Saving Families Money Since 2007
Today’s question is from Michelle:
I have been easing into couponing slowly, but the drugstores have intimidated me. It just seems so much more complex than couponing at other stores. I think I am ready to try one of them. Which drugstore has the best deals? Which is easiest to figure out? -Michelle
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Transaction #1
2 Pantene Hair Products – $4.99
1 Pantene Hair Product – $3.99Used Buy One Get One Free coupon from the 9/15 SmartSource insert (took off $4.99)
And used $1/1 printableTotal with tax ($0.64): $7.96, Received $10 Target gift card
Transaction #2
6 Gerber Baby Food – $0.64 each, used 3 $1/2 coupon from the 9/8 RedPlum insert – $0.14 each after coupons
1 Green Giant Baby Carrots – $1.49, used $1/1 Target mobile coupon (Text LUNCHBOX to 827438) – $0.49 after coupon
1 SunSweet Prunes – $1.99, used $1.50/1 printable (no longer available) – $0.49 after coupon
2.23 lbs Bananas @ $0.54/lb – $1.20, used $1/1 Target mobile coupon (Text LUNCHBOX to 827438) – $0.20 after coupon
1 lb Ground Beef – $3.49, used $1/1 Target mobile coupon (Text LUNCHBOX to 827438) – $2.49 after coupon
2 GE Reveal Light Bulbs – $2.79, used 2 $2/1 Target printable AND 2 $1/1 coupon from the 9/15 SmartSource insert – Free after coupons
3 Right Guard Men’s Bodywash – $3.49 (On Sale Buy 2 Get 1 Free), used 3 $1.50/1 coupon from the 9/15 RedPlum insert – $0.83 each after coupons
Total with tax ($1.33): $7.90, Used gift card from Transaction #1
Free after gift card
Total for both transactions before coupons, sales and gift card: $44
Total for both transactions after coupons, sales and gift card: $7.96
Today’s Swagbucks success story is from Danielle
What if I told you that you could walk into Walmart, put $50 worth of groceries in your cart, go through the checkout and not part with one single penny? Would you believe me?
You should, because on June 24 that’s exactly what I did!
A major part of our income comes from my husband’s monthly commissions and the last few months have been lean. After an anemic commission check in May, I was feeling very discouraged. How were we going to have groceries for June?
I logged onto my computer that morning and for the first time I noticed a Walmart gift card option on the side bar of the Swagbucks homepage. I have always cashed in my Swagbucks for Amazon gift cards, but now I had an idea. What if I could earn enough Swagbucks to help supplement our grocery budget using Walmart gift cards?
Here’s what I did every day to earn 5000 Swagbucks in 45 days:
1. Complete Toolbar, Daily Poll, and NOSO first.
2. Do a search.
3. Answer surveys. There were good and bad survey days. Sometimes I could qualify for two or three surveys in one day. Some days I couldn’t qualify for one. After I received my five Swagbucks for failing to qualify for five different surveys, I moved on.
4. Do a search.
5. Complete Special Offers. Just like with surveys, there were good and bad days. I did my very best for that day and then moved on.
6. Do a search.
7. Start SBTV on the computer. While SBTV on my computer played, I would pull up SBTV on my smartphone and start it. Then I would put my phone on the kitchen counter and check in periodically to make sure it was still going.
8. Do a search.
9. Pull up another window on my browser and complete tasks (under the Answer tab on Swagbucks main page.)
10. Do a search… for anything
I had a daily goal of 50 Swagbucks, knowing that the Daily Bonuses would help push me over the goal line. The day we paid for $50 of groceries with free gift cards was wonderful.
It wasn’t easy, but I was able to help supplement our grocery budget, all while keeping up with my homemaking and homeschooling responsibilities.
Danielle is married to her best friend, blessed with three fantastic children, and fulfilling her dream of living in Big Sky Country.
CreativeGreenLiving.com shows you how to make an etched glass water bottle.
Do you have a fun and frugal DIY idea to share? I’d love to hear about it! Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Every week in 2013, I’ll be sharing a different way you can save $100 this year. If you do all of these things, you’ll be able to save over $5,000 this year alone! Many of these things will likely be things you’re already doing, but hopefully all of you will pick up at least a few new ideas or some inspiration from this series.
Over the years, many of the clothes we’ve worn were purchased used. And no one has been the wiser. 🙂
I know that some of you might be turned off by the thought of wearing used clothes. While it doesn’t bother me at all — just wash them well before wearing! — I also find many new-with-tags clothes from used clothing stores and garage sales.
Here are some of my favorite places to get great buys on clothes:
Thrift stores are a treasure trove of bargains on used clothing. You have to dig, but if you are patient, you can find incredible deals.
One of my favorite ways to find good deals at thrift stores is to go on the dollar days. Not all thrift stores have them, but it’s definitely worth checking into to see if your local thrift stores offer fill a bag for $5 or $1 days.
