Showing posts with label coupons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coupons. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Saving money on just about anything

Isn't that what it's all about when it comes to your finances? Do you often ask yourself "HOW CAN I SAVE MONEY?" I know for a long time I did that, and sometimes I still do. It's OK to have to stop and reevaluate what you are doing to see if you can cut back on some expenses. Just recently I have had to do that and I have once again gotten motivated and am ready to save even MORE! It's like a new diet or a new work out plan... you know you NEED to do it, but you don't really want to. BUT, once you start seeing results then you are fired up and ready to do more. Same thing with money. Not always easy or fun, but once you start seeing the $aving$, you will want to do MORE!

I recently saved money the following ways:

1. Dish. I started examining our bill and thought to myself "This is nuts"!!!! We basically watch the main channels (4,7,11) for our news and TV shows and then other than that everything we are watching is RERUNS. I love TV Land, and Nick at Nite but let's face it... we own half of the shows on DVD already! We were also paying for a second dish with 2 dvr boxes in two rooms that we rarely used. So I called to see if I could cancel the 2nd dish with the 2 dvr's we dont use and they said SURE! Shaved 17 dollars off our bill just like that! Then I have spent time evaluating the packages offered by DISH and it looks like we are about to save an additional 23 dollars a month when I downgrade our package. As long as you don't cancel your membership with them then you can make all the changes you want and still be within your "contract". handy piece of info. I didnt think I could do that.

2. Clothes shopping. I am not extreme. I have seen the show "Extreme Cheapskates" and Dear Lord Please NEVER let me be like that!!!" BUT, there is nothing wrong with asking for a deal. I recently found a super cute dress and it had the tiniest of rips in it, but hey--it was worth asking. And I saved an additional 15%! Not too shabby!  Don't hesitate to ask. Also, some places will offer up a discount just for asking. Just an FYI, if you ever shop at Shoe Carnival and they are not currently advertising a "Buy one Get One 1/2 off sale" just ASK. They will honor that ANYTIME if you simply ASK. There are savings right in front of you!

3. Electricity bill. I HATE paying this bill. I DESPISE it with everything in me. It seems ridiculous to pay THAT much just to have electricity, but alas it is a necessity. :) Turn off lights. Turn the heat down when you leave the house. Unplug things. Don't leave fans going if you aren't home. Close doors that you don't use so the heat isn't trying to warm those. Shut off vents! We have done that in two rooms that we rarely go in. What's the point in heating them? Close your blinds and curtains at night to help your house stay warmer and this will allow you to turn your heat down!

4. Call your cell phone carrier. They now have (at least Verizon does) a way to run a little test to see the average minutes/texts/data that you use. I did this and was shocked to learn that I was paying for FAR more than we ever use. $17 dollars saved just by making a phone call.

5. Grocery store. I'm still in the middle of an experiment with our local stores--trying to see which one is REALLLLY the best deal. Avoid Walmart for meat. Go to a GROCERY store. Ask the butcher if he has any markdowns he's about to put out OR ask when would be a good time to come back and get some deals. Ask him what he's marking down. They love talking to customers. They hack meat all day for goodness sakes... they enjoy the break! THIS can save you some serious cash.

Alright, of course there are more things but here are some reminders for you. What can you add to the list? Comment or email me at cararoxanne02@aol.com to let me hear YOUR tips!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Money Saving Tips

It's the little things that we do that can save a buck here and there-but it totally ads up! Here are just a few ways to save money!

1. Brown bag your lunch. Let's say you eat out 5 days a week at just $5 a pop. That is $1300 a year to have a probably not too delicious 5 buck lunch during the work week. What in the world could you do with $1300?? Wouldn't THAT be nice!



2. Don't touch your air/heat! Set it and forget it. If it's blazin' saddles at your house set it to 72 and then do NOT touch it. Don't turn it down, or kick it up a notch. LEAVE it alone. Studies have proven this will save an average of $40 each month which comes out $480.00 per year!


