WOW! It has been almost two months since I sat down and blogged. I apologize to all of my loyal followers. It is a very busy time of year for my family. Our son races go-karts and a Legend Car and well race season means many, many miles on the road.
That leads me to this post....
When we travel I feel like the couple of days before we leave I am prepping for race weekends... doing laundry, packing, running errands, meal planning, grocery shopping, food prep. Then the day or two after we get back I feel like I am unpacking, catching upon laundry, running errands, meal planning for the week, grocery shopping...you get the picture. Some weeks those days before the race weekend and the days after the race weekend run together. Leaving me with just one or two days to clean the house and feel organized.
Today I need to tackle the bathrooms. Honestly my M O S T dreaded chore in the house. I was browsing Pinterest this morning while sipping my tea (yes I have to have this down time, my mind and soul thank me for it) and found an interesting link form another blog where a reader who has cleaned houses for over 20 years has a simple procedure for a quick cleaning routine in the bathroom. I will share this link and then get to work....I do need to wash the floors as well and really a spring cleaning is in order but I thought I would share in case any of you are in the same boat. Happy Disinfecting! :) http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/01/how-to-clean-your-bathroom-like-pro.html
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Smart Choices!
Hope this new post finds everyone feeling well! April showers have hit our area and I am anxiously waiting for the beautiful green grass and flowers that follow.
In the past couple of weeks I have been reading and watching many documentaries on fresh food, organic meats, local options and ways to make wonderful meals for my family on a budget. Food is most nutritious in its whole form, fresh is best.
We have changed our lifestyle greatly over the last few years and I am committed to continue tweaking it to ensure I am doing the best I can to provide a whole food menu. As the warm weather begins I am hoping to start a small garden. We lead a busy life in the warmer months and I hope to be able to manage a small crop to help create meals. If you are unable to have a garden yourself I highly encourage you to visit your local farmers markets and support your area farms.
I wanted to share some of the documentaries I have watched with you so that you can determine your own thoughts on the foods you choose to feed your families.
All of these I found on Netflix:
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
Forks over Knives
Fresh
Food Inc. (Not for the faint of heart!)
I hope to blog about the cost of the garden and the cost of fresh items that I find at Farmers Markets over the Spring and Summer months and how I use the items to make meals for my friends and family!
Keep Fresh.....and save dimes!
In the past couple of weeks I have been reading and watching many documentaries on fresh food, organic meats, local options and ways to make wonderful meals for my family on a budget. Food is most nutritious in its whole form, fresh is best.
We have changed our lifestyle greatly over the last few years and I am committed to continue tweaking it to ensure I am doing the best I can to provide a whole food menu. As the warm weather begins I am hoping to start a small garden. We lead a busy life in the warmer months and I hope to be able to manage a small crop to help create meals. If you are unable to have a garden yourself I highly encourage you to visit your local farmers markets and support your area farms.
I wanted to share some of the documentaries I have watched with you so that you can determine your own thoughts on the foods you choose to feed your families.
All of these I found on Netflix:
Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead
Forks over Knives
Fresh
Food Inc. (Not for the faint of heart!)
I hope to blog about the cost of the garden and the cost of fresh items that I find at Farmers Markets over the Spring and Summer months and how I use the items to make meals for my friends and family!
Keep Fresh.....and save dimes!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
In the know...
Good Morning Savers!
Did you know that stores sometimes have their own coupons as well? Did you know that most stores allow you to stack their store coupon with a man. coupon for even more savings?
Well this was something I had heard about and will honestly say have only tried at Target but it did work!
Many stores, including Target and Walgreens have their own coupons. Target's coupons can be found on line at Target.com and are printable. Walgreen's typically puts out a coupon book, available in store.
Both of these stores near my home allow stacking. The other thing I have noticed is much of the time when Target posts a coupon, they have the item on sale that week too. Pair that with a man. coupon and save big!
Another great savings is register rewards. You will have to look into how stores in your area work, but here at home I shop at Walgreens and if you note in their flyer that a particular item is on sale and there are register rewards available, this means that when you check out you will receive a slip of paper much like a coupon that can be used for your next purchase. It's almost a "thank you" for buying particular products. You can use those rewards on any items the next time you make a purchase. Many stores do have a limit though, saying you can use 3 register rewards if you are purchasing 3 items. etc.
