10 Tips for Wasting Less Food (Part One)

We all know that food costs money- probably more money than most of us would like! So really every time you throw out food essentially you are throwing out money. And even those "little" wastes add up. In fact, I think we'd be surprised if we kept track of how much food we throw out in a month. (Maybe I should actually do that and report back to you!)

If you are like me you find yourself throwing out more food than you care to admit. My biggest problem is simply having little containers of stuff in the fridge that I forget about and end up having to throw out because they spoiled. Every time it frustrates me and I promise myself I'm going to do better. But I keep failing and keep learning.

Here are some of the things I've learned that have helped me waste less food.

1. Use your freezer. If you have leftovers or food that you don't think you're going to be able to use before it goes bad, put it in the freezer right away. Then you can easily pull it out when you need it and it will taste better than if it had sat in the fridge that whole time. Plus, it won't have spoiled on you!

2. Buy reasonably. When shopping, know how much you will use of perishable items and buy accordingly. Just because lettuce is on sale for an incredible price doesn't mean you should buy 3 heads. Remember, if you are throwing food out, you aren't saving a thing.

3. Save that stale bread. Make homemade croutons from it or toast the bread and then crumble it to make homemade bread crumbs.

4. Don't throw out that half drunk glass of milk or juice. If your child doesn't drink all of his beverage, put it in the fridge and pull it out later when he's thirsty. True, it might not seem like much to throw out, but those little things really DO add up!

5. Label leftovers. This might seem silly but it has helped me immensely to label any container that is not see through. I simply use a piece of masking tape and write on it with Sharpie. Then I am constantly reminded as I shuffle around in the fridge what all is in there and needs to be used.

To be continued....

Saving on Gifts

I had promised you that I'd do a post on how we save money on gifts. I didn't intend to make you wait this long but we had some unexpected things come up- one of which includes me being on what I guess you'd call partial bed rest. Sunday night I started having contractions (I'm only 30 wks. pregnant) and to make a long story short we got them stopped but were told that I am basically just to sit around and not really do any housework. I'm hoping that at my doctor appointment on Fri. they will tell me I can resume working but in the meantime I'm trying hard to rest, which really wasn't too hard the last two days since I had only gotten 3 hrs. of sleep Sunday night!

Anyway, I finally feel like my brain is clear enough and like I have energy enough to blog again. So here's the promised post!

One of the areas in our budget that we seem to consistently struggle in is the category of "Gifts Given". I think every year since we got married 5 years ago and began budgeting we've gone over our dollar amount for this category. And we've even upped the amount. I think one of the reasons it is difficult to budget for is because you never know at the beginning of the year just who all you are going to need or want to buy gifts for. As much as we try to plan, it seems there are still those unexpected weddings we are invited too or that baby that we didn't know about in Jan. when we made our budget. Or I decide I really want to give one of my friends a birthday gift this year just because. At any rate, we like to be able to give gifts freely and do not want to let our budget keep us from the joy of giving. And so we give and somehow compensate our budget from other categories we are under in.

I've also tried to get really serious about finding ways to save money in this whole area of gift giving. I'm still learning but have found a few things that have saved us a bit while still allowing us to give gifts in ways that we feel good about. (We do NOT want to give cheap, cheasy gifts just to stay in budget! My husband says it would be better to give no gift at all than to give a cheap, cheasy gift and I think I agree.)

Here are some of the things we've done to save money giving gifts.

1. Plan and buy ahead
This alone is huge. If you wait until the day before a wedding to get a gift you are almost guaranteed to pay full price! However, if you plan ahead you can almost always at least save a couple of dollars one way or another.

At the beginning of the year think of all the gifts you will likely give that year- weddings, birthdays, baby showers, and Christmas gifts. Then begin watching for items on sale or clearance to give for these occasions. I am constantly on the lookout for baby clothes for baby gifts, household items for wedding gifts and kid's items and fun, small things for the people I give birthday gifts too. In fact we have a gift box in our attic that I try to always have a few go-to gifts in so that if I suddenly have an event sneak up on me I at least have something on hand and don't need to go pay full price for an item.

Of course you don't always know in January just what occasions you are going to get invited to that year. But as you get invitations to events begin watching right away for gifts. You might even find it helpful to make a list of people you need to buy gifts for as well as a few ideas of what you'd like to get for them.

2. Watch daily deal sites
Daily deal sites offer deals on everything from gift cards to flowers to toys to household items to clothing. In the past I've posted these deals (and this is only a handful of the great deals you can score through daily deal sites): National Geographic Kids- Mamapedida, Old Navy- Groupon, Flowers from a Florist- Savemore, American Girl Doll- RuLaLa. Many sites offer sign up bonuses which allow you to get deals for an even lower price.

