Saving money, coupons and deals

I've been asked a few times lately what we're doing to save money, and how I come up with "magic" shopping trips. I set up about 2 trips per month where I get over $100 of stuff for less than $50, and I'm not talking about clothes on sale but necessities.

I use couponmom.com to find deals. Many of the best are at CVS. Many times I can get items like toothpaste almost free, sometimes I actually get paid to buy items when the combo of the sale price, extra bucks and coupon value add up enough! I stock up when I can get items free or almost free, so I don't have to buy them when we run out at full price or at the mercy of their regular sale price.

I get the Sunday paper for the coupons. I cut out any that we might use, and put them in a little organizer with an envelope for each category, like refridgerated products, soaps, paper products, toothpaste and others. I also go to manufacturer websites for coupons, and places like coupons.com, smart source and red plum online. I watch the store aisles when I'm shopping for the little coupon devices with the blinking red light. I grab a few copies if it's something I might use and save them, often the item will be on sale in a week or two, after the coupon dispenser goes away! Everything gets filed in my little organizer, so I have the coupons with me if I notice a great sale at a store that isn't covered by Couponmom, which is most of the stores I go to. Couponmom only covers the major stores, and often prices are better in smaller stores.

I go to walmart.com, to their "In Stores Now" button, then free samples and order everything we might use. It's completely, 100% free and no obligation - even the shipping! The samples often come with a coupon, or bonus samples of the same brand. I recently got one of dishwasher detergent that came with a coupon for free rinse aid, and several other coupons for the same manufacturer's items! Even if the samples don't come with a coupon, it's still a freebie. Sometimes it's household items, sometimes food, always fun to get a freebie!

As another bonus, I use Upromise. All you do is sign up (free!) and link your credit, debit or store membership card to your account (also free!). Then whenever you go shopping and buy qualifying products, the manufacturer deposits a few cents into your Upromise account. You can also shop online through their portal and get a percentage back from many retailers, or use Upromise's website to get online coupons. The online coupons work automatically if you buy the product with an attached card. You don't get the cash back or that amount off your bill, it just goes into the Upromise account. Mine is for the kids' college funds. It's not much, but by the time they're ready it should be a bit to help, and it will have cost me a grand total of Nothing. Very little time and absolutely no money!

A trick I was surprised to learn is that you can use multiple coupons in one transaction. Like if you have a coupon for a box of cereal, and you buy 2 boxes then you can use 2 copies of the same coupon in the same purchase! That really adds up, especially if you can combine it with a sale like when the store is offering "buy one, get one free" (BoGo) or "buy one, get one half off" That leads to a lot of my freebies! A common deal to be able to get with cereal, oatmeal and cosmetics.

It's never very much at once, but I've calculated the time it takes me to figure out a magic shopping list vs the savings, I get paid at least $50/hour for that time! Isn't it worth saving $50 for an hour of your time?

Planting

The gardening bug has me already this year!

I filled up a few pots with mustard greens, carrots and radishes. Those should be done before it's time to plant my main veggies. I filled up my giant strawberry pot too, with some pathetic looking bare root strawberries, but they were cheap! Hopefully they'll perk up a bit and come back to life. I tried a new planting method, using a pipe drilled full of holes in the center of the strawberry pot to get water to spread deeper. I took pictures, but my main computer is still acting up so I can't get them online yet. Soon! If we can't get it fixed soon I'll just save them to disk and transfer them to the laptop that way.

I also had a great find! HUGE pots on sale at Kmart for about $5! They're seriously monsters. I may plant a tree in one, I'd love a dwarf orange or lemon for my patio. I bought 3 of the huge pots, the other two I can't decide what to do with. Carrots, tomatoes, beans, peas? I have some large pots I can use, but nothing else nearly that big! I'm planning to put scarlet runner beans in large pots to climb up the pergola on the deck, with small veggies around the base in the same pot. A large pot of tomatoes, another of bush beans, zucchini in there somewhere - I have big plans this year! Can't wait to get it all going.