The Couponizers Smart Guide to Savings eBook can be found here.

Here’s a list of some of the topics included in the book:

This book is full of great tips and ideas.

Download your FREE copy here!

After you enter you email address they will present you with several “offers” before you get to the eBook.  If you aren’t interested in the offers just click Skip or No and it will take you to the eBook.  There are about 6 -8 offers to go through before you get to the book.

You might also be interested in checking out The Couponizer while you are at it.

This nifty system is so much more than just a way to organize your coupons.  It’s a way to organize the way you shop.

The entire 6 piece system includes:

• The Couponizer® – 8″ x 5¼” booklet with 18 grocery coupon pockets, 4 generic
  coupon pockets, 3 gift card/shopper loyalty sleeves, shopping pockets
• Shopping List – 20 page tear off list pad with cardboard backing
• CoupStacker – Pre-sorting mat color coded to match the system pockets
• CoupTracker – 15 page spiral bound list pad with cardboard backing
• Scissors – blunt tip
• Carrying Bag – clear vinyl zippered bag

You can see more about how the Couponizer works here.

The days are counting down, and time is running out.

Thankfully I have already filed my taxes for the year, but I know that there are many who have not.

We used our tax return to pay off a small amount of debt we incurred over the last couple of months as well as buy our children some much needed clothes.

What will you use your tax return for?

Are you going to pay off bills?  Will you use it for something more fun?  Are you getting a return?

If you have yet to file your tax return for the year, may I suggest a FREE tax filing service to save you the money of paying someone else to prepare your taxes for you?

Free IRS tax filing is available for everyone with TaxACT.

Click Here to check out all of the details, and stop putting off filing your taxes.

After all, it is YOUR money, shouldn’t it be in your hand and not Uncle Sam’s?

I had finally joined a gym with my husband about 2 years ago.  This was really hard for me to do since I was completely out of shape.  In fact I found it difficult to walk on the treadmill.  But I was determined, and it was long before the Elliptical and Stepper became my favorite friends.

This was also a neat time to spend with my husband and it wasn’t long before we saw real results.  I lost almost 15 pounds and was seeing muscles I didn’t know existed.

I’m not sure how it happened exactly, but we just kind of stopped going regularly.  And now I am almost back to where I started physically.

So I have heard amazing things about 30 Day Shred by Jillian Michaels, and I am going to commit to doing it. This is going to be my birthday present to myself.

I’m sure it isn’t going to be easy, but I am hoping it will give me the kick start I need to get back to the gym again.

I went ahead and redeemed some Swagbucks I’ve earned to get a $25 Amazon Gift Cetificate.  If you aren’t already signed up for Swagbucks, I highly recommend it.  You earn money every time you search for something on the internet.

You can sign up here for Swagbucks.

Then I took my gift certificate to Amazon to purchase The 30 Day Shred.

It’s priced pretty low- $8.99, and you can get FREE shipping if you add something else to bring your total up to $25.  But I just went ahead and paid for shipping.

You can purchase it from Amazon here.

Altogether it was $11.97, and it is already on it’s way!

Are you up to the challenge?

I would love to have some others join me in this 30 challenge to get fit.  I can definitely use the support and the accountability.  Please let me know if you’ll be joining me in The 30 Shred Challenge.

Still nothing could prepare me fully for all that was to come.

On my second day at Disney I had to get up really early to make it to the Guy Kowasaki breakfast which I was really looking forward to.  If you don’t know who that is, let me tell you that he is THE social media guru!

He is also the owner of AllTop.com where you can find me under frugality!

I was excited to hear what he had to share.  I was also surprised to find that I was already implementing a lot of his tips.  But he had plenty more that I was completely unaware of.

After the breakfast we headed over to see the world record structure built out of cans.  And who better to unveil it than the man who does great reveals all the time?  Ty Pennington came to say “Move Those Balloons!”

This was also a really neat tribute to all of the families across America who have volunteered.

Disney has a new Give a Day Get a Disney Day Promotion going on to encourage all of us to take some time to voluteer.  You can find out all of the details for that here.

(You can see the pictures I took by clicking on the box above)

We had an opportunity to do some volunteering while we were there as well.  We packaged up care bags for those who need them in Haiti after the horrible earthquake that contained all the basic hygiene essentials.  Rich and Richie also had an opportunity to plant a tree which was pretty cool, since some other Disney stars were also planting trees that day.

When we finished up with that we decided to take a trip back to our hotel to rest up a bit for our dinner under the stars and the Epcot Sphere.  I can’t even express how beautiful this was.  We had a wonderful dinner with some of the amazing friends we had made since being there.  We sat with Amy from Saving With Amy and Mikki from Not So Perfect Housewife and their families.

