November 2009

Target Deals 12/6 – 12/12/09
Rite Aid Deals 12/6 – 12/12/09 ($7+ profit + get $87 in merchandise)
Walgreens 4 Day Sale 12/9 – 12/12/09
Walgreens Deals 12/6 – 12/12/09 LOTS of RR profit!
CVS Deals 12/6 – 12/12/09 Free after ECB!

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Sunday Morning Shopping

Well, as many of you know we are vacationing in Vegas. Well, sorta.

Sonny-boy and I were scheduled to leave Thanksgiving morning, connect in Detroit and land in Vegas at about 2pm (pacific time) to head over to the MIL’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Our plane went mechanical, and by the time we were re-routed we ended up landing in Vegas at about 8pm (pacific). Long day at the airport.

All was not lost though… we had dinner with my brother and his family in the airport!

They were flying to Florida on the 2pm flight we ended up getting on when re-routed. If that plane had gone down it would have wiped out seven members of my immediate family!

Sonny-boy has school tomorrow so we just dropped him off for his return flight home, and now hubby and I are off to shop.

Vegas does not have a Rite Aid. They pulled out about 3-4 years ago (time flies and I do not recall exactly when. I just recall shopping there and then my next visit… gone!) They do, however, have a Walgreens on every corner, and a CVS every other corner. The CVS thing is nice because I am low on swiffers and plan on “buying” those today with ECB.

Right now though, I am sitting in the parking lot of Fry’s while hubby is electronic shopping. Since this is the scene of my worst shopping experience ever, I will not go in. There is a Whole Foods next door, and I only have the opportunity to shop there when I am in Vegas and SLC, so I am definitely going to at least wander when he finishes at Fry’s. Whole Foods has some amazing coupons in SLC so I am hoping for the same here.

And, that is all I plan. I had hoped to get 99¢ newspapers for the P&G insert today, but Vegas gets P&G via mail. I think I’ll see if Sonny-boy can get me some on his lay-over. If not, I’ll still have four from the friends & family drop off plan when I get home.

So, how did you do today?

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Deb from Frugal Living And Having Fun has a great idea for eating from the stockpile!

Pantry Surprise – Eating From The Stockpile

Every week when I plan my Weekly Menus On Monday I plan on at least one day for, “Pantry Surprise”. What is Pantry Surprise you may ask…well “Let Me Tell You How” Pantry Surprise works in our home.

As you may already know, I love to stockpile food when I can pick items up for free or pennies on the dollar. So you can imagine that there is a need for rotating, and using the stock we have on hand to prevent food from going to waste. So once a week we have a meal called, “Pantry Surprise”.

This is a meal that is planned, prepared, cooked, and cleaned up by all three of my girls! I get the night off to work on my blog! “smile” They LOVE it. It gives them a chance to “play” mom in the kitchen for a day. They actually look forward to doing all the work, because it seems like fun more than work to them.

The only criteria I have is NO ingredients can be bought that day to make it, (It all has to come from our pantry stockpile). The meal needs to include a vegetable and olive oil has to be used if oil is called for. The rest is up to their imagination. Cook books can be used, or they can make it up off the top of their head. It has to be a complete group effort on all their parts.

The first thing they do is wash their hands, and put on their aprons!! “cute” Then they take a reusable shopping bag into the “stock pile”/Freezer area to pick their ingredients. Of course you hear a lot of giggling going on down there!! Today, my youngest daughter was overheard saying, “This is ‘Frugal Living And Eating Fun’ as she giggled”!! “smile” I thought that was so cute.

Then they are ready for their master pieces. We always talk about how much the meal came to as well, and try to get it down to $5.00 or less for the whole meal, which usually ends up feeding all of us and then some left overs for my husband to take to work, or for the girls and I to have for lunch the next day.

The meals are not on the top “10″ list for nutritious, but range from being nutritious to somewhat nutritious. Never really bad, because I try and watch what I buy and keep in my stock pile. As we say here at Frugal Living And Having Fun, “It’s Better Than Fast Food”…and that it is!! It is also a meal that they can handle. However, they are getting pretty good at several kitchen/cooking task. Today, my youngest peeled a 5lb bag of potatoes!!

It is so nice to be able to teach my girls the value of using coupons and buying “KEY” ingredients, at rock bottom prices, that can be utilized in many different recipes. All three of my girls say they are going to use coupons when they get married! Well…my youngest thinks I’m going to do the shopping for her…! We’ll see about that one…”smile”

All in all everyone is enjoying the activity. I get a night off of cooking, it adds variety to the weekly menu, we are keeping within our weekly food budget of $75.00 a week, and the girls are learning a multitude of homemaking skills. I guess it does not get better than that!

