Super Savings Saturday - Last Week's Haul!

Last week was my first week back in the couponing game since about November and I have to say I've missed it! I really thought that it was going to be a rough week, budget wise since I had zero RR's and ECB's to work with, but it didn't end up being all that bad. I'm quite happy with how I made out for the week!

Dollar General...

Total Before coupons and savings - $16.00
Total After coupons and savings - $3.50
Total Savings - $12.50

Walgreens...

Total before coupons, savings and RR earned - $57.50
Total after coupons, savings and RR earned - $10.46 MONEYMAKER!!!
Total Savings - $67.96 (That's 118%!!)

Target...

Total before coupons and savings - $15.60
Total after coupons and savings - $6.02
Total Savings - $9.58 (61%)

HyVee...

Total Before coupons and savings - $16.65
Total after coupons and savings - $4.65

Total Savings - $12.99 (72%)

Fareway...

Total before coupons and savings - $23.56
Total after coupons and savings - $1.56
Total Savings - $22 (93%)

CVS...

Total before coupons, savings & ECB's earned - $28.39
Total after coupons, savings & ECB's earned - $6.90
Total Savings - $25.49 (76%)

Ways to Save - The Big Game Edition!

Hosting a plethora of your husband's friends for the big game on Sunday doesn't have to be an expensive ordeal. But it can also be done in style! Just follow a few of these tips and you're sure to be the "coolest wife" around!!

...Make up a buffet with style! I'm hosting a week of Super Bowl Savvy recipes over at my other blog, Love from the Kitchen, complete with Sausage Tidbits, Taco Salad, Pizza Pinwheels, Creamy Sausage Dip and Gridiron Brownies (to be shared tomorrow, so stop back over to see them in all their cute-ness!) Be sure to check it out!!

If you need some more ideas, you can find a great listing of Super Bowl Party recipes over at The Finer Things in Life. If you want to make the day as little work as possible, you can find a great listing of slow cooked Super Bowl recipes over at Real Mom Kitchen, so all you have to do is prep it and forget it!!

...Don't worry about a big spread of food if it's just not in your budget. Just whip up a few appy's and a big taco salad or plate of pizza burgers and your guests are sure to be content!

...For those of you who aren't into the game (mostly the wives and kids I'm guessing!) make watching the commercials your big part of the night! Make a contest to have people vote for their favorite commercial of the evening and set up games for kids to play in a seperate room away from the football festivities!

...There are lots of great deals going on in stores this week in preparation for Super Bowl Parties around the nation. Lots of chips, dips, pop and other snacky foods are on sale and have coupons available. Go on over and scour the forums at Hot Coupon World to see what you can get for cheap and free yet this week!

...If beer is on your beverage menu for your party, be sure to check out all of the great beer rebates that are available right now! There are most commonly rebate forms available in the beer display's, but if there's one out there that you are interested in, you can always trade for it over at HCW! Head on over there and check out their database for the rebate you're interested in and then send away to get some money back!

Happy Super Bowl everyone!

Thriftin' Thursday

I've always been a lover of second hand shopping. It's the thrill of the hunt! So I thought that it would be fun to share some of my second hand finds each Thursday with you, be it clothing, household items...anything!!

This week, I hit up Goodwill. I actually hit up two Goodwills, but I was running short on time at the second one and didn't end up with anything. Ever since I've started getting big with this pregnancy, I've had a really hard time finding maternity clothes on the cheap! Brand new in the store are soo expensive, and I definetely can't afford that! I've been watching Goodwill, and never really found anything except for a shirt here or there. I've had luck at the local second hand stores in my town, and with end of winter clearance, I did score some good deals there. But I also knew I needed to keep in mind spring appropriate clothing. I'm not due til May, so I have a little bit of warm weather during which sweaters will be a bit much.

So when I walked into Goodwill this weekend to find the normally bare maternity rack (which is TINY by the way....like 3 feet big, MAX!!) packed with clothes, I made a beeline! I was lucky enough to find three, very cute!, shirts that fit well and are still in great condition! There was also a pair of jeans that fit perfectly, except they didn't have the belly panel, and I like my jeans to sit below my bump, not over it, and the belly panel jeans fold down perfectly with no lumps. Since these jeans weren't belly panel, folding them down under my bump wasn't at all seamless and left a lot of lumpage under my shirt, so I decided to pass.

Aren't they adorable?!? Warm enough for winter weather...light enough for spring wear! And at only $3.38 each, I just had to have them! That's a STEAL compared to the $15+ EACH for tops in maternity shops and Target/Old Navy/etc. maternity sections!

THIS IS WHY I LOVE SECOND HAND SHOPPING!!!

2010 Goals

So I realize it's February 1...and I'm just now getting our goals for 2010 posted. I realize this is something that should have been done like 2 months ago...but yes, I'm just now getting to it.

Better late than never, right?!?

I've decided to go with just two big goals and one small goal for the year. Mostly because the one is a really. big. goal. And because last year I had so many goals that I lost sight of them and gave up midsummer. And because we have a little one due in May, and I know that will change things not only financially, but also in my time available.

Anyways, here they are...and I have 10 months to hack away at them!

2010 Goals...

...Have hubs' Harley motorcycle paid in full by December 31, 2010.
This is a pretty hefty goal. A. PRETTY. HEFTY. GOAL. And realistically speaking, looking at numbers on paper, it's never gonna happen. But I'm choosing to be optimistic and say that it's gonna happen.

Just don't shun me if it doesn't....

