sign up for free samples

There are lots to be had

I know that last week or so Kotex.com was offering a free sample pack just for signing up. In that sample pack were also coupons.

Walmart.com offers samples often. I think they change weekly. They also include coupons often in the samples. There has only been a handful of times that I did not receive a coupon.

I will post more soon.

Why I stockpile

In an earlier post I touched on this a bit but now I would like to go into a bit more detail. As I said earlier I started my stockpile out of concern for the future, basically but I contine to stockpile for a few reasons:

• I enjoy it. I love finding great deals, getting stuff free, and having extra that I can give to family or friends when I want to or as gifts.
• I also use my stockpile as a bartering tool. My brother needs something, I have it. I can get him to work on something for us or watch the kids for whatever he needs from my stockpile.
• I just shop in my house. Ok so I do go out to the stores but if we are out of toothpaste, I just go to my stockpile and pull out a new tube.
• It is my hobby, well deal finding is.
• It gives me a sense of security. There is this wierd part of me that feels better when I know we can go for a few months without having to spend any money on household essentials. Maybe it is the recent layoff and unemployed period, whatever it is, it makes me feel more secure to have a house full of supplies.
• My kids will never have to go without something basic as DH and I each did as kids.
• Saving money. OK so yeah I am spending some money to build my stockpile BUT in spending that money, I am saving money. If I didn't have, say an extra toothpaste that I got free in the house and we were out, I would be running to Walgreens and picking one up and (GASP!) full price because I needed it right away, I didn't have a coupon, and it wasn't on sale. Even if I planned it out right I would still spend more than getting that toothpaste free.
• I like to compare with fellow stockpilers.

I know there are more reasons but my brain is fried from a rough day at work.

edited:

I thought of the last one:

• It makes my shopping trips much easier now. I no longer have a list with deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc etc etc on it. I have my must have now list (milk, bread, fruit, veggies) and my coupon list (what items I need/want that are on sale and I have coupons for) and my get if it is a good deal list (things that I have coupons close to expiration or like my local store offers instore specials every week so I take my coupons there and see what is on special that was not advertised that would be an exceptional deal with my coupons)

$30 challenge

$13.88 balance
-$2.10 toilet bowl tabs (4)
______
$11.78 left! One day to go.

a couple things

If you aren't a member already, join your local freecycle. A lot of good things to be had for free. Also a good way to get rid of unwanted items. Just search freecycle.org to find your local group. Your local craigslist also has some freebies or good deals.

Check out your credit report here. You are allowed one free from each reporting agency once every 12 months. You will need to pay to see your credit score. The charge ranges from $5.95 to $8.95, more if you add more services to it. If you only want to check your report to make sure it is on the up and up and there are no reportings that you don't know about, it is free but if you are like me and want to know what your score is, that will cost you. I check 1 agency every 4 months so I know and can monitor our credit.

Good thing the toilet cleaning tabs are B1G1F this week

my Oldest daughter is in LOVE with the blue toilet water. She likes to pee and make the water change colors. She has been wanting to go on the potty all night because the water makes cool colors when she pees.

and yes this is a thrifty post because.....
I am going to stock up on those toilet tabs. We have had an issue lately with K wanting to pee on the potty. She will go on the potty but not pee and then say she is done and 2 minutes later pee in her underwear. While DH was a SAHD, he would get so sick of it that he would put a pullup on her. I could have killed him. Not only do I refuse to buy more pullups for her to use except for at nighttime, he was hindering her getting to go all the time. If making the water change colors with her pee is what makes her want to go... I am all for it and will stock up on those tabs until I am out of $$.

How do you budget?

I am interested in reading about how other families budget but here is what we do:

I started out by writing out all of our household bills for the month.
Mortgage $580
cell phone $92 (I rounded this to $95 for budgeting purposes)
Cable/internet $100
Electric/water/sewer $95
(I rounded the electric up to $115 for budgeting purposes because that is more than what we pay almost every month but our highest ever bill was $125 and I wanted to make sure we had enough to cover a higher than average bill and the extra stays in savings anyway.)

Total monthly bills $890

Hubby gets paid weekly (as do I) so we took the $890 total and divided it by 4=$222.50. For a little added security, we put $230 a week in savings. On the months where there are 5 paychecks, we still but that $230 away for our car insurance (which we pay semi-annually). The extra that we put away each check plus the "bonus money" from the 5 payday months pays our car insurance for the year. I pull out of savings as needed to pay our bills.

Hubby's average check is $400 take home. Once we take out the $230 for bills, we have $170 each week for gas, groceries, doctor visit co-pays, entertainment, credit card payments, etc.
We do not budget these things as they vary. On average, DH spends $45/week on gas. We are pretty well stockpiled so my grocery expense is minimal. We don't generally eat out or go out so that is not really an expense and we have no credit card debt to speak of so that is not a factor either. Whatever hubby and I do not spend that week stays in his account, to be used on for weeks when we have more expenses than usual or gas has skyrocketed or whatever may happen. Once the money is gone though, it is gone. That is why we have "forgotten money".

