“Coupons” Archive
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Sunday nights are always about setting out my clothing for Monday and mentally preparing outfits for the rest of the week. This is a habit that goes back to my Catholic high school days where I wore a uniform and when I got to college I had the HARDEST time figuring out wardrobe in the morning! Now..if for some reason I skip this routine at night and have to put something together in the morning…look out…it derails the entire day! I don’t have a ridiculous amount of options either–in fact, most people are surprised by my limited wardrobe that I do a lot with by mixing and matching. I set everything out—and if I don’t I scan on it and can’t fall asleep! I’ve instilled the same thing in the kids and now they make sure they have something out for the next day.
As I prepare to do this now, I see that I am faced with a dreaded trip to the dry cleaner. I am now much better about checking the labels before making a clothing purchase to avoid dry clean garments entirely but some of my more professional selections require dry cleaning. This dry cleaning industry baffles me. It bugs me that they don’t have to have their prices posted AND don’t get me started on women’s clothing costing so much more than men’s. I just don’t see a huge difference between my standard button down dress shirts and my husband’s dress shir-except mine is smaller so it should cost less! And…wouldn’t a skirt be easier to dry clean than men’s slacks? Why is the skirt always more expensive?! Is it like this everywhere in the country? I’ve tried the $1.29 sort of places and sometimes they are good and other times they are bad…and then there was the one that hit the news here that just shut down and customers could not get their clothing. I try to use coupons when I can but either way–it is an expensive option. Has anyone used those home dry cleaning kits? Dryel I think is one brand.
Anyway, back to the closet…I’ll find something for sure but my stack of black slacks (can you ever really have too many black slacks?) need to be dry cleaned!!
In the coming days I plan on sharing the details of what we have in savings via investments/401K/529 plan/etc. in an attempt to continuing expanding your view of my world. I know there will be much for me to learn about this part of things and I don’t see the investments as directly relating to the debt reduction–but a complete picture is helpful for all of us I think.
It was a good weekend for spending. I cut the grocery budget yet again and spent $80 on what should cover us for TWO weeks! I really worked the ads and coupons today and it took entirely too long (that has to improve with time I am guessing…) but I saved so much money the time is worth it! Actually, I took a little quiet time in the process too by sitting at a local coffeeshop with my cup of coffee and clipping coupons. And I’m a cheap coffee date—Americano please…nothing fancy. It was nice me time actually. Thankfully the little one is happy to help with cutting coupons still—a HUGE help.
I have also made a dent in the gas budget–even with the climbing prices. This is just taking a little extra time to think things out but so far I’ve shaved off about $20 a week.
I caught myself at the store tonight having a moment like I’m sure many of you had when you first read my blog. A man in front of me at Walgreens was using a small handheld basket and only had one…although it was full. As I watched the cashier ring up his purchases there were several items that I KNEW there were easily accessible, good coupons for and had to bite my tongue when the cashier gave him his total….and no mention of coupons was made! His total was $41.73! For a handheld basket full of just grocery itmes! My how times have changed! I used to be that person–using Walgreens as a regular grocery store thinking nothing of the extra I was paying for the convenience! I am pretty outspoken but I did not feel comfortable gently telling this older fellow how much he could have saved—just didn’t feel right at the time–but all the way home I was laughing at the irony! Maybe I am optimistic but I already cannot imagine going back to such reckless spending.
You’ll be happy to know that cable is disconnected and without anything set up for Roku. We had to go pretty extreme and just cancel cable without having anything lined up b/c time is the challenge for us–if we wait for the time to get things in order on Roku and THEN cancel cable…well then weeks go by and suddenly it has been a month since we first considered breaking up with cable! That’s $140 a month we don’t need to spend so it has been cut to $35 for the internet only. We did go out and buy an “old school” antenna and are amazed at what we can get for FREE. Ridiculous that it took us this long! Somehow both hubby and I became convinced that we needed cable to have television. In fact, when we first discussed this my husband even said “we won’t be able to watch the Super Bowl.” Imagine our surprise when our $24 antenna got us crystal clear local television reception. We felt pretty dumb.