3. Cancel the magazines! I KNOW that you love the National Enquirer (don't we all), but your local library has it for free! And you probably have a neighbor or friend that has a HUGE stack of these that they are about to trash... get it for free. Depending on how many magazine subscriptions you get, cancelling them could save you up to $100 each year!

4. You want your diamonds to sparkle... who doesn't?!?! But that $10.00 bottle of cleaner you are buying every few months is nothing more than ammonia and water. Trust me--I had a jeweler tell me to save my money. SO, I went from buying a bottle around 3-4 times a year (average of $40.00 per year spent) to buying a gallon of ammonia at the Dollar Tree for $1.00. TADA! There ya go :) Let's spend that money elsewhere.

5. Laundry time! Do it early in the morning or late in the evening. Energy costs are cheaper when the sun is not up in the high sky yet. According to GE's newsletter published in 2010, by doing so you could save easily $15-25 dollars EACH month! So start the load at night, and then throw it in the dryer before work. Save that money!

There are ALWAYS more and more ways to save money. I plan to do better about sharing these. What are your money saving tips???

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Making it a habit

It doesn't take that long to make something a habit. AND, it only takes 21 days to break a habit. The question is... what do you want to make a habit?



When looking at the financial aspect of things, some good habits to learn are:

1. saving
2. spending less
3. shopping with coupons
4. eating out LESS (notice I didn't say NEVER)
5. thrift store shopping
6. buying Christmas gifts ahead of time
7. Opening an IRA
8. Faithfully putting money in your sacvings account
9. Using cash
10. balancing your checkbook

These are just SOME of the wildly popular financial habits that people are diligently trying to make part of their lives. There are many, MANY more and i'd LOVE to hear the ones that are important to you.

The thing is... once you decide what you want to do, you have to have a follow through plan. you can't do too much at one time. you cannot try to complete the list from above in just a matter of a few days. Best thing you can do is think of ONE financial habit you would like to create in your life and go for it. Then once that one is second nature and no longer something that you have to force yourself to do, you can move on to the next one.

So much of financial habits go hand in hand. You can save more when you spend less. You can spend less when you buy things at a thrift store or shop with coupons. You can pay down your debt when you have more money.... AND so on and so forth. Start SOMEWHERE.

Make a new financial habit this month. Start small, and watch your money grow BIG!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Couponing vs. Off brands

This is a debate I have within myself a LOT. Every Sunday when I get the paper and go through the coupons there are SO many that I throw away. Why? Because I KNOW the off brand is cheaper. I know that I can $ave more money by buying the stores brand vs. using the coupon and getting the brand name.

So what about you? What do YOU think?

I watch all of the extreme couponing shows and I KNOW that I am never going to get a haul like they do. But i have managed to save my family a TON of money by using coupons. Coupons are always for the name brand. BUT, even with that coupon in my hand that is not always the smartest move. There are plenty of times I opt to chunk my coupon at the checkout and grab the off brand.

One thing you HAVE to remember it's about SAVING MONEY! Not having a stock pile with only name brand items. It's about which saved you more. Do my legs REALLY know if I used skintimate or the equate brand? nope... last time I checked they could NOT tell. But my pocketbook CAN tell which one I bought.

Be smart about it... use coupons when it saves and use better judgment when it would save you more.

YOUR THOUGHTS??

Thursday, December 29, 2011

FREE PANTIES AT VICTORIAS SECRET!

Tomorrow, get a FREE pair of New Years panties when you make any purchase at your local V.S. store.

Click HERE to view and print your coupon :)

HAPPY SHOPPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Stock pile pictures

I by NO means have some gigantic stock pile... but I do pretty well I think. :)

Here are the pics of my recently re-organized stock pile! If you are wanting to do this as well I will be happy to share my tips!

I keep a list in the room of how many of everything I have. That way I ALWAYS know what I have on hand. It makes it easy to run out to the room and look at what I have while i'm making my shopping lists.

I keep it simple. I buy the things that I can get for less than $2.00. If I get them super cheap I will buy as many as I can. But my limit is always 5 at a time. :) Just keeps things simple. If you can get it free though and you actually USE it... i'd be stocking up!!!!







Wednesday, August 3, 2011

My awesome Kroger trip!!

