Saving Money Series: All of the Other Shopping

Alright, let's be real.  Not all of your shopping is done in the grocery store out of your grocery budget.  In fact, although grocery couponing and the thrill of it has made my grocery shopping much more enjoyable, these aren't my favorite deals to get.  No, the deals I really enjoy are those I get in other kinds of stores or online.  Some of my favorites:  Old Navy, Kohls, Macy's (occasionally), Target, Amazon, The Children's Place (especially recently), and deal site deals.  This list is by no means all inclusive.  I've found you can't be store loyal (or picky) to get good deals on all of the other 'life essentials', and sometimes it means checking out stores you didn't even know about or stores you didn't think you'd like.

So what are the tips here?  Well, if you're looking to buy in the store:

• Watch clearances and sales like a hawk.  I follow a whole list of blogs (listed to the left), that often clue me in on when chain stores are getting ready to clearance their items.  The more you follow, the more you know ahead of time when you should wait and when you should buy.  For example, this time of year, winter clothes are on major clearance as stores are clearing out their winter attire to make room for spring! (Make sure you also check for the 'extra' clearance sales too!  Old Navy often has 50% off already reduced clearance prices.  My last Old Navy trip ran during one of these sales and I literally spent around $17 for 11 kid items!  One of which was a winter coat for Ansley for next year!  I don't know that you could do that well at a yard sale!) (EDIT:  I actually went back yesterday, and with their current 30% off sale, I got Ansley's Christmas pajamas - a family tradition - and two long sleeved shirts for Bryton next year for $6.)

• That brings me to my next point.  Plan ahead!  I start buying for next year's Christmas in January.  I do try to buy things people want and things I think they would enjoy.  This year I even made myself a spreadsheet of all of the birthdays, special events, holidays, etc in each month, and left spots so I could record each purchase I make and how much I spent.  This allows me to know ahead of time what I have so I don't forget about things and over-shop.  This mindset also works with clothing.  I buy most of our kids' clothing in the off season, leaving me very little I have to buy when the time actually comes around.  

• Collect paper coupons out of magazines, newspaper inserts, and print them online.  Take these coupons with you when you shop to maximize your savings!  Think more bang for your buck!

• Think coupons for restaurants!  Seriously! We love eating at Steak n Shake on weekends when kids eat free and we can both use coupons for our meal.  It's nothing for us all 3 to eat and leave paying around $10 for a sit down eating experience.  It makes our misc. envelope last much longer!  

Online:

• Think coupon codes!  If you order from places once, chances are you'll be getting those coupon codes in your email soon.  Another place to find them?  You can google search to see if any codes are available at the time, or you can visit sites such as Retail Me Not where you can search by store for active coupon codes.   Many stores allow you to use more than one coupon code during check out, especially if one is for a percentage off and one is for free shipping!  It doesn't hurt to try! 

• Shop through places like Ebates (get $5 cash just for signing up!) or Shop at Home and earn percentages back on your purchases all over the web! You can stack this with coupon codes so it makes your purchases that much cheaper!  

• Daily Deal sites are your friend!  I'm a firm believer in sites such as Groupon because you can score such great deals (and not only from your selected city!).  I've purchased 5 groupons recently, one for a Build a Bear purchase (that was ultimately free because I had a $10 credit, and got us 2 free bears after the cost of the groupon!), a movie ticket purchase (that required some customer service support from groupon because the company who sponsored the groupon went under... and groupon's customer service is outstanding), I bought two different groupons ($20 total), which basically got us all our halloween costumes for free (after the cost of the groupon), and I recently bought, from another deal site, a $20 amazon gift card for $10!  It seems like there are always national photo deals to be had as well!  Very much worth looking into! (Plus there are a ton of other daily deal sites you may hear me mention on this very blog!  Eversave is mentioned at the bottom of this blog!)

• Swagbucks.  If I've said it once I've said it 1000 times.  You get free money with swagbucks through gift cards.  It takes seconds of your day.  You won't get rich, but it'll cover the cost of those splurge items, or for us, Christmas gifts and diapers :)  Click on the link on the left to go sign up.  Just use swagbucks as your search engine and start earning bucks.  450 swagbucks earns you one $5 Amazon gift card (which stores in your amazon account.)