We are waiting on Roku b/c we need to educate ourselves on perhaps using the Playstation 3 and Wii that we already have. I understand they can do the wifi feed but we need to figure out how that works. Let me know if you have info on this topic.
Today marked our first volunteer time at Mobile Loaves and Fishes. We can see that being a wonderful addition to our busy schedules! It was a great time for all as we made 100 meals for the homeless. It was empowering to see how the power of many can knock out a task like this in absolutely no time. We were finished in an hour! We hope to go out on the truck next time but there were other volunteers for that duty today.
The evening ended with trips to CVS and Walgreens where, with the help of coupons, we bought two 6-paks of Bounty papertowels, two 6-pack “double rolls” of Charmin, 2 large bottles of olive oil on clearance, 5 boxes of cereal (to include Life–my all time fave happened to be on clearance for $1.50 b/c it expires in May), a gallon of milk and a pack of gum for $9! So exciting for us! We laughed as we looked at this Friday evening compared to Fridays in the past—we used to eat at a nice restaurant and drop at least $80…but tonight we happily saved a lot of money on things we need and use and celebrated no cable television! I am so excited to be done with that bill—and the $105 will go straight toward savings and debt!
Notice the slightly updated numbers–the savings is up to $650 and a $145 line of credit is paid off! 
April will kick off the first month that we will feel the positive impact of the elimination/reduction of a few monthly debts and expenses. With these adjustments we will see an extra $400 this month–NOT including my raise that hits on Friday, April 6. My husband is doing an excellent job of stopping me from counting those chickens before they are hatched..but MAN does my brain go there each and every time we discuss $. I wish you could see how excited we are about putting that toward debt! After I finish up this post we have set aside time this evening to review the various approaches to paying things down–including those you have posted in your comments–so we can finalize the approach. We’ve been talking about it since I started blogging, but it is time to make a decision since we have the money to pay! Here’s to financial communication! We are looking at shaving off another $100-$200 in monthly expenses so in addition to the little stuff we are doing what we can on that side of the ledger too.
Speaking of the little stuff…I tiptoed into the world of couponing today. I was very deliberate in my approach and managed to save a total of $32. I only went to Walgreens and CVS and purchased regularly used allergy medicine (that alone usually sets me back $20), my usual coffee, toothpaste, toothbrushes, Easter treats for the kids, jello pudding mix and 4 boxes of regular Rice Krispies. I used my usual spending amount and didn’t dip into what sits in the account which is the only way I will do this. All of these are items that we would have bought anyway–but at FULL price. So I say… yippee!
I really enjoyed my Friday night fun. I learned a lot about couponing and got some tips on meal planning too. I’m feeling pretty good about my already existing meal planning habits. We are accustomed to eating at home so it is good that we haven’t had to make major changes there. Eating out for 5 or 6 is a crazy expense.
I’m sitting at my dining room table right now with the coupon circulars spread about. There’s a whole world out there on this couponing thing! Wow! I had no idea! As expected, we learned that we live in a tough market given the market control held by one giant, but I like what I hear about CVS, Walgreens and Target. www.coupondad.net has a great “CVS 101″ and “Walgreens 101″ bit that I found tremendously helpful. It can be very intimidating so my goal is to just start with health and beauty items. If I can save on soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss and hair color…oh and batteries…that’s a great place to start. I can’t seem to get a handle on stockpiling groceries yet but I’m open to it…especially pasta. Please don’t tell me to make my own pasta. I will not make my own pasta–although I AM often very taken by all of that fun and expensive pasta making stuff when I visit the high end culinary stores. “Culinary.” Even using that word makes me chuckle. You know…the Williams-Sonoma, Sur le table…oh my goodness I love going in those stores. I don’t buy anything mind you but the idea of having all those kitchen gadgets is so fun! But…I digress…
Anyway…I’ll report back on my success on this baby step…and all the other baby steps. I’m feeling a little bit like I have all of these great ideas but I haven’t taken a whole lot of ACTION.
