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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Coupon Swap Experiment

I found a coupon swap technique in a book called "Shop, Save, and Share" by Ellie Kay.  I'm going to try an implement it at my work place and see if it will take off.  Here's the instructions from the book.

1. Coupons are in zipping plastic bags and contain a name card in the front of each bag.  A name card is an index card-size piece of paper with names signed on it.
2. Please take a bag and remove the coupons you want from that bag.  Sign your name on the card.  DO NOT ADD NEW COUPONS TO AN EXISTING BAG.
3. Put the coupons you are donating in a new bag with your name signed on a new card.  Place the new bag in the swapbox.
4. In the future, only pick those bags without your name on the name card.  (You've already gone through the coupons in the bags with your name on them.)
5. Place all the expired coupons in a bag marked "EXPIRED COUPONS."  We will send these to military families overseas.
6. Have fun!  If you have any questions, please call the coupon coordinator, ________ at ________.

There are NO stores around here that double coupons.  The most one ever gets is a couple "double your coupon" coupon every other month (and thats just from one store).  But I am committed to saving the most that I can from coupons.  I used a $3.00 coupon on my dog food the other day.  I have another coupon for the next time also!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Menu planning

Ugh........kill me now!  OK..... its not that bad, but it is definately not on of my favorite things to do.  There are several ways and varying degrees of menu planning.

1. You make a list of meals you are going to cook for the next however many days (depends on how often you shop).  Then you make a list of ingrediants you need for those dishes and then go shop. 
    This method is better than the "fly by the seat of your pants" method.  You won't be as likely to eat out, because you will know that you have the ingrediants for the meals on your list and if you check the list before going to work or the night before, then you can prep for the meal (like defrosting the meat).

2.  You can first check the sales circulars for the current week and plan your meals by what is on sale.  Then make your list and shop.
    This method will save you even more than the previous method.  This way you can still have that steak dinner, but it will just wait until the steak goes on sale.

3.  In this method, you need to inventory what is in your pantry and freezer.  What meals can you make out of what you have?  What meals do you only need an ingrediant or two?  After that is exhausted, then move to the sales circular and round out the list.
   This method is good when your a little short on cash until next paycheck or if you are type of person that keeps a stocked pantry and freezer, only buying or stocking up when an item is on sale.

As you can see, the more effort you put into menu planning, the more benefits/savings you will get.   It takes some effort to get the bigger savings.  Dont let the news article about the lady that bought $200 worth of groceries for $10 fool you.  It can be done, but that lady put in some work for that savings.  It wasn't only sunday paper coupons, it was rebates (sought out and mailed in and recieved), research to find the best sales price combined the coupon savings and then all that "stuff" you just bought, is only worth it if you can use it.  So then she has to work it into her menu. 

That said, dont run off!   This isn't all or nothing.  You get to pick the level at which you want to work at it.  I recommend that you start off small.....make a menu before you go shopping.  Develop the habit and then add another small habit, once developed.....add another.  Baby steps.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Cable TV or No Cable TV

Gasp!!  No Cable!  Its the end of the world!

Not really.  Did you know you can watch most of your network tv shows and some cable shows just by going to http://www.hulu.com/.  If you can't watch your show there, it will probably direct you to the site where you can watch it (like the network site the show is affliated with).   My personal IT guy (my dear hubby) even hooked up a computer to our tv  (actually thru our receiver to the tv).  We can still watch our shows on the tv!  And just like using the dvr, we dont have to watch commercials (no fast forwarding required).   Ok, not everyone has their own IT guy.  But it if you have a computer that you want to try this with, I would go to Best Buy and ask a Geek or if you have an IT guy at work that is friendly enough to ask.  If you have a camera, take a pic of the back of your computer and they should be able to tell you if your video card has the right outputs for the job and what cable you would need to purchase for this. 

Since we are able to view the computer on the tv, we cancelled our cable.  With a $100 savings per month we splurged on Netflix.  For less than $10 a month, I get streaming movies over my internet connection and 1 movie at a time thru the mail.   The streaming movies are older ones (we just watched Mall Cop), but I can get the newer ones in the mail.   Net Savings of $90 a month.

You can't see it but the connection the cable is in...is "Optical Out" it goes into our receiver.




Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Splurges.....aka Starbucks Coffee

I'll admit it.......I'm a coffee snob.  If I ever go buy a drink at a coffee shop, its almost always Starbucks.  Venti Mocha with 4 splenda please!  I just thoroughly enjoy the taste of their coffee.  $4 a pop for a cup of coffee is not within my normal budget.  So I buy the Starbucks house blend at the grocery store and on my days off or weekends, we fix that instead of our normal Folgers.  Sure its more expensive to buy than Folgers, but we dont use it everyday and $11 for a 20oz bag (last more than a month) is much cheaper than $4 a pop for one cup.  Some people like the coffee house drinks for the shot of extra flavor they can get put in.  Vanilla, hazelnut, mocha, carmel.....etc......  My friends will splurge on the more expensive flavored creamers for their coffee instead of buying at the coffee house.  The point is you dont have to strip yourself of all the pleasures in life.  You leave yourself feeling depraved and after awhile that will depress you or lead to a spending spree that will hurt your pocket book.  What do you enjoy that you feel is a splurge?  How can you get it for less?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Used Books

I'm a big reader.....big as in can't put a book down til its done.  I've always loved books and have always owned quite alot of them.  Cookbooks, herbal books, survival books, self sufficiency books and even fiction books.  What I dont like is paying full price.  Here are a few of the ways that I never pay full price.....

1. I sign up on the email list for Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.  I get coupons for 15-30% off a book or sometimes my whole order.  Borders I go to the local store and dont pay shipping.  B&N and Amazon have free shipping for over $25.

2. When visiting Borders (or any other book store)  I check out their bargain section.  There are usually lots of children's books, cookbooks and what I call coffee table books (which make great gifts).

3. I watch the local newspaper for used book sales.  Library's have them sometimes twice a year, and our local YMCA has one once a year also.  Hard backs for $1 and paperbacks for $.50.......you just cant beat that with a stick!

4. On occasion I have been known to buy a stinker of a book (doesn't happen often).  Instead of garage saleing it for $1 or less, I use http://www.paperbackswap.com/ .  When you first join and list a certain number of books that you are willing to trade, you will get some credits.  Those credits are good for books that other members have posted.  You get more credits when other people request your books and you mail them out to them.  It cost around $2.38 media mail postage to mail a regular sized fiction book.  These books are generally in really good condition (better than used library books).  Even though its called "paper" back swap, you can list hardback books also.



Monday, March 1, 2010

Vintage Clothing

Luckily my teenage daughter doesn't have an adversion to "vintage" clothes.  We have a local Goodwill and Value Village (just like GW).  You can find name brands like Gap, Old Navy, Gloria Vanderbilt and lots more at both places.  Women's jeans are like $4-$8 and boys jeans are like$2-$6.  My son unfortunately doesn't like "GW" jeans.  But I buy them and bring them home and just dont mention where I got them.  This past week I brought some home and he was like "Yea!  Old Navy!".  He didn't ask and I didn't tell.  I ,of course, wouldn't lie if he did ask, but he didn't.  $4.99 beats $20.00 any ol' day of the week in my book.