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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Tightening the Belt just a bit tighter- what to do when money is really tight
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Guest Article - Couponing 101: Saving Money Clipping Coupons
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Wow, I had forgotten how hard it is to go short on sleep. Gage is actually a much better sleeper than Ariel was at this age, most nights at least. However, he still has his rough nights. We've been dealing with those a lot right now, as he has a very persistent cold and keeps spitting up. Worse, he is vomiting. I'm writing this just before I head out to the doctor's office to make sure there isn't anything serious wrong. It's probably just due to the mucus from his cold, but vomiting at Gage's age and weight can be serious.
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One of the biggest challenges for a frugal mom, is finding yet more ways to save money when money gets tight. It could be that you are trying to pay off debt or perhaps you want to save for something special, you are already frugal, and just don’t know what else you can do. All is not lost, as long as you are willing to try a few ideas, you didn’t think you would ever try, and to count your savings in nickels and dimes, you can do it.
First you have to realize, it all adds up, I might only save a quarter, but if I save that quarter 4 times, I have saved a dollar. Everyone of the those dollars adds up, and even a savings of 20 dollars a week, can make a big difference no matter what your goal is. And guess what 20$ a week becomes a $1000 plus in a year.
First thing to do is research what other things you can do to save money, I can help a bit there… lately my life has demanded a brand of Guerilla frugality, that required saving each dime, everywhere we could.Go around your house and make notes of ways you can save. Once you figure out what you can do, keep a record. It is really encouraging to see how quickly those nickels can add up, and how many you use in day, that you don’t even realize.
Start in your kitchen, do you wash baggies? I know, I know I hate doing it too…. So instead of using baggies, use Tupperware, each time you use a reusable plastic container, you are saving, if you would have used gallon sized bag, you would have saved a nickel, if a sandwich bag, only two cents. Wait, before you fluff off that two cents of savings, figure how many do you use in a month? If you use about 200 small baggies for making lunches, that is 4 dollars a month, if you use 50 gallon size bags that is another 4 or 5 dollars…. so there is $8.00 in one month, already just in baggies. Of course you could just wash baggies….. if you are like me, that does not happen, but you do have choices.
Sew little cloth bags for sack lunches. Easy and cheap to make, but reduces the use of paper sacks.
Use cloth napkins, and towels rather than paper.Any time you use something reusable, you will save money. Cloth napkins can be made of inexpensive material,or scraps even, and probably for cheaper that a package of paper napkins, if you don’t already have the fabric on hand.
If you do your own baking do you use the most economical recipes? Bread is a great example, many breads have milk, and egg in them, driving the cost up tremendously.
But there are really good recipes out there, without the eggs and milk. A basic loaf of bread should not cost more than .29 cents, if you do your research, and that includes electricity. Put thought into your menu’s and cooking, sometimes it is cheaper to do scratch and sometimes it is not.
Look for wholesale sources for food basics, things like rice, flour, beans.They can be purchase for much,much cheaper, in bulk,literally for a penny or less per serving. Places to look? Restaurant supply stores that are open to the public, mills, and outlet stores.
Don’t be afraid of outlet stores. Sure their brands are ones you have never seen, but chances are good, that those same brands are made by companies you have purchased from before. And dried goods such as beans, and rice, are pretty much all from the same sources. The savings are dramatic. Buy in a small amount and try, that way you can decide, which brands you can live with without spending a fortune.
Cook from scratch, don’t buy canned beans, buy dried beans and cook them in the crockpot, it does not draw much electricity, and does not over cook the beans. Rice can be cooked in quantity ahead of time, and froze, so that buying the cheaper, and healthier whole grain rice, is feasible, despite the longer cooking time.
Make menus from what you have on hand, keep a grocery list close by to write down the few odds and ends you might need to buy, to fill out your recipes and menu. Work with what you have on hand, and only buy what you need, to get by.
Use Coupons only if you buy the product anyway, or can use double or triple couponing, to get it for free or super cheap. Couponing is a great way to save money, but you are not saving money if you buy a product you would normally not buy, or a product you can make from scratch much cheaper.
