Couponing Class!

Learn the basics of couponing.  Do the coupon policies at Walgreens and CVS confuse you?  Did you think OOP was a slang for after you've made a mistake?  Do you know the difference between Register Rewards (RR) and Extra Care Bucks (ECB)?  Do you get lost in the coupon jargen?  If you answered yes to any of these questions then my couponing class is designed for you!  The cost of the class is $5.  There will be food and fun!  If you're interested in coming, please leave a comment on my facebook page.  I'll give you the details.

Date Nights on a Budget Part I - Restaurant.com

Read on to find out how you can have a chance to try Restaurant.com for FREE!

Last Christmas I found one of the best money saving websites I've ever found.  It's called Restaurant.com.  A lot of my friends have expressed more than a little confusion at how this program works, so let me explain.

Restaurant.com is a service for restaurants.  By listing a restaurant with them these restaurants are able to get new customers to visit their location and receive feedback from them after they have visited.  Basically, you go to their website and put your zip code in the "Find A Restaurant And Save" box.  This will alert you to the restaurants participating in your area.  If you live near a large city you'll be surprised at how many restaurants use this service!  After choosing a restaurant you can purchase a "gift certificate" for that restaurant.  The certificates are usually anywhere from 70-80% off.  This means that a $25 gift certificate costs anywhere between $2-$3!!!!

Now, of course, there are special limitations.  Most $25 certificates require that you spend at least $35 before tip.  Many restaurants also specify that they will add the gratuity to your bill to ensure that your server gets tipped on the entire purchase before the certificate.  I'm sure all of you would do this anyway, right?
Occasionally there will be other restrictions such as no holidays, or weekends.  However, I've found this to be rare.

At Christmastime I purchased a Dinner of the Month Club Membership for my husband.  With this deal, I paid $36 for twelve $25 gift certificates and I received a $50 gift certificate as a bonus!  What a sweet deal.

Redeeming these certificates has been hassle-free as the restaurant management has to review their membership monthly.  I've never had a problem.  I do show the server my certificate when ordering.  A few days after we've dined using one of these certificates, I am e-mailed a short survey.  Honestly this survey takes less than 2 minutes.

Restaurant.com has saved us hundreds of dollars, and has allowed my husband and I to celebrate birthdays, and our anniversary by eating out, when we probably would not have been able to afford to.  Just the other night my husband, two teenagers and myself went out for a birthday dinner.  We went to a new pizza place in our neighborhood.  The food was excellent, atmosphere was great and service was superior!  We had a huge appetizer sampler plate, their largest Hawaiin pizza, and sodas.  The whole event cost us $18!!  Tip included!

So here's the deal....One of my Blessed Readers will receive a FREE $25 Certificate! This way you will get to try it on your own.  Just leave a comment about how your family saves money.  One of the comments will be randomly chosen tomorrow at 8:30 am CST.  

Eating at Fast Food Restaurants

Let me start by saying that eating out is one of the easiest way to overspend.  Even with the drive through dollar menu, you are spending far more than you would if you had purchased food at the store and it's far less nutritious.  Many times, when I haven't been paying attention to where my dollars and cents are going I've found a huge whole in my pocket in the area of eating out.
However, it is nice to have an occasional meal out, and there are times when I find myself on the road when I didn't expect to and I must grab a bite. I'm sure you are aware that McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's have $1 menus.  What you may not know is that occasionally McDonald's and Wendy's have booklets you can purchase with a price for less than face value.  (I'll try to post this when I have found a deal like this). This means that there are times you can purchase something from the dollar menu with a coupon from a booklet that you paid less than a dollar for!  Also, Wendy's has a website where you can become a member.  Each month they have printable coupons for things like free frosties and $$ off of value meals.  The link is here.  You can check your favorite fast food to see if they have the same deals on-line.  I try to keep my fast food experiences down to once a week at most.  This means you must plan your meals around the things you have scheduled like a said last week on the blog.  Next week, I'll cover how to save on meals for date nights!!!!  Post your ideas in the comment section to share what you've learned about eating at fast food restaurants!!

How I Got Paid To Bring Home 6 Dial Body Washes and 2 Right Guard Deodorants!

Wow!  I am soooo excited!  Last night I went to K-Mart to take advantage of their double coupons.  I brought a $10 off $20 coupon I had printed a few weeks ago, and a $5 off any beauty purchase coupon I had from them.

