Money Saving Monday

I've realized I have about a million little tricks and tips for saving money. Since I'm pretty sure everyone loves to save money I have decided to do a little series occasionally called Money Saving Monday. 

With this series I will share ways (that I actually use) to save myself and my family money. This ranges from making freezer meals, to couponing, to using certain websites or apps to earn things like gift cards, cash and magazines!

If there is something in particular you are interested in saving money on let me know in the comments below. 

To get started…here's a link to a post I did a few weeks ago. I have currently earned approximately $70 in gift cards just from this app. (Hint: If you use the link I provide I earn bonus points and so do you!)

Ballgames and Lumberjacks and Groceries, OH MY!

I need another weekend to rest up and relax from the weekend. Luckily, it was a good one and we got a lot of stuff done that needed to be done. 

On Friday I had a terrible day at work so I was excited to be able to sneak out a little early to meet some of our friends at the Royals game. First winning game I have been to in a long time and it was tons of fun. Plus it was buck night so I got to eat my fill of ballpark hot dogs. I swear they taste extra delish at the ballpark. 

I would estimate 9 out of 10 photos of "us" look like the photo on the left.
Seth loves photos!
(check out the photobombers)

After staying up late Friday we both slept in until after 10:00. I feel like that never happens anymore but it was amazing. Once we got up we headed into town for an early lunch and to get fuel for the lawn mower. Seth ended up mowing the lawn while I put down shelf liner and cleaned out or pantry cabinets in the kitchen. Glamorous, I know. Turns out we have a lot of food and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I'm a food hoarder as well as paper hoarder...

Yikes! That's only two cabinets...

Since I had so much I was able to pull out a big bag of groceries to drop off at the church for the local food pantry. I hope someone (besides my shelves) gets to enjoy it that way. 

Once I ran out shelf liner and had cleaned out a good portion of cabinets I went outside to help Seth a bit. He had apparently turned into a lumberjack and was busy chopping down dead tree limbs and limbs that were hanging way too low. It's pretty amazing how much better everything looks in the front yard now.

Before - Where are you little house??

After - THERE you are

We finished the night off with some grilled steaks and potatoes and watched the movie Mud which I would highly recommend even though I passed out before it was over. 

Sunday we went to Church as usual and then stopped by to check on the progress on my parents new house. It's looking really good and hopefully they will be able to move in in the next couple of weeks. The rest of our afternoon was filled with me cleaning out the laundry cabinets (after watching the rest of Mud) while Seth dominated a few more trees and limbs in the back yard. We now have a better view of our pond and everything doesn't look so much like a jungle. 

After working another long day Seth helped me make up some fajitas and nachos for dinner. So so yummy and I'm hungry again now just thinking about it. We settled in for a quiet evening and I finally got the chance to watch Zero Dark Thirty. Also a good movie. 

And now we're back to Monday. I hope everyone else had a fantastic and productive weekend!

Have I put on weight??

I'd say I had a semi-average weekend. What else is new?

After work Friday I stopped by to check out the progress on my parents new house and got suckered into helping carry tile. Ugh, that stuff is heavy. I managed to leave in time to stop at the local farmers market to check out the goods people had on display. Since I can't carry cash with me, or I spend it, I only had a measly dollar in my pocket which I used to splurge on some homemade dog treats for Gunnar. Spoiled much? 

Since I have my very own jungle garden I just went home and picked my own produce. Good thing or I'd be in the poor house. I've got my own tomatoes that cost way less than $2.50 a lb. Is that really the going rate?? If so, I easily picked 25 bucks of tomatoes from my garden Friday night. 

Obviously I sliced those puppies (tomatoes, not real puppies) up and fried some bacon to make myself a lovely bacon tomato sandwich (or 2). Best summer meal ever. I know most people add lettuce to make this a bLt but who are we kidding people? Do you really think that one measly slice of lettuce is making this meal healthy? I assure you it's not. Just replace the lettuce with another slice of bacon and be thankful that you are enjoying those savory bites of fried pork before your heart explodes. 

Summer on a plate my friend.

