Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Be careful when couponning.
If you are not careful you will spend your budget getting lots of 1 to 4 things and be left with odds and ends to cook with until you have amassed a larger stockpile. We now have oh, 24 boxes of cereal, a case of tuna and a case of mac n cheese, but we're getting tired of playing with these three items for meals. We're going to try a new strategy this next month where we make a list of needs and choose a few items to stockpile.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Saving Smart
I never understand when people say that you can not control how much you spend on gasoline. YES YOU CAN!
Get rewards card from places that offer savings on gasoline if you shop there, then hit their sales with your coupons and buy gas that same day. Walk more often. Carpool with others. Do more each time you leave the house so you do not have to go out so often. Ask others to pick things up for you if you need something but need to cut gas usage.
Entertainment. Drop cable, have internet and netflix. Thats maybe $35 a month for us compared to the $100 + to have cable or satilite and a movie channel.
Electric bill? Raise the Ac temp 2 degrees and run a few rotating fans to help circulate the air better. Turn lights off, or use the energy saver bulbs if its a light you need on for long periods of time. Remove the bulbs from the fridge, really do you need it? I don't!
Natural gas bill? Lower the heat a few degrees in the winter. Don't use it to heat up things only a couple degrees warmer than it is without. Turn off the pilot on the furnace once the cold weather is gone. Turn down your water heater a bit. Wear sweaters, don't walk around in the middle of winter wearing shorts and a t-shirt and complain that you are cold. OF COURSE YOU ARE! Cover up and you wont be so cold.
Have issues with paying rent? Use savings from other areas to save up and buy a place of your own with cash! Get a fixer upper and FIX it. You don't need a 100K+ home. We are working on saving $45K to buy a 3 bedroom with a few acres. It will more than suffice for our needs and then we will fix what we can on our own and save up to pay professionals to do the rest.
Do not stick with brand X just because its what you have always used. Use what is on sale that you have a coupon for. The cheaper you get stuff the more you have to save, or use to fix the house up or whatever. I hate hearing people whine about how they can not figure out how to save and I see name brand clothes in their closet with tags still on, or a new car with a huge payment due in the driveway, or a house that is too big for their family with a huge mortgage. Its rediculous how anyone thinks they can save money when they live beyond their means. You have to smarten up people, don't like having a huge mortgage, find out about paying in advance and use what you save to pay down the principal. Does your mortgage have a clause that keeps you from paying early due to a huge fine? Get a new mortgage with another bank that will allow early payment. There is always a way to save. Oh and credit cards? Pay'em and cancel them. Get rid of them they are stupid!
Get rewards card from places that offer savings on gasoline if you shop there, then hit their sales with your coupons and buy gas that same day. Walk more often. Carpool with others. Do more each time you leave the house so you do not have to go out so often. Ask others to pick things up for you if you need something but need to cut gas usage.
Entertainment. Drop cable, have internet and netflix. Thats maybe $35 a month for us compared to the $100 + to have cable or satilite and a movie channel.
Electric bill? Raise the Ac temp 2 degrees and run a few rotating fans to help circulate the air better. Turn lights off, or use the energy saver bulbs if its a light you need on for long periods of time. Remove the bulbs from the fridge, really do you need it? I don't!
Natural gas bill? Lower the heat a few degrees in the winter. Don't use it to heat up things only a couple degrees warmer than it is without. Turn off the pilot on the furnace once the cold weather is gone. Turn down your water heater a bit. Wear sweaters, don't walk around in the middle of winter wearing shorts and a t-shirt and complain that you are cold. OF COURSE YOU ARE! Cover up and you wont be so cold.
Have issues with paying rent? Use savings from other areas to save up and buy a place of your own with cash! Get a fixer upper and FIX it. You don't need a 100K+ home. We are working on saving $45K to buy a 3 bedroom with a few acres. It will more than suffice for our needs and then we will fix what we can on our own and save up to pay professionals to do the rest.
