Saving Money the Jedi Way

Link for coupons (you pay for the clipping service)

2009-09-12T15:51:00.000-04:00

Here's a store I found through another site I read...

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/leiaslist

It's an eBay store where a mom and her two disabled daughters clip coupons. You pay for the clipping and shipping (free shipping for more than one set of coupons purchased)...but not the coupons. I think this may be another site I may frequent weekly.

Take a look :)

2 New Savings Links

2009-09-01T15:19:00.000-04:00

Two new links have been added to the side bar (Thanks Jen for finding them!) I'll have to find time later on to scan through and get the deals out of them. Don't forget to add them to your iGoogle page!

http://www.thenewfrugalmom.com/

http://www.nicolesnickels.net/

Deal of the Day

2009-09-01T04:03:00.000-04:00

I'm not one who gets all giddy over hair and makeup supplies. But, Walgreens had a sweet coupon in their ad this Sunday. They have the Scünci Hair Accessories for 99¢ (original price up to $3.99/limit 3). AND online I found a "Friends and Family" discount of an additional 15%. So...here's the ring up.

I got 3 octo-clips on the first order (had to do it in 3 orders b/c the cashier was a little anal about "there's a limit of 3") for a whopping $2.67 (inc tax). 2nd order $2.68 and 3rd was $2.67 (weird how they came up a penny difference).

3 for less than the price of one.

I got 6 clips, 2 pony tail/bun things (new design) and a pack of hair bands for Karabear for $8.02...which would have rang up at $26.08 without the coupon/discount.

Not bad ;)

For those who need baby wipes...

2009-08-31T00:00:00.001-04:00

I went on a Target run today. I had three things that I wanted to get, but was only able to get one. *sigh* That's what I get for spending all of last night and most of today working on a menu for Country Boy Pizza (and man it turned out good, if I do say so myself!) and not getting out to hit the deals early enough.

Baby Wipes. When you have a baby, toddler or anyone messy...they're a must to have. We always seem to run out at a most crucial moment. This was one thing that I hadn't really thought about stockpiling. Uh...ok...HUGE brainfart on my part.

So anyway, Target has the 216 count Huggies Wipes for $5.99. That's really not that great a deal...but...I had a few $0.75 manufacturer's coupons for wipes. Ok...that's a little better. But then I found on Bargain Briana a link to Target coupons for $1.50 off. Now we're talking. When you have a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon, you can STACK the two coupons for the one item. So...now the price of the wipes are now $3.74.

Not free, but not full price either.

And by the way, the wipes are great for adults too. I keep a tub in the van. They are so much nicer to use than a napkin when you have ice cream or anything else sticky on your hands. And at that price, I don't feel so bad using a wipe.

The MOST Important tool for new Couponers...

2009-08-29T18:11:00.002-04:00

I LOVE iGoogle. I have my own page with tabs that keep track of some important info for me. One tab in particular keeps track of all of the blogs that I have listed to the side of this blog.

I wasn't much on those RSS feeds or "follow me" links before. I used to think that no one was worth following, that I'd check in once in a while to see what was up. Whoooo boy I hate to think about what all I've missed because of that!

Once iGoogle made it easy to follow blog posts, I quickly set up my own page to follow the feeds.

The above is my Blogs tab. It keeps track of all of the blogs you see on the side of the post. To set up your own iGoogle page, you must have a Google account. If you blog with Blogger, then you already have one...or if you have Gmail.

Once you have your Google account (which is free by the way), you are one step closer to setting up your page. If you haven't already, go to the page that has ALL Google options: http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/
From there, Choose iGoogle (about halfway down, has an icon of a house).

Once you have an iGoogle page, either make it your homepage, bookmark it...make a shortcut on your desktop...whatever is easiest for you.

Now you will need to go into EACH of the blogs that you want to follow. You will then look for this icon:

Once you find it, click on it. (It might say something else, or be in an odd location...but look for the icon or something that says RSS, follow me, etc. If you're not sure...send me an email or comment and I'll research it for you.)

You will then get a window like this one:

Look for the Google icon and then click on it

You'll be directed to a page like this:

Make sure you click on the Add to Google Homepage link. That way it will feed to your page.

Once you have all of the blogs followed, go back to your iGoogle page and change the setting to what you prefer. I prefer having 9 posts (the max) showing from each blog. That way, hopefully I won't miss anything.

You can change the settings for each feed by clicking on the down-triangle on the upper right hand side of each blog feed.

Click on Edit Settings

From the drop down, you can choose how many posts you want to see from that blog.

