I love coupons and great deals. Being a stay at home mom and a homeschooler, I think that I often sacrifice a little bit more than average just so I can stay home with my kids and provide them with an education.
My little one loves the TLC show "Extreme Couponing". I like it, too, but in a sense that I would rubberneck a train wreck. He wants me to fill our house up with groceries for 35 cents. This is not realistic. Here are some reasons why.
If you watch the show, you will see the shoppers buying entire pallets of Powerade and/or Vitamin Water. This is a trick they're doing to get their numbers up for the show. Most stores offer regular deals on both of those items. Pair them with a coupon and you get free product. Sometimes you can even use a coupon for "Free Stuff when you buy Vitamin Water" and get more free stuff. This is really a no brainer. So, they buy 200 bottles and use 200 coupons. What they DON'T say is the amount of work they put into acquiring those coupons. They've literally spent weeks gathering them together.
These people apparently live in areas where they don't have a grocery tax. We have that here in Alabama. My grocery bill will never be zero.
Pay attention to their baskets. Do you really want to feed your family Yakisoba noodles, barbecue sauce and candy every day?
I recently got back into couponing after a 3 year hiatus. When I learned, I was taught strong ethics by my coach and the phrase "Fly under the radar" was used often. To this day I am thankful for that. Sometimes, some of these people on TV are dipping their feet into the grey area of couponing that we will call fraud. They will justify it however they feel like they need to, but I stand by the statement "Just because you can does not mean you should." Exercise impulse control. It is good for kids to see the parent controlling themselves.
Now, here is the part where I will detail a normal shopping trip for a normal person.
Yesterday, I went to a store here that is called Food Giant. They double coupons up to $1.
Pairing up ads with sales, I bought
2 bags of cat litter for .38 each
4 jars of spaghetti sauce for .75 each
1 package of cat treats = free
3 boxes of microwave popcorn for 1.24 each
6 packages of hot dogs for .19 each
1 can of French fried onions for .68
6 dish scrubbies for .43 each
2 bottles of L&P worcestershire sauce for 1.18 each
A small package of beef ribs .50
A pound of ground turkey .50
2 small steaks for appx 1.25 each
Now, because I don't have a goal of getting my number down to zero, I am perfectly happy with what I spent. I can take some of the money saved and put it in a jar for a weekend trip to the beach which we keep promising the kids and not delivering on.
Today I am making a run to another store for drinks, milk, yogurt, and coffee. I have a specific plan and a list with coupon matchups. However, the store is often sold out because there are people who will buy ALL of a deal because they don't care if anyone else gets to save money as long as they're getting theirs. We'll see what happens, because I don't go to multiple stores, looking for the same deal. Gas is too expensive for that.
And I WON'T be spending 4 hours in line at the checkout.
Food Bank Donations to Date
Showing posts with label budgeting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budgeting. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Saving Money on Car Repairs
I know there are many Do It yourselfers out there who do their own DIY car repairs. My husband is NOT one of those people. I used to work on an old Mustang that I had, and am comfortable with doing repair work on a 60s era car, but no matter how awesome of a car it would be, my guys want to have a vehicle with some modern amenities like ... oh let's see... A/C, power steering, seats that aren't pleather etc etc.
At the worst of the recession, when my husband lost the job that brought us to Alabama, we spent what we had saved up on a beat up, 90s model Toyota Camry. We had to, because he had been driving a company truck and we had to find something. The car definitely came with some issues but the motor was strong and it only had 75,000 miles on it. Now, I can hear many of you saying "That's young for a Toyota!" but those miles were teen-driven miles and the car was pushing 20 years old so we weren't delusional about making it last to 250,000 miles old. We used it to get us around town for errands and job interviews all the while the axles made a funny popping noise, the guy at the quickie lube place unplugged a crack that was in the radiator so it started leaking, it would sometimes not start and I'd have to have a jump, and the brakes started making noise. I bought some brake pads and brought them home. That was the first time I heard The Speech.
"I am not a mechanic. I am a technician."
So I placed an ad on Craigslist, offering $25 for someone to come over and do my brakes. Within minutes, I had 5 responses. I selected a guy who said he lived in our town and actually works for a shop as a mechanic. He showed up and fixed the brakes and said that when we got the new radiator, to give him a call. We did. He replaced the radiator and hoses for 50 bucks. By that time, we were filling the radiator up with water just to get around town and before we came home again).
He replaced the axles, the belts, the motor mount, and the wiper arms ("Those are not snowplows" he said after learning I tried to use them to wipe the snow off the windshield...) for $150. He said he'd do it for anything more than $50 so I gave him extra because I want him to stay willing to do the work.
Now, I have to buy the parts and I am OK with that. I didn't realize the markup that shops do on parts until I received an itemized estimate last month for a strut job, thinking it would be too hard for him to do in the driveway. The shop's estimate was over $900 for just the front end struts. Each strut assembly was listed at $322 just for the part so $644 for the 2 struts, not including labor, which was another $300.
I bought the struts at AutoZone for $165 for the pair. We borrowed a strut spring compressor tool from the loaner tool service there for free. He put my struts on for 100 bucks. The savings was phenomenal.
So if you are "not a mechanic" but need your car worked on, maybe check your local Craigslist. Ours has several guys who offer to do jobs at home, I got lucky the first time, you could too. And your bank account will thank you.
