Monday, December 29, 2008

Happy New Year...New You!


glitter-graphics.com
Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve. We played board games, watched movies, and ate a ton of junk. New year's is a time to reflect on the year just ending and look forward to the year ahead. Many of us think of the things we want to change and the things we want to continue on. For most of us that dreaded resolution has popped up. Like a million others, mine is to lose weight and get healthy. (financially and physically). There are many, many diet plans out there; all with there pros and cons but I'm turning to one that has worked for me in the past and if I stick with it will again work for me in the future and hopefully for the rest of my life. My favorite part? Its FREE!! My favorite four letter word. ha! ha! It's called SparkPeople.com



It's a totally free weight loss site that gives you educational tools, diet suggestion plans, and a ton of tools. My favorites are the food and exercise trackers. You simply input your foods and their vast data base can pull up all the "numbers" calories, fat (good and bad), sodium, sugars, fiber, etc. The fitness tracker lets you input your daily exercise which figures the calories your burn and calculates your over all time. There's daily and weekly goals you can set up which you get points for. Awe! The wonderful points. What do points get you? FAME! No just kidding. The points are just a fun way of making a harmless competition of it. You really don't get anything for your points but its addictive to make your points add up. Which leads me to one of the best parts...teams! With hundreds of teams to join you can find a "community" to participating to get encouragement, have questions answered, and just sound off to. They've even started contests and competitions. The latest is one that starts this Sunday called SparkPeople's Official New YOU Boot camp Its a 4 week exercise jump start to a new you. While the prizes are great, the encouragement and structure to a new you are the real prizes. It's great to have someone to push you in a fun way not a hateful way. Here's a little tutorial/preview of this great site.




Check them out and see what a wonderful place this is. You can even stop by and say hi to me on my SparkPage...I'm Jeffysgirl. Stop by and say hey. Seriously though, this is a great free resource that really has heart behind it not just a money making scheme. There is NEVER any fee just positive and encouraging help. Happy New year everyone! Happy New YOU!

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Glitter Text Generator - http://www.sparklee.com

I've read a couple of articles on a No Spending Day technique to save money. Some extended it to a week in which you spend no money - cash or credit cards. Basically, although you do spend money each day on things like electricity, mortgage/rent, etc. you aren't allowed to spend any money through out the day on anything else. This got me thinking, can you do this on a regular basis? Many of us are scouring the Internet, papers, and coupon sections to find the best deal to stock up at the cheapest price possible, but can we take one day or even a week in which we spend absolutely nothing? I've done it the past 3 days but I've been at home for the holidays. I don't return to work until after the first of the year so, yeah, I could do it but then I wouldn't leave my home for 2 weeks. Not a pretty picture. ha! ha! However, I do think that I may start with baby steps and have a No Spending Day once a week for the entire year of 2009. Maybe I'll even get brave and have a No Spending Week in there somewhere. I'll officially start this in January 2009. Now I just need to pick one day and set it in "stone" so to speak and stick to it.



I've also decided to let go of getting a soda pop at work for $1.25 each day but instead of letting the money just go back into my regular budget, I'm going to add it to my change jar. I've not decided what to use the jar for yet. I do raid it occasionally to buy 3 different newspapers on Sunday for the goods (coupons/sales ads) but in general its untouched. If I pass on the soda pop & save the $$$ from it I can save roughly $25 a month. Wow! That's roughly $300 a year!

Wow! It's amazing how much we spend without even thinking about it.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Wraping a small paper gift the fun way

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is watching my boys open their Christmas presents on Christmas morning. This year I got my oldest son, car insurance and the car my dad gave him registered so he has some wheels when he gets his license next month. (Oye Vey) This was quite a big expense and took up a good part of his portion of my Christmas budget. It made me a little bit sad to think he'd get to open one or two little things and then an envelope with papers in it. Sooooo, I decided to do something different. Something that would let him open presents and have fun.

First thing I did was make this certificate. The picture's a little hard to tell but it says: World's Soon To Be Best Driver...in recognition of getting your car registered and insured. You may now drive your car. I then included it and the registration and insurance card in a box that opened up to show them nicely.


I then made little cards/papers with cute says on them like This isn't your present...keep going...not there yet...etc. Then I got a bunch of different boxes to put those in:


Then I put the actual gift box in the bottom of the box and threw all the other boxes, totalling I believe 12 boxes, in on top of the present box. I used every shape an size I could think of.


Then I wrapped it all up pretty and put a bow on it.




Now he'll have just as many or more presents to open. Hee! Hee! This was my frugal way of giving him a fun and good Christmas. I hope he enjoys it as much I did coming up with it!

Yesterday I mentioned Hotcouponworld.com in my quest for free toliet paper. I thought I should tell you a little about hcw. I stumbled across this wonderful virtual community by accident one day and have never turned back. It's a huge resource for the hard core couponer AND the beginner.