Then I sorted my coupons and made my shopping list for my price match extravaganza the next day. Maybe watched a little DVR because I'm cool and can do that now.

Saturday I spent an unnecessary amount of time price matching groceries at Wal-Mart. Apparently every effin person in the little ole town of Lawrence, KS (aka Jayhawk territory) was back to school shopping. A living nightmare. Literally. I managed to grab the items on my list and make it out in right under two hours. Not sure if I would consider that a win or a lose. Fortunately Target housed a little more sanity as I swung in to pick up a few un-neccessary (shirts) items.

I ventured back to my parents house in the afternoon to play with a cute baby, my parents watch, when his parents are on call. My mom and I went to church and then I gotta to spend more time playing with the other baby, that my mom nanny's for. The little girl is just precious and she let me hold her so I was pretty excited. Baby fever? Maybe. 

Apparently someone else must think I have baby fever too, or possibly just thinks I've put on a few lbs, cause these dang magazines all showed up to my house last week....

#notpregnant #toomanyblts

Sunday was pretty lackadaisical with another meal of blts while meeting with my church's other youth group leaders. Followed by lots of couch lounging and maybe a nap. I finished off the evening by doing a photoshoot for a high school senior and catching up on my favorite mind numbing (dumbing??) shows.

Oh, and I found $20 in a parking lot so that pretty much makes the whole weekend a win right?

Hell-o Mr. Jackson!

How to be more productive

I've figured out how to make your life more productive and I'm sharing the secret!

Start a blog. 

Yep, that's all you have to do. (Well you have to write in it too, obviously.)

Seriously, since I have started blogging, my life has gotten way more productive. Everytime I see, do, or think something, I think to myself, "hmm, I wonder if this would make a good blog post?" or "wow, this would make a good blog post." 

Is that pathetic? Is that what all bloggers do? As I've said, I'm new to the blog world, but I can't help but think that I'm not the only one thinking these thoughts. 

I also don't think I'm the only one that does things around my house or in my life so that I have good blogging material. Honestly, if I wasn't productive my life blog would look something like this. 

Woke up.

Went to work.

Came home.

Watched tv Downton Abbey.

Went to bed. 

As wonderful a blog as that would make, I like to think that my 3 readers deserve a little more. 

So now that blogging has entered my life... 

I craft.

Here

I bake. 

Here

Sometimes decorate or DIY some type of upcycled randomness. 

Here

I look for bargains. 

Here

I garden. 

Here

I clean. 

This room is in the process of being cleaned/organized. Here

I organize. (See above)

And, I document. (See above)

That's right, I take pictures of anything and everything that I'm doing, eating, visiting. Then, when I'm inspired to post, I have some lovely little photos to go right around with the writings. 

I would like to point out that I did (and still do) all the things listed above before blogging. And, I don't just do those things because I have a blog. However, I do some of the items more frequently than I use to. I don't procrastinate nearly as much and I get excited about doing some of the items that I might otherwise dread. Overall, blogging has, so far, been a positive influence in my life and I hope the productiveness continues. 

Since my husband benefits from some of the items above, I would say that he enjoys my productive blog life as well:) 

xoxo,

Julie

Extreme Couponing?

I feel like I pretty much dominated at grocery shopping these past couple days. I managed to stock our freezer and cabinets fairly well while easily saving over a couple hundred bucks. 

To give you an idea of the savings I had on Sunday:

I spent $74 at Wal-Mart for 70 items. 

One item was $20 and it was my dog's flea and tick meds and this was the only item I didn't price match. 

So essentially I spent $54 for 69 items. 

6 pkg of Kraft shredded cheese - FREE

6 pkg of Kraft natural slices cheese - FREE

6 pkg of Oscar Meyer bologna - Free (I don't eat this but I donate it)

6 pkg of Oscar Meyer Deli Fresh lunchmeat - .49 cents each

3 pkg of Oscar Meyer Bacon - .99 cents each

4 - 32 oz bottles of Gatorade - .59 cents each

4 jars of Planters peanuts - .99 cents each

6 pkg of Green Giant steamfresh frozen veggies -.65 cents each

Can't remember what all of this was priced but the total added with the stuff above only came out to $54.

