buying many Lean Cuisine again, I’ll probably get another $1.50 catalina as well.) Not bad, right?

Now you don’t need to buy Lean Cuisine to get that type of deal, I just used it as an easy example. There are 10 different bonus bucks offers in this weeks paper, going on through the end of Thursday. You can do one of each offer at one time, so if you want to do the same offer more than once, you’ll have to do separate orders. I was happy with the deals I did, and will be going back later in the week to stock up some more!

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I finally got a chance to go to A&P for triple coupons today. I wasn’t all that excited since there wasn’t too much I was planning on getting, but I had a bunch of things I would get very close to free - or free. I even figured I’d get there early in the day so that things would hopefully be in stock.

All I have to say to that, is sometimes it just doesn’t work out the way you planned. Absolutely everything I was looking to get was out of stock. If it had just been a sale item I could have gotten rainchecks, but while I could get a rain check for the items, it wouldn’t triple coupon after today…so I was out of luck.

I was really surprised too, since especially with the Viva paper towels you could see the big empty area where they usually go, so they normally have a lot in stock.

So, even when you plan to do well, it doesn’t always work. I probably should have gone earlier in the week instead of the last day of the sale, but I just didn’t have any time.  So know that even if you plan a perfect shopping trip, it won’t always happen…but don’t give up!

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Now through Thursday, July 17th, A&P has Triple Coupons!

This means that any coupon under $0.99 will be tripled, so a $0.75 coupon will actually take $2.25 off of your total.  Even a $0.50 coupon will take $1.50 off of your total, so you see how fast your total can drop!  This is a great time to take all of your high valued coupons to see what you can get. It isn’t unusual to find items for free during triple coupons, so if you take your time looking through the coupons you have, you’ll probably find a bunch of items you can bring home free. I hope to be going later on in the week. Have fun!

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Sometimes, buying the floor model can save you a LOT of money. I can understand why for certain things you would want to make sure the item you buy is in the box, has all of the manuals, is brand new, and has no scratches or dents, but sometimes that just isn’t important.

Take for example a small stereo. We were looking to buy one for our house. Our house was built with speakers in the ceiling of each room, and was set up so that all we needed was a portable stereo that we could hook up, and we would get great music in each room.

The problem is, with the one we had since we moved into the house, you could only play the radio or 1 cd at a time. Since the stereo is kept high up in our laundry room, it was very inconvenient to get to, so we decided to get a new one that would play mp3’s, and have a better remote than ours did.

Since this was definitely a want, and not a need, we weren’t willing to spend more than $100.00 on it. So, we went to Best Buy to take a look at what they had. They had a few different choices, but one in particular caught our eye. The Panasonic SC-EN37 Micro System had side speakers that we could easily take off and connect the wires to our system, so that was most important to us. It plays mp3’s, so that was great as well. It even would play an iPod, so although we don’t have one now, if we got one in the future, it would be perfect.

What was even better, was that it was normally $129.99, but was on clearance for $79.99. That was a great price, so we were excited. Of course, because we like to shop around, we then went home and did some research online, finding out that first - it is a good product, and second - that WAS indeed the best price around. So this past weekend, we went back to Best Buy to pick it up.

Guess what? They were all sold out, and only had the floor model left. Since it looked in good shape, and we could see that it worked, that didn’t bother us. We did ask if we took the floor model, what kind of discount we could get off of it…and this is where I was shocked. The sales woman told us we would get it for $39.99. Talk about excited! We were told that there was no box or instructions, but let’s face it…it’s a simple stereo, we didn’t need instructions, and if we really did, I’m sure we could find them online. We didn’t care about not having a box. It was worth the $40.00 savings not to get a box!

So we ended up getting a really nice new sound system for our house for $39.99, regularly $129.99.

So while getting the floor model might not sound ideal, if you really want a certain model, but don’t want to pay the full price, it’s a great way to save a little bit of money! Usually the store will be willing to negotiate as well, so you might get an even better deal. It’s definitely worth checking out!

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As you may already know, there are a lot of stores out there that want your stimulus check. They know many people will be getting money, and want you to spend it with them!

If you want to spend some of the money though, this can be a great opportunity for you to make the most out of it, and even get some free money!

Note that each store has its own rules. Some you need to cash your stimulus check with them, others you can show your direct deposit from the government, and still others don’t care if you got the stimulus yet or not! While I’m sure I’ve missed a few, plus more will be announced, here are some of the many opportunities you can take:

Grocery Stores:

I really like the idea of these, and will probably do one of them myself. Everyone needs to go food shopping, so why not get some free money where you know you will be spending money anyway?

