How to stockpile coupons

I LOVE coupons! I have a ton of them at all times and save at least $20 a week on my grocery bill just by using them. Although, I'm not a big fan of Sunday insert coupons. So how do I get a variety of coupons stockpiled?

One of the best ways to get non insert coupons is to join a coupon train. There are a bunch of different trains on http://www.afullcup.com/. Once a member joins (don't worry, its free) they crate a wish list (WL) A WL should be as long a possible and consist of coupons you really want. The way a train works is you'll be assigned a person to mail coupons to, most of the trains are WL trains, meaning you'll have to send about 15-20 coupons from the persons WL. Someone will also have to send you and envelope full of at least 15-20 coupons from your WL.

Another way is to join every product website that you use. Kraft, Poptarts, General Mills, and Special K (just to name a few) all have websites that you can join. Companies whos sites you've joined tend to frequently send coupons in the mail to test new products, sometimes even for free!

Can't forget websites like coupons.com , SmartSource , and Redplum where you can always print a ton of coupons for free!

Also, go to the customer service desk of your favorite store and ask them if they have any coupons booklets. For some reason stores don't like to share their coupons. If they tell you they don't have any booklets on them, ask if theres a program you can sign up for to get a booklet mailed to you. Lots of stores mail coupon booklets once a month or once a season.

Be on the look out in the store too. Many stores have "blinkies" Those little (usually red) boxes on the isles with the blinking light, that gives you coupons. Also "peelies" those would be any coupon that is attached to a product that you peel off to use.

Now I still do get Sunday insert coupons, I just never pay. How? One way, my MIL gets the Sunday paper, but doesn't do coupons, so she saves the inserts for me. And at my local library people that no longer want their inserts bring them to the library and put them in a basket so other people can clip what coupons they can use. This is my best way to get multiples of a really good Sunday insert coupon (like for Jell-o pudding snacks) without having to buy multiple papers. If your local library doesn't already do this, then talk to your librarian. They my be very open to the idea.

Have all your couponing friends over and host a coupon swap. You can make up whatever rules work for you.

If all else fails, just google it. You might be very surprised at what you'll find!

Library Book Sales

I hit two local library book sales today and made out great! All the books I bought look like they are brand new right from the book store. The first book sale I went to was in my home town. I got 18 books for only $6 dollars! That's about .33 cents a book. Here's a pic:

The next book sale I went to was at a library in the neighboring town. The children's books there were cheaper (only .25 cents each) but their selection wasn't as good. I did pick up 8 more books for only $2, pictured below

Library book sales are a great way to buy books for your kids without breaking the bank. A few of these books I'll give my kids now, and a few will be put away for birthday & Christmas presents. If any of your local libraries are having book sales anytime soon, I'd highly recommend you stop by and take a look. Today I got 26 children's books for only $8!

My free finds

I went yard saleing this past weekend to try to find a few things. I didn't go out as early as I wanted to but that turned out to be a good thing. I hit one yard sale as they were packing up, or should I say putting everything out for free!
I got a kids shopping cart, which is one of the things I was looking for. I also got a doll house with some furniture. This doll house isn't made anymore and first hit stores in 1989. I took it to test my 2 1/2 year old daughter, she's never played with a doll house before. I want to get her the Loving Family Dollhouse, but wanted to make sure she'd play with it, and she loves this free dollhouse. Now I know for her next birthday to purchase the Loving Family, and I'll have peace of mind that she'll play with it. Here's a pic off all the furniture. We also got a Dora Doodle Pro.

A great way to get great deals at yard sales is hit them when they're almost over or better yet, when they are over. It's true the selection won't be as good, but you can get some really great deals, or great stuff for free. People don't want to drag the stuff back inside and will sell it for almost anything, or just put in on the curb for free.

