i'm kat cosley up next on deals. easy recipes to transform a simple bag of microwave

popcorn into any array of mouth-watering gourmet flavors. these ladies aren't letting pregnancy limit their style. their secret to accessible and affordable designer maternity wear. the key to avoiding expensive landscaping bills is selecting hearty plants almost impossible to kill. great choices for black thumbs, when you shop can save you money. experts tell us which days offer the best deals. plus everything on the site is free. funriture, electronics, even cars and trucks or just a handful of items available on this innovative free-cycle website. we'll show you how it works. livewell for less with deals starting right now. ♪ everything on the site is free. yes you heard it right free. there's a growing community of people who do what's called freecycling.

that's where people give and sometimes get things for free. i don't have time to do a lot, but i can give my things away to be repurposed and reused. i think that's really important. melanie saxton has a passion for helping others. i don't have a lot of time to volunteer but i can do this, i can give my things to others. i took a look at what is laying around the house collecting dust. do i really need this? so i asked my daughter do you want your model horses? her breyer horses. she was like you know mom i've out grown that phase. i know that some family would just love, so i went ahead and posted them and i heard back in four days. are you here for the horses? we made arrangements to meet at a mutual location so that we could have transfer. she could take horses i can give them to her and done deal. paige came across the horse collection on recycletheworld.org it was an amazing thing to be able to go on freecycle and find something that i actually could use or wanted for free.

i emailed her and we decided we were going to meet and a time and a place. i love the history and something that somebody else loved. they have a story, they have purpose. there are a lot of freecycle websites out there to help connect people. charles mazeeny created a nationwide website called recycle the world. it's very easy to use if you're going to look for items you just want to search by your city and state. i just click on the idea and developed the website for it and so that way people can donate those things to other individuals. there's a lot of good resources there for people to exchange items like that instead of just throwing them away. this is also a side

hobby for charles who also post items to give. i only have about 80 feet of garden border that i've never used still in the container, never been opened. didn't want to throw none away. in a few simple steps charles posted the garden border and a brand new toy. i was supposed to go to a childrens birthday party probably 2 years ago and got cancelled and i never ended up going and so i still have it and i decided well i'm going to give it away on the website. he recommends when trading an item to someone he says i really encourage people to go to a public location and give them away. from baby clothes to electronics. all kinds of items are being giving away for free every single day. this is an excellent deal for people because number one they can find specifically what they need and it's free. in this economy the way that it is today it's nice to be able to find things that people don't want and don't mind sharing with other people. it's a really nice thing.

for a link to recycleworld and other free cycle websites go to livewellnetwork.com and click on deals. coming up pretzels, cookies, graham crackers. you're in chocolate heaven. we're going to show you more on these yummy treats, plus how to make your own. but next affordable stylist solutions for expecting moms whn deals returns.

nine months with a growing belly. finding clothes that fit can be really expensive especially since if you're only wearing them for such a short period of time. well one to save money, renting them. and i thought based on the popularity and success of things like rent the runway why couldn't i take the same idea of that luxury online rental

business and extend it to something that women really, really need, which is maternity clothes; very high end boutique designer maternity clothes that women are going to feel good and feel beautiful in. fashion forward maternity gives pregnant women options. women can go onto our website. they find the items that they would normally find in the high end boutiques and they pick what they like. if a woman needs clothes especially for the professional arena where she needs to dress in certain way and she would normally be spending anywhere from a thousand to 4,000 dollars on her wardrobe. with our subscription service she can get three or four times the variety, she would otherwise be able to afford. we do free shipping both ways so a woman never has to worry about those additional cost. we recruited a few expectant moms from the

motherhood center to try out the clothing. so we have premier demin from jeans. these are normally 200 dollars designer jeans. they have a waist band that doesn't look maternity but it really accomodates the pregnant belly. you can rent those items for 23 dollars and 50 cents. we have dresses from olian. we have several. there's a blue and white striped one. there's things with full patterns, 23.50 a month. we even have suits. suits from maternal america. they have nice lightweight suits and you can put all sorts of cute shirts on underneath that so spruce it up. i think it's a great idea because it feels like such a waste when you go to the store and buy something that's really expensive that you can only wear for a few months and you don't even know if it's going to fit for a long time or anything like that. so it makes much more sense just to borrow for a little while. they can rent a single item for 23 dollars and 50 cents a month or if they are interested in our full wardrobe that's really where our value comes in. for 125 dollar subscription get all their items for 12.50 cents, which really is our way of getting women to save money with the more items