Dh and I each have some $$ in our checkbooks that is unaccounted for. Should we write a check out not realizing that we have less than we thought, we have to take a sick kid to the dr, we have to pick up a prescription, whatever. We add to this forgotten money everytime we use our debit card or write a check. Say I buy some stuff at the grocery store and my total is $ 21.45. I will write that in my checkbook as $22. TA-DA! forgotten money. It adds up fast. It can be a real PITA for balancing your checkbook but I have found that I check online a couple times a week, check off the transactions that have cleared my bank and I always know my approximate balance including the forgotten money. I do not use the forgotten money as I go by my checkbook balance instead of my bank's balance but since I have started using my forgotten money system, it has become easier to balance my checkbook with my rounding. At one point, before we had kids, DH had $500 of forgotten money in his checkbook. He would round up to the nearest $5 instead of $1 as I do. Some people do not like this system but I find it very helpful. When I first started balancing DH's checkbook, I HATED it but as I started doing it, I found that I like the little bit of security it provides. On occasion (we are really short on cash, we had an unexpected bill, etc) I will add the forgotten money into my balance so I can cover that expense and then I start all over again.

Now on to my budget.

DH and I have seperate checking accounts. IDK why we still do it this way but we do and it works so we stick with it.
I work a varied schedule therefore my take-home pay varies weekly. I pay the sitter first out of my check and then the rest goes like this

gas $30
spending $10-$20
car payment:whatever is left

Usually I do not even spend $30 in gas so that money goes to my car payment. My spending money is for garage sales, oil changes for my car, clothes for me, whatever I want to spend it on.. My allowance.

I send whatever is left to my car because I do not owe a payment until March of 2009. I try to send at least $300 a month but I send whatever I can, even if it is only $25 that week. Right now I am working on paying off my credit card (again.. life insurance premium had to be charged), so I have not been sending anything to my car but sending everything to my card to get that paid off again and I can concentrate on my car once more.


This is the budget I set up when I started back to work and it varies somewhat at times but for the most part we are sticking to it really well. The household bills are the only thing that doesn't vary and gets paid the same every month. I hope to continue to save the money I was sending to my car once it is paid off. I would like to be able to put away $300 a month and have that money set aside for a big downpayment on a newer vehicle for DH or I when the time comes or to start making extra payments on our mortgage.

We also have an emergency fund in a seperate account. We put money in this account as we can. We have a pretty nice balance in it right now. This is for a new appliance (should one die), emergency home repairs, job loss, big medical bills, etc. We also pay our life insurance out of this fund yearly (usually but this year with hubby's layoff we didn't want to touch it so we paid the life insurance by credit card and have until the 8th to pay it off without any interest charges).

Now that my stockpile is well established. I can get away with spending $50 or less a week on groceries. We get WIC for now and that helps a lot. Once I start getting more hours at work we will no longer get WIC but I should still be able to get away with $50. I only buy what we need and what I want to stockpile that is almost free, really cheap, or completely free after sales and coupons. In the spring we are expanding our garden, so that will cut down some expense on produce as well. Sure, eventually I will have to spend more $ on groceries but for now getting away with $50 a week is awesome!! If I can keep up with the stockpiling now that we have minimal expense for food, I should be able to keep up below $75/week even when I use up more of my stockpile. I keep adding as I see fit and using up the oldest stuff first and I should be able to keep the expense down. Once we use up the meat we have frozen, that will become a bigger expense because the deals I used to get on meat (99 cents a lb for ground chuck, ground round and ground beef and pretty much everything else) aren't there anymore.

Simple ways to save on home heating costs

Soem of the ways I am about to list will work for either renters OR homeowners. Some are just for homeowners.

• Insulate your windows. We use the plastic covering kits they sell at hardware stores or even at Walmart. They are pretty cheap and they are effective. If you want the option to still be able to open the windows, you could buy some camping blankets for a couple bucks each. I have not personally tried them yet but I will be trying one this winter. They are found in your local store in the sporting goods section. In my oldest daughter's room, we are just going to hang an old quilt over the window and nail it into place because she will just poke holes in the plastic making it useless. Downstairs, we can monitor that a little better and make sure she doesn't do it.
• Turn your thermostat down a degree or two and use blankets or wear long sleeves. Not always practical but when it comes to saving $$, I will wear a long sleeve shirt.
• Use an extra blanket at night. Not always practical for the kids but we put them in blanket sleepers and on the really cold nights, I leave a thin long sleeve shirt on under the blanket sleeper, sometimes thin pants too.
• After you are finished using your oven, leave it open. The heat will come out as the oven cools and add some more warmth to your house.
• Humidifiers. I have noticed that running a humidifer in the living room makes the house feel warmer.
• Reinsulate. Doesn't have to cost a lot and saves a bundle on your heating costs. For around $200 this summer, Hubby and my brother reinsulated both of our attics with blown in insulation. We went from 4 inches in one and 8 in the other to 48ish inches in each.
• Got a door with an air leak under it? Don't have the $$ to replace the door? Use a draft dodger. They are available at Walmart in the department with the curtains for $5-6 and they keep the draft under our main entry door to a minimum. For the entry door that we do not use very often (like NEVER), I am planning on nailing up an old quilt.
• Got rooms that you don't use or that you aren't in enough that you would need to heat them? Close off the vents by cutting some thick cardboard and taping it down over the vent after you close it or if you have the option of turning the vent off near the furnace, do it that way. We close off our laundry room this way. However the laundry room is right off the kitchen and there is no door there so it is still heated but not through the vent. We blocked off our upstairs for the first 2 years we lived here by nailing a really thick quilt over the doorway to the upstairs. You could tell the difference as soon as you moved the blanket. There was a good 20* difference between upstairs and down. We also had no ductwork upstairs at that point so the only heat going upstairs was gravity heat. We closed off the gravity vents by stuffing towels in them. Our heating bill that first winter was only $500 (of course LP was cheaper then as well). We moved our bedroom downstairs both of those winters and saved a bunch on heating costs. With the kids, that is no longer an option however.
• Change your furnace filter often. We made that mistake the year that our oldest was turning one. I forgot to change our filter and would remember at work but then forget by the time I got home. It was so plugged that for 2 days our furnace ran pretty much constantly but it would not get above 62* in the house. We awoke one morning to 55* and falling fast. Our furnace died. 1 hour, a $50 service charge, a scolding, and a new filter later, our furnace repairman had us up and running. He said we probably burnt a 50 or more gallons of LP that weekend when we would normally burn less than 1/4 of that heating the house for 2 days. Of course it didn't help that I kept turning the thermostat up because the temp kept dropping. YIKES! That was a huge wake up call and I keep lots of extra filters here now. Everytime I take something from my basement stockpile or add to it, I check the furnace filter. I also write on the calendar and the new filter itself when I change it.

