Going Green in 2009!

Have you thought about going green? Maybe a little bit? I had a hard time starting, because I felt like I was dishing out a lot of money at once, which I'm completely against. So we started small here.

When our lightbulbs would burn out, I purchased the Energy Star, energy efficient bulbs. They really do last a LOT longer.

My green bags were my next step. Most places sell them now, and most places have started giving a discount when you use a reusable bag. It doesn't have to be theirs! I found most of them give you $.05 off for each bag you fill. With my two weeks of groceries, I fill between 5-7 bags. I know, it's not much, but it's something!

Consider the green reusable bags! Maybe you could make a goal to try something green for the new year.

Mine? I'm going to try making my own cleaning products, and save money that way. Let me know if you have any cheap goals for 2009!

Getting ready for Christmas

This time of year makes it hard to be a cheapskate, because it seems to coincide with 'scrooge' for some reason. But I'm not a scrooge. Not even remotely close. I actually get in arguments with Captain Jax about when I can put up Christmas decorations. He thinks I need to wait until December, and I think as soon as Christmas music is on the radio I need to decorate.

We compromised this year, and he let me put up ONE decoration. I picked my nativity.


But that's not what this post is about. I think I just wanted to show off my nativity, because I love it!

Go check out my friend Amy's post about cheap gifts for you kids. It's worth the trip over there!

Water Storage

From this . . . .

This is the thing I have the hardest time with when working towards my ultimate food storage goal of one year. Do you know how much water three people need for one year?! I don't, but I know I'm NO WHERE close to having enough. Actually, it's not convenient to have a years supply of water, no one has enough space to store it, so it's not recommended. A think a three-month's supply is what's recommended. Anyway, I don't have enough, not even close.

We don't often buy bottled juices. Usually we buy frozen concentrate and make that up. I'm kind of a juice junkie. But when they're a good deal, like during the case lot sale, they were about $1.50 a bottle. The frozen concentrate I like is about $1 a can, so it was worth it to me to buy the 2 qt bottles of apple juice.

So after I finish my juice, which only takes me like 1 day, 2 days at the most (I told you, I'm a juice junkie!) I send the bottle through the dishwasher and fill it full of water.

To this!!

Slowly but surely, I'll have my water storage!

5 ways I save money

5 Ways I Save Money:

1-Bring a list to the grocery store and STICK TO IT!!
How many times do you come home with things you don't need, and missing the thing you do need? We go grocery shopping once every two weeks. I plan our meals for those two weeks, and the things we'll need for those meals. Add the essentials (eggs, milk, cheese, bread, ice cream) also know as our every day things, and that's it. Very rarely do we walk out with extra items, and then we usually are within our budget amount as well.

2-Create a meal plan
If I have a meal plan laid out, I've bought the things for it already, this saves me extra trips to the grocery store to pick up something I need for dinner that night AND I'm not adding extra things because they sound good.

3-Use my budget
We have one. Even if I'm the only one who knows what amount is in each one. I'm in charge of the finances in our house, even though Captain Jax brings home the paycheck. I pretty much give him an allowance for two weeks, and that's all he gets for his fun stuff. If I'm close to my budget amount in a section, I don't pull from another section that may have excess (like when my CC is paid off, I don't take the amount I was putting towards that and spend on scrapbook stuff, although it's tempting) I just STOP spending in that area. It took us about 12 months of playing with the budget to get it to work for us. but it works. We even have a section in it for savings. Someday we WILL own a home, and be out of his parent's basement!

4-Buy the store brand
Unless the name brand is cheaper with my coupon or something, I buy the store brand of items. Brand loyalty does not help you save money.

5-Coupons, coupons, coupons
When matched with a sale, coupons can save you money, and sometimes MAKE you money. Yes, you heard me. When used just because you have a coupon. . .well, they aren't much good.


These are small tips, but for us, the grocery store is where most of our money goes. Find out if your local grocery store has a gas station, and if they do, how much you have to spend there to get a discount. My local Harmon's Grocery has a gas station, and when you spend $30, you get $.05cents off a gallon, spend $50, you get $.10cents off. $75, you get $.15cents off. Spend $100 and you get $.20 off a gallon of gas. And this is up to 20 gallons worth! It's worth it for me to shop there, and save money on our gas as well.