that they rent. the lower the average price per item becomes. the average woman gets the equivelant of 2,025 dollars worth of clothes delivered to her door and she's doing that for 250 to 300 dollars a months. other maternity clothing rental companies include rent maternity wear, where rentals start at 35 dollars item per week. belly bump boutique charges 39 dollars per item per week and mine for nine clothing starts at 16 dollars per item per month. we really provide a woman with exactly what she wants during her materinty, which is gorgeous clothes delivered effortlessly to your door 6 and the change with your growing body you should feel like a super hero when you're pregnant. it's just such a relief because it's a hard time in your life when you're dealing with a whole new body and then so to have

something you can put on that actually makes you feel like a more so of your old self is a really feeling. it makes you feel better. it's very important for me to feel beautiful. for more information go to livewellnetwork.com and type in rental maternity wear. sure we all like to find a great deal when out shopping but if you know the right time to shop you could actually save a lot of money. it's a really good idea to just put some thought into before you hit the stores because they do certain markdowns on different days, they replenish stock; so just by knowing a few little tricks you can make your shopping trips a lot easier. image consultant stacy harris always knows when stores get their seasonal clothing in. it's always a little bit ahead of time; so the spring stuff starts coming in at the end february around valentines day and then you'll have february, march, april and then around the middle of april you have the summer stuff

that's start coming in; so it's always about a month ahead of when we really think of the season beginning, that's when you're going to start seeing the new things come in for the season. if you will wait about six weeks into the season then it's a good idea for two reasons; one it kind of gives you the time to see what's out there and what you really like on people and the new trends, but the other good reason to wait is because about six weeks in they start getting in a new shipments coming in again so that the new trendy stuff is going to be marked down. no matter the season she says that the best day of the week to save is thursday. the stores replenish their stock for the weekend and what they will do is a lot of times they'll mark down the stuff they had for a while and then they put the new stuff out on thursday and she recommends getting the frequent flyer program of the stores you like to shop in. because most stores these days they have some kind of rewards program. don't hesitate to give stores your email address and things like that when they ask for it because most of the time the way they're going to let you know about the sales and the special offers that you're going to get as a

frequent customer. another way to save money that you might not have thought of, get to know the stores staff. if you develop a relationship with people that work at the store they will let you know when sales are going to go on, when things come in they know that you like, it's just a great way to get what you want and they're also kind of doing personal shopping for you. when they know ahead of time what you're looking for and it comes into the store and they give you a call and they're holding it for you, you walk in, you get it, you pay for it, you're done. stacy says probably one of her most important tips give yourself time. whenever you go shopping you don't want to be in a rush because when we're in a hurry we don't make as good of a decision and we tend to just buy the first thing that kind of just meets the need that we had and maybe we don't stay within our budgets. one big warning though just because something's on sale even at a big discount doesn't mean it's a good deal especially if you never end up wearing it. i always tell people don't buy an item unless you can think of three things that you have in your wardrobe that you can wear with it already because if you buy

something because it's different and unusual but then you can't find anything to match it, it doesn't matter that you paid four dollars for it. for more money saving shopping advice from stacy go to livewellnetwork.com and type in shopping tips. still ahead on deals. ten beautiful plants even a black thumb can grow. more on that

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do you have a black thumb? i know i certainly do, so i called on my good friend eddie russell at cornelius nursery and eddie you've put out your top ten favorite plants that you say are almost impossible to kill right? that's right. these are ten of most easiest plants to grow, they're very forgiving, require less water than most. if you can't grow these better go to plan b which will be artificial plants. we don't want to do that, so we're going to look like we've got a green thumb with these plants. the first plant we have is a graig myrtle. now you can get these in different sizes. all the way from minature to what we call a standard they can get up to 20 feet tall. this will take minus ten to zero degrees so it's very diverse as far as where you can plant it. this is very easy take care of and it will tolerate the heat as well as cold. this particular plant is what we call deciduous means it looses all it's leaves in the winter time but in a few weeks now it's starting to warm up

