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I have so much info to share and not many people to share it with! Lend me your ears! Sign up for my Newsletter (to the right) featuring local sales, steals and coupon deals, frugal living tips and couponing how-to and get an entry into a drawing to win a $25 Gift Card to Walmart or BiLo, your choice! Plus, in that newsletter and on my Facebook Page you’ll find additional ways to get multiple entries into the drawing. So, keep your eyes open.
(Fine print, spoken very quite and fast) Contest ends March 31, 2012 at midnight. Winner will be randomly chosen. We must have your full name and email address to be able to contact you and receive your prize. If you unsubscribe before the date the contest ends you will be disqualified and all of your entries will be removed.
 
A little over a week ago I decided (with the help of Dr. Rick and Jan DuBois) that it was time to really work on getting healthier. As a Mom, wife, business woman, house cleaner, cook, TSBW Board Member, Green Bean Festival Chair Person, etc., I often find myself at a drive-thru window to get my food. I’ve been exhausted, crabby and just plain feeling yucky for some time. Since I’ve spent the better part of my life studying and experimenting with food and nutrition I know how to properly feed myself and my family. I’ve just been lazy about it. Except when it comes to Lilly, I make sure she eats healthfully. But I’ve neglected to consider my body as important to me as I consider hers. So, after a spirited conversation with the very generous and wonderful Dr. Rick and Jan DuBios I’ve decided to do a better job!
I intended to jump right in, but actually started slower than planned, and that’s ok. The DuBios’ gave me some samples of Juice Plus. I’ve been taking the concentrated fruit and vegetable capsules for 11 days now. I’ve also experimented with the Juice Plus Complete Shake. On the 4th day of taking Juice Plus I noticed in the morning that I felt different. I felt more energy than normal and a bit more clear headed (usually I need coffee to clear my crazy head!). And, speaking of coffee, I have not been craving it. In a conversation with my husband yesterday I also realized I’ve not been needing an afternoon nap, either.
In light of feeling better and remembering the wonderful benefits of plant based foods I’ve decide that today is DAY 1 of a healthier, more fit and energetic Shanna! Jan and I recorded my body measurements and weight yesterday. My Mom and I are going to challenge each other in weight loss. Come Summer I will have my pre-baby body back! And, I will set a good example for my daughter as she continues to learn what and how to feed herself.
Why use Juice Plus to help me? Really, for many reasons, but here are a few: Juice Plus has proven to be a tried and true way to assist people in staying healthy; they are not a new, fad company. Juice Plus offers me something a lot of other companies don’t – AFFORDABILITY! And my Juice Plus comes with an amazing, well renowned and decorated DOCTOR, Dr. Rick DuBios. He knows more about nutrition and the human body than I could ever dream of! He and his wife, Jan, truly are the reason I have started this journey.
Jan and I have come up with some great ideas to help me change my daily food habits. And I will share those ideas with all of you. See, before I was a Frugal Beavers teaching others how to save money and be frugal, I was a student and teacher of healthy lifestyles. In struggling to help my family recover from the economic downfall, I lost sight what has always been so important to me, healthy food and nutrition. Now I am excited to be relearning and diving back into my one true love (besides Lilly, of course). I will be exploring eating healthy while maintaining my frugality. And you will get the benefit of all of my hard work.
Are you willing to take this journey with me? I’d love to have some company. Go ahead and start today, now. Choose a nice, fresh salad for lunch today (that is what I will be having) instead of that fast food junk. Just making that one decision will make you feel better (no sluggish return to work and looking for a nap or coffee around 3pm). And tonight, bake some chicken breasts, steam some veggies and serve them over some brown rice or wheat pasta. Mmm…sounds good already, right?
(insert sound effect) Dun, dun, dun…
Ok, I didn’t want to do this but here is one of my soon to change numbers, 154.5, my weight. Now that that is over with I’m eager to watch it drop!