2 pkgs of Crystal Light

3 bottles of Hunts Ketchup

2 Velveeta Cheesy Skillets

3 pkgs of Keebler Cookies

2 - 4lb bags of C&H Sugar

2 - 24pk cases of Nestle Pure Life Water

1 - 12 roll pk of Angel Soft TP

3 - Butterfingers

1 - Cheetos

1 - Fritos

4 pkg of Hamburger Helper

3 cans of manwhich

1 - Ekrich Smoked Sausage

$20 dog meds

Wally world deals.

You might be looking at this list and thinking that's a lot of crap and cheese. I admit, there is quite a bit of junk in here but this is also not what we eat every day and most of this stuff will last my husband and I several months (not the cheetos, they are my weakness;). I honestly go to the grocery store 2-3 times a week and pick up the fresh produce but I tend to stock up every couple months on this other stuff whenever they have big sales. A lot of the stuff "freezes beautifully" including the cheese and lunchmeat so that helps as well. 

Monday I followed up my big food extravaganza with a little bit of shopping at the local Dillons (Kroger). I had to run in to deposit my paycheck and pick up a prescription so I thought I would check things out while I was in there. Good thing I did. 

1 Gillette shaving cream

2 bottles of Pantene

2  tubes of Colgate toothpaste

1 Colgate toothbrush 

3 cans of Van Camps pork and beans (bbq season is upon us!)

1 Dial handsoap

1 Downy Unstoppables (mildly obsessed with these, have you tried them?)

1 head of Romaine lettuce

Grand total $5 and change. Not bad if I say so myself. 

Dillons deals.

If you have any questions about what kind of deals I used just let me know. I use coupons a lot and I also always price match at Wal-Mart. Such an easy way to save money even though it does take a little bit of time. 

Couponing

I must admit that I love couponing!

Now, I'm not an "extreme" couponer like what you see on TLC's "Extreme Couponers" but I think I do all right. 

Most times shopping I try to leave the store with at least 50% savings. In my book, 50% savings is great! Plus I actually get reasonable amounts of the different products as opposed to 72 bottles of mustard that I will never be able to use. 

Fortunately I live in a location that has lots of different shopping choices to choose from. I can pick up different deals from the different stores. Or, if I don't want to go to multiple places my local Wal-Mart price matches.  

Most recently, I hit up my local Dillons. I managed a bill totaling $14 and change and I saved over $36! Plus, one of the products I purchased earned me a $3 catalina coupon on my next purchase. How great is that?! 

A quick summary of some of the things I bought or got for free included:

• 4 Reach Floss - on sale for .45 cents each - I had two $1.00 off two coupon which means I got all 4 free! This is the item that also gave me the $3 catalina off my next puchase.
• 2 Reach Toothbrushes - on sale for .99 cents each  - I had two $1.00 off one coupon which meant both were free!
• 1 yoplait yogurt - on sale for .50 cents each - I had one .30 cent off coupon that doubled meaning it was free!
• 1 Men's Dove Body Wash - on sale for $2.99 - I had a coupon for $2.00 of one making the body wash only .99 cents
• 4 packages of Hefty ziplock bags - on sale for .99 cents each - I had two $1 off two coupons making each box of bags only .50 cents

Now these are only a few of the things I got and I obviously buy some things that don't have coupons but I always try to watch the sales and avoid paying full price for anything if at all possible. 

I learned most of my couponing skills, not from tv or blogs, but from my mom who was years ahead of the times in regards to the coupon world. She is now the one I call to tell about my favorite couponing deals and she is always willing to share her deals as well. 

Couponing, done correctly, can save your family a lot of money. However, as my husband likes to remind me, don't buy it if you don't need it or won't use it :) If you can get it for free or fairly inexpensively and want to donate it then I think that's great! That's what I like to do with a lot of the hygiene products I get. 

In the comments section tell us what are some of your favorite couponing tips? What was the best deal you have ever gotten?

Until next time, remember, if you buy too much, it probably Freezes Beautifully:)