Right now we have season passes to 3 different parks. Disneyland, Universal Studios, and Sea World. The only one I paid full price for is Disneyland, because they don't do deals on season passes. Although I get free parking, and a nice discount on food and souvenirs. Both Universal and Sea World, we payed for one day and got 2012 free. I actually had a coupon for $20 dollars off each ticket at Universal, so we got a killer deal! for me planning a vacation can be time consuming. I spend a lot of time finding the cheapest hotels. But it not only pays off, but my trip is planned out so nicely and stress free!
My hubby doesn't make a lot of money. We make just enough for Jax to not qualify for any state services. Yes, we are in "that" bracket!
But we are still able to do fun stuff. Our biggest thing is we have no debt. We have no car payments, and no credit card debt. We do get medical debt of course at the beginning of the year when out of pocket maxes start over, but we try to pay that off quickly! That makes daddy's income stretch a lot farther.
Even though I get great deals, I've always struggled in the grocery department. You watch extreme couponers and wonder how in the world they do that! I get the Sunday paper, but rarely get good coupons in there. I'm going to cancel it since it seems I pay more for the paper than I get back in coupons. Online I could never find coupons without them wanting me to pay or join some club. I was getting really frustrated!
One day I posted on Facebook for people to give me their secrets. I got some great info that I wanted to pass on. And if you have a secret that I don't, then please share in the comments for us all to benefit from!!
Grocerysmarts.com is a place that they post all the stores adds! I hate going through each add separately. Here you go down the line, click on the ones you want, and print out only those ones. It will even tell you if there is a coupon to make it even cheaper, and a lot of times will link you to that coupon! The Krazy coupon lady is on facebook. I like that site because I can get to all the coupon sites from right there. People also post killer deals they find on that site.
I went grocery shopping yesterday and spent $110. I normally spend $150. I'm still learning, so I'm not saving as much as most people do. But 40 dollars is 40 dollars in my pocket!!
So whats your secret to saving??
oh, i LOVE CP! if you hit the sales at the right time with a good coupon you can get brand new clothes at the same price or less than you would at walmart or even a consignment shop!! getting deals there is a drug for me!
ReplyDeleteIheartpublix.com is a really good one.
ReplyDeleteI used to do coupons a lot, but not extreme couponing. When Anthony was diagnosed,that was one the things that fell into non-priority status. I now only carry one baggie of coupons that I am very likely to use, and the rest I don't even bother printing/clipping.
ReplyDeleteI think the time I save not doing clipping, organizing, and using coupons is much more worth the time savings, even if I'm not saving $20-50 each shopping trip. Expensive way to live, but it just costs more in my mind when I have to worry about making sure I have every possible coupon.
Also, store brands are a great deal, if you buy from a quality store. They're most often made from the name-brand companies.
Baking a LOT from scratch cuts down on grocery costs too.
And, making a month's menu (without assigning specific meals to specific days, just making a list of dinners), then doing a main monthly shopping trip is really effective for cutting down on costs.
secrets to savings! I got nothing!! no I kid we do bountiful basket a fruit and veggie co op and that is amazing and i budget! but I need to coupon! if only more time! smiles
ReplyDeleteA mom of a little girl with cerebal palsy whose blog I also follow uses this cuponing sight : http://savingsangel.com/index.php
ReplyDeleteYou have to pay for it, but she says that it really works!!!
http://www.makenziesmiracle.org/2012/01/savingsangel-and-more-money-in-my.html the blogpost I was talking about explaining my previous post (anonymous)
ReplyDelete