How to Get Deals Without Them Overtaking Your Life

I'm guest posting for my friend Nicole today on how I get the best deals without deal hunting overtaking my life. 

I got seriously into couponing and deal hunting back in 2008...when  I stumbled across a forum where people were talking about all the free stuff they were getting with coupons...I began to read…and read and read and read.  I honed in on figuring out how to work the deals at one store, and I did not attempt a shopping trip until I was quite sure I had mastered the concepts behind their reward system.

I began to read…and read and read and read.  I honed in on figuring out how to work the deals at one store, and I did not attempt a shopping trip until I was quite sure I had mastered the concepts behind their reward system.

Before long, however, I was shopping at so many stores and getting so many deals that deal hunting actually became a burden rather than a blessing.  I have had to find the right balance between using the deals to my family’s financial advantage and being downright ridiculous.  I have developed three simple rules to follow that have helped me to keep that balance.

Read the entire post here, then let me know how you keep up with the deals without them overtaking your life!

College Students: Save Money by Renting Textbooks

Students are famous for finding ingenious ways to save money.

Between the high cost of tuition, housing and living expenses, it is difficult to make ends meet. Today’s thrifty students are discovering that they don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on buying textbooks, especially since they can rent textbooks for a fraction of the cost. Students can search the textbook database filled with tens of thousands of textbooks including old favourites such as Practical Statistics for Field Biology, by subject, author, title or ISBN number. The book is quickly processed and delivered to your doorstep, once you are done with it simply return it in the pre paid envelope provided. With free shipping both ways, you never get stuck with any postal charges. With textbook rentals there are no regrets, for example if you decide to drop the class or return the book for any reason simply return it within 30 days of placing the order for a 100% money back guarantee-it is that simple. Alternatively, if you find the book so useful that you wish you have bought it, simply pay the difference between the rental fee and the cover price and the book is yours to keep forever. Although these are rental services, these textbooks are meant to be treated as your very own, so feel free to highlight the passages of interest-yes, highlighting is allowed.

Instead of buying textbooks save your college money on things that really matter like food and shelter, and rent your textbooks instead.

 

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.  

How to Block People from Following you on Google+

If you're using Google+ you'll want to take a look at this video!

I get an email notification every time somebody follows me on Google+. Typically I just ignore it and go on with my day, but for whatever reason, I looked through to see who all had followed me today.  I was disturbed to see a guy who had horrible stuff on his page, and I knew I didn't want any old creep following me, looking at my pictures, etc.  I decided it was time to be a whole lot more careful about knowing who is looking at my stuff.  From now on I will be checking out every person who follows me, and I will either put them in one of my circles or block them.  I will also not be setting any of my personal posts or photos to "public".  I will instead share them with those in my circles. 

If you're like me, and are a little nervous about certain people following you, here's a quick tutorial on how to block people from following you.  (You may want to make the video full-size so you can see a little better.) 

If you have any other helpful tips for Google+, be sure to leave us a comment!

My Free Spring Decor from CVS

This week CVS has jelly beans for $.99, and Sunday - Tuesday you'll also get back $.99 in Extrabucks making them free!  Since we do not need to be eating junk food around here, I decided it would be fun to use them for some fun decor!  I had this hurricane candle already, so I just added the jelly beans as a filler.  The only problem was that my hurricane was too big, and the bag of jelly beans was too small.  I didn't have anything that I could use as more filler, so I cut up some green paper and crumpled it up to look like grass, then added the jelly beans.

I'm pretty happy with it for a quick (and free!) spring piece, although I'm wondering if I need to tie a ribbon around it. 

What do you think - ribbon or no? (I'd love any other comments or suggestions too!)

Frugal Tip: Regrow Your Green Onions

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I have pinned a lot of things on Pinterest, but this is one of my favorite finds!  I love the added pizazz of green onions in recipes, but I hate paying for a pack of them and only using them one time.

Well, I saw somewhere on Pinterest that you can just put them in water and place them in a sunny window and they'll keep growing.  It works incredibly well!  They grow so quickly I think we could eat them for every meal and not run out!

At first I was afraid it was not going to work because the first day all the tops turned yellow and some of them wilted completely over.  Then I realized that the stalks were still nice and firm and that they were growing taller.  I just keep weeding out any that wilt and cut the yellowed tops off when I'm ready to use them.