What will I eat today? For breakfast I had a Juice Plus Complete Shake with strawberries, spinach, cinnamon and honey. For lunch I will have a spinach salad with grilled chicken and tons of yummy, fresh veggies. And for dinner I am making a Veggie Lasagna with Chicken. (I have some yellow squash and zucchini that really needs to be used before it goes bad and I waste that money spent, gotta stay frugal!) What will you be eating today?
It’s that time of year again. Yep, time to get back on the couponing horse. “What?”, you say? Yes, I’m guilty. I slacked off of couponing during the Christmas craziness. Thanks to my stockpile, I have only been to the grocery store for milk. I managed to survive all of the holiday parties and dinners by using food from my stockpile. No last minute runs to the store for something to bring, I had everything I needed at home. Love it!
Anyhoo, if you are like me, it’s been a few weeks since you have seen your coupon database. It is time to dive back in and clean out the expireds. If you use a binder this might take a while, but if you use my method all you need to do is pull up your favorite coupon database, scroll to the bottom and pull the inserts that no longer have valid coupons you might use. I, personally, keep all valid coupons, so my clean out process is pretty easy. Either way, get ready for January, it’s going to be a great month!!
Alexander’s Store and Seasons Flurries has shared these great deals with me for all of you to take advantage of:
(You can also find these and many others on my Local Savings page)
Seasons Flurries…At Pappy’s Marketplace in Blairsville
50% off all Christmas items (excluding Flags, wreaths, trees)
…also mention you saw this deal on The Frugal Beavers and receive 25% off your whole purchase!!!
Thursday – Sunday 11:00 – 5:00
Alexander’s Store – in Blairsville
Friday and Saturday ONLY: Take an additional 10% off at the register for Men’s and Ladie’s clothing and shoes. (Excludes Levi, Carhartt, Underarmour, Camouflage, and Vera Bradley)
Plus…
Miss Me Jeans $79.99
Not Your Daughter Jeans $79.99-$99.99
Men’s and Women’s Woolrich and Columbia 20% off
Men’s Chaps 50% off
Women’s Sunset Road 50% off
Women’s Ruby road,Aalfred Dunner, and Tribal 30% off
Jewelry Ruby Road and Treska 50% off
SELECT Vera Bradley 40% off
Etienne Aigner Purses 50% off
Jessica Simpson Purses 20% off
Silk Scarves 3 for $12.99
Toe Socks buy one get one free
Store Wide Markdowns!
Do you have a great deal to share? Email it to me at Shanna@TheFrugalBeavers.com and I will get it on my Local Savings page!
UPDATE: See photo at bottom of post.
I just finished placing an order with VistaPrint.com using the same method I always do and it dawned on me, I should share this!
VistaPrint.com is great for any kind of marketing/printing (this is not a paid endorsement, I really do like and use them.) 
They are always offering quite a few things FREE (my favorite word). When I place an order I usually get as many of the FREE items as I can or need. Right now they are offering FREE Christmas Cards and Calendars. Plus they always have FREE Basic Business Cards. I decided to take advantage of their offer today. I took a screen shot of my completed order.
 
As you can see, I was able to get some pretty cool stuff for very little money. If you stick with the basics, their designs, you can pay even less than I did. They do charge a fee for uploading a picture, but once it is uploaded you can use it in anything you want (ie: a business logo or photo) without being charged again.
So, when I place an order I add one of everything I want (you can one of a FREE item per order). I choose “slow” shipping because it is the cheapest. In reality, I tend to get my order within 7-10 days even though they want you to think it will take 21 days.
If I want more, I just go right back to VistaPrint.com and add one of everything that is FREE that I want to order more of. I repeat that process until I am done!
In this pic you can see that I did not get another Large Window Decal or Return Address Labels (didn’t need more of those). With the exception of the $4.49 they charged for printing on the back of my business cards there were no charges for the other items.
