I'm sure by now you've noticed that the coupons in last Sunday's paper rocked! I always snag two copies of the paper on the first Sunday of the month because that's when the P&G Brand Saver comes out!
There are many sites out there that tell you exactly what sale to pair with what coupon (even when the coupon came out) but I'm not going to do that. Why?
1. Why would I waste my time doing that when I could just give you their links and they've already done it?
2. I think you need to know how to snag these deals for yourself. What if money got so tight that you couldn't afford to have Internet anymore? You would need these deals more than ever, but if you'd never done it for yourself, would you be able to do it effectively?
So, I'm going to give you a few examples of what you're looking for and tell you how I go about it. Do I look at the "other" sites? Yes, every week, to make sure I didn't miss anything. Sometimes I've missed a deal or two and sometimes I've come up with one that they didn't have listed. The heart of the matter, however, is that I know I can pair the sales with the coupons all by myself, so if I didn't have Internet tomorrow, I would be just fine. I'm self-sufficient in this area, and that's the way I prefer it!
If you want to check out the deals that have already been compiled, my three all-time favorite sites are My Frugal Adventures, The Frugal Girls, and Money Saving Mom. All three of these sites have listings for major chain stores. You just pick the store you're going shopping at, click on it, and a list of deals (and steals) will pop up! I still recommend that you attempt to do this yourself, THEN look at the other sites. Think of it as doing your homework and then checking it in the back of the textbook to make sure you really know what you're doing -- in case there's ever a test!
There's also the chance that you'll come up with something that these ladies don't! For example, I am in love with the Olay Daily Facials, but boy are those suckers expensive! They're around $6 for a one-month supply at Wal-Mart. I hate giving that for them, and I rarely do as I almost always have a $1 off coupon from the P&G insert, but I don't like giving $5 either. Well, thanks to a CVS price slash and a coupon, we won't have to give anywhere near $5! CVS has slashed the price (I'm afraid I don't know how long for -- my guess would be just this week but it may be longer) down to $3.99! That in itself is a good deal, but it gets better. There was a coupon in the P&G insert this week for $2 off any Olay facial cleanser. The wording is the same as the $1 coupons I use every month, so I assume it's good on the cleansing cloths too! That brings your price down to $1.99 for a one-month supply!
That's a good example of what you're trying to do. You want to pair a sale with a coupon to bring the price as low as you possibly can! Most people are tempted to run straight to the grocery store with their coupons and use all the ones for items they normally use. While you'll still be saving money that way, if you wait a week or so until the item is on sale, you'll save way more! Just remember: most coupons don't expire for at least a month after they come out, so it won't hurt anything to wait a week or two to see if that item goes on sale!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Free Kraft Products - HURRY
I'm really excited about this one! Go to Kraft Food's FB page, "like" Kraft Foods, and then click on the "Savings" link. You'll be given the choice of four different freebie packages to request!!!
You might want to head on over to Nabisco Cookie's FB page from there (there's a link on Kraft Food's wall) to print a great coupon -- buy one package of cookies and a gallon of milk, get another package of cookies for free!
I love starting my morning with deals!!!
You might want to head on over to Nabisco Cookie's FB page from there (there's a link on Kraft Food's wall) to print a great coupon -- buy one package of cookies and a gallon of milk, get another package of cookies for free!
I love starting my morning with deals!!!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Price List
Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. The weekend was crazy, but now I'm back and ready to put my nose to the grind stone!
I decided that I would go grocery shopping myself rather than letting Jason do it -- mainly because he was working and wouldn't have seen the baby that night if he'd gone after work. Besides, I'm a grown woman. I should be able to do this!!!
I didn't rock it out like I'd wanted to do, but I didn't do badly either. I did it in budget, so that's a plus. However, the whole point is to SAVE some money... preferably a lot of money! Truthfully, though, the sales just weren't there last week.
My grand total at Wal-Mart was $170 and some change. I spent $5 at CVS. That's $175 -- so, under our $180 budget, but not by much!
Now, I'm not beating myself up too much about the total that I spent. As long as we're under budget, I consider it a job well done. There is a part of this shopping trip that I am totally regretting, however. The end of it was very stressful -- very, very stressful. I wrote down all my prices as I put things into the cart, taking off coupons, of course. Near the end, I added everything up to see where I was. Well, as it turned out, I was startlingly close to budget mark and I still had things on my list. Important things.
So what happened? I panicked. I began trying to "think on my feet," which has never really been a strength of mine. I'm a planner. To make a long story shorter, I decided I could do without an essential. I was wrong.
I had ground chuck on my list. In my haste and panic, I couldn't remember all the meals ground chuck was supposed to be in. I thought I was just going to put it in spaghetti sauce and hot dog chili. I opted to go vegetarian on the spaghetti and substitute a can of pre-made chili for the ground chuck. That was a great plan -- had I not been planning on making swedish meatballs. It is extremely hard to make meatballs without meat. We won't starve, of course, but I was disappointed in myself. (I substituted deer meat for the meatballs and the meal was still awesome.)
