Category Archives: My Deals

The Financial Decisions That Have Saved Us $54,000 in the Past Two Years

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on March 19, 2013 3 comments

Almost two years ago my boyfriend and I moved in together. We are currently choosing to live on less income so that we both can go back to school for graduate degrees. I decided to compile a list of the financial decisions we have made in the past two years that have saved us the most money. After writing this list I have to say that I’m really proud of us!

1. Buying Our Cars With Cash- I drive a Chevy Cavalier that I bought for $2,000 and B drives a Nissan Sentra that he bought for $5,000 we could have easily spent at least $25,000 for these cars USED and that doesn’t even include interest on a car loan (See Our Experience as a One Car Household) Savings- $25,000

2. Renting a House in Our Original Target Price Range- When we were looking for a house to rent we originally decided we could spend $700 to $900 a month but quickly found that it would be very, very difficult to find a very nice home in that price range but we ended up picking out the house we are living in at $900 a month over houses in the $1200 price range Savings- $300 a month or $3,600 a Year

3. Renting a House With Free Water/Sewer/Trash Bill- We have a water well so we don’t pay for water but my sister and her fiancé used to pay $60 a month at their house (see Having a Water Well) Savings- $60 a Month or $720 a year

4. Working Jobs Close to Home- When I worked full time I commuted an hour each way to work. At one point I paid $100 a month just in tolls and I paid about $200 a month in gas Savings- $250 a month or $3,000 a year

5. Working Jobs Where We Don’t Have To Wear Dress Clothes- Dress clothes are expensive, there is nothing else to say! Savings- $50 a month or $600 a Year

6. Negotiating With the Cable/Internet Company- Our current rate would be $130 a month for a smaller package but instead we negotiated to $85 a month for a DVR/HD Channels/Internet/More Channels (See- How One Phone Call Saved Us $343) Savings $45 a month or $540 a year

7. Buying My Treadmill for $30- I had budgeted to spend $200 on a used treadmill but none came along then I got lucky and got mine for $30 (see How I Got a Treadmill for $30) Saved- $670

8. Buying Our 46 in Flatscreen TV for $150- We wanted a nice TV after we moved into our new house so we were able to price shop and use gift cards (See How We got a 46in TV for $150) Saved- $400

9. Getting Our Furniture Secondhand- Almost all of our furniture is high quality but second hand. We could have spent thousands on new furniture but we bought used and saved and our house still looks great. Saved- $3,000

10. Having a $200 a Month Grocery Budget- We try to eat healthy so we can easily spend a huge amount of money on groceries. I’m going to conservatively say that we save at least $200 a month by sticking to our budget. (See More About Our Grocery Budget) Saved- $200 a Month or $2,400 a year

11. Buying Groceries and Household Items with Coupons- We save thousands of dollars by using coupons so I’m going to conservatively say that we saved a couple of thousand dollars in the past two years. (See More About Our Couponing) Saved- $4,000

TOTAL- $54,000 We Saved Ourselves in 2 Years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was really surprised when I calculated that total! The best part of this is that NONE of these are crazy things. These are regular every day things that with a little bit of extra time and effort saved us a substantial amount of money!

Why I Print My Coupons Through Swagbucks

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on February 23, 2013 None comments

Many of you have probably heard about Swagbucks.com. It’s a search engine powered by google that allows users to earn points for searching and other activities and then redeem them for gift cards or other prizes. I personally have earned over $80 in Amazon.com gift cards.

I was very excited when they started allowing people to print their coupons.com coupons (the same coupons which can be found and printed on many sites) through their site and then earn 10 Swagbucks for each one you redeem. Those of you familiar with my site know that I use a lot of printable coupons so these Swagbucks add up quickly without me having to do anything I wasn’t already doing. In fact, it saves me time because their coupon interface is easier to use than the current coupons.com system which is hard to navigate. It does take a little while for the points to be added to your account but they are consistent about it. I look at it as just one more perk for using coupons.

Above is a picture of my rewards screen showing some of the gift cards I have won. In fact, this Christmas I was able to use them to get most of my Christmas gifts for free! And our motto here is “Shopping is Better When It’s Free!” So if you want to give Swagbucks a try you can click on the banner (my referral) at the top of this post to join.

Stocking Up at the Publix Viva Italia Sale 2013

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on February 21, 2013 2 comments

I did three separate shopping trips this week to stock up on a lot of great deals. Every year during the Publix Viva Italia Sale I stock up on canned goods. I wasn’t actually planning on doing much couponing this week but this sale literally saves us money all year long because canned good last forever. See my last years shopping trip HERE. These are some of the lowest prices I see all year and they make it really easy to buy canned items in bulk with B1G1s and extra in store / printable coupons (same coupons, two ways to get them). Safe to say I saved a lot of $ and we just this month have run out of the canned items I bought last year. We were also fortunate enough to have been given $45 in Publix gift cards by family members so I used those to pay for most of these items. I also used one competitor $5 off of $25 purchase Save-A-Lot Coupon for each transaction.