So this evening my husband worked late because he tutored a student at school. Therefore I swapped my Monday Menu with my Wednesday Menu to give the girls plenty of time to make their “Pantry Surprise”. Here is what they came up with tonight as an example. Now I know it is a little heavy on the carbs, but as I say, “It’s better than fast food”!!

Casserole:
1lb of cooked chicken $1.88 lb
1/2 cup cheese $1.00 for the whole bag $ .50
1 bag Green Giant Steamers $ .99 (FREE with a $.50 coupon that doubled) FREE
Wild Rice (FREE with a $ .75 coupon that doubled) FREE
Dried Onion left over from a can I used in previous recipe $2.00 (Only used 1/4 cup) $ .50
1 cup chicken gravy *practically nothing to make.

(2) Corn Bread from a mix $ .50 each $1.00

Mashed Potatoes with Sour Cream:
Potatoes FREE with purchase of Roast last week. FREE
Sour Cream $ .50/ oz. when used a $ .50 doubled on a $1.50 sale $.50

Total they came up with $4.38 (Fed all five of us, plus a lot of leftovers)

The meal was excellent!!

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Deb is the author of Frugal Living And Having Fun, a website that helps families live more simply and save money on the basics.

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Tiffany at My Litter shares with us the art of cutting children’s bangs!

How To Cut Bangs On Children

One of the biggest costs that you can avoid are trips to the hairdresser. Although I would hate to put myself out of business ( if I was still doing hair) it is possible to stretch a haircut. Learning how to cut “bangs” or the front of their hair can “buy” you a few extra weeks before you have to get the rest cut.

But first, does this look like the face of a kid excitedly hoping for a haircut? Yea, he wasn’t too thrilled. Sorry buddy, I hate that long in the face thing the guys have going on right now.

She was also thrilled to be getting her hair cut. I think she was just mad I was doing it and she didn’t do it herself.

Don’t be afraid to cut your kids bangs. Just do a little at a time and QUIT while you are ahead! We all have horror stories of our Mother’s cutting our bangs too short, so don’t keep cutting, just walk away! But the most important thing is to layer the bangs to soften them up and blend them into the rest of the haircut.

Once you have the length cut. Pull the “bangs” up from the side and cut off the point to make them lay really well. Take a look at the video where I show you how.

This works well on husbands to extend the life of their haircuts also! Good luck, don’t be afraid.
You can always start out practicing on the dog…

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Tiffany Ivanovsky, a.k.a. MyLitter is mother to 6 fabulous children ages, 11,9,7,5,3, and 1. She spends her days daydreaming, eating bon bons and watching all the soaps. NOT! In her free time she likes to do laundry, dishes and wash the kitchen floor. Tiffany and her family survive on laughter, sarcasm and most of all love.

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Rachel is a Coupons, Deals and More reader that is new-ish to couponing, She began her journey less than a year ago, and this is the story of her first success at Walgreen’s!

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Before spring this year, I thought couponing was a waste of time and energy. I would clip and redeem a few, but mostly they wound up wrinkled in a jacket pocket, left on an end table, or found months past their expiration date in the bottom of my purse. All this to try and save 75¢! Needless to say, it wasn’t worth it. For me.

Then I took a “coupon class” offered at my church. It cost $25, and I was very skeptical. I received a “scholarship” for the $25, so I went. They talked about saving strategies for grocery and drug stores, ECBs and RRs, Target gift cards, coupon filing, and more. My head was swimming! The worst part was to find all the deals and coupon matchups, you had to look ONLINE! I had no Internet at home, so my options were limited. The local library only allows one hour of Internet per day, and NO downloading, so NO printables!

Finally in February, I got Internet at home. This is where the fun begins. Since the class in December, I had been asking people for their inserts and was getting about two or three per week. By the time I could search for deals, I was already set with the coupons from last week – or last month. I was stoked!

One week, I got online to see what deals could be had. I decided that Walgreen’s had some deals I would try first. There were many RR deals and lots of money makers, some of which were high dollar! I wrote a list, tried to figure out transactions and the rolling scenarios, gathered my coupons, and off I went. It was a Saturday (3/7/09), so I wasn’t sure what deals to expect. Plus I had my not-quite-two year old son with me!

I made out like a bandit! I purchased these items in six total transactions to minimize my OOP.

