Giveaway: Add Up the Savings ($25 Grocery Gift Card!)

It's that time of year again... back to school! I was in Freddy's yesterday, and the entire front was full of school supplies! Along with the usual suspects of pens, pencils, notebook paper, etc, it's time to start thinking of healthy school lunches and snacks.

Tip: Before the insanity begins, sit down on the Internet with your kids and look at school friendly lunch ideas. It's easy to pack great lunches with a little bit of imagination thanks to all the great recipe sites out there! Print up your lunch ideas on notecards, and then at the beginning of each week (maybe just before grocery shopping), let your kids choose which lunch ideas they want that week!

Tip: Have a full set of re-useable containers, snack boxes, etc - one for each day of the week. This way, if a set gets left at school, in the car, etc, you can still get ready for lunch the night before. It also saves on stress factors, since you can portion out some snacks a few days in advance!


The Kroger family of stores (QFC and Fred Meyer, for my local folks; Baker´s, Owen´s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Pay Less Super Markets, Kroger, Ralph´s, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, and more for everyone else) will be hosting the "Add Up the Savings" Event from August 8 through August 21 (2010). When you buy 8 participating items from any of the Kroger family of stores, you´ll receive $4 off of your purchase! Combine that with coupons, and you can do some serious stocking up for back to school on shelf stable snacks and breakfast foods like Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Yoplait, etc, as well as items like Kleenex, Huggies, and Cottonelle. There's lots on sale!

Plus, all of these items contain Box Tops For Education (BFTE's!) that your school can trade in for supplies and cool projects like new playgrounds! Each BFTE is worth 10 cents to your school, so please keep them and turn them in. If your kids are no longer in school, or your homeschool, you can always choose a local school to give them to. (please remember many teachers end up buying so much out of their own pocket, and they already aren't paid what they should be!) If you haven´t already, is register at www.RewardYourSchool.com. Once you register, you will automatically receive 5 Bonus Box Tops just for signing up! You will also receive custom offers for Bonus Box Tops for purchasing participating products.

These great offers are:

* Buy any 4 Box Tops products and get 10 Bonus Box Tops

* Buy any 8 Box Tops products and get 25 Bonus Box Tops

To my readers with children going back to school: I'd like to challenge you to buy one extra thing for your child's classroom this year. It can be as simple as an extra box of Kleenex (which would only run about $1), or extra school supplies that can be scored for free after rebate (check Staples and Office Max!) or pretty darn close to free. I know we are all hurting in this economy, but a little goes a long way!

Win it! Thanks to General Mills, Kimberly Clark and the Kroger Family of Stores, as well as MyBlogSpark, I have one $25 gift card, good at any of the Kroger family of stores, to give away to one lucky reader! To enter, tell us which BTFE products are on your shopping list at the "Add Up the Savings" Event!

As always, you can receive extra entries for:

-Subscribing to my feed or following my blog
-Blogging about this giveaway with a link back
-Tweeting about this giveaway (leave the link or @psychotichouse)

That's four (4) possible entries! Giveaway ends August 21st at 11:59 PM PST, and please leave your email address in your entry or have it available in your profile. US only, sorry :( Good luck everyone!! :)

All tips, anecdotes are mine. General Mills, Kimberly Clark and the Kroger Family of Stores provided the gift card, sale information, and giveaway through MyBlogSpark. One reader will win the prize above.