They had closed off a portion of Epcot where we had our dinner and enjoy a special VIP concert that included a lot of Disney Stars, but most notably Demi Levato and Joe Jonas!  They sang their newest song “Make A Wave” for us.

We also enjoyed a beautiful fireworks show before calling it a night and taking our bus back to the hotel.

This day was filled with Disney magic!

* I was invited to attend this event at a deeply discounted price of $350 which covered the conference, Polynesian hotel, park tickets for me and my family, meals, and more.  However, all opinions expressed are solely mine.

I should probably tell you up front that I would not expect anyone to stick to the budget we have set in place for our family at this time which is $200 a month. My husband has been out of work on and off for about a year now, so it has been necessary for us to change our shopping habits.

While I would have only bought organic all natural peanut butter or meats a year ago, I have had to adjust my thinking on these things since my husband has been out of work. My suggestion is to cut costs wherever it is possible.

There is always room for improvement.

Here are some of the easiest ways to cut your grocery bill quickly.

1. Stock up when something is on sale. There are things that we use regularly like ketchup. When I can find ketchup on sale and free with a coupon, I’ll pick up several. This saves me from spending unnecessarily on something when we run out while there is no sale.

2. Always buy marked downs. I rarely buy meat or bread unless it is on markdown. You can ask your grocer when they regularly do mark downs for the best selection. My Meijer seems to do this on Friday mornings. I plan my menus around what I find on mark down instead of planning my menu first and looking for meats after to save.

3. Learn to use coupons. I cannot tell you how important it is to use coupons. I purchase 2 papers each Sunday just for the coupons inside. I save way more that the cost of 2 papers, so it is totally worth it for me. There are also several places online to get coupons as well.

4. Make a list. But, more importantly, stick to the list! I use to make a list, but once I got to the store I would see other things that I wanted and add them to the cart thinking its only a dollar. But, can I just say that those dollars add up quickly and you’ll leave the register wondering how you spent so much more money that you had planned on spending.

5. Leave a little room. If I know that I have $50 for my weekly grocery budget, am not going to spend every single cent while planning out my list. The reason for this is that there are always great mark downs that when matched with the right coupon will be practically free. If you don’t leave yourself a couple dollars you won’t be able to take advantage of these situations which will save you money down the road.

I also want to add the importance of meal planning.  This is one thing I do that makes grocery shopping like this possible.  You can see exactly what I mean by meal planning in this post written by QuirkyMama.

Over the next several weeks I will share a lot more on just HOW to make this all work for you. I mean it’s great that I am saving hundreds of dollars every month on the groceries I use to feed my family, but what does that matter if you can’t learn how to do it also?

Become a fan of This Side of Eternity on Facebook here, where I share a lot more freebies and hot time sensitive deals than I am able to here.

Also, sign up to receive FREE updates from This Side of Eternity by email or in a feed reader and never miss another deal!

I am looking forward to our menu this week!

I’ll admit it and say that the past several weeks the menu has been a bit on the boring side to me.  But I love every single thing I have planed this week!

Also is anyone else looking forward to grilling season?

The weather has been amazing the past several weeks and it has me dreaming of Spring and Summer which I know will be here before I know it!

Breakfast and lunch is pretty much the same around my house which is why that part of the menu never changes.

Breakfasts - consists of oatmeal, cold cereal, fruit smoothies, toast & poached eggs.

Lunches - consists of soups, peanut butter sandwiches, or dinner leftovers.

Dinners - I will try to include lots of veggies this week.

I don’t plan a Sunday meal. Usually we have a very late lunch and just find something small for dinner. Either way I don’t plan because I like to be flexible for anything that pops up.

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Well I finally decided to get control over my Frugal Burnout this week, and it certainly has paid off.

I spent an entire day organizing my coupons once an for all.  One I had them all transfered over into their neat binder I was ready to go.

I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t too sure about the new method, especially after how much time it took me to finally get it finished.

But after taking my binder into the first store on my trip, I knew this was going to be a wonderful relationship.

It is so much easier to look for a coupon on the fly, and it takes so much less time than it did when I had to go through a whole pile of yogurt coupons.

You can read how to make a coupon binder here.

So here’s what I got.