Questions? None...good. As always, if you do have questions, I'll try to give an answer that makes a little more sense. Can't promise anything there...after all, most of my conversation during the day is with a toddler ;)

Coupon Printing Sites

2009-08-29T17:30:00.005-04:00

Grocery:

Coupons.com
http://smartsource.com/
http://www.redplum.com
http://target.com

Restaurant/Stores:

http://www.coupons4louisville.com/
http://www.couponcabin.com/index.htm
http://www.valpak.com/
http://printable-coupons.blogspot.com/
www.Upromise.com
http://www.restaurant.com/

Come up with YOUR style of organization

2009-08-29T17:05:00.000-04:00

Organization is the KEY to couponing.

I can't stress that enough.

I've been couponing off and on for years. I tried the coupon pouches, the accordion folders, the shoe boxes and the Zip-Lock baggies...all in a vain effort to become organized. 5x7 index cards only go so far in the process for me. Now I've read that each of these ways works...for other people. Some may work for you. Hey that's great! But I had to move on and create my own organized chaos.

Lo and Behold! I came across this awesome idea. A Coupon Binder. Sounds pretty cool, eh? Well it IS. I read through a few (ok several) blogs and the concept was fairly easy. Though each blog had its own unique way of actually organizing the coupons inside the binder, there was a common thread. How it was initially put together.

These are the links I read...you can read them all or glance through...your choice. I'll give you a few moments to glance through...

Ok...yea, lots of reading there...but I tell you...it's worth it.

So...long story short on my binder...

I have a binder that zips closed and has a strap to hang from your shoulder. I wanted that because I didn't want to take a chance of loosing any of my coupons. There's a spot to hold my scissors (VERY important to keep those handy) and a pen or two. I keep a 1 subject notebook in there (one of my 5cent deals from the early bird back to school deals) to jot down notes, prices of things I buy regularly, sale prices/dates...whatever. I have 6 folder/tabs for holding store ads, my "mission" for the trip, special coupons, and receipts.

As you can see, I have baseball card pages holding the coupons. Very handy...you can SEE everything you have including WHEN they expire. I hear you can purchase these just about anywhere...though I'm not real certain on exactly where. I was lucky enough to have a bunch of these from when I owned a specialty store a few years ago...thankfully I didn't get rid of them! I would suggest checking out Target, Wal-Mart, Meijers first...you might find a good deal there. My last resort would be to go to a baseball card shop...I'm sure that they'd have much higher prices.

In between each section, I put those manilla tab dividers (remember from high school or even work). I wrote each section down on both sides of the tabs to make it easy to find stuff. You can probably use just post-it's if you wanted to reduce how thick your binder is (I don't think it makes THAT much of a difference).

Ok...now each person will have a different set of sections. It all depends on what YOU purchase.

For instance, mine are:

Baby (which holds anything and everything Kara needs)

Baking

Batteries

Bread

Cereal

Chicken Broth

Cleaning

Condiments

Dairy

Deodorant

Dish Detergent

Drinks (includes everything for coffee)

Feminine Stuff (you ladies know what I mean)

Fruit

Household/Office (computer stuff, light bulbs, candles, etc)

Laundry

Meat

Medications

Noodles/Rice

Razors/Shaving

SlimFast

Snacks/Crackers

Soap/Shampoo (hair care)

Soup

Storage (Zip-Lock, Reynolds Wrap)

TP & PT (toilet paper/paper towels...any other paper product)

Toothbrush/Paste/Floss/Rinse

TV Dinners/Ready Made Meals

Veggies

Now these aren't set in stone. My sections could easily change pending on stuff that I buy.

Hopefully this gives you something to think about as you begin the the overwhelming task of organizing your growing collection of coupons.

Promise of instructions

2009-08-29T16:12:00.000-04:00

I am currently in the process of writing up a How To for my friends. See, I do coupons the modern way...nothing like how my mom does it or how my grandma did it. They both would get their one or two papers, match up the coupons with the sale ads and go from there.

I like to use the internet. There are so many great sites out there that already have matched up the coupons with the best sale possible.

So...for the first tip of the blog...

Find yourself a source of coupons.

This can be via the internet (called IP's on most blogs---which you can only print 2 at a time from each computer you print from) and/or the Sunday Paper.

I use both the print at home coupons and the Sunday paper ones. I get the majority of my coupons from a gas station, just before they close. They give me the ads and coupons for FREE. I get a few from my mom and others who save certain ones for me as well.

So...find yourself a store or a paperboy who has extra ads/coupons and who would be willing to give them to you. Also, you can still go the regular route of purchasing a paper...but try to do so at the $0.99 price instead of the $1.86 price (after tax). Kroger, Wal-Mart and Meijer all rotate when they'll have the cheap papers...so learn their schedule!