This leads me to store policies. Many stores have their own coupon policies, so I highly recommend asking for a copy at the Customer Service desk. If you plan to do some extreme couponing it is wise to carry that with you on your shopping trip. Unfortunately not all employees are aware of the policies and may try to deter you from using coupons or stacking them, and it can be embarrassing to have to call over a manager and hold up the line.
Okay, so you know where to find them....what to do with them....how to handle them....are you using them? I am guilty, I recently went shopping and forgot my coupons and instead of turning back I just went ahead and bought the items. While saving is a full time job, no one is perfect. I am however working on using cash and budgeting as we start a very busy season in our lives and that is helping too.
My tips may be less frequent as we enter the racing season, but I am here anytime you have a question. Keep saving those dimes!!
Did you know that stores sometimes have their own coupons as well? Did you know that most stores allow you to stack their store coupon with a man. coupon for even more savings?
Well this was something I had heard about and will honestly say have only tried at Target but it did work!
Many stores, including Target and Walgreens have their own coupons. Target's coupons can be found on line at Target.com and are printable. Walgreen's typically puts out a coupon book, available in store.
Both of these stores near my home allow stacking. The other thing I have noticed is much of the time when Target posts a coupon, they have the item on sale that week too. Pair that with a man. coupon and save big!
Another great savings is register rewards. You will have to look into how stores in your area work, but here at home I shop at Walgreens and if you note in their flyer that a particular item is on sale and there are register rewards available, this means that when you check out you will receive a slip of paper much like a coupon that can be used for your next purchase. It's almost a "thank you" for buying particular products. You can use those rewards on any items the next time you make a purchase. Many stores do have a limit though, saying you can use 3 register rewards if you are purchasing 3 items. etc.
This leads me to store policies. Many stores have their own coupon policies, so I highly recommend asking for a copy at the Customer Service desk. If you plan to do some extreme couponing it is wise to carry that with you on your shopping trip. Unfortunately not all employees are aware of the policies and may try to deter you from using coupons or stacking them, and it can be embarrassing to have to call over a manager and hold up the line.
Okay, so you know where to find them....what to do with them....how to handle them....are you using them? I am guilty, I recently went shopping and forgot my coupons and instead of turning back I just went ahead and bought the items. While saving is a full time job, no one is perfect. I am however working on using cash and budgeting as we start a very busy season in our lives and that is helping too.
My tips may be less frequent as we enter the racing season, but I am here anytime you have a question. Keep saving those dimes!!
Friday, March 30, 2012
To coupon? or not to coupon?
Is that a question you ask yourself often?
To be perfectly honest I go back and forth with the little slips of free money. I find that when I have the time, I can really crack down and save more than my usual weeks. Then there are some weeks when I fall short on time and lack the effort to sit down and line up sales and coupons.
However, I did attend a couponing class recently and although my husband asked "Are you going to teach it?" (he proclaims I am a great saver) ....I did learn a thing or two and I am happy to share with you my knowledge from before and my new found tips on couponing.
The common way is to get the inserts in the weekend paper. These coupons typically come from SmartSource and RedPlum (referred to as SS and RP thru the rest of this post) and they tend to be targeted towards the area that the paper is marketed for. In the class I found out that this means that sometimes in more urban areas the coupons have higher values, leading to a more desirable savings when matching sales and coupons. So when you find sites on line (which I will list) who give you a break down of stores, sales and matched up savings you will notice that sometimes we do not benefit from those same coupons at the same amount. No fear, the deals can still be found. And I will show you how...
Okay so I have found that most sites will list the company producing the coupons (SS or RP for instance) and then a date. Example: SS 3-18-12 This means that this coupon may be found in the in the SS pull out of the 3-18-12 paper. My suggestion (since class) is to take a manilla folder, the plain office type... and put the date on the outside and then in that folder put all inserts from that date.
This will save you time since you may not need every coupon in the insert, so you might as well not clip every one of them AND if you clipped only the ones you thought you might need you may miss out on a free product or a money maker. (These can always be donated if you won't use them in your home)
Now set that thought aside...
Coupons come in many other formats, you may find coupons attached to products in the store. There are ENDLESS sites online that you can print coupons from. Coupons can be found on manufacturers websites and Facebook pages. Ever see those ones that get printed for you at the grocery store when you are checking out? Those are called "Catalina Coupons" (learned that terminology from class, apparently it's the name of the company who produces them).Then there are store coupons....confused yet? Don't worry it's alot of information, and you may need to refer back to this post a few times to get the hang of all of it.
