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6 Ways to Save Money On Vitamins and Supplements
Guest post from Shelly of Coupon Teacher
While I never anticipated becoming an expert about saving on vitamins and supplements, the last nine months of my life changed my outlook. Recently, my chronic illness took hold of my body once again, and I have been on at least seven vitamins and supplements per day (most at my doctor’s recommendation).
If I paid regular price for my current vitamins and supplements, I would be spending in excess of $150 per month not including my prescription medication. Needless to say, we could not afford the expense, so I have become a woman on a mission to find the absolute lowest prices on my healthcare expenses.
This past month, using the following tips, I cut that in half by only paying about $75 out of pocket:
1. Buy high quality vitamins and supplements with your drug store rewards.
I recently was able to get my vitamin D3 for free after Extra Care Bucks, coupons, and a Buy One, Get One Free sale. Always check for the correct dosage and the expiration date to be sure what you are buying is really a deal.
2. Utilize your Swag Bucks account to get Amazon gift cards.
After plunking $30 down on a supplement at my doctor’s office, I looked for it online. I found it for the same price on Amazon from a reputable source, so I was able to order my next bottle for free with my Amazon credits.
3. Use store programs and coupons.
When I can’t get my supplements anywhere but the vitamin store, I use a coupon from their rewards program. I recently received a 20% off my purchase coupon, so I stocked up on the items I couldn’t find anywhere else.
4. Ask your doctor if the vitamins are available as prescriptions.
I pay a $12 co-pay on my generic prescriptions. I was recently able to get three months’ worth of a vitamin for only $12 via my prescription coverage.
5. Utilize sales at Vitacost.
They have great prices, flat rate and free shipping options, and their sales are good, too. I initially signed up for my free $10 credit, and I have since ordered from them (even without credit)! One of my supplements is half price over the local vitamin store. Vitacost also carries many allergen related foods.
6. Don’t stock up until you try it.
One of the supplements that was suggested to me didn’t work. In fact, it made me feel worse. A lot worse. If I had stocked up on a “great deal”, I would have been out the extra money.
How do you lower your cost for vitamins and supplements?
Shelly is a full-time fourth grade teacher and blogs at Coupon Teacher. She wants you to share and celebrate your successes with her, and she may give you a few tips along the way!
4 Weeks of Frugal Family Fun: Green Smoothies, Sidewalk Chalk, Snow Treasure, and a game of Old Maid (Day 6)
We had a very laid back Friday full of lots of frugal family fun. Here’s a little peek into our day:
We made our favorite Green Monster Smoothies.
So good and refreshing — especially after my daily run!
We went outside and played with sidewalk chalk on the deck.
We were hoping that maybe we could make the Fizzy Sidewalk Chalk by spraying the drawings with vinegar as outlined here. But apparently it only fizzes if you make Homemade Sidewalk Chalk Paint with baking soda. So we’ll have to try that idea again sometime soon!
But everyone had fun drawing and spraying, regardless!
While the children played, I read a few chapters of one of our current read-alouds — Snow Treasure. We are loving this book, by the way!
After playing outside, we came in and Kathrynne and I played a rousing game of Old Maid together.
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Note: Since the purpose of this series is to encourage you to be intentional about fun in your home this summer, please only link up posts showing pictures/sharing details of fun things you did as a family today (or within the last few days). Posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted in order to make it fair for those who are putting forth a lot of effort to participate in this challenge.
Courage does not always roar…
Shared Jun 21, 2012
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4 Weeks of Frugal Family Fun: Marshmallow & Toothpick Structures (Day 5)
4 Weeks of Frugal Family Fun: Marshmallow & Toothpick Structures (Day 5)
I was inspired by Angie from Creating Our Home for today’s project! And I’m so glad we tried this because it was a huge hit — especially with Kathrynne.
All you need is a bag of mini marshmallows and some toothpicks. You might have both on hand, or you could pick them up at the Dollar Store or Walmart very inexpensively.
Show your children how to connect the toothpicks and marshmallows together to make structures and then let them be creative and see what they come up with!
I gave each of the children their own bowls of marshmallows to make it easier (and to prevent any possible arguments over who gets the marshmallow bag!).
And don’t forget to have a snack of marshmallows at the end!
I think Silas enjoyed the snacking on marshmallows at the end best of all! 🙂
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Note: Since the purpose of this series is to encourage you to be intentional about fun in your home this summer, please only link up posts showing pictures/sharing details of fun things you did as a family today (or within the last few days). Posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted in order to make it fair for those who are putting forth a lot of effort to participate in this challenge.
