Boys Will Be Boys

Posts Tagged ‘bargains’

for a bargain!   I’ll admit right now, I love a good deal! I love to see how much $$ I’ve saved on my grocery receipt.  I do a lot of things to save us money.  I get told a lot of times, “it takes too much time”.  Or I get asked how I do it.  So, today is my strategy day!  What I’ve learned, what I’m still learning how to do better and what resources I use!

Let me just say that growing up I watched and helped my mom with her coupons.  I think a lot of what I do now is because I remember her doing it but also because I just don’t see the reason to pay full price if I don’t have to.  I’m convinced that every little bit helps when you have kids.  Here’s some of the ways we save money.

Mint.com:  First off I’ve started doing our budget using Mint.  I’ve read about it on various blogs and websites for a while now.  I kept thinking I should try it out and finally after a tight money summer, I decided we might want to try it out.  It’s owned by Intuit so the people that do Turbo Tax & Quicken.  Basically I can set up a budget in it and then it tracks my various accounts, pulling my expenses into the categories I assign them.  It then applies those transaction against my budget items like groceries, mortgage, daycare, entertainment, preschool, utilities etc.

For example:  I go to Safeway (grocery store) and use my debit.  That night I look at mint.com and I see Safeway as a transaction, it automatically assigns the category “grocery” to it.  I then look at my budget and the bar graph and the dollar amount reflect how much I’ve now spent for the month on grocery category.  It will slowly fill up and turn colors as I approach my budget limit.  It will also tell me when I’ve gone over and shows up red eeps!!    It recognizes some stores automatically and then others like say our HOA fees, I can assign a certain payee to a category so each transaction to that payee falls into HOA or whatever I assign.  It’s a pretty eye opening system.  Can we say $50 coffee month in July freaked me out…oops!  I’m now on the lean mean $15 / month coffee budget and surprisingly have not gone over!  (thankfully we have a Keurig at home so I can still get my fix, just not my drive-thru fix).

The Grocery Game: This is my next big dollar saving tip.  I’ve been doing the whole coupon thing for a long time now, thought I had a pretty good system, thought I was pretty organized and thought I was saving a bunch of money.  Then I read about this, a neighbor mentioned it not long ago on her facebook and also I’ve seen it on various blogs/sites.  The most time consuming part of couponing is matching your coupons with your ads and also figuring out what is really a good deal.  I’ve watched prices for so long that I can walk into Safeway, look at something and know that even with a coupon I can get a better deal somewhere else or at Safeway on a sale.  What I LOVE about Grocery Game is how she does all the match-ups for ya.  By 8am every Sunday I can log onto the Grocery Game website and see the Safeway ad with the sale prices, what coupons to use & where they were from or where to print them from online and what my bottom line is.  She also uses colors to tell you if it’s a stock-up price or even free…or just eh’ and don’t buy unless you need.

Here’s the thing about coupons….yes, not everyone uses the products used in the coupons but I bet you use a lot more than you think.  Lots of our “staples” are coupon items.  Olive oils for instance are $$$ but I can get them nearly free a lot of times.  Shaving creams/deodorants etc. all can be nearly free, if not free.  I also think a lot of items that are on the coupons aren’t necessarily things I would normally pay the price for but if I have a coupon and it barely costs me anything, I might try it out.  Yep, I’m a sucker.

I don’t think you necessarily need to shop using coupons, even if you shopped off sales & the ads, you’d be saving a ton of money!!  I plan what we eat based off what’s in season for produce and what’s on sale.  We eat a lot of fruit and berries in the summer than freeze some to last us a bit when they aren’t so fresh and local.  Living in Oregon has it’s benefits for great local fresh produce. It’s easy in that sense to get pretty good stuff at a decent price from various places.  I’m pretty picky on the whole veggies & fruits thing.  I’ve also gotten pickier on our meats, dairy and eggs.  I pay way more attention to hormone free, local grown type stuff.  A lot has to do with the kids but it’s just in general better for us.  We get a lot of great fish, halibut and salmon too so we tend to have a large amount of that in our freezer.  Eating healthier sometimes is more expensive but if you play the game, you can still save money!!!    (It does piss me off a bit that I pay a premium for some of the healthier things when I see the sugar version next to it on the shelf for a buck cheaper!).    It’s very rare that my Safeway receipt says less than 40-50% savings on it.   I’ve gone in and buy nearly $100 worth of groceries for $30.  I know some people that can do even better but it all depends on how you shop, what you eat and of course the time you put into it.

