Category Archives: frugality

Jul14

Coupon Craziness Part 2

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Coupon Craziness Part 2

Over the past week or so I have decided to try my hand at couponing!

I have tried it before. I would spend time cutting coupons of items we used. Then I would file them in a small file by category. But here is what would happen. I would go grocery shopping, pick out a few to try to use, find that the store brand was cheaper, and not use the coupons. It doesn’t help that I shop at HEB and they don’t double or triple.

I have the blogs Money Saving Mom and Give Me Neither in my google reader and at the beginning of each week, they do weekly deal posts for CVS, Walgreens, and Target, along with a couple of stores that we don’t have here. I would read them, but not pay much attention. They also occasionally post about freebies.

I decided I would not try to go all out, but I would try to get a free thing or two using their tips and I asked a friend to bring me her coupons from her Sunday paper since we don’t get it.

So I went to those two blogs on Sunday, when they post their weekly deals. And they have a checklist of sorts, where they list out the deals, you check the box beside the ones you want, and it makes you a shopping list in the corner of the page that you can then print out. HERE.

I decided to do Target, so I also went HERE to print out some Target printable coupons.

Then I went to the store and tried to find the stuff. Some of it was already sold out, like the BBQ sauce that would have been free. I paid .62 for that one after a $1 off coupon. The Sharpies were out in the office section, but they had some in the school supplies section, but they weren’t priced at $1. But I scanned them and found that they were actually $1 before I went to check out. I had a $1 off coupn=they were free. The pens were $1.02 so after the $1 off coupon they were .02. I stacked a Sally Hensen coupon from the paper with the Target printable Sally Hensen coupon so the nail polish was $.50 after $2 worth of coupons. The toe separators were on clearance for .70 and I had a .50 off coupons so they were .20.

Anyway, it was super fun! I got some things we will use and some things that I can give as gifts! The next day I went to CVS and Walgreens. I’ll tell you about that later…

 

Jun29

Garage Sale

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Garage Sale

I had my first ever garage sale last weekend. Here are some thoughts:

  • Make simple signs. Mine just were boxes with “Yard Sale” and an arrow painted on each side. I put some bricks in the box to keep it where I put it. No need to put a bunch of details that you can’t read anyway and I can reuse these.
  • A tip I read and liked was if someone is interested in something, make a deal with them and let them buy it. No one else will probably want that thing and you really just want to get rid of it. I wish I had done that with a few items.
  • Sometimes it seems better to price things low and just get rid of them.
  • I put prices on everything but wondered sometimes if my prices turned people away if they were too shy to try to haggle but thought the price was too high.
  • Wear sunscreen.
  • Drink lots of water and eat something.
  • If we weren’t having another yard sale later, I would just call someone to pick up the stuff for charity after it was over.
  • If a man walks up to your garage sale selling homemade tamales, buy them, they will taste good.
  • Invite friends to join you. More stuff attracts more people. Its not too hard to keep your stuff separate if you keep it in separate areas of the yard.
  • Take a nap after its over and go out to dinner! (We used a gift card–don’t think I broke my challenge!)
Jun20

NEO Challenge

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NEO Challenge

The No Eating Out Challenge!

I am challenging myself that we will not eat out until July 15th! Anyone want to join me?

The rules are:

No spending money on restaurant or fast food.

That’s it.

It is okay to get a free meal (i.e. Chick Fil A Cow Appreciation Day on July 8) and it is okay to use a gift card (which we are going to do Wednesday for our anniversary). Also it is okay to eat out if it is someone else’s treat. :)

The main reason I am doing this is to save money. We really shouldn’t be spending money to eat out right now but we do anyway and so I am going to try to go cold turkey. My hub is really better about this than me, I am usually the one to cave and want something. The trick is when we don’t have anything in the house that sounds good.

So that is the goal, comment if you want to join in on this challenge. I figure if I tell people about it, I am maybe more likely to follow through.