I know I took a break from this "series" for a while. I fully enjoyed Memorial Day weekend and I have also been a little busier with work and with making baby food!! Excuses, excuses!
If you need to catch up on this series, you can find the previous posts here:
Start Small
Start Reading
Start Researching
Start Finding Coupons
Let Others Work For You
I think this is a good time in the series, and also in my endeavors of being a good shopper, to talk about how to be simple and how to be practical when learning to save. Fitting, huh?
Simplicity. Finding the most basic and efficient way to do something. If you keep it simple, it will be much easier. We try to teach babies how to crawl before they walk, how to swallow before they chew, how to swim before they jump in. And shouldn't it be the same with saving? If you feel like you need to buy a bigger home because your stockpile has gotten too big, maybe you need to deplete your stockpile. If you are buying lots of food products that are on sale, but can't eat them because none of them can go together in a meal, maybe you need to rethink your purchases. Keep it simple. Buy things your family will use or you can gift. You may save $50, but if you still spend $100 that you wouldn't have spent this month, is it worth it? Is it just going to clutter your home or cause you to go over budget? Is it going to cause stress?
Keep it simple.
Practicality. This goes along with keeping it simple...keep it reasonable, realistic and doable. If you don't own a cat, don't stock up on cat food just because it is such a good deal. I talk a little bit in this post about why I chose to buy the things I did on a recent trip to CVS. It was cheap, and I had a coupon, and I knew I would use it! That's it. Be practical with your purchases.
Keep it practical.
That's what I'm all about here. Trying to keep things simple and practical.
Showing posts with label how to series. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to series. Show all posts
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Get Started Part 4- Let Others Work For You
We all want to save money, but sometimes it can seem a little overwhelming to even get started. This series is meant as an aid to get you started in the business of saving money for your family.
If you need to catch up on this series, you can find the previous posts here:
Start Small
Start Reading
Start Researching
Start Finding Coupons
Since this is the business of saving money for your family, I want to talk about the need for allowing others to work for you in the business.
Here's what I mean:
There are already people researching all the latest deals, finding all the coupons, learning the system and writing about it. There are blogs, websites, photos, lessons, descriptions, scenarios, anything you might need to know about a store near you is out there somewhere. Don't try to duplicate all the work that has already been done. Enjoy it. Thank the writer. And gratefully use their advice to make your "business" grow.
Need an example? Surviving the Stores has a tab each for getting started, Walgreens and CVS, and each of these go into great depth about what to do and how to do it. On a weekly basis this site shows the deals for the drugstores, the coupons that work with the deals, how to do the deal, and even some scenarios of how to purchase the items while spending the least amount of money. Instead of doing all the research to figure out all of this information for myself, I gladly go here to get started on saving money.
Another thing you want to do while you are learning how to start, but something that has likely already been done for you? Learn the system. Each store has different deals, coupon policies, rebate programs, etc. It is best to try and learn how the system works first so you can again let the system work best for your benefit. Again, this has already been done for you, so don't try to spend all your time on this. Deal Seeking Mom has some great info on various drugstores and how they work.
You can see even here that I am not trying to redo what has already been done. I am trying to give you the simple steps (and links) to getting started with saving money for your family.
Got questions? Need more info? Ask away!
Monday, May 18, 2009
How to Get Started-Part 4
Wanna save money but not sure what to do to get started? This is the place for you.
If you need to catch up on this series, you can find the previous posts here:
Start Reading
Start Researching
Start Finding Coupons
On to Part 4: Start Small
When I start something I tend to go all in right away. I decided I wanted to give this whole saving money/clipping coupons/blogging thing a try and I jumped in head first to the deep end. It worked out OK for me, at least because I have a husband who was very understanding and gracious during this learning period. But I don't recommend doing it this way.
Don’t try to go out the first week and get every deal that is mentioned. The people who write about all the deals don't even go out and get them all, they are just trying to inform their readers of all the possibilities.
Start with one or two things that you know your family will use and you know (because you have a fairly good idea of normal prices from regular shopping trips) is a good deal. In my area, CVS and Walgreens often have very good deals where I can work "the system" to get things for very cheap to almost free. It's a little tricky at first, but again, this is why you want to start small. Find out more about how drugstore deals work from Deal Seeking Mom here or Surviving the Stores here and here.
Don’t worry if you can’t find a coupon for everything. Eventually, you probably will be able to find a coupon for almost anything you want to buy, but don't overwhelm yourself in the beginning, just find what you can.
Don’t worry if you throw away an expired coupon. I am not the most experienced ever, but I have noticed that I usually throw out expired coupons a day or two before I get the exact same one in a paper or on line. It'll come around again.