At the worst of the recession, when my husband lost the job that brought us to Alabama, we spent what we had saved up on a beat up, 90s model Toyota Camry. We had to, because he had been driving a company truck and we had to find something. The car definitely came with some issues but the motor was strong and it only had 75,000 miles on it. Now, I can hear many of you saying "That's young for a Toyota!" but those miles were teen-driven miles and the car was pushing 20 years old so we weren't delusional about making it last to 250,000 miles old. We used it to get us around town for errands and job interviews all the while the axles made a funny popping noise, the guy at the quickie lube place unplugged a crack that was in the radiator so it started leaking, it would sometimes not start and I'd have to have a jump, and the brakes started making noise. I bought some brake pads and brought them home. That was the first time I heard The Speech.
"I am not a mechanic. I am a technician."
So I placed an ad on Craigslist, offering $25 for someone to come over and do my brakes. Within minutes, I had 5 responses. I selected a guy who said he lived in our town and actually works for a shop as a mechanic. He showed up and fixed the brakes and said that when we got the new radiator, to give him a call. We did. He replaced the radiator and hoses for 50 bucks. By that time, we were filling the radiator up with water just to get around town and before we came home again).
He replaced the axles, the belts, the motor mount, and the wiper arms ("Those are not snowplows" he said after learning I tried to use them to wipe the snow off the windshield...) for $150. He said he'd do it for anything more than $50 so I gave him extra because I want him to stay willing to do the work.
Now, I have to buy the parts and I am OK with that. I didn't realize the markup that shops do on parts until I received an itemized estimate last month for a strut job, thinking it would be too hard for him to do in the driveway. The shop's estimate was over $900 for just the front end struts. Each strut assembly was listed at $322 just for the part so $644 for the 2 struts, not including labor, which was another $300.
I bought the struts at AutoZone for $165 for the pair. We borrowed a strut spring compressor tool from the loaner tool service there for free. He put my struts on for 100 bucks. The savings was phenomenal.
So if you are "not a mechanic" but need your car worked on, maybe check your local Craigslist. Ours has several guys who offer to do jobs at home, I got lucky the first time, you could too. And your bank account will thank you.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Starting BIG! What to do with a turkey.
Really, I just want to get these pics out of my image folder because they are in my way! Plus, I think it will make a good practice post for uploading, etc...
A few months back, I found some Butterball fresh turkeys in the post holiday markdown bins at the grocery store. They were BIG turkeys, not close to expiring, and only $5 each. I bought them both with the intention of sticking them in my freezer but when I got home, I realized that they had a lot more potential boned and packed separately. So, I began.
The first thing I did was open up the turkeys, of course! Then, I removed the legs.
Then, I took off the wings and cut them at the joints. The wing tips went into the bowl for the scraps for making schmaltz.
Then, I carefully removed the breasts. Everyone loves a big breast! I gave them a nice squeeze.
After taking the meat off the thighs, I diced it up into bits for stir fry and soups.
Unfortunately, I had to decline the offer for assistance.
With a sharp knife and a lot of care, your carcass should look like this.
Then you put it on the stove in a big pot and cover it with water. Let it boil for about an hour, then *eye* took it out and carefully took off the cooked bits because otherwise they lose flavor. I ended up with 4 cups of precooked turkey for freezing and using in pot pies. Put the bones back into the pot and simmer them for several hours and you will have a thick turkey stock. After straining it, I made sure I had 10 quarts of stock, which, if I had paid $1 per quart at the store, would save me the cost of the turkeys at $5 each.
The cooked turkey bits....
Somehow, several pictures are missing from my hard drive so I will now list what I got for my $10 investment.
4 turkey legs ... store cost: $6
4 turkey wings ... store cost $6
4 5 pound boneless turkey breasts ... store cost $50
3 2 pound packages of boneless thigh meat ... guessing store cost $6 (can't find this in store)
4 cups of cooked turkey bits ... $5
10 quarts of frozen turkey stock ... $10
A bag of fat and skin for schmaltz and gribenes ... priceless.
The only way I could make this better would be if I took these neck bones below and made a crappy craft to sell.
And there you have it. I will never buy turkey in any form again but whole and cut it up.
End first post. This was pretty easy.
A few months back, I found some Butterball fresh turkeys in the post holiday markdown bins at the grocery store. They were BIG turkeys, not close to expiring, and only $5 each. I bought them both with the intention of sticking them in my freezer but when I got home, I realized that they had a lot more potential boned and packed separately. So, I began.
The first thing I did was open up the turkeys, of course! Then, I removed the legs.
 |
| Definitely sharpen your knives before jointing and boning a turkey. |
Then, I carefully removed the breasts. Everyone loves a big breast! I gave them a nice squeeze.
After taking the meat off the thighs, I diced it up into bits for stir fry and soups.
Unfortunately, I had to decline the offer for assistance.
With a sharp knife and a lot of care, your carcass should look like this.
Then you put it on the stove in a big pot and cover it with water. Let it boil for about an hour, then *eye* took it out and carefully took off the cooked bits because otherwise they lose flavor. I ended up with 4 cups of precooked turkey for freezing and using in pot pies. Put the bones back into the pot and simmer them for several hours and you will have a thick turkey stock. After straining it, I made sure I had 10 quarts of stock, which, if I had paid $1 per quart at the store, would save me the cost of the turkeys at $5 each.
Somehow, several pictures are missing from my hard drive so I will now list what I got for my $10 investment.
4 turkey legs ... store cost: $6
4 turkey wings ... store cost $6
4 5 pound boneless turkey breasts ... store cost $50
3 2 pound packages of boneless thigh meat ... guessing store cost $6 (can't find this in store)
4 cups of cooked turkey bits ... $5
10 quarts of frozen turkey stock ... $10
A bag of fat and skin for schmaltz and gribenes ... priceless.
The only way I could make this better would be if I took these neck bones below and made a crappy craft to sell.
And there you have it. I will never buy turkey in any form again but whole and cut it up.
End first post. This was pretty easy.
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