Albertsons and Shortcuts Coupon Challenge!

Want to test your coupon know-how? Take the Coupon Challenge, a fun contest to see who can find the best deals using an Albertsons circular and Shortcuts coupons at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25 in Canoga Park.

The first person who finds all the deals wins a gourmet food basket worth $300! The basket includes a $100 Albertsons gift card – wowee! On top of the prize, the winner will receive a $100 donation in their name made to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, a gift made possible by Albertsons and Shortcuts.

The Coupon Challenge starts promptly at 12:30 p.m. in the Cafeteria so don’t be late!

Get your tickets to the Festival now!

Timeline of Festival Events

Door prizes are first-come first serve! Credit: R Berteig/Flickr

Here’s what’s happening at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25 in Canoga Park. Scroll down for a list of on-going activities.

11 a.m. – Festival opens! Door prizes are first come first serve!!! Food swap starts at 11 a.m. as well.

11:30 a.m. – Early Bird Raffle prize – a $100 Target gift card from Shortcuts.com! Admission includes one free raffle ticket so everyone is eligible to win.

11:40 a.m. – Food Preservation session with Registered Dietician Heidi Diller of Albertsons.

12 p.m. – Coupon Class with Tia of Tia Saving Cents.

12:30 p.m. – Coupon Challenge sponsored by Albertsons and Shortcuts! Who will find the best deals the fastest? Prize is a $300 gourmet gift basket!

12:45 p.m. – Albertsons fresh fruit samples – peaches, nectarines, and plums!

1:15 p.m. – Raffle starts. Prizes include a $300 Albertsons gift card.

2 p.m. – Festival ends. Go home and enjoy your prizes and SWAG bags!

On-going activities:

-Solar oven demo by Homestead Hardware

-Coupon Wallet sales by The Coupon Wallet

-Food demo by 99 Cents Only Chef

-Free food samples from The Stand, Libertine, and Yozen Frogurt

-Coupon and recipe exchange

-Frugal food quiz at BargainBabe.com table

-Face painting for kids (and adventurous adults) by Face Makers

-Chalk coloring area for kids

-DJ Cassette spinning tunes

Get your tickets now!

New site to save money on groceries

Talk about new! Save With Savvy launched yesterday and can reduce your next grocery bill by approximately $31.13. I’m thrilled to partner with them at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25 in Canoga Park. I played around with the site and it’s pretty cool how it works! The site does three things to save you money:

• compares prices at your neighborhood grocers
• finds weekly specials
• gives you easy access to coupons

Enter your zip code on the site and check off the stores you like to shop at. Then shop by category. Save With Savvy shows you the exact price for, say, different brands of whole wheat bread, allowing you to comparison shop at home! For any given item, you can see the total cost and per unit cost. It was pretty amazing to see how much prices varied. Fuji apples were $.59/lb at Trader Joe’s, and $1.99/lb at Vons.

When you finish, Save With Savvy will suggest where you can find items on your grocery list for less. The site adds up your total grocery bill and lets you print it out. Takes a lot of the guesswork out of couponing, huh?!

Save With Savvy will be stuffing your Frugal Festival Food! swag bags with pens and magnets. Get your tickets now!

Food swap at Frugal Festival Food!!!

By Bobbi Burger Brunoehler of BobbisBargains.

Bread, cookies, sauce and giant lemons from previous food swap

It has been decided! There IS going to be a food swap at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25th at Canoga Park High School.

I’m super excited and I hope you are too. Food swapping is such a great way to turn your large batch of homemade marmalade, marinade, or marshmallow into homemade bread, herbs, and brownies.

Each food swap is slightly different and the exact rules and ways we will swap will be sent out to each confirmed swapper prior to the swap. We are still working out the fine details, but wanted to get the word out right away. For right now, here is the basic idea:

• There is a limited number of spaces available for the swap, so if you want to be included, you must send me an email requesting to be added to the food swap list. Email BobbisBargains at hotmail.com.
  
• Reserve your space with a free ticket through EventBrite.
• The food swap is free and will get you into Frugal Festival Food! for free. Hot deal!
• We will swap from 11:00 am to 12:45 pm.
• The swap will be held outside but in a totally shaded area.
• There will be NO sampling of food.
• All items to be traded are to be handmade or self grown.
• Your traded item should be equivalent to a jar of jam. In other words, you won’t swap a small cookie for a jar of jam. You will swap a package of 6 or 8 cookies for a jar of jam (unless you have a HUGE cookie.) You get the idea.
• All swap items will need to be packaged.

More information will be forthcoming on specifics on how we will swap. The main thing is to get your spot reserved and get your name on the list so I can start coordinating.

OK, let me know if you want to be part of this fun food swap. Email me now. BobbisBargains at hotmail.com

Food preserving and substitution demo

Heidi Diller, SUPERVALU

Food preservation is seeing a resurgence among DIY’ers craving to save a buck in the kitchen. (That’s me!) If you’re curious and want to know more, check out the 11:40 a.m. demo with Albertsons food specialist Heidi Diller at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25 in Canoga Park.