Also, sign up for your thrift store’s email list to be notified of when they are having special offers and sales.
Some areas have amazing garage sales where you can get nice clothing for $0.25 to $1 each. If you can find some of these sales and shop strategically, you can hit the deal gold mine!
I’d highly recommend reading this article on how to stockpile clothes by shopping at yard sales. If you want to be even more strategic, check out this article on How to Shop Yard Sales for Free.
We’ve gotten amazing deals at consignment sales over the years, especially on kid’s clothing. If you have extra time and energy, you can volunteer or sell at a consignment sale and you’ll usually be able to get first dibs on the deals — and possibly better pricing, too.
For more suggestions on how to maximize your consignment sale shopping experience, check out this article on Saving and Making Money With Consignment Sales and this article on How Selling on Consignment Works For Me.
Our church regularly has what we call “Giveaways”. These are a one-day event where we all clean out our homes and bring the extra items to church for everyone to go through and take home whatever they want. Then, we donate the extra items to a local shelter.
Not only is this a fun way to share from our abundance (and clean out our homes!) but it also has been a great way to find some kid’s clothes that we need — for free! If you want to put on your own swap meet, check out this article on How to Organize a Clothes Swap Meet.
I’ve been very impressed with the clothing from ThredUp and Like Twice. It’s gently used and it’s a little more expensive than what you’d pay at the thrift store, but you can shop at home and you don’t have to go dig through clothing racks! Best of all, they have a lot of clothes that are new with tags.
Note from Crystal: I asked Joy if she’d share her story with you all, because I thought it was great example of how you can creatively take your life lessons, mistakes, and experience and turn it into a product and/or online business. Starting a preschool might not be the right idea for you, but I’m guessing you have other life lessons and experience that you could turn into a marketable product.
Guest post from Joy of StartAPreschool.com
I can’t believe it’s been 5 years — 5 years! — since I started my preschool. Some days, I can’t remember a time I didn’t have my preschool. Other times, it seems like just yesterday that I was having my first day.
But really, I’m truly humbled any time I think of our little home preschool. Especially when I remember that just 5 years ago, I had no clue how to start a preschool. Seriously!
I was a single mom, newly divorced, with 3 kids. And I was just weeks away from being broke. I thought my only option was to go to work and put my kids in daycare, or start a daycare of my own. As you can imagine, I was a nervous wreck.
Finally, this idea came to me: “Why don’t you START a preschool instead?”
I couldn’t believe it. Was it really that obvious? All I had to do was the opposite of everything I disliked about the idea of starting my own daycare.
I wouldn’t have to change diapers. Instead, I’d only teach 3 to 5-year-olds. I wouldn’t work all day long. Instead, I’d only teach for a few hours each day. Best of all, I’d be able to teach and play with my kids… and I’d get paid to do it!
But within several weeks I made a lot of mistakes. Wasted a lot of time. And spent a lot of money. Why, you ask?
Because I had no “manual” to follow. No “checklist” to mark off. No one to hold my hand and tell me what to do. I had to figure it all out myself. And I learned (a lot) about what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.
And that’s when I committed that no other woman would have to struggle as much as I did trying to figure out how to start a preschool. So, I vowed that I would teach women how to start a preschool.
This quickly grew into my driving force and my mission in life. I wanted every woman to know about this great option!
So while I was busy running my own preschool at home, I launched my website and set to work writing down all my thoughts, tips, and processes. I asked myself over and over, “What did you need to know when you started your preschool?” and “What mistakes did you do that you’ll never do again?”
I found that writing down my thoughts took quite a long time (after all, editing is rough!) so I started creating training videos instead. I found it easier to just sit in front of a camera and talk for 30 minutes. Before I knew it, I had 10 hours of video coaching. Then, I watched the videos and wrote our business workbook, adding in anything I had forgotten in the videos.
After that, I asked myself, “What did I wish I had back then that would have made starting a preschool so much easier?” That’s when I created our curriculum, forms, licensing guidelines, marketing strategies, and website templates — because I knew those materials would save them so much heartache in the end.
Ultimately, I wanted to make sure that they had everything they needed to make sure their preschool was a big success.
Just like I learned what not to do as I started my preschool, I also learned what not to do when I started my online business. I learned that, more than anything, your family comes first. And I had to be careful not to let my online training business take over what precious family time I had left. There were days, weeks, and even some months when I had to “tone down” the amount of training I could provide, because I needed to devote more time to my family.
Though it’s been 5 years, every day I am just as thankful for the opportunity to stay home with my kids, teach preschool, and teach other women.