Having a Yard Sale

Lots of articles I've read about having a yard sale say that it takes months of prep work. MONTHS?!? What do you have to do that will take MONTHS? I spend 2 days preparing, the day before and the day of. This is how I do it:

Day 1:

1. Get all my tables. I only have a couple, but my family lets me borrow their tables, I just have to go to their home to get it.
2. Advertise online. Put post on craigslist, and any local message boards.
3. Hang up signs around town
4. Bring everything up from the basement (I keep all my yard sale items in a closet in my basement. When I want to save an item for a yard sale, it goes right into the closet. That way everything is always together, when the closet starts to overflow, it's time to have a yard sale.)
5. Get my money ready. Make sure I have plenty of change and small bills.

Day 2:

1. Wake up bright and early and start to set things up outside
2. Price some things as I go along. If I want a certain price for something, I'll put a price tag on it so the potential buyer has an idea of the price I want, but I still let people know all prices are just a starting point. Non-priced items are things I really want to get rid of and would take any price for.
3. Sit back and wait for people to show.

I'm planning on having my yard sale this Saturday (the closet is overflowing!) My biggest goal when having a sale is to get rid of as much stuff as I can. My second biggest goal is to make a little extra cash. My cash goal for Saturday is $100!

Loving my grocery stores lately!

This past week, Stop & Shop had 4 $1 double coupons, this week (well more like next week, Apr.13-16) Roche Bros has the same coupons. I want to share a few tips to get the most from these awesome deals.

• Ask friends and/or family in the area for their coupons. My mother, who lives in the town next to me and is not a coupon user, gives me her double coupons!
• The catch is you must spend at least $15 in order to use the coupons, so break up your weekly shopping into $15 increments.
• Try to pair your double coupon with a coupon for an item that is on sale, or with a coupon that requires you only to purchase 1 item , or both!
• Use your “save $1 on two item” coupons for SALE only items. Last week at Stop & Shop, Pillsbury crescent rolls were on sale 2/$4. I had a coupon to save $1 on two, I paired that with the stores double coupon and ended up only paying $1 each for the crescent rolls.

Tips for Kids hand-me-down challenge

Buying every article of clothing second hand for an entire year may sound a bit tricky. I was wondering of all the different places where I will be getting all these clothes and this is what I came up with.
~Hand me downs. If you know a few people that have kids older than yours ask them if they wouldn’t mind giving you their kids out grown clothes.
~ebay. Stay away from the top auctions that have “70+ name brand items”. They tend not to be to much of a bargain. Best bet is to find auctions that will be ending soon that are being sold by a single person instead of an ebay store.
~craigslist.org. There are usually people trying to sell their kids old clothes.
~Freecycle. Best thing about this website is people are giving the clothes away for free.
~Resale shops. This includes stores like The Salvation Army. There are a ton of kids resale shops in my area that I will be visiting.
~Yard sales. Items usually go for around $1 an item. If not, you can always try to talk the seller down.

Real ways to save money

Act like you aren’t saving money at all. Ok, let me explain. Lets say when you go to the grocery store between sales and coupons, you save $20. Instead of thinking “awesome, I saved twenty dollars” take that savings and stick it in an envelope. If you think about it, you really didn’t save that money, you just spent $20 less than you thought you would. It doesn’t mean you just added it to your savings account.

You’re more likely to spend that twenty on something else, like a coffee from your favorite shop, or maybe a new dvd or toy for your child. From now on take whatever the savings from your shopping trip is and round up to the nearest dollar, then stick it in an envelope. The next time you have to go to the bank, take that envelope with you (even if it’s only a couple of dollars) and deposit into your saving account. Do this with all your shopping. Even big ticket items. Act like you paid full price even if it was on sale and put the difference into your savings.

Inexpensive Candle Gift

I love this idea. It is a great gift to anyone on your list.

What you need:
White pillar candle
A picture of your choice printed on regular paper
A blow dryer
Wax paper

1. Cut picture to size and place on your white candle

2. Cover candle with wax paper, smooth, and hold tight. I actually taped the wax paper to the back to the candle to help keet it in place.

3. Turn your blow dyer to the hottest setting and hold it over the wax paper positioned over the picture. Within a few minutes the wax paper will start to get a bit shiny.