Do not stick with brand X just because its what you have always used. Use what is on sale that you have a coupon for. The cheaper you get stuff the more you have to save, or use to fix the house up or whatever. I hate hearing people whine about how they can not figure out how to save and I see name brand clothes in their closet with tags still on, or a new car with a huge payment due in the driveway, or a house that is too big for their family with a huge mortgage. Its rediculous how anyone thinks they can save money when they live beyond their means. You have to smarten up people, don't like having a huge mortgage, find out about paying in advance and use what you save to pay down the principal. Does your mortgage have a clause that keeps you from paying early due to a huge fine? Get a new mortgage with another bank that will allow early payment. There is always a way to save. Oh and credit cards? Pay'em and cancel them. Get rid of them they are stupid!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Coupon Trains and Trades Yahoo group
I recently began my own yahoo group for trading coupons and doing coupon trains. I found most groups wanted you to send out large (30 or more) coupons at a time if you were conducting the train and that just puts the risk a bit high for some folks. So I started a group where the most in any train will be 20. A much easier loss to handle should anything go wrong. You can check it out and join here: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/coupon_trains_and_trades/
Friday, May 27, 2011
Organizing can be difficult!
When couponning finding the organizational method that works for you can be difficult, however its very important. I started with a regular binder system but burst the pockets. Then tried using a couple of inexpensive albums. I like this method, but I am now refining my catagories. Tried by experation date, too tricky. Tried by brand. . . too many brands! Now trying a more traditional wide scale catagorial approach. For example: Dairy, Boxed meals, laundry needs, etc. This should prove easier, especially with the addition of an expired check organizer and a bag to carry them all in.
Happy Couponning and do not forget to check your local Walmart for the new issue of All You Magazine!
Happy Couponning and do not forget to check your local Walmart for the new issue of All You Magazine!
Sunday, May 1, 2011
The Kansas City Star results for 5-1-11
It has been years since I had gotten a Sunday paper. I remember being mad when it went up to $1.25, now its $2 each copy! So saddly I could only get 2 copies. Oh well, its a good start and now I am better prepared to get papers in the future because I know how much they are.
Ech copy had 8 things I pulled to start with. Once these are all checked and clipped I will scan the paper for oddly placed coupons, its not a regular thing but I remember finding coupons in the oddest places growing up even though we did not use them.
First thing of interest is the Find N Save page. It is a single page, the size of a regular newprint page. It has a variety of oupons for buisinesses it seems. For example 20% off your entire bill at Perkins, a restaraunt. Or 50-70% off at Mark's Rugs. I will be clipping these and seeing if anyone in my area needs them, that is if I do not.
Next is the redplum insert. Each has 3 of what I call full pages, because its folded to open like a book and 10 half pages. Most have at least one coupon on them for the half pages. The whole pages have 2 or more each.
First thing I did was seperate the full pages from the half pages. Then I cut the full pages into half pages. Then I clipped the coupons from these and stacked them in a pile of coupons from the red plum insert only. I will trim them down to look neater later. ALWAYS check front and back before you cut as coupons may be close to each other on opposite sides risking cutting one if you are not careful. Seems there were two half pages with no coupons this time. They had stuff for sale on them via mail order. Gave a nice stack of coupons.
Next I did the Smart Source insert with the Steak & Shake coupons on the front. This insert had mostly full pages and several half pages. Again I seperated the full from the half and cut the full ages so they were halves. Also had a Dollar General ad inside which I set to the side for now. True couponers who trade coupons with others should always cut EVERY coupon. You never know what others are looking for. Even ones for restaraunts and other companies. Remember, first go through is to get the bulk of the waste paper off. You can trim them more nicely later when sorting and putting them away. In this insert I only found half page with no coupons on it. Whew, another nice stack of coupons to sort through later!
Then I did the Smart Source insert with the Purina ad on the front. Ooo, that means two Smart Source inserts this week! Cool :D Again, seperate the full pages from the halves and cut the full pages to make handling the pages easier. This one only had 2 full pages each insert. Whew, less cutting! Ok not less cutting ha ha, there was not a single page without a coupon in that one. I am tired and I still have 4 more inserts/ads too look at! Then there is the actual paper to peek through. I can tell you now this is not an average paper for coupons. I'm going to sign off here saying that if you got a newspaper this sunday, you will be super busy with your coupons today!