free stuff

Tonight I got 2 more pert plus for Free tonight. Hubby likes it so yeah!! Also got a Nivea bodywash for Rodney that will be free after rebate. So $5.54 I paid for 3 things all of which are/will be free!!

I used my rebate gift card to pay for the body wash and tax on the pert plus so no OOP expense.

I did spend $2 tonight at the dollar store though. The kids destroyed hubby and I's shower poofs so I had to get 2 more

$15.99 balance
-$2.11 poofs
_________
$13.88 new balance of my $30/week challenge. Two days to go.

$30 challenge

$24.12 balance
-$2.89 milk earlier today
-$5.24 walgreens trip
________
$15.99 left and 3 days to go.

my cheap walgreens trip tonight

I got a pert plus shampoo and conditioner in one (free-use the coupon in the ESC for $2.50 off the sale price is $2.50 so you only pay tax on this item!!)

2 dawn dish soap $1.99 (b1G1F with in flyer coupon)
massage oil $4.99 sale price
softsoap hand soap (99 cents after coupon in flyer)
2 toilet bowl tabs 99cents (b1G1F in flyer coupon)

I used 2 coupons on the dawn for 50 cents each, 1 35 cent coupon on the softsoap and $3.00 coupon for the massage oil. I believe there are coupons out there for the pert plus which would make it a money maker but I did not have them on me and I did not want to miss out so I will find those coupons and go back again for another one or 2 bottles. Free is good too..I am not selfish I don't need to make money on an item...It is nice but free is great too!!

My total out of pocket expense including tax was $5.24
WAG coupon savings $4.78
WAG advertised savings $6.29
MFQ savings $6.85
Total Savings------------$17.92!!!!

The massage oil is going to make a great Christmas gift for a friend and the rest of the stuff is for me or Rodney.

Garage sales

I like garage sales. I love the hunt, the bargaining, etc. But what I love more than going to garage sales is having my own. Many people don't like to do them because of the work involved but I found a way that makes it seem like a lot less work.

I start after Christmas every year..usually mid-January. As I go through the house cleaning (every time I clean) I will find things that are just sitting around, that we don't use, that the kids have outgrown, we replaced with something else, or is just not our style anymore. I take these items to a box that I keep set up in my bedroom. Once the box gets full, I sit down and price the items, then put them in a larger box in my closet. Once the larger box is full, it goes to the garage where I have 5-6 tote boxes set up. I have the tote boxes sorted by category so the items get sorted out and then put up for the garage sale. I have signs made from previous years. The night before my garage sale all I have to do is set up tables, unpack my boxes and get everything situated. The day of the garage sale, I put my signs up and get ready to sell.

thrifty carpet cleaning

I cannot take credit for this because the original idea I read it somewhere else. I cannot remember the original author or the site which I read it on because I frequent many money saving sites. The original author said that they use vinegar in their carpet shampooer as a thrifty way to clean the carpets. I tried that tonight but because the smell of vinegar makes me gag, I added some glade fabric refresher spray to the shampoo container on the side of my cleaner and I am happy to report that it worked great. The house has a faint scent of vinegar. I think I will add a bit less next time. I added 1 1/2 teaspoons this time. I will try 1 next time. But the glade scent is also in the air. The carpets feel soft and are very clean. I believe it worked better than the shampoo I usually buy and I don't worry about the kids crawling and walking on the carpet afterward because there are no chemicals

Kohls.com coupon code

get15now for an additional 15% off everything...good online only and only for the next 2 days.
also if you sign up for their emails..they will send you code to save even more $$..off to look at some jeans now.

Also old navy is having and instore sale this weekend 20% off if you spend $50. more if you spend more.

couponing basics

Just because you have a coupon, you don't have to use it right away or ever if you don't want to or the item doesn't go on a good enough sale.

I have found it best to hold onto my coupons for 3-4 weeks after they come out. If the item is on sale that week for a good price, I will use my coupon but I have generally found that the item goes on sale 3-4 weeks AFTER the coupon comes out. I have a theory on that. I believe the manufacturer puts out the coupon to get you to try the item right away. Once you have tried it and like it, they put it on sale to get you to buy some more and then you might become hooked and pay regular price for it after that. Of course those of us that stockpile, will have bought enough when it was on sale to last until the next sale so we don't pay full price for that item EVER.

Watch expiration dates on your coupons, but know generally if that coupon expires before you use it, there will probably be the same coupon out again either the week it expires or the week after it expires, just something I have noticed.

It's just a coupon, not gold, oil, gas, or your life savings. If you use it and miss a good sale, oh well...there are more sales and more coupons.

