A Couple of Super Easy Ways to Save a Buck or Two

Pretty much everyone is looking for a way to trim their spending these days.  We're no different.  In our apartment there is always a stack of coupons somewhere, the Sunday ads are scoured for sales, pennies are saved, and clearance sales are considered gold mines.

While some money saving habits are very easy others can be more of sacrifice/challenge.  Here are a couple that take little time or effort!

ONE Do you do a lot of online shopping?  Then start at Ebates! If you go to their website and then from there go to the store you are purchasing from you can get some cash back!  It ranges anywhere from a percent or two to twenty (during some specials).  Currently they don't have any promotions for Ebay or Amazon, but they have hundreds of other stores!  I've used them for Jo Ann's, Walmart, Lands' End, Old Navy, and a couple of others.  Since I started using them I've gotten a couple of small checks.  The cash back ins't much, but the great thing is that I was going to purchase all of the items regardless of the cash back and literally takes two seconds to do!

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TWO Do you do a lot of internet searches?  Check out Swagbucks!  This is a search engine that rewards many of your searches with "bucks".  Once you gain enough Swagbucks you can go to the Swagstore and buy things.  They have a lot of options, but my favorite (and the one that I think is the best deal) is the $5 Amazon gift-card.  I've been able to cash in for quite a few of these!  The search engine isn't quite as good as Google, in my humble opinion, but if you don't like the options it gives you it only takes a second to perform a Google search.

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THREE Don't have time to clip coupons?  That's ok.  Find the store that has the lowest price on the majority of your family's basics.  Our go to store is Aldi.  (LOVE that store!)  Even if this store isn't the closest, it could be worth making a part of your routine if you know your staples are going to be significantly less. Living in a metropolitan area we do have a couple of super close grocery stores, the one that is the nearest (and generally the best stocked) is Giant, but our weekly run is at Aldi.  Items that we buy almost every week include: Milk, sandwich bread, bananas, cheese, chips, carrots, and raisins.  Here's a small breakdown of a couple of these items:

	Aldi	Giant
Bread	$0.89	$1.50
Milk (Hormone Free)	$2.69	$3.89
Chips	$0.99	$3.69
Cream Cheese	$0.99	$2.19
Bananas	$0.44 (lb)	$0.65 (lb)
Raisins	$1.49	$2.99

Even with just a few of these staples that we buy we are saving over seven dollars a week--that's almost 400 bucks a year!  And this doesn't even include everything.  Coupons are fantastic and I use them often--but some things just don't have coupons and that's when knowing the local store's prices can save you big bucks.  (We buy at least two gallons of milk a week, generally it is closer to three, just on milk alone Aldi's save our family about $150 a year!)

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FOUR Don't let dollar stores scare you!  Yes, many of them are filled with cheap junk and overpriced candy.  However, you never know what you will find there.  Two weeks ago I found full sized boxes of Ritz Crackers for a buck--even on sale at Giant they are rarely less than $2.50.  I also am lucky that my local Dollar Tree tends to have high quality yarn in its arts and crafts aisle.  The same yarn that I see at stores like Michael's and Jo Anne's for over triple the price.  (I made this blanket, this belt, these broaches, and these scarves with some of this lucky find!)

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FIVE Love to read?  For me this is a no-brainer, but it needs to be said anyways, check out your local library!  Books, movies, music, storytimes, classes, e-books, and more are right at your fingertips at the library.  Take advantage of it!  Hey, your tax dollars are paying for it.



Well, there are five quick tips to help you save some money.  None of them take much time and all are super easy to do.  Do you have any quick tips you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear them!

Disclosure: Some links are referral links.

7 Quick Takes Friday

ONE: Last night Catherine fought taking a bath for quite awhile.  Then she fiercely fought leaving the tub.  So we let her play in there for about forty five minutes.  Of course we did keep adding warm water for her!  So here is a (slightly stereotypical look how cute my kid is in the tub) photo:

Check out that awesome hairdo!
And yes, she still loves her Ducky tub.

TWO: I was much better about blogging this week!  Not everything ended up in my draft folder.  I consider that an accomplishment.  Also, I participated in quite a few "link parties".  They are a great way to see other people's blogs as well as announce that mine exists.  I'd love to get my blogging to be more regular and to have a steady increase of traffic to my site.  That's what I'd like, but we'll see what happens!

THREE: I mailed my application for a Spring Craft Fair.  I think as long as there are openings I am in, but I will still be waiting nervously for their response.  I really want to participate in another craft fair and there don't seem to be a lot of spring ones around (I already have a few fall ones penciled in on my schedule).  This also means that I should focus my crafting time on items that might sell at a spring fair.  

FOUR: Lent starts up next week.  I need to get baking cookies and such out of my system before then.  I should also look up Ash Wednesday Mass times.  On that note, (growing up and a little bit now too) I always thought that Ash Wednesday should be a Holy Day of Obligation.  I guess mainly because it has "something extra"  (the receiving of ashes), but also because the beginning of Lent is a big deal.  It is by far the non-obligatory Mass that I try the hardest to attend.


FIVE: Still wishing I had a magical way to clean.  Sheez, even if I had a couple of toddler free hours every week that would help.  I guess that I could get up super early or stay up later--but somehow that just doesn't happen.  To those mommies out there with lots of kids and spotless houses, how do you do it?  I have one wonderful kid and a tiny apartment (which is part of the problem, IMHO--because there simply is no storage) and nine times (okay, 9.9 times) out of ten it is a mess.  Although, I tend to be rather OCD about some things--such as the floor.  We are a no shoes in the house family and I often scrub it on my hands and knees.  We live in a large metro area and I've seen enough bodily fluids, etc deposited on public walkways to turn me into a little bit of a germaphobe.  The living room especially is often clean enough to eat off of--which is good because it seems like that's Catherine's favorite place to store her Cheerios and raisins!

SIX: Peter and I tend to go in spurts with what game we play.  Some weeks the only game we'll play is Carcassonne, other weeks its Dominion, other times its cards.  The game that we've been playing the most lately is Family Business.  It is also nice because we have a family friend that has returned to the area--so he's been able to come over for games quite a bit.

SEVEN: I have been sorting through my coupons, there are a couple of great deals out there this week.  I am hoping to hit Safeway, CVS (I have ExtraCare Bucks burning a hole in my pocket!), and Harris Teeter (Super Doubles, baby!).  We shall see if I actually set foot in any of these stores this weekend, but I should be prepared!  Plus, it doesn't hurt to go through my massive stack of coupons.

Check out more 7 Quick Takes here. 

One of My Hobbies

I love couponing!

I have been having fun with it for a couple of years now. It isn't something that controls my like (think TLC's Extreme Couponing) but is a definite presence. There will be a month or two that I won't really find any deals, or really even look for them, but then I will have a month or two of fantastic deals!

I am still trying to come up with the "perfect" system for me. I have a large binder and a small organizer that fits in my purse. The binder is large enough to fit all the store ads and uncut coupons in the front pouch and then I put the cut coupons in baseball card sleeves in the main section. The tough aspect of this system is I have to cut the coupons pretty quickly and put them in the binder--which can be difficult with Catherine hanging onto me (and trying her best to eat the coupons). I put special coupons (free items and high value) and coupons that I know I will use in the small organizer.

I have so much to say on this topic, but I need to go...I have to run to the store and use coupons for two free gallons of milk that expire today!