Start small, and I bet you can find all sorts of ways to save money, and be a cheapskate too!

How I organize my coupons

I've seen lots of ways to organize coupons. Most seem to be too much work for me. I'm not a hard core couponer, and I don't have the time to clip EVERY SINGLE coupon I find and file them into separate pockets, then organize by the exp date, then clean it out every week. I can't do that. But for some people it works great! this is was works for me, and it might just work for you too.

I have an accordian folder, with 13 pockets. It's not a HUGE one, because I only get one newspaper, so I'm only filing 1 set of inserts.

See? all the months that I can put all the inserts in that come in the newspaper for that month.
I take a magic marker and write the dates on the insert, near the top left corner, because that will be the spot I'll see as I'm thumbing through them.
and what I also like to do, but usually don't get around to it. . .is visit taylortownpreview.com and print of the list of coupons that are included in the inserts for the week. The wonderful thing about this webpage (besides the fact that it has this great list) is that the coupons are in alphabetical order, they have the expiration date on them, and they have how much the coupon is for. I've only found a few variations from their list, to what I get in my paper. Like my area sometimes doesn't have the $1.00 off of something, it has $.50cents off of it instead. so when I have the time, I like to print the list off, and go through mine and make sure they match. Then it's easy to see what I have, with everything being in alphabetical order. also I can cross it off when I use it, or when it expires. Then when I hear about a great deal using a coupon from, say the Smart start on 9/14 I don't have to flip through all my inserts searching for it, only to realize later that I already used it on something else earlier. I just scan down the sheet, find it, and see if it's crossed off or not.

But like I said, this method also it a bit time consuming, and with a littler baby, I don't quite have the time to do it. I'm just not a hard-core couponer! I admit it.

I also don't like carrying a HUGE coupon binder to to store with me, JUST IN CASE I find something that if I used a coupon with would be a great deal. I already have my baby, a diaper bag, and purse. That's plenty for me! I plan my deals before I go, clip the coupons and file them in this little organizer.


Nice a small eh? that's what I love about it. I have the different stores I shop at in alphabetical order, then I file the coupons for the store I plan to use them at.

ta-da! just like that! then I know what I'm looking for, and I don't get my deals mixed up.

I hope this helps you feel like you can get started with your coupons! no need to clip them all!! Visit hotcouponworld.com or pinchingyourpennies.com and THEY do all the work for you--well, they find the deals and tell you where to find the coupon. you still have to clip it and visit the store. small price to pay when you're going to save TONS of money!! and sometimes even make some back!

A perk to living in Utah

For the most part, I don't mind living in Utah. But the cost of living is V-E-R-Y high, and we honestly couldn't afford to live here, if we didn't have family to help us out. a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment in my city is around $800 a month!! that's not including any utilities. (that's also equal to one paycheck for us!)

a wonderful perk though are the local grocery stores have annual caselot sales. What's a caselot sale you ask? It's wonderful. Basically, the store puts items on sale for super cheap, but you have to buy a certain amount to get the sale price. You have to buy a case worth.

For example: a can of cream of mushroom soup usually costs about $1.25 or if it's on sale, you can get it for about a dollar. But during the caselot sale (my local caselot stores are Macey's Grocery, and Harmon's Grocery) I can buy a case of cream of mushroom soup for about $.69 a can!! This is because I'm buying a case of 24 cans that are 10.5oz (your normal size can) for $16.56.

This is a great deal! These sales are wonderful for building up a fod storage, or for even getting the items you use alot for a great price. Like pasta sauces and noodles. Both can store quite well fo a long period of time. Ad if you can get a case of them better than you can get them on sale? Well, that means it's time to STOCK UP!!

and as a side note, the wednesday deals I was planing to post as my local news channel talked about them, are not what I thought they would be. On the plus side though, I'm putting a few new recipes on Recipes of a Cheapskate, and I'm working on a post for a great way for a beginner to store their coupons.