How I prepare for a shopping trip (AKA going into battle)

My husband calls my shopping trips battles because the time I spend preparing amuses him. He finds my couponing and deal comparing very funny...until he sees how much I save.

I get the walgreens previews a couple weeks ahead thanks to hotcouponworld, so those are a seperate prep sesssion but very much like my grocery prepping only shorter generally.

Mondays, we get the paper with the grocery ads in it. After the kids are in bed Monday night, I sit down at the kitchen table with my coupon organizer, the ads, scissors, 2 envelopes, the list on the fridge of what we need, and the ads I just got on Sunday from my father in law and the paper I bought (when I buy one). I look through my local ads. If there is anything I want to get, I write it on the envelope for the appropriate store and if there is a coupon for it as well. I place the coupon in the envelope. I do this for both of my regular stores. If there is a great sale on something I want I will go online to thecouponclippers.com or ebay and find more coupons (I don't have a working printer so I can't print any online, plus my local stores are not too keen on taking the printed ones anyway).

Once I am finished with my envelopes, I put them in my purse. When I get to the store that week, I pull out my envelope with the list and go shopping. If I have ordered some coupons, I will wait until they arrive to do my trip otherwise I just go one night after the kids are in bed. It is much easier to shop without both kids in tow.

Easy, simple, not too time consuming and saves money. 4 of my favorite things.

This weekend's coupons

Check out taylortownpreview.com for a list of this weekends coupons. Lots of them with the proctor and gamble insert as well as the regular ones.

Where do I get large quantities of the same coupon?

For multiple quantities of a single coupon..like the purex deal. I use eBay or a coupon clipping site. On eBay a lot of times you can get 20 or so of the same coupon for $1. Since buying coupons voids the coupon (stated on the coupon), you pay for the sellers time in collecting, clipping, listing and mailing the coupons. In a way it seems counterproductive to pay for coupons, right? well in my opinoin, I would rather pay someone a buck or two to get my coupons sent to my door, rather than buying multiple papers. Especially if there is only one or two coupons I want multiples off. If I only want say 5 of one, 6 of another and 3-4 of other ones. I use a clipping site...thecouponclippers.com. They have a minimum order you must place in $ amount but it is low. They send them out generally the next business day after your order is placed.

When thrifty goes wrong Part #1 and #2

So in my thriftiness journey I have done some stupid moves and some not so thrifty things.

#1...When I first started with couponing and stockpiling, I would get so into figuring out my deals and matching my coupons with sales that I would forget to look at my list for things I needed that I did not have coupons for usually (milk, bread) and I would come home with bags of stuff that I got for very cheap. I would start putting stuff away and all while telling my husband how much this cost originally and how much I paid. I would get to the end and he would say.."so is the milk and bread still out in the car?" DOH! I forgot what I went to the store for in the first place. Yeah DUMB!

#2...I made the mistake earlier in the year of getting too excited about stuff I found at a garage sale for one of the kids or myself and not look it over completely. I did that with a pair of flannel pj pants that I bought for myself. They were marked 25 cents. Cool!! I grabbed them up right away, Held them up to my waist to make sure they would fit and checked them over. I didn't notice until after I paid and was home that they had a rather large hole in the side by the pocket. I was not impressed. But I still wear them around the house for now. The hole is getting larger so they will have to go but I did get some wear out of them anyway.

I also made the mistake a couple times of not counting the change that people would give me back when I used a $5 or $10 bill at a garage sale. I got ripped off for a buck or two a couple times. I was not amused. Now I carry $1 bills and change with me when I go to a yard sale. I pay in exact change if possible and if I do need to give a person money and I am expecting change back I count it before I put it in my pocket. I have caught someone giving me back too little money twice and too much money once. I try to only give them enough so I get coins back...no bills.

edited...

In my current stockpile post I edited my pictures to make them smaller...For some reason, photobucket did not like my large sized images so I resized them and now you should be able to view the whole pic and everything that picture should show of my stockpile.

My gift giving stockpile guidelines...

For my friends and my side of the family:
This year I am doing something a bit different. They are getting care packages of things they use everyday. Mostly HBA stuff but some household stuff too. I got the majority of the stuff I am giving for cheap or free.

For my brother and his girlfriend:
They are very much into smelly things. Like plug ins scented things, candles, sprays..stuff like that. Over the last few months, I have amassed quite the collection of glade and oust scented oil candles and refills for 50 cents each or less. I also have gotten room sprays for less than 15 cents a can, glade scented oil candles for free, and the plugins made me some moeny after rebates. These are Walgreens deals that happens almost monthly. So they are getting a box of that stuff as well as some bodywash (50 cents a bottle), hand soap (35 cents a bottle), a scrubbing bubbles automatic shower cleaner $2 (after coupons and a good sale) and a pair of Victoria's Secret slippers for her for 50 cents a pair (awesome deal...they were 2 for $6 and if you were a new customer and had the code you got $5 off and FREE SHIPPING!!) I ended up getting 4 pairs on 2 seperate transactions for gifts.

My parents are getting pretty much the same as the above except I got my dad a schick razor for free after coupons and a sale at Walgreens. I got mom a Venus razor. They both are getting body wash for each, Dad is getting some cologne, I got mom some body spray. Mom is getting a pair of the slippers and 2 shirts that I got for $1 a piece at Walmart the other day. Dad is getting a brand new pair of Jeans that I paid a couple bucks for at a garage sale. They even have the store tags on them yet.