At HCW, there's a place for everything - from introduction to couponing and the entire process to get started, to where to find coupons and even suggestions on how to set up a coupon organizing system. Other resources include individual sections for individual stores that list current and upcoming sales, how to handle any problems you encounter, sharing deals people have gotten there, and my favorite, the wonderful ladies (& gents) list coupon match ups to the sales ads. Helping you get the most out of your money.
There are so many resources on this site, you'll find yourself addicted to it. Not only do they help you learn and navigate through the wonderful world of couponing but they also list freebies, have a helping hand program, classifieds, coupon trading, and even a place to blow off steam.
If you are new to couponing or you're a pro and have never stopped by, I highly recommend clicking over there. Hotcouponworld.com is an excellent source of knowledge, encouragement, and just a lot of fun while saving. I learn something new every time I'm there. Go check them out: Hotcouponworld.com

Monday, December 22, 2008

FREE TP & the rest of my shopping "experience:

Today I did some grocery shopping, partly for Christmas dinner; partly for the fact we will be eating 3 meals a day at home for the next 2 weeks while I’m off work, and of course, there was a sale and I was armed with coupons. I don’t have my camera set up yet but I’ll work on that later & post some pictures. (that always makes it seem more real! Lol)

My first stop was to Walgreens were I attempted to pick up a Conair blow dryer for $10 and get a $10 RR (register return) making it virtually free but I was too late. They were gone before 5 am! It was a great deal; but I do still have my loyal dryer. I was able to take advantage of their Pepsi product sale and picked up 4 – 12 pks of pepsi products for the 4/$12 deal and received a $3 RR (my first, yeah me!) I always seem to miss something when I try to do the RR specials. That made them 4/$9 (just under $3 a piece) I also picked up 2 of the 15 count waters for $1.99 each with Walgreens coupon. We went back after our trip to Kroger & price comparison on the Betty Crocker Brownie bowls. I had 3 coupons for .50 off two and they were on sale for 3/$5. I used my $3 RR .

I picked up MANY (too many probably) things at Kroger but my brag deals have to be the Pillsbury Frozen Biscuits on sale 2/$5 then I had .50 off Coupons which were doubled making them $1.50 each. I bought 6 making it a total of $9.oo PLUS each bag had a $1 off coupon for Pillsbury frozen Cinnamon rolls!! So that’s kind of like only spending $3 (ok that might be stretching it but you get the picture). Now my favorite deal which my family is so tired of me bragging about it is one I have to give props to the ladies (& a few gents) on HOTCOUPONWORLD.COM! Thanks to a tip from one of the ladies in the Kroger forumn I learned that Kroger carries the 4 pk Cottonelle TP for $0.99 I surfed the web until I found 4 $0.50 coupons which Kroger doubled. DRUMROLL……..I purchased 4 packages of the 4-pk Cottonelle for a grand total of -$0.04!!!! I also had earned enough points to get $0.10 off per gallon which I needed gas so I filled my 4 wD up for $30.00 which never seems to happen. Again…Yeah me! Lol

Without boring you with all my items here’s an overview: At Walgreens I saved $14.50 and at Kroger $36.45…$15 of that was pure coupons! It was a productive day and I feel like I really accomplished something today. It took some work surfing the web and digging through my coupons but it was well worth it. For those out there that say you can get the off brand for cheaper than wasting your time with coupons…well yes, sometimes you can but sometimes the coupon, combined with a sale, and the right store that doubles can make the name brand cheaper than the off brand. It just takes time to comparison shop. My advise…invest in a good calculator…or carry your 14 year old math whiz…that’s what I do.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Learning from JANE4girls $800 Annual Budget

There’s an amazing woman online out of Texas who has inspired not only myself but hundreds of people online to buckle down, get creative, and save on groceries and more. On her blog, JANE4girls $800 Annual Budget For A Family of 4, she not only tells you how she spends next to nothing on groceries she also shows you how to do it. With gift cards earned from rebates, surveys, and even test drives, she recently took herself and her girls to Red Lobster and ate for $1.85!!! I haven’t even been able to take my crew to McDonald’s for less than $20 but I’m inspired to look into this. Erin, who holds free couponing classes in her hometown of Katy, Texas, has taken couponing and frugal living to a new and fun level. She still lives like she spends a ton but has maintained an $800 budget with change to spare for this year. On her blog she shares her secrets to getting the best deal and even shares some recipes in which she uses items from her stockpile of goodies. All the things she does she does to share the knowledge she has gained learning to live frugally and still have fun. The coupon classes she holds in Katy, Texas she does at no charge so that she can share with others how to save and live a better life. During this time of economic downturn, it’s refreshing to find a great resource for not only information on saving some of our hard earned money but encouragement to enjoy the fruits of our labors as well as life in general. Kudos to this great motivator of the frugal. Thanks for helping us all learn to live for less. Great job, Erin! Great job!

