What did you do to save money today? Oct 5-11

[travelgirl06]

DBF and I just joined a local restaurant chain's email list and got two free meals . So we went out and had a $20 lunch (counter-serve cheesesteaks) for free.

Then he went to get a haircut with a coupon, and paid $6 instead of $13 (his receipt had another $6 haircut coupon, too).

At the grocery store we stacked coupons (store and manufacturers) and sales, and wound up with a good deal of groceries for $25 (including Cocoa Pebbles for $1.00 and deodorant for $.80). The other day I bought pork chops and seasoned chicken for $.99/lb. I bought about 15 lbs total, so that should get us through over a month.

I love reading these boards and getting other ideas on how to save money. Thanks to everyone for sharing!

 

[westjones]

I love this thread! I have been wanting to try harder to watch our money. I know most of ours goes to eating out.

Tonight, I went to Walmart with the Walgreen ad (Walmart is closer) and got a Jack's Frozen pizza at the Walgreen sales price of $2.50 with the $.75 coupon in the paper. So Dh and I just had dinner for $1.75 (the kids are eating good pizza at a party at church tonight).

So I saved $1. Not much, but it was the first time I did the matching price thing at Walmart and I haven't clipped a coupon in months. So hopefully this will be the start of a new trend for me.

DJ

 

[dreamydis]

Great thread! What fun it is to read what can be done to save a little! Today, after spending the day at Typhoon Lagoon with family and our neighbor's daughter, I promised my DH the next time we HAVE to pack our own snacks/lunch and drinks!

 

[tmbrea]

Going to stay home and cook the steaks i got last time i went to dallas to see my son. he works at a grocery store, got the steaks for me on sale and with his discount. My husband and I eat out most nights. I work 12 hour shifts and it's just to easy and quick to pick up something on the way home from work rather then come home and cook.

 

[JackJack08]

I love this thread! I have been wanting to try harder to watch our money. I know most of ours goes to eating out.

Tonight, I went to Walmart with the Walgreen ad (Walmart is closer) and got a Jack's Frozen pizza at the Walgreen sales price of $2.50 with the $.75 coupon in the paper. So Dh and I just had dinner for $1.75 (the kids are eating good pizza at a party at church tonight).

So I saved $1. Not much, but it was the first time I did the matching price thing at Walmart and I haven't clipped a coupon in months. So hopefully this will be the start of a new trend for me.

DJ

Oh my gosh ...I price match EVERYTHING!!! I know which cashier to go to...she doesn't give me any hassle, or nasty looks! Some weeks I save $60!! Good for you...it's not that bad!!!

What I did to save money today, is stay home!! We are always out on the weekend, so today was a nice treat to stay home!

 

[mjantz]

I wanted to see a movie today at a theatre that has a restaurant (so you eat while you watch) but instead I stayed home & watched an episode of Lipstick Jungle I'd recorded & ate leftovers. I probably saved $15.
This weekend was Borders Teacher Appreciation Weekend. DH ordered he & I each a $25GC to use this weekend from Discover. I went Friday & only spent $1.50 over the GC limit!! I also got a few good freebies (calendar, book & skull eraser for DS & a 'Tale of Despeaux' poster) & I won a door prize!! (free book)
I checked the NYTimes bestseller list & the 'coming soon' booklist & put those books on my request list at the library.
I planned dinner from our freezer & pantry & I'm working on a menu that will hopefully carry us through the next week.

 

[brekin67]

We cancelled our newspaper subscription and read it online for free. We save our soda cans. We mix our own cleaners with bleach or ammonia instead of buying them.

 

[hadleysun]

The magazine All You had some great coupons last month for free Kraft items when you bought Kraft items...soooo...while everyone else bought koolaid to get their free items, I bought some Taco Bell products (seasoning, taco sauce, and beans) and when my hubby wanted to go out to get Mexican tonight I said we have all that we need here to MAKE mexican and so we saved a bundle staying home instead! And I make better margaritas anyway!!!!

 

[rie'smom]

I stayed home!

 

[Kidnurse]

Today I got off my lazy butt and weeded the flower beds instead of paying someone else to do them. The plan is to go to home depot or lowe's later this week for pinestraw so I can "freshen" up the yard. I procrastinate yardwork so terribly but the weather today was so nice, I couldn't resist... I actually kinda liked it. Maybe I am onto something

I also went to CVS and using coupons, ECB's, and sales managed to get about $200 worth of juice, medicines, etc for about $12.

Lunch was not budget but we never go out as a family very often. We ate Mexican food, but dinner was leftovers so I guess that wasn't so bad.

My goal this week: to live off the $120 in groceries I bought on Saturday, to continue to pack lunches for the week, and to be able to stock a little more money away in our son's savings with the money we save

 

[Kahana-ri]

I have been waiting for almost three months for the best deal on a pair of black Alice Crocs. FINALLY, shoebuy.com had them on sale for $10 off and free shipping. For 24.95 I'll be walking around at work in comfort. I'm so glad I waited to make this purchase

 

[richmond282]

I hit the kids summer clearance racks at Kmart. Everything on it was $1.99. I bought clothes for my DD for next summer (bathing suit, 3 dresses, 3 pr. of shorts, 2 top= $17 including tax). When she outgrows them, I'll sell them at a consignment sale and get my $17 back!

 

[Begiensgirl]

I love this thread! I just started doing serious saving and made some major lifestyle changes. This week some big savings!

