What did you do today to save money?

[Bearvet]

I'm really excited about this one! DS17 needed a new winter jacket and was looking at North Face, Columbia or LL Bean, which are all pretty pricey. His friend has a jacket from LL Bean that DS liked and it's on sale now - reg $169 on sale for $119. I had enough reward points through our Verizon Business reward program (we own a business) to get a $100 LL Bean GC. I quickly cashed it in and the GC arrived today. Luckily the jacket was still available in his size. So I got a $169 LL Bean high quality jacket for only $19.99!! This should last him for quite awhile!! The only thing that could have made it better was a free shipping code (it was $9.95). Oh well, I'm still thrilled!!

 

[Lynn CC]

1. I subscribed to the Omni Preferred Guest program a few weeks ago, so today when I woke up in my hotel, I got Starbucks coffee and juice, and the Boston Globe delivered--free! No breakfast cost.
2. Used my AAA discount to go to the JFK library-- a great museum!
3. Walked out of the craft store without buying anything when the clerk would not let me use one of the coupons in the flyer that was sitting right on her counter!
(we won't talk about how much it cost to park my car in Boston overnight)

I'm an Omni preferred guest too! Have you tried the garage right on Somerset Street a 2 minute walk from Omni? It's $7 on the weekends. It's the one to the left if your driving down Somerset, if your coming up Somerset from Cambridge St. it's the garage on the right hand side.
They will Valet Park for free! I like this because it's creepy going deep in those garages in the dark.
During the week they are $32 overnight.

 

[MarthaJr.]

Switched to vonage phone service today! Save $35/month on phone bill now.
Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo, Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo!!!

 

[lpandorf]

My DD (6) went to a birthday party today. Instead of buying a card she made one with stuff at home. Then after the party we returned some books and picked up a few DVDs (free!) for our car trip to BILs house (2 hour drive) tomorrow instead of buying or renting one.

 

[MickeyP]

Switched to vonage phone service today! Save $35/month on phone bill now.
Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo, Woo hoo, woo hoo hoo!!!

Yeah... isn't it awful when you can't get that darn tune out of yur head. It's such a ridiculous tune too.

 

[KristinU]

I have my first couple of loads line drying in the basement and DH and I went through our closets and drawers and really thinned out our obscene amount of clothes. I figure in the long run if we have less clothes to wash then we'll save that way too (our laundry loads always seem huge and we sometimes put off laundry for a week or more - that tells me that we have too many pieces of clothing...but I digress...)

DH and I also decided not to add on DVC points at this time...which is what started my desire to save and go on my spending 'fast' last week. Now that I'm really getting into the whole savings thing I started looking (finally) at some of the Dave Ramsey principles - I think it is more prudent for us to put some $$$ into an emergency fund right now rather than buy more points - yegad, did I just type that?!?!?

 

[MeMom]

I'm by myself today, so the house has stayed cold and dark. I'm going to have to turn a light on now, as it is getting dark. It'll all be worth it, though, when I exchange the money I saved from the cold, dark house for warm, bright Disney when trip time comes. When I got my electric bill yesterday, my efforts showed a significant reduction. I took the difference from last month and immediately called and put that amount on our resort, so we are chipping away at it.

 

[cjckclan]

DH just switched to the free AOL service this morning. I don't really understand why it's free, but if it ends up working the same as when I paid extra for it .... that $15/month will be going to the vacation fund.

 

[delmar411]

well I had to pay for TKD tournament fees today so not a monetary savings but it was an investment in my DD's confidence and pride so well worth the $30.

I still passed up getting gas as I'm holding out for lower prices come Mon or Tues. I'm on total 'E' though so we will be going no where until the gas price drops or Monday afternoon....whichever comes first! LOL

I made the decision to return (sob) my purchases from VS that I made the other day. I want the stuff, I do not need it by a long shot so back it goes. That will give us $65 towards Disney. [this is super hard for me cause I really want the stuff!]

I went to CVS this afternoon so I could get in on the P&G deal and got:
24 Dawn dish soap (.88-.50/1 cpns so $12 in coupons) ~these will go into stockpile sale in the spring
2 packages of peanut butter crackers (.33 each)
2 packages of ramen noodles (this was dinner tonight)
2 gallons of milk ($2.19 each)
1 big package of kitchen trash bags ($6.29)
2 cans of coffee (b1g1 so 2 for $2.89)
and total OOP was .31 so a great savings! (used an ECB to pay)
and I'll get back $5 as well so made some money.

and I'm putting up my movie ticket vouchers for sale since we won;t be getting to the movies before they expire on wed. Hopefully get a bit from those.

that's it for today!

 

[lori1043]

If you call Scholastic books and tell them you are a homeschool parent, they will send you their catalogs. They have really cheap books and there is always a 99 cent book.

