I am starting a new series on ShopaholicSavers. It’s called Use This, Not That. It will focus on simple swaps that you can make that will save you money. The first one is using cardboard boxes instead of plastic storage containers. I know that this will not work in all situations but when I am storing things inside my air conditioned house cardboard boxes work just as well as plastic storage containers and they’re free.
Savings- $5 each box 🙂
Before
After
One grocery item that is almost impossible to buy with coupons is a gallon of regular milk. My boyfriend drinks a lot of milk so we always keep it in the house. The cheapest place that I have been able to buy it is at Aldi but it is still over $2.50 and it usually expires quickly. But what could we do except buy it anyway? Or so I thought.
Tonight, I came across an article that shows how to turn one gallon of milk into two by adding equal parts milk and water. A crazy idea right? But maybe not. Skim milk tastes watered down to me anyway. Have we simply stumbled on what milk companies have been doing all along?
I tried this last night and it worked! It tasted exactly like skim milk to me. Actually, it tastes better because I believe skim milk also removes some of the fat content. If you don’t like the 1/2 and 1/2 mix try doing 3/4 milk and 1/4 water.
This is a saving money tip that I have never heard of before. It’s little unusual ideas like this that can really add up. If we pay $3 a gallon for milk (on the cheap side) four times a month (most families buy more) that’s $12. If we can cut that in half that’s $6 savings per month or $72 dollars a year that I can spend on something else. And this takes less than 5 minutes to do. People working for minimum wage will work for half an hour to buy a gallon of milk. Your savings rate per hour here is at least $36 an hour.
EDIT- I would link you to the original article but the site no longer exists.
Students know that many Math classes require graph paper. Through part of high school and my entire college career I avoided buying it by printing it free off of the internet instead. I used PrintFreeGraphPaper.com but I’m sure there are others out there.
I had a rare Sunday off of work so I decided to go couponing! I haven’t had the time to do a huge couponing trip in a long time. My mom came with me and it was a lot of fun!
WinnDixie
First we went to WinnDixie where we spent .15 cents and got 4 Hershey’s bars! You can never have too much chocolate!
Hershey’s, Kit Kat or Reese’s Candy Bars, 1.5-1.8 oz, at $1.09 (54¢)
-Free Hershey’s Air Delight milk chocolate bar WYB regular milk chocolate bar, max $1.19, SS 8/28 (buy reg. & air delight get both FREE)
Spent- .15 cents
Saved- around $3.00 (the receipt wouldn’t print at the store)
Walgreens
Then we went to Walgreens where we got dish soap for .25 cents and toothpaste free after Register Rewards(Walgreens Dollars)
$3 RR WYB (2) Crest Deep Clean Toothpaste, 5.8 oz, Glide Floss or Oral-B Advantage Complete Deep Clean Toothbrush at $2.50 ea.
-.50/1 Crest toothpaste 4 oz, + or liquid gel, PG 8/28
-$1 off Crest toothpaste 4 oz, + or liquid gel, excl Cavity, Baking Soda or Tartar, PG 8/28
-$1 off Oral-B PulsarTM, CrossAction, or Advantage or (2) Indicator Cavity Defense, on product (use (2) $1 off, makes it FREE)
Dawn Dish Liquid, 9 oz, 99¢
-.75/1 Dawn product, PG 8/28
-.25/1 Dawn product, Organize in Style home mailer
(use .75/1, makes it 25¢)
Spent- $3.94
Received- $3.00 Register Rewards
Saved- $7.48
I then used my Register Rewards towards something I needed to buy anyway because with store dollars it’s like being able to spend the money twice. I try to make sure I use the store dollars in a way that I am able to get the most for my money.
CVS
The CVS coupon machine was printing free coupons for the New Newtons Fruit Thins and then I did the below deals.