• Buy on sale & in season
• Don’t be afraid to stock up
• Coupons are available for more things than you think
• Get at least 2 Sunday papers.  Watch for double coupons also!
• Either find something like Grocery Game to do the match-ups for you OR use a website like afullcoupon.com / hotcouponworld to do the match-ups.

Multiple Emails: Create a junk email just for coupons/registrations/sign ups to things.  Get on the email list say for Gap, Coach, Gymboree, Children’s Place, Whole Foods and whatever stores float your boat.  You’ll get great coupons in the emails and sometimes in the mail from those.  I rarely walk into a store without a coupon or buy online without one.  I honestly can wait most times or time my shopping for sales during the year.  We need to buy soccer shoes, shin guards and socks for Braysen coming up.  Patrick has a coupon for a sports goods store.  My daycare provider gave me a coupon for the shoe store for the boys new tennis shoes so we are all set…once we make it there this week! hehe

Get Organized: I have an expandable file folder that I put the ads in.  I do not cut them out, instead I write on each ad (Smart Source, Red Plum etc) the date of the paper it was in.  The reason is:  most match up’s go by the date the ad was run so you can find them easier!  When my match up says SS 8/29.  I know to look at August 29th’s Smart Source insert and find my coupon, then I cut the coupon.    I use small organizers from the Target $ spot for my coupons that I am taking with me while shopping.  I also have a section in the expandable file folder for non-grocery coupons to say Gymboree, Crazy 8, Children’s Place, Gap, Outlet stores, local restaurants and the likes.

Lastly, for me it’s all about using the internet to your advantage.  I have a set of bookmarked sites & blogs I follow that I watch for deals.  If I know I want to buy say “Leapfrog Explorer” for Braysen for Christmas, I keep an eye out for that.  If I see Keurig coffee K-cups hit a cheap subscribe & save price on Amazon, we’ll order some to replenish our stock.  It’s sometimes not about what you need “right” now but what you will need in 2 months and it’s a great price you won’t see in 2 months when  you need it.

Saving money doesn’t have to be hard.  Seriously, it’s not a lot of work and the reward is extra dollars in  your pocket!  You can be a deal hunter extremist or do just a few things but it’s really not as time consuming as people think.  You honestly think I would take the time away from my kids + school + work + activities schedule to spend hours doing this?  Um, I don’t have hours to do it so it must be quick or it’s not worth sacrificing other things for!!!!

Recent Deals I’ve taken advantage of!

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Lands End~ some good deals on kids stuff.

Picked up this 4 in 1 Winter Jacket, normally $99 – sale $19.99 and preschool backpack for $9.99
Free Shipping Code JULY13 PIN# 00006182
http://tinyurl.com/n5ak8f
http://tinyurl.com/l864wl

Real Simple Magazine Subscription for 1 year = $5!!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_13320_12493630_pe_g1/?ASIN=B00005R8BR

Ordered last week a bunch of stuff through Children’s Place for averaging $3 or less a shirt after % off Deal and got Free Shipping Code from calling a store.

I don’t know whether to be sad or happy that vacation is officially over.  We finally will get back to our old routines and maybe a sense of normality will find its way back to our house.  On the other hand, it was nice sleeping in a little extra, running arounds in the morning without kids and just enjoying a nice quiet house with the hubby.

It’s once again snowing here, who knows what it will look like come morning.  At least I’ll be going to work in some new snazzy clothes, thanks to a Woodburn Outlet shopping trip on New Years Eve!!  We dropped the kiddos off at daycare and then headed out for a whirlwind shopping trip.  I’ve never cleared that outlet so fast, of course we were on a time restraint but still!  The deals were AMAZING and well worth the trip.