Wow; this has saved me so much money!


This post was originally posted on my other blog, The Imperfect Homemaker.

My Extreme Couponing Trip Today (Plus a Couponing Tip)

I consider myself an extreme couponer, but not in the sense that I go into a store and get 30 bags of dog food for free, leaving none for the other shoppers (and I don't even have a dog!)

Nope, extreme couponing in my book means saving my family extreme amounts of money on products that we would normally use.

I just came home from my local Harris Teeter.  How much do you think I paid for this stuff?

1 box of Cheerios, 1 bag Kettle potato chips, 2 bags Bertolli Meal soups, 3 Ragu pasta sauce, 1 Breyers ice cream, 2 Suave Professionals hair stylers, 2 Wish Bone salad dressings, 1 Country Crock butter, and 4 Kraft shredded cheeses.


Just guess. 

If you guessed somewhere in the range of $3.00 you were right!  Not bad, especially when you consider that the price for just one bag of Bertolli soup was $8.19!

Here's my tip-of-the-day for racking up on the grocery savings.

Use free product coupons strategically.

If you're wondering where to even get free product coupons in the first place, be sure to follow my Facebook page.  Lots of companies on Facebook give away coupons for free products, and I always try to give a heads up.

Also, emailing companies is a GREAT way to get free product coupons.  If you like a certain company's products, just visit their website to find their email address and shoot them a line or two telling them you like their product and asking them if they have any coupons they could send you.  Be sure to include your mailing address.  You'll be surprised how many of them will send you coupons for free products, sometimes several of them!

So, when you get those wonderful coupons, don't do a happy dance and run out to the store to get your freebie.  Do a happy dance, and then put the coupons in a specific place where you won't forget about them.  Save them up for the next time your store has a promotion on that product.

For example, in the picture above, my store was giving an automatic $5 off when I bought $15 worth of specific products.  These promotions are almost always counted before you give your coupons.  I had several free coupons for some of the qualifying items, so I used the freebies to get my total as close to $15 as I could and then bought other items I wanted to finish it out.  So, if I had $10 worth of items I was already getting free with a coupon, I could throw in a $5 carton of ice cream to get up to $15.  $5 would come off from the promotion and $10 would come off from the free coupons, leaving me to pay $0.  Score!  I just got free ice cream and I didn't even have a coupon for it!  See how free coupons are great strategy pieces in the coupon game?

Like I said before though, make sure to put them in a specific place and check them once a month or so to make sure you don't have any that are expiring soon.  It would be a shame to let a coupon for a free product expire and not get to use it at all just because you were saving it for a better deal.

10 Tips for Finding Great Travel Deals

I'm getting excited as my husband just placed reservations for our 5th anniversary getaway! As you know, travel can be very expensive. By the time you pay for gasoline or airfare, lodging and food, there's not much left over for spending money!

Here are a few tips on how to save on those travel expenses:

• If you can, plan your family getaway for a time other than peak season. Your lodging rates will be incredibly lower because hotels and resorts are desperate for business. Travel to the beach sometime around October. Most of the time it's still warm enough (at least at the southern beaches) to enjoy the water. You won't have to compete with a swarm of tourists, but you can still enjoy everything you would in the summer. Perfect! If you're traveling during the warmer months, check out a ski resort. You might not be able to ski, but the rates will be incredible, and you'll be able to enjoy scenic mountain views.

• Search price comparison sites like Kayak.com for the lowest airfare rates. You can search up to 140 travel sites at one time for the lowest price.

• Skip the expensive tourist "must haves." I saw on someone's blog that they purchased Disney themed clothing before they traveled to Disney World. They knew their kids would want it once they got there, but they got it ahead of time at a much lower price.

• Invest in a Roadside Assistance program if you're traveling by car. Hopefully it won't happen, but if you happen to break down or have a flat tire, you won't have to pay exorbitant rates for a tow truck. Many times you can enroll in these programs just for the duration of your trip and cancel when you return.

• Plan ahead. You won't have time to search for cheapest airfare and lodging rates if you're booking at the last minute.

• Pack your own food for car trips. Even if you're eating off the fast food dollar menu, 2 or 3 items per person adds up quickly.