4. Once all the wax paper covering your picture is shiny, stop using the blow dryer.

5. Wait about a minute to let the candle cool. Then slowly peel away the wax paper and tada! A picture candle!

Here are the candles I did.
I would suggest that if you have a spare glove it should be wore on the hand that will be holding the candle. The first candle I did took forever because my hand kept getting to hot. The next couple candles I did I wore a glove that lost its mate last winter. I was able to do this a lot quicker and without burning my hand.

10 ways to save on your electric bill

Wow, I've been a bad blogger. I have so many tips I would like to share. I'll really have to get my butt in gear and post, post, post. Today I'll share 10 tips I use around my home that really seem to help. I just want to add the all my heating is electric, but I'm sure even if you heat by another source you could apply these tips.

~Change your light bulbs to the longer lasting CFL's (I've noticed the saving more when it comes to buying light bulbs. These type of bulbs last a long time)

~Cover your AC in the winter, or remove your window AC

~Dress in layers to keep the heat turned down low (unless its single digits outside, my heat is never above 62 degrees)

~Use crockpots (even with it being on all day, it uses less power than your oven being on for 30 minutes)

~Unplug anything w/ a clock, adapter, or light when not in use (unplugging our microwave, computer, dvd player, ect. saves us at least $50 a month)

~Wash clothes in cold water

~Turn the heat dry option off on your dishwasher. (after the dishwasher is done, just leave it open for about an hour so the dishes can air dry)

~Lower the temperature on your hot water heater (but don't lower it below 120 degrease)

~Use a low flow shower head (they have so many new ones now that you won't notice a change in pressure)

~Insulate the first 6 feet of the hot and cold water pipes connected to the water heater.

11 Tips to save money on your grocery bill

Some more tips on how to save some money, this time the tips are about food.

~Coupons, coupons, coupons! But if you get coupons from the Sunday paper, save the entire coupon flyer. You never know when something will go on sale that you have a coupon for.

~Buy food less frequently

~Grow as much as you can

~Buy store brand foods. This is done by trial & error. Some store brand foods are really gross compared to the name brand.

~Use on-line sales flyers for your food store. If there in something on sale that you want, click on it, when your done looking at the flyer you can print out your list.

~If buying vegetables for cooking, buy frozen.

~Places like Target & Wal-Mart sell most food for a lot cheaper. Same with pharmacies & gas station convent stores.

~Brew your own coffee & don't do take-out.

~Instead of buying bagged baby carrots, buy the whole carrots and make your own carrot sticks. A 1lb bag of whole carrots is only about $1 a bag.

~Actually eat your leftovers

~Buy in season

10 Ways to save money around your home.

These are some of the things that anybody can do around their home to save a little money. It took me awhile to get in the habit of doing all of these, but it does make a BIG difference. It might not seem like much at first to you either, but if you stick with it, over time you will notice a difference. Promise!

~Cut dryer sheets in half, you will get the same effect from half as you would a whole.

~Use old cut up shirts, burp clothes, etc. to do cleaning instead of paper towels, this is also very eco friendly

~Try to use plates instead of paper towels. I know plenty of people that use a paper towel to make a sandwich on, them throw the paper towel in the garbage.

~Don't do laundry or run the dishwasher until full.

~Don't use lights when not in the room. Seems like a no brainier, but you'd be surprised at how many times a light is left on when no one is in the room.

~Don't buy "dry clean only" clothes unless completely necessary.

~Try to buy household items second hand. When we moved into our home, that was 3x bigger than our old place, we needed to buying some new furniture. I got a brand new Ethan Allen chair (a person ordered the chair, then when it was shipped to the store, they changed there mind. The store donated it to St. Vincent de Paul) and I only paid $75 for it.

~I love foaming hand soap. I buy the foaming soap, but when it runs out, I re-fill it with one third normal hand soup & the rest water. Gently shake & presto, foaming hand soap. I can fill the foaming pump 3 times with one regular softsoap hand pump bottle.

~Buy in bulk whenever you can. Some wholesale places (like BJ's) even take coupons!

~Make your own cleaner. You can clean just about anything with white vinegar, baking soda, and borax. Google "homemade cleaners" and it will bring up a ton of recipes.