Rather than buying convenience foods for busy nights, try a bit of “Once a Month Cooking” Cook extra at your regular meals and freeze the extra. Not only will it cover dinners on those busy nights, but it will also cover, snacks for those hungry teenagers, Chips are expensive, and not filling, so they go fast is a household full of people.
Make and freeze breakfasts. Cereals are plain expensive, so I make breakfast burritos, waffles, pancakes, French toast and egg biscuits, far more filling, and way cheaper than cereal.
Check your local farmers markets, and buy in season, try to tailor your menus to what you know is cheap. This perhaps will save you most of all, on your grocery bill.I usually have a figure in my head for each food item I buy, if I cannot find it for less than that figure, I wait till it goes on sale.
Use your freezer, if peppers are on sale for 5 for $1 then buy five and dice and freeze 4 of them. Then when they are .89 cents apiece, use the ones in the freezer and don’t buy them.
Go thru and declutter your house, have a yard sale or sell on Ebay, for extra cash, this can be a great income generator.
Go over your utility bills, especially your phone bill and cable bill, I bet you can trim at least 10$ off your bills a month.
Go thru your house, and find ways to save on your utility bills, a quilt on a drafty window, a bit of rubber inner tube on the bottom of your doors, or a towel tucked into the cracks. Wear warmer clothes and turn that thermostat down a couple degrees. Unplug appliances when not in use, many of them draw power even if they are turned off. If you have power strips, you can plug your appliances into those, and turn them off all at the same time when not in use. Make sure lights stay turned off if they are not being used.
Use florescents rather than regular light bulbs, many power companies, will offer you rebates to switching to these, when I switched I used power company coupons, and switched over for free, better yet, my power bill dropped 20$ a month.
Use crockpots,microwaves, etc, to cook meals when ever possible, they save a lot of electricity over using a regular oven, in the summer they save on your air conditioning bill too.
Shop for insurance policies, don’t assume you have the cheapest one, Savings on insurance can be huge, so make sure.
Track your spending; this is a great way to see the places where you can cut corners. Save every receipt, write everything down, At the end of the week take a highlighter, and highlight all the things you could have done withought.
Hang your clothes to dry outside; this is a savings of about 50cents per load!! If you can’t have a clothes line, you can hang a couple loads a week, in the garage, or the bathroom. Rig an indoor line, at 50 cents a load, it adds up fast. Make your own softener from vinegar,water, and baking soda, works great and a LOT cheaper.
See if you can’t barter for services you need, this is a great money saver.
If you have a talent not shared by many in your neighborhood (such as sewing or baking) offer these services, to your neighbors, for a reasonable price. You would be surprised how many people would take you up on them.
IF possible go down to one car, this saves on insurance, gas, and maintenance, not to mention the revenue made by selling the second car. Carpool, combine errands, or get a bicycle at a yard sale even.
Not all of these ideas will work for you, but this gives you someplace to start, now just let your imagination, go to work, and see what ways you can find to save money in your house.
Be sure to keep track of your savings, so you can see how fast it can add up. You will be surprised how much you can save, and that you really can tighten the belt a little bit tighter.
Patty Getz is Is a Sahmom with a mission to educate families, on the alternatives, to high debt, fast food, and fast living. She is the Owner of
http://www.frugal-families.com
http://www.oldfashionedfamilies.com
http://www.Sahmoms.com
and the author of several articles on Frugal living,cooking, and Simple Living.
For more information, or to see her other Articles, visit her sites, or email her
at chefmom@frugal-families.com
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You've probably stood in a checkout line behind someone who has a coupon for every item they've purchased, and it seems like eternity until they are finished. But, they probably saved over 50% to 80% off their grocery bill in that few minutes!
How, you ask?
If you want to try your hand at snipping scissors for savings, first you need the coupons! The best source for coupons is in the Sunday newspapers. The inserts are tucked in the middle with the advertisements.
With the cost of a Sunday paper usually ranging from $1.00 - $1.50, it is a good investment with sometimes hundreds of dollars worth of coupons. And can you believe most people throw them away? Ask your friends, relatives and neighbors to save the inserts for you. Be on the lookout for businesses who subscribe and leave papers around for customers to read (ie Gas Stations, Laundry Mats). Check recycling bins. "Dumpster dive" if you have to.