The best advice I can give you is take a few weeks and just collect coupons. If you have the inserts from the paper put them in your manilla folders and then just take any other loose type coupons and put them in a safe place.
The World Wide Web:
After you have a small stockpile, take an hour (or two) and find a quiet place with a computer. If you have Facebook go to a couple of pages and "like" them....I recommend "Money Saving Mom" and "Thrifty and Thriving" both of these sites have their own websites as well and give wonderful information how to match up sales and coupons each week. There are dozens of these types of pages, so just search around when you have the time and find a couple you like. These are great because you will typically get an alert in your news feed when there is a good bargain to be had.
Then look up http://www.couponmom.com/on the web. Not only does she have an easy to follow couponing format, she also has tutorials on how to start out saving. I suggest "favoriting" her site, you will want to refer to it often.
Coupon Mom for instance is a site I use to both print coupons and match up savings. Do yourself a favor, take a few minutes and explore the site. One tip that I learned a long time ago is to use the zip code of an urban area when printing coupons on the web. The market is more competitive in bigger cities and manufacturers will produce larger denomination coupons. An easy one to remember is "90210"...Beverly Hills, BABY!
But obviously use the proper zip code when searching for the deals in your area. They do a great job tallying all of the savings at stores such as Shaw's, Target, Walmart, Walgreens, etc.
Gather and Go:
Now the next step is to match up sales and coupons.
An example would be: Take the current Walgreen's flyer and browse the ads and see if you can locate any items that are on sale that you also have a coupon for. (Colgate is on sale 2 for $3.00 and you have 2 coupons for $.50 off 1....then you can get 2 packages of toothpaste for $1.00 each) If so, at that time clip your coupon and start an envelope for Walgreen's and place your coupon in it. You now have them all together to take on your shopping trip.
Do this with each of the stores you plan on visiting, or at least browse each flyer and see if there are any items you need or can stock up on.
The next post will dig a little deeper into store coupons, matching those with manufacturers coupons, store policies and register rewards!
Until then...I hope you all take a moment and save a few dimes!
To be perfectly honest I go back and forth with the little slips of free money. I find that when I have the time, I can really crack down and save more than my usual weeks. Then there are some weeks when I fall short on time and lack the effort to sit down and line up sales and coupons.
However, I did attend a couponing class recently and although my husband asked "Are you going to teach it?" (he proclaims I am a great saver) ....I did learn a thing or two and I am happy to share with you my knowledge from before and my new found tips on couponing.
Coupons:
They come to us in MANY ways....The common way is to get the inserts in the weekend paper. These coupons typically come from SmartSource and RedPlum (referred to as SS and RP thru the rest of this post) and they tend to be targeted towards the area that the paper is marketed for. In the class I found out that this means that sometimes in more urban areas the coupons have higher values, leading to a more desirable savings when matching sales and coupons. So when you find sites on line (which I will list) who give you a break down of stores, sales and matched up savings you will notice that sometimes we do not benefit from those same coupons at the same amount. No fear, the deals can still be found. And I will show you how...
Okay so I have found that most sites will list the company producing the coupons (SS or RP for instance) and then a date. Example: SS 3-18-12 This means that this coupon may be found in the in the SS pull out of the 3-18-12 paper. My suggestion (since class) is to take a manilla folder, the plain office type... and put the date on the outside and then in that folder put all inserts from that date.
This will save you time since you may not need every coupon in the insert, so you might as well not clip every one of them AND if you clipped only the ones you thought you might need you may miss out on a free product or a money maker. (These can always be donated if you won't use them in your home)
Now set that thought aside...
Coupons come in many other formats, you may find coupons attached to products in the store. There are ENDLESS sites online that you can print coupons from. Coupons can be found on manufacturers websites and Facebook pages. Ever see those ones that get printed for you at the grocery store when you are checking out? Those are called "Catalina Coupons" (learned that terminology from class, apparently it's the name of the company who produces them).Then there are store coupons....confused yet? Don't worry it's alot of information, and you may need to refer back to this post a few times to get the hang of all of it.
The best advice I can give you is take a few weeks and just collect coupons. If you have the inserts from the paper put them in your manilla folders and then just take any other loose type coupons and put them in a safe place.