I got $143.62 worth of merchandise including:

4 Clorox Disinfecting Wipes
2 Clorox Disinfecting Bathroom Cleaner spray
2 Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner with Bleach
3 Sense & Spray
2 Aleve Pain Reliever
3 Blink Tears
1 Sambucol Cold & Flu Relief
3 Colgate MaxFresh Toothpaste
4 Garnier Fructis products
4 Ritz Crackers
2 Whatchamacallit Candy Bars
2 Thingamajig Candy Bars
1 Fiber One Chewy Bar
2 Pencils

TOTAL OOP: $13.62 This total is actual OOP – including tax!!
TOTAL RR I walked out with: $13.00 (Walked in with NONE, as this was my FIRST TIME!)
TOTAL COST OF ENTIRE TRIP: 62 CENTS!!! (99.6% savings after coupons and RRs!!)

The total cost was less than the price of the two pencils (39¢ each) I had to buy in order for the RR to go through!

Now that I know how to better roll RRs, the same trip would be less OOP. I got the candy bars and pencils to bring the total up because I was using too high of RRs as coupons, then needed more fillers for the transactions since you can’t have a negative balance. My cashier was a doll, very patient, and congratulated me on such a great haul. I don’t know who was more surprised at my savings, her or me!

Oh! And through this whole trip taking over an hour, my son was a little darling. He didn’t fuss once! What a trooper. Now he gets excited over coupons, too! I love to hear him say, “Yay, coupons!” Melts your heart, doesn’t it?

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Rachel is a single mom in her 30s with a 2 1/2 year old that lives in Kansas City. She enjoys couponing immensely and the habit has now spread to her son, who repeats, “MY coupons!” proving that someone is never to young to learn to coupon.

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For all of you that would like to be über coupon organized but don’t know how to put a binder together, Kerri from Save At Home Mommy not only shows you how, she’ll sell you a complete binder too! Some of you may be interested in one as a holiday gift to yourself!

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The Save At Home Mommy Coupon Binder

I get asked all the time about how I organize my coupons. When I first got in to coupons, I had a small accordion organizer that I used. I quickly grew out of that one and I got a larger one but it still didn’t work. I was left scrambling at the store, shuffling through mounds of coupons stuffed in little dividers that could no longer be contained by the small elastic band that was supposed to fit around it. I got online and searched and searched and found nothing I really liked. They were either too small or too large and bulky. I found the idea of a binder and told my husband about it. For Valentines Day, he bought me a binder and several different organizing options. After using it for a while and then replacing items here and there, I came up with my current binder.

There is an outside accordion section that I use for all my coupon booklets, restaurant and retail coupons.

Then I have plastic tabbed dividers that have pockets in them that are labeled for the stores I shop at the most. I keep my weekly ad, shopping list and that stores coupons in the pocket and then clip the coupons for my trip to the front. That way when I get to the store, I can pull out my binder, flip to that store and I am ready to go.

I then have all my coupons organized by category in my heavy duty photo pages. I only have about 10 pages but some people like more to divide their coupons out even further. Finally, in the back, I have a large pocket that velcros closed to put all my unclipped or loose coupons that I might pick up in the store. This keeps my binder from getting messy even when I don’t have time to file them all away…

Each Sunday, I clip the coupons I know I will want and file them in my binder. I then label the front of the inserts and file them in a file box with the oldest in the back. That way I can easily go and look for coupons I might want for a sale.

I keep the binder either in my car or on my dryer right next to my door so it is always ready to go. This method has worked very well for me and helps me stay organized and get through my shopping trips quickly without scrambling for coupons or leaving them at home. I do sell these binders on my site if you are interested. You can check them out and purchase one through paypal here

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I started Save At Home Mommy about 8 months ago to share deals with my friends and it has grown so much since then. I am a stay at home mom to my two little girls as well as a Pastor’s wife to my amazing husband! I love my site and teaching classes in my community to help others learn how to save.

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Jamie at Cool Crafty Mom is a coupon beginner that is learning fast! Read her great saving story below!

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I love to be frugal when it comes to shopping. My husband says I am the most frugal person he knows. Lately, I’ve showed him how to become even more frugal than he ever thought possible. This has all been with the help of coupons.

I am very new to couponing. I’ve always used coupons, but only one or two here and there. Lately I’ve become coupon crazy. My husband just laughs at me and says he will never use any coupons. Although he does tell me he’s very happy with all the money I’ve been saving us over the past month. I’ve been having so much fun clipping coupons and seeing how much I can save, and in many cases I’ve even made some money.

We got some killer deals in one week at Walgreens, Rite Aid, Fred Meyer, and Target. We got a total of 64 items. Everything pictured plus two gallons of milk and two magazine subscriptions, although I could have gotten four magazine subscriptions. The total of everything came to $289.90. After, coupons, rebates, and register rewards we spent a grand total of $10.57. That is a savings of $279.33. I couldn’t believe all the great deals I got and now I have enough Chex Mix and shampoo to share with family and friends.