Shoprite - They’ll give you an extra 10% on any gift cards you buy, with a maximum of $1,200. You can do this in $300 increments. So if you buy a $300 gift card, you’ll get $330. If you buy a $600 gift card, you’ll get $660. If you buy a $900 gift card, you’ll get $990, and if you buy a $1,200 gift card, you’ll get $1,320. How to get it:Bring in either your stimulus check or tax refund check, or if you had direct deposit you can bring in a copy of your bank statement.

Kroger - They’ll give you an extra 10% on any gift cards you buy, with a maximum of $1,200. You can do this in $300 increments. So if you buy a $300 gift card, you’ll get $330. If you buy a $600 gift card, you’ll get $660. If you buy a $900 gift card, you’ll get $990, and if you buy a $1,200 gift card, you’ll get $1,320. How to get it: It looks like anyone with a Kroger Plus Card can get one, although you can only buy one. But it doesn’t look like any proof of your stimulus check is necessary.

SuperValu (Acme, Albertson’s, bigg’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Shaw’s/Star, Shop ‘n Save, Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, Save a Lot, Jewel-Osco, and Lucky) - They’ll give you an extra 10% on any gift cards you buy, with a maximum of $1,200. You can do this in $300 increments. So if you buy a $300 gift card, you’ll get $330. If you buy a $600 gift card, you’ll get $660. If you buy a $900 gift card, you’ll get $990, and if you buy a $1,200 gift card, you’ll get $1,320. How to get it: Bring your stimulus check or tax refund check, and cash it there. You can convert as much of it as you want to gift cards in $300 increments.

Stop and Shop/Giant - get 10% off your next order when you spend $200 or more in one transaction and use your Stop and Shop or Giant card. How to get it: Use your Stop and Shop or Giant Card, and spend $200 in one transaction. The coupon will print out at the end giving you 10% off your next purchase.

Retail Stores:

Sears - Get 10% added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. You can use the gift cards at both Sears, and on the Sears web site. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift cards. You can split the total amount onto more than 1 gift card if you prefer.

Lands’ End - Get 10% added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. You can use the gift cards at both Lands’ End, and on the Lands’ End web site. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift cards. You can split the total amount onto more than 1 gift card if you prefer.

Kmart - Get 10% added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. You can use the gift cards at your local Kmart. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift cards. You can split the total amount onto more than 1 gift card if you prefer.

Menards - Get a 5% bonus added to your stimulus check. You must use your entire stimulus check on the gift card though, and direct deposits are not eligible. How to get it: Bring in your stimulus check to get the gift card.

Boscov’s - If you cash your stimulus check at Boscov’s, they will give you the full amount in cash as well as a 10% Boscov’s Bonus Card. So if you cash your check of $1,200, you’ll get your $1,200 in cash along with a $120 Boscov’s Bonus Card to use. How to get it: bring your check to Boscov’s, and cash it there.

Radio Shack - Buy an item at your local Radio Shack that is $50.00 or higher and you’ll get 10% off the purchase if you pay with it using your stimulus check. You’ll get the balance on a Vision Silver Prepaid MasterCard, which can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted. How to get it: Buy something at Radio Shack that is at least $50, and use your stimulus check to pay for it.

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I had a lot of fun at A&P this week. They have a bunch of “buy $x.xx worth of these products, and get $x off your next order” deals, and I really took them up on it!

I often eat Lean Cusine for lunch since it’s quick, easy, and I like a lot of their different meals. I refuse to buy them at $4+, and they were on sale for $2.00 each. I would have stocked up at that price…but it was even better. When you bought (I think it was) $30 worth, you got $7.00 off your next order! Plus, I had a $1.50 coupon for Lean Cuisine. So I ended up getting 15 Lean Cuisine’s for about $1.33 each! You can’t beat that price! They also had a similar deal for Kleenex, so we ended up getting 15 boxes…but we’ll go through it!

Now for the coming up week. It looks like both Shoprite and Pathmark are going to have Unilever deals, where if you buy x amount of food, you’ll get money off your next order. There are a bunch of Unilever coupons coming out on Sunday too, so this will hopefully be a great deal! Some items include Dove deodorant, Knorr sides, Ragu, Wishbone, and more…so this will hopefully be a fun week! I haven’t gotten my circulars yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.

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It seems that a lot of people come to this site looking for information on Ziploc Bag Coupons. I completely understand why. They can be pretty expensive, and it’s a product that almost everyone uses, and can sometimes go through quickly.

So I thought today I’d mention how I get my Ziploc Bags for less, going step by step. Sometimes I even get them for pennies, or for free!