We Paid Cash: A New-To-Us Car
A testimony from Jessica who blogs at Jess and the Boys
In May 2009, my husband and I committed our first (of many) major money mistakes. I cringe as I even type this because looking back, I’m shocked that my common sense did not kick in at the time: we purchased two brand-new vehicles from a dealer on the same day.
We had just had our first son in March and I had quit my job as a case manager at girls’ shelter to stay-at-home with him. It’s safe to say we could not afford one new car, let alone two!
We were hit hard by a job loss that subsequently led to quite a bit of credit card debt and being several months behind on bills, but have slowly crept our way out of the red. One of our major goals, along with paying off the cards, has been to get rid of at least one of our car payments and pay for a car with cash.
In the fall of 2011, with the birth of our second son approaching, my husband and I decided enough was enough and sat down to discuss how we planned to get rid of the car. We knew if we sold it, we would want to buy an older SUV in cash and install a navigation system.
Here are some of the ways we saved:
- We stopped pulling my husband’s sales commissions as they came and let them build until the time was right or a good deal crossed our path.
- We scoured our budget to see where we were spending too much and made an action plan for reducing the overspending.
- We automated our savings withdrawals directly to an online savings account.
- We cut out all eating at restaurants, averaged the amount we spent every month and put that into an online savings account; we’ve learned to get creative with our at-home dates.
- We reduced our monthly grocery bill by eating less meat, having weeks of eating from the pantry instead of shopping, and cooking based on deals at the supermarket versus what we felt like having.
- We shopped around for car insurance to lower our monthly payment.
- I started doing some work from home — designing invitations, websites, and other odd jobs for an old employer to earn extra income.
By chance, my cousin happened to be looking for a new vehicle last month and was inquiring about my car; I jumped at the opportunity to let her know it was for sale! After a test drive, she was sold — both my cousin and the car.
Later that month, it just so happened that we came across a stellar deal on a Chevy Tahoe, one of my dream cars. My husband had saved up enough commission to buy the vehicle in cash, and our growing pile of cash was enough that not only were we able to outfit the Tahoe with a navigation system, but we added a DVD player as well!
It has been three weeks now that I’ve been driving it and I love it, especially since it reflects the fact that we are learning from our previous mistakes. With a positive attitude and some resourcefulness, I know we will have our second car sold and move even closer to our number one goal – being debt-free.
Jessica is a stay at home mother of two who lives in El Centro, CA. She shares stories about her life, recipes, home projects and other things at her blog, Jess and the Boys.
Have you saved up and paid cash for something — large or small? Submit your story for possible publication here.
How to Have Productive Mornings When You Have Early Risers
Guest post from Jessica of Mothering With Creativity
In lieu of the recent posts about waking up early, and being a part of the many commenters whose children are up by 5:30 a.m. in the morning, I thought I’d share some tips for making mornings easier, despite the early risers!
I have 3 children ages 4 and under. My baby still wakes up once in the middle of the night, and is up by 5:30 a.m. My two-year-old follows him 15 minutes later. My 4-year-old has learned to “sleep in” until 6:45 a.m. — woohoo! 🙂
I work part-time in the mornings teaching kindergarten, and my husband also leaves the house by 7:25 a.m. It occasionally happens that I have a productive morning with all the children running around and playing nicely. However, most mornings, that is not the case, and so I do not expect it.
Since parents of early risers typically have early-to-bedders, the evenings are often prime “prepping” time for the next day.
Here’s how I use my evenings to make my mornings more enjoyable:
Prepare Lunches
It can often take me 25 minutes to make five lunches for five very different people. (I know it would be easier to say “everyone eats the same thing!” but I do enjoy the special touches for each person, and so it’s something that’s worth it to me to spend a few extra minutes preparing.) Preparing lunches the night before saves that much time and stress from my morning.
Shower at Night
I hate showering at night. Did I mention I hate showering at night? However, I’ve been showering at night for almost three months now. I still hate it, though maybe not as much as I did three months ago!
I go to bed with wet hair (annoying) and I just straighten it in the morning (and use a little water to get out out any crazy kinks). Though I would prefer to shower in the morning, showering at night shaves a lot of time off of my morning routine.
Pick Out Clothes
For the indecisive child (or parent), making clothing choices the night before can save a lot of morning time stress. If my 2 and 4-year-olds know what they are going to wear ahead of time, they are capable of getting themselves dressed without me. This saves me the time, and allows them to practice valuable skills.
