I found that with my coupon journey that I got into the thinking that it was a good deal so I had to buy it. I know we all love to get good deals, but what I have found that helps is to stick to a budget. As I have mentioned before, I have a notecard that I write all my grocery purchases and this helps remind me of what I already spent and encourages me to think about what I buy.
Now many of my friends are now on this coupon journey and I am also going to encourage you to think about items/products that you don't need that you consider buying it to donate to charity. Each week, I would say 3-5 dollars worth of my purchases support our church's food pantry. When I can get a good deal on something, I do consider that I can donate this to my church and I also get the thrill of finding a great item on sale. Every month or so, I gather up all of these items and drop them off.
Something to think about!!!
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
A Visit to the Mall....
Look for the deals everywhere!!!!
Well, we made a quick run into the mall today to get a last minute birthday gift and to find a swimsuit for one of my daughters. Every store that we went to we used a coupon or a rewards card!!! My daughters are now creatures of couponing!!!
We went to Justice to get a swimsuit and I had forgotten (hard to believe :) ) my 30% off coupon. Luckily, the wonderful cashier there took the 30% off for my daughter's swimsuit. I had decided that if she didn't I would put the swimsuit on hold, drive home to get the coupon, and then bring the swimsuit to her at the birthday party. I can't bear to pay full price for anything.
Then we went to Bath and Body works to buy the birthday gift and got the birthday girl some wonderful perfume and soap. It smelled yummy. Buying 2 of these items gave us a cheaper price and I had a coupon for a free fragrance item so I was able to get 2 wallflower refills for my home!!!
Off to the Hallmark store....I have a stash of cute cards (from the $ store that were only .50) that I keep at home in my present closet to give for all different occasions but I wasn't going to be able to run home before I dropped her off at her party so I used my Hallmark rewards card and earned some reward points for the $1 cards that I bought.
Then on our way out of the mall, one of my daughters decided she wanted a drink at Gloria Jean's so she got out her mall gift card that she had gotten for her birthday and ordered a delicious carmel beverage. One taste of this delicious drink and I was in heaven. Yummy!!! As she paid, I watched her whip out her Gloria Jean's reward card to earn her a free drink. I have taught her well!!
I am sure many of you have some stories about your savings to share!!! Feel free to post them as a comment. We can learn so much from each other!!!
Well, we made a quick run into the mall today to get a last minute birthday gift and to find a swimsuit for one of my daughters. Every store that we went to we used a coupon or a rewards card!!! My daughters are now creatures of couponing!!!
We went to Justice to get a swimsuit and I had forgotten (hard to believe :) ) my 30% off coupon. Luckily, the wonderful cashier there took the 30% off for my daughter's swimsuit. I had decided that if she didn't I would put the swimsuit on hold, drive home to get the coupon, and then bring the swimsuit to her at the birthday party. I can't bear to pay full price for anything.
Then we went to Bath and Body works to buy the birthday gift and got the birthday girl some wonderful perfume and soap. It smelled yummy. Buying 2 of these items gave us a cheaper price and I had a coupon for a free fragrance item so I was able to get 2 wallflower refills for my home!!!
Off to the Hallmark store....I have a stash of cute cards (from the $ store that were only .50) that I keep at home in my present closet to give for all different occasions but I wasn't going to be able to run home before I dropped her off at her party so I used my Hallmark rewards card and earned some reward points for the $1 cards that I bought.
Then on our way out of the mall, one of my daughters decided she wanted a drink at Gloria Jean's so she got out her mall gift card that she had gotten for her birthday and ordered a delicious carmel beverage. One taste of this delicious drink and I was in heaven. Yummy!!! As she paid, I watched her whip out her Gloria Jean's reward card to earn her a free drink. I have taught her well!!
I am sure many of you have some stories about your savings to share!!! Feel free to post them as a comment. We can learn so much from each other!!!
Shop at Meijer on 4/25 Spent 67 and Saved 36
Today was a quick shop at Meijer.
I was in and out of the store within 20 minutes (I did stop and talk to a friend for a short bit!).
I spent 67 (with tax) and saved 36.
I had almost 14 dollars in coupons.
I saved 22 dollars by buying items that were on sale.