For $40.17 I got 20 personalized Christmas Cards with Lilly’s photo and envelopes, 500 Business Cards, 2 Desk Calendars – including 13 photos and personalized captions, 140 Christmas themed Address Labels, and a Large Window Decal for advertising my business on my car! Shipping included!!!!
Merry Christmas to me!
UPDATE: It took just over 1 week to receive my VistaPrint order. Definately not the 21 days they said it would take by choosing the “slow” shipping option (the cheapest option). The picture below shows what all I got for $40!
After 6 months of active couponing I’ve noticed that as time goes on I am buying more stockpile items and less necessities. What once was a necessity like bread, spaghetti sauce, ground beef, cereal or lunch meat, is no longer a necessity. I have plenty. So, now I am stocking up on food that would be good to have on hand. And since I recently decided to cut back on my meat consumption and found Publix and manufacturer coupons for Morning Star Vegetarian “Meat”, I thought I’d grab a few of those, too.
I used to spend $100-$120 per week on groceries and household items. And that was buying store brands, buying only what was really needed. Now I spend about $50 per week, I have enough food to feed an army and at least once per month I don’t even go to the store at all. I no longer buy store brands and I can afford name brands for my personal care items. At one point I used the same razor for a year and a half because I could not afford a new one. Now I have plenty.
Today I went to BiLo and had a great trip. I used Publix store coupons stacked with MF coupons and saw some great savings! There were no issues at checkout. Great trip! I got Hamburger Helper for my husband. It’s great for nights when I am not home to cook dinner. And I earned $.65 in Fuel Perks mainly due to the Gerber snacks I got for Lilly. That works out to $13 off of a tank of gas! Love Fuel Perks!!!
18 Boxes of Tuna/Hamburger Helper $.75 each
12 Boxes of Scalloped/Julienne Potatoes $.50 each
18 Boxes frozen Green Giant Vegetables $.60 each
4 Boxes Morning Star Vegetarian Burgers $3.45 each
2 Boxes Morning Star Vegetarian Sausage $3.45 each
16 Packages of assorted Gerber Graduates Foods/Snacks $1.31 each (average)
4 Cans Chef BoyArDee $.50 each
2 Boxes Tampons (36 & 18 counts) $2.34 each (average)
With a little effort you, too, can see savings like this. It took me less than one hour to prepare for this trip and I saved over $100! Does your job pay you this much? As a Stay-At-Home Mom I earned more today than I would have working and paying for daycare. Gotta love it!
So, the blog has been pretty quiet lately. I’ve been covered up in inserts and my own couponing. But I wanted to take a moment to share some great scores I’ve had recently.
This first one is the start of my Christmas Gifts stockpile. Every year my husband’s family gives every person a small gift, usually a scented lotion or some kind of small tool. It took me a couple years to understand this, but I’ve learned that this makes for a great family gathering on Christmas Eve. Gifts are abundant and flying everywhere as Uncle “Santa” Rod hands out presents yelling the recipient’s name. The kids go bananas and scramble to grab the gift and find it’s home. We all leave with a bag full of presents, smiles on our faces and gratitude in our hearts. Couponing is perfect for this. These Febreze Noticeable Warmers were $2.97 at Walmart. Using my $3.00 off coupon I got 10 of these FREE and had .30 cents to apply to the rest of my purchase. I’m hoping someone will have a sale on the scents that go with these before 9/30. I have a coupon for those and would like to give those as well.
This next one is just a good example of what coupons can do. These 3 packs of Cascade are .97 cents at Walmart. I had 10 $1 off coupons and I could have used these towards the purchase of a larger bag, but using my coupons to get these FREE means I did not spend one single penny on 3o Action Pacs that will last me about 2 months. If the P&G inserts have this coupon each month I’ll never pay for dishwasher detergent again! And again, I earned .30 cents towards the rest of my purchase.
