I do believe that money goes in my pocket...

So I've attended two Shop Smart/Coupon shows. The first I said hey this is cool... and then I looked at the web site a few times... It was always in the back of my head and I wanted to be able to get great deals at places other than costco or sams club. I never did anythign about it. I've heard stories and seen the final product of those stories but it still was never enough to really get me going. Well my sister and sister in law hosted a show the other night. I bought my RJ subscription for I can get the coupons from those instead of hoping for the massive pile in the mail. Well yesterday I got on line and went to the site. I saw Albertsons had a ton of deals going on. so without a newspaper I clicked the links to the online coupons. I put them all in order and made sure I knew how many to get. I took my friend Rachel and we went at about 10:30pm or so. The store was empty and quiet and we just did our thing... well I did my thing. She made jokes like "are you going underground?" or "Diana has her food storage" Cause realy it looked as if I was stocking up for the end of the world. We strolled through each isle and sometimes more than 4 times. haha. but I got it all. I was nervous for sure. the what ifs were kicking in... what if they wont take em... I shook it off and we hit the counter. I asked the cashier if she'd like the coupons first. It didnt matter so I loaded my goods onto the counter and tore off the last few coupons I didnt get to cutting. My total was up there for sure... 240.49 was the totatl. then I entered my prefered savings number and the numbers were going down. It was like gamblings but obviously the opposite way. I wanted it low..... Then she added all the coupons and it kept going down. My out of pocket cost was 106.39. I saved 134.10! INSANE! PLUS the little coupon machine started kicking out 5 dollars off your next purchase and those totaled up to 60 bucks, but thats not all! I didnt notice at first but at the bottom it said you have earned .25 cents off per gallon of gas, up to 20 gallons. Total SCORE! There is an Albertsons gas station right by my house so guess who will be paying less than 1.50 for gas next time, ME! I was so excited. Even though there was a TON of stuff I wanted that I needed Newspaper coupons for, I still made out.

Here are some pictures of my winnings! (and I know... that IS a ton of hamburger helper, but guess who wont need some soon...)



And these are the golden tickets!


I am so glad I did this. It really did help light a fire under my butt. Too often I don't go shopping at the grocery stores because I can save with bulk buying, but really bulk buy is limited... and "who wants to be eating chimini-changas all year? not me."

Oh and did I meantion 2 of the Progresso soups were not only FREE but I made .20 off of them?

Helllooooo out there!

Wow!! I can't believe I've put this off for over a month. Of course holidays are busy busy and when you find a moment to yourself the last thing you think of is your blog.
So this will be quick and I will post pictures of it all this weekend, I hope.

Thanksgiving was an adventure. It was my first time away from my family and I admit I got a bit homesick. I guess I never thought it would affect me but Im glad I got to see how others celebrate Thanksgiving. Bottom line it was GREAT food. We hung out in AZ for 3 whole days. It was nice to not have to turn back for hom on the 2nd day.

December was VERY eventful. We had the girls cookie exchange a whole 13 dozen = 156 cookies plus the rolls still in my freezer. I think Im just cookied out. Its always fun to see the different shapes and decorations.
We had our family progressive dinner which went by quick. This year was the first time my house was included. As small as it was we fit everyone in there. I served EXTREMELY hot Snow Flake cocoa... I guess the on LOW for 2 hours would have been fine.... hahah I paniced at the time frame and turned that sucker on high. I think I left a lasting impression on the adult tongues. meaning burnt! Sorry! But once is cooled down it was a huge hit.
The Gifford Family Christmas Dinner/Theatre was held at mom's this year. The kids acted out the nativity story and I got the roll of the ANGEL with the angelic voice. hahah I love that we are still carrying on traditions from our childhood. I hope that my kids will be able to participate in them one day. Last year my aunt had her kids make a video. She called each of us and gave us a line from a holiday song. Last year was Up on the house top. This year we did two, I saw mommy kissing santa claus, and The Christmas song. Its so fun to see everyones different ideas of how to act out everything. One of ours was "everybody knows a turkey..." so I entered A. Turkey on my cell phone and took a picture of it. Clever huh? There were some other funny ones and some cute ones. Christmas Day we woke up and for someone who says he doesnt like christmas or the holidays, he sure is fast to get to those presents! We opened presents from each other and then hung out for a bit played games. I was lookin to whopp some butt on XBOX live cause I know some kids got games for christmas that they havent played. haha Then we dressed and went to Ihop. We went last year and this year we dubbed it a tradition until we have another mouth to feed. Then we went over to mom's house for all day snacking and hanging out. we wateched Wall-e a few times, played Rock Band, and I made a watch that's pretty rad. I think we got home about 10 pm and I believe we just crashed. It was a draining week and month.
New years... isnt new years. Its weird. Usually you get way excited about staying up... but seems these days 9pm feels like midnight. I called Little Caesars abotu 4pm and placed an early order for 7. Boy am I glad I did. That place had the longest line when I got there! But I walked in and then right out with our stuff. We headed to Kevin and Tiffany's house to eat and hang out. tiffany made some rad jalapeno poppers which were like Fire but still good. The fire came 40 seconds after it hit your tongue. My niece Crystal was there too and she came home with us to spend the night and hang out. We hung out a bit and then the boys fell asleep pretty much so us 4 (Maeve too) watch a poor version of Twilight. It ended about 15 minutes before midnight. We went in and woke up the guys to go to Shelly's house. by the time we walked out the door we had 2 minutes. As we walked into Shelly's house her tv showed 30 seconds. so we ran out back to see the fireworks and wow... how lame. Fireworks havent been fireworks since we did those 4th of July shows at the stadium here. Where the bombs felt so close you always ducked a little from the sparks, which were far away, but they were so huge and you could feel them pounding on your chest. the closest thing I've seen since then was over the lake/river in Washington. The rich people were shooting off HUGE bombs from their lovely lake side homes and we sat on the other side enjoying a free show.
But new years was good. It was fun to spend it with Kevin, Tiff, Maeve, Crystal, Shelly and Adam and their sleeping kids.

Oh and in the middle of this all, I had my first Pampered Chef show! I was sooo nervous but I did ok. I'm so glad I had my sisters there and I had a much better turn out than I planned for. I look forward to doing more shows and getting a better feel of the system. (HINT HINT)

Like I said it's been a while and Im sorry for the long post. but hey... its done now.