The World Wide Web:
After you have a small stockpile, take an hour (or two) and find a quiet place with a computer. If you have Facebook go to a couple of pages and "like" them....I recommend "Money Saving Mom" and "Thrifty and Thriving" both of these sites have their own websites as well and give wonderful information how to match up sales and coupons each week. There are dozens of these types of pages, so just search around when you have the time and find a couple you like. These are great because you will typically get an alert in your news feed when there is a good bargain to be had.
Then look up http://www.couponmom.com/on the web. Not only does she have an easy to follow couponing format, she also has tutorials on how to start out saving. I suggest "favoriting" her site, you will want to refer to it often.
Coupon Mom for instance is a site I use to both print coupons and match up savings. Do yourself a favor, take a few minutes and explore the site. One tip that I learned a long time ago is to use the zip code of an urban area when printing coupons on the web. The market is more competitive in bigger cities and manufacturers will produce larger denomination coupons. An easy one to remember is "90210"...Beverly Hills, BABY!
But obviously use the proper zip code when searching for the deals in your area. They do a great job tallying all of the savings at stores such as Shaw's, Target, Walmart, Walgreens, etc.
Gather and Go:
Now the next step is to match up sales and coupons.
An example would be: Take the current Walgreen's flyer and browse the ads and see if you can locate any items that are on sale that you also have a coupon for. (Colgate is on sale 2 for $3.00 and you have 2 coupons for $.50 off 1....then you can get 2 packages of toothpaste for $1.00 each) If so, at that time clip your coupon and start an envelope for Walgreen's and place your coupon in it. You now have them all together to take on your shopping trip.
Do this with each of the stores you plan on visiting, or at least browse each flyer and see if there are any items you need or can stock up on.
The next post will dig a little deeper into store coupons, matching those with manufacturers coupons, store policies and register rewards!
Until then...I hope you all take a moment and save a few dimes!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Price Book Pics!
This is a Price Book....
I am in the process of updating mine, so I only have the information for a couple of stores and a few items, but over the next few weeks I will have it completed. You'll get the idea....
My book is just a small softcover journal, about 4" across and 5 1/2" tall. It fits easily in my purse.
I am in the process of updating mine, so I only have the information for a couple of stores and a few items, but over the next few weeks I will have it completed. You'll get the idea....
My book is just a small softcover journal, about 4" across and 5 1/2" tall. It fits easily in my purse.
Once you start using this tool you will realize it is worth it's weight in dimes! Okay GOLD!
If you happen to stop buy another store, or perhaps a wholesale club you will be able to tell right off hand the best price!
I am attending a coupon class tonight, I will be sure to share that information as my next blog will be CONQUERING COUPONING!
Stay tuned.......
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Name that price....
Good Afternoon Everyone!
Hope you all are doing well, joyfully springing ahead and saving some dimes!
Now that we have spoke of de-cluttering, menu planning, stretching your food budget and some homemade goodies. We can slowly dive into saving & couponing. When I say slowly...it's because again this takes some time and organization. Of course, you CAN just read a flyer, cut a coupon, save a couple of bucks and be done. You may do this from time to time and trust me ANY money saved is great, but if you take a little bit of time and organize yourself you will see that it will pay off. One of the things I utilize is a pricebook...I will post a photo of an example soon. (I need to update mine, so this is great!)
The best way to do this is to get yourself a small notebook, something you can easily tuck in your purse while shopping. And from your list of staples and menu plans, write down your most commonly purchased items along the left hand side of each page. Beside each list make 3 columns...at the top of each column write the initial for the stores you commonly use. For example my pages all have "H", "S" and "W" at the top. (Hannaford, Shaw's and Walmart)
Now comes the part that is a little time consuming, but well worth it. Spend some time at each place, you can go and do this some afternoon or each time you happen to stop into these stores you shop at simply make a few entries. The goal is to have an idea of how much an item costs at each of the stores so you are well equipped with this knowledge when sales arise and coupons are released. Once you see an item is on sale, you can then refer to your price book to see if it indeed is a bargain. You won't be tricked into thinking it's a deal, you will know! If a coupon comes out for an item you know you use, you can check and see where you might save the most money. Not to mention some stores double coupons and some don't. Here near my home Shaw's doubles coupons up to $0.99 so if they show an item on sale and it's the same price as I would purchase it at Hannaford, BUT I have a $0.75 coupon AND they DOUBLE that, well then I am definitely getting a deal. We will work into coupons but for now, gather your information and do your research...
