If you’ve been reading this site for long, you’re probably aware of All You magazine. I recommend it under my list of coupon resources, since every issue is filled with coupons. Thanks to the recent Eversave deal, Jai and I both have a subscription to it now! So when All You contacted me and asked if I’d like to check out a copy of their first-ever special issue devoted to smart shopping, I was very interested to have a look. But here’s the best part: 10 lucky Super Coupon Girl readers will each win a copy of All You’s Smart Shopping special issue, so read on for your chance to win!

The All You Smart Shopping special issue is a standalone magazine, meant to serve as a consumer guide to saving money. This special edition features articles with tips for saving money on household items, from food to appliances. Unlike the monthly installments of All You magazine, this special edition does not come with tons of coupons – there are only 2 coupons in this issue, both for other magazines. There are also some online coupon codes listed, but that’s it; I just wanted to be clear on this, so that none of my readers buy this solely for coupons and then become disappointed! The goal of this edition is that purchasing it will save you money because of the information contained, rather than providing a lot of coupons. So how does it stack up?

I enjoyed flipping through this magazine – I always like reading articles on ways to save money. No matter how much frugal know-how you have, you can still pick up a trick or two by continuing to read and observe. Most of this magazine contains fairly standard advice, at least for someone like me, who has been living frugally in one way or another my whole life. Some of the articles didn’t strike me as being very cost-effective at all; for example, there’s a section titled “Head-to-Toe Fall Outfits for $200 or Less”. I’m the biggest fashionista I know, but I have never spent that much money on a single outfit in my life – I’m the kind of person who buys cocktail dresses for .50 cents!

Another article of note was “Are you paying too much for convenience?”. In this, they break down the prices of pre-packaged foods versus the time spent preparing your own to see which is really most cost effective. I really like the premise of breaking down the numbers like this; the trouble is that prices vary so much from region to region, and pairing coupons with a sale can dramatically change which method is cheapest. But it’s good food for thought, and I think this kind of comparison can inspire readers to do some number crunching on their own!

All in all, I think this magazine would be the most useful to the frugal novice. I did, however, pick up a few ideas: For example, they provided a useful suggestion for making your own moldable ice packs, and I learned that there is a product you can buy called an “Oil mister”, which enables you to fill it with standard vegetable oil to create your own PAM-style cooking spray. Who knew!
My favorite section by far was the recipes – this magazine includes a recipe for a simple Three-Bean Chili that I really want to try!

Want a sneak peek inside this special issue? One of the magazine’s articles, “Tips for Buying Appliances”, is available to read online – click here to check it out.

TEN Super Coupon Girl readers will each win a copy of the All You Smart Shopping special issue, valued at $4.97! Here’s how to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post and tell me: Have you ever bought an issue of All You magazine?

Want extra entries? Do any of the following, and leave a separate comment for each one:

2. Link to this post on your blog, then come back here and leave me the link!
3. Write about this on Twitter, then come back and leave me the link to your tweet! One Twitter entry per person. You can use the button at the bottom of this post to tweet with one click!
4. Post my button on your website – just copy and paste the following code, and let me know where you put it:

One thing regular readers might wonder about is how I save on laundry detergent, since you won’t often see it purchased during my shopping trips. The reason for this is that one of my jobs involves distributing products for a health & home care company, and one of the requirements to staying active in the company and receiving your commission checks is to purchase $100 in product each month. They specialize in dental products, but they also sell a few household cleansers, one of which is a laundry detergent. I purchase about 96 ounces of detergent each month to stay active in the company – and since my commissions are always greater than the amount I purchase, it earns me money and keeps me stocked up on laundry soap. So, now you see why I don’t buy detergent at the grocery store unless I have a free coupon!

I may have my own unique way for saving on detergent, but I’m all ears for other methods that could save my readers money. So when Oransi offered to give one of their Robby Wash laundry detergent balls away to one reader, I was happy to take them up on their offer! Read on for your chance to win!

Oransi also sent me one free laundry ball, so that I could try it out and give you my opinion on how frugal it is. Robby Wash is a small, reusable plastic ball which you fill with pellets. Here is the explanation of how it’s supposed to work, from Oransi’s website:

The Robby Wash ball uses a unique and patented worldwide technology to clean your laundry even better than the powder laundry detergents it was independently tested against. Its activated macromolecules are gradually released through the wash, dissolving dried-in stains by generating ions which activate the water molecules. This increase in the pH enables the activated molecules to penetrate deep into the fabrics and attach themselves to the stains. As the motion of the drum agitates the clothes, the stains come away easily from the fabric and dissolve in the water. Of all the systems on the market, Robby Wash’s effectiveness is tested, proven and guaranteed.

I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of a soap-less approach to washing clothes, and wondered how well it would work. I decided to put the laundry stick to the test during the first load, since I had just the thing for it. I had spilled chili on my pajama tank top (right after I pulled it out of the dryer, no less!), and, to make matters worse, it had accidentally got thrown back in the wash without any stain remover on it, so the stain had gotten ground in. (Yes, it’s been one of THOSE weeks!) I decided to give the laundry stick a whirl on this very tough stain.

The laundry stick smelled very pleasant. I wasn’t clear on how long to leave it on, so I just let it sit for about 20 minutes while I finished other chores. Then I started a load of laundry with the Robby Ball and tossed the tank top in.

Hey presto – the stain is gone! Pretty impressive! Next time I use this, I might not leave it on so long, as it looks like the spot where I applied it is a tiny bit lighter than the rest of the tank top now.

As for the Robby Ball itself, so far I’m pretty impressed with it. It seems to do a pretty good job of getting laundry clean and fresh. I’ve been using it in all my laundry loads since it arrived – with normal loads, I wash the clothes using Robby Ball in cold water; for bigger/soiled loads, such as kitchen towels, I wash them with Robby Ball in warm water.

So now you have an idea of how the products perform – so how frugal are they? Robby Ball retails for $32.95 – this includes the ball, three packets of refill pellets, and the laundry stain stick. According to their leaflet, this kit will wash 120 loads of laundry total. That would make your cost around .27 cents per load. They estimate that this will last you one year if you do one load of laundry every three days – although I think most of my readers probably do laundry more often than that! How this price stacks up will depend on your usual target price for laundry detergent. Some of you may pay less than .27 cents per load if you’ve scored some good deals with coupons, or if you make your own detergent. For those of you that normally pay a lot for detergent, this might be an interesting option. I would still want to have some laundry soap on hand in addition to Robby Ball, for the event of extra-dirty laundry – I have no idea yet how it performs getting out mud, etc. Robby Ball can wash up to 10 lbs of laundry at one time – for bigger loads, they recommend using two balls.

But you know what is always a frugal way to save on laundry products? Winning them!

One lucky Super Coupon Girl reader will win a Robby Wash Blue Laundry Ball Pack, including one Robby Wash ball, a stain stick and three extra packets of macro-molecule pellets. Here’s how to enter:

1. For your first entry, click here to visit Oransi.com, then come back here and leave a comment telling me what feature of the Robby Wash ball is your favorite.

Want extra entries? Do any of the following, and leave a separate comment for each one:

2. Link to this post on your blog, then come back here and leave me the link!
3. Write about this on Twitter, then come back and leave me the link to your tweet! One Twitter entry per person. You can use the button at the bottom of this post to tweet with one click!
4. Post my button on your website – just copy and paste the following code, and let me know where you put it: