Honestly It Is Not That Hard!
More saving money tips – e-mail and social networking!
First and foremost I apologize for not updating this more regularly. I’ve not backed down from my couponing and sales shopping – I’ve still been saving up to and over 50% per week on my grocery shopping trips. I’ve just gotten caught up in a lot of other things so I have been lax in my blogging. Again my apologies.
But on the other side – I’ve not been so lax in my talking! I’ve been talking up a storm about the couponing do’s and don’ts for months now and sharing what I’ve learned by word of mouth and I keep hearing is that “it takes too much time”, “I can’t keep track”, “I just shop at Marc’s since its “cheaper”” (is it really?), “its so hard”.
Seriously?
I have receipts that show I’ve saved hundreds of dollars so far this year and if that takes me half an hour to an hour a week I’m thinking that is a pretty good wage. I’m definitely saving more than I make in an hour so if I look at it in that regard it only makes sense to spend those extra minutes preparing.
So like I keep saying – save the whole ad from the paper, buy multiple papers (go to the store on Monday and see if they have any left from Sunday as well – they’ll often sell them half price – I’ve got my ‘secret’ store where they often still have Sunday papers as late as Thursday (for only .50 by that late in the week). Get your RedPlum coupons your mail box – I automatically get an extra one of those as well since we also have a PO Box (I’m sure I’m actually paying for the PO Box with my savings from those RedPlums but that’s not the reason we have a PO Box – its just a little side bonus).
What are your favorite products?
What are your favorite meats, vegetables, bake mixes, potatoes, fish, toilet paper, canned goods, soups etc? I’ll bet their parent company has a website. I’ll bet they have coupons for most of ‘em. I’m also willing to bet they would love for you to “sign up to receive special offers” at that website. This can be via e-mail or even snail-mail. You may want to set up a special “coupon” e-mail address so you are not getting a lot of “spam” (I can get a coupon for that… mmmmm). Although, I have found that I’m not getting stuff I didn’t sign up for since I went to the parent company’s site. Kraft Foods, Nabisco, ConAgra, Tyson and more- and I love getting coupons in the mail as well as leaving feed back at websites – they love it too and thank you in free products – via coupons.
Another great resource for free stuff and coupons has been Facebook. Yep, Facebook! Just about every product has a fan page out there. Jason became a fan of Bisquick earlier this week. We don’t know if it will lead to anything but so far being a fan of Pierre’s Ice Cream has gotten us 2 free gallons of their yummy ice cream (actually we’ve only redeemed one of the coupons – still have another free gallon coming to us). There are also a lot of coupon networking sites on Facebook – a simple search finds a number of them and you can decide for yourself which are of value to you. I’m a pretty big fan of CouponPro over there and have gotten some good freebie lead from them as well as coupons.
And don’t forget to “friend” your local grocery store – sometimes they have special coupons and deals just for you!
Happy Saving!