Does it go without saying...check unit pricing? If there is an item you KNOW you are going to use alot, PLEASE pay attention to unit pricing. (example: 24oz of chocolate chips: $3.68, 48oz bag of chocolate chips: $4.68) if you know you use chocolate chips on a regular basis it saves you some dimes by buying the bigger bag and pay less per ounce.
While I do think it is important to compare prices, I do think it is wise to group purchases and shopping trips together so that you are not chasing small savings all over town. With the price of fuel these days it may not pay off in the end.
I plan to work on updating my price book this week, when I have it ready I will post a picture...keep on saving!
I hope this is helpful, if you have any questions please let me know...
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Hope you all are doing well, joyfully springing ahead and saving some dimes!
Now that we have spoke of de-cluttering, menu planning, stretching your food budget and some homemade goodies. We can slowly dive into saving & couponing. When I say slowly...it's because again this takes some time and organization. Of course, you CAN just read a flyer, cut a coupon, save a couple of bucks and be done. You may do this from time to time and trust me ANY money saved is great, but if you take a little bit of time and organize yourself you will see that it will pay off. One of the things I utilize is a pricebook...I will post a photo of an example soon. (I need to update mine, so this is great!)
The best way to do this is to get yourself a small notebook, something you can easily tuck in your purse while shopping. And from your list of staples and menu plans, write down your most commonly purchased items along the left hand side of each page. Beside each list make 3 columns...at the top of each column write the initial for the stores you commonly use. For example my pages all have "H", "S" and "W" at the top. (Hannaford, Shaw's and Walmart)
Now comes the part that is a little time consuming, but well worth it. Spend some time at each place, you can go and do this some afternoon or each time you happen to stop into these stores you shop at simply make a few entries. The goal is to have an idea of how much an item costs at each of the stores so you are well equipped with this knowledge when sales arise and coupons are released. Once you see an item is on sale, you can then refer to your price book to see if it indeed is a bargain. You won't be tricked into thinking it's a deal, you will know! If a coupon comes out for an item you know you use, you can check and see where you might save the most money. Not to mention some stores double coupons and some don't. Here near my home Shaw's doubles coupons up to $0.99 so if they show an item on sale and it's the same price as I would purchase it at Hannaford, BUT I have a $0.75 coupon AND they DOUBLE that, well then I am definitely getting a deal. We will work into coupons but for now, gather your information and do your research...
Does it go without saying...check unit pricing? If there is an item you KNOW you are going to use alot, PLEASE pay attention to unit pricing. (example: 24oz of chocolate chips: $3.68, 48oz bag of chocolate chips: $4.68) if you know you use chocolate chips on a regular basis it saves you some dimes by buying the bigger bag and pay less per ounce.
While I do think it is important to compare prices, I do think it is wise to group purchases and shopping trips together so that you are not chasing small savings all over town. With the price of fuel these days it may not pay off in the end.
I plan to work on updating my price book this week, when I have it ready I will post a picture...keep on saving!
I hope this is helpful, if you have any questions please let me know...
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Clutter BE GONE!
This may not seem like it applies to saving money, but I will tell you how it does.
When we live a cluttered life it makes it difficult to save. Organization is key to being empowered with a clear mind ready and willing to take on the steps to frugality.
When you clear out clutter you may find items you no longer need. There are so many ways these days to get a bit of return on investment. Or, you can donate these items to a great cause and although that may not fill your wallet, it will fill your heart and that can feel even better. When we are unorganized we spend more because it is easier...why look for something for hours when it only costs $5.00 to replace...haven't we all been there? Well no more...pick a hot spot in your home and see what you can find!
I am taking this weekend to do some de-cluttering myself and I know that doing so will help me fulfill all of these things! Baby Steps...that's what I want you all to remember.
Heck you may even find some dimes!
Have a great weekend!
When we live a cluttered life it makes it difficult to save. Organization is key to being empowered with a clear mind ready and willing to take on the steps to frugality.
When you clear out clutter you may find items you no longer need. There are so many ways these days to get a bit of return on investment. Or, you can donate these items to a great cause and although that may not fill your wallet, it will fill your heart and that can feel even better. When we are unorganized we spend more because it is easier...why look for something for hours when it only costs $5.00 to replace...haven't we all been there? Well no more...pick a hot spot in your home and see what you can find!
I am taking this weekend to do some de-cluttering myself and I know that doing so will help me fulfill all of these things! Baby Steps...that's what I want you all to remember.
Heck you may even find some dimes!
Have a great weekend!
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