3. Shop sales, do rebates and use coupons
This is one of my main ways of saving money on gifts. Just recently there was this deal at JCPenney and I was able to snag something for a wedding gift. Today there is a deal on toys at Kohl's. And I frequently use store coupons from Kohl's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Carters, and JCPenney to save on gift items as well. If you shop online, don't forget to use ShopAtHome or Ebates to save even more. It's not much, but it really does add up!

4. Save with Gift Cards
A lot of people register for their baby and wedding gifts any more and for myself, I actually enjoy knowing what someone wants, so I like this. But it does make it a bit harder to save on their gifts. Besides using store coupons as mentioned above to get registry items cheaper, I also have bought gift cards at Gift Card Rescue and used them to buy the gift registry item(s), typically saving another couple of dollars. Another site that is similar is Plastic Jungle. These sites are also great sites to buy gift cards at a discounted rate to give as gifts.

5. Get Creative
I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not the most creative person and when it comes to craft projects? Well, I really stink. But even I have been able to pull off creating some of my own gifts.

Some of the other things I've done have include using Amazon gift cards earned through Swagbucks to buy gifts for people, buying things rather inexpensively on Ebay, and several times I've found items on Freecycle that were gift-able.

And to end this post I just have to tell you a big way that both my family and my husband's family saves on Christmas gifts. Not only do we exchange names, which cuts the cost of things drastically, we also have decided it's okay to give second hand gifts. This has actually been a lot of fun and it's amazing what "expensive" items people have found at yard sales, thrift stores and the like for a little bit of nothing. This cuts the cost of our gift giving down considerably and yet we still have a blast being able to bless each other in this way.

What are your top ways to save money on gifts?

Just a Heads Up...and a Request for Your Suggestions

A while ago Christy left this comment on one of my posts: "I'd like to hear more about how people save money--what are ways you save in addition to couponing. A post idea sometime if you feel like it. =) "

Well, that got me thinking and I started jotting down different things that we do that save money and I realized that there is no way all of those things would fit into one post! And so I decided to do multiple posts devoted to the subject of how we save in addition to couponing. I have numerous post ideas but if you have any specifics you'd like to hear about feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment. Your input is what helps me know what other people find the most helpful and I value it a lot!

So stay tuned...you'll be seeing a post soon on how we save money on gifts.

Obtaining Coupons: Magazines

One of the places I find coupons is in magazines. There are many magazines that you'll find them in, especially ones like Parenting, Good Housekeeping, Women's Day, and All You. Of course there are others too but those are just ones that I can think of offhand that I have definitely gotten coupons in.

I personally don't pay for magazine subscriptions but instead sign up for free ones that come available, and trust me, you'd be surprised at how many free magazine subscriptions come up! In the past I've gotten free subscriptions to Weight Watchers, Parenting, Parents, Baby Talk, American Baby, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping and more.

Here are the free magazine subscriptions that I know are currently available:

* American Baby
* Baby Talk
* Good Housekeeping
( For this one, after you enter your information you'll see a bunch of other offers. Just ignore them and exit out of the page. You do not need to do those offers to get the free magazine.)

What magazines do you like to find coupons in?

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies, Coupon Websites- Part 1, Coupon Websites- Part 2, Coupon Websites- Part 3, Coupon Trading, Store Emails & Fliers, Newspaper Inserts- Part 1 and Newspaper Inserts- Part 2.

Obtaining Coupons: Coupon Websites- Part Three

In addition to the other coupon websites that I previously posted about here and here, I have three more that I thought you all might enjoy knowing about if you don't already.

* Recyclebank
Recyclebank is kind of a different way to get coupons. To get coupons, you must first "earn" points which you can then redeem for quite a variety of coupons. The different things you do to "earn" points take very little time to complete and you can quickly rack up points.

Some of my favorite coupons at Recyclebank are: $2/2 Earthbound Farm Organic products (can get really cheap produce with this), $2/1 Kashi product and $1/2 Bumble Bee tuna. They also have coupons and gift cards for places like Bed Bath and Beyond, McDonalds, Ruby Tuesday, and Walmart.

* P&G Brand Sampler
I'll be honest, this is another one of those programs that I have a love/hate relationship with. While you can request some great coupons and samples from P&G Brand Sampler, you can only do so once every quarter, which I find to be a real pain. I can never remember when I last requested the coupons/samples and hate logging in only to find that I still cannot request a thing!

Basically you can request coupons or samples, which often come with coupons, for various Proctor & Gamble products. The coupons vary every quarter, but most are fairly high value.

* Cellfire
Cellfire works similarly to Saving Star from what I understand. I wish that I knew, but to be honest, I never have used Cellfire because none of the stores in our area participate in the program.

I do know that Cellfire users can add coupons right to the stores grocery savings card. In other words, it's like clip-less coupons. Here's a list of stores that Cellfire currently works with: Baker's, City Market, Dillons, Fry's, Gerbes, Hilander, JayC, King Soopers, Kroger, Owen's, Pay Less, QFC, Ralphs, Scott's, Smith's, Carrs, Dominick's, Genuardi's, Pavilions, Randall's, Safeway, Tom Thumb, Vons, and ShopRite.