I am recycling everything now, boxes, paper, glass, plastic etc. Instead of five trash bags on the curb this week, we had only two! Garbage bags can be pricey if you buy the ones that last, so if I cut back and save four bags a week that's 16 more bags at the end of the month and I won't have to buy as many!

I also returned the plastic bottles that were piling up in the garage... got $23 dollars for them!

I haven't bought one single coffee, iced or hot or frozen in a month! Saved $60 dollars! I bought my favorite flavored brand in the supermarket with a coupon and have just made it at home.

Whittled down my cable to 130 a month from 220. Got rid of the dvr and the extra cable box, a savings of 90 dollars this month. Watched three free on demand movies with the kids this weekend instead of renting from the video store - saved 9 bucks there. My daughter wanted to buy two new ringtones for her phone. I said NOPE - saved 6 bucks.

I hung my laundry on the line instead of using the drier. And I also used a list that I had the kids help me put together for groceries. Instead of spending the 150 I usually spend, I only spent 80 and that included snacks, veggies and meat.

Oh, and I quit smoking two weeks ago... that saved me 80 dollars for the two weeks!

Gas is usually about 3.57 here lately, but today it was 3.19 so I filled my tank!

I also changed my checking account to an interest bearing one that rebates me for any atm charges I incur. This week I got my first bank statement. I earned $1.69 cents for just having some money in my account, and was rebated $12 in service charges for atm usage at the atms I always used to use for convenience. $13.69 more in my checking than I would have had if I hadn't switched banks.

And last but not least... I booked my flight for WDW in Jan. today. I was budgeted for $500 for two roundtrip from MA. I got them for $412

 

[GraysMom]

I took DS to Dorney Park today, using our Season Passes. We ate lunch before we went and I packed a snack and drinks for while we were there. I broke down and spent $5 to get him a Camp Spooky t-shirt for next year. DS got to ride a bunch of rides, trick-or-treat and get some free candy, along with collecting pirate costume pieces in the treasure hunt (hat, hook, rings, beads, telescope and eye patch). Not bad for $5 total.

 

[Adey]

Stayed home all day. I need a paper (for the coupons) but so I don't waste gas I'll just stop on my way home from work tomorrow.

Had potatoes and carrots I had to use up so I made a batch of stew in the crockpot. The house smells delicious, I didn't waste food and we'll get several meals out of it.

I'm glad this thread is back!

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Last night I checked the coupon previews on www.TaylorTownPreview.com and visited "my" grocery store forums on www.HotCouponWorld.com to see what's up for this week.

Today after church, I went to ShopRite (where newspapers are cheapest) and compared the coupon inserts in the local paper and in the Philly paper. I bought 10 copies of the Philly paper for $15.00. Tomorrow I will use 1.00 and .50/2 (then doubled) coupons on various Green Giant frozen veggies in combination with Acme's sale and special "pink event" discounts to add to the nice stock of veggies in my freezer.

Dd13 has a soy allergy and Green Giant makes seasoned, unsauced, microwave-steam-in-the bag veggies that she can eat and that all five of us love. I've been waiting for this sale to come!

And while at ShopRite, I used four $2.25 off Electrasol gel pac coupons (that were expiring today) with the $2.49 sale. 96 cents for 160 loads! I regularly use half the gel pac----I poke it with a sharp knife, squeeze out approx. half, and store in a snack-size baggie in the box for the next load----and I cut the hard dishwasher detergent tablets in half as well when I use those.

 

[Pooki]

Hi again! Monday evening already over here! I stayed at home all day today with my sick daughter, so no money spent!

I've been cleaning off and on all day, doing laundry especially, and here are two tips I picked up on the BB:

Use half a dryer sheet! It really works! I was really skeptical at first, but my clothes aren't clingy at all. I've also noticed that sometimes for clothes that I don't dry as long, the dryer sheet still feels sort of stiff, so I save those and sometimes combine them with a few others instead of using a whole new sheet. My hubby would laugh at me if he knew how truly frugal I'm becoming. Luckily (or not...) he doesn't step anywhere near laundry or dirty dishes

The other tip is using vinegar in in the washing machine. My towels were starting to smell sort of moldy, even right after they were finished washing. I washed them in two cycles today: first in hot water with about a cup of vinegar, then washed them normal with detergent. Granted, I did have to wash them twice, but they don't smell at all anymore, and hopefully I won't have to repeat this process for a long while. I suppose that's not much of a budget tip, but vinegar is cheap

 

[SnowWhite607]

I love this thread! Okay, I cooked at home all weekend instead of eating out. That saved a bunch of money! And I really wanted to stop at Starbucks yesterday when I was out but I didnt. Its only $4 but if you do it 2 times a week, thats $32 at the end of the month that could be used to buy something else or pay off a bill.

I also took inventory of the fridge/pantry/freezer and only bought what we needed at the store to round out some meals. I had planty of meat so we only needed to buy some milk, bread, lunch stuff, veggies, etc. I spent about $50 as opposed to my normal $100 a week.

 

[Belle4mygrl]

I shop at CVS and roll my ecbs. so for free I "bought" my husband vitamin water that he loves so much. He won't have to buy any for the next 2 days! Saved $4.50

 

[annsteere]

Got a coupon for 50% off any purchase at Dunkin Donuts. At that price I bought 5 bags of coffee and stuck them in my freezer.



Where did you get a coupon like that? I am so jealous!!!

The local Dunkin Donuts offered them to all staff at our community college. We had to show a college ID, but the coupon was good for two months and unlimited dollar value.

Great deal. I made sure to thank them. And, I might get back there just before Halloween and pick up a few more bags for adult stocking stuffers.