EBOOK "Save Thousands Grocery Shopping"

hello freelancers, welcome to the byu times special edition REVIEW ........

this a.m. my internet server was down so I took advantage of my "extra" time to work on the upcoming MAKEN BAKEN site & review one of the several products I have on my desk for review.

for the newbies: all items that I review for website owners, store owners, writers, merchandisers etc........ are done with the understanding that my review will be honest and thoughtful and thorough. I make no promises to the company or person that submits a product that the review I submit will be complimentary or "good" only that I will do the review and submit the results to the members of my website, thats you "the freelancers!"

Neva Neva Neva will I compromise the trust of my website members to appease or please the submitter of the products.......... so with that in mind here is my latest review! enjoy

"SAVE THOUSANDS GROCERY SHOPPING" by Lana & Vincent Dorazieo
THIS IS AN "EBOOK" which means you download it from the internet, using your ADOBE READER and WORD programs in this case.


HERE
$19.00 is the price for all 3 ebooks to download
This price includes all 3 ebooks
#1 being the "main course" Grocery Book (adobe) 79 pages
#2 being the Recipe Book (word file) 34 pages
#3 being the Price Book (adobe) 29 pages

I downloaded them in the order I have listed above and read them in that same order.

I personally prefer a "hard copy" book so I printed out the pages to read rather than reading on a screen, this way I could take to my kitchen table and read without distraction. These books are NOT available in hard copy to purchase anywhere, so if you want to read this , you must download to read and/or print.

I have NEVA used a PRICE BOOK so I read these books with GREAT INTEREST, to see if using a price book would save me time or money in the long run. I have read other "price book" suggestions, ebooks and references, but this one seemed "different" so I was VERY INTERESTED to see what i could learn.


#1 GROCERY BOOK
79 pages of larger font, this makes it easy for most to read, but 79 pages to print is a LOT, so adjust your font size to cut down on the amount of paper if that is feasible to you. Alternately you can just READ this online and not print a thing (most frugal way).
#2 RECIPE BOOK 34 pages reg. size font, in word format which I prefer over adobe because it uses less computer resources / ram.
#3 PRICE BOOK 29 pages, small font downloadable to pocket pc, MAYBE? this has to be in adobe to put on your pocket pc? I am not sure about that, but I love the idea that this can be done! I don't have a pocket pc, but may get one for all of the great stuff, including this that can be downloaded to!

CONTENT of all books:
THE GROCERY Book is the INFORMATION and BULK of the writing by Lana. It is very easy to read, understand and follow. Lana starts with the "basics" and explains her background, her resources and her thoughts and success with her strategies for shopping. She does use COUPONS but this is not her best strategy or something that she does on a regular basis. This is a quote directly from her
"Don’t get me wrong, I like coupons. I’m actually a member of a coupon website that helps me to match up my coupons with the best sales of the week! It’s a wonderful saving device. However, there are pitfalls to coupon shopping that people fall into. If you are a diehard couponer, you might want to rethink your strategies for a more relaxed and timesaving alternative to couponing."
Being that I don't "like" coupons but LOVE THEM, this automatically is alarming to me , LOL but I read on with interest and OPEN MIND to "other strategies" that may work for people that don't have the passion for coupons that I do, or strategies that you can combine with coupons for more effective shopping plans.

Lana describes, outlines and attacks her grocery shopping with vigor! She has a great plan and does very well, with the "tools" that she introduces the reader to, she estimates her grocery shopping bill INCLUDING cleaners to be about $53 a week. I am on the $30 a week plan myself, with coupons or bare minimum shopping strategies, so this is a bit more than I spend, but LESS than many spend weekly and HER PLAN may be better for some shoppers than mine! AGAIN I am always open to suggestions and tips , so onward bound........