Want to get started?

Would you like to get started? Not sure where to start to save money? I wasn't either. One of my local TV stations is doing a special for the next 6 months. Every Wednesday, they have a 'specialist' couponer, who is finding the deals at our local grocery store and creating meals for us! Here's the link to their site, where we can all find good deals, even if you don't live in my area! I'll do my best to keep this updated as well!

Cheap or free this week!

This is my game plan for this week for deals:

WAGS
Free Cutter Bug Spray all month:
If your store has the small packages that are 2/$3, use the $1 ES coupon and $1 manu coupon (6/15 SmartSource) for $1 for 2! (for the record, I couldn't find any small ones at my Walgreens today. . .just big bottles at $7 a pop!! not worth it)

RITE AID
Crest 2.49-1.74SCR-.75 P&G(today's)= FREE
Herbal essence 2/$5- $3 q (P&G-today's) -3SCR = Free
Infusion 4.99- $3q(P&G todays) -1.99 SCR = Free
The SCR is a single check rebate. You can enter your receipts online, and then at the end of the month submit them, and they'll mail you a check, or a gift card. I've never done this before, but I've heard you can get a gift card instead, and they add like 10% or something to your amount! not too shabby

STAPLES:
1¢ 8-pack pencils limit 2
1¢ pocket folders limit 10
1¢ Purell sanitizer limit 2
25¢ .5" OR 1" binders limit 4
FREE AR 4-pack Pental highlighters (after rebate of 4.99)

rumor also has it that staples will have more penny sales coming up as school is getting closer to starting!!

slacking and lack of deals

I have been slacking lately, and I apologize. There have been a few deals in the past few weeks that I haven't blogged about, but are now over. :( if it makes you feel better, there was only one deal this week, and I screwed it up anyway. A screaming munchkin can do that to you!

But if you're able to before sunday. . .go to WALGREENS

Their JUMBO (not mega, those are the ones that I bought) packs of diapers are on sale for $5.99 a pack. There's a coupon in their easy saver catalog (at the front of the store, by the weekly ads) for $5 off 2 packs. Their ad for this week, buy 3 of any participating items (jumbo pack diapers, children's motin/tylanol, desitin, formula, and johnsons lotion/body wash) and get $5 RR (register reward--aka--coupon for $5 off your next purchase)

soooo. . .that comes to $17 for 3 packs of diapers, the coupon takes $5 off, (now $12) and then you get $5 to use on your next purchase. Ends up at $7 for three packs of diapers. I don't know the count on the diapers. I''m guess around thirty? (the megas I bought had around 50) either way, $7 for 90 diapers?? I'm not so good at math, but that's less than $.10 a diaper.

Pretty darn good deal.

Or stock up on the johnson's wash and desitin and give them away as gifts! There's also a coupon in the ESC for the desitin ($1 off, not much)

as for grocery deals. . .Smith's apparently has 5lb bag of grated cheese on sale for $9.99 That's an awesome price for cheese!! I buy my 5lb brick at costco for $13!! Grated cheese also freezes really well so you can divide it into individual baggies in your freezer, and just pull them out as needed!

I also just learned that smith's and kroger's are owned by the same company. So if you see an awesome kroger's deal, and are kicking yourself because you don't have a krogers, check yoour smith's ad and you might be lucky!

that's all for now folks. Get ready for a recipe on Recipes of a Cheapskate though! I've got some BBQ tonight, and a fresh fruit lasagna! (yes, I said fruit)

New recipe up!

I've got a new recipe up on Recipes of a Cheapskate! Go check it out, then come back and read about my deals from last week. Yeah, they're old, I'm slow. . . .I've got a munchkin who needs my attention!

Free bandaids!

My second deal went quite nicely!

this week at Walgreens, two types of bandaids are on sale for $.99! They have a sheer, and a natural color. One type has 30 count, the other has 40 count. I bought the 40 count one. There's a coupon in the May 18th Red Plum coupon insert for $1.00 off any bandaids. that means free bandaids!

