Get To Know Your Local Bloggers – Crazy About Savin

*Go here to read more about my “Get To Know Your Local Bloggers” series*

This weeks second local blogger to be featured is Wendy from Crazy About Savin’ !

Blog address – www.CrazyAboutSavin.com

My Quick Review:  Wendy’s blog is the perfect mix of local and national deals.  She has some pretty extensive lists on the right hand side of her blog that I think any Tops and/or Wegmans shopper should check out.  I have no clue how she keeps up with them!  Wendy has much more to offer but I will let you hear about it in her own words…..

My name is Wendy P.

I am located in Penn Yan, NY which is located on beautiful Keuka Lake!

Do You Work Outside of the home? Until recent I had been a stay at home mom for 4 years.  I had worked as an Insurance Agent for 13+ years until she was born.  In Feb 2011 I took a PT job at Wegmans in the Pharmacy dept.  I LOVE working with the public and meeting new people.  It was time for me to be around adults!  :)  I am also on the Board of Directors as my daughters school.

Do you have any children and/or pets?  I have one child a girl named Kristina she is 4 1/2 “keeps me on my toes”  We also have a dog named Elmer he is a basset hound “stubborn as the day is long”.  I have been married to a wonderful husband for 10 years.

Some of my favorite things to do!  I love to bake, cook, garden (flowers and vegetable/fruit).  I enjoy walking on the outlet trail which connects Keuka lake and Seneca lake.  I enjoy spending time with my family and helping my community.  I have recently started couponing classes.

Why did I start blogging. In my weekly shopping travels I have/had met so many people that asked me questions about couponing.  How to coupon, where to get coupons, how to figure out the good deals, what stores to shop at.  I have been and still am a follower of Ann’s blog Coupons Deals and More.  Ann, has taught me so much!  I would hand out her business cards and refer people to her site, when I had the CRAZY ideal about starting my own blog.   Ann, inspired me to help people on a large scale how to coupon and save money.  This venture has truly turned out to be very rewarding to me personally on so many levels!

What is my favorite part about blogging.  Gosh I have so many.  But I would have to say it is meeting new people and finding the best deals to help people save money!

The stores I do my own Matchups for are: Wegmans, Tops, Rite Aid, Walgreens, CVS and when I have time Dollar General.

How much time do I post a week ( A SCARY AMOUNT OF TIME)!

My special features on my blog.  I have a few!  I have a sections on my blog dedicated to Wegmans. I love Wegmans IMO (in my opinion) they have the freshest meat and produce!  However, they can be a challenge & time consuming to find the best deals.  So I have a several different features to help pin point the best deals!  I also have a section just for Tops.  Tops has so many wonderful ways of saving that I have them organized into categories.  Another feature are my weekly deal post for the stores.   I “Roll”  each transaction to enable you the least OOP (out of pocket) money each week!  Lastly I have a page that is listed “The Best Time To Buy Everything”  a good indicator of when items will be at their lowest price through the year to stock up on!

My specialty for blog content would be Tops & Wegmans.

Do I use coupons on every shopping trip?  Nope, I sure do not!  I have a good size stockpile so I do shop at home but there are times that my “in home store” is out of an item.  I do look for a coupon but if I need it and there is no coupon I will buy it.  (it kills me to do so).  Also, there are times that after I have done my big shopping that I am plum LAZY and pick up a few things and BOY DO I PAY FOR IT!

What is my favorite item to find a coupon for.  ANY item that matched up with a coupon, will allow me to get that item for FREE!

The best deal I ever got!  Oh this was sooo much fun!  It was over the summer at Tops when the Arm & Hammer fabric softener sheets were on sale 10/$10 and WYB 10 the 11th was FREE! There was a coupon for $3 of (2).  The coupon was ringing up for $3 on (2) items giving you a $1 overage!  I ordered 200 coupons from a clipping service.  I then ordered 400 boxes from my local Tops store.  I know it sounds like allot but I have a large basement, the fabric sheets will never expire, and as I am on the board at my daughters school I donated 100 boxes of the 300 I bought. I also broke up my transactions into multiples of 10 coupons (20 transactions) to maximize my gas point earnings.  I did the transactions at self check out.  I also verified with the store that it was OK that I was receiving coupon overage, Yup it was as long as I used that towards other items!  So I will break it down.
With my $200 overage I used that towards meat, dairy, pull ups, baby wipes, and dog food to name a few.  I also earned 2,000 gas points or $2.00 of a 30 gallon fill up.  All I had to pay was the tax! (*Pictured below is a CVS trip where Wendy paid just $0.49 and got back a $10 giftcard!!!*)

My grocery budget is $70 a week give or take a little!

On a consistent basis I save an average of 50% – 80% at Wegmans at Tops 80% – 100% and the Drug stores 80% – 100%.

My favorite store to shop at for deals is TOPS!

A tip to pass on to people trying to save money. HMMMM, there are so many!  I am going to say when you are just starting to coupon one of the BEST things I did was start a price journal. How can you truly save money if you don’t know when an item is at it’s lowest price!  If you are not buying an item when it is at the lowest price without using any coupons you are already paying too much money!   I still use my price journal to this day!  It really helps you to know when items go on sale seasonally, what your stores price cycle is and what your basic pantry items prices are.

Oh I have so many frugal recipes!  Always have pasta night once a week.  I have a bunch of pasta (free) of course and I can my own sauce so FREE meal each week!  Here are a few others:
Jumbo Meatballs by Kraft foods http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/jumbo-meatballs-95056.aspx

Sheppard’s Pie
brown 1 # of ground beef (can saute onion and pepper if you like)
layer that with one can of corn, then tomato soup, and instant potatoes.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 1/2 hour and DONE!

Crunchy No-Fry Chicken from Campbell’s Kitchen
http://www.campbellkitchen.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?recipeId=23875&categoryId=1&ref=%2fRecipeCategory.aspx%3fcategoryId%3d1

Italian Pork Chops
2-4 pork chops bone in or out.
Put in a crock pot use 1-2 cans of stewed tomatoes depending on how many chops you are using.  Cook on low for 6 hours.  SO YUMMY & EASY!

My most frugal thing I do. I grow my own vegetables and fruit. It is so rewarding to me to have my own organic garden. I can my own vegetables and fruit. Freeze a ton of onions and corn on the cob. Make my own pickles, tomato sauce and apple sauce. I save a lot of money, taste is so much better than store, teaching and spending time with my daughter. She so loves being in the kitchen with me and I love it too!

My favorite money saving site is Ann’s site Coupons, Deals, and More! I also like Couponing to Disney, I Heart The Mart, Wild for Wags, Wild for CVS, and now that I have found Amanda’s Site Mom’s Couponing Affair.

GIVEAWAY:

1. Subscribe to receive free emails from Crazy About Savin (enter your email address on the right hand side of her blog)
2. Leave a comment on one of her blog posts saying something similar to “Mom’s Coupon Affair sent me”
3. Leave a comment on THIS post letting me know that you did everything required to enter.

The Giveaway will last until Sunday, December 4th @ 11:59 PM EST.  The winner of this coupon giveaway will receive an envelope of coupons.  The amount of coupons that will be won depends on the amount of people that enter the giveaway.  I will start each envelope off with 15 coupons and one coupon will be added for every person that enters!

**Keep an eye out next Monday for our next local blogger, Reality Couponing In Rochester!**

Previous local blogger interviews: WNY Deals and To-Do’s