Lana is a "teacher" by degree and that is evident to me while reading her book, she is a GREAT TEACHER and can teach even the "old dogs new tricks" including moi! She includes many marketing strategy exposes in her book, dispells a myth or two (one that was very surprising to me)
and employs many resources. She compares and uses warehouse shopping, dented can stores, discount stores, and interviews a grocery store manager!

THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THESE BOOKS

• easy to read
• easy to learn from
• great tips to use with what you already know
• her obvious luv for EMERIL (uses his phrases like I do!)
• her obvious passion for "bargain highs" and saving money
• her love of creative cooking and use of ethnic type recipes
• MYTH BUSTING EXPOSE with resources!
• THIS BOOK HELPS THOSE that want to save money, create GOOD meals and don't have time to properly use coupons
• One of Lana's mentor's is AMY , "tightwad gazette" who I also luv
• DOWNLOADABLE to pocket PC / PRICEBOOK great technology use and convenient!
  

THINGS I QUESTION / DISAGREE WITH

• lana, is not coupon savvy, or has not fully realized the value of coupons
• she lives in a big city and is fortunate to have lots of stores close by, this is not the case for everyone. She addresses this in the book, but doesn't fully realize this advantage
• Frequent shopper cards, lana complains this is her pet peeve and uses these card with FAKE information because of fear that she will get sales calls, I have neva neva neva gotten a sales call from use of these cards and have reaped BENEFITS of using them frequently
• Lana mentions using her BREAD MACHINE many times in her book but there are no recipes that I found in her recipe section for these recipes, I have a bread machine that I neva use because I find the "mixes" taste YEASTY and I have found no simple recipes to use for GOOD TASTING BREAD, I feel her endorsement for the bread machine and home made bread should be backed up by at least 1 or 2 recipes for you to try I think I am going to shoot her an email when I send this review to her suggesting that her bread recipes be added! wish me luck!
• SPICES: lana uses tons of spices and gives many suggestions for using them , but doesn't use the most frugal way I have found to use them GROWING THEM
• OZ use. the most common way people use pricebooks is by unit comparison or OUNCES, I find that many times this is a "pain" for me when I can compare "lbs" much easier for meat, or CAN PRICE (most cans standard size) better and more quickly, I guess that is just a matter of what you get used to and really her way makes sense, just for my personal preference per lb works betta for me, this can be adjusted in the price book I am sure.

VALUE FOR THE MONEY
this book is overall a GOOD value for the money! Just about everyone can learn something from this book. I think this book would be particularly useful for those that are looking for some strategies to use in addition to or in place of coupon shopping.

I enjoyed the reading, will be trying some of her recipes, will someday have a pocket pc and will try the pricebook in that regard (downloading and adjusting the ouce issue), and enjoyed reading about a kindred "emeril fan" that gets "bargain highs" like I do. We do things differently , that is for sure but the end result is the same, GOOD FOOD AT A GOOD PRICE!

I think that a good strategy for buying this book would be if you have a local coupon club or group who like to save money all chip in to get this book and share the information. PAYPAL is accepted along with credit cards. LANA is also available for speaking engagements. Website owners can sign up for an affiliate program to promote her ebook.

Lana is a young ( compared to me) shopper with 4 years of experience and research (at the time she wrote her ebook) that has been VERY SUCCESSFUL and has many great reviews by readers. I think that supporting her efforts, and using some or all of her shopping strategies would benefit those that feel they can learn new strategies and new tricks to further enhance their own shopping. I think that if you have an extra $19 to spend on "learning" this would be a great buy, newbies will more than make their money back in no time and have an "edge" to learning some strategies that may not otherwise be available . FOR ME, if I were interested in having a PRICE BOOK that $19 would be a GREAT BARGAIN to not have to do myself, I would say this $19 would easily be worth $50 for just this part! this BY ITSELF is the BEST BARGAIN HERE, and consider the other information a BONUS! :)

ENJOY ! I will be posting this review on my online frugal diary , if you have your own review, or comments to add there is a place to do so on the site!

HUGS & LUV
anjie @-->>--