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!)

How I Make/Save Money with my Phone

Aren't cell phones amazing?! They are basically tiny little computers that fit in our skinny jeans and save us money!

I thought it might be a good idea to share a couple of my favorite apps that are super simple and have saved, even earned, me money.

My favorite money making app is Shopkick.

All you do is open the app when you walk in certain stores such as Target (where we all shop), JcPenny, Best Buy, Wal-Mart and more. When you open the app you typically get anywhere from 30 to 100 kicks (sometimes even 200). In some stores you can scan certain products to get you additional kicks. Many times these range from 10 to 100 kicks per scan. Once you have accumulated enough kicks you can cash them in for gift cards. Using Target as an example: you can cash in as few as 500 kicks for a $2 gift card or 6250 kicks for a $25 gift card.

I have earned a total of 14,500 kicks which is equal to over $50 in gift cards. I have cashed in enough of my kicks to equal $35 worth of gift cards at JcPenny and currently have 5,750 kicks I can use whenever I want. The gift cards are codes that pop up almost instantly on your phone when you redeem them. You show the cashier the code which they enter as a gift card and ta-dah, free stuff!

How cool is that?

I'll do a follow up post to discuss a couple of the other apps I use to save money. What are your favorite money saving apps? Tell me in the comments below.

Enjoy and happy Shopkicking!

Better Than a Thrift Shop Shopping

I realize it's Wednesday already so I'm not going to recap my weekend but I do want to recap some amazing bargains I got! 

First let me say, I'm not trendy, not in the slightest actually. I prefer tennis shoes and my KU hoodie to just about any clothing options out there. It's comfy and it keeps me warm in the antarctic temperatures my work environment so kindly provides me with. Plus I work in a place were you better wear tennies and hoodies because your clothes have a potential to get dirty. 

That being said I found some pretty great deals at JcPenney's on Sunday. I had two "$10 off any $10 purchase" coupons so I decided to go in to see if there was something I could use them on. 

By the time I left I had a pair of denim shorts, hot pink shorts, a blue belt, a plain pink scoop neck tee, a fitted black tank top, a dressy-er black tank top shirt (I'm sure it has a special name but I don't know what) and a light weight black scarf with blue polka dots. 

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When checking out the cashier scanned a 15% off coupon for me and took my two $10 off coupons and I spent a grand total of .25 cents! Um, yes please! That's my kind of shopping right there people. 

7 Quick Takes {15}

1. Well it's Friday and in a small town that means Friday Night Football! We rarely go to the football games because let's face it, it's kinda weird to be in your 20's with no kids and go cheer on the high school football team, but tonight we're going to make an exception. My Aunt is having a party after the game so we figured we should probably go for a little while. Plus, I'm sure they will have some yummy concessions stand food at the game. 

Plastic cheese? Yes, please!

2. Pretty sure I have been an emotional disaster this week, so to my dear husband, I apologize. A few extra hours of sleep tomorrow morning and I should be good to go:)

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3. It's free lunch day at the bank today! Just another perk of living in a small town. Free dogs and burgers to all!

4. My house is the disaster of all disasters right now and it's seriously wearing my out! I just want everything to be put away and sparkly clean. I don't think we have caught up yet from vacation and it's kinda depressing to know that I'll be cleaning my whole weekend. Bleh. 

5. Earlier this week I found an amazing debt snowball calculator online and it currently has me motivated to spend zero unnecessary dollars. According to the calculator, if we keep paying what we are paying every month (on all debts) and roll it using the snowball method (the hard part), we could be completely debt free, including the house, in 7 years! Holy bananas that would make my life! Unfortunately that doesn't factor in lots of extras, like vacations or kids so we will see how long it really takes. 

6. It's been almost two weeks that my husband has lived in the same house as me and I must say I'm enjoying it. It's nice to have someone there when I get home and that helps with the dishes or cleans the pain in the butt wood floors for me. Or maybe he just knows that the floors would never get dusted if he didn't do it. Either way, I'm glad he's home. Plus he's pretty cute:)

7. Thinking the rest of my day will be spent making lists. Since I'm stuck at work and can't actually accomplish anything on my lists at least I will have a plan of attack for the weekend. 

Happy Weekend Blogiverse!

Linking up over at Conversion Diary.

Canvas Prints Deal - A really good one!

Remember when I told you that I finally ordered some wedding photos here? Well, when I ordered them I got one heck of deal and the deal is back so I thought I would be nice and share.

The deal is through a site called Eversave which is a site similar to Groupon.

Right now you can order...
1 - 16x20 for $30
OR
2 - 16x20s for only $40. That's a freakin awesome deal right there people.  Usually the lowest I see on Groupon is $39 for 1 - 16x20.

You know what else is cool though? When I ordered last time I didn't have to order the 16x20s. Basically, I just got the dollar amount of what the 16x20 normally was and I got to use it on whatever. So I actually ordered a 24x36 (I think??) and a 12x12 and it was only $40!!!! Plus I ordered 2 of the 16x20s as Mothers Day presents for both my mom and Seth's mom. They loved them:)

Only bad news is that today's the last day to order so jump on it! This is my referral link but it may actually get you a discount too...not positive so let me know if you try it and it does.

In case you forgot what they looked like. This is the 24x36.
I promise my walls aren't diaper green also....they're actually brown...

Quality looks terrible in this photo but that's what you get
with low lighting and filters on an iPhone. Real quality is actually great!

As soon as you order you can actually email someone or post it to any social media and they put $2 in your account for a future purchase:) Gotta love those deals!

P.S. I'm a cheapo so I don't order things like this unless it's a good deal and good quality. I just reordered 2 more of the 2-16x20's so I'm gonna have 4 new prints soon! Yippee.

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:)