• Pair coupon codes with special sales.  For example, I recently purchased from The Children's Place online because they had a 60% off Monster sale going on, free shipping, and I had coupon codes.  When I stacked those I got amazing deals.  In fact, I got B a sweater, a sweatshirt, and a flannel shirt for the fall for $14 shipped to my door.  You can't beat that.  

So don't just coupon in your grocery store.  Make sure you spread your savings around all the other places you shop as well!  

ADDED:  If you have never joined Eversave, today is the day.  Find the link on my facebook page to go straight to today's save (and sign up if you need to), as Parenting Magazine is for sale at $5 for a two year subscription.  These can be bought as gifts (think cheap baby shower gift!) or can be bought for yourself!  The greatest part, if you are a new eversave user you can receive $2 in credit making the cost only $3 for a two year subscription!  AND - these magazines have been responsible for several of the amazon coupon codes for diapers that are stackable with the subscribe and save offers!  You can't beat that!  These are exactly the deals I'm talking about! 

-A

Saving Money Series: The Couponing Blog

Whew, where to begin?  First of all, when I started couponing I was doubly overwhelmed.  I was trying to stack coupons with sales, I hadn't been at it long, and I was finding that I was purchasing items that were not necessarily things in our house that we ate much of, and that it wasn't really getting me anywhere.  (That's why I posted yesterday's blog first!   Those tips revolutionized my couponing!)

As time progressed I became better at stacking sales and coupons (use coupons for the items that are in the sale bill for ultimate savings.  For those of you around here, Kroger Mega-Events are great for that!)  I was even able to make meals out of the things I was purchasing (for very very little out of pocket) and it was encouraging me to find and try new recipes as well.  (That I looked up before I purchased an item, so it didn't just sit in my freezer or pantry forever and get tossed after the expiration date.)

So, the best way I can think to even tackle this blog is by answering questions that I've been asked frequently, but before I do that I want to mention this.  I got really caught up in the beginning of my couponing on 'percentages saved'.  Kroger makes it really easy because you can look at the bottom of your receipt and see the actual percentage that you saved on your shopping trip.  Please don't misunderstand me, it's an awesome feeling to see anything 75% or higher  on that percentage line, and it's not necessarily bad either!  For me though, that meant I would buy very little, if anything, that wasn't on sale and I didn't have a coupon for.  (Right now you're saying, this is a coupon blog, isn't that what you are supposed to do?)  Well, kind of.  By purchasing only things that were on sale that I had a coupon for, I was missing out on key staple foods like fresh fruits, veggies, and meats.  (Things that Bryton loves.)  When I did start finally purchasing these foods, I did them at a different time of the week so that the $3.00 I'd spent on grapes didn't effect my bottom line.  Pathetic, I know.  The extra trips to the grocery store are of course detrimental... so I started limiting myself (on most weeks) to once a week, and doing all of my shopping during one trip that week.  Afterall, my goal is to see my family fed and fed well for $100 every two weeks, not to see that I've saved 95% on a grocery transaction.  (Which I do still pull off occasionally, on the smaller trips. :)  I thrive for 60% savings or higher on each grocery trip, allowing myself $10 a week on fresh fruit alone.  50% is fairly easy now, and sometimes I do better.  Hope that helps. 
So - that being said... don't fall into the trap of purchasing things you won't use or need.  If I 'purchase' things I don't need (for donation etc.) I make sure I'm spending pennies out of pocket or getting the item free.  Okay, now to questions :)