Ech copy had 8 things I pulled to start with. Once these are all checked and clipped I will scan the paper for oddly placed coupons, its not a regular thing but I remember finding coupons in the oddest places growing up even though we did not use them.
First thing of interest is the Find N Save page. It is a single page, the size of a regular newprint page. It has a variety of oupons for buisinesses it seems. For example 20% off your entire bill at Perkins, a restaraunt. Or 50-70% off at Mark's Rugs. I will be clipping these and seeing if anyone in my area needs them, that is if I do not.
Next is the redplum insert. Each has 3 of what I call full pages, because its folded to open like a book and 10 half pages. Most have at least one coupon on them for the half pages. The whole pages have 2 or more each.
First thing I did was seperate the full pages from the half pages. Then I cut the full pages into half pages. Then I clipped the coupons from these and stacked them in a pile of coupons from the red plum insert only. I will trim them down to look neater later. ALWAYS check front and back before you cut as coupons may be close to each other on opposite sides risking cutting one if you are not careful. Seems there were two half pages with no coupons this time. They had stuff for sale on them via mail order. Gave a nice stack of coupons.
Next I did the Smart Source insert with the Steak & Shake coupons on the front. This insert had mostly full pages and several half pages. Again I seperated the full from the half and cut the full ages so they were halves. Also had a Dollar General ad inside which I set to the side for now. True couponers who trade coupons with others should always cut EVERY coupon. You never know what others are looking for. Even ones for restaraunts and other companies. Remember, first go through is to get the bulk of the waste paper off. You can trim them more nicely later when sorting and putting them away. In this insert I only found half page with no coupons on it. Whew, another nice stack of coupons to sort through later!
Then I did the Smart Source insert with the Purina ad on the front. Ooo, that means two Smart Source inserts this week! Cool :D Again, seperate the full pages from the halves and cut the full pages to make handling the pages easier. This one only had 2 full pages each insert. Whew, less cutting! Ok not less cutting ha ha, there was not a single page without a coupon in that one. I am tired and I still have 4 more inserts/ads too look at! Then there is the actual paper to peek through. I can tell you now this is not an average paper for coupons. I'm going to sign off here saying that if you got a newspaper this sunday, you will be super busy with your coupons today!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
BuyCoupons.org service review
I took the plunge and ordered some coupons from this clipping service. I placed my order on Wed 27th and recived them Saturday the 30th! I got all 60 I ordered. I got 20 ech of the following:
50 cents off 3 totino's pizza Qs (the party pizzas)
$1/1 Jose Ole item
B10G5 Koolaid packets
These are all things we would use anyway, if we line up with sales these will help us stock up for a while and save in the long run so I can buy more produce or meat.
The price was on the high end for a clipping service but I am very happy with what we got. Our next coupon order will be from another service so we can give our review on that one. We are not sure which one just yet though.
50 cents off 3 totino's pizza Qs (the party pizzas)
$1/1 Jose Ole item
B10G5 Koolaid packets
These are all things we would use anyway, if we line up with sales these will help us stock up for a while and save in the long run so I can buy more produce or meat.
The price was on the high end for a clipping service but I am very happy with what we got. Our next coupon order will be from another service so we can give our review on that one. We are not sure which one just yet though.
Ah, they DO love us!
Ok folks, it is TRUE! Companies do want to hear from their customers! I reported to 9lives that I had some cans just explode when I went to open them and they sent me a check for $10, BE HIONEST if you report things like this. There is certain info they will require as proof. I also told Whiskas how uch my cat loves their food and they sent me 2 coupons for FREE cat food! Today I received 2 55 cents off 2 cans of bush's beans after telling them how wonderful their plain canned beans are for making quick Chili! If you use a product take a moment to call or email the company telling them you loved it or hated it and why. They really appreciate hearing back from you.
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