So yesterday Jeff had to help his son Tommy study for a science test - and this stressed Jeff out!

Download WAY Early Show-3 31 10 Jeff's Homework Woes 

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 So there's this church that is planning on doing $1,000,000 in giveaways to get people to visit their church.  What do you think about this?  Is this okay?

Download WAY Early Show-3 30 10 The Price is Right Church 

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Jeff confesses his undying love for Peeps - the Easter treat!

Download WAY Early Show-3 30 10 Jeff and His Peeps 

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I started seriously couponing in October 2009.  I took a whole day trying to figure things out and got so excited when I got my first deals.  I ended up with a bunch of stuff I didn’t need or even really want, but I couldn’t resist because they were so cheap!  I learned quickly that that wasn’t really the point of couponing.  Since then, we have been able to drastically reduce our grocery budget by taking a little bit of time each week to prepare my shopping lists to get the best deals.  I get almost all my groceries at Publix because they have the best sales.  I used to think that you save the most money by buying generic, but it is actually much cheaper to buy name brand products by combining coupons with sales.   
 

Goals

- Get the most amount of products while spending the least amount of money

- Create a stockpile by buying a lot of an item when the price is really low.  That way, you won’t run out and end up paying full price when you need it at the last minute. 

- Reduce your grocery budget.  It takes a few months to get to this point because it takes a while to accumulate coupons and create a stockpile.

 How to do it

- I buy 2 newspapers every Sunday so that I have 2 of each coupon.  This is especially useful for the Publix Buy 1 Get 1 Free sales.  See below for more information about that.

- I used to clip all the coupons and file them by category, but I do not have time to do that anymore.  Now, I paper clip the week’s coupon inserts together and put a post it note with the date on the top.  The websites that I use for the deals tell where to find the coupons that correspond with each sale item.  So I just go to my pile of coupon inserts, find the date and the insert that the coupon is located in and clip the coupons I need. 

- It is very rare to find coupons on meat, so I try to buy meat in bulk when it is on sale and freeze it.

- It is important to not use a coupon just because you have a coupon.  You will not end up saving any money that way.  The way to save money is to combine a coupon with a sale. 

Publix coupon policies

- Publix has Buy 1 Get 1 free (BOGO) sales every week.  You can use a coupon on each item, including the free item.  So, for example, Cheerios are usually $4 per box.  If they were on BOGO, they would be $2 each (when you buy 2).  Then you can use 2 coupons (let’s say $1 off coupons) to bring your total to $1 each ($2 for 2 boxes of Cheerios).

- Publix allows you to use 1 manufacturer coupon (the kind you get in the newspaper or print from a website, etc.) and 1 store coupon on each item.  So if we use the same Cheerios deal mentioned above, if there was also a Publix coupon for, say, $.50 off a box of Cheerios, you could use one of those in addition to the $1 off manufacturer coupon on each item and get the boxes for $.50 each.

- Publix also accepts competitor coupons.  You have to check with your individual store to see which stores they consider competitors.  The one I shop at definitely accepts Target and Winn Dixie and probably more.  This will vary by store.  The competitor coupons count as store coupons, so they can be combined with manufacturer coupons on the same item.

Publix coupons

- You will find the Publix coupons at the entrance, at the customer service desk or scattered throughout the store.  Not all stores will be stocked with all the coupon booklets.  Some booklets include:

    - Green Advantage Buy (there is a new one every month)

    - Yellow Advantage Buy (there is a new one every month)

    - Green Wise

    - Family Style

    - Various others that are found randomly throughout the year  

How I make my shopping lists

I do not have time to pour over the sales ads and make my own deals, so I use the blog www.iheartpublix.com.  Michelle, the author of the blog, gets an early preview of the sales.  The sales start every Thursday, but she puts the ad up on Monday so you have time to make your list.  By Monday night, she will have the ad with each available coupon for the corresponding sale items.  Some are store coupons, other manufacturer coupons that can be found online, in the newspaper, in the store dispensers near the products, etc.  She provides links to the online coupons.  You can typically print 2 of each coupon per computer.  To see what the abbreviations mean that she uses on her site, go here.  You can sign up to get an email each time she updates her blog.  The link to sign up to do that is at the top of the iheartpublix.com homepage right above the I Heart Publix banner.

 
 

Some other great websites:

- www.southernsavers.com, www.fiddledeedeemom.com, www.iheartsavingmoney.com, www.hip2save.com, www.thekrazycouponlady.com  – great sale/coupon info for many different stores

    - You can sign up to get email updates from these sites or subscribe to their RSS feeds. 

- www.fairhopefoodie.com – she posts recipes that use the ingredients that are on sale at Publix each week.

- I have gotten so much free or super cheap stuff at CVS and Walgreens, but there are a lot more rules and things to learn to get deals there.  If you want to look into this go here.

Today's featured New Music Tuesday song is "Everything Falls" by Fee.  Check it out and let us know what you think!

You can let us know what you think about all of the songs we play when you join the WAY-FM Music Team 

 Jessica Todd today basically said that Jeff needs to cool up his wardrobe for the concert this Friday at Germain Arena

Download WAY Early Show-3 25 10 Cool Up the Wardrobe 

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 So yesterday, Jeff went to the hair salon and got his hair cut and highlighted.  It was an interesting experience...

Download WAY Early Show-3 24 10 Jeff Highlights 

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 Last week while Jeff was gone, Steve and Jessica had a friendly disagreement about the purple pacifier Steve had given to his 6 week old son Jonas...

Download WAY Early Show-3 18 10 Jonas' Purple Pacifier 

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After talking about Dancing with the Stars this morning, we got an interesting phone call.  Do you agree or disagree with the caller?

Download WAY Early Show-3 23 10 No Dancing 

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This week's New Music Tuesday featured song is "God Gave Me You" by Dave Barnes.  Check it out and let us know what you think!

Also - let us know what you think about all the songs we play when you join the WAY-FM Music Team!