1.)  Where do you get your coupons?
       Everywhere.  :)  I get coupons online (www.coupons.com is my favorite, but I also get coupons a lot of times from a brands website.)  I get coupons from the Sunday newspaper.  (You can even check online to see what will be in the paper before it even comes out!)  I get coupons from magazines.  (I'm an All You subscriber specifically for the coupons that comes in it.  The coupon savings total is always over $70 per issue.  A subscription may run you about $20 for the year.)  Shopping at Kroger I get tons of Kroger coupons in the mail... and they are usually pretty high value.  Also, another coupon, called catalinas, are the coupons your register spits out at you when you check out!  Keep those!  You never know when they may come in handy!  And a favorite, add them to your shopper card either by visiting Kroger's website, visiting Cellfire and Shortcuts.  Electronic coupons added to your shopper card can be stacked with manufacturer coupons when checking out!  Double savings!  (Speaking of manufacturer coupons, they are also stackable with store coupons.  This comes in very handy at Walgreens and Target.  What does that mean?  It means you can use a Walgreens coupon and a manufacturer coupon for the same product!  Very handy information!)

2.)  How do you store your coupons?
     This is another personal preference.  When I started couponing I used a small coupon organizer.  About two months in I was so overwhelmed with the number of coupons I had and the fact that I couldn't see all of them when I was in the store (for those unadvertised deals), that I knew I had to figure out something else.  So, now if you see me in the store, you'll probably see me with a binder.  Yep, a 3 ring binder that I've put baseball card sleeves in, so I can turn the page and see the face of every coupon I have possession of.  It helps me keep the old cleaned out, the about ready to expire in mind, and since I order things in the binder in order of the way I walk through the store, it's easy for me to find that 'certain coupon' when I see something is on clearance unannounced, etc.  Some people may think it's cheesy, but it works for me :)  Remember, you have to do what works for you!

3.)  Why when people coupon do they end up with so many of the same item in a shopping trip?
      I wondered the same thing when I was starting off.  The answer is really pretty easy.  If you are going for maximum savings you are stacking sales with coupons you have on hand.  (And some people have a lot of coupons on hand.)  So, when you go to the store and Rotel Tomatoes are on sale for .50 each and you have several $1 off 3 coupons, you can really get each can of Rotel for around .17 a piece.  I'd call that a stock up price.  If you have say 4 of those coupons, then it makes sense for you to stockpile (because they last so long) and buy 12 cans of Rotel.  In essence, those 12 cans of Rotel are really only costing you about $2.  When you do this with a lot of different sale items, you find that your shopping cart looks like you really like Texas Toast, Rotel and cereal :)  But this is how you stock up for later.

4.)  Explain stacking, and how can I do that more easily?
      I use the word stacking interchangeably for two things.  One is stacking a manufacturer and a store or electronic coupon which is what I mentioned earlier.  The other is stacking sales (that you found in your local sale ad) with coupons you already have on hand.  When I was first starting out, I let someone else do all of the work for me. :) You can visit her here:  Southern Savers.  She is a master-mind and is super organized.  If you click on her Kroger tab it will bring up a list of blogs she's written about Kroger.  Find the blog with the most recent date in the title, click on it, and the sale ad is dissected there in such a way that you can see what the sale item is, the price, and what coupons you may already have or that you can print to get the best bang for your buck!  Makes starting off really, really easy! 