If any of you Cellfire users want to provide more information on this program, please feel free to do so!

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies, Coupon Websites- Part 1, Coupon Websites- Part 2, Coupon Trading, Store Emails & Fliers, Newspaper Inserts- Part 1 and Newspaper Inserts- Part 2.

Obtaining Coupons: Coupon Websites- Part Two

I had posted earlier about getting coupons through coupon websites such as Redplum, Coupons.com etc. Well, as I was jotting down some notes to finish this series, I realized that there are several other coupon websites that I really need to mention as well. And so I decided to add a Part Two and Part Three to the Coupon Websites idea.

* Saving Star
One of my new favorite coupon websites is Saving Star. I think of this website as working more like a rebate program rather than a coupon program, but technically it is considered a clip-less coupon program.

With this site you simply link up your store cards for stores like CVS, Rite Aid, Giant, and Weis to the Saving Star program. Then you click on the coupons that you want added to your cards. If you use that coupon before it expires, the dollar amount of the coupon will be added to your Saving Star account. Then when you reach $5 in your account, you can cash it out via Paypal, for Amazon gift cards and many other options. If you don't use the coupon before it expires, you've lost nothing.

The great thing about Saving Star coupons is that they can be used in addition to both store AND manufacturer coupons. So essentially you can save 3 different ways on one product, which is really rather great!

My tip for Saving Star- log into your account twice a month and add all the coupons that you can to your cards. You might think you won't ever buy a certain item but you never know. Just recently there was a moneymaking deal at CVS on Airwick air fresheners. I typically don't buy them, but since it was a moneymaker I decided to buy them and give them to someone who will use them. Imagine my surprise when several days later I saw $2 was added to my Saving Star account because I had bought an Airwick product! It was one of the coupons I clipped, thinking I'd not use it and it actually paid off!

* Vocalpoint
This is actually more than just a coupon site, but since one of the main reasons I love Vocalpoint is because of the awesome coupons I receive from them, I thought I'd mention it here.

If you don't have a Vocalpoint account, sign up for one today. Approximately once a month I receive a free sample item from Vocalpoint and they always come with several coupons. The coupons are always high value and sometimes one will even be for a free product! So on top of getting coupons, you'll also have the fun of sampling some interesting new products as well.

* Kraft First Taste
This is one of those sites that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love them because sometimes I get great offers from them. I hate them because often when I see posted on other sites that an offer is available, I check my account only to discover I didn't receive it. It seems there is no rhyme or reason as to who receives what offers, but at any rate, it won't hurt to sign up! You never know, you might be one of the lucky ones!

So what offers does Kraft First Taste send? If you sign up for an account, they occasionally will offer coupons for various Kraft products, typically something that is new or recently "improved". These offers range from a coupon for a totally free product (those are the ones I never get!) to coupons for $1 to $2 off. In the past the coupons have been for things like Planters Peanut Butter, Philadelphia Cooking Creme, Wheat Thins & Triscuits, and Kraft Shredded Cheese.

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies, Coupon Websites- Part 1, Coupon Trading, Store Emails & Fliers, Newspaper Inserts- Part 1 and Newspaper Inserts- Part 2.

Obtaining Coupons: Manufacturer Websites

It's been a long time since I did any posts for my Obtaining Coupons series. With the busyness of this summer I just didn't get the series finished. But now that life has slowed down a bit (should I even say that?!) I intend to try to finish the series.

Manufacturer Websites are a great way to find coupons. Many manufacturers offer coupons directly on their website or if you sign up for their various clubs and email newsletters you can get access to printable coupons as well. There are some websites that I have learned pretty much always have coupons for their products linked on their site. So if I see one of their products on sale that I want, I'll visit their website to see if they have a coupon available.

I suggest that if there is a specific brand name product you want to buy, but don't have a coupon for, plug the name of the product into your Swagbucks search engine and that should direct you to the manufacturer website for the product. Then you can see if there are any links to coupons. Sometimes your search will be fruitless and you'll find nothing. Other times, you'll feel like you hit the jackpot when you spy a $1 coupon for that Wishbone dressing you love.

Just a quick side note. I've found that coupon databases don't even always have the coupons listed that I've found on manufacturer websites. So while those databases are helpful, they are not fool proof!

To get you started, here are a couple sites that I like to visit.

* Kelloggs

* Heluva Good
- Their 8 oz. blocks of cheese frequently go on sale at Giant and Weis for $2. If I use the $0.50/1 I can get the cheese for $1, since those stores double $0.50 coupons.

* Nestle Baking Products
- I can frequently find $0.50/1 Nestle chocolate chip coupons here. If I see them on sale, I simply visit the website to see if there's a coupon available. Of course there are always other coupons available as well.