At my K-Mart they had Dial Body Washes on sale 2/$7.  They are also running a catalina deal for these items.  If you purchase $20 worth, you receive a $5 coupon for your next purchase.  If you spend $30 worth, you receive $10 off your next purchase.

I totally screwed up and purchased $27 worth, thinking I purchased $30, so I only got the $5 catalina.  RRRRRR....but it still ended up being a totally sweet deal.  Here's the breakdown:

I bought 6 Dial Body Washes (4 for men, 2 for women)
2 Right Guard Defense Deodorant

This total came to $27.00,
I then handed over my $10 off $20
My new total was $17.00
Next I handed over my $5 off any beauty purchase at K-Mart  (I got this a few weeks ago)
My new total was $12.00
Then I handed over my manufacturers coupons
I had some computer printed coupons that are no longer available :(
I had 2 $1.50/2 Men's Dial Body Wash
I had 2 $1.00/1 Women's Dial Body Wash
I had 1 $1.50/1 Right Guard Total Defense coupon found here
Because of my doubled coupons my new total was $1.49!!!!!!!
Then, I got a $5 Catalina coupon for K-Mart shopping later!!!!

I'm gonna take advantage of their milk and cereal deal one more time using this $5!

Hope you get this in time to make good use of some of the deals at K-Mart!

20 Steps To Meal Planning

Menu Planning

One way to save big on your grocery bill is to plan your meals.  You know those annoying sales papers you get in the mail every week?  Those are actually useful for more than burning them in your fireplace!  I usually get my grocery ads on Wednesdays.  So here’s my step by step process to meal planning.

1.      1.  An hour well-spent!

Make sure you set aside about an hour for meal planning.  “An hour!?!  I can’t afford an hour!”  You can’t afford not to give an hour towards planning.  Meal planning saves you time at the grocery store because you know exactly what you are shopping for.  It also saves you time every evening because you aren’t staring into the abyss of your refrigerator wondering what in the world you are going to make for dinner.  In addition to saving time, planning your meals also saves you money.  You are less tempted to buy things you don’t need because those items aren’t part of your “plan” and you won’t be going through the drive-thru or ordering a pizza because you have no idea what to make for dinner!

2.      2.   Sit down with a 2-subject notebook, pen, calculator, sales ads and favorite cookbooks.  (If you are also using coupons, bring your coupon binder as well.)

3.       3.  Look in your freezer. 

See what kind of meat you have already.

4.      4.  Look for the meat on sale in your sales ads.

Since in America it’s all about meat, this is where I start.  If you’ll notice, there is usually a theme to the meat sales.  For instance one week most of the sales might be beef; another, pork.  If you don’t have a variety of meat in the freezer, this might mean that your family will be eating a lot of different kinds of pork in one week.  Pork chops on Monday, sausage on Tuesday, Bacon for breakfast on Wednesday, Pork loin for dinner…etc.  Once you stock up, you’ll eventually resolve this issue.

5.      5.  Think about what you have on your schedule for the week. 

For instance, on grocery day you may want to plan a crock pot meal or frozen pizzas.  By planning ahead, you’ll once again get rid of the temptation to go through the drive-thru.  This is really important because I spend about $20 per person per week on groceries and personal care items.  One trip through the drive-thru and I could have bought everything a person needs for an entire week!  If you have a party to go to that week, you may not have a meal to make that day, but you may be bringing an item.   This way, on the day of the party you won’t be running around like a chicken with its head cut off, and end up buying some overpriced cake shaped like a lamb, when nobody wants to eat Little Bo Peep anyway.

6.       6.  Think about which day(s) you may be able to have a more formal sit-down meal.

I don’t know about you, but as my children get older, they have their own agendas. The meals we sit down and share together are few and far between.  I do think the family meal is very important though, so I try to have a least one meal a week where we are all together.  If this was a pork week at the grocery store, it might be the day we have a pork loin dinner, or a ham.  Mondays work well for our family because we have church on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.  Fridays the children usually have their own plans.  Mondays are the only day that we have to really sit down and take our time together.  I start with planning the larger meals because they take more time to plan.

7.      7.  Look in your cookbooks to find recipes for either the meats in your freezer or the meat on sale.