Meijer

Bananas
Pillsbury Cake Mix
Fish Fry Batter
1 Box of Pasta
1 Box of Vermicelli
3 Cans of Red Gold Tomatoes
Butter
Simply Asia Seasoning Packet
10 Pounds of Potatoes
1 Jar of Basil Pesto
1 Jar of Classico Vodka Sauce
12 Jars of Classico Pasta Sauce
2 Lunchables Subs
2 Dole Southwestern Salad Kits
1 Spinach Caesar Salad Kit

TOTAL $21.37

Kroger

1 Package of Hormel Pepperoni
1 Box of Kashi Blueberry Cereal
1 Canister of Coffee
3 Bags of Kroger Shredded Cheese
2 Bags of Flour

TOTAL $7.91

Aldi’s

1 Bottle of Hazelnut Creamer
1 Bottle of Canola Oil
2 Packages of Bagels
1 Box of Freezer Bags
1 Bottle of Dishwasher Detergent
1 Package of TP

TOTAL $16.85

CVS

1 Gallon of Milk
2 Bottles of Pop

Total $.28

Oak Ridge

1 Bottle of Sunny D
1 Canister of Quaker Oats
2 Cartons of Danimals Crush Cups
2 Cartons of Edy’s Ice Cream
2 Rolls of Bounty Paper Towel

TOTAL $2.88

I stayed within my $50 budget and I know it is because I have overcome my frugal burnout.

I have to say that I have come to really love shopping at my local Spartan Stores.

Oak Ridge and Shopper’s Market are two stores that I know I will walk out of having spent very little for the food I take home.

They both double coupons up to a dollar, and when combined with a great sale equals FREE (or almost free) food!

I love the small neighborhood feel to these stores.

They might be smaller and a bit outdated, but that doesn’t matter once you have shopped there.  You’ll soon come to enjoy the atmosphere of a smaller grocer, especially after shopping at a large chain super market.

Here’s my Spartan Stores Whrrl Story.

Do you have a Spartan Store near you? Do you shop there, and why or why not? I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts on Spartan Stores. Have you had the same experience as I have?

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* I was compensated for my review of Spartan Stores, however the opinions expressed are fully mine alone.

I knew he would totally be into it, and I was right.

What surprised me was that my sixteen year old daughter was into it just as much as my twelve year old son, and possibly even more. My son opened the cool paint can that everything came neatly packaged in and started looking through everything.

Here’s what is included in the Kit:

55 Color-Changing UV Beads
Green Leprechaun Snow
Jelly Marbles (15 grams)
Pipe Cleaners
Worm Goo (120 mL)
Green Leprechaun Bags (2)
Worm activator (12 grams)
True Color Tablets (100 pack)
Rainbow Glasses
Measuring Scoops and Plastic Cups
Clear Gallon-Size Bucket
Activity Guide (8 pages packed with science content and St. Patrick’s Day fun)

Here’s a list of some of the activities:

Make Leprechaun green snow
Fish with appearing green worms
Uncover hidden rainbows
Turn white flowers green using Leprechaun test tubes
Make a color-changing Leprechaun bracelet
Grow Leprechaun eggs that vanish and reappear like magic
Learn how to inflate a giant Leprechaun sandwich bag with one breath

My daughter saw the magic color changing beads, and immediately laid claim to them. My son was all to willing to oblige her.

The first thing he wanted to try was the giant Leprechaun sandwich bag experiment, which required 2 people. So he asked his sister to help him. That was when she got hooked, but she didn’t even know it yet.

After that experiment, Richie decided it was time to check out the green worms (of course!). These were the neatest things, and I had to “make them” take turns with it because they both wanted to make worms and leprechaun eggs.

Then they moved on the making green leprechaun snow. This kept them occupied for about an hour! I know that is not the most important thing, they were learning valuable science stuff.

But at my house, when my sixteen year old daughter and my twelve year old son are hanging out together and having a blast it IS pretty important!

I can’t think of a better way to spend St. Patrick’s Day with your kids than by turning them loose on this Leprechaun Science Kit.

I am giving away one of these Steve Spangler Science Kits in time for St. Patrick’s Day.

How to enter:

Leave me a comment telling me what your family plans are for St. Patrick’s Day.

*This giveaway has ended.

This giveaway is open to all legal residents of the United States ages 18 and older and will end on March 10th in hopes that the winner will have their prize in hand for St. Patrick’s Day (although this is not guaranteed).

Additional Entries:

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Sign up to receive This Side of Eternity by email or in a feed reader.

Tweet out @sawickis is giving away a Leprechaun Science Kit for St. Patrick’s Day!  Enter today!  http://bit.ly/afPPXE

*You must leave a separate comment for each additional entry to be counted.

**Although the product for this review/giveaway was supplied to me free of charge from Steve Spangler Science for this post, all opinions expressed are solely mine.

Oreos, International Delight, Excedrin, Vitamin Water, eggs, Heluva Dip,and now…….

Sunchips!

I seriously LOVE these chips, and am super excited to share this freebie with you.

Just go to the Sunchips Fan Page, click on “Become a Fan” and it will take you to the sign up page.

This offer is only available to the first 100,000 fans who sign up to receive a FREE bag.

So Hurry!

Thanks ThriftyMama!