Fill Juice Cups
Does anybody else have a child with a one-track mind? I’m sure that in some regards this focus can be a blessing, but at 5:45 a.m., the insistence that “no one else moves until I get my almond milk” is enough to drive me up a wall.
The simple solution? Fill a sippy with almond milk (or juice, water, milk, etc.) the night before and place it in the fridge. As soon as they wake up, they can get their drink, and you don’t have to drop everything to fill a cup. On days when I remember to do this, my two-year-old gives me the biggest smiles.
Make Lists
I love lists. While trying to leave in the morning, do you ever find yourself running in and out of the house for all of the “forgotten” things?
Make a list of all the easily forgotten and necessary items on a sticky note and leave it on the counter or the garage door. Before you leave, be sure to give a quick glance over your list.
Remembering to do some, if not all, of these things helps make my morning with early-risers much more enjoyable and much more smooth.
And for the record, I wrote this in the early morning while my kids slept in. How’s that for irony? That usually never happens!
Do you have early risers at your house? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for making the most of your mornings!
Jessica Locke is a wife and mom of three small children. She loves Jesus, being creative, eating sweet treats, and making her home a place where others can feel at safe and loved. She blogs about life as a mom at Mothering With Creativity.
Want some practical help with setting up your day for success? Be sure to grab a copy of my brand-new online course, Make Over Your Mornings.
This 14-day online course includes videos, a workbook, and step-by-step projects and is designed to help you revolutionize your productivity, streamline your routines, invest your time in things that truly matter, and find more joy and peace in the process.
If you’ve ever wished that you could figure out how to get more done, have more organization in your life, and find time to spend on things you love, the Make Over Your Mornings Course is for you. Find out more about it here.
Do-It-Yourself: Worm Composting Bin
QueenBeeCoupons.com shows you how to make a homemade worm composting bin.
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.
Is frugality really worth it?
Recently, someone emailed in and asked if I died tomorrow would I regret the frugal choices I’ve made?
It was an excellent question and one that gave my husband and I pause — and produced a great discussion for us as a couple. Both of our answers were a resounding “No. We would absolutely not regret the frugal choices we’ve made.”
While we’ve made plenty of mistakes individually and as a family, we have zero regrets that we’ve chosen to live beneath our means, make sacrifices, delay purchases until we can pay cash for them, and live on a strict written budget.
To some people, not getting what you want right away or doing without might seem like a miserable existence. But truthfully, we’ve found it to be just the opposite: we live very fulfilled lives and we wake up excited about each day.
However, we both believe that the reason we feel fulfilled and passionate about life — even though we’ve made counter-cultural choices that some would balk at — is because frugality is a means to an end for us. If we were just frugal for being frugal’s sake, we’d likely quickly burn out or give up.
It’s not about saving money so we can continuously upgrade our lifestyle and always be buying bigger and better things. We want to live beneath our means so that we are able to give generously to others.
There’s a world of need around us. The more we steward our money well, the more abundance we will have to meet those needs. The more we save, the more we have to give.
Your efforts and my efforts might seem like a drop in the bucket when compared with all of the need that’s out there. But collectively, we can make a huge impact.
Let’s live simply so that others can simply live. Because truly, there is nothing more fulfilling than living a life with outstretched arms.
4 Weeks of Frugal Family Fun: Bubble Painting (Day 4)
Kathrynne was feeling better today and we were able to try the Bubble Painting.
I didn’t think to look up multiple recipes for Bubble Painting on the internet, but I just went off of this pin on Pinterest. Afterward, I did look up recipes online and realized that this probably would have worked better had we used actual paint mixed in with the bubbles instead of food coloring.
But hey, we had a lot of fun making abstract paintings and we used stuff we already had on hand, so it wasn’t a failed experiment by any means. 🙂
Silas didn’t enjoy painting as much as the girls and quickly resorted to building with Legos instead.
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Note: Since the purpose of this series is to encourage you to be intentional about fun in your home this summer, please only link up posts showing pictures/sharing details of fun things you did as a family today (or within the last few days). Posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted in order to make it fair for those who are putting forth a lot of effort to participate in this challenge.
OVER-SPENDING EVERY SINGLE MONTH?Grab these FREE Budgeting Sheets!
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How To Hem Your Own Jeans
Life Blessons shows you how to hem your own jeans.
How We Saved on a Costly Roof Repair
Testimonial from Elle of Cleverly Changing
One year after my husband and I married, we decided to purchase a home. As recent college graduates, we were not looking for our dream home, but just a “starter home.” We found a realtor, mortgage broker, home inspector, and then our home.