Hubby's parents are a bit harder. His mom I got a shirt at Sears with her favorite Nascar driver on it. It was on clearance and I got an additional 40% off and I got to use my associate discount as well making it less than $2. (for the record, I work for a company affiliated with Sears but not Sears itself). I have also picked her up a few things here and there. I can't remember them all off the top of my head right now but I do know that I got her a brand new in package fleece blanket at a garage sale for 50 cents.
Hubby's father is the hardest of all. We usually end up just getting him a gift bag of Campbell's soup, crackers, some kind of dried meat (jerky or ham sticks or summer sausage), some diabetic candy, and a magazine subscription.

For the neice and nephew:

I pick up stuff on clearance all year round.
a shirt and a pair of shorts for her..99 cents each..clearanced at the childrens' place
a Mrs. Potato Head...clearanced at Walgreens for $1.59
a velvet color thing with markers. It is a mini one with 4 posters $1. clearance at Walgreens-also got one for my oldest daughter and my nephew.
crayola crayons 24 ct box 20 cents clearanced at Walmart. I got one each for our nephew and oldest daugher as well.
a fleece camoflauge blanket for our nephew $2 clearance at Walgreens
a camoflauge shirt $4.99 clearance at Oldnavy.com but I also got free shipping and 20% off that $4.99 price

I also check out garage sales or thrift stores for nice, new or very gently used items that I know my friends and family will like. I buy a lot of stuff after Christmas when everything is marked down by 50% or more. The gift packs of different HBA items are a great stock up item at that time and the not overly christmas-y ones make great birthday gifts during the rest of the year.

I keep a box or 2 (or 5 like right now LOL) in my closet of items for gift giving and when an occasion comes up, I am always prepared with a nice gift that I got cheap.

How did I start stockpiling?

Well it all started in March. I was about to run out of unemployment and planned to stay home with the kids. I was not aware at that time how our little world would be turned upside down.

I started looking into using coupons. Before this, I was a almost strictly generic shopper. You know, buying generic brand of almost everything. I thought I was doing pretty good, watching sales, buying groceries once a month at Aldis and Walmart. A bit more often at my local stores, but for sales items , milk, bread and fresh produce only. I started using coupons, then I stumbled upon hotcouponworld.com. WOW! I wanted to be like those people. The giant stockpiles of everyday items...namebrand even, that they got for very cheap or free. I read a lot on that site, learned a lot from the members. And now I am one of thos people.

In May, my unemployment ran out. We were doing pretty well. I had a pretty alright stockpile of food going. Then hubby got laid off for a couple weeks, I panicked a bit, but not too much because I already knew about couponing and had a decent enough stockpile to get us by. He went back to work. My seasonal employer called and asked me to come back for a couple months. Shortly after they called, the unemployment extension was passed. I went back to work after collecting one week of the extension. At the end of my first week back, hubby got laid off again. My 2 month job turned into a year round employment offer at the end of July, Hubby was still laid off so I accepted. I continued to coupon and grow our stockpile bit by bit.

Fast forward to now. Hubby has been laid off for 10 weeks. It is slow at my job so I have not been getting a lot of hours. Times are tough all around. Hubby is getting unemployment. I get partial benefits because my employer cut my hours. We make enough money to get by and luckily we have our stockpile to eat from and live off. Our bills are paid, we have a bit left over for extras and I can continue to add to my stockpile as needed. Originally I never intended to make a stockpile a part of my everyday life. I did not intended to have enough food in the house for a year. I did not intend to do any of this but I am so thankful I did with the way our lives have changed since July.

Stockpiling guidelines

*Taken in part from hotcouponworld but also added my own thoughts.

These are the general guidelines I follow when deciding how much/what to put in my stockpile.

Building a stockpile should not make you go over budget. The idea behind a stockpile is not necessarily to stockpile the items but to stockpile your savings on items that you use everyday. Do not neglect the overall savings in favor of stocking up on individual items. If the current sale or great deal is not something you use at all or even much off, only buy what you need or none at all and look for the deals on things that your family uses every week. Don't end up paying full price for everything else at a later date because you spent all of your budget getting 10 bottles of shampoo that you won't even begin to use for 2 months or more. But also if you have room in your budget and you know you will use that shampoo in the next couple of months and there is nothing else that week to that you wish to add to your stockpile...feel free. If there is something else that you need to add before that shampoo, hold off on the shampoo (or only buy a few bottles)..The sale and coupons will come back around.

What is a stockpile, anyway?A stockpile is, in its most basic form, having a backup for every item that you use on a regular basis. It's not something that you go out and buy all at once, and say " I have a stockpile!"

A stockpile is built one item at a time, not bought. For example...My first week of stockpiling, I had great coupons for Suave and it was on a roll back at walmart for 88 cents a bottle. I had $1/2 coupons so it was really cheap. I bought a bunch and got the other things I had coupons for. The next week there were no sales that I wanted to add to my stockpile so I didn't add anything. The 3rd week Purex was on sale at my local store for $2/bottle...A rock bottom price. I had 50 cents/1 bottle coupons making this $1.50 a bottle (there was also an incentive that went with it making it even cheaper, a catalina. I will get into those in another post, however.) I know that I won't see that price again for awhile so I bought 30 some bottles. Weeks later I added many other things to my stockpile...generally 1 item a week.)

