I love Rite Aid

I was excited about paying 77 cents for two fancy razors(with 2 extra cartridges each) AND a gallon of whole milk at Rite Aid today. Aaron has almost a year stock of nice razors and cartridges now, but I can't pass up free! I can't get Mateo to smile normal on command yet, so here is what you get when you tell him to smile, lol!


Here's how the deal worked:

Gillette Fusion ProGlide razor: 9.99 each sale price (-5UP reward for each bought- limit 2)

Buy 2 razors= 19.98
Milk = 2.79

Total: 22.77
-$3/$15+ purchase coupon (Coupon for taking the survey on my coupon)
-$5/1 razor coupon (Coupon we got in the mail)
-$4/1 razor coupon (Coupon from the newspaper)

New Total: 10:77
-$10 Up Reward Coupon from a previous transaction

GRAND Total: $0.77 out of pocket PLUS received two $5 UP Rewards for buying the razors (a store promotion) that I can use on my next trip there. UP Rewards are like a coupon for store credit. They are very easy to use. If I use them strategically I don't have to spend too much OOP (Out of pocket).


All in all, a good trip. This is one happy couponer. :)

OK...maybe Safeway isn't the worst store in the world plus pics of the stockpile...

So I usually complain that Safeway is cruelly overpriced compared to WinCo. However, what better way to end a date night than to stop at Safeway and double 8 coupons? Yes, my husband even allows me to bring him couponing and I LOVE it when he comes, hehehe.

This is what we got:
So we got 10 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of gushers (not for me b/c of the sugar... :(, and a bottle of salad dressing for $9.00. I was pretty happy with that.

The hubster also put up some more shelves in our laundry closet, too, for stockpile stuff.

Our laundry closet is pretty big for a closet, so there's plenty of room for some shelves...where we keep everything from TP to laundry detergent to dish soap. There are a few things I couldn't capture with a picture...but you can get the gist.

These are the two shelves we have in our "basement" downstairs" (aka bowling alley). The upper one has toiletries like shampoo, face soap, dental hygiene stuff (in the red bin) and baby wipes. The bottom one has food like cereal, oatmeal, rice milk, pasta, etc.

Spend less to work less....

So dinner is in the crockpot, laundry is in the washer, and my tot is napping...so that means I get a few minutes to sit down at the computer! Yipee!!

My heart continues to ache for people that want to stay home with their babies but don't think they can. Like I've said before, there are plenty of people who don't have that desire. But for those that do- and who aren't the only bread winner of the family- this is what I have to say:
YOU CAN STAY HOME WITH YOUR BABY IF YOU WANT IT BADLY ENOUGH!

Pray pray pray!!

But I'm NOT the type of person who would tell you to pray for a lump of money to fall from the sky so you could continue your current lifestyle. No, I'm the kind of person that would tell you to pray to God and ask for his wisdom on how to manage your money differently. All knowledge and wisdom come from our great God and He is ultimately the one who will give you the discernment and self discipline to make the cuts you'll need to. Yes, lots of self disciple needed.

Now maybe your husband (or wife... plenty of SAHDs now ;) is a brain surgeon and you quitting your job isn't the biggest deal. But for most of us- our spouse probably has a regular job.

I decided to check out a couponing book from the library and the author, Stephanie Nelson, wrote this on the first page (that's as far as I've gotten, hehe):

"In 1995, my husband and I made the decision to downsize our lifestyle so that I could stay home with our boys, a two year old and a new baby. My quitting the corporate world meant our income would be cut in half, so I knew I was actually taking on two new roles: stay-at-home mom and CEO of our family budget...."

Boy could I relate! Since Aaron and I had very similar incomes, me quitting my job would literally mean cutting our income in half. Fortunately for us, we had been planning on this for a while- so it wasn't quite as harsh a transition as it could have been.

So what I'm saying in all of this- is....how bad do you want to be at home with your kids and what are you willing to give up? Are you willing to live in an apartment instead of a house? Are you willing to go to Goodwill?
For some reason the idea of being a professional budget advisor person appeals to me, but I don't think I'd land a job in that area b/c I would be a little tough on people. If they were buried in money problems, I'd probably tell them to sell their house b/c living in their current house would not allow them to leave within their means. I'd probably advise them to stop buying coffee at Starbucks (b/c I believe the little things do add up). Maybe I'd tell them to consider buying used clothing, mow their own lawns, buy a bag of potatoes instead of buying boxed potatoes, etc.

Take heart! There are books galore and websites galore on ways to manage your money. God is big. Read the book of Proverbs. We are to be discerning and prudent in how we utilize our resources....realizing that all of our money and resources are from God anyways. Though 2% of me misses having a "career", the other 98% of me is so glad to be at home managing the household and taking care of my boys (the big one and the little one ;)

Here are some things I've written about in past blogs to sum up. It really all comes down to spend less...in order to work less!

1. Try coupons to save money with toiletries, food, and entertainment.
2. Shop second hand.
3. Don't keep up with the Jones'.
4. Lower your standard of living.
5. Do more things yourself instead of paying others (food prep, yard work, etc.)
6. Make a budget with your spouse and stick to it.
7. Pay off debt and stay out of debt....only spend money that you have!