I’m looking forward to Friday night! 20 years ago that would have had an entirely different meaning…but THIS Friday night will be spent at a coupon class! After a post on meal making and grocery shopping, A reader suggested the $5 Dinner Mom website and so I stopped by to check it out a few weeks ago. I took it as a sign that right there on the welcome page there was a San Antonio offering! The thought of couponing stresses me out BUT I really think I could get into it! My fear–quite honestly–is that I will get TOO into it! I tend to do things in extremes. My friend from work who was doing great with her couponing but has fallen off a bit in recent weeks is joining me and you would think we were going to some crazy “girls’ night out” with the way we are talking about this thing! I’m looking forward to learning a lot and then putting the new skills to work. I’m already seeing major dents in my grocery spending just with the little bit of thought I’m putting into things. I DO think that I’m going to have to become proficient at stockpiling laundry detergent bc the homemade brand is not getting rave reviews from the fam. Actually, that’s not correct…I notice no problems with it, the kids haven’t said a word but the husband is saying a lot WITHOUT a lot of words. Have I mentioned that he’s slow to accept change? Love that guy! I think I saw him sneak in a bottle of Tide the other day and he might be hiding it for his personal use only!
Here’s the link to what we are doing on Friday night. If you live in the Atlanta, GA area there’s one there next week. I’ll report back with details.
http://www.5dollardinners.com/2012/03/san-antonio-coupon-class.html
I’ve managed to shave about $25 a week so far off of the weekly total. I’m happy to report we did last week with just one gallon of milk…that’s right….ONE. Granted we only had the 3 younger kids but they were home all week for Spring Break! So, yes…this is a major! I made a big pot of pinto beans and we did all sorts of cost cutting meals with beans (chalupas, soup, quesadillas…)
I just returned from this week’s grocery store trip and found some HUGE deals! I’ve determined that the best time to shop our local grocery store is Saturday night. Around 8 pm they shut down the butcher department and often you can find the fresh meats from there packaged and marked down in the regular meat section. If I am lucky, I might find a package or 2 at a good price. Well, tonight I hit the butcher closing time AND a “reduced for quick sale” jackpot and got lean ground sirloin (93/7) for 99 cents a pound!!!! I bought 13 lbs and will cook some tomorrow, then freeze for later use. There were also some great deals on chicken tenders and ground turkey that can be used for all sorts of options! Tonight’s grocery bill was $74 so that’s coming down slow but sure. We only have one major, family owned grocer in San Antonio (HEB? perhaps some of you have heard of it…) and while they are certainly a monster in the market that not even Walmart can begin to touch…and that has its drawbacks for sure, they do have these great meal deals offered on a weekly basis. They usually require the purchase of the main dish and then you get a TON of sides for free. Last week it was a package of beef or chicken fajitas for about $8-$10 and then you get the tortillas, lettuce in a bag, shredded cheese, refried or whole pinto beans in a can, sour cream for free. Tonight was a bag of fish fillets ($4.32) and I got a can of corn, a good size box of Uncle Ben’s brown rice and a large, family size box of mac and cheese for free. I stretch these items out to at least two, usually 3 meals.
Anyway, just wanted to share my grocery store success! Thank you for helping me “stop and think” in the grocery store. Honestly, when I found all of that meat on such great sale…my immediate thought was to take a picture of the price tag to share with all of you! I DO want to make you proud! LOL! In the past I would not have thought about the best time to go to the store as I just went when I absolutely had to and without a great plan. I also wouldn’t have taken the time to figure out the timing to increase my odds of getting these great deals. That’s changed thinking and that’s a very good thing!
Oh! And that $74 included my $11 John Frieda hair color. I’m going for the foam on the first try since I had a nightmare last night that I got streaks of hair color down my face that I could not get off. It was pretty funny as I sat in a work meeting trying to play off the black streaks all OVER my face. So I guess that means the grocery bill was actually only $63!!!
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My Debt
- Original Debt: $97,293.06
- Paid: $1,927.89
- Remaining: $95,365.17
- Emergency Fund: $1100
- Broken Down
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- Credit Card 3: $405.00
- Credit Card 6: $1,785.00
- Credit Card 7: $2,381.17
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