Stockpiling is ongoing. You don't just build a stockpile and never add to it or take away from it. You rotate your stockpile and use what is oldest first and add when things are again at the lowest price. Knowing the lowest price can be tricky, many people have a book that they write the regular and lowest prices in along with the date and store. This is important because sales generally go in cycles depending on the item. I have seen things on a 4 week cycle, 6 week cycle, 8 week cycle and 12 week cycle. The purex I got so cheap has still not gone back to the rock bottom price and that has been a much longer than 12 week cycle.

Brand loyalty is not something I possess for most things. There are some things that I will only buy a certain brand but as you can see by my stockpile pictures, I am not very brand loyal. In my opinoin it is hard to be totally brand loyal and stockpile...I am sure it can be done but I think it would be a lot harder.

Some more things about stockpiling..

• Even if you can get stuff at a really great price...there is no need to go overboard. The sales will come around again. I learned this the hard way. I overbought on some stuff because it was such a great deal..only to get so sick of eating that or using that scent of shampoo that I was not enjoying it anymore. Not cool. Many things have expiration dates and over stockpiling can also lead to spoilage, thereby wasting your time, money and energy.
• If you do not have the space for 20 bottles of laundry detergent and they will just take space away from other things that you need now, there is really no point in buying all 20. If you have the room and you will use them all...go for it but if not, well set a limit and stick to it...no matter how great the deal

My goal in stockpiling is 1 year on meats and other freezable stuff (except things like ice cream, toaster strudel, veggies, etc). I try for 3-4 month worth on veggies. My canned food goal is 1 year for soups, veggies, fruits, spaghetti sauce, etc. I try to have 1 year worth of cleaning supplies and HBA stuff. Pads and Tampons are 6 months to a year. They are ok to stockpile longer but I don't have the space upstairs for a full year supply and I won't keep them in the basement. I probably have an 8 month supply right now but I won't be buying anymore in the near future unless I can get them free. Diapers take up a lot of space so I do about 3 months or less on them. More if it is a really good sale. I use cloth but have disposables here for emergencies, babysitters, outings, and nighttime. Each family uses items at a different rate than the next so you will need to determine how much is right for your stockpile.

I have some gift stockpile guidelines to but I will post them seperately later.

Also ready.gov has some great information on stockpiling for emergencies. What you should have, additional items that might be needed, etc. Check out that site for more tips

$30 challenge

$27.01 balance
-$2.89 milk
________
$24.12 balance

The kids and I walked to the store to get some Drano but the local store was out of everything under $5...Must be a lot of clogged drains in town today. I got some milk even though I already bought some today because it is on sale and well honestly, it saves me a stop on Friday...which is already a jam packed day for me. I only had $5 in cash on me so since the drain is not clogged just running slow, I will pick some up another day.

$30 challenge

Spent $2.99 today on Milk.

$30.00
-$2.99
_____
$27.01 left.

why are coupons thriftier than just buying the generic everything?

I have been told by people IRL "I am thrifty..I just buy the generic brand of everything". Ok... great if that works for you. I used to be one of those people too. But then I discovered coupons.

Sure the generic stuff is cheaper...sometimes even cheaper than the name brand that you have a coupon for. Sure you can't get coupons for some things. But when you pair a sale or an instore coupon (like walgreens does) with your manufacturer's coupons your name brand items generally become cheaper than your generics. OK OK I realize it is hard work sometimes to find the sales, the coupons, and everything else. This is just my experience and what I do. And if your store doubles....WOW! watch the price on that name brand item with a coupon plummet right down to free or maybe even making you money.

Take for instance my deal at Pamida last week

heinz ketchup...$2.69
customer appreciation discount (15%) -.40
then my coupon for a free bottle of ketchup -$2.69
That bottle of name brand ketchup just gave me 40 cents off something else in my order. I got 2 bottles, 2 coupons so I got 80 cents off something else I bought.

That, my friends, is called overage. Some stores allow it some do not.

another general example of overage

Granola bars $1.00 coupon
bars on sale for 75 cents
you just made 25 cents that will be applied to something else.

Some store require that you have other items in your purchase so that the total is not 0. They will not let you walk out the door paying nothing. Ok they might but it draws attention and as a couponer, you generally not want to draw too much attention. Not that what you are doing is wrong but some managers and cashiers do not like the "super couponers" and zero or negative totals draw attention to a super couponer and make everything seem suspicious. I will throw a bottle of water or soda or something else in my order (known as a filler). We will get into fillers more later on. Fillers are really handy at walgreens when you have the register rewards and manufacturer coupons and in store coupons. You will see why in a later post. Cheap things generally make the best filler if you don't really need anything else but anything you don't have a coupon for is a good filler. Let's say you needed a tube of chapstick...no coupon...great idea for a filler. But again as I said more on fillers in a later post.

My goal for the next week...

From Wednesday to Wednesday is to spend $30 or less on household stuff. We don't need any grocery items other than milk and bread and maybe some bananas for the kids. I am planning on attending an event this weekend so I am keeping out some money for that but I would like to send a $200 payment to my credit card this week. It was paid off but my life insurance was due and we save $50 a year by paying the premium in full yearly so I didn't have the full amount available but I did put the balance minus what I could pay at the time on my credit card and need to pay it off by 10/8 so I do not accrue any interest on it. $200 will pay it back off again and leave me with a paid in full credit card once again. I swear that is one of the best feelings in the world.

are you lucky enough...

to have a working printer and a local store that will take internet printed coupons? Unfortunately for me most of the stores around here balk at them because some unscrupulous people took advantage and made multiple copies of IP (internet printables) coupons when they were only allowed a couple so most stores won't take them.

but if you are lucky enough...

check out the manufacturer's websites for your favorite products. Sometimes you can print right from their site. Other times they will email coupons to you.