For the past 5 years, Joy Anderson has been on a mission to teach other women how to start their own preschools. As a single mother to 3 children, she discovered how she could start a preschool and also provide for her 3 children while only teaching a few hours each day. She currently owns two successful preschools and also helps women create a supplemental or full-time income through starting their own preschool businesses through her training materials at StartAPreschool.com
Clare from Peak 313 is hosting a 5-Week Living & Active Fitness Challenge that begins today.
If you could use some extra fitness motivation or accountability, I encourage you to head on over and check it out. The first post is up today here.
Testimonial from Chantel of ABC Murrah Family
I am a podiatrist (foot and ankle doctor) and there are only a handful of schools around the country that offer a degree in Podiatric Medicine — and at the time, they were all private schools. That meant very expensive tuition.
I applied for every scholarship I could (and received several) but they didn’t even cover the cost of my books. And because our academic schedule was so rigorous, we were not allowed to work with the exception of work study on the campus — I picked up as many teaching aid jobs and other positions as I could!
I was also single so there was no spouse to help pay the tuition or even with the cost of living. I was literally living on student loans.
By the time I graduated and finished residency, I was facing about $170,000 of student loan debt. They were on a 30-year note, but with a lot of hard work, I was able to pay them off in 10 years by following a few simple steps:
My husband and I (I was married by this point) decided to live on just his salary so that my entire salary could be sent in to my student loans. At the time I graduated, we had no children but we knew as they joined our family, I wouldn’t be working as much anyway, and we didn’t want to count on my salary to live.
$170,000 was a huge amount, and at the beginning, it seemed endless.
So, I set small goals for myself — the first one was a $4,000 variable loan. Even though it barely made a dent in the total, knowing I had met that goal gave me so much satisfaction and a desire to keep going. I also had a ticker on my blog. Watching it go down and down gave me the biggest sense of accomplishment.
My student loan company offered an incentive for having automatic payment. This lowered my interest rate by a quarter point.
I had the loan company automatically take out more than the amount due. This paid more to the principle and ensured that I was paying less in interest. I also found I was less likely to spend that extra money on other things because it was automatically being taken out.
Most of my loans were on a low fixed rate of 2.25%, but I had a few loans that were on a variable rate of 12%. I applied the extra amount specifically to those loans first.
ANY time I had any extra money, I would send it into my student loans. When I was in residency and making very little money, sometimes it was only $25… but every penny helps!
I wanted every penny from my salary to be sent into my student loans so I started a Vinyl lettering company at home. The money I made from that company was set aside for other expenses.
There were many, many times that I wanted to but I didn’t and eventually my hard work paid off!
I learned invaluable lessons from paying off my student loans and while I don’t usually condone acquiring debt, this was one loan that I’m glad I took. Without it, I never would have obtained my degree — and that to me was worth every penny I had to spend (and then some).
I also got the satisfaction of knowing I could work hard and reach my goal. I wouldn’t have gotten the same experience had I not paid off those student loans!
Chantel has been married to her sweet heart since 2002. They have four small children, under six, which keep her busy and a little crazy. She also works quarter-time as a podiatrist. Read all about their crazy life at ABC Murrah Family.
I was really anxious to try this Natural Antibiotic Tea and when I felt a bit of a sore throat coming on today, I knew it was the perfect day for it.
I was really impressed with it. It tasted yummy, it was soothing on my throat, and just felt good to drink.
The jury’s still out on the natural antibiotic properties, but I will say that an extended family member of mine has been sick this week and has been drinking it and it’s seemed to really help.
Have you tried the Natural Antibiotic Tea before? I’d love to hear your thoughts on it.
(And yes, the ingredients for it are pricey. I used Swagbucks credit to buy the items on Amazon. I figured that it could potentially save money on doctor’s visits/prescriptions if it did indeed work!)
Are you participating in the Make It From Scratch Week? If so, link up your blog post about today’s Make It From Scratch Project. Don’t have a blog? Tell us about what you made in the comments.
Testimonial from Karen
I just want to say thanks. I see you post often about ALDI and I always write it off as a not for us because it is too far away.
Today, I was in the neighboring city and knew I needed to stop for some fruit at the grocery store. Right as I thought of it, we drove by an ALDI. I pulled in the parking lot and we went inside to “check it out”.
The first thing we noticed was the milk, $1.89 a gallon! That was shock! We pay $3.39 a gallon.
Next, I went to the produce. The prices were good but the fruit was picked over. We were able to get cantaloupe for $0.99 each and that was exciting (they are $2.50 at our regular grocery store!)
So for a gallon of milk and 3 cantaloupe I paid $4.86, if I had bought this at my grocery it would have been $10.89!!! What a savings!
Then, we stopped at the nearby Target for 3 specific items: diapers, cheese, and a skillet meal. The diapers were $0.90 cheaper and the cheese was $0.65 cheaper than the Target by our house. The skillet meals were the same price, but this Target store carried more variety than the one by our house.