Do you have a specific manufacturer website that you love? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies, Websites, Coupon Trading, Store Emails & Fliers, Newspaper Inserts- Part 1 and Newspaper Inserts- Part 2.

Obtaining Coupons: Newspaper Inserts- Part 2

Finally a *real* blog post. I'm sure some of you are nearly falling over! I think I'm finally starting to feel a bit more caught up with life and it's a wonderful feeling. But then I look at my date book for the next two weeks and can almost feel overwhelmed again. Anyway...on to the subject at hand.

The last Obtaining Coupons post that I did was about getting coupons through newspaper inserts. Reader Beth shared in the comments how she gets some of her inserts for free and it got me thinking that I really should do another post dedicated to that- ways of getting the newspaper inserts for free.

Here are some ways that you may be able to get those lovely newspaper inserts without paying a dime:

1. Dig them out of your local recycling centers bin. Reader Beth and many other folks I know do this and often they have great success. True, some of the coupons might be expired, but not all of them will be!

I would love to be able to do this, but unfortunately, I have not been able to find any recycling center bins in this area. Seems strange, but it's true.

2. Ask friends and family to save their inserts for you. This is such a simple way to get more copies and more often than not if those people aren't already using the coupons they are more than glad to share them with you.

3. Ask your newspaper carrier for extras. While not all newspapers allow their carriers to do this, from what I understand many carriers have extra inserts that they can do whatever they want with. It never hurts to ask!

4. Post a request for them on Freecycle. First off, let me advise you to check and make sure that this is "legal" on your local Freecycle. Some areas are fine with it and others are not- ours being one that is not.

However, back before ours didn't allow posting anything related to coupons, I did this and have a dear lady across town that saves her inserts for me. I just drop by every couple of weeks and get them when I am in that area. She only uses 2 or so coupons from each week so I still have lots to use! It's been a wonderful way to get more coupons.

5. Check the newspaper at doctors offices, the library, motels etc. Several months ago when Vince and I went on a little weekend getaway we stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast. Sunday morning I was browsing through their stack of newspapers and magazines and found a treasure trove of all kinds of newspaper inserts! I could hardly believe my eyes. There was probably 2 months worth of inserts (and several for each week) just laying there with the papers. So as my husband laughed, I collected them all and tucked them away in our suitcase.

What creative ways do you use to get extra newspaper inserts free?

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies, Websites, Coupon Trading Store Emails & Fliers, and Newspaper Inserts- Part 1.

Obtaining Coupons: Newspaper Inserts- Part 1

One of the most popular way to get manufacturer's coupons is by purchasing a Sunday paper. Most Sunday papers will include a set of coupon inserts- anywhere from one to three inserts is typical. The three most common inserts are: Smartsource (abbreviated SS), Red Plum (RP) and Proctor & Gamble (PG). Occasionally you will also find General Mills (GM) inserts as well.

The frustrating thing with Sunday coupon inserts is that not all papers carry the inserts AND the inserts vary greatly with each paper. For instance, Lancaster Intel might have a coupon for $0.75/1 Colgate toothpaste; while the Washington Post coupon for Colgate toothpaste might be $1/1. So if you are using coupon databases to help you figure out where to find coupons for a certain product, you might see that the 6/5 RP insert was supposed to have a certain coupon in it, however your insert is totally missing that coupon. That is because some inserts DID get the coupon, however, obviously not all of them did and you were one of the "lucky" ones that didn't. :)

The spine of one my inserts- I was hoping you could read it but...

Maybe you are wondering how to know just what week your newspaper insert is from. If you look on the spine of the insert, it will say something like this: Advertising Supplement to Washington Post 6/5/2011. That simply means that the insert was from the Washington Post newspaper and it was for Sunday June 5.

You can either purchase the Sunday paper at your local store/newspaper stand or you can subscribe to it. If you are purchasing the paper every Sunday, you may want to check this schedule to see if it is worth purchasing and to decide how many papers you want to purchase. Some weeks there are no inserts so you'd be wasting your money on a paper.

If you are planning to regularly purchase a Sunday paper, I'd highly recommend subscribing to it, as you can save quite a bit. I recently called up our local newspaper and asked them what the best subscription rate was that they could give me for just the Sunday paper. It was $0.88/week as opposed to the $1.75/week that is charged at newsstands.

What tips do you have for getting coupons via the newspaper?

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies; Websites; Coupon Trading; and Store Emails & Fliers.

Obtaining Coupons: Store Emails & Fliers

Grocery and drug stores aren't the only stores that you can save at by using coupons. You can also save a bundle at home decor, craft, clothing stores and even restaurants simply by signing up for their email/mailing list. Now obviously, as always, if you use the coupon for items you don't really need it is not worth it, but I'm one of those crazy people who rarely purchases something unless I have a coupon for it so I am a big fan of signing up for store coupons.

Here are a few that I've really enjoyed:

* JCPenney- Sign up here for JCPenney emails.