After living in the home for about four years we realized we had a costly problem. When we came home from our vacation in September, we found water in our coat closet. The area had received a lot of rain while we were away and we were scared, but prayed about it and called our Home Warranty company to see if this was a repair they would fix.
Unfortunately, in our situation, the leak was not covered. Instead, we had to research and find a reliable roofing company in our area.
We received free estimates from five different companies. We even called one construction/remodeling company that had replaced our homes windows with energy efficiency windows but also worked on roofing jobs as well. We wanted to see if we could receive a reasonable sized “past-customer” discount.
Surprisingly, their estimate with the discount was almost $3,000 more than the other roofing estimates. Luckily, one of the other companies was willing to give me an extra $500 dollar discount, which made their estimate the cheapest.
In this instance, we were able to receive the same quality repair for a cheaper amount. Although the company who replaced windows were not willing to match the price, we were blessed to get the new roof, reliable service, and pay cash.
We had to tap into our emergency fund, but we were thankful to be able to cover the cost of the repairs without any financing. So it always pays to ask, “Is this the best price your company can offer?”
Also remember, when you purchase a home, you have to factor in the cost of maintenance as well. Home owners cannot take the importance of home repairs lightly.
Repairs can be costly, so having an emergency fund or home repair fund is imperative. Always research the contracting company to make sure they are in good-standing with the better business bureau and they are insured in your state.
Elle is a freelance writer, mommy blogger, and owner of the blog, Cleverly Changing. Her blog seeks to encourage, empower, & inspire others to live cleverly, changing when necessary. Every Friday she shares finance tips with her readers.
Shared Jun 20, 2012
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Ask the Readers: What are the most cost-effective teeth whitening options?
Ask the Readers: What are the most cost-effective teeth whitening options?
Today’s question is from Christina:
I am interested in whitening my teeth and would love to know the best ways to save on teeth whitening. I have never had professional whitening done — is it worth the cost? Also, are the home whitening kits effective? -Christina
Do you have a question you’d like to ask Money Saving Mom® readers? Read the submission guidelines and submit it here.
Shared Jun 19, 2012
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4 Weeks of Frugal Family Fun: Painting With Water + Read Alouds (Day 3)
4 Weeks of Frugal Family Fun: Painting With Water + Read Alouds (Day 3)
Today didn’t go as I’d planned, but it was a good day, nonetheless. Kathrynne was still quite sick today, so I spent a lot of time caring for her and we finally ended up taking her in to the doctor. Come to find out, she has a really bad double ear infection. Poor girl!
At any rate, we didn’t get around to doing the Bubble Painting I’d planned that we’d do today. But we still had some frugal fun — or at least lots of special time together.
We did some paint with water books (I picked these up on a Buy One, Get One Half Off special from Light of Faith at our homeschool conference), Silas got to cut his pages (using scissors is a big privilege for him now and something he can only do with Mommy around after he cut his hair a few weeks ago!), and Kaitlynn made and painted a paper basket.
We then spent a long time cuddled up on the couch together reading a big stack of books with Kathrynne. We’ve been keeping our library hopping with all the books we’ve been checking out from them recently — especially now that Kathrynne is reading so voraciously!
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Note: There seems to be some confusion as to what to link up with this series. Since the purpose of this series is to encourage you to be intentional about fun in your home this summer, please only link up posts showing pictures/sharing details of fun things you did as a family today (or within the last few days). Posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted in order to make it fair for those who are putting forth a lot of effort to participate in this challenge.
Good Reads: The One-Minute Entrepreneur
If you’re a business owner or are considering starting your own business, I’d recommend reading The One-Minute Entrepreneur — or listening to the audiobook like I did. Written in a story form, it’s a quick read that’s packed with a wealth of wisdom regarding foundational principles that should guide business owners.
It’s easy to sometimes forget the big picture and what really matters in the midst of the busyness of business demands and life. This story portrays how you can find blessing in making wise decisions and how losing your focus can ruin your family, health, marriage, and business in the process.
I especially appreciated the emphasis on having your priorities in order and not neglecting your family in order to climb the corporate ladder or advance your business. This is a message that is often overlooked in business books. In addition, I appreciated the words of advice on treating your employees well, not losing sight of the big picture, being a giver, using your position of leadership for good, and leaving a legacy.
See more book recommendations I’ve posted this year here. You can also see all books I’ve read so far in 2012 here.
Have you read any good books recently?