Save on Shipping, Gas and more..
Did you know that you can order flat rate boxes and envelopes from the US Post Office? Did I mention they are FREE? Oh and did I mention that they will be delivered to your door for FREE too!
With today’s frugal tip, order these online through their website and keep these boxes on hand, this way when you need to ship an item, you’ll be ready to go.
Plus you’ll save on shipping too if you print your label online.
Lets say you are sending something priority mail in their medium flat rate box. The original price of it is $10.70. Online it’s $10.20 but it also comes with free delivery confirmation, which is an additonal $0.70 savings!
And lastly schedule a carrier pickup and you’ll save on gas too!
You don’t need coupons to save money!
Save Money on Groceries Without Coupons
Did you know that you can save money on groceries without coupons? If you are the type that hates dealing with coupons and feel that coupons don’t really save you money, not to mention the time it takes to clip and sort them, this posting is just for you!
I truly feel that coupons will enhance your savings especially if you use and apply them at the right time. But I also understand the work and time involved in couponing. Therefore, I wanted to share with you ways you can save money on groceries without coupons.
The KEY way to saving is to stockpile items you need in advance and when they are on sale!
This week in your menu you are planning on making spaghetti. You need, pasta noodles and pasta sauce. We’ll this week none of these items are on sale. High Price you’ll pay $2.49 for a jar of pasta sauce and $1.49 for the noodles. That’s a total of $3.98. We’ll last week these items were on sale. The pasta sauce was on sale for $0.99 and the noodles were on sale for $0.49. Total Cost $1.48! If you would have bought these items last week and stocked up, you would have been able to do two meals for the price of one!! Most of these sales run in cycles, so you NEED to stock up while the items are at their lowest price during the cycle. See how simple it is to save money on groceries without coupons?
Many people eat the same meals over and over again. Start keeping track of the meals you make along with the ingredients and start a price book. Take your price book to the store with you and every time you are at the store, write down how much the item is and track when they go on sale.
At first, you’ll feel like your spending more, which in fact you are, because you are buying items that will last you several months. Once your stockpile is sufficient, you’ll start noticing your savings and notice that you are only buying essential items throughout the weeks.
(Think if it like the stock market… if you knew that a price of stock was going to go down and you would lose money, would you still buy that stock at full price?)
Want to learn how to build a stockpile? Check out my stockpiling series – How to build a Stockpile
Save Money on Groceries Without Coupons
Stretching One Meal into TWO!
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to share with you, how to stretch one meal into two! This week I shared a Pot Roast Recipe for dinner #1 and BBQ Sandwiches for dinner #2.
If you missed the posting, you can read more about it HERE.
Here is a picture of my Pot Roast Dinner:
This feed my family of 6, for 2 full meals and we still had some leftovers for lunch the next day
If you would like to share or have an idea for Stretching one meal into Two, let me know. I would love to try a new recipe!
Stretching One Meal into TWO!
As a busy, not to mention frugal parent. I often look for ways to help stretch my meals. One of my favorite ways to do that is to take one meal and make it into two! Not only will you be able to save on your groceries but you will be able to save on your time as well.
Dinner 1: Pot Roast (Crock Pot Method)
- 4 pounds boneless beef roast
- 2 teaspoon vegetable oil
- salt and pepper
- 2 onion, quartered
- 1 (8oz) baby carrots
- 2 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Directions: In a large skillet, add oil and saute roast until browned on edges, then season roast with salt and pepper and place aside.
In Crock Pot add: Onions, Carrots, Garlic and Parsley, Place Roast on Top of the vegetables then add 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup on top. Cover and let cook from 8-10 hours.
Great sides: Mashed Potatoes
Dinner 2 – BBQ Beef Sandwiches
- Beef from Pot Roast Dinner
- Hamburger Buns
- 1 Bottle of BBQ Sauce
Directions: Take about 2 lbs of Pot Roast from Dinner #1. Shred, beef into tiny pieces.
Add 1 bottle of your favorite BBQ Sauce. Mix, place in ziplock container and refrigerate.
Day 2- Heat in microwave until completely warmed. Serve with Hamburger buns.
Great sides: Coleslaw and Fries.
Do you have a great recipe of stretching one meal into two? If so I’d love to share it with everyone, email me all the details!
What’s Cooking
There are a few things that I’ve been wanting to try and make….
1. Cake Pops (Lollipops made out of cake) I saw the cutest picture of these and can’t wait to try it.
2. Homemade Wheat Tortillas
3. Homemade Pretzels
I can’t wait to show you the pictures of these when I’m done. Do you have any new found loves, you would recommend me trying?
Is it worth it?
Have you ever taken a moment to consider your purchases? Are they really something you need, OR is it more of a want?
Let’s say you are the amongst the normal. Living paycheck to paycheck, carry a credit card and are working your way out of debt. You’ve vowed to yourself to payoff your bills and have been working really hard at it, but you’ve been tempted to buy a new television. You don’t really have the money for it, but will when you get your tax return back, so why not purchase it, after reasoning with yourself that you should buy this, you go ahead and charge it on your credit card. It’s still OK because you plan on paying it off when you get your tax money.
As your sitting enjoying your new television and admiring the quality and the great deal you’ve found. Your husband comes home and tells you he had a flat tire and when he took it into the shop they recommended all tires needed replacement. Now what? You’ve just spent your tax money on this new beautiful television and you really didn’t consider that anything would come up. Now your in debt even more..