you'll have leaves just bursting out and in the summer time you'll have beautiful blooms on it. this is one of the tried and true plants it's been around for years. this is a burford holly. you see it berries up really nice. we like that because it attracts the wild life. now this is an evergreen plant. it could be either a shrub because of the edge and it's like five or six feet tall or you can let it grow to its full mature height which will be 12 to 15 feet and make it into a small tree, by keeping lower limbs trimmed or the leaves trimmed off the lower limbs. we call this legging it up. now this plant is the same as this plant except this is a dwarf variety. this is a dwarf burford holly and the same culture, look the same except has smaller leaves and this one makes a really nice hedge for them. what we like about these is they are very diverse like some of the other plants we're going to show you and they require a little bit less water than most plant do in the hot summers. this is another great bullet proof plant. this can be used all over the country as well because it will tolerate real cold temperatures as well as warm temperatures.

what we like about this and the landscaping of this tree is that you can get a real nice contrast of color and texture in your landscape. this has a real colander growth and it'll grow up to about 15 feet tall. once this is established it tolerates a lot of diverse conditions and doesn't use as much water as most plants. this is probably one of the oldest house plants around it's called a mother in law's tongue or sansevieria. it's very easy to take care of. i had one of these in college. i don't think i ever watered it. i dust it off every once in a whiel but this thing would take water about every two to three weeks. this is a knockout rose. this is from a new series of roses that we call earth kind, which means there a very easy to take care of. now rose is the number one selling plant in the country and this one is more disease resistant and takes a lot less care than the hybrid teas. now this again will take extreme conditions. does really well in the hot summer and blooms terrifically all year long and you don't have to worry about how you print it just get your shears out and cut it back to shape . this is an indian hawthorne. there's lots of different types of

hawthornes on the market. this particular one that gets about two to three feet tall. it's real popular for landscapers because of its compact nature. it also gives you a lot of bloom and spring color. to be really successful with this plant when you're landscaping you got to make sure it's in the full sun. if it's in the shade it won't perform very well at all. when you're looking for plants that are really low maintanance that tolerate a lot of strength need to consider native plants. now this particular plant right here is otis bamatoria plant yaupon holly which is a native to the texas area. we like this because it berries up real nice and it takes on extremes anywhere in texas or the south or even the north can get it. this particular berry has a different color than you saw on the holly before. again if you like birds, this is going to attract birds to your yard and they'll feed on this. another easy plant to grow if you had a black thumb is japanese yew. japanese yews usually comes in different shapes and forms. this is called mayco about 15 feet tall. has kind of a colander shape to it. then you have some that get 30,40, 50 feet tall. get very huge. these do have blue berries on them attract birds when you're putting your landscape together you want to look for variations in leaf shape and textures and not only is it a really drought tolerant plant and it'll

handle the extreme conditions. it looks a lot different you don't find a whole lot plants that looks like this. now here's a great plant. this is a colonsure but i inserted this plant before. you can use it inside the house as a house plant. we're going to actually use it outside in and under the patio cover or you can plant it the flower bed as well. in the south where they have temperate climates it'll stay there from year, to year, to year and you can share cuttings with your neighbors or your family. this particular one is unusual because it has a double bloom. it's failry new on the market. this plant's called an aspidistra. this can be used inside as a house plant in a real bright area or it can be used outside out in the shade. it's a great plant. this is what you get, you don't get any blooms from it. you get this nice green, white strappy leafy in the landscape it looks beautiful. it's a nice contrast like we talked about before. the common name's is a cast iron plant. now with a name like that how can it not be easier to grow. now while these are heartier than most eddie says no plant can live without water, sunlight and fertilizer and don't forget to read those labels that come on all plants, that'll help your success rate. if you still have questions he says be sure to ask before buying

so you don't end up wasting your money. eddie i think the thing i love most about these plants is we did not mention a cactus; that's the one thing most people think of when they think of plants they can't kill right? that's very true, but these are so much more beautiful. if you want more information go to our website livewellnetwork.com and click on deals. coming up that's very good. yes. and very easy to make. do it yourself gourmet popcorn do it yourself [ male announcer ]n many new year's resolutions have unraveled at the corner of "good intentions" and "powdered donuts." but walgreens can help you make a healthy change before you get too far off track. we've got the tools, advice and products you need to trade your old habits for new routines. now at walgreens, finest nutrition vitamins or centrum multivitamins are buy one, get one half off with balance rewards card. at the corner of happy and healthy.

