Money Saving Tips!

I asked Jamie to write a guest blog to follow up with some more money saving tips. Depending on the response I may start a second blog that is strictly for financial and money saving tips. Here is what she has to say.

My husband asked me to be a “guest” on his blog!! I had so many thoughts race through my head. What on earth am I going to blog about? I can’t blog as well as Michael! What do people want to hear from a stay at home mom?

Hopefully everyone enjoys this blog, so…. Here it goes!

MONEY SAVING TIPS!!!! Exciting right?!?! Where to start…. My new “job”, is staying at home with our adorable baby boy and keeping our household together. Many sacrifices had to be made to make this possible. Number 1 on the list was SAVING MONEY and living a somewhat frugal lifestyle. Is it worth staying at home with our child? You better believe it!! How long can we make this work? We don’t know! I never take a day at home with my little man for granted.

When shopping for ANYTHING, I am always looking for a deal. Paying full price, makes my stomach hurt. It becomes a game. I can find it cheaper somewhere else! I have a coupon for that!

Having a child CAN be expensive!! Charlie is on formula. That stuff is 25 bucks a can, but my baby needs it. We found out quick that we can get double the formula for the same cost at Sam’s. When Charlie is 6 months old, we can start baby food. I am going to be making it myself. We received a Baby Bullet as a shower gift! SCORE!!! I get to feed our baby fresh and organic fruits and veggies! We don’t use name brand diapers or wipes. I don’t care what brand it is, as long as it holds the mess and cleans it up nicely, I’m happy☺ I am also not a fan of the diaper genies. They add on more expense and boy do they stink. We use good old Kroger bags. I love getting the 20% of coupons from Babies R Us! I hold on to them like a golden ticket. I usually use them for the bigger items.

Groceries!!! You gotta eat!! We meal plan. It works wonders for us. I plan out every single meal and always check the kitchen stock before just rushing off to the store. What do I have? What meals can I make with what I already have? STOP WASTING FOOD PEOPLE!!! I’m sure you have 146 cans of veggies in your kitchen now. Why? Start using them and only buy them, when you need them. Look for sales on meat. You can get great deals on just about any kind. Portion it out and FREEZE it! You like to eat fresh veggies and fruit? Fine! Just plan it in your meal plan. Every two weeks we sit down in the kitchen with our coupons, list and calendar . I write down what we are eating everyday!! Now…. Of course we need to stop in the store every now and then to get some things. We are saving so much money now. It works for us!!! YAY!!!! Saving money at the grocery store is fun and….. you earn FUEL points!!! Saving on gas too??? No!?!? YES!

This blog is getting long. My goal is to stay at home with our child as long as possible. Watching what you spend and planning what you want to spend, is HUGE! We don’t go on spending sprees on the weekends, eat out much and find FREE and fun things to do. The park is such a fun place to go with your family and IT IS FREE. We still don’t “go without” and still live a comfortable lifestyle. It can be hard…. Lets be real! Honestly, if it is your hearts desire, it can work.

We are open to any other suggestions!!! Please share!

Life is too short to always keep with the Jones’!!!

Fifty Shades of Freakout!

The Wife has been reading "Fifty Shades of Gray" and informed me that she would soon be finished with the first book and that she needed the second book. She used her "sweet, pretty please voice" which she often reverts to when she wants me to buy her something. I kept telling her to wait until Mother's Day and Charlie might get it for her. She swiftly changed to the "pouty, disappointed" voice after that statement. Why do I let this woman work me like that.

I left work and of course stopped at the store. I thought about buying the book and hiding it until Sunday. The problem is that you can not hide anything from Miss Snoopy. She would smell the newly bound pages and find the books anywhere that I hid them. As I was leaving the store I received my "It's past 9:20pm. Where are you call." I played it off as if I had to stop at the store to buy a new can of chew. The ploy worked and I made my way home.

Now I had to get into the house carrying a Kroger bag with a large rectangular shaped object in it. I had already given in to not being able to hide the book until Sunday. I pulled up to the house and of course "Miss Neighborhood Watch" was sitting in the window. I wiped the "I'm up to something" smirk off of my face, quietly closed the car door, army crawled up to the front door and slipped into the house. I proceeded directly to the kitchen and placed the bag on the table.

I took two steps into the living room and heard. "What's in the bag?" I replied, "Brownies! Why don't you go make them?" "I don't feel like it." Jamie replied in a stretched out tired voice.

Lonnie and Kylie were at the house to hang out for the evening. (Jamie's brother and his girlfriend) They sat up like little puppies about to receive a treat when thay heard the word brownies. It took everything that I had to not laugh at the vision of their soon to be disappointed faces.

I kept asking Jamie to make the "brownies", but she would not go in the kitchen. I finally went into the kitchen to make my dinner knowing that she would follow. She opened the bag to find the second book in the series. You would have thought that she was six years old and just got a pony for Christmas. She jumped around and squealed and ran in to the living to show Lonnie and Kylie what I had bought for her. Finally I had pulled off a very unexpected surprise on "Miss You Can't Surprise Me." After Jamie calmed down from her frantic skipping and prancing she returned to the kitchen to get the brownie mix out of the bag. TA-DA! Another book! I went ahead and bought her the third book in the series. She again performed her "skippy, prancy" dance about the room and showed off her new books to Lonnie and Kylie. I had finally pulled off a great surprise.

I returned to the living room with my taco bowl and sat at my desk to eat. The room was quiet other than Jamie still ranting and raving about how happy she was. Lonnie and Kylie sat on the couch like two little kids that had their lollipops taken away. Jamie asked Kylie, "What's wrong?" Kylie replied, "I'm guessing that there are no brownies in the bag?" I apologized for the false excitement that I had created with the brownie ploy.

Coopins!

Thank you to the power of couponing, Jamie can stay home with our baby. I am sure that all of you have seen or heard about these extreme couponers. Extreme couponing is almost a full time job in itself. Most people that are serious couponers spend up to 40 hours a week collecting, clipping and planning their shopping trips. Is it worth it? If you can save what you could have made by working it is.

We get excited when we save $20 for our bi-weekly grocery shopping trip. We have started planning our nightly meals and the new system seems to be working great. We know what we need to buy, we can match up appropriate coupons and we  know what the budget is. This system makes for a seamless shopping trip and you have to use less brain cells deciding what you want for supper.

Jamie is very thrifty and always spots good deals. She has rubbed off on me a little and I find myself searching when shopping also. If you can find something on sale, have a store coupon and a manufacturers coupon, you could end up paying next to nothing for the item or find yourself with a store credit. Recently Kroger sent out a packet of coupons that are taylored to your shopping habits. We received some great coupons for items that we always buy. Thank you Kroger! Mix these with a few other coupons and you could save some big money.

When we go shopping without coupons I almost feel guilty knowing that there is no reason we should pay retail price for the items that we are buying. You can spend $1.75 on a sunday paper, visit coupons.com, add coupons to your Kroger plus card, spend an hour planning meals and clipping coupons and save 20-50% at the grocery. That money can add up quickly. With the price of gas going up we need a little extra money for our tanks.

The next time that you go to the grocery and the cashier says, "Do you have any coopins?" be prepared and say, "Why, yes I do."