Don’t worry if you only save $1 on your first try. That's $1 saved! Every dollar counts, and eventually you may be able to save more in coupons than you spend. This is a good goal, but eventually, not right away.
Don't be afraid to take some time to learn the systems, find all the coupons, find the best deals... and eventually you'll be a pro!
If you need to catch up on this series, you can find the previous posts here:
Start Reading
Start Researching
Start Finding Coupons
On to Part 4: Start Small
When I start something I tend to go all in right away. I decided I wanted to give this whole saving money/clipping coupons/blogging thing a try and I jumped in head first to the deep end. It worked out OK for me, at least because I have a husband who was very understanding and gracious during this learning period. But I don't recommend doing it this way.
Don’t try to go out the first week and get every deal that is mentioned. The people who write about all the deals don't even go out and get them all, they are just trying to inform their readers of all the possibilities.
Start with one or two things that you know your family will use and you know (because you have a fairly good idea of normal prices from regular shopping trips) is a good deal. In my area, CVS and Walgreens often have very good deals where I can work "the system" to get things for very cheap to almost free. It's a little tricky at first, but again, this is why you want to start small. Find out more about how drugstore deals work from Deal Seeking Mom here or Surviving the Stores here and here.
Don’t worry if you can’t find a coupon for everything. Eventually, you probably will be able to find a coupon for almost anything you want to buy, but don't overwhelm yourself in the beginning, just find what you can.
Don’t worry if you throw away an expired coupon. I am not the most experienced ever, but I have noticed that I usually throw out expired coupons a day or two before I get the exact same one in a paper or on line. It'll come around again.
Don’t worry if you only save $1 on your first try. That's $1 saved! Every dollar counts, and eventually you may be able to save more in coupons than you spend. This is a good goal, but eventually, not right away.
Don't be afraid to take some time to learn the systems, find all the coupons, find the best deals... and eventually you'll be a pro!
Friday, May 15, 2009
How to Get Started-Part 3
So hopefully you've had a chance to start reading and researching, and now it is time to really get into this whole saving thing.
Coupons! Star looking for them, start finding them, start saving them, start clipping them. Just start! You can buy a Sunday paper (get one from a bigger city as it will have more coupons in it), you can find coupons on line, or you can collect a combination of the two.
Coupon Clippers allows you to see each week what coupons are going to be in the Sunday paper. This may help you see if you don't want to buy a paper one week, or if you want to buy multiple papers on a week. I can't get a big city paper delivered to me where I live, but there are absolute advantages to doing this, and you can even get multiples delivered to you!
There are numerous places on line to find coupons. One of the first places is to go to your favorite manufacturer's website. Go directly to the source and you are likely to find what you are looking for. Go here to find a recent list of on line sources, just for kraft coupons!
No need to do again what has already been done great: It's Hip 2 Save and Bargain Briana both have a great reference page to all things coupons!
More reading and researching in all of this, I know, but you are soon going to find your fave spots for all the information you might ever need in life. At least all things in life having to do with saving money.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
How to Get Started-Part 2
I don't know if you would really consider yesterday's post Part 1, but either way, it was an intro, there was a takeaway for you to start working on, and this is going to continue off of that. So there. This is Part 2.
I know it can seem very overwhelming to start trying to save money, but everyone is trying to do it these days, so give in to the peer pressure and just start. Yesterday I told you to just start by reading, by finding some books or websites and just start reading about what others are doing and how they are doing it. Again, everybody seems to be giving it a try, so there is a lot of information and a lot to learn in the process.
Research. Very similar to reading, but maybe a little different in that now you need to narrow your focus. Find people who blog who live in your region (so you have similar stores, etc). If you are a vegan and you want to know how to eat on a budget, that is completely different from learning to eat on a budget with no restrictions. Now it is time to start researching exactly what fits your family and lifestyle.
You will still encounter many blogs, websites, forums, etc. but now you will be finding ones that you want to bookmark because you know you want to go back. You know you want to be like the writer when you grown up. You know you want to make a meal as beautiful as the one in the picture. Whatever it is that draws your attention, you know you want to remember to go back. And you want to keep building this list. It is nice to have numerous references to go to when you are looking for something because everyone has their own way of doing things and you want to find what suits you best. Just like getting a second opinion when going to the doctor. This might not be life-threatening, but sometimes it feels that important to save money.
And give yourself time to do this. It won't happen overnight. You will find one site you like, and it may lead you to another, which has a link to another, which leads you in a different direction, all of which you like, but maybe the final one is the one you are truly fond of. It took time and patience (ok, maybe not patience) to get there. Be ok with that.