We also needed cereal, and I had a coupon for $1.00 off any two boxes of General Mills cereal. so we got those too. They were on 'sale' for 2 boxes for $8.00. Ouch! Not really a sale i think.

Here's how it broke down anyway:

Banaids: $1.00 (they had to adjust the price to equal the coupon, not sure why)
coupon: -$1.00
Lucky charms: $4.49
2nd box: $3.51
Coupon: -$1.00
TOTAL: $7.31 (after tax)

I guess it's alright. I don't like the price I paid for the cereal, but we needed it, and the coupon expired next week.

My first coupon deal

This week, Target has a sale on their Gillette Razors. Buy 2 at $9.44 each, get a $10 gift card. Sunday's ads had some coupons! There was a $2 off a Venus razor, and a $4 off a Fusion razor. Also on May 18th, there were more coupons for $2 off a venus (I got my mom's coupons so I had two).

Here's how it worked out:

Transaction one:
1 venus razor: $9.44
1 $2/off coupon -$2.00
1 fusion razor: $9.44
1 $4/off coupon -$4.00
total out of pocket$12.88+tax+ $10 gift card. Like spending $2.88+tax!

Transaction two:
2 Venus razors: $18.88
2 $2/off coupons -$4.00
Total OOP: $14.88+tax+$10 gift card

Since this was my first coupon deal, I didn't know how I'd receive the gift cards. I thought I might have to go to customer service to get it. if I had known I got it right there, i would have put the first $10 card into the second transaction. Instead, I spent $28.92 (that's with tax) and now have $20 in gift cards to use!

Good thing my munchkin can always use more diapers!

creating my space

I realized I'm already getting ahead of myself. I need to create a space for my food storage, which is difficult because we're living in my in-laws basement! so we have to be creative. there is a storage room in the basement, but it needs some serious cleaning out first.

This is our storage room:

Those top two shelves are ours. Not too much space eh?
The bottom shelves are my in-laws. As you can see, they've got a rotating system going on with their cans right there. they take the front can, and every time they buy a new one, it goes in the back. A whole lot cheaper than a cansolidator! (although I still want one, and some day will have a HUGE one)
this is the hallway back to the other storage room. Those shelves we just looked at? They're on the left side of the photo. Imagine the shelf space that could be created if all that stuff was moved, or at least cleaned up!
This is the back storage room. Pretty much it's full of random stuff. A lot of canning jars, from back when my mother-in-law would can stuff. There's actually still a lot of jam she had canned. Good thing that stuff can last forever!

They also have a little bit of their own food storage. Those big number 10 cans have a bunch of stuff in them.

anyway, my goal for tomorrow, while Captain Jax is off of work, is to get this room a little more picked up!! if we consolidate everything into it's own place, I can get some space in there. And I can use the empty canning jars to can some fresh fruit this summer. Yum!

starting food storage---and non-food storage

I don't know where to start with this. Everyone says "store what you eat!" but we don't really eat things that store. We eat a lot of perishables. Cheese is a big thing in our house, so is milk, and bread. We also really like fruits and veggies (or at least we're getting better about eating them).

Of the non-perishable food items, we eat a lot of pasta, pasta sauce, canned cream'o'soups, and um. . .I'm sure there's more but I can't think of any.

I found this food storage calculator. It tells us how much we need to store for years supply of food. I'm not ready to get that far. First I want to get a 3-month supply and start and good rotation working.

Your Family Will Need:

Grains
375 lbs of Wheat
62 lbs of Flour
62 lbs of Corn Meal
62 lbs of Oats
125 lbs of Rice
62 lbs of Pasta
748 lbs Total Grains

Legumes
75 lbs of Dry Beans
11 lbs of Lima Beans
25 lbs of Soy Beans
11 lbs of Split Peas
11 lbs of Lentils
11 lbs of Dry Soup Mix
144 lbs Total Legumes

Fats and Oils
10 lbs of Shortening
5 gal of Vegetable Oil
5 qts of Mayonnaise
3 qts of Salad Dressing
10 lbs of Peanut Butter
63 lbs Total Fats and Oils