we absolutely both of us love sweets, love chocolate; so it's no surprise that long time friends jerry wolf and helen hewitt would eventually go into business together creating all kinds of chocolate treats. we do have chocolate pretzels, we have chocolate gummy bears, chocolate cookies, chocolate potato chips; everything's better with chocolate on it.

this is our number one selling pretzel. that is our toffee covered pretzel. you have to get yourself a bigger bite there. i have to get myself a bigger dress i think. okay so you get the point. they can coat just about anything with their smooth and creamy chocolate but when they first started out it was all about the popcorn and that's our signature. we have so many different kinds of popcorns. i mean we have a peanut butter lovers popcorn, we have a movie madness popcorn, cherry almond, and we're always experiment new ones, so it's fun. this is our number one selling popcorn, it's called celebration. what makes it so popular? people just love the salty, sweet taste. isn't is great? we have a blend of chocolates, we have some candy coated pieces, we have a little bit of toffee thrown in. speaking of chocolate, tell me a little bit

about your choclate. this is a little special thing that you do here huh? we use a swiss chocolate that is wonderful and i can't tell you the exact name kat but it's really good. for those that are across the country and they want to order, certainly want you to order but you're going to show us a few diy gourmet popcorns and your family friends will enjoy; it'll be something easy and fun and inexpensive. absolutely. we just bought regular popcorn, microwaveable popcorn but if the family likes butter popcorn better they can used that. we have some luscious caramel, some chocolate chips, and some butterfinger chips. now for the caramel do we need those caramel candies? in the little cube get those and unwrap them all before hand and then put

them in a sometime of glass bowl, put them in the microwave and melt them. so you open your popcorn, you lay it out on a cookie sheet and we're going pour this delicious caramel, just swirl it, let it drizzle on top. you can cover every single piece of popcorn with caramel or you can just do, and that's the beauty right? do whatever you want with it. we're going to take the chocolate chips and we're just going to drop them on the popcorn, try to get it where the caramel is, so that it'll stick and then we also have some butterscotch chips and these are wonderful. now you can use any candy that you would like. this is a very economical snack. you can make this probably less than three dollars. this next mix is a little healthier.

you're going to start off the same way with a bag of your favorite microwave popcorn. we're going to take craisins, these are some almonds, some chocolate covered raisins and dark chocolate which is healthy and some pretzels and we're just going to put it in and again we're not doing exact measurements. it's whatever, it's if you like more almonds, put more almonds or if you like cashews you can put those in and we're just going to mix this up. what a fun day filled with so many fun and yummy treats. helen and jerry thank you so much for allowing us into your shop and most importantly into your kitchen. we are so happy that you came and now my waist line is a little bigger i think as we leave. there are so many different combinations you can make with popcorn including adding your favorite kool-aid for a colorful mix or even cheese. we'll post those recipes as well as the ones we've made today on our website. you can find us on livewellnetwork.com

under deals. that'll do it for this edition of deals. do you have a beautiful diy gourmet popcorn? we want to hear about it. send us a message on our facebook page you can look us up under deals tv. until next time i'm kat cosley, thanks so much for joining us.

hi there i'm kat cosley up next on deals. stylish organizing

ideas for those hard to organize items. like ribbon, kitchen utensils, even earrings. with a little diy know how old cabinet doors provide the perfect framework for a variety of home décor items. you'll see how it gave it a shabby sheik looks. and it's a perfect vanity tray. neat ideas for shedding greeting card clutter without losing precious memories. plus the best ways to save on groceries are constantly changing so you really have to be on top of your game. a food chart on top, no one play them, no one to hold them. the grocery game terry saves people money every month and she's sharing her tips with us. live well for less with deals starting right now. looking to de-clutter your home, no need to go out and buy expensive storage containers, check out these unique ideas. we're all thinking

about going green. the last thing i want you to do is bring more stuff into your home. so let's look at what you have and how to repurpose it. say bye bye to messy drawers for this idea for ribbon. anyone would look at a paper towel holder and think what on earth can i use this for other than paper towels. but it really is a great device for ribbon. lets say you've got ribbon floating around in a drawer, you don't know what you have you go to wrap packages and you can't find out or you run out. you put the spool on the paper towel holder. and not all ribbons will have the whole big enough for the paper towel holder, not fret and think you need to buy new ribbon, just cut the hole and make it a little bigger, push it through and it will fit. but its great you've got to wrap a package you've got all the ribbon there on the counter. you're good to go, you're not digging through your drawers trying to find it. instead of searching for kitchen utensils crammed