You can do it!

Grocery Store and Mateo

Saving Money #3

So a few months ago I become frustrated that we kept going over on what we'd allotted for our grocery budget. We have a little bit of squiggle room in the budget, so it wasn't like an emergency- but it was still something I felt I needed to tweak. So that's when I started doing the couponing, and I started also just brainstorming.

How do YOU save money at the grocery store? I wanna know!

I would love more ideas. Everything I came up with requires more time which may be difficult for the full time worker, but I'm trying to swing it. Here is what I have tried so far....

1. I no longer buy baby carrots. I buy a cheap 2 lb bag of carrots for like 78 cents and peel them and slice them up myself. Easy, right? It's also cheaper and I think they taste better.

2. We started shredding our own cheese (Oh, that's what the cheese grater is for....) and buying block cheese unless there is a good sale on shredded. I am also thinking of not buying string cheese any more since the price per ounce is a lot higher. Though yesterday I got a pack for half off with a coupon ( I love coupons! ) but without a coupon it's more expensive than a block cheese. I just use the cheese slicer and slice a bunch of slices for sandwiches or Mateo's snacks.

3. I love the bulk section at WinCo. I buy a lot of things in there like rice, beans, nuts, spices, etc. I have found it to be cheaper than buying a bag of the item. Especially spices!! I buy the tiny plastic spice containers and some of the spice and voila!

I'm not going to make everything from scratch, but a few extra prep tasks can make a difference.


On a side note.... despite the tantrums, short naps, and picky eating, and just pure ankle biting tendencies, ..... Mateo is a lot of fun. I'm so lucky to get to be with him every day. I say that today, b/c it has been a pretty decent day. Tomorrow I may say, "Get me out of here!!!!!!" He's starting to "pretend" play more and it's been pretty cute to just see how he's interacting differently with kids at play group and at the gym kid watch. He was feeding the stuffed bear "milk" from this little tiny bottle, giving it kisses, and moving his hand and saying "hi".
We built a cardboard fort out of a gigantic box downstairs. Actually, Grandpa made it for him :) It even has a skylight and a window. It's pretty fun.

That said, it is often challenging to occupy a one year old with Mateo's temperament. He's not a naturally independent child. We try to train him to be a little more independent and play by himself a little more, but he just seems to want a lot of snuggles and interaction. That's why I love love love that I have a gym membership this year. The ladies there LOVE him and he really seems to love them back. Especially if they have a ball. Mateo loves balls. SO I get an hour sans baby to exercise, and Mateo gets attention by somebody new and gets to play with new toys. Lifesaver. And did I mention that the gym has cable? :-)

Coupons

Saving Money #2

The last couple of months I have been learning and doing the "extreme couponing" thing. My favorite site thus far to help is.... http://thekrazycouponlady.com/ They are, of course, on facebook too! I also like http://dealseekingmom.com/.

Basically, it's combining different types of coupons on sale items to get them for cheap (and sometimes FREE!) Looking at our budget for the month of September compared to October, I wanted to see how much of a difference in spending there was in the categories of toiletries and groceries. I did a LOT of shopping in October. Turns out.... we spent just $15 less in October than in September. Doesn't' seem like much of a difference, but by spending a little less, I was also able to stock up on all those things in the picture below



So as you can see.... I have a year plus supply of whole wheat spaghetti and pasta, body wash for Aaron, dish soap, and dental floss (in the red box). I'm hoping that as I learn new tricks and get better that we will eventually be spending even less. But I'm happy with it so far.

I will admit I was very skeptical at first b/c there is the reputation of extreme couponing on food to be only on the unhealthy processed stuff. And much of it is. You just have to be strategic to find coupons and sales on the things your family uses and eats. I decided to focus more on toiletries to start with since I found food to be a bit harder.

I was also skeptical b/c I've been a WinCo shopper ever since I started doing my own grocery shopping. You'd never find me doing my grocery shopping at Safeway. It's expensive!! WinCo has the lowest prices. UNLESS....and here's what I'm learning. WinCo has the lowest prices....unless....you can find something on sale at another store and also use a coupon on it.

SO yes, this is more work. You actually have to pay attention to the ads and clip some coupons. I don't know that I would have the time and energy to do as much as I have if I was teaching full time. But regardless of whether you work 2 jobs, 1 job, part time, or are home full time.....I think most everybody is looking to save a little money. And coupons can help.

One of my favorite deals this last month was the Nivea body wash that I got for Aaron. He loves body wash, but it is expensive. There was a $3.00 off of one coupon and they were on sale for $2.50. This means...that the product is FREE!! Now since I only had one paper, you can actually go and get extra coupons from newspapers on eBay. Since you can't legally buy coupons, you are technically paying couponing services. Crazy, huh? So that's how I have about 40 boxes of pasta that I paid 13 cents each. And why I got 20 packs of dental floss for free.

Another nice thing about having your "stockpile" of items you've gotten for free or inexpensive....is that you have some extra to give away when you know of people who need it. And it's not a huge financial burden b/c things in your stockpile were bought at the lowest prices you know of. So being generous is fun :)