Shopping Trip 1- (The couch isn’t from Publix although I did get a great deal on it lol)

Order Total- $22.44

Saved- $64.60

Out of Pocket Costs- Paid With a Gift Card so ZERO out of pocket

Shopping Trip 2-

Order Total- $30.42

Saved- $98.70

Out of Pocket Costs- Mostly Paid With Gift Cards so only $8.77

Shopping Trip 3-

Order Total- $14.75

Saved- $42.39

Out of Pocket Costs- $14.75

Weekly Total-

Out of Pocket Costs- $23.52

Saved Before Gift Cards- $205.69

Saved Including Gift Cards- $250.69
Now I think we are also ready for the Zombie Apocalypse should it hit within the next couple of months.

If you are interested in doing any of the deals that I have done in these transactions I will refer you to couponaholic.net and southersavers.com for their deal listings.

A Frugal Date Night

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on January 22, 2013 None comments

Picture this- A couple celebrating their anniversary by getting dressed up in fancy clothes, walking through a downtown area, wandering through an art gallery and then heading to an expensive dinner at a nice restaurant. After enjoying a fantastic meal, they go to watch a movie.

Sounds expensive, right?

Well here are the numbers. We have been extremely busy the last few months and since this month was our anniversary we decided it was time for a nice date night. One of our favorite restaurants is a really nice place but it’s fairly expensive. Meals are around $25-30 per person but the food is excellent. One of the ways we save money is that I work at another restaurant that is also owned by the same company. Luckily I have a discount card that is for 50% off for up to 4 people at all the restaurants owned by the company that I work for. Also we received a gift card at Christmas for this same group of restaurants. When used together we received a huge discount. We had a $100 dinner including entrees, desert, and drinks for about $35 including a big tip (We always tip on the pre-gift card, pre-discount amount). We actually planned to go to the movies but then realized that there was nothing playing that we both wanted to see. We did however find a movie we both wanted to see at Redbox. So instead of spending $24 just for movie tickets (yes that’s what it costs where we live for two movie tickets) not including snacks or drinks, we enjoyed a movie at home.

Was it any less romantic?

No.

Did it require a little more planning?

Yes.

I am a firm believer that you can enjoy the finer things in life without spending a lot of money. For those of you who are already frugal I can see you nodding your heads. For those of you who would like to be more frugal think about this- If you can enjoy the same things for less, why wouldn’t you?

1-15-12 Publix Shopping Trip – Spent $15 Saved $100

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on January 15, 2013 None comments

B1G1 Pedigree Dentastix or Jumbone, 5-6.07 oz, at $3.59 ($1.79)
-$1 off Pedigree Dog Snacks, 5.57-26 oz, (Publix Coupon), printable
Cost After Coupons- .79¢ each

B1G1 Valley Fresh White Canned Chicken, 10 oz, at $3.09 ($1.54)

Nestle Coffee Mate Creamer, 32 oz, $2.50
-$1/2 Nestle Coffee-Mate creamer from a current in store flyer I can’t remember the name of
-$1 off Nestle Coffee-Mate liquid coffee creamer printable
Cost After Coupons- $1.00 each

Sundown Natural Vit A and Vit B, $3.29 (the cheapest price at my store but may be cheaper at yours)
-$1 off Sundown Naturals vitamin or supplement RP 1/6
-$1 off Sundown Naturals vitamin or supplement PRINTABLE
-$2 off Sundown Naturals vitamin or supplement RP 1/6
-$5/2 Sundown Naturals vitamins or supplements Publix coupon Green Advantage Flyer
Cost After Coupons- Free + Overage

Smithfield Naturally Hickory Smoked Bacon, $3.33
-$1/2 Smithfield bacon, SS 12/02
Cost After Coupons- $2.83

Friskies Cat Treats $1.50 each
-Free Purina Friskies Party Mix cat treats, SS 1/06
Cost After Coupons- Free

BUY TWO OCEAN SPRAY 100% GRAPEFRUIT JUICE64 OZ, on sale BOGO $2.99
BUY ONE 5 LB BAG OF FRESH GRAPEFRUIT, price doesn’t matter
Use one FREE Fresh Red Grapefruit 5 lb bag when you buy Ocean Spray Grapefruit Juice or Drinks 64 oz Publix in-ad store coupon, FOUND IN WEEKLY AD THIS WEEK!
and use two $2/1 100% Grapefruit Juice 54 oz or larger OR Fresh Florida Grapefruit 3 lb bag or larger printable coupon zip 33712
NET PRICE FOR ALL: $1.01 MONEYMAKER!
Thanks, Couponaholic.net for this deal.