in a drawer how about this idea. often times you'll find your kitchen doesn't have enough space around your stove top to really give you the utensil need so you're cramming too many in the drawer and you go to get one and it's a struggle. and i find so many people have vases just sitting on a pantry collecting dust. why not pick out your favorite, take our your utensils, so you know your junk drawer of utensils becomes more manageable and the tools you're using everyday are next the stove, you can see them, they're easy to grab and you're not spending five minutes searching while your egg is burning. and they do sell canisters specifically for utensils, you'll see them anywhere in the stores, they're generic looking, not cheap and why bring something into the home you already have. and if you're looking for a sweet spot to keep other items contained here's a suggestion. so many times i go into a pantry and see so many containers. a flour jar.

candy container, why not take that candy jar and use it to contain something else. think in your house what is taking up space and making a junk drawer. this is a great one. some of your scissors and sewing notions, take it and put it in this jar, it's a great display in your laundry room, it adds fun and color. and if you don't have this, not your issue, maybe nail polish. spice organizers are great but can take up a lot of spaces. how about doing your hair accessories instead. i've got these great spice organizers that have little canisters that are magnetic and sit on a board and they're great, but a lot of time in your kitchen you want things off the counter because it becomes a clutter key. once you're done using it for spices, clean it out and repurpose it. its great for hair accessories, move it to your bathroom, your children are getting ready into eh morning and you're always struggling to find

the right hair band, or pony tail holders. these canisters are just the right size to put these in and make getting ready in the morning a lot easier. this next solution is on the button, literally. we all have tons of earrings. and they seem to get lost. you're getting ready in the morning and you can find one set and you can't find the other and you're always late, and you're thinking oh my gosh did i lose it where did it go, that was from my grandmother. a great way to organize them is to use a button, instead of the button swimming round in your laundry room in a drawer, pull them out and let them serve as earring holders. so studs on the back and that goes in the jewelry box. that way when you're going to get a pair out they're easy to see and easy to grab and you're never losing the mate. and it looks cute, i mean it's a fun festive way to keep things together. and i think if you organize it a fun way you're more likely to keep up with it. receiving a gift basket is great but when you're done

with its contents what do you do with it? everyone has an assortment of baskets in closets and in the garage, and we always think were going to use them but again it sits on the shelf and collects dust because we don't think of using them for different items. so instead of dog toys all over the floor repurpose these baskets. find one that's a great size, put the dog toys in there and again you're repurposing it. at the pet store they will have options to buy, and they're not cheap, so again instead of buying and spending money elimination bringing things into the house and that will really be a key to eliminating clutter in your house. were all going green, we all need to repurpose things, we all want to save money, so instead of thinking you need to run to the store and buy a ton of containers, or specialty products for your needs, look at things differently open your eye and think what else can i use this for? we want you to be organized and there'sways to do that without spending money.

find julies suggestions by going on livewellnetwork.com and search stotorage solution. still ahead are you still getting the same deal at the grocery. this three for five dollars, somehow that rings in our brain that that's a good deal, really that's 1.67 each we only save two cents. grocery saving secrets you won't want to miss. but next transforming cabinets into unique home accessories when deals r

well i think there is a tremendous amount of reward in doing something for you. it's an accomplishment. its like little kids come home and they have that picture that they've drawn and you put it on the refrigerator. this is the adult way of doing that. you're just going to take items you've found and give them a new purpose. what can be more rewarding than that. we put jane from anything but plain to a challenge.

take cabinet doors and transform them to functional pieces for the home. well the first thing were going to do is a serving tray. so what we've taken is an old cabinet door. the first thing you want to do is wash it. the reason you want to wash it is in case theses any residue of grease or dirt because you want to make sure your surface is clean befoe you paint anything on it. as soon as it's dry then you're ready to start. the next thing were going to do is step two is apply our chalk paint to our board. the color we found is french linen. it's a gray neutral color that's popular right now, we wanted to do something current. the reason we love chalk paint so much is it adheres to anything. wood, metal, you could put it on glass, you could put it on concrete. so it's really useful, you'll find a lot of ways t play with this. it's affordable.