Check her great blog out at : http://jane4girls800dollarannualbudget.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Need to learn to plan ahead

Yes. I really need to learn to plan ahead. Last night we had a pretty good ice blanket cover the area. While we only had ice, which was bad enough, north of us got the winter mix with snow and all. The kids were out of school and quite honestly, I was not prepared. We had food in the house but nothing I could really throw together for them to fix quickly while I was at work. So I decided to run into Save a lot after work and pick up a few toss in the microwave items and some chips and cereal and canned spegettio's and the like. $61!!! Had I been planning all this time I could have had a stockpile and not had to worry about finding something quickly. I could have had coupons and been buying a little along the way. So this is a lesson I've experienced and now I have to move on and start preparing now. I wish I could say I've got some clue as to what to be looking for. I really don't. I would like to have an afternoon free where all I had to do was bake and fix goodies for them to snack on but I just haven't gotten there yet. Maybe when we are on Christmas break (I get 2 weeks since we shut down for institutional closing yeah me) I can dive into some baking and snack making as well as some form of multi meal cooking. Time to dig out some coupons and start hitting the sales and clearance isle.

OH and yes they are running in and checking the TV for school closings every 10 minutes!

Today's Spending:
Save A lot $61.98
Dollar General $25.95
Total Spend to date: $87.93

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Some of my online shopping "Tools"

I've picked up a few little tools to help me save this Christmas season while shopping online. I don't particularly like to shop and since there are 3 to buy for in my house it gets tricky to buy without having someone around. On top of that I don't really have a lot of time to shop. I turned to online shopping a few years ago because (1) I can find things that aren't in my area, (2) I can do it in secretly (aka out of prying eyes) (3) I can look for the best deals, and (4) I can do it in my PJ's!! Here's a few of them. (*BTW: I am in no way affliated with any of these and I don't get anything for share these. I'm just sharing not earning*)

1. ShoppingNotes.com This is a great site if you find that PERFECT gift but its still out of your reach or not on sale yet. You cut and paste the URL of the item you are looking for and when the item's price goes down, your sent an email alert. It keeps you from having to constantly look for it to go down.


2. One a day sites. These are sites that sell basically one item per day. I was able to find MP3 players for $9.99 on one of these. These are the ones I've had the best luck with. There's many more but these I've used the most.


3. Mypoints.com I shop online stores listed there (which are basically all the major online stores) so I earn points for gift cards. I figure a few extra clicks are worth the time and energy since I'll earn extra by turning in points for gift cards for other things I want or need.


4. Deal of the day. Most websites have a tab or link somewhere on there site that lists a deal of the day. Sometimes its simply free shipping but other times its up to 90% off an item. I've ran across a few that have a small window or small number of items to get it at a cut rate price but I find its worth doing a quick click through to find it.


5. Online Coupon codes. Before I complete a checkout on any website, I google for coupon codes for the store I'm shopping for. Sometimes I get lucky and sometimes I get zilch. But it never hurts to knock off even 10% off shipping.


I'm sure there's tons of tools online out there to help make shopping online less of a cyber kick to the wallet. Every day I stumble across something new that helps with some aspect of cutting my shopping cost.

Friday, December 12, 2008

In the Beginning...

As this year comes to an end, I've decided to start a project for myself. I'm going to track my spending (and lack of spending) over the next year. Since July I've been reading, studying, and even dabbling in couponing and rebating. I've actually done a pretty good start but I have in no way tracked how much I've spent or saved. Thus, this is my self improve project for 2009!!!

First thing I need to do is figure out what my true income/liquid assets, recurring expenses such as utilities, traveling gas, etc., and need base expense are. That sounds easily enough, right? Somehow its not coming to me that easily. That's one of the reasons I'm starting this blog ahead of time; before the actual 2009. I need to get a grasp of where I am financially both incoming and outgoing.

In general, I'm a single mom of 3 boys: Crisco 18 soon to be 19 and graduating this year, Wes/Andrew (its the name game with him; his name depends on his mood) he's 14, and little bit who's 11. They eat like an army constantly so groceries will be the area I will concentrate the most on in cutting costs. I commute to work - about 44 miles and work for the State which at this point is in a Budget Crisis so my income has been froze for the past year and will be until July when it may be either cut somewhat or well...I don't want to think the worst. Also, I'm a part time student working on my IT degree so I do have some expenses there.

Overall, I just need to spend the next couple of weeks going over what's coming in and what's going out. I plan to document my next year on this blog so I can look back and learn from it and possibly even get the input of anyone who stumbles across here and of course, share what I learn on the way!

Wish me luck!
Gertie