San Diego

We went to Cici's pizza where they were having a special party and Savanna got a butterfly balloon and Elmo painted on her arm. AJ got a horse balloon, but was already asleep when I thought about taking pictures. Right after I took the picture, Savanna washed off her arm because "we don't wear tattoos to church" she said.


Gotta entertain yourself somehow on a 5 hour drive that should have been 3 1/2 hours! A word to the wise, don't drive to San Diego on a sunday evening.

Geneil and Josh let us stay the night Sunday night in San Bernardino! Thanks guys, you were awesome!

We dropped in on my cousin Anita for a quick visit. I haven't seen her in forever! Well, it seems like forever-maybe that's just cause I can't remember the last time I saw her!

We went to Sea World on Tuesday.
Manitee

Shark

Flamingo

The Shamu show was awesome.

The Temple was beautiful! And was literally on the freeway. Good thing they have good railings, because if you jump, or fall, you'll be on the freeway!

The back

The front-I tried to miss the garden workers at the bottom!

Then we went to the San Diego Zoo. Which i wasn't too impressed with, maybe I was just really tired. The Skyfari was fun!

I held the goat for AJ to pet, but of course my kids don't like to touch furry, walking things.

AJ really liked the horsy-this is a miniature horse.

Big Ship

The Beach. This is the Coronado Beach. We also stopped on the Naval base and went to the private beach they have there. Had we not run out of money, we would have stayed on the base for a couple more days.

The beach and the zoo

We are going to San Diego this week, so these pictures will probably shortly be replaced with some of the same sort at a much better beach and zoo!!!!!
We went to the strip to see the dolphins and a few other animals.

Tigers

Lion

Watching the dolphins

Savanna

shaking hands

The pirate ship at Treasure Island

Lake Mead

Playing at the "beach"

Lake Mead

Grocery Savings

$49.66 Money Spent
And I have $15 in coupons to spend on my next trip to Albertson's
According to my receipts: total savings was $115.82
This savings includes my receipts, as well as the sale savings!

For the record

Shawn will be deploying to Iraq in December for 1 year. So, anyone who wants to come and visit me (by that of course I mean Las Vegas) is SO welcome!!!

Grocery Smarts

Let me explain my grocery shopping/coupon stuff a little more.
I go to this website: http://www.grocerysmarts.com/
It's a free website designed to match up sales with coupons that are available.
When I get those little packs of coupons in the mail, I write the date on them (it's on the fold) and place them in a clear protector sheet. I get Proctor and Gamble coupons, Red Plum coupons, and Smart Source coupons, among other misc. coupons from different sources.
The website that I go to has Albertons, Vons, Food 4 Less, among a few other grocery stores. When I am ready to go shopping, I go to the website-I choose to shop at Albertson's.
The website shows me what's on sale, including a star rating system that shows when it's a great sale, or just a good sale-based upon the regular price of "the walmart brand" for that product.
Most grocery stores work in 12 week cycles, so during a 12 week period, items will be on sale at least once. For instance, spaghetti will be on sale, maybe not the brand you would normally buy, but at least one spaghetti product will come on sale during that time.
A few keys:
Stock up on the item when on sale enough to last until the next time it will come on sale (12 weeks or so)
Never use a coupon on a full price item/Always use coupons when the item is on sale
You can use a store coupon and a manufacter coupon on the same item
The website shows the sales, then shows whether or not a coupon is available. A LOT OF THE COUPONS I USE, ARE PRINTED FREE ONLINE! I just had to download the free coupon printer software, so the barcode prints correctly.
If anyone has questions, please let me know, and I would be happy to help you out.
I am not an expert, just sharing things that I've learned, so maybe someone can find this advise useful! If anyone has more advise for me, please let me know too!!! Happy couponing!

My first real coupon shopping trip.

I've been hearing a lot about how coupons can help save money on groceries, and I've really gotten excited about it. So, I got my list together last night. With many sales at Albertsons, and this is how it went.

I left the house at 8:30 with Savanna and headed to Albertson's. I haven't been to an Alberston's store since I was in college at BYU-Idaho, so it took a minute to look around the store and see where everything was.

First, I am going to show the commissary savings, because it was good, but not great.

Commissary:

Total cost: $41.53 Coupons: $7.65 Money spent: $35.96

Best Buys: 6 pack applesauce cups $.25, Chocolate ice cream topping $.30

Albersons #1:

4 boxes Macaroni Grill pasta mix

4 boxes Chex Mix granola bars

5 Warm delights cake mix

Cost for the sale: $32.30: Coupons $9.30: Spend $30 in these products and get $15 back

I spent $23.00 29% savings

Albertson's #2

2 Knorr pasta sides

2 cookie mix

2 mayo

10 brownie mix

Cost for the sale: $30.32 Coupons $7.25: Spend $30 in these products and get $15 back and I used 2 of the $5 coupons from the first purchase of $15 back.

I spent: $13.82 57% savings

Albertson's #3

2 Rice sides

14 Fruit snacks

2 Country Crock margarine

Cost for the sale: $31.66 Coupons $4.75: Spend $30 in these products and get $15 back and I used 4 of the $5 coupons from the previous purchase of $15 back.

I spent: $9.23 78% savings

Albertson's #4

2 Nutrigrain bars

Cinnabon bars

2 Frosted mini wheats

5 poptarts $1 each if you buy 5

2 packs tortillas

pack of Bic disposable razors

Cost for the sale: $29.66 Coupons $12.55: I used 3 of the $5 coupons from the previous purchase of $15 back.

I spent: $3.51 93% savings

Total cost for the items (on sale)$165.47

Total in coupons, including money back toward future purchases: $86.50 52% savings

Without counting the commissary shopping, the groceries cost $123.94 and saved $78.85 in coupons which is 64% savings, and that's just off the sale price, not including how much these items really cost every day. And I am also getting a $10 rebate for buying 10 kellogg's items in the mail along with a $70 coupon for dell.

I've had a great day, and I plan to keep getting more for my money!