* Bed Bath & Beyond- Sign up here to be put on their mailing list or here for their email list.

Okay, so I love this store and always find all sorts of things I think it would be fun to have when I shop there. We get lots of coupons for 20% off any one item and occasionally even $5/$15 purchase coupons.

* GGP Malls- Go here to sign up to be part of The Club. For those of you that are local, Park City Mall is part of GGP Malls.

This is one of the best deals ever. I have gotten vouchers for free $10 mall gift cards at least five times! Now not everyone gets them every time, but you sure can't beat free money to shop at the mall!

(It appears that the page is acting fluky. I'd recommend using the link above to see if your mall is part of the GGP Malls and if it is, Googling your specific mall name and trying to sign up for The Club that way.)

* Joann Fabric & Crafts- Sign up here to join their mailing list. Once you receive you flier, take the whole thing with you to the store. The cashier needs to scan the bar code above your name and address in order for you to stay on their mailing list. If you don't have them scan that, after several mailings you will get kicked off their list. Not cool.

I frequently get fliers from them with coupons for 40 to 50% off one regular priced item. I typically don't make a special trip just to use the coupon, but if I'm in the area anyway, I often stop by and use the coupons for thread, zippers, buttons or other things that I know I'll use (since I sew quite a bit).

* Ruby Tuesday- Join their So Connected club and you'll receive a free burger on your birthday as well as lots of coupons throughout the year.

These are just a few to get you started. If you have a favorite store or restaurant, visit their website. Chances are they have a link to sign up for their mailing or email list and you can save more when you shop there.

What are your favorite stores to get coupons for?

Did you miss the other posts in this series? If so, here are links to them- Contacting Companies; Websites; Coupon Trading.

Obtaining Coupons: Coupon Trading

I know, I've been a bit slack in continuing this series. Life has just been a bit hectic and well, if I'm honest, I probably also stink at planning sometimes. I'm sorry. I know that doesn't necessarily make you want to keep reading this blog, but it makes me feel better at least. :)

Today's tip for obtaining coupons is to use a coupon trading site. For quite a long time I had heard about people swapping coupons on these trading sites but somehow it just seemed daunting and so I kept avoiding them. Then one day I was really wishing for more of a rare Finish dishwasher detergent coupon and decided maybe I should give this whole coupon trading thing a whirl. I found it relatively easy to do and have had great success trading.

I've checked out several other coupon trading websites, but the one that I've found the easiest to navigate and ultimately have stuck with is Southern Saver's Traders. (There is also a coupon trading group here that split off the Southern Saver's Traders because they didn't like the new format that SST was using.) You will have to join the group in order to participate, but I don't remember it being that difficult to do.

I'll be honest, I don't use coupon trading sites nearly every day, or even every week. That is simply because I typically can get the coupons I need in other ways that are absolutely free. You might say that coupon trading is free too, but remember you have to pay for postage to mail your coupons to the other person. And for myself, often when I figure in the $0.44 for the stamp, it hardly makes it worth it.

My Finish Stash that I Got with Traded Coupons

However, there are definitely times I have found it to be very worth it, even if I do have to pay $0.44 postage. For instance, if there are coupons that are high value and ones that I don't see very often, I will trade for them. Last summer there was a coupon for $2.50/1 Finish Dishwasher Detergent. I knew that this coupon was both high value and rare and I also knew that it would get me some free or nearly free detergent. So I did a request post and soon had 2 people offering me a total of 10 coupons. I traded them for some veggie coupons, which I rarely use, and with the $2.50 Finish coupons was able to get 10 packages of Finish gelcaps for free or less than $0.50 each! I'm thinking they should last me about a year and hopefully by that time there will be another hot coupon available.

Also, back when the $10 Amazon Baby coupons were popular I was successful in trading some random coupons that I wasn't going to use for several of the $10 Amazon coupons and as a result I got some packs of diapers and wipes for pennies.

So once you join a coupon trading site, how does it work? Well, you can either post coupons that you are looking for or offer coupons that you don't want but are willing to trade to someone. For instance, say you know that there is $2.50 Pampers you'd really like to have. You'd post something like this on the trader website:
ISO- $2.50 Pampers Coupon Looking for the $2.50 Pampers coupon from the May '11 Parenting magazine. Will trade for veggie coupons.

ISO simply means In Search Of. Then you want to list the coupon or coupons you want and where it can be found if possible. You'll also want to list what you are willing to trade the coupon for. You can list specific coupons or just say that you will try to swap whatever the other person wants.

Or maybe you don't have kids and you have a bunch of Huggies coupons that you'd love to trade for something else. You'd say something like this:
For Trade- Lots of Huggies Coupons Have lots of Huggies coupons: three $1.50/1, four $1/1, two $2/1 diapers. All have at least an expiration date of 6/30/11. Would love to have coupons for Wisk detergent, General Mills cereal and/or Hunts ketchup in exchange.