On Monday, ask your newspaper carrier and stores if they have any leftover Sunday papers that didn't sell. Vendors usually only have to send in certain parts of the newspaper (ie the heading) of those that didn't sell to get credit for unsold papers. But they still have the coupons inside!
Unfortunately around Holidays, coupon inserts aren't as plentiful. So, you may want to check the Newspaper in the Newsstand on Mother's Day before searching the couch cushions for pocket change. And not all Sunday newspaper carry the same inserts. Some may have one, and another three. And even if they carry the same inserts, the amounts of the coupons may be different! It is common that coupons have a higher dollar value in an urban area over a rural area.
More ways to obtain coupons is directly from the manufacturers. Call the toll-free number on your favorite brands asking for coupons. Telling them first how much you like their product is a good introduction to your plea. Most will be happy to mail you coupons. Also check out to see if the product has a website. Email them or use their contact form to inquire. Don't forget to include your mailing address.
Look over your empty canned goods labels and boxed food items before throwing them in the trash. Usually you can find a toll-free number to call (see above) on the package. Some packages also adorn their own coupons good on their next purchase. And many companies are now participating in Boxtops for Education and Campbell's Labels for Education, so take a second to cut out the little symbol for the school of your choice. Those 10¢ add up fast when many people save, and all schools, public and private alike, appreciate them.
Also look for "hang-tags" on items in the store. Some will say "Save $$$ now" and if you read the print, it does not have to be used on only that certain item. Look for hang-tags on wine, as some offer $$$ off soda, meat or produce, with NO alcohol purchase required.
Another plan to acquire coupons is to beg, borrow or steal from other couponers. Ok, maybe not steal. Barter. If you don't know any coupon locales, you can meet them through Refund/Coupons Magazines and Internet Chat Boards. It is prohibited to actually sell coupons, but you can "purchase" coupons from Coupon Services who charge a "handling fee" per coupon (for their time to cut, sort and mail). You can even bid on coupons on eBay!
The newest way to add coupons to your collection is to print them directly from the internet to your printer (ie FreePrintables.net)! Some stores have yet to accept these thinking they are counterfeit. But printable coupons are definitely the wave the of future. Many sites make you register first, and your name may even appear on the coupon or are barcoded with your information. Others may only let you print one or two of the same coupon before you get a "Sorry you've already printed your quota for that coupon" message.
Once you have your coupons, it is best to have some rhyme or reason to them, so it is easier to find the coupon you want when you need it. You can use a simple recipe box with dividers, a three ring binder with divided pages (like for baseball cards), or you can even buy a "real" coupon organizer.
Then you need to categorize your coupons within your organizer. There are several ways people sort theirs. The most simple way is to organize by generic classifications (ie Baby, Pet, Frozen Foods, Dairy, Paper Products, Health & Beauty, etc). Another way to sort is by expiration date. Couponers with thousands of coupons file the full inserts by the name of the insert (SmartSource, Valassis, Proctor & Gamble) and the date that it came out.
Make a date once a month with your coupon organizer to weed out expired coupons. This can be done easily while watching your favorite show on the television. Your kids can even help. If you have an extra stamp to spare, mail those expired coupons overseas for the the deployed military to use at the commissaries. Some commissaries accept coupons up to six months after the expiration date.
Never throw out any coupons thinking you won't use them! Even if you have coupons for products you know you won't use, you may find those products on sale or clearance and after using a coupon may be only a few cents or even free! Save health and beauty items for gift baskets. Donate canned goods to food pantries. Sell Cleaning Supplies at a rummage sale. You get the idea.
Watch the weekly ads and stock up when something you use is on sale, and especially when you have a coupon for those sale items. Some stores will let you combine a store coupon with a manufacturer coupon (ie Target and Walgreens). Other stores price match if you bring in their competitor's ad. Pricematching is good if the original store is out of stock and your coupons expire before the rain checked items come in. It's also good to save on trekking all over town to get the sales when you could get them all at Super-Walmart, for example.