...Reduce monthly grocery and HBA spending by 25%.

This, is do-able. I'm currently working harder at getting better coupon deals, at working the ECB and RR deals better and at keeping my price book. I'm also going to work hard on menu planning from the pantry so that the entirety (besides milk and produce) of our grocery budget can go to stockpiling and getting in on the deals. But with a love for cooking like mine, sometimes I just feel the itch to splurge on just "that one ingredient" to complete a new recipe. I need to fight that urge...

...Try at least one new-to-me frugal strategy per week.

I'm excited about this one! I have read so many money saving blogs, books and forums that I have quite a hefty list going on of frugal strategies that we aren't currently using. So I'm excited to give them a try. Some may fall flat, and I'll never try it again and others may just become new routines in our house! I'm excited to see what kind of money we can shave from our lifestyle here and there by using new techniques! I will try my best to keep you updated each week on the new strategy(s) that we've tried and how they worked out for us!

Just When I Think I'm Getting into the Swing of Things...

Life happens again.

I want to thank you for all of the wonderful comments you've been leaving, wondering and worrying about this blog and myself. I just want to assure you that I (and baby!) are doing wonderfully and are sailing along to our May 18 due date!

I also want to apologize for not being around...well...at all. Life has been happening at an incredibly crazy rate around here, and anymore I feel like I don't have time to take a breath, much less anything else. So, I'm sad to say it, but this blog was the first to go on the back burner for the time being. Many of you will notice that, yes, I am still posting daily on my cooking blog, Love from the Kitchen. I've decided to keep up with that blog on a daily basis because it's basically a cooking journal and family cookbook for me. If I blog and photograph all of what I make, then I can easily remember if we liked a recipe, what exactly the recipe was (I'm a picture person, so I have to see it to really remember it) and I have all the recipes at my fingertips instead of having to wade through tens of hundreds of cookbooks (no lie.).

I will still try to post around here on a little more of a regular basis, 1-2 times a week perhaps, but it's just not going to be what it used to be. Not for a while anyways. Give me a chance to get things situated with my new life changes coming up, and hopefully I can come back a bit more regularly!

I miss you all and sharing all of my frugal, funny and practical tidbits with you! God Bless!

Be Prepared!

In this spiraling economy, everyone is taking their own measures to be prepared for the worst. Whether they are saving more of their income, cutting back on unnecessary expenses or learning how to shop more wisely and coupon, they are all preparing for what could and might happen to their family...the loss of an (or all) income. And maybe you've not even thought about it. What will you do if one of your incomes is lost due to lay off or job loss? What if you lose your only income due to one person being a stay at home parent? It's important to be prepared for tough times ahead. Even though the news casters say that the economy is slowly turning around, I think we have a long ways to go before things are 100% better. So it's best to be prepared for what could still come.

That's where two important parts of frugal living come in...food storage and stockpiling. The way I see it, these two aspects are the same, but completely different at the same time. Stockpiling is stocking up on a good deal, perhaps a free or cheap item after coupon. If you can get Campbell's cream of chicken soup for only a few pennies after sale and coupon, then by all means stock up! Calculate how much you will be needing in the next year and stockpile as close to that amount as you can! Often time stockpiled items are prepackaged items (canned goods, boxed goods, meats, etc.), and in being prepared, it is important to have on hand a food storage of ingredients that can be used to make full meals independent of your stockpile. Items that you shouldn't forget when deciding what to keep in your food storage would be flour, dry milk, oil, sugar, yeast, etc.

Deciding how much you want to stockpile and have available in your food storage is up to you. Do you want to be set for A few weeks? 6 months? A year? That amount is up to you to determine. It is typically recommended, however, that you have about 6 months to one years worth of food stockpiled and stored, just in case. That's a pretty lofty goal! But with some hard work and dedication, you can have a good stockpile and food storage going in no time! Just don't expect it to happen overnight! Be sure to use the Food Storage Calculator to see how much you should shoot for based on the size of your family.

If you just think I'm crazy and don't believe in the true importance of a food storage and stockpile just head on over to the Prudent Homemaker to read her story of how her food storage and stockpile fed her family for a year!

Food storage and stockpiling is something that I really believe in, for the sake of feeding my family, and it really works for me!!

Holiday Gift Giving Deals

...Head on over here to print off a coupon for $5 off a purchase of $5 or more at any Hallmark store! There are many things that would be very little OOP after this coupon, which would make for an inexpensive Christmas gift that's sure to be loved! You can also get a box of Christmas cards for very inexpensively with this coupon! This coupon is also available in several magazines...for a complete listing, head on over here!

...If you haven't snagged your 50 photo cards for only $3 (just S&H!) from See Here yet, then you're in luck! This deal was supposed to expire on 11/30/09...but SeeHere was gracious enough to extend it! So just head on over here to order yourself 50 photo cards and pay only S&H!! Just remember to enter coupon code newbaby when you are checking out! I got my order last week and am sooo happy with how these turned out!!

...Remember that Swagbucks is offering up different gift cards at a reduced price through December! A great way to pick up a gift card for that hard to shop for person on your list at a discount! Don't know what Swagbucks is? Then head on over here to learn more! It's a great site that you MUST be using!

...Money Saving Mom put together a great list of some of the current coupons for retail stores that you can use to get a discount on Christmas gifts! This is great, especially if you were already planning on shopping these stores for some gifts!

...Snapfish is offering a free $10 credit to any new members! This could make for some super great deals or FREE deals on photo gifts! Head on over here to learn more!