Milk and Dairy
150 lbs of Dry Milk
30 cans of Evaporated Milk
32 lbs of Other Dairy
187 lbs of Total Milk and Dairy

Sugars
7 lbs of Honey
100 lbs of Sugar
7 lbs of Brown Sugar
3 lbs of Molasses
7 lbs of Corn Syrup
7 lbs of Jams
15 lbs of Powdered Fruit Drink
3 lbs of Flavored Gelatin
149 lbs Total Sugars

Cooking Essentials
3 lbs of Baking Powder
3 lbs of Baking Soda
1.5 lbs of Yeast
13 lbs of Salt
1.5 gal of Vinegar

Water *
42 gal of Water
3 gal of Bleach

Fruits
100 lbs of Flavored Apples
100 lbs of Applesauce
75 lbs of Banana Chips
87.5 lbs of Fruit Mixture
100 lbs of Fruit Juices
462.5 lbs Total Fruits

Vegetables
75 lbs of Corn
75 lbs of Peas
75 lbs of Green Beans
75 lbs of Carrots
100 lbs of Potatoes
12.5 lbs of Onions
50 lbs of Tomatoes
462.5 lbs Total Vegetables

* It is impractical for most families to store a year's supply of water. However, at least 14 gallons per person are suggested as a two-week emergency reserve.

So that's for a full year. 2 adults, and 1 child under the age of 6. It's pretty intimidating in my opinion. That seems like it would take a really, REALLY long time to get all that stuff! and it needs to be stored properly so it doesn't go bad, so it's mostly dehydrated stuff. And we're not big bean eaters, but I'm sure if it was an emergency we'd find a way to do it.

That's why I'm starting with a 3 month supply. It's all about baby steps.

I've made a list of things we use on a regular basis and should have a storage:

Building a 3-month supply of things we eat

Pasta/rice/beans
Pasta Sauce-pesto
Soups
canned fruit and veggies
flour
sugar
water

Non-Perishables

Shampoo
Conditioner
Hand soap
Bar Soap
Toothpaste
mouthwash
Laundry soap
Dish soap
toilet paper
paper towels
condoms
tampons

and now as I go grocery shopping, I'm going to pick up an extra of a few things until I have a good collection. With the non-perishables, I've started keeping a list of about how long it takes us to go through something. Like a bottle of shampoo. We go through that quicker than conditioner, because Captain Jax doesn't use conditioner, only I do. And toothpaste. Right now only 2 of us brush our teeth, but in a few months, Munchkin will probably have her first tooth or two.

It's all about baby steps. and trying not to get overwhelmed with all the information out there.

Couponing

I'm trying to get started using coupons. I've tried a few times, and haven't gotten very far. Mostly because the newspaper subscription ran out. but I've renewed it now, and we're getting 26 weeks, of just the sunday paper. I really just want the coupon inserts, and Captain Jax really just wants the comics. Actually, he probably just wants to dilbert comic.

I've subscribed to pinchingyourpennies.com and they have forums to help you figure out how to start couponing, as well as ads from all the grocery stores that match up sales with coupons, and give them a ranking on if it's a good deal or not. I like that concept.

The frustrating thing is I haven't got a newspaper yet, so I don't have any ads yet. And once I do get a newspaper, the ads probably won't do much for me for a few months. I guess I'm just a person who wants to have everything at once! I need to work on my patience I guess.

Confession

I pretend I'm a cheapskate.

I want to use coupons, but I don't know how.

I think I need to start storing food.

I don't follow my budget very well.

I live in my in-laws basement so my husband Captain Jax can go to school.

My munchkin wears used clothes. And new ones sometimes.

I have a weakness for scrapbooking stuff.

Captain Jax has a weakness for video games.

I have thousands of recipes I've never tried.

I'm LDS and proud of it.

I think a garden would cut down our grocery bill, but I've yet to ever plant one.

I'm bad at writing thank you notes.

Large amounts of debt scare me. And we have a large amount for Captain Jax's schooling.

I want to homeschool my munchkin so I can teach her how I want to, how it suits her learning, and about God and our religion.

I want to be a domestic goddess.

I want to help someone with something by this blog. Even if it's only me!