Ask if your favorite store offers a reward program. Baker's offers a club card you swipe every time you shop to get their discount prices. HyVee's checkout spits out Catalina coupons to use on your next purchase when you purchase certain items. Register all of your grocery and drugstore cards at Upromise.com, and they deposit 1% - 5% of the purchase price of thousands of different brands into a college fund for the person of your choice!
Some lucky shoppers get to take advantage of "Double Coupon Sales" or even "Triple Coupon Sales" where the store actually doubles the value of the coupon, up to a certain amount. For example, the store may advertise "Double Coupons up to 99¢!" Any coupon value 99¢ or lower, will be doubled, but $1.00 and up will be normal value. The store themselves eat the doubled value as an incentive to pull in shoppers.
Be sure to browse the Clearance Sections of your store. Target is known for having deep discounts on their end shelves hidden in the store. Also, if your coupon boasts "Valid on ANY size", buy the trial size! Be sure to calculate if you are getting a deal. Sometimes, it may still be cheaper to buy a generic brand of something, than to use a coupon on a name-brand something.
If the price of a product is more than the value of your coupon (ie Shampoo is 99¢ and you have a $1 off coupon), it is up to the store whether they will give you whole value of the coupon (where you make a profit) or just deduct the cost of the product. Either way, the store will be reimbursed for the full amount of the coupon plus the standard 8¢ redemption fee they receive. So, even though cashiers act like they hate coupons, it's in the store's best interest to accept them.
Rebate and Refund forms are another way to "cash" in on savings. These are obtained the same way coupons are, only they are not as plentiful. The best ones offer "Try Us Free!" Read the fine print, as most require you buy the product within a specific time period, and mail in the cash register receipt (with the purchase price circled) along with the UPC barcode from the product. Mail in as soon as possible, so it doesn't get forgotten about before the deadline. Many, many people forget to mail in their forms or don't read the fine print and miss out.
Stores, like Ace Hardware and Office Max, offer their own rebate booklets where you can take advantage of multiple offers with one form to get cash back. Some stores, like Walgreens, Shopko and Menards, offer their "cash back" in the form of store credit. You can turn around and use your store credit next month to buy new products that are FAR (Free After Rebate)! And you can combine coupons with rebates!
"Triple Plays" are music to Couponer's ears. This can mean that 1) the product is on sale, 2) you have a coupon and 3) the store offers a monthly rebate program. Or 1) there is a store coupon, 2) you have a manufacturer coupon and 3) you have a mail-in rebate for that product. The possibilities are endless. And most possibilities turn out with totally free products.
Unfortunately most perishable items do not have coupons for them. But you can still save! Watch when meat is marked down. Markets must sell their cut meat after so many days, so you can get meat 50% off or more on the cut off day. If you don't need any meat for the next few days to use it, freeze it to use later! Also watch for big ten pound tubes of hamburger to go on sale, as it is a lot cheaper per pound. Buy some freezer bags and divide it up into smaller portions and freeze.
Long timer couponers have year long supplies of certain stockpiled items, like toothpaste, razors, shampoo and cleaning supplies. When they are out of an item, they simply "shop" their stockpile closet. Not only did they save money buying the item, they saved time not having to run to the store to buy it again.
And There's More Coupons!
Watch for coupons to save when dining out at your favorite restaurant, to get a free membership to the gym, or even to save 25% off new clothes at the mall boutiques. These are also found in Entertainment booklets, newspaper ads and printable online.
Now, that you know how to save on most everything you need or want, there are also virtual coupons! Most online merchants offer promotional codes to be used during the checkout process for percentages off your purchase or even free shipping. ShoppingBookmarks.com categorizes thousands of coupon codes for hundreds of merchants. No need to go out now. Sit in front of your computer and have your good delivered to your door for less!
Kim Rowley (aka ShoppingKim.com) lives in Pierce, Nebraska, with her 4 children. Kim has saved thousands of dollars due to her thriftiness. Kim owns ShoppingBookmarks.com, an online coupon portal, and is a consultant / contributor for Proctor & Gamble's Brandsaver Division.
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