Yesterday I hit the JACKPOT at Kroger!

i went in planning to spend no more than $60 dollars... and I left spending $54.76. Not too shabby!!

BUT--the best part is that I had planned to buy the usual items (2 hamburger meats, 1 bag of chicken, 3 cans of veggies, brauts, bread-2loafs, milk, eggs, yogurt, tortilla chips, fruit) Doesn't sound like much especially since I planned on spending $60 bucks but you guys know how EXPENSIVE the stores are these days.

Well... I ran across a sale on chicken breats. The frozen Kroger bags. They were on sale for $5.01. (Random number I thought). And I hit the JACKPOT on Kroger hamburger meat in the rolls. They are $2.99 but they had a bunch marked down to $1.49 because they expire on Friday. I flagged down the butcher and he told me as long as I froze them, I could keep them for literally a year. WOW! So I bought 10 of them. Then I had a coupon that Kroger mailed me in a little booklet thing a while back. There was a coupon in there for $5.00 off if you spend $15 dollars in the meat department. TADA!!!! So I spent $14.91 on meat that will last us if not for the WHOLE month, for at least 3 weeks.

I was super pumped.

I don't have time to run into the store EVERY single day, but its worth a stop in at least twice a week just to see if you can run upon those deals anymore!!

What about you? Any good deals for you this week?

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Did you get your coupons today?

So... did you get your coupons today?

There sure were some good ones in there!!!!!

I hope everyone got there. Let me hear about your savings this week. I will be sure to post mine!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

FREE FLOSS!

This happens on occasion, so stock up while you can!


Go to http://www.coupons.com/ and find the REACH FLOSS $1.00 off coupon. You can print it twice.

Floss is .97 cents at Walmart so there ya go--its FREE :)

GET IT WHILE YOU CAN!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

FREE TEA DAY AT MCALISTER'S!

Don't forget to head over to McAlister's today for a 32 oz sweet tea for FREE! No purchase necessary! Enjoy--best --tea---ever!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

When do you quit stocking up?

Question folks--if you have been working on a stock pile for a few months...when do you quit stocking and live off of it?

I'm by NO means an extreme couponer, but I have managed to stock up on house hold items and keep them on hand for when I need them. But I guess I don't know when you actually start living off of the stock pile?

Any thoughts on this? When is enough-enough? When do you quit stocking up and live off of what you have already?

ALL YOU!

I LOVE All You magazine. I also subscribed to their emails so i'm constantly getting helpful tips in my inbox. :)

I am ALL about getting rid of unnecessary payments, unnecessary items in your life and house... but I WILL say that subscribing to ALL YOU magazine has seriously saved me more money than the magazine cost! PLUS there are lots of helpful hints in the magazine. It's so worth the $1.66 an issue.

So while you are de-cluttering your life and getting rid of unneccessary things, consider keeping OR adding ALL YOU magazine to your life.

Here's today's link... enjoy! :)

Monday, July 11, 2011

FREE SHOUT WIPES!

http://www.becausecheaperisbetter.blogspot.com/

I saw a post from the above blogger this morning on getting free SHOUT wipes through facebook! so I followed her advice and I got em! Now its your turn!

LIKE SHOUT on facebook and request a free sample of wipes. GO GET EM!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

FULL size bottle of PANTENE GIVEAWAY!

This is AWESOME and you all have you to do is "LIKE" Pantene on facebook by clicking HERE. Fill out your info and you will recieve a confirmation that says if you made the cut off or not and if so you will get a coupon in the mail in 4-6 weeks. AWESOME PANTENE! You have made me VERY happy :)

Interesting article on couponing

THIS article is a must read for anyone in the coupon world. :)

I noticed pretty quickly after I got into couponing that Kroger tightened down on their allowance of coupons and now it appears that Target has done the same thing. It's a shame, really, because the show was made in good faith to help make our world MORE full to the brim of reality tv AND to help portray to us regular folks that saving money CAN be accomplished!

What do you think about all the coupon changes? Do you think they are related to TLC's show??