you don't have to be neat and tidy about this. you don't have to do it all in one direction. the most important thing is great coverage. the best thing about chalk paint because it has a flat finish you can't discern the brush marks in here, it will look fine. all were concerned about is 100% coverage. this is so simple, you don't have to be professional. if you can hold a brush you can do chalk paint. remember our tip, if you do this, and can still see the surface through it, let it dry in 15-20 minutes apply a second coat. now that this is dry were ready for the second stage and that's to wax it or put a top coat on it. if you're going to sue it for something that's wet or food, you have to protect the chalk paint. the paint is soft and if i use soap and water i can wash it off.

this is just soft wax. and i'm going to apply the wax to all the surfaces and edges to seal the paint. i have an old t shirt rag and i'm sure there's ton of them in your laundry room if your house is like mine. were going to buff the wax. it's similar to shoe polish or wax, rub it on and dry over nigt and you're good to go. okay now that this is dried, we have drilled holes for the handles. these we found on the cabinets, we saved them so we can reuse them again. they also could be painted with chalk paint if you wanted, we liked the color so we left them. so, our tray is complete. janie used a tint on where we've done another cabinet door in a different color. we use a white chalk paint, and then we used tinted wax.

you'll see how it gave it a shabby sheik look. again we use different colored handles that we found. and it's a perfect vanity tray. and truth is you can find a place for these anywhere in your house. you can have it in the living room for your remotes, in your vanity to put your cosmetics on, just about any place you need it. the next project is one of our favorites and let me tell you why. you can customize this. it makes a fabulous gift for christmas or birthdays. it's so personalized. so what were going to do is do something for maybe a childs rooms, so they can write on it or leave notes for themselves. remember it has to be clean. not perfect but clean. were going to clean it with soap and water and then were going to apply a coat of province chalk paint, just like the last one. now that this is dry its ready for the next stage. and what were going to do to create this as a chalk board is to literally go

in a chalk the entire surface. this sounds a little odd but believe it or not after we do this and wipe it down it will accept the chalk. its just one of the things you have to do. this one were not going to wax. this is chalk you'd find anywhere. just the standard issue. just remember 100% coverage. and look it's totally chalked up. now what i'm going to do is take a dry terry towel and i'm going to rub. notice it changed the color of the base so the province isn't as blue as it originally started. we want to get all the extra chalk off of there. if you get a build up in the corns, take a clean brush and dust it out. this is where the personality and creativity comes out. were making this

chalk board for becky, she love ballet. so were creating a ballet theme. we went to the craft store and got this, we love it because its inexpensive and makes a great decoration. so what i'm going to do is hot glue a rickrack boarder to my chalk board. as every crafter knows you need a glue gun. because its positively what you're going to use on each project. don't burn yourself but its easy to operate. put one tiny bead of glue down to hold it in place, and then i figured out where its going to lay so i come behind a put down a bead of glue. you're going to do that all the way around the board. here is the completed chalk board. all i want to do is personalize it a little big, so i'm going add things i found at the craft store i thought were cute. one was a little ballerina.

and were going to stick her right here. and i have a pair of ballet shoes. these are all in the scrapbooking section where you can find it. and ill apply it with a hot glue gun here. now its completed and we want to use the chalk to put becky's name on it. i've written becks name on it and now she can write anything she wants in chalk. when she wants to erase it she just takes a dry towel. this is great because you get to express yourself creatively, and were really just creating accessories for the house, but you can use this i a lot of different ways. you can do it because this is fool proof, you cant ruin this, its great. for instructions for these product go to livewellnetwork. com and click on repurpose cabinet doors. coming up grocery saving dos, sometimes we get money off at the register

just for buying the right combinations. and don'ts. not all the sales are in here, so one of the biggest blunders is missing unadvertised sales. the woman behind the largest grocery saving website shares her secrets next on deals.

today were talking grocery store blunders, now if you don't think you make any

you might want to watch this segment. i know i've learned a few things. were here with terry gault, you're such a good friend of deals, thanks for coming back. my pleasure. you said these blunders are very real. oh, yes, some of the smallest blunders are actually costing yu the most money. so lets go have a look at them. well one of the biggest mistakes you can make is bringing a recie into the store. terry i have to talk to you about this one, most people want to eat what they want to eat, when they want to eat it, right? pretty much so. but terry says if you shop from a recipe you could end up spending twice as much. buy all the foods you like when you see them on sale. they don't necessarily go with each other at the time. so later you have your own store that's half off or better and then you look at all that and say what can i make. you'll have lots of options. when shopping terry says avoid falling for the number.

