Saving Money

Ever since we returned from California in late June I have been slacking on my endevours to save money. I just spent the last 20 minutes or so going over a few of my favorite Money-Saving blogs and now I think I am motivated to get back into it. With Gage working part-time and me being a stay-at-home Mom we obviously are on an extremely tight budget and every penny we can save helps us tremendously!

One little highlight of last Sunday was when we made a short trip to Target and used 3 coupons, saving us about $5 on what would have been a $23 purchase. We ended up spending $18!

I had a $1.50 coupon for a Johnson & Johnson Baby Bath product and it included the hair detangeler. Zoe is getting to that age where I need to use detangeler sometimes so I was excited about this $1.50 off coupon for something that is rarely over $3.00. We got to the isle and we found that on the actual bottle of detangeler was a 2nd coupon for "$1.00 off NOW!" So guess what? We ended up using both coupons and walla! FREE detangeler. :) The third coupon we had was a $3 off coupon for Cruisers diapers that were already on sale at Target for about $19.

Coupons are indeed marvelous things!

Bloggin' Plans and 6 Week Menu Plan!

I have all these plans for my blog but I haven't been doing a good job of keeping up with them! I have many recipes that I'd like to share, thoughts on Biblical womanhood and marriage, organizing tips and other ideas to make the home a place that you want to be. I've decided I need a set plan. I work well with set plans and schedules. Without a schedule, I have such a hard time getting everything done. Monday came and went and I still haven't figured out our menu plan. How do you keep up with your daily tasks, and how do you keep up with your blogs?

As far as our menu planning goes - I came across a woman who plans her menus in 12 week time periods and I love the idea! So, to start, I've decided to do a 6 week plan and only go shopping every 3 weeks, and maybe I can even stretch it out to a month. This will help with grocery shopping planning and will be less stressful because I won't be trying to figure out our menu on a weekly basis and examining what we have and what we don't have and what meals I can make with what we do have. Of course we'll have to go one other time in there for fruits, veggies, bread, and milk but that's it. The goal is $250 a month on all groceries and $50 a month on non-food items. I'm finding that by going grocery shopping every 2 weeks I end up spending more than I want to because I forget what I have at home and I re-buy items. I think if I change it to 3 or 4 weeks then we'll literally be out of food and then I won't end up buying items that I have at home because there will be no food left at home ;o)

I'm way too easily amused. Just the thought of stretching our food until we have no more is exciting to me! hehehe

Money Saving COUPONS!

Coupons! I have always loved coupons.

I have used coupons every once in a while since I've been married, usually only the really good ones but I've never really used them regularly. I always see, "Save 25 cents!" and I think, "Big whoop!", as I assume most people do. But if you add all of those little coupons together, you can save a lot of money! Just by taking a few minutes to cut out a few coupons each day.

I remember my Mom clipping coupons when I was young but since then, I haven't really known anyone who clipped coupons until now. A couple weeks ago I went to Target with a friend who happens to be the coupon queen (ahem...Rachel!)! She gave me a bunch of her coupons she didn't need, and I had a few of my own. I ended up saving $7 just by handing the cashier some coupons. Free money is a good thing :) Those $7 that I saved can go towards more groceries.

My goal this month is to use as many coupons as I can and see how much I save on the things I buy regularly. This Sunday I was surprised to find coupons for items I buy on a regular basis. I have been reading money-saving blogs that tell you how to find freebies, coupons, etc. I'm very excited! We don't really make enough to pay the bills each month so whatever I can do to save money will benefit us greatly.

I just found out about Walgreen's rebate program they have and you can actually get lots of pretty useful stuff for free. Right now the toothpaste that I buy is on the list and so if I buy toothpaste now, I will ultimately get it for free with the rebate. Very cool!


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