I woke up yesterday exited about the awesome 1 cent deals from Office Depot and Staples! Why? I’d have to travel pretty far to get to the closest store to take advantage of their penny deals. Well, this is why I Heart the Mart! I strolled in with my Sunday ads in hand, reviewed my plan with the Customer Service Managers and proceeded to fill two carts with penny deals that WalMart was willing to match. Bonnie and Shuly were very nice and knowledgeable about WalMart’s coupon and price matching policies. They informed me that WalMart is opening their arms to us Couponers where other stores, ehem…Ingles, are pushing us away with their ridiculous policy changes. So, check it out…..
You are looking at 46 reams of printer paper, 82 paper pocket folders and 121 packs of lined filler paper = $2.49! What will I do with all of this, you ask? I will keep the copy paper and folders for my business use and donate the filler paper to the schools.
My husband and daughter were with me for this shopping trip. Randy was a bit embarrassed and acted like I was ridiculous for getting so many of each item. He changed his tune at check-out! He was actually telling people in line behind us, “All of this was only $2.49 before tax! Can you believe it?”
While this was a big haul, I did not clear the shelves. I got as much copy paper as I thought I would need until the next sale like this and the same for the folders. As far as the filler paper, I just grabbed as much as I could get in the cart. There are many families that need help with school supplies and I will continue to take advantage of these deals as long as they last to help these families provide for their children.
HOARDING = BAD DONATING = GOOD!! At least in MY opinion.
I also have some good news about a new policy change for WalMart and Bi-Lo, so…STAY TUNED!
Happy Couponing!
Shanna
What a great example of why it PAYS to coupon! Once you get into the habit, most couponers keep their eyes open for any opportunity they can find to save money. The other day I found a great money saving opportunity! During a trip to Bi-Lo I noticed a bunch of Tide detergent on the clearance racks. I looked for a price and didn’t see one. But I knew I had Tide coupons in my inserts at home. Since I needed to return to the store that evening to do my Rain Check shopping I made a mental note to grab the Tide coupons. Upon my return to the store I made a bee-line to the marked down Tide. This time I did find prices on the boxes: $7.50 for the larger box for 63 loads and $4.50 on the smaller boxes for 31 loads!! WOW!!! The boxes were a little beat up, but still sealed. I had eight coupons worth $9.00 so I put eight boxes in my cart.
You are looking at $97.84 in Tide detergent that I purchased for $33.00 after $9.00 in coupons and $55.84 in mark-downs from the store!!!!
AND…if you look carefully at the box on the bottom left you’ll see that I also got $3 in additional coupons out of the deal!!!
I am set for laundry for a very long time. I don’t have to deal with getting detergent, I can just mark that off my list! Plus, I basically made $64.84 in less than an hour!! I love getting PAID to COUPON! I hope you, too, can find a great deal like this, just keep your eyes open.
Happy Couponing!
Shanna
When I started couponing I noticed that there was no economical way to get the Atlanta market coupons in my small mountain town. The Sunday AJC (newspaper) is $4 here! This is because the AJC stopped delivering up here back in 2009. Someone drives down early Sunday morning, gets the paper and sells it to local stores with his markup. That makes it nice for those interested in the paper, but for those of us that want the coupons $4 is outrageous!
I decided to make it a mission of mine to get access to Atlanta coupons for a much more reasonable price. After a few months of working at it I finally did it! Now, I can get the inserts to my area for $1 per insert! I know I’m not the only one needing these inserts to save money on my grocery bill. So, if you would like the AJC Coupon Inserts for only $1 each, contact me! I make it easy to get your inserts and easy to pay for them.
UPDATE:
Ah how time changes things. I no longer offer inserts for $1. Now, I offer the whole Sunday AJC newspaper for $2.50. Whether there are 2 inserts or 6 (we recently had 6 inserts!), you only pay $2.50! Atlanta is the #1 market for coupons, we get the most and the best coupons! $2.50 gets you the most and the best! Enjoy!
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$$ Saved in 2011 Bi-Lo Store Card = Over $1000!
Coupons = Tons!!!
Walmart Price Match = Tons!!!
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