My husband made a Sam's run on Friday. For my friends that follow my blog, they know how much this makes me cringe. I know that there are some items that are a good value. There are also quite a few things that our family loves that we can't find at other stores. So on the weeks that he shops at Sam's I try to keep my Meijer/Aldi/Kroger bills lower to offset the Sam's bill. I haven't seen the reciept yet, but have a feeling that I will need to be creative with my cooking and shopping this week.
Our biggest expenses is sports beverages. All four of us are very active. My husband and I have developed a love for running and my daughters are now up to 3 sports during this spring season. We can't seem to keep the propel or gatorade in the house. If anyone has any suggestions about how to get this for cheaper, I would love some suggestions. Occasionally, I will get the sport drink that Aldi sells. Otherwise, it seems like we go through gallons of this stuff. It seems like it NEVER goes on sale!
Enjoy this beautiful weather and I think spring is finally here!!!
I was in and out of the store within 20 minutes (I did stop and talk to a friend for a short bit!).
I spent 67 (with tax) and saved 36.
I had almost 14 dollars in coupons.
I saved 22 dollars by buying items that were on sale.
My husband made a Sam's run on Friday. For my friends that follow my blog, they know how much this makes me cringe. I know that there are some items that are a good value. There are also quite a few things that our family loves that we can't find at other stores. So on the weeks that he shops at Sam's I try to keep my Meijer/Aldi/Kroger bills lower to offset the Sam's bill. I haven't seen the reciept yet, but have a feeling that I will need to be creative with my cooking and shopping this week.
Our biggest expenses is sports beverages. All four of us are very active. My husband and I have developed a love for running and my daughters are now up to 3 sports during this spring season. We can't seem to keep the propel or gatorade in the house. If anyone has any suggestions about how to get this for cheaper, I would love some suggestions. Occasionally, I will get the sport drink that Aldi sells. Otherwise, it seems like we go through gallons of this stuff. It seems like it NEVER goes on sale!
Enjoy this beautiful weather and I think spring is finally here!!!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Target Deals for this week!!!
http://www.imommies.com/financial-resources/saving/the-target-weekly-041909-042509.htm
If you like to shop at Target, check out the imommies blog. I receive email updates from her every time she post something new to her blog.
If you like to shop at Target, check out the imommies blog. I receive email updates from her every time she post something new to her blog.
Restaurant.com Gift Certificates on sale
Restaurant.com is a great website for gettting reduced gift certificates that you can give or use for yourself. Unfortunately, there aren't any restaurants here in B town but if you travel to the burbs or possibly Peoria you can get 60% off.
We gave a bunch of these to my dad and stepmom for Christmas at various restaurants in Florida. They loved trying out new places that they might not have gone to before.
I recommend that you go through ebates first and get 15% cash back. I checked and right now in Peoria they have a Cheddar's gift certificates for $10 on sale for $3. If you enter the discount code (see the imommies link below) you will get an additional 60% off this price therefore $1.20 for a $10 gift certificate. Now you will also get 15% cash back from ebates as well!!!
http://www.imommies.com/financial-resources/saving/restaurantcom-60-discount-15-dale-thomas-gift-card-through-042609.htm
ENJOY!!!
We gave a bunch of these to my dad and stepmom for Christmas at various restaurants in Florida. They loved trying out new places that they might not have gone to before.
I recommend that you go through ebates first and get 15% cash back. I checked and right now in Peoria they have a Cheddar's gift certificates for $10 on sale for $3. If you enter the discount code (see the imommies link below) you will get an additional 60% off this price therefore $1.20 for a $10 gift certificate. Now you will also get 15% cash back from ebates as well!!!
http://www.imommies.com/financial-resources/saving/restaurantcom-60-discount-15-dale-thomas-gift-card-through-042609.htm
ENJOY!!!
Earth Day Deals
http://becentsable.blogspot.com/2009/04/earth-day-freebies.html
http://www.imommies.com/financial-resources/saving/happy-earth-day-09-saving-the-green.htm
http://katycouponers.blogspot.com/2009/04/earth-day-freebies.html
These are from some of my favorite bloggers that I receive automated emails from....