Monday, March 7, 2011

2 free organize in style coupon books

Click HERE and HERE to get free booklets of coupons! Takes 4-6 weeks before they come in the mail! $35 worth of coupons in each book! Go get em'!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Kroger trip success!!!!


On sale $2.18 PLUS my $1.00 off coupons! :)




 On sale for $5.99 PLUS my $2.00 off coupon



BEST deal of them all... $5.99 PLUS my $3.00 off coupon!!! This NEVER happens!


Kroger sale price: $1.39
Cara's final price: $.39 cents :) woop woop!!!

Overall....SUCCESS!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Free samplesof Kotex

Go to KOTEX new website and sign up to recieve a FREE sample of the new U-Kotex tampon. Hey... no lady wants to spend money for these so its DEF worth it :)


AND you can sign up for coupons. Woop woop!

Monday, February 28, 2011

FIRST couponing experience

Alrighty--I did it!!! I went on my first "couponing" trip. It felt like a fiasco b/c my coupons are NOT organized enough for this mess BUT they will be soon and very soon!

First let me say that my goal was NOT to leave with tons of free stuff. I'm too new for that to be happening but I had told Jere that I wanted to at LEAST save about 50 bucks a month on "household stuff". That stuff to me is TP, paper towels, laundry detergent, toothpaste, etc. Make sense? So anyway thats exactly what I did!

I purchased:
2 bottles of arm and hammer detergent
1 package of always(new) pads
2 boxes of Kotex tampons
1 box Tampaz pearl tampons
2 bottles of childrens pain relief (1 tylenol, 1 ibuoprofen)
1 bottle colgate whitening toothpaste
1 package of 6 VIVA paper towels
1 package of 6 double roll Charmin Ultra
1 bottle of Simply Orange(not pictured...it was in the fridge)

I spent : $33.47

My ORIGNAL total was $68.49 before I gave her my coupons. AND I left with $8 dollars in Walgreens Bucks. (register rewards)

Let me break it down... I had extra coupons of Kotex, Tampax, Charmin, Viva, Arm and Hammer and the Simply Orange.

Simply Orange was on sale for $3.00 and I had a $1.00 off coupon.
I had a $2.00 off ANY tampax product and these tampons were on the "Discount isle." Don't know why...but they were already marked down. Kotex was 2 for $6 and I had a $2.00 off coupon. VIVA towels were on sale PLUS an instore coupon and I printed off an addtional coupon. Arm and Hammer was already $4 bucks off each bottle AND I had a coupon for $2.00 off any 2. SO I got those 2 bottles (normally 6.99 each) for $4 bucks TOTAL! Crest whitening toothpaste(which I NEVER buy b/c its $$$) was on sale already for $2.99 PLUS a $2.99 register rewards AND I had a $1.00 off coupon.

I can't remember it all...its a blur. :) I went in with my pile of coupons and notes and AGGGHHH!!! I found myself walking around in circles. PROBABLY would have been easier to go in for 2 or 3 items but I didn't. BASICALLY I got almost $70 bucks of stuff for $22 if you take off the "register reward" bucks that I left with. NOW the smart thing to do is head back and stock up on TP or paper towels while they are on sale. Oh and laundry detergent. What a bargain!

I didn't leave with a weeks full of groceries...no food at all. BUT I bought enough detergent to last me a while (I had already had a stock pile of 3 bottles b/c they were on sale a few weeks back) AND I added to my stock pile of tp. Don't plan on going over board BUT I am so glad that I took the time to figure this out.

Happy shopping!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Practically FREE spaghetti sauce!

Click HERE and print off a 45 cent off coupon on HUNT'S spaghetti sauce. Here's the cool part... Kroger, Harvest Foods and some other stores double up to 60 cents. SO... since Walmart, Kroger AND Harvest Foods keep their Hunt's spaghetti sauce at either .99 cents or $1.00... you are getting it PRACTICALLY free!

I love spaghetti... and I love the fact that I can go buy 3 or 4 cans and have spent a quarter! YESSSS.... i'm back in the game! :)

Don't forget to print it off AND you can totally print more than one. Trust me... I just printed 7!