If I can save this much money anyone can. It’s so easy all you have to do is be willing to clip coupons, match them up with weekly ads, and have fun shopping. Being frugal has become a way of life for me. Every penny saved is a penny earned.

It’s so much fun to see how much money I can save each week, I can hardly wait till the next week to see what’s on sale. I love it when I can get items for free, cheap, or be paid to take them out of the store. Does anyone else have a great shopping trip they’d love to share?

I am a mom to two very energetic boys, a two year old and a three month old. I love being a mother and my kids are my inspiration for everything I do. I love to sew, cook, create things, but most of all enjoy life. You can visit Jamie at Cool Crafty Mom

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Jennifer from Saving and Giving has written us a very timely article about maintaining balance in our lives. With the hectic holiday season upon us, it is a great reminder to prioritize.

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Maintaining Balance

Oh how I love a good deal! In fact, I can get totally wrapped up in finding a good deal and lose my perspective on what’s important. So I speak from experience on this topic!

Saving money is a truly important task, one that benefits every member of our families. Our family members get to try new products, and the money we save can be used to fund other family activities or purchases. It’s a lot more fun to partially fund a vacation than a trip to the grocery store. Plus, if I can save us money on the basics of life, we have more left to help others. And, let’s face it, getting a good deal is just plain fun!

But saving money can be time consuming. There are blogs to read, sale ads to scour, coupons to clip, lists to make, and actual shopping to do. It’s enough to wear anyone out!

The key is balance. Granted, you will need to do a little planning in order to get the best deals. However, it doesn’t need to consume you. I’ve found that allowing myself a little time each day to see what I can find deal-wise is fun, and for me it’s relaxing. But I can easily be drawn into reading blog sites and printing coupons, only to realize that an hour and a half has passed without me realizing it.

One trick that I’ve found is using blog-reading and deal-seeking as a reward for myself. I happen to be an online teacher, and there are times when I’d rather be blogging than grading. So I make myself a deal….. Grade 5 lessons, and then I can read one blog site that I like to visit. Grade another 5 lessons, and I can do a quick blog post. Going back and forth between what I need to get done and what I’d rather be doing is a good way to break up the work. It also motivates me to get those 5 lessons graded! (I just graded 5 more before I finished this!) I’m sure that most of you aren’t online teachers, but you can apply the same idea to any task that you need to accomplish. Do you need to dust, vacuum, and unload the dishwasher? Challenge yourself to get the dusting done, and then reward yourself with some time visiting your favorite frugal site. Then jump back up and get the sweeper run. Once that’s done, allow yourself time to clip last week’s coupons.

Another effective way for me to keep myself from getting too wrapped up in deal-hunting is to occasionally take a week off from shopping. This might mean sending my husband to the store, or it might mean cooking from whatever we have on-hand. Either way, I give myself a bargain-hunting break, and I focus on other things that may have been neglected while I was getting my deals. I used to read other bloggers’ sites and just be astonished by the fact that they skipped a whole week of bargain shopping. How could they possibly pass up the deals??? What would they do if they ran out of toothpaste this week? Now that I’ve been living frugally for a while, I see how they did it. I now have a nice supply of personal care and food items in my little stockpile. I don’t feel a desperate need to run out to CVS every single week. My bargain shopping has paid off! From time to time, I can kick back, relax, and not go shopping.

If you’re new to bargain shopping, you may feel like you have to get to every single store every week. You may feel like missing a good deal this week means that you’ll never find that great of a deal again. Trust me, all sales run on cycles. If you happen to miss the sale cycle this time, you can catch it next time. It’s much more important to have a balanced life. Striving to get every deal will throw life out of balance very quickly!

If you start working now to find a balance between saving money and doing what’s most important – like spending time with family, keeping up with friends, and maintaining your own sanity! – it’s going to pay off. This is especially true with the holidays approaching. There will be more sales, can’t-miss deals, and early bird specials than any of us can keep up with! My head is swimming just thinking about it! My plan is to be very picky this Christmas shopping season. I won’t jump in my car for one deal that will save me a few bucks. Instead, I plan to consolidate trips and just catch the sales that match up with what I already know I need to buy. If I let myself get drawn into the flurry of excitement (especially on Black Friday!), I’m sure I’ll find myself short on cash and patience.

If you find yourself getting out of balance and devoting too much time to your bargain hunting and coupon clipping, you may want to enlist the help of a spouse, friend, or family member. Being accountable to someone else is a great way to keep things in check.

Jennifer is the wife of a wonderful man and mom to a beautiful almost-five-year-old daughter. Jennifer blogs at Saving and Giving, a site dedicated to ways to spend less, save more, and give generously.

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