Enjoy!!
http://www.imommies.com/financial-resources/saving/happy-earth-day-09-saving-the-green.htm
http://katycouponers.blogspot.com/2009/04/earth-day-freebies.html
These are from some of my favorite bloggers that I receive automated emails from....
Enjoy!!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
March Savings....
My organization in March was not as organized as I have been in previous months. March and April was a VERY busy time for my family. My daughters are now involved in 2 afterschool sports activities and my husband and I were training for a 1/2 Marathon. March and April consisted of a lot of time running for us as well as running our kids to their different activities.
My monthly spending for groceries this month was $464.50.
I saved with coupons and shopping the sales $296.00.
Since March was a 5 week month, my weekly budget equaled $92.90.
This month I had 2 shops at Sam's Club one for 60 and one for 80. This is also included in my monthly budget.
If I had paid full price for all of items and didn't use coupons, I would have spent $760 on groceries this month.
Do you still think clipping coupons isn't worth the time and/or the trouble?
My monthly spending for groceries this month was $464.50.
I saved with coupons and shopping the sales $296.00.
Since March was a 5 week month, my weekly budget equaled $92.90.
This month I had 2 shops at Sam's Club one for 60 and one for 80. This is also included in my monthly budget.
If I had paid full price for all of items and didn't use coupons, I would have spent $760 on groceries this month.
Do you still think clipping coupons isn't worth the time and/or the trouble?
Coupon Class
Coupon Class
Well, today I had a coupon class afterschool. It was great to see so many of my colleagues want to save money!!As I have said before, I just hate to see people spend too much at the grocery store. There have been many times that I have been in line behind someone who has spent hundreds of dollars on groceries and they have so little to show for it. I want to pull them aside and share all of my secrets!!
I also have a hard time spending a lot of money on food that ends up in 2 places on our hips, butt, or thighs :) or in the toilet!!! Don't get me wrong, I believe in feeding my family quality fresh and healthy food but if I can find it on sale and then use a coupon it puts a lot more money into our family budget.
I hope that my friends are enjoying their coupon adventure. For those of you that are new to couponing, take it slow. Try the free blogs for awhile and start matching your coupons to items on sale. Or sign up for a month for a dollar with the grocery game and start slowly. I would recommend saving your coupons for a couple of weeks or even a month in order to get the best savings.
I have about a year under my belt from serious couponing but I still know that I can learn sooooo much more.
I will continue to share my findings with you and help you with this coupon adventure. Every little bit you save will continue to grow and you will get to the amount of savings that I am finding during my grocery visits and maybe even more. If you do, make sure you share your tricks with me and our readers.
Please feel free to comment on the blog if you have questions or drop me an email at the link on the side of my blog.For those of you that are new when time allows try exploring some of my postings on the blog and learn some of the tricks that I have learned over the past year.
Happy Couponing!!!
Well, today I had a coupon class afterschool. It was great to see so many of my colleagues want to save money!!As I have said before, I just hate to see people spend too much at the grocery store. There have been many times that I have been in line behind someone who has spent hundreds of dollars on groceries and they have so little to show for it. I want to pull them aside and share all of my secrets!!
I also have a hard time spending a lot of money on food that ends up in 2 places on our hips, butt, or thighs :) or in the toilet!!! Don't get me wrong, I believe in feeding my family quality fresh and healthy food but if I can find it on sale and then use a coupon it puts a lot more money into our family budget.
I hope that my friends are enjoying their coupon adventure. For those of you that are new to couponing, take it slow. Try the free blogs for awhile and start matching your coupons to items on sale. Or sign up for a month for a dollar with the grocery game and start slowly. I would recommend saving your coupons for a couple of weeks or even a month in order to get the best savings.
I have about a year under my belt from serious couponing but I still know that I can learn sooooo much more.
I will continue to share my findings with you and help you with this coupon adventure. Every little bit you save will continue to grow and you will get to the amount of savings that I am finding during my grocery visits and maybe even more. If you do, make sure you share your tricks with me and our readers.
Please feel free to comment on the blog if you have questions or drop me an email at the link on the side of my blog.For those of you that are new when time allows try exploring some of my postings on the blog and learn some of the tricks that I have learned over the past year.
Happy Couponing!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)