- I also bought B1G1 Bagels, B1G1 bagged salads, a dozen eggs, a bag of onions, one ex large bag of cheese, one can of pineapple, one pack of pork chops, a two pack of pie crusts

- I used one $5 off of $25 purchase Save-A-Lot Coupon

- I also used one Free $10 Publix Gift Card that I got from this shopping trip

Spent- $15.14
Saved- $98.42
Note- The wrong amount came off for one of the coupons I used several times, I didn’t realize what had happened and I had to look when I got home so my total should have been a little higher than it was

Covergirl Wetslicks

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on October 29, 2012 None comments

Covergirl Wetslicks are currently on an unmarked sale at Publix for $3.99 so if you have any $3 off of 2 Covergirl Coupons from any of the recent P&G coupon inserts it makes them .50 cents each Great stocking stuffers!

Shopaholic Savers Deal – Free Gold Emblem Potato Chips at CVS

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on October 28, 2012 None comments

When I scanned my Cvs card today at the coupon machine I received this $1 off Gold Emblem potato chips. I went to check their price and I saw that there were lots of bags marked at only $1 making them free!

CVS Gold Emblem Potato Chips $1
- $1 off of CVS Gold Emblem Potato Chips CVS coupon from the coupon machine
Cost After Coupons- Free

*Shopaholic Savers Deals* are unique deals that we personally come up with and that we have not seen on other sites. Other Bloggers are welcome to repost these deals as long as they also post a link back to us. To see more Shopaholic Savers Unique Deals click the category in the column on the right.

25 Free Swagbucks for Signing Up FREE for YaySave

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on October 26, 2012 None comments

I often write about how much I love the website Swagbucks.com and earn a lot of FREE Amazon.com gift cards. I’m excited to have some saved up to use for Christmas gifts this year, some of which I have already ordered. I usually just earn points for searching, printing the coupons I was already going to print from coupons.com, and doing the daily poll. Every once in a while I will do other special offers. This is an especially good one. In 30 seconds or less you can sign up for YaySave through Swagbucks.com at the link HERE and you will instantly earn 25 Swagbucks. No credit card is required.

If you are not a Swagbucks.com member please sign up through my referral link by clicking on the banner below and you will be earning free gift cards in no time.

10-23-12 A Couple Target Freebies

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on October 23, 2012 None comments

I had to stop in at Target today to get a prescription so I decided to pick up a few freebies that I had coupons for.

Travel Size Garnier Fructis Shampoo and Conditioner .97¢
$1 off 1 Garnier Fructis Shampoo, Conditioner, or Styling Products (Does not exclude trial size) PRINTABLE
Cost After Coupons- Free
Note- This deal will also work at Walmart

Glade Items $0.99
-$1/1 Glade Air Care Item Target Printable Coupon
Cost After Coupons- Free

My $2.47 Publix Deal for the Free P&G Cook Set

Posted by ShopaholicSavers on October 23, 2012 None comments

I posted recently (HERE) that the free P&G cookware set is back. You must purchase $30 in P&G products before coupons to qualify for the set. These are really nice sets and really high quality. I have done this for the past two years (HERE) and I use the items every day in my kitchen. This year there weren’t as many really fantastic deals available for the set as there have been in the past so I was really surprised when the Covergirl eye shadows rang up at $1.99 instead of $2.99 and I was able to revise my scenario for very little out of pocket. I also did not have a $5 off of a purchase coupon which also would have helped to lower my total but if you have one you should use it.

This is what I did-

Bought 1 Herbal Essence Shampoo and 1 Conditioner $3.19 each
- Used B1G1 Free Herbal Essence Coupon 09/16/2012 SS
- And $1.00/2 Herbal Essence Winn Dixie Coupon from the WD Early Detection Coupon Flyer found in store
Cost After Coupons- $2.19 for 2

Bought 2 Crest Complete Toothpaste $3.13 each (Note- there was one Crest toothpaste cheaper about $2.50 but we like this one better and I needed to get over $30)
- Used 2 .50/1 Crest toothpaste, 4 oz+, or liquid gel, excl trial size, PG 9/30 (exp 10/31)
- And used 1 $1.00/2 Crest Coupon from the WD Early Detection Coupon Flyer found in store
Cost After Coupons- $4.26 for 2

Bought 10 Cover Girl Eyeshadow $1.99 each
- Used 10 $1 off Covergirl Coupon from the Publix Green Advantage Flyer
- And 4 $3 off of 2 Covergirl Items Coupons PG 9/30
- And 1 $4 off of 2 Covergirl Eye Item from a magazine
Cost After Coupons- Free + $6.10 Overage

Total Before Coupons- $32.54
Total After Coupons- .35 Cents
Total After Tax- $2.47 and the Free Pink Cook Set ($50 Value)

For more information on the Cookware Deal Click HERE

MyCouponExpert.com did an excellent job of putting together other deals that you can do to earn this set. Click here to visit their post.