• First I wait until there is a coupon out for Ziploc Bags in the Sunday Newspaper. (If you’re not sure if there was one recently that you might have missed, you can just skip this step.)
• Once I know there is a coupon out, I go to eBay to search for coupons. That link will take you right to all of the Ziploc Bag coupons that are for sale on eBay.
• You will notice that there are both auctions as well as “Buy it Now” items. I don’t want to wait for an auction to end and not be sure of the price, so I never bid on auction items and just look at the things I can buy now.
• I then look for the best coupons out there - and make sure the expiration date is still a little while away. Even if I only got a coupon for $0.25 off in my newspaper, somewhere else in the country they may have gotten a coupon for $0.75 off. Also note the number of items you have to buy to use the coupon. Different areas of the country will get different numbers as well. So I look for the coupon that best works for me.
• I then look for the best price. Make sure you add up both the price and shipping as well as how many coupons you’re getting. Some people only put the actual cost of shipping (which is usually just the cost of a stamp), but others sometimes add extra to it, so if you don’t pay attention, you could end up paying a lot more. Also, some people will only charge shipping for the first set of coupons, while others charge for each set, so you could save money if you end up buying more and read how they are charging for shipping.
• Then I wait for a sale. I have 6 supermarket chains within a 15 minute drive, so each week I look at 6 circulars, looking for a sale. Once I find a good sale, I use the coupon on top of the sale price, and usually get a great deal - if not get the item for free!
• If the coupon is about to expire, and you really are in need of Ziploc Bags and want to use the coupons, take a look at all of the prices at your local stores. You’d be surprised how each chain can have a completely different price on the same item…even if the stores are only a mile apart!

Following the steps above, I usually end up getting really great prices on items I use coupons for. Sometimes no good sale will come up while the coupon is good…but unless I really need the item, I just let the coupons go bad. Yes, I will have wasted $1-$2 for buying them, but when I actually find a sale and get to use the coupons, I save a LOT more than that, since I buy 15-30 coupons at a time…so it’s worth it to me to “waste” a coupon every now and then.

Hope that helps people who are trying to save money using coupons, whether it is for Ziploc Bag coupons, or any other kind! If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I’ll be happy to try to answer.

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Starting tomorrow, A&P is having Triple Coupons for the week. This means that Waldbaums is also having Triple Coupons.

Just in case you don’t know what that means, a coupon under $1.00 is now worth three times as much, so a $0.75 cent coupon will now be worth $2.25.  As you can see, it can really be worth it to shop during triple coupons!

They are also having another promotion this week, where if you buy a certain number of specific products, you’ll get money back for your next purchase! This combined with triple coupons can mean a really low grocery bill!

I hope to get a chance to go to A&P this coming week.

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Lately I’ve seen a bunch of people talking against using coupons. They have nothing against saving money, but say that it isn’t worth the time that you have to put into it.

While I understand that someone might not want to put hours and hours into using coupons to save a few dollars (I feel the same way), I don’t understand why someone would just throw out a blanket statement like that.

I use coupons, and enjoy using them to save money…but really don’t have the time to put my all into it. Because of that, I only spend maybe 10-15 minutes a week getting coupons, and only take advantage of the deals that I am really interested in. But I am still able to save quite a bit, even with just a little bit of work.

Here are some tips I would give the people that are against using coupons because it takes too much time for too little gain:

• While you’re going through the Sunday paper, have a pair of scissors with you. As you look at the coupon section, just cut out anything that you think you’d use, or would be interested in. You’re already going through the paper, so this will only add a few extra minutes of time.
• Go through the store circulars. Even if you don’t use coupons, you should be going through the circulars to look for loss leaders and other items on sale so that you can save money.
• If you see a good deal, go over to ebay, and order a bunch of that coupon. Most likely it will cost you under $2.00, and will take less than 5 minutes total.  I only use the “Buy it Now” for coupons.  I’m not going to wait to see if I won them.  I just want to buy them, know they will be coming to my house, and then move on.
• I understand not wanting to go out of your way to take advantage of deals…but if it’s something you would get if you were already at the store, keep those coupons in your car. If you happen to be in the area, or stopping at the next store, then you can spend the few extra minutes to get the deal.
• Be picky. At first I would try to take advantage of every deal I could. But that took a lot of time. Now I only take advantage of a deal if it’s something I really want (or need), or if I’ll be going to that store anyway.  You’d be surprised at how many deals you can still take advantage of without spending too much extra time.

Following these tips, you can easily save a lot of money, and not have to spend much extra time. Even by just cutting out coupons from your Sunday paper (5 minutes max), you can still easily save $10+ dollars each week assuming your grocery store doubles coupons. For people who like to say that they are worth $x.xx an hour, don’t you think that a savings of $120 for an hours worth of work is definitely worth trying at least once?

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