Also, we noticed gas was $0.11 a gallon cheaper in this town than where we live. I make a trip to this town every two weeks, and I think I’m going to start planning my grocery trips around it.
While I can’t buy two weeks’ worth of milk at once, I can save $1.40 a gallon for every gallon I do buy. I am excited to see what I can “save” by buying here instead of at home and I would not have noticed if I hadn’t read your posts about ALDI! So, thank you! -Karen
In our art lessons this week, we were studying about Michelangelo. One part from the book really grabbed my attention:
Michelangelo was one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, being both a painter and a sculptor. Yet, when asked by a student, “Master, how did you become a great artist?” his reply was brief and to the point, “I drew, and I drew, and I drew some more.”
I found this so interesting because even an amazing artist like Michelangelo recommended just doing the simple but hard things over and over and over again. It reminds me of a great quote I read earlier this week: “Small daily improvements are the key to staggering long-term results.”
A few weeks back, I was having a conversation with someone about goal-setting. They’ve seen my goal lists that I’ve posted here and they wondered if goal-setting just comes naturally to me.
Here’s the thing: I didn’t start goal-setting and instantly see success. In fact, the first few years I tried to set yearly goals, I really stunk at it. I would set goals that were too ambitious, too unrealistic, or just plain too vague. And then I’d be discouraged when I’d fail at them or give up on them soon after I started.
But, despite my discouragement, I kept trying. Kept setting goals. Keeping tweaking them. Kept learning what worked — and what didn’t work.
Over time, I got a little better. And a little better. And a little better.
Pretty soon, goals that would have been impossible a few years before (like this year’s goal to read 150 books), are seeming much more doable. That’s the power of practice!
If you’re feeling like you’re getting nowhere with goal-setting, or losing weight, or paying off debt, or sticking with your budget, or developing discipline in your life, don’t give up. Keep practicing. Keep trying. Keep pressing forward — even if it seems like you’re going slower than a snail’s pace.
Some day soon, you’ll look back and realize that all that sweat, clawing, and persistence has paid off!
“Every champion was once a contender who refused to give up.” -Rocky Balboa
I’m honored to be speaking at Hope Community Church in Andover, Kansas (near Wichita) on October 5, 2013 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. giving a workshop called I’d Throw in the Towel… If Only I Could Find a Clean One.
If you feel like your life is one big chaotic mess of mountains of laundry, dishes, and to-do lists, you’ll want to attend. In this session, I’ll share practical encouragement and ideas that harried and hurried young moms can implement to restore balance, peace, and order into their lives.
This workshop is open to the public. The cost is just $2 per person.
To pre-register by phone, call 316-858-9100. Click here to pre-register online.
Note: Childcare is only available with pre-registration, and spots are limited.
Don’t live in Kansas? I’ll also be speaking in Cincinnati, Kansas City, and Austin, TX in October. Find more details on these speaking engagements here.
I’m so sorry for creating a scare yesterday with the email I posted from a reader on Amazon’s Subscribe & Save Program. And I’m happy to share this email from Mandi from Jungle Deals & Steals that clarifies things:
The S&S comment/question you posted today is absolutely not true.
In your Subscribe & Save orders, you will see the current price of the item, but the order is actually generated on the day you place the order, and that is the price you pay for the item, even if it rises in the meantime. Your email order confirmation also shows the price you’ll pay (although it’s not deducted from your account until the day it ships).
I place between 6-8 S&S orders a month, and I am 100% confident that this is still the way it works. The way to check is to visit the Manage Your Subscribe & Save Orders page.
You’ll see the current price next to each item, but if you click on the item title/description to go to the product page, there is a yellow bar with a link at the top of the page that says “View this order”. Click on that link, and it will show you the price you’re actually paying for the item based on the day your order was placed.
The S&S policy is that you pay the price of the product on the date your order is placed. For your first month, this means the day you create the subscription and place your first order. In subsequent months, the price may vary, but you’ll receive an email confirming the price you’ll pay that month with the option to cancel the order before it ships. -Mandi from Jungle Deals & Steals
Victoria was inspired by my Gratitude Journal post and came up with a really creative (& cute!) way to make your own Gratitude Journal — for only $1
Well, it’s back to the chocolate theme today for the Make It From Scratch Week. 🙂
I was intrigued by the Crockpot Brownies recipe and had to try it.
It was really easy to mix together.
And fun to bake in the crockpot.
The final results were a little cakier than usual brownies, but they were really yummy. I think this recipe would especially be great to bake on a hot day when you don’t want to heat up your house by baking in the oven.
Oh and I’d recommend serving it with ice cream and chocolate syrup. Yum!
Are you participating in the Make It From Scratch Week? If so, link up your blog post about today’s Make It From Scratch Project. Don’t have a blog? Tell us about what you made in the comments.