• When traveling by car, plan your route carefully or use a GPS. You'll waste a lot of gas (and it's expensive these days!) if you get lost.

• When you arrive at your destination, stop by the chamber of commerce (or write to them ahead of time.) You'll receive an abundance of coupons for attractions at your vacation spot.

• If your hotel room has a kitchenette, go the local grocery store and buy your own food instead of eating out. Eating out is a huge expense on vacation, and you'll save a bundle by making your own food. If you feel like it, you can even bring your coupons with you and save more at the grocery store!

• Remember that fun comes in forms that are FREE! You don't have to go to every amusement park, museum, or aquarium there is. Just enjoy spending time together - play games, take walks, talk and laugh!

I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Alamo blogging program, for a gift card worth $25. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

10 Tips for Bringing Home a New Baby

I know many of my readers are young mothers like myself, and I actually know several people who have just recently had the privilege of bringing home a new baby. Here are some tips that may be helpful to new moms:

1. Stock up on diapers ahead of time. It always amazed me when my babies were newborns how quickly they went through diapers! It's not always the easiest thing to try and do bargain shopping when you have a newborn, so make sure you're watching the sales during your pregnancy. When you find a great price, grab a couple packs. It will save you from those late night runs to Walmart when you realized you're out of diapers!

2. Prepare freezer meals in advance. The last thing most moms feel like doing when they're sleep-deprived is trying to cook and then clean up. Before your baby is born, make double batches of dinner for several weeks. Eat one and put the other in the freezer. After your baby arrives, you can just grab a meal out of the freezer instead of having to cook.

3. Get Thank-You notes written before the baby is born. If you don't, they may never get done!

4. Take lots of pictures. I know for most people this is probably like, "Um...duh." I, however, am not naturally inclined to take pictures. It's just not something I think about doing. In those foggy new-mother moments, I'm even more inclined to forget. So, just remind yourself to do it if you're like me. :)

5. Take all the help you can get. It's not always easy to accept help, and different people will be comfortable with different levels of help, but I definitely recommend taking all help you can! If you have older children, let someone babysit them for a few hours while you take a nap or catch up on housework. If people offer to cook for you, don't refuse! Don't worry about being a burden. They wouldn't offer if they didn't want to do it.

6. When you're out with baby, keep hand sanitizer within view at all times. Most people will get the picture right away that you don't want them to hold the baby without using hand sanitizer first. If they don't, it will be very easy to grab it and ask them to use it as soon as you see any sign of their reaching for the baby.

7. Don't expect too much of yourself. Feel free to let the housework go a little, and peanut butter sandwiches for supper a couple times won't kill anybody. Keep your expectations simple, and if you have time for more, great! If not, you won't be beating yourself up.

8. If your baby uses a pacifier, buy lots of them. There is nothing worse than having an upset baby and you can't find the pacifier anywhere. I like to sanitize my little's girl's pacifiers by running them through the dishwasher. When you have a lot, you can do that because you should always have clean ones to use while the others are in the dishwasher.

9. Re-pack the diaper bag immediately after you come home from somewhere. It's not fun to think the diaper bag is fine only to realize the next time you're out that the pacifier got taken out or you've run out of wipes!

10. Ask other moms for advice. There's no one who will know better what that weird rash could be or what you should do when your baby's got a tummy ache.

The time with your newborn will fly by whether you do everything "just right" or not. Just have fun and enjoy this time with your little one!


I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Lysol® Wee Wisdom blogging program, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.

What's the Most Frugal Way to Filter Your Water?

I'm curious to know your thoughts on what you think is the most frugal way to filter your water - buying bottled water, filtered water pitchers, faucet-mount filters, etc. I don't have a refrigerator with a water filter built in, and we have well water. We've been drinking the well water for years and have never been sick from it, but I've always wondered how clean it really is. I came across this contest for bloggers to win a Zuvo Water Purifier, and they actually have a comparison chart comparing the cost of bottled water vs. pitcher filters vs. faucet mount filters. I'm wondering if it's an accurate comparison for couponers, though! Right now I have quite a few packs of bottled water at home that I've "bought" for free! Obviously, though, I wouldn't be able to get bottled water free every time.

So what do my fellow couponers and frugalites think? Do you think the cost of something like a Zuvo would be worth it in the long run, or do you think another way would still be cheaper? I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts on the matter.