On the things I’m tempted to purchase with a credit card, I often ask myself, do I have the cash to cover it now? Many times the answer is No. So I’ll skip buying it. If I do have the cash for it now I’ll ask myself would I want to deplete my cash to make this purchase. If the answer is No, why make the purchase! Charging on a credit card is easy to do. We often don’t look ahead for the worst case scenario. Our minds focus on now. Gimme it Now!! It’s instant gratification for a headache later.
I decided to write this post because many of you are preparing your taxes and expecting refunds and I know you’ve already spent it in your head. I want you to take the time and really think about what would be the best way for you to use your money… (that and I’m fighting my own inner demons).
For those of you that will be getting a refund, I want to know, Do you have an emergency fund? If not, you need to use some of that money to fund your emergency fund. You should have at least a $1000.00 saved to start out, for those rainy days and as all of us know.. it will rain.
Then use the rest to pay down your debt and STOP using your credit cards. I know it’s so tempting… just get rid of them to avoid the temptation..
If you must splurge… set an amount. 5% or at most 10% of your refund and I believe it’s OK to splurge a little, especially if you’ve been working so hard at saving and reducing down your debt, just don’t go overboard. But I do have to say this… What can a person buy if they have no debt and pays cash for everything? Answer: Anything thing they want! =)
Mega Swagbucks Today – Get Started Saving Today!
Last year, I got a bunch of my Christmas presents for free!
Wonder how? With Swagbucks! I saved my Swagbucks all year and cashed them out on Amazon Gift Cards and purchased the majority of our Christmas presents for free!
Now I won’t lie, it takes 450 Swagbucks to get $5.00 and most people earn between $20-$50 swagbucks per day. So it could take you some time to earn 450 Swagbucks, but there are days like today,
Mega Swagbucks Day!
That’s why I encourage Sign up today on Friday’s because Friday’s are always Mega Swagbucks day. If you’re going to join you might as well start today, because they give out higher value Swagbucks today.
Reader Spotlight – Ross findings
Remember the $50.00 Ross Gift Card Giveaway I did right before Christmas? Well, reader Kimberley sent me a picture of all the good deals she got with her gift card!
Kimberly had a chance to make it down to the Ross Store located on the Strip and she said, “The jacket was on clearance for $8.99 and those oh so cute shoes were $16.99 (I’ll HAVE to put together an outfit for those shoes). I also found the bambo strainer for $3.49, I have a large version of this that I got at a high end cooking store and paid WAY too much for it. I’ve got a little left on my card to spend at a later date. Thanks for the great giveaways!!”
Thanks Kimberly for sharing! You scored some awesome deals!!
Start Saving for Christmas 2011
Today is the first day of the year. Now is the perfect time to start saving for Christmas 2011!. Yes you heard me, start saving now! You only have 327 more days until Christmas.
I know that saving can be hard. But if you don’t do it, you’ll find yourself charging it on credit cards and let’s face it, your visiting my site to save money and putting Christmas on a credit card is something we ALL want to avoid.
So let me share with you how I saved for Christmas last year!
In order of my favorites!!
Swagbucks
This by far is my favorite, it’s doesn’t require me to do anything other than search the web. I’m doing it anyways and I get paid to do it for nothing. Last year I cashed in my Swagbucks for Amazon Gift Cards and purchased several Christmas Presents through Amazon.
Another site I love, but this one requires you to spend money to make money! The site I’m talking about is Shop at Home. You get cash back for your online purchases. Let’s say your buying something from Walmart Online and the price is $100.00. If you use your Shop at Home Account and then link to Walmart from their site, you’ll earn 3% back on your purchase. That’s $3.00 for doing what you would have done anyways. Instead of buying it from the local store, buy it online, ,ship it to the store for free and now you’ve made extra money.
The two that I just listed don’t require much to make money, however the next few I’m listing do require some work.
Opinion Outpost
My favorite site for Surveys. They email you available surveys and you get to take them when you want, so if you get burnt out of taking surveys just don’t do them for a while. I cashed in my survey points in November just in time for Christmas and got a check mailed to me.
My Survey
This is also one of my favorites. I don’t make as much using this site as I do with Opinion Outpost, but with My Survey you do get points for every survey to take whether or not you qualify. You can request a check through this site, but it’s cheaper to cash in for Amazon cards. I cashed in for Amazon Cards to add to the amount I cashed in with my Swagbucks.
This year I’m going to try a new site call My Points. I haven’t used them so right now I won’t be referring them, but with this site you can make money by taking surveys, reading emails and so on.
I’ve also set a budget for Christmas this year. My budget is $1500.00! I’m saving $125.00 a month. However, anything I make through Swagbucks and Surveys I’m deducting that from the amount and added that to my Savings account, hopefully I’ll be able to do enough to bring that balance down as far as possible.
Now let me tell you these Surveys are sometimes long, the longest one Survey has taken me has been about 40 mins and to earn a few dollars on this may not seen worth the time, but with the amount of Surveys you can doing, while watching TV, during the commercials, is time worth spent because it will help you save.
With each of these sites, except for MySurvey.Com, I get points/referrals credits for each person I refer, so if you are going to sign up I’d appreciate if you would click on the links provided from my site. The opinions I am giving you are mine. These sites have helped me save and I know they will help you also.