Also check out...coupons.com, smartsource.com, and I know I am forgetting a few here but I will eventually get around to doing helpful links in the sidebar of this blog and will post the links there.

debt free quest

so in our quest to become debt free we are working on getting my car completely paid off. I don't owe a payment until March of 2009 but I keep plugging away sending money every single payday (every week) even if it is only $25.

Even though our mortgage is a debt, we are not planning on pay that off anytime soon but when the car is paid off I hope to start sending some extra money to that debt every month. My major goal once the car is paid off however is to start putting a big chunk of money in savings so when the time comes that Hubby or I need a different vehicle we can pay CASH or mostly cash and only finance a small amount. I would like to have 6 months to a year of our annual income in savings at some point. We are working on that. Right now we have a couple months worth and that is good but I would like a better cushion.

Couponing, watching sales, stockpiling and using the variety of other resources that I have available are helping to cut down the "flexible" bills, so I can put more of the money that I generally would budget for them to paying down our debt.

Some of my other resources are the Amish store. This wonderful woman that runs it, buys dented and close to date products at a big discount and resells them. I used to shop there a lot but haven't had the time lately but my stockpile is rather large so I don't need to visit her as often anymore. I used to get all of our canned veggies, soups, etc there because they are cheaper and all name brand for less than what I would pay for the generic brand in the regular store. With all the nasty weather we had in the summer, alot of the store were donating their products that would normally go to the Amish store, to food pantries. Since then, it has been a lot harder to get the deals there and like everywhere else, she has had to raise prices.

Another resource is the non-Amish bent and dent. Same concept as above but way bigger and they even have fresh meat but it is almost 1/2 drive for me and not really worth it to just go when my stockpile is large enough as it is. Once my stockpile goes down some, I might make the trip again but until then I make do with what we have here. One thing at Bent and Dent type stores is that you really have to watch the dates on products. I would rather not have to check the date on every single thing I want to buy so I generally only go for huge amounts of canned stuff and would rather use my coupons and get longer dated stuff from the regular stores.

walmart trip

K and I went for a drive today. She was annoying her baby sister who had just come back from the DR. I needed a few things from Walmart anyway so we went. I got a few deals..

• 24 ct box of crayons for 20 cents each (I got 4-stocking stuffers for the niece, nephew and K)
• 3 shirts for $1 each (I was kinda disappointed. I evidently am blind and did not see that they were the sleeveless kind which I do not like. One of them is a tanktop which I did want but the other 2 are going to end up being a Birthday gift for my mom so it worked ok after all.
• I got a few things I had coupons for that are much cheaper there than at my local stores...even when they are on sale at the local stores. (toaster strudel, bagelfuls, and hershey's bliss chocolates).

I saved $10.50 with coupons so it wasn't too bad.

what are you giving out for Halloween

I am trying to come up with a thrifty way to do Halloween without getting egged. Any ideas? I have some coupons for candy but it is not the kind of stuff the kids would like sooo I am hoping for more sales and coupons in the coming weeks but I think we might do some fruit snacks (we have a TON of packages, I got nearly free with coupons and sales) and maybe a couple small bags of fun size candy that hubby and I like. comment with any ideas you have please.

a little vent about money

So I called my credit card company today for two reasons only one of which I accomplished. Reason #1 to ask them to lower my rate~I did not accomplish this because I did not even ask. The rep I spoke to was so hard to understand. He had a foreign accent and maybe my midwestern ears don't hear foreign accents well but I had to ask him to repeat everything he said more than once. I will call back later and *hopefully* speak to a rep with an american type of accent.

Reason #2 my bank recently was bought by another bank and I need to update my account info for my online payments. Should be really easy right? NOT.. I tried to do it online but I cannot remember my security word that I used when I got the card. They give you 5 choices of questions that you could have answered and then you are supposed to guess what one you chose and answer accordingly. Well I got this card 6 years ago and I have not had to change anything until now. Of course I do not remember it but I try like heck to guess what it is. I got locked out of my account. I called customer "service". I was connected to the foreign sound man mentioned above. I told him my problem. He asked me my security question. I told him that is the problem..I don't remember the answer. So I guessed again and again and again and again and again and again. Finally he gave me a number for technical support. But "since he had me on the line" (his words), he would like to offer me a special promotion for ********** cardholders.
Our dialogue went a bit like this:
him: I see that you have XXXXX amount of available credit.
me: yeah and I like to keep it available. I don't intend getting that high of a balance.
him: we are offering a X.XX% rate for cardholders in good standing on any balance transfer.
me: sorry I have no balance to transfer.
him: I would then like to offer you a loan of up to XXXXX (which just happens to be the exact amount of available credit I have) for X.XX%.
me:no thank you. I only called about my security word. Thank you.....
him (interrupting me): I also see that you do not have our credit protection service. would you be interested in.......
me interrupting him: no sir. Thank you and have a good day. I am not interested in any offers.
Him: but ma'am in this trying time, we want you to know that XXXXXXXX is here for you....
I hung up.

In this trying time they are HERE for ME?!?!?!?! What? So rack up my balance, in this trying time....whatever.

Sign up and save...

a lot of online stores will send you a code for money off or free shipping if you sign up to receive email from them.