Most people know that I’m a bargain gal to say the least.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy nice things but I enjoy them for a lot less $$ then most!  Some would say that my researching, web surfing or bargain hunting is a waste of time.  Some would say that they have no interest in doing “that much work” or have better things to do than be on the web.  I admit I get a bit of a kick out of it and landing that great deal makes things all that much sweeter.

So, on that note~ shopping! I’m sure this is going to be the first of many “Bargain Shopping” posts by me here coming up because I’ve been asked about it.  First though, is my random ramblings about our Outlet trip!!

White House Black Market:  LOVE LOVE this store and they have them at Washington Square/Tanasbourne.  I always gawk at them but definitely can’t afford $60-90 shirts.  We decided kind of last minute to swing by their outlet and boy am I glad we did.  ALL shirts were marked down to $14.99 and all bottomes to $29.99.  I walked out with a couple shirts and a new skirt.  Probably should have gotten more but we behaved!  I’ll definitely be going back there in the future though because we both fell in love with their clothes on me.  DH (Dear Hubby) was pulling things for me to try on and helping critique which shirts to get.

Banana Republic:  Again, LOVE this store but $90 slacks ..not really in the budget.  They had almost all their slacks marked down to $22-24.99.  I walked out with some new slacks and they were super comfy plus fit great.  I really really like their “Ryan” fit so I’ll be watching this store at the outlets more often too.

Gap:  Usually one of my fave outlets but to our surprise their prices were higher than Banana and White House!!! We were shocked!  I did get Braysen some new 3T cargos for $7.99 because he’s growing out of all his 2T stuff due to length.  Boy am I thankful for adjustable waist!!

Columbia:  Patrick needed to replace his old tennis shoes from there and they had pretty much the identical ones he loves, in his size (size 14 – not easy to find!).  Got them for a nice bargain price of $29.99 instead of the $80 we paid for his last.  I love my Columbia tennis shoes and we paid $80 for mine too but we know better now.  I’ll be returning I’m sure when I wear mine down.  Seriously, their shoes wear so well and are super comfy.

Aeropostale:  One of the somewhat teeny-bopper stores that I like.  Their t-shirts and henley shirts are comfy plus cute.  I nabbed 2 t-shirts for $2.99 a piece and Patrick found a new pair of jeans for $19.  I’m not a huge fan of the logo on everything in there but I do like the fit on me for their stuff whereas some clothing brands are definitely for the younger gen.

Typically I have to take at least Merrick with me so I don’t get to try on many things or take my time looking at MY clothes.  It’s all about the kiddos but this time we stuck to just adult stores for the most part.  I resisted the urge to buy any kids clothes and probably will try to hold out for the spring lines before doing that.  I’m addicted to the Gap, Children’s Place, Gymboree, OshKosh and Old Navy outlets for the kiddos.  I stick to buying their clothes at outlets or the online sales.  I recently hit up a Crazy 8 sale for the boys – 16 shirts (long and short) for $21 shipped!  Can’t beat that!!! Even Walmart / Target costs more per shirt than that and they are really cute.  (Crazy 8 is part of Gymboree, basically what Old Navy is to Gap)  I also hit a major Children’s Place sale online and got some amazing deals there too!

Another thing I learned while shopping…I’m down to a size 6 in slacks at Banana Republic but I still wear size 8 in jeans at Gap.! Yay!  I can wear size mediums in tops at White House Black Market (Large used to be my thing thanks to a blessed chest while nursing..it’s starting to kind of recover even though I’m still nursing).  Now, hopefully the new year will bring even a few sizes smaller and a better in shape heather.  Only time will tell…literally ..how much time I have to work out!

Well this is rambling long enough for one nite…and of all things, shopping!  I just had fun for once shopping for myself.  It was nice to get some amazing deals, shop with the hubby (who actually bought some stuff for himself without too much arm twisting) and enjoy some kiddo free time!

Off to relax before a nice early morning dose of reality hits ~ back to work I go!