Getting Back Into the Black

I hate buying brand new things.   Obviously there are a few caveats to this: I do not buy used food, used batteries, or used diapers…ewww.  However, I love shopping around on ebay, craigslist, or freecyclelooking for stuff that my family needs that I can get usually for pennies on the dollar compared to the regular price.  My most recent purchase was 2 Blu-Ray movies, both in excellent condition for less than $15 each, over 50% savings off the retail price.

While these types of sites are great for saving money, you can also use some of them to make money as well.  Everyone knows that you have stuff in your home that you no longer use or will never use again.  A perfect example of this is baby items.  Until my wife found out recently that she was pregnant, we were vigorously trying to go through all of our baby items to find out what still retained some value and what we could donate to Goodwill or The Salvation Army. 

We ended up selling our old baby swing ($10) a stroller/carrier combo ($30) and a few sets of infant clothes ($20 total, $5 each).  That took a grand total of 30 minutes out of our life to make a quick $60.  I would suggest everyone go through their closets and storage boxes and determine what you do and do not need.  You’d be amazed at how much of your trash is truly someone else’s treasure.

Here are some great tips that I have learned and some great resources to get you started on saving lots of money on groceries.

1. I buy 2 Sunday newspapers to get twice the coupons. This is my best $2 investment every week. There are no coupon inserts on major holidays. Also if you want to know what coupons are going to be in your Sunday paper, find out in advance at http://www.taylortownpreview.com/

2. To save the most money, hold on to the coupons until these items go on sale. I look through all the store flyers and see what sale items match the coupons I have.

3. Find out if any grocery stores in your area, double coupons. If you live in the Silicon Valley area of CA, the answer is most likely, no.

4. I don’t buy everything at one store. There are several stores in close proximity to where I live. I get the best deals from each one.

5. If you’re a fan of organic produce, buy at a farmers market. I go every week and the prices for organic fruits and veggies are much cheaper than buying organic at the grocery store.

6. Coupon stacking is the greatest thing ever! Stacking is when you use multiple coupons for the same item. Stores like Target, Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, Eckerd, Toys-R-Us, etc will allow you to use their store coupons and a manufacturer coupon on the same item.

7. Most of the stores I shop at have coupons you can print out on their websites.

8. You don’t have to buy all the items in a buy 3 for $5 sale, etc. Sometimes, these are great deals and other times they will cost you money. When stores run sales like 10 for $10 it looks good, but sometimes these are items that normally run for under a dollar.

9. Don’t expect to save a huge amount right away. It takes about a month to really start seeing results. Once you have a month’s worth of coupons it starts to make a big difference.

10. Free is best! Stores like Walgreens have a few things you can get free every month. And sometimes, you can make money doing this. Let’s say they have a rebate for a free bottle of shampoo. They will let you use a coupon for that item, but will reimburse the full purchase price. And if you choose to have your rebate put on a store card instead of a check they will give add 10% to that amount.

11. Experiment and find out what works best for you. We live in an apartment so we don’t have the space to keep a huge stockpile of items like some super savers do. If you aren’t going to use something, then it doesn’t matter how much you save unless you plan on donating it. My husband only buys Charmin toilet paper, so I don’t bother buying anything else. Instead, I look for the store that has the best sale on that brand.

12. I read these websites regularly to get tips, and to keep learning. http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/ and http://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/

As this blog grows, I will expand on all of these tips and share new ones

The first time I looked at how much money we spent on food every month, I was floored. We had been averaging about 700 dollars a month for groceries. What’s even worse is that we were averaging over 500 dollars a month on eating out. By the way, there’s only three of us. Twelve hundred bucks a month for two adults and a three year old is beyond ridiculous. I knew we could do better.

I started planning out meals using http://www.mealsmatter.org/. I printed out my shopping lists from that site also. That helped me see what I really needed to buy so pounds of produce didn’t rot in my fridge like normal. Typically, I would plan about two weeks in advance. I noticed a couple things doing this. First, we were spending even more than I usually did but were spending less money eating out. We all have to start somewhere.

Since then, I’ve found a better way to shop. I plan our purchases around the sales ads and coupons. That makes a huge difference. It takes more time to shop this way but the savings are worth it. One of the greatest advantages to this system is that you will know what you are gonna spend before you even go to the store. For example, tomorrow I’ll swing by Raley’s and spend $6.25 before taxes for 10 cups of Dannon light yogurt, 2 Glade jar candles and 1 tube of Colgate toothpaste. Without sales and coupons, these items would cost me $16.29, that’s a savings of over ten dollars (almost 62% savings)! My next post will list more detailed tips and websites for saving money on groceries.