And then you just wait and hope for someone to bite! :)

A couple of tips for trading coupons:
* Trade fair. If someone is offering a $3 Wisk coupon don't offer to trade for a $1 Huggies coupon. Offer 3 $1 coupons to give a more equal trade. This seems obvious, but unfortunately not everyone does this.

* Coupons for veggies, baby items, dishwasher detergent, and pet food are some of the easiest coupons to trade from my experience. I think it is because so many people don't have a need for these items (veggies maybe being the exception) and so they are more than happy to trade for something else.

* Be specific about exactly what you are looking for. The more specific you are, especially about where to locate the coupon, the more chance you have of someone helping you out.

* Be specific about the coupons you are posting. It is helpful to list the number of coupons you are offering and the dollar value as well as the expiration date.

Did you miss the first two posts in this series? Read them now: Websites; Contacting Companies.

Have you used coupon trading sites? Has it been a good experience? What tips do you have?

Obtaining Coupons: Coupon Websites- Part One

This is part of my Obtaining Coupons series. If you missed the 1st post you can read it here.

One of the more obvious ways to get coupons is by visiting websites that allow you to print them. Some of the most popular websites are:

* Coupons.com
* Smartsource
* Red Plum
* Coupon Network

And then there are sites like Target.com that offer store coupons that you can pair with manufacturer coupons. And occasionally you'll even find manufacturer coupons on Target's coupon site. Of course printable coupons also pop up on Facebook or other random places. These are always great additions and usually tend to be pretty high value.

Some tips for printing coupons:
* You can almost always print internet coupons twice. If you are on one of the above sites, go back to the main page then click the last page on the list of coupons offered. You should see the coupon there. If you've reached the print limit, it will either not be visible or will clearly say "Print Limit Reached". If you are printing a bricks coupon (such as this $1 Kashi one) just hit your browser's back button to print your second coupon.

* Save money and print in black and white- it really doesn't need to be in color.

* Reuse paper. For instance, if you have junk mail that is blank on one side, use that blank side to print coupons. Just make sure there is no personal information on it! I've only done this with white paper. I've been to chicken to try it with colored. Anyone ever done that?

Did I miss any coupon websites that you love?

Obtaining Coupons: Contacting Companies

This is the beginning of a series called Obtaining Coupons. I thought it would be helpful to look at the different ways that you can get coupons and also tips to do this well.

One of the ways that I have been able to get some great high-value or FREE product coupons is by contacting the manufacturer directly. Typically what I will do is think of a product I love then call the manufacturer and tell them why I love their product. Then I'll ask if they would have any coupons that they would be willing to send me to help me save on it. Most of the time they are more than willing to do so and often they will send multiple coupons.

I have also emailed companies as well but I don't seem to get as great a response when I do this, so I prefer calling. There have also been times where I didn't even tell them why I liked their product but just simply asked if they would be able to send me any coupons. When I did that I also didn't seem to get as high value coupons, but they usually still sent some.

A few other things...

Sample of what I might say when I contact a company:
"Hi, I was just calling because we love Cracker Barrel cheese but I rarely see coupons for it and I find it to be a bit expensive. Would it be possible for you to send me some coupons?"

Tips for requesting coupons:
* Be honest- don't just make up some reason you like their product.
* If you are loyal to their brand, tell them that. For instance, maybe you only buy Kraft mayo. Let them know that and explain that your family doesn't use anything else.
* Call while you are doing other household tasks. I often call while I am making dinner or folding laundry. That way if I have to hold for a bit, I really am not wasting my time.
* Find the companies contact info on the package or their website.
* Typically a company is willing to send you coupons every 6 mo. to a year. So you might find it helpful to keep track of when you contacted each company and how eager they were to send you coupons and/or what kind of coupons you received.

Here are some of the things that I've received coupons for:
Cracker Barrel cheese; Skintimate shave cream; Scott toilet tissue; Muir Glen products; and Turkey Hill ice cream and tea.

Have you ever requested coupons from a manufacturer? What was your experience like?

Why I Buy Things I Won't Use

Sometimes I buy things that I won't use. Yes, I know, it sounds like it would be wasteful right? Well, let me explain just why I do this (and why I'd encourage you to do it too.)

Sometimes there is an item that I can get and actually make money on but it is an item that I personally don't use. Typically I will go ahead and buy it anyway for two reasons.

1. I can make money on the product which means more cash in my grocery budget. Who doesn't like to get paid to shop?!

2. I can then give the item to a friend that can use it or I will donate it to our local homeless shelter. Who doesn't like to be able to help someone else out?!

Here's an example. This week Benefiber is on sale at Rite Aid. I don't use Benefiber and don't know of anyone who does, but I bought it anyway and plan to give it to our local shelter.