Why was I disappointed? Because I could have saved myself the stress! I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you keep a price list of some sort. That is something that I have gotten away from in the past couple of years and it is something that I am going to definitely start doing again - immediately!
Why a price list? Is it really necessary? Yes, if you're on a budget (unless you have a photographic memory, I suppose) and yes, if you want to get the absolute best deals on your staples.
You don't need to make a special trip to the store to compile your list if you're one of those people that keep your receipts. Just go through your receipts and write down those things that you buy every - or almost every - time and the price of them. Your price list will come in handy two ways.
1. You can know what you're going to spend on your basics each week (or two weeks). Chances are good that you buy the same basics every time you go. Pretty much everyone has to have toilet paper, paper towels, milk, bread, cheese, etc. I'd say between 50-75% of what you buy at the store are staple ingredients. So, if you know how much these things cost, you know what most of your grocery list is going to cost. There's no surprise about that part of the shopping trip.
2. If you see a sale in the Sunday paper on something that you always buy -- like cheddar cheese slices, for instance, what are the odds that you're going to remember exactly what you pay for that item? If it's something you've been buying for years, chances are good that you don't even pay attention anymore. So how are you going to know if it's really a good sale? If you have the normal price written down, you'll know and you won't have to feel stupid going to the store the next time only to discover that the "sale" price you gave for the cheese was more than you normally paid for it.
So, making a price list is my next project and I hope you'll do it with me. I promise you, it will be worth it in the long run. It doesn't matter if you do it on paper, on the computer, or wherever else you can come up with. I prefer a spreadsheet on the computer because you can search for specific items later, but you do what makes you happy!
In the next few days, I'm going to be pouring over this week's sales papers and coupons and working up some deals! As soon as I get some worked up, I'll be posting them! If you work any up, comment away!
I decided that I would go grocery shopping myself rather than letting Jason do it -- mainly because he was working and wouldn't have seen the baby that night if he'd gone after work. Besides, I'm a grown woman. I should be able to do this!!!
I didn't rock it out like I'd wanted to do, but I didn't do badly either. I did it in budget, so that's a plus. However, the whole point is to SAVE some money... preferably a lot of money! Truthfully, though, the sales just weren't there last week.
My grand total at Wal-Mart was $170 and some change. I spent $5 at CVS. That's $175 -- so, under our $180 budget, but not by much!
Now, I'm not beating myself up too much about the total that I spent. As long as we're under budget, I consider it a job well done. There is a part of this shopping trip that I am totally regretting, however. The end of it was very stressful -- very, very stressful. I wrote down all my prices as I put things into the cart, taking off coupons, of course. Near the end, I added everything up to see where I was. Well, as it turned out, I was startlingly close to budget mark and I still had things on my list. Important things.
So what happened? I panicked. I began trying to "think on my feet," which has never really been a strength of mine. I'm a planner. To make a long story shorter, I decided I could do without an essential. I was wrong.
I had ground chuck on my list. In my haste and panic, I couldn't remember all the meals ground chuck was supposed to be in. I thought I was just going to put it in spaghetti sauce and hot dog chili. I opted to go vegetarian on the spaghetti and substitute a can of pre-made chili for the ground chuck. That was a great plan -- had I not been planning on making swedish meatballs. It is extremely hard to make meatballs without meat. We won't starve, of course, but I was disappointed in myself. (I substituted deer meat for the meatballs and the meal was still awesome.)
Why was I disappointed? Because I could have saved myself the stress! I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you keep a price list of some sort. That is something that I have gotten away from in the past couple of years and it is something that I am going to definitely start doing again - immediately!
Why a price list? Is it really necessary? Yes, if you're on a budget (unless you have a photographic memory, I suppose) and yes, if you want to get the absolute best deals on your staples.
You don't need to make a special trip to the store to compile your list if you're one of those people that keep your receipts. Just go through your receipts and write down those things that you buy every - or almost every - time and the price of them. Your price list will come in handy two ways.
1. You can know what you're going to spend on your basics each week (or two weeks). Chances are good that you buy the same basics every time you go. Pretty much everyone has to have toilet paper, paper towels, milk, bread, cheese, etc. I'd say between 50-75% of what you buy at the store are staple ingredients. So, if you know how much these things cost, you know what most of your grocery list is going to cost. There's no surprise about that part of the shopping trip.
2. If you see a sale in the Sunday paper on something that you always buy -- like cheddar cheese slices, for instance, what are the odds that you're going to remember exactly what you pay for that item? If it's something you've been buying for years, chances are good that you don't even pay attention anymore. So how are you going to know if it's really a good sale? If you have the normal price written down, you'll know and you won't have to feel stupid going to the store the next time only to discover that the "sale" price you gave for the cheese was more than you normally paid for it.
So, making a price list is my next project and I hope you'll do it with me. I promise you, it will be worth it in the long run. It doesn't matter if you do it on paper, on the computer, or wherever else you can come up with. I prefer a spreadsheet on the computer because you can search for specific items later, but you do what makes you happy!
In the next few days, I'm going to be pouring over this week's sales papers and coupons and working up some deals! As soon as I get some worked up, I'll be posting them! If you work any up, comment away!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