Thank you! I do think our homeschool association has a thing with them. I have gotten an email once stating if we want to order, they get $$ back for ordering through them. I have ordered through them once(DD7 likes the new Breyer horse books), but I still love the deals I can get from fumbling through the thrift store books!
Lori

 

[ducklite]

DH just switched to the free AOL service this morning. I don't really understand why it's free, but if it ends up working the same as when I paid extra for it .... that $15/month will be going to the vacation fund.

I did that a couple months ago--the only thing I use it for is e-mail, so it made sense to go free.

Anne

 

[Clang]

Did not leave the house today - no shopping, no eating out. Made breakfast, lunch and dinner from stuff we had on hand - which is very usual for the weekend.

 

[decaff38]

Hears a good tip! At our dollar tree, they get the Sunday early edition paper with all the couons in it for $1.00. It cost $1.75 on Sunday morning. It is our metro paper and I live 250 miles away so I really don't care much about the articles, etc... but love the ads and coupons. I also buy our regular paper for our local grocery ads for $1.25. I clipped out 25.00 worth of coupons for my $1.00.

 

[ohiominnie]

DH just switched to the free AOL service this morning. I don't really understand why it's free, but if it ends up working the same as when I paid extra for it .... that $15/month will be going to the vacation fund.

They started that about 6 months ago. If you are bringing your own connection (like with high speed internet) you can change your AOL to free.

My guess is they do that so you won't drop AOL. And they can keep their numbers up for the advertising dollar it will bring in.

 

[StephMK]

I'm excited to post that I packed our lunch today & we ate it on the way to a bball game. Usually, since we were running late, we would have just gotten fast food - bad for the budget & waist. Kids didn't complain & we all ate a little healthier. We ended up getting them a soft pretzel but lots cheaper than a lunch.

 

[ohiominnie]

had to get a couple of things at the apple store for dh's podcast productions and we used american express gift checks (Christmas) cash (Christmas) and an Apple gift card (Christmas) ....ended up paying about $8 for $175 worth of items.

ate dinner at red robin and used the "free birthday burger" coupon that was emailed to dh, saving us $8.79. i also did not get a milkshake although i love theirs...saved me money AND calories.

oh....and dropped dd off at a sleepover on the way to the apple store, so she was not there for dinner either. saving us the cost of a kids meal.

 

[Lynn CC]

In order for us to retire at age 50 we have been cutting corners a lot over the past 25 years of marriage.

DH bought me a Stanley Thermos for work, so I put my coffee in there instead of going to Starbucks or DunkinDonuts(never really liked DD coffee anyways).
I bought one for him after X-Mas and he brings hot chocolate in it.
I buy the Maxwell House Lite Coffee and stock up while they are on sale 2 for $4. I buy the large container of hot chocolate at BJ's

So it's just cents for our coffee/hot chocolate instead of about $15 a day/minimum. Although DH bought me a Tassimo 1 cup maker for X-mas too, he didn't know I was waiting for the Senseo for FREE! (I'll put it in the office).

We haven't been to Disney since 2001, we are so due!

We don't go out to eat unless it's a special occasion, anniversary, graduation or something big...B'Days don't count LOL I make everything from scratch.

I do a lot of rebates, especially for DH's business supplies.
shop on line and always compare prices.

However, our internet/cable/phone bills are way overpriced with Comcast, but we've become so accustomed to loving the service we pay it.

We decided to strip our own bathroom (gut it)and refinish top to bottom, instead of hiring someone to do it. Saved about $6000 in labor!

 

[castleview]

While grocery shopping, I got 2 dinner size pizzas for $1.99. They are pepperoni which one of my kids doesn't like. However, for that price she can pick it off.

 

[ohiominnie]

While grocery shopping, I got 2 dinner size pizzas for $1.99. They are pepperoni which one of my kids doesn't like. However, for that price she can pick it off.

We do this all the time. While it's still frozen, pick the pepperoni off of one side, and put it onto the other. Works well if they are the round slices on top of the cheese. Small diced pepperoni or stuff under the cheese doesn't work as well.

If you can move it....then she gets the plain cheese and the pepperoni lovers get extra pepperoni!

 

[hmillerbarilla]

I think I made money today using rebates:

I had $28 in rewards money from Staples (you get 20% back on all your copy print purchases, purchases I make monthly for an organization and get reimbursed, but I keep the rewards!) and I bought $4 worth of Christmas clearance items plus markers for $5.99.

Then I submitted my rebate on the internet to get my $5.99 back from the markers. I didn't want or need them, so I gave them to my sister.

I was told that the leftover $18.01 worth of rewards will roll into next quarters rewards, so I'm wondering what kind of rebates I'll be able to get then!

So, I made $5.99, right? Plus, I got some really cute tissue paper for "free!"

Also, can't wait to check the CVS ad this week! My CVS is less than a city block away!

ETA: This is actually smiller - hmillerbarilla and I keep getting ourselves mixed up! (We're sisters!)