8.       8.  Start a chart in the first section of your notebook. 

I usually leave several lines between each day so that I can fill in side dishes, etc.  At this point my chart would look something like this: Monday – ham, Tuesday – party (bring cake), Wednesday – frozen pizzas before church, Thursday – Tomato soup and grilled cheese (kids bring chips to youth group), Friday – Pork chop casserole in crock pot, Saturday – (kids go to Portillo’s with church friends) Fish and brown rice for Steve and I, Sunday – Roast, carrots and potatoes in crock pot.

9.       9.  Start a grocery list in the second section of your notebook.

As the cobwebs begin to clear, and your schedule begins to direct your meal planning, begin writing down ingredients you will need from the store in order to make these main dishes.

1     10.   Look at the produce on sale for the week.

Now I will look at what produce I can use for sides for the main dishes I have planned during the week.  For instance, if asparagus is on sale, I’d probably add that to Monday’s meal.  I also try to buy at least one produce item for snacks, ie. apples or clementines.  Add to grocery list.

11  11.  Look for staples in the sales ad.

This is when I’d look for rice, pasta, flour, sugar, bread and cereal and add them to my grocery list.  Even if I don’t need the item, if it’s on sale and I have 2 or less of those items I will purchase them (especially if I have a coupon J)

             12.  Think about lunches and breakfasts.

Breakfast may have been taken care of in #11.  The meal I hate planning for the most is lunch.  The question I most hate to hear is, “What’s for lunch?”  I usually reply, “I don’t know, find something.”  Tuesdays we’ll usually have leftovers for lunch.  I hate buying lunch meat because it’s so expensive.  Sometimes I’ll buy hot dogs, or lettuce for a salad.

        13.   Buy one package extra of everything on sale.

This is entirely dependent on your budget.  If you can only afford to buy one extra package of meat then pick the cheapest one for the week.  For example, let’s continue with our pork week.  Unless there is a buy one get one free sale on pork loin or ham it would probably be cheaper to buy an extra package of pork chops.  As you do this, you will begin to have a nice stockpile so that you don’t have to eat only pork all week.  The same also holds true with your staples.  Try to buy at least one extra when the item goes on sale.  This way you have extra in your pantry and you don’t have to buy it at full price.  Add these items to your grocery list.

1      14.  Be smart with every scrap of leftovers.

Using the pork example, if I purchased a ham, I would purchase one with a bone.  Then after serving the ham on Monday, I would remove all the extras for lunch on Tuesday, and freeze the bone for ham soup another week.  Another thing I do, (I know this is controversial) is that I give my dog any food leftover on everyone’s plate.  Of course, if we have candied sweet potatoes I don’t give him those, but anything that doesn’t have sugar, I do. I still buy dog food, and serve it to him once a day so that he is sure to get the nutrition he needs.  At the end of the meal I just scrape the food from the plates into his bowl.  This keeps the cost of dog food down.

1     15.  Think about household items you may need.

Before I piled up extras, I had a rule.  If anyone needed something it was their responsibility to let me know before I went grocery shopping.  Otherwise, it would have to wait until next week. J  Add these items to your grocery list. 

        16.  Bring the list with you to the grocery store.

How many times have we all done this!  I am so committed to my list, that if I forget it, I go back home and get it.  (I have also called my daughter and had her read it or text it to me!)

        17.  Stick to the list!!

Unless there is some huge unadvertised sale, I buy exactly what is on my list.  Because of this, and lots of practice, I can usually tell you within $5 what my grocery bill will be before I leave the house.  I make it a game with myself to keep my bill as close to that $5 margin of error as possible!

        18.  Before going through the line, check your list to make sure you have everything.

        19.  Go to stores like Aldi or Sav-A-Lot for milk, eggs, cream, and butter.

         20.  Be grateful!  Have fun!  You have much more than most people on this planet!

There have been times I have had to do these steps, and times I have chosen to do these steps.  Sometimes self-pity will rise up and I’ll watch someone fill their cart to the brim, and I’ll envy them.  To be honest though, I don’t think I could do it- even if I was a millionaire.  It’s not only about the money I save each week, it’s about the time and the organization it brings to my family.  Honestly, I’ve had friends who spend hundreds of dollars a week on groceries and when they get home they have no idea what to make!  So smile, you are a virtuous woman!  You plan for the future!