this three for five dollars, we see this and somehow it rings out in our brain that that's a deal, when really its 1.67 each, if you look down here we only saved two cents by buying the 3 for 5 dollars. so we should pass on this deal. i would, i would wait for a better sale. buying too much of something. don't we all do that. this is a great sale, but you don't have to buy ten to get that deal. they're a dollar a box now. especially if you have a coupon, in this case it's a dollar off three, so id buy three. so if you buy too much sometimes you're not saving money. i mean it says ten for ten, so you feel like i have to buy ten. and that would be buying too much for sure. here's one i often wonder about store brands vs name brands. store brands are great in different situations. first of all they're really good quality. and there's been new

studies that more than half the people that buy store brands are ever starting to prefer them. but there are a few things to look out for. so right here we have them and look how much they look alike. its beautiful isn't it. in this case, this might be a better deal today, but if this were on sale you might see this and think it's the cheaper one and grab the store brand. while you're browsing the isles don't miss out on instant savings. sometimes we get money off at the register for buying the right combination. its called mixed and maxed in most cases, and you'll see a certain grouping of offerings and i can buy four of any of these items and if i do i get free milk. and a gallon a milk is 3.59, 3.69 depending on where you are in the country. one of the biggest blunders is using a coupon at the wrong time. first of all you should use it, they're good for up to three month. so here we see there's a sale, its in the circular, but we didn't put it on

our list, just because its in here doesn't mean it's a sale. so if i were to use this coupon today id be wasting it because this yogurt does go on sale and then i can get it for a better price. in fact terry says she rarely uses a coupon the same week it comes out of the paper. on the 20 coupons i use in a shopping trip only four or five are from this week's paper. most of the coupons are for weeks or months past. the coupons are good for an average of 9 ½ weeks these days. so, you look at that expiration date, if its not on sale now, most sale cycles are once every 12 weeks. will the coupon always match a sale? eventually most of the coupons you would use would match a sale. although there are a lot of coupons we would never use, if there isn't enough off or products we wouldn't buy. and speaking of the sales circular terry says its not the holy grail of sales.

not all the sales are in here, so one of the biggest blunders is missing unadvertised sales. here's one its 1. 99 but its on sale for a dollar and i've got coupons to go with it so it makes it 63 cents a box. terry i'm blown away. i'm blown away by this one because how would you ever know. for one thing the grocery game. com has 62% of our deals are unadvertised. that's how i knew its on my list. i know the last time i worked with you some of our fans said yeah but the grocery game you have to pay to be a member of the grocery game. at 1.25 a week, if you miss out on one advertised sale a week its worth it, and we have the data base to know if something is a sale or not. so there's a lot of people buying things that aren't as low as they go, or not on sale at all. or using coupons at the wrong times. and at 10 dollars every eight weeks terry says the average family of four saves just over

500 dollar a month. we've been using a lot of that public information on the internet, there is a lot to read through so were cutting to the chase of saving. this is one of my blunders i guess if you're going to tell us not to buy the biggest package. yeah we have this big package mentality and its not always the cheapest. sometimes when the smaller package is on sale especially it will be less than the larger package and if you have a coupon to go with it, even in this case, the sale for a dollar the cost per ounce is better on this one. but adding a coupon makes it super better cause now they're 50 cents each vs 1.98. so i'm going to get four of these more volume than two of those. twice as much for the same price. to learn more about grocerygame.com or se terry's top grocery blunders again go to livewell.cm and click on deals.

up next, what to do with all those holiday cards. i tackle that challenge when deals returns.

every year at the holidays i always get these great cards from my friends and family acros the country. and a lot of them now have photos on them. i get so torn, i don't want to throw them away, but then again i don't want a lot of clutter, so i came up with this idea. we all have smart phones now, why not take a photo of the card, when you get that photo now you can make it a contact, so when the friend calls this beautiful photo pops up, and the cool thing about this is every year when you get a new card you get an updated photo. its really cool you get to keep the card and wont feel so bad about tossing it if you want to. id say holiday cards, tackled.

that will do it for this edition of deals. what's your deal, we always want to hear your money saving ideas, and you can always talk to us online, until next time i'm kat cosley, thanks for joining us. until next time i'm kat cosley, thanks for joining us.