(2) Benefiber Sticks $11.98 (with 20% discount-not everyone gets this discount)
Get (2) $3.00 Single Check Rebates
use $7.00/2 Benefiber Coupon
$1/1 Benefiber Product Rite Aid printable (Jan.)
$1/1 Benefiber Product Rite Aid printable (Feb.)
Free after plus $3.02 profit after coupons and rebates

So not only did I make some money that I can use on other grocery purchases, I also have an item that I can pass on to someone else in need.

Making the Most of Free Product Coupons

My current FREE product coupons.

It used to be when I got a coupon for a FREE product, I wanted to use it right away. It just seemed like so much fun to use it and not have to worry about finding a sale for the item in order to get it free. But before long I started to realize that if I had patience I frequently could make money using my free product coupons.

You can easily make money on FREE product coupons by simply waiting to use them when there is a sale where you get money back on the product. Here's an example. Last week I made $10 at CVS simply by purchasing 4 bottles of Excedrin and using 4 FREE product coupons. Here's how the deal looked:


Purchase $20 in Excedrin products get $10 Extra Bucks
* Bought 4 Excedrins priced $4.69, $4.79 and two at $5.39
* Used 4 free product coupons
* Paid $0 out of pocket
* Got back $10 Extra Bucks to use on future purchases

You can also make money on FREE product coupons by using them at Rite Aid or Walgreens when they have similar promotions or at your local grocery store when there is a Catalina deal. I've even made money on items at Giant when I've used FREE product coupons on some of their instant savings items. (Where you buy 3 specific items and get an automatic $3 off your order).

The only negative side to not using the FREE product coupons right away is that you need to be very attentive to the expiration dates. You won't be able to turn every FREE product coupon into a money maker and if you don't use them right away you may forget to use them before they expire. To make it easy to keep track of that, I simply take all my FREE product coupons and paper clip them together in order of date, then put them in my coupon file. By doing this I can see at a glance what coupons I need to use up in the current month. The last week of every month I grab the FREE product coupon stack, take any coupons that are left that expire that month and use them.

How do use FREE product coupons to get every pennies worth out of them?

Ways to Save: Saving at the Pharmacy

If you take any prescription medication whatsoever, you know that prescription drugs can really make a dent in your wallet. After working at a pharmacy for 11 years, I've learned quite a few ways to save money on prescriptions medications. Here are a few of my top tips.

* Use generic where possible. Honestly, generics are usually amazingly cheaper than their brand counterparts. There are many reasons for this and I won't bother boring you with them. Let me just say this. Yes, generics are as effective as name brands.

See, the actual drug has to be the same in both the generic and the brand medication. So the only thing that is different is the "filler" product. So I suggest that, assuming your doctor okays it, you always fill your prescriptions with the generic medication.

* Ask for a less expensive alternative- whether you have insurance or not. If you have insurance, your insurance company decides which drugs they will cover and for what price. Some drugs are considered non-formulary, which means that you have to pay more for them. So if you go to the pharmacy and your co-pay is $60 and you usually only pay $20 for a prescription, ask the pharmacy technician if there is an alternative that may be cheaper. Or you could even call your prescription plan and ask them what other drugs in that category are covered.

Obviously, any changes have to be approved by your doctor, and sometimes the doctor thinks it is best to stick with the more expensive medication. But if at all possible, try a less expensive alternative.

* Ask your doctor for drug coupons, vouchers, and free samples. Drug reps are constantly trying to gain sales for their company and as part of that they drop off vouchers, coupons and samples at doctor's offices. The thing is, often the doctors forget they have them. So, just kindly ask...it won't hurt anything. And the worst thing that can happen to you is you are told no!

* Check with the drug manufacturer for savings programs and coupons/vouchers (usually only available for brand name medications). You would be amazed at how many drug manufacturers have savings programs available for patients. Just recently I was checking to see what kind of savings I could get for my friend who takes Carbatrol, a seizure medication. Because they don't have health insurance, she typically spends several thousand a year on this drug. I discovered that Shire, the company that makes Carbatrol, has a program available that would cover the entire cost of the drug for my friend!

If you take a brand name medication, especially if there is no generic alternative, call the manufacturer and ask if they have any patient assistance programs or can give you any coupons or savings vouchers. Nine times out of ten they'll be able to at least offer you a one time savings coupon, most of which are good even if you do have insurance.

* Find out if a 90 day supply will save you money. Often if you have insurance and your plan pays for a three month supply of medication, you will actually save money this way. For instance, some insurances give a steeper discount for a three month supply. Some will actually allow you to get three months worth of medication for the price of two. And if you don't have insurance, generally the more medication you get at a time, the cheaper it is per pill/unit.

* If you don't have insurance, shop around. I especially recommend this for high priced medications. Just because your usual pharmacy is the cheapest around on the blood pressure medication you take, does not mean it will be cheaper on the asthma medication the doctor just prescribed you.

Prescription drug prices vary greatly from pharmacy to pharmacy and from medication to medication. So shop around.

Please do note though, if you use multiple pharmacies, it is VERY important that you keep a list of all the medications that you currently take with you and show it to the pharmacist every time you get a prescription filled. This is the only way they will be able to catch any drug interactions.