You can start with some of my faves in my blogroll to the left, or just start typing in some keywords on google to find what you are looking for, you might just be surprised by what you actually find out there!
I know it can seem very overwhelming to start trying to save money, but everyone is trying to do it these days, so give in to the peer pressure and just start. Yesterday I told you to just start by reading, by finding some books or websites and just start reading about what others are doing and how they are doing it. Again, everybody seems to be giving it a try, so there is a lot of information and a lot to learn in the process.
Research. Very similar to reading, but maybe a little different in that now you need to narrow your focus. Find people who blog who live in your region (so you have similar stores, etc). If you are a vegan and you want to know how to eat on a budget, that is completely different from learning to eat on a budget with no restrictions. Now it is time to start researching exactly what fits your family and lifestyle.
You will still encounter many blogs, websites, forums, etc. but now you will be finding ones that you want to bookmark because you know you want to go back. You know you want to be like the writer when you grown up. You know you want to make a meal as beautiful as the one in the picture. Whatever it is that draws your attention, you know you want to remember to go back. And you want to keep building this list. It is nice to have numerous references to go to when you are looking for something because everyone has their own way of doing things and you want to find what suits you best. Just like getting a second opinion when going to the doctor. This might not be life-threatening, but sometimes it feels that important to save money.
And give yourself time to do this. It won't happen overnight. You will find one site you like, and it may lead you to another, which has a link to another, which leads you in a different direction, all of which you like, but maybe the final one is the one you are truly fond of. It took time and patience (ok, maybe not patience) to get there. Be ok with that.
You can start with some of my faves in my blogroll to the left, or just start typing in some keywords on google to find what you are looking for, you might just be surprised by what you actually find out there!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Nice to Meet You!
Yes, I am that person.
The one that thinks "If I know both of these people, then they must know each other!"
Yep, that friend that awkwardly stands by as a new friend of mine and an old friend of mine decide they must introduce themselves to each other, because I am not going to do it. But, surely if I know them then everyone must know them! So I'm not good with introducing people, and I think I may have possibly done a similar thing with this blog.
I began a quest to organize my life (after the baby), start couponing, start spending less, start planning more menus, and start blogging about it all. Mostly the blogging was for my own accountability to stick with the plans, but also a bit just in case I could possibly help someone else. But I think I left out the helpful part, the How To's of the process. I forgot to introduce my new friend (Spending Less) to my old friend (Reader). Woops.
So this got me thinking. And when I start thinking I started getting really excited. Not only would this help me to really think through the process and all the details of what I try to do, but it could help others who are just trying to get started (which is only a few steps behind me since I just recently started as well).
SO...I am going to start a How To series. Yep, I think, nope I Know, that this will take more than one post. Plus, it would be like trying to change your whole life in one day, it's just not practical, and I want to make these simple, practical and gradual steps that anyone can take. Get ready for some good stuff!
Wait! you said your excited now and you want a starting place? OK. Just start reading. This is such a hot topic right now since the economy is bad for everyone, so just start googling, or yahooing, or swag bucking, or whatever you do to search on the web and go for it. Try to learn a few new things today about how you can save a few pennies. Here's one place to go to get you started.
The one that thinks "If I know both of these people, then they must know each other!"
Yep, that friend that awkwardly stands by as a new friend of mine and an old friend of mine decide they must introduce themselves to each other, because I am not going to do it. But, surely if I know them then everyone must know them! So I'm not good with introducing people, and I think I may have possibly done a similar thing with this blog.
I began a quest to organize my life (after the baby), start couponing, start spending less, start planning more menus, and start blogging about it all. Mostly the blogging was for my own accountability to stick with the plans, but also a bit just in case I could possibly help someone else. But I think I left out the helpful part, the How To's of the process. I forgot to introduce my new friend (Spending Less) to my old friend (Reader). Woops.
So this got me thinking. And when I start thinking I started getting really excited. Not only would this help me to really think through the process and all the details of what I try to do, but it could help others who are just trying to get started (which is only a few steps behind me since I just recently started as well).
SO...I am going to start a How To series. Yep, I think, nope I Know, that this will take more than one post. Plus, it would be like trying to change your whole life in one day, it's just not practical, and I want to make these simple, practical and gradual steps that anyone can take. Get ready for some good stuff!
Wait! you said your excited now and you want a starting place? OK. Just start reading. This is such a hot topic right now since the economy is bad for everyone, so just start googling, or yahooing, or swag bucking, or whatever you do to search on the web and go for it. Try to learn a few new things today about how you can save a few pennies. Here's one place to go to get you started.
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