She’s got a trick for preserving all the yummy fruit that is currently in season, and is going to share a secret brownie recipe that uses pureed peaches instead of oil! Diller is a Registered Dietican with more than 23 years of experience with management, wellness, heart health and senior nutrition.

Best of all, you’ll be able to taste some of her concoctions later that day at the Albertsons table!

Libertine passing out free food at Festival!

Bacon-wrapped tater tots. Aside from genius comfort food, that’s just one of the free food samples going to be passed out at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25 by Libertine, a swanky lounge-club-restaurant in Hollywood. Yelpers give Libertine 4 stars out of 195 reviews!

Here’s what makes Libertine a hot deal for your next late night dance party. Libertine has a rare Top Shelf Open Bar deal. From 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., drink as much beer, shots, and cocktails for $25. It’s another $10 for Open Bar until 2 a.m. The Open Bar deal includes top shelf and premium brands.

I’ve never heard of a drink special like that!

If bacon-wrapped tater tots don’t get your stomach growling, here are your other free food options at the Festival. Free hot dog and chili samples from The Stand, fresh fruit samples from Albertsons, and free frozen yogurt samples from Yozen Frogurt. Come hungry!

Free Hot Dogs and Chili from The Stand at Festival!

Free dogs and chili from The Stand (but no beer)!

Dog and chili lovers rejoice! The Stand is coming to Frugal Festival Food! in LA on June 25 and bringing FREE samples of its tasty hot dogs and chili. Yesssss!

This local LA chain is famous for their super frugal Monday $1 dog nights. Now that is a deal you can’t beat! Make sure to get a free Stand Card to get the $1 dogs and 5% off all purchases. The Stand now offers a la carte ordering, so you can get any entree, sides, or fries on its own.

The Stand has locations in Encino, Woodland Hills, Century City, and Westwood Village. I used to eat at The Stand all the time way back when I was a reporter at the LA Daily News. You can’t beat local, tasty, and cheap!

Who’s excited for all the free food at Frugal Festival? Yozen Frogurt will be passing out free samples and Albertsons has lots of fresh fruit to share. Plus there will be free water, lemonade, and otter pops!

Get your tickets now!

Yozen Frogurt coming to Festival!

Get free samples of Yozen Frogurt at Frugal Festival Food!

The first time I tasted Yozen Frogurt, I was in heaven. Fresh, delicious, and sweet! I soon began goading friends to sneak away from work for a quick treat with me. Now I’m thrilled to announce Yozen Frogurt is going to be sharing samples of its amazing frozen yogurt at Frugal Festival Food!!!

Yozen Frogurt has locations in West Hills, Thousand Oaks, and Westlake Village. Using its loyalty punch card, you can get free frozen yogurt. My favorite flavor is pomegranate.

Frugal Festival Food!
Canoga Park High School
6850 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Canoga Park, CA 91303
June 25, 11am-2pm

Get your tickets now!

Win a $300 Albertsons gift card at Festival!

Win a $300 Albertsons gift card at Frugal Festival Food!

I’m super psyched to announce that Albertsons is our Marquee Sponsor at Frugal Festival Food! That means Albertsons is:

• Raffling off a $300 gift card (that’s a lot of groceries!)
• Distributing special coupons and recipes at its Festival table
• Throwing a Coupon Challenge contest with a prize of a gourmet gift basket valued at $300
• Bringing its in-house expert Heidi Diller to talk about nutrition IQ
• Serving fresh fruit and tasty bites to munch on at its Festival table

Yum! You may have already noticed Albertsons in the banner at the top of FrugalFestival.com or its logo on our Sponsor page. I can’t wait to see what goodies and coupons they will have at the Festival on June 25 in LA!

Frugal Festival Food!
Canoga Park High School
6850 Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 91303
June 25, 11am-2pm

Other raffle prizes include 10 Easy Lunch Box sets, a $175 Date Night Package that includes babysitting, 25 The Coupon Wallet Organizers, and a $250 Pyrex and Chicago Cutlery kitchen package! We have 80 cookbooks for door prizes!

Get your tickets now!

Solar oven demonstration at Festival!

One type of solar oven. Credit: EB Kauai/Flickr

This is going to be super cool: a solar oven demonstration by Homestead Hardware at Frugal Festival Food! on June 25 in LA.

How does a solar oven work? Does it really get hot enough to cook food? Where can I get solar oven recipes?

Homestead Hardware has the answers, and may even cook something using a solar oven at the Festival!

You’ll also be able to check out Homestead Hardware’s:

• Rain barrel system
• Homemade composters (they’re easier to make than you think)
• Upcoming workshops on sustainability, solar showers, gray water recycling, and more

If you want to make your home more self-sustaining, Homestead Hardware is the place for you!

Get your Festival tickets now! Tickets are $5 with canned good donation.