5.)  Tips?
     Know your stores coupon policy.  For example, Kroger doubles coupons .50 and less, as long as the coupon does not state otherwise.  (Many of your printable coupons will say 'do not double or triple' on them.)  If you coupon at Walgreens, you'll need to know about Register Rewards, that can also make many items free + overage (you make money on the item).  The catch?  Register Rewards expire in about 10 days - 2 weeks.  Make sure you're going to be around Walgreens again in a period of time that you can actually take advantage of them!
     Also, get to know the cashiers in your local grocery store.  I always look at who is working when I walk in.  Some are extremely coupon friendly, others are not, and though they may not be able to 'do anything' about your couponing, they can make your checking out experience uncomfortable and unpleasant.  (Luckily, there is only one woman at our Kroger that I dread checking me out... I'll wait in a line 3 times as long to not have to deal with her.)  I've also found Wal-Mart not to be super coupon friendly in the last year, although they are apparently making a shift to a friendlier direction, even adverstising in their sale ads that they will now accept competitor coupons (think Target coupons at Wal-Mart) and will willingly accept internet coupons (which is where I had most of my hangups at Wal-Mart last year.)  We'll see how that plays out this year.
     Be polite and prepared at checkout.  I never want people to see my stack of coupons and not want to get in line behind me.  I also never want to be rude to the person who is checking my items, as that really isn't going to get me anywhere.  If there's a conflict about a coupon, (which happens rarely, but does happen), ask for an explanation and if you still think you're right, ask to talk to a manager.  Kindness goes a long way.  So does knowing what you are talking about!
     Lastly - have some coupon courtesy.  You'll find really quickly after beginning to coupon, that you will often times show up and the shelves be empty of the sale item.  Shows you that you aren't the only one couponing out there!  I'm all about stocking up on those 12 cans of Rotel if there are still several on the shelf, but watching people pile their carts with 25-30 boxes of 2 different cereals, leaving the shelves empty (which I've seen happen before in our very on Kroger) seems to me a little disrespectful to those people trying to get in on the same deal and stretch their budgets as well.  Be courteous and think of others.  If there's ever a time I've had to go back to a store in the same week, it's because there was a deal that we really needed to hit (because of the rotation of sales) and all of the items were gone when I got to them.

Phew.  Now you know why I didn't combine this with the non couponing grocery saving blog!
I'd be happy to take any questions left unanswered!  Leave in the comments below!

-A

How He Loves Us

One time, not all that long ago, God stripped from me some things that were very important in my life.  A teenager, I felt very alone, had very low self esteem, and to be quite honest, I was a Christian, but was forced to really turn and face God for the first time in my life.  It was the greatest spiritual moment of my life up until that point.  God was working out my salvation within me, and in order to do it He had to allow His daughter to endure pain since I wouldn't come to Him on my own.  It was Him drawing me to Himself, and for that I will ever be thankful.  If it weren't for this specific, lonely time of my life, I would not be remotely who I am today.  In fact, I may have a different life all together.  Thank you, God, for your sovereignty. 

He taught me a lot, and I grew.  As time went on my loneliness began to diminish as God gradually placed friendships, real, genuine, sincere friendships in my life.  My self esteem began to increase on an even slower rate, but it was increasing none-the-less.  Afterall, if the Lord of the Universe could take time out of His schedule to love me, I must be worth loving, right?  For the first time I was able to look in the mirror and see past myself and see into what God wanted for me, how God valued me, how He loved me.

It wasn't long after this that I moved past the lonely state all together.  I was almost nervous about it.  I was able to look back over the past 4 years (since I'd been a Christian) and see how easy it was for me to almost love Jesus.  Almost.  Getting my attention was such a painful, but redemptive, process.  Is this how God was going to have to continue getting my attention?  Is this how He'd continue to show me His love?

Then I began to notice Aaron in a different light.  His love for Jesus astounded me.  I could look at him and think to myself, "I see a lot of qualities in this man that I hope to someday see in my future husband."  It wasn't long after that, and we were dating and seeking God's approval.  (And if you know our story, everyone elses as well.)  When I was 20 years old I married him. 

And marriage was a whirlwind.  I was so in love with my new husband and so in love with this Creator who had authored the entire thing, through my loneliness, my trials, my complacency, my filth.  He had good in store for me!  I just had to heed to His guidance.  I felt so very blessed and unworthy to have a loving Savior and a loving husband.  I knew some would never experience the joy I felt. 

Jesus continued to use my union and commitment with Aaron to display to me how He wanted my commitment to Him to be.  He was showing me the union formed between He and His church.  He was showing me, up front and personally, how to extend grace and receive it, how to show mercy and accept it.  He was showing me the joys and heartaches that come with a relationship indebted in this much commitment.  He was teaching me what it felt like to be in submission, and how it felt to be the recipient of sacrifice, and though I still can't fully understand what Jesus' sacrifice on the cross felt like to God, or can I even understand the weight of the sacrifice from the recipient's end, Aaron teaches me daily what sacrificing, giving up your life for the cause of someone else looks like. 