I did this so far with
Kmart
Kohls
Sears
Target
Old Navy

So far Old Navy and Sears have been my favorites. Sears sent me a $5 gift card by mail as well as the coupon codes to use online and printable coupons for in store purchases

Old Navy sent me a code for 20% off and free shipping that was only good that weekend.

Do this for your favorite store and save some of that hard earned money.

credit card interest rates

just recently my credit card rate took a huge jump...from a not too shabby 8% to a whooping 15%..No late payments on ANY bills, only a couple hundred dollar balance. I paid it off completely but I am going to call and complain. Last time I did this, they knock my interest rate back down to where it was before the jump. So check those APRs and if they jumped recently try calling and negotiating a lower rate. If they say no, you can tell them you will transfer your balance to a different card and close your account. They will usually negotiate with you. They want to keep your business. I pay my card off every month when I use it but still that rate is ridiculous. I am trying this new pay with cash or debit card only and it is working pretty well lately.

A few side things we do to save money

• We eat at home almost all the time. It is a real treat to go out to lunch..which my husband and oldest daughter are doing tommorrow.
• I take food and soda to work with me. I never buy from the vending machines and I don't take money to work with me so I am not even tempted.
• We buy frozen concentrate juice. It lasts longer. I can water it down for the kiddos when I make it and it is way cheaper per ounce than buying the regular stuff straight from the shelf.
• I sign up at all the manufacturer's website for coupons. I get more junk mail this way but I also get some coupons that are not given out to the general public.
• complain and compliment. Get a defective product...shoot the company a quick but polite email stating your concern or problem. Also compliment...really like something new that you tried? Shoot them an email and 9 times out of 10, the manufacturer will send you a nice email and/or letter and some coupons by mail. Just remember to sign your email and include your address below your name.
• we save our aluminum cans and turn them in for cash 2-3 times a year. We don't make a ton of money this way. I just took them in last weekend and got $20.

I will think of more later and start another post.

ooohhh gonna make some money

On page 8 of the ad for 10/5-10/11 The glade flameless candle is on sale for $5.99. I have a $5 off coupon soooo here is how that will work and make me some $$

$5.99 candle
-5.00 coupon
.99 OOP (out of pocket)
get $3 back in Register Rewards.

made money $2.01. and I can give it as a Gift to someone for a Birthday or Christmas.

next 2 weeks of Walgreens ads

courtesy of Hotcouponworld.

9/28 - 10/4
10/5 - 10/11

Octobers Easy saver catalog: Valid 9/26-10/25


Pair the easy saver coupons with sale ads and manufacturer coupons for a great deal. In general the items in the easy saver catalog (available when you first walk into the store), go on sale during the month at some point.

I hope in the next couple of days to be able to post some scenarios of things I plan to buy.

Last Friday's pamida deal..

I got everything in the above picture for $10. It was double coupon week (a new thing they are trying out) and I got a customer appreciation flyer in the mail that was good Friday only for an additional 15% off. I wish I would have taken a pic of my first trip to Pamida that day but I spent $33 and came home with a lot more than this.

just a few things that I remember from that trip are:
6 boxes of tampons
1 bag of popsicles
2 lysol toilet cleaners
4 boxes of granola bars
3 dish soap (1 joy and 2 dawn)
I know there was more but my mind is drawing a blank right now..

Check out the general mills cereal display

at your local store. Mine had coupon books for General Mills products..Over $20 worth of coupons in the booklet and it is free. There are about 5 things in the booklet that we will use. I got lucky when I grabbed mine. That same store put their betty crocker boxed potatoes on sale for 10 for $10. The coupons in the booklet were $1/2 (save $1 on 2) so I got boxed potatoes for 50 cents a box. We don't eat a whole lot of them but they do make a good quick filling side for those cold winter days. I like to add some cut up ham to the au gratin potatoes for a quick, easy and filling dinner.

some of my favorite money saving sites

hotcouponworld.com~very helpful for upcoming ads and good deals
thecouponclippers.com~coupon ordering site for getting those extra coupons for the big sales. If I order on Saturday night they ship on Monday and I get them Friday. They are based out of Florida so figure accordingly for the coupons you might order.
taylortownpreview.com~usually on Wednesdays, the owner of this site posts the coupons for the upcoming Sunday paper. VERY helpful!!

my current stockpile...

I will have to take a pic later of my toothpaste and feminine product stockpile as well as the cat food and cat litter but this is a good idea of what I am working with. 6 1/2 months in the making and I think I have *finally* perfected what I would consider a good stockpile for us. Of course it will change for the summer but this is a good winter stockpile for my family of 4 (2 kids, 2 adults)



my freezer on the refrigerator. It is kinda messy yet but we use the things in here rather quickly.


my kitchen pantry


overflow food storage in the laundry room


diapers


pantry in the laundry room


the BIG freezer...unfortunately I can't get everything in the pic but it is pretty full


super cheap toilet paper stockpile...It is in the ceiling of the laundry room because it is out of the way but convenient.


HBA in the built in basement pantry


more HBA in the built in basement pantry


my laundry detergent in the basement pantry. There are a few more bottles in the back of the HBA


cleaning supplies in the basement pantry.

Gosh how I love my stockpile. I look at it and see so much savings...

welcome

I have been blogging for a while but on the request of some friends, I have started a new blog about saving money.

I live in a semi rural area so I do a lot of deals with Walmart, walgreens and my local stores. We also have an outlet mall so you will read about that some too. Garage sales are my thing. Saving money makes me excited. Be prepared for lots of pictures and coupon posts.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy what I share and maybe even save a buck or two.

Thanks for stopping by...

JB