* Ask if your pharmacy price matches. This one is for those of you that don't have insurance. Many pharmacies will price match another drug store's price if you simply ask them to. Even though they may lose a little bit of money, they figure it will pay them in the long run to keep your business.


How do you save money on prescriptions? Do you have any more tips to share? Or maybe you have a question. Please feel free to leave a comment!

Ways to Save: Use a Price List

I had mentioned here that I am more easily able to stay under our grocery budget than ever before and was still trying to figure out why. The more I thought about it, I realized that one of the tools that helped me out has been the price list that I used the last six months.

Have you ever been at the store and seen an unadvertised deal and been tempted to buy it but just wasn't quite sure if it was really a good price? I certainly have! In fact, I got so tired of trying to remember if things were cheaper at Aldi, my favorite bulk food store, or the current sale price that I made my own price list chart. This chart shows the lowest regular price that I can buy each item for. It does not include any sale prices.

Here's a sample of what mine looks like- in actuality it is sized a little differently. Blogger just wouldn't copy it over correctly!

Food
Canola Oil	2.28 WM
Flour	1.49 SA 5lb
Sugar	2.39 Aldi 5lb
Brown Sugar	.53 CV per lb.
Confectioner’s Sugar	.53 CV per lb.
Crisco Brand	4.12 WM
Shortening	3.29 SA 48 oz.
Cocoa Powder	2.79 CV per lb.
Peanut Butter	1.29 Aldi 18 oz.
Raisins	1.51 CV per lb.
Coconut- unsweet.	2.25 CV per lb.
Choc. Chips- milk	1.69 Aldi 12 oz.
Choc. Chips- semi	2.21 CV per lb.
Kookie Bits	1.25 CV per lb.
Butterscotch Chips	1.86 CV per lb.
Butter	1.69 Aldi
Evaporated Milk	.75 Aldi
Powdered Milk	4.99 Aldi 1lb. 9.6oz
Cream Cheese	.79 Aldi
Sour Cream	.99 Aldi 16 oz.
Cottage Cheese	1.89 Aldi 24 oz.
Pineapple Sliced	.99 SA 20 oz.
Pineapple Crushed	.89 Aldi 20 oz.
Mand. Oranges Can.	.45 Aldi
Saltines	.89 Aldi
Graham Crackers	1.29 Aldi
Jello	1.76-1.80 CV per lb
Instant Pudding	2.30 CV per lb.
Salt	.33 Aldi 26 oz.
Salmon- canned	2.29 Aldi 14.75 oz.
Velveeta- generic	3.69 Aldi 32 oz.
Egg Noodles	.99 Aldi 12 oz.
Ketchup	1.19 Aldi 36 oz
Salsa	1.49 Aldi 24 oz.
Spag. Sauce	1.09 Aldi 26 oz.
Tuna	.59 Aldi .5 oz.
Kidney Beans Dry	1.16 WM per lb.
Northern Beans Dry	.88 WM per lb.
Black Beans Dry	1.08 WM per lb.
White Rice	.54 CV per lb.
Brown Rice	.55 CV per lb.
Instant Br. Rice	1.44 WM 14 oz.
Instant Wh. Rice	1.63 CV per lb.
Kitchen Supplies
Wax Paper	1.18 WM 75 sq. ft.
Aluminum Foil	2.29 Aldi 75 sq ft.
Plastic Wrap	1.29 Aldi 200 sq. ft.
Freezer Bags- Qt.	1.49 SA 40 ct.
Muffin Cups	.99 SA 90ct.

The first column is obviously the name of the item. The second has the price of the item as well as the store name. For sake of space I abbreviated some of the names. For instance, SA is Save-A-Lot.

Now when I am planning a shopping trip and want to know if a sale price is a good deal, I simply refer to my handy little chart. The price list also helps me know what to buy where. For instance, when I go to Walmart, I make sure I buy the items that are priced the lowest there- that is if I need the item! And if I am shopping and come across an unexpected sale I can easily refer to my price list to see if it really is a bargain or not.

Using a price list does require a little bit of work. I mean, what good is a price list if it isn't up to date? So here's what I do. I keep this chart with me in my coupon binder and when I am out shopping at my usual stores I frequently double check my prices. It doesn't take long and I typically don't go out of my way to do so; I just sort of scan the shelf for the price as I walk by. Then if a price changes, I simply note it in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th column of my chart. Eventually the chart gets full or messy and I have to update the prices in the original document and print out a new price list.

Not only has this price list saved me lots of headache, it has also helped me save money. I can't tell you how often I didn't buy an item that I had thought was a good deal because my price list showed me it wasn't. Yes, usually it was only a matter of $0.10, but let me tell you, that adds up. And if you don't need the item immediately anyway, why not wait and get it cheaper?

Do you utilize a price list? What other ways do use to keep track of prices?