Jesus was still wooing me, tickling my chin through the winds of marriage to get me to look up at Him, see Him, know Him, love Him.  Marriage is still a mirror in which I can see how He loves us. 

In January of 2008, Aaron and I decided to start trying to have a family.  On Easter Sunday I was able to lie in bed with him and watch his eyes light up as I told him he was going to be a daddy.  We had no idea what we were getting into.  Yet another beautiful hurricane God was leading us into, together.  And in November I was staring into the beautiful blue eyes of a chunky baby boy.  I felt the spiritual wind stirring again.  There was nothing to explain the love I felt for this tiny human laying in my arms.  A child I'd never met, but felt like I'd known for 100 years, and I wondered, is this how God looks at me?  When I really curl up in his lap, look into his eyes, and become fully dependent on Him, fully trusting with the faith of a child... do His eyes well up with tears because this is how He loves us? 

The next few months were the hurricane.  We were tired.  We were exhausted, and we were trying to figure out this tiny child that we just couldn't understand.  Our whole world felt upside down.  Everything changed.  Everything was different.  Even adapting to the new little joys, which by no means were anything like the old little joys, was difficult.  Sometimes the wind blew hard on our marriage, the convictions of places where we both were falling short were like huge waves ready to capsize us.  But God was in the hurricane.  It was yet another moment of God speaking... teaching... loving. 

And the more B grows the more I understand how He loves us.  Everything is metaphorical.  The dependence of Bryton for us to nourish him, love him, and guide him.  The way my heart feels when he crawls up in my lap, or says my name, or tells me he loves me.  Is this how God feels?!  When Bryton asks me to play with him, to spend time with him, is that how God feels when we really seek to spend some time with him?  Watching him succeed, and watching him make good decisions, hurting for him when he hurts, and smiling when he smiles.  Do you think God smiles when we smile?  Do you think He cares?  I bet He does.  And disciplining.  When we know what's best for him, we know the direction in which he should go, we know where the other paths lead, and we have to discipline him for his own good.  Isn't this God loving us?  Isn't this why He disciplines?  Because He loves us.  He knows the path.  He's seen where our road ends.  He wants a better road for us!  A father's love for His children, He wants what is best for us... what will most benefit us... He loves us. 

And so it's for all of these reasons that I can't let this song go.  I weep when I hear it, but God has been so gracious in drawing me to Himself, through highs and lows, through joys and trials, always showing His love for me.  It's our love story... my life is His love letter...

Saving Money Series: Grocery Shopping (Not the Coupon Blog)

Couponing deserves it's own blog.  There is so much to be said about it that this thing would be insanely long if I did all of the couponing tips with all of the rest of the grocery shopping tips.  So be prepared for the coupon blog tomorrow!  But don't stop reading!

This blog is equally, if not more important than the coupon blog.  Yes, I said it could possibly be more important.  Why?  Because couponing is a tool to a lifestyle.  These tips help you develop the lifestyle.  Couponing helps you do it extra extra cheap.  (And you'll be surprised how much just these tips will help your budget!)

So here we go!  Grocery shopping tips I think everyone can benefit from!  No matter how coupon savvy you are!

• Find a local grocery store and shop there.  Avoid supercenters.  Why?  Because their 'always low prices' are not always low.  Their slogan should say 'pretty consistent prices', because this would be true.  Here is basically how this works:  shop at Wal-Mart or other supercenters constantly and you'll pay higher prices on virtually everything that is in your local grocer's sale bill.  You may find items cheaper if they are not on sale at your grocer (but this is why you shop sales, get the always low price for real), but you may find out if you can wait a couple days for the new sale bill to come out, you can get huge savings.  Remember the milk I talked about in a previous post?  So find your local grocery store, I shop at Kroger almost exclusively, and watch their sale ads (which are easily available to find online!).   You may find some items are cheaper elsewhere, if so, buy those items where they are cheapest if it doesn't require an extra trip.  For example... we only use 93% hamburger unless we are making burgers.  It's a quality of meat and a healthy choice I make for our family.  WalMart, yes, the supercenter, always has 1 lb rolls of 93% for $2.98, almost $2 cheaper than our Kroger's normal price (and still cheaper than the sale price when it hits rotation), so I always buy my hamburger from the super center. 