$1 ECB WYB St. Joseph 81 mg Enteric Coated Aspirin 36 ct., $2 Limit 1
-$1 off St Joseph’s Aspirin product, 81 mg, SS 9/11
-$1 off St Joseph aspirin, 81 mg, SS 8/07
-$1 off St Joseph Aspirin, August All You magazine
(makes it FREE)
$3.69 ECB WYB CVS Allergy Relief Loratidine, Cetirizine or Fexofenadine, 5 ct., $3.69 Limit 1
(excludes all products containing pseudoephedrine and items limited by law)
(makes it FREE)
$2 ECB WYB Irish Spring or Softsoap Body Wash 15-18 oz, or Softsoap Bar Soap 4 pk., $2.99 Limit 1
-.50/1 Irish Spring body wash printable
-$1/2 Softsoap body washes, 12 oz+, SS 8/14 , SS 8/28
-$1 off Softsoap body wash AND bar soap, September All You magazine
-.75/1 SoftSoap Body Wash printable
(use .75/1, makes it 24¢)
There was also a deal to buy $20 of certain products and get $10 RR so I bought
(3) Air Wick i-Motion Kit, $4.99
(2) Finish Powerball or Gelpacs, $2.99
Use:
(3) -$4 off Airwick Ultra Freshmatic Reg or Compact, kit, SS 9/11
(2) -.75/1 Finish Powerball or Gelpac, SS 7/31 (EXP 09/11)
Total Due: $7.45
Get Back: $10 ECB
I bought the first three deals first in one transaction and then I used the ECBs I had received from that transaction toward next transaction.
On Both Transactions-
Spent- $9.74
Received- $10.00 ECBs (CVS Dollars)
Saved- $60.00
I’ll be able to use the CVS dollars on my next trip and because I spent less than I received back it was like getting everything I bought for free!
Publix
At Publix I got a lot of great deals. I looked at the weekly sales and both the yellow and green coupon booklets that are currently out. I did a lot of deals and also bought a few things that we needed even though there weren’t coupons for them. It has been a long time since I have done a large couponing trip for groceries. Those tend to be the most time consuming because there are the most items. After the results I had I know why I should do them more often.
   
Spent- $34.53
Saved- $65.94
To see the coupon match ups for any of the Publix deals I did please visit
http://www.southernsavers.com/category/publix/
In one day I saved $136.42. Not bad at all.
I had a great day yesterday shopping with my mom and sister. We went to several thrift shops, CVS, and Big Lots. We got a lot of bargains. Here are a few of my favorite.
At CVS the CVS coupon printer was printing coupons for free candy bars and there is also a Hershey bar Free after ECBs (CVS dollars). I also bought 4 small boxes of cereal for .50 cents each
At Big Lots my sister found cat litter for $1 a bag
I have needed a new curtain for the small window in my shower. While it is unlikely that anyone could actually see in we didn’t want to take that chance. I bought 1 yard of clearance fabric for $1.50 and made my own curtain by draping it over the curtain rod and cutting the excess. Why pay for expensive curtains?
I want to clarify something that I often think when I am typing my posts. You do not know me besides for this blog. I could be a crazy cat lady with absolutely no money. The things I write about in this blog could be strategies of desperation not frugality. However, thankfully, neither of those things is true. I live in a beautiful home in a nice area with my boyfriend and our pets. We have plenty of money to pay our bills. We have expensive furniture and decent cars. Why are we frugal? Because we want to choose where our money goes and when. We don’t want to owe anyone anything. The truth? Our cars were bought with cash years ago and we don’t have car payments. Our expensive furniture was not expensive for us because most of it was obtained second hand or with smart shopping or was given to us. Instead of using the money we have left over after we pay our bills frivolously we try to use it consciously so that we can save for really amazing experiences.
And guess what? We just returned from a cruise to the Bahamas!!!! We had an amazing time, we lounged in the sun and stuffed ourselves with unlimited food.
That being said, we do occasionally go out to eat and to the movies and shopping (sometimes even without coupons *gasp*). We do not live a life that in anyway makes us feel deprived. Our smart spending enables us to live a really amazing life, work less, do more fun stuff and help those we love when they need it. 🙂
As I write this I sit in front of my TV watching one of my favorite shows Extreme Couponing. I do not consider myself an extreme couponer even though I am a couponer. My couponing trips are generally under $100 each even though I save hundreds couponing. During the time when I couponed the most I was working part time and using couponing to lower the amount I had to spend on groceries and necessary household items. Now that I work full time it is much harder for me to find the time to do this- especially with groceries. Therefore, I have been trying other strategies to save money. I still try to do short couponing trips for household products thus illustrating that couponing doesn’t have to be all (aka extreme couponing) or nothing. But frankly for the majority of my grocery shopping I’m lucky if I can find the time to make it to a store. With the very little spare time that I carve out I have to be very careful to balance my time with money saving strategies.