• Stock up on items you use often when they are on sale at your grocer.  Why, because a rotation of sale items is about every 6-8 weeks.  So I've found that when something goes on sale, if I stock up then, I may not need that item again for a few weeks - a month (or more).  And that's nice because I never have to pay full price for the item.  (Of course there are some items you can't do this with, such as milk, eggs, etc.)  Some of our staple items:  tomato sauce, beans and rotel (for chili), pasta noodles, canned fruit (canned in only juice, no syrup), boxed mac n' cheese (for those chicken casserole in a pot nights), meat (check for manager's specials, etc. meat freezes, so just because the use by date is tomorrow does not mean that you can't buy it and freeze it today), and any kind of toiletries, paper towels, toilet paper, etc.  (I literally have 7 bottles of body wash in my pantry right now.  That should last us awhile.  Oh, and I got them all for free ;)

• Menu plan, menu plan, menu plan!  I cannot stress this one enough.  If you read nothing else, read this.  How many times have you gone to the store, left, come home, and tried to find something to fix for supper and had nothing to create a complete meal?  Be honest.  How annoying!  First of all, menu planning fixes that all together.  Second of all, you can base your menu plan around your stockpile (that's the next bullet) and what is on sale at your grocery store that week, and it makes for a really easy shopping experience.  So check out your stockpile, look through the sale ad, base your meals around those things, make a shopping list that includes the items you need (think things like breakfasts and lunches too, though you may not have to be very exact with those), and when you go shopping, buy ONLY the things on your list!  This saves you from extra buying and has saved us from wasting a lot of food!  

• Stockpiling.  Remember when I said to stock up on the things that are on sale each week that you know that you'd use?  By doing so (I even budget a small amount of my grocery budget to do exactly this) you form a 'stockpile' of product at your house.  For example, I mentioned that I like to stock up on tomato sauce, beans, and rotel. When I'm creating my menu plan, and I check my stockpile, I can see that I have all of the ingredients I need for chili except hamburger, because I've stocked up on them at rock bottom prices.  Then, I can write chili on my menu plan for that week, and all I have to buy (if none is stockpiled in the freezer) is a roll of hamburger!  (And any condiments like cheese shreds or crackers, if they aren't already in the house.)  There have been times I've been able to put over half our grocery budget in savings because I was able to fix meals almost completely from our stockpile.  Those are good weeks :) 

• Limit grocery shopping.  When I started the whole couponing / saving money idea, I set out to only grocery shop once every two weeks.  It was an am mature mistake.   I now shop once a week.  The reason why?  1.) Because there were certain things we had to buy each week for them to be good.  Think produce, bread, milk, etc.  I found I was going back to pick up an item here, and a couple days later an item there, just because I was trying to avoid the grocery store all together.  It was costing me more time and more gas to try to keep in the house the perishable things that we use or run out of.  2.)  You are missing stockpile opportunities.  One thing about Kroger is that their specials usually run for two weeks.  (usually is the key word here).  BUT, there are things every week on their sale ads that don't run for two weeks.  Stocking up has to be something that's looked at weekly, or else your 6 week cycle can become twice as long!  3.)  It's much easier for me to menu plan for one week at a time than it is two.  I can incorporate a lot more fresh food (veggies and produce) than if I waited two weeks. 

• Watch for great deals on toiletries, diapers, etc, at unexpected places.  If you are ever near a drugstore such as Walgreens or CVS, you can score amazing deals, and even freebies, by watching sales at these places.  It can lead to free or cheap bottles of shampoo, razors, body wash, otc medicines, even diapers and wipes.  Another place to look for diapers and wipes?  Amazon.com.  You can't beat the deals I've been getting through Amazon with my Amazon Mom prime account!  Love it!  

Tomorrow:  How to save even more money with coupons!  Tips and tricks.

-A