I recently discovered a store called ALDI that is saving me a lot of money. Click HERE to read a really great article that I found comparing ALDI to Walmart and apparently ALDI is much cheaper. The above picture is of my shopping trip today and my total was only $63.65!!! (Not pictured are 6 gallons of water and a watermelon). I bought 40 items including a family size frozen lasagna $2.79, MILK $2.69, three romaine hearts of lettuce for $1.99.
Below are some other great deals I have found there.
 
  
The toilet paper for $4.99 for a 12 pack and $2.39 for laundry detergent help me set my price point. A price point is a price that you will not buy an item above because you know you can get it for less. I will not spend more that $5 for a 12 pack of toilet paper or more than $2.50 for laundry detergent. Best of all, these are not crappy cheap products. Quality is valuable too and I won’t buy items that will end up costing me more in the long run.
Who says nothing in life is free? I love free stuff! Here is some of the stuff that we have recently received.
My boyfriend and I needed a toaster for our new house and I was given this one at my work because we had an extra.
I don’t buy a lot of candy. There are only two adults in our household so when I do get candy I set it aside for when we have a craving. It’s better than buying candy bars. This falls under the every little bit counts category.
My boyfriend likes to have some soda in the house from time to time. He wanted me to buy some today when I went shopping . I work at an apartment office and people give me all kinds of stuff. Today I was given this 12 pack of soda by someone who didn’t want it. I’m was excited to have one less thing to buy later (It was unopened when I got it).
Across the street from my work is an Albertsons where we buy many of our work items. Albertsons usually has some kind of “game” running where you get game pieces at the register. They recently has Yahtzee and I won this box of Wheatables. I had idea what they were but I like trying new things.
The other day a trusted resident/friend gave our office a Spanish rice dish. That was my boyfriend and I’s dinner that we didn’t have to cook. I try to use all of my resources to the fullest and it really does save money. The stuff on this page is worth at least $10 that I can now put into my savings account.
For those of you who have never heard of it, All You magazine is a magazine that “pays for itself” because it is full of coupons and money saving ideas. I love reading it for frugal advice and information and I have wanted a subscription for a long time. However, my mom and aunt love magazines and give me lots of them so I have refused to buy any magazine subscription, but I had enough free amazon.com egift cards from Swagbucks (a search engine you get rewards for searching on) to get a free subscription.
Now when my copies arrive in the mail I will be even more excited because I know they were free (and I love free stuff) and they will also save me money.
To join Swagbucks click the banner
I am currently working about 45 to 50 hours a week and spending 10 hours a week in the car commuting back and forth to work. It’s hard to find time to coupon, time to grocery shop, time to be organized. All of these things end up costing me money. When I can’t make it to the grocery store or cook I end up eating out a lot more. When I run out of something and don’t have time to make it to the cheapest store I sometimes end up buying it at the closest store for a higher price. I have no idea how women with children can work this many hours.
Work itself comes with many expenses. I spend at least $180 a month on gas just for work and that will probably go up this summer. My choice to buy a fuel efficient car (no not a hybrid, just a small car) has saved me thousands. I bought my car with cash so I have no car payment. I also spend much more than I should buying work lunches. At my former job location I spent $100 a month on toll roads getting to work. I need new work dress shoes and more dress clothes. Sometimes I wonder how much working costs me?
Reading the book The Tightwad Gazette taught me that a lack of time to do things for yourself will cost you a lot of money. When I worked waiting tables at a restaurant the number of hours I worked was directly proportional to the amount of money I needed. I didn’t like working there so I spent my free time figuring out how to save money so I could work even less. I stopped buying paper products (minus toilet paper). I combined trips to save gas. I went to the library to check out DVDs and books instead of renting and buying. I tried to cook more and eat out less. I tried to make sure that I used any perishable food items before they went bad because I hate throwing food away. I wore clothes that I already owned. I shopped at thrift shops. I couponed my heart out. We went to free movie screenings and the $2 theatre for entertainment. Yes, at times it bothered me not to have any money to spare.
Now I feel that I have traded having little money for having little time. Was this a good trade? Sometimes I wonder. I do know that I waste more money now, but I also have more in my savings. I have dental insurance, eye insurance, and life insurance now. I recently spent over $350 on theme park annual passes for a special occasion and I could afford them. Some days I feel like all I do is work. Some days I love working. There is definitely a trade off and I’m not sure which is better.
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