I'm still saving!

I've been so busy with YumaMom that I haven't been posting much over here.  But have no fear, I'm still saving!!

Commissary on 2/26/10 = $22.10
Commissary on 3/5/10 = $6.34 (smaller shopping trip)
Walmart on 3/11/10 = $12 (got many things for free!!!)
I also saved money at Albertsons (about $4.00) when we bought Odwalla drinks, but I can't find the receipt.

Previous total was $157.62 + $44.44 (todays post total) = $202.06

Refinishing a chair

The perfectionist in me still isn't thrilled with how this turned out, but it was fun little project with decent end results.

Let me start off with a little background info.  Before moving to this current house (Yuma base housing), we had our nice wooden computer desk in our spare room.  This house came with a built-in computer desk that is in the landing at the top of the stairs and with a smaller spare room, we decided to put our computer there and store the desk for now.  While it's not a bad little computer nook, the location is awful and I can't think of another way to use that built-in desk and not have it look out of place.  It's the first thing you seen when you walk up the stairs.  Until now, I've had a blue fabric-upholstered office chair at the desk - while comfortable and functional, it's not exactly what I want to look at the back of every time I go up the stairs.  For a while, I've been thinking of how nice it would be to get a nicer chair to put at the computer desk.

While at Goodwill on Friday, I found this cute chair that looked like it had a lot of potential.  I redid the upholstery on my dining room chairs and I've stained furniture before, so it seemed like an easy enough fix.  I paid less than $5 for it!!











After I've taken the seat off...

So, I got out my mouse sander and went to town.  It was hard to get the stain off and I finally decided I'd done enough.  I was hoping that when I re-stained it, it would all blend in....













Here's the chair after I stained it. See how well it blended?...okay, so it didn't blend - guess it has that rustic, weathered look?  I already had stain from a bench I did a year and a half ago, so I just used it.  It's a bit of a cherry color.

When I took the upholstery off, I discovered that the old padding was pretty sad, so I bought new padding from JoAnn Fabric that was less than $4 after my 40% off coupon.  

And this is me going to town with the staple gun.  I have my knees on the wooden bottom of the seat and am stapling the fabric.  Maybe I didn't do the padding quite right or the fabric wasn't thick enough, put it puckers a bit from the staples.....again, the perfectionist in me is a little disappointed.  I bought 3/4 of a yard of fabric from Wal-mart for $1.50.

And lastly, we have the finished product!

If I had to do this again, I think I would have just painted the chair (not stained it).  It would have looked really cute painted white and distressed with a light blue upholstered seat, but that wouldn't fit into my decor.  Am I in love?  No.  Am I thrilled down to my toes about how it turned out?  No.  Did I learn a few things from this?  Yes.  The total cost for this chair was about $10, so I can't complain too much.  And, it satisfied the green in me - it's recycled.

Sweet Rewards!!

Had a good today full of lots of coupon savings!!! This is a picture of me and my son having drink treats - and we used coupons for both!!! I love teaching my family about smart shopping. After our busy Target shopping where we saved $2.05 (we only bought gum, shampoo and soap for the kids, and a travel size Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo that was free with the coupon) we needed to treat ourselves to a little drink. I had a coupon for $1 off a frappachino and one for $0.55 off an Odwalla drink that I used at the Starbucks inside Target and only spent $1.55 for both drinks!

$0.05 of our Target savings was for using our own bags.  Check out my son's blog about being green!

Savings update:
$18.35 at Commissary on 02/05/2010 (late about posting this)
$2.05 at Target today
$1.55 at Starbucks today
$18.48 at the Commissary today

Today's savings of $22.08 + last week's commissary savings of $18.35 + $117.19 saved already this year = 157.62 saved for 2010 so far!!

Yesterday's savings = $22.49

Another great commissary trip for me this week!  I saved $21.49 w/ coupons.  And I loved my cashier, too!  I had a $2.00 of Nabisco crackers coupon, but bought Nabisco cookies instead.  She checked to see if the coupon would work, which it didn't (bummer), but I had a coupon for $0.55 off Nabisco crackers or cookies and used that one instead.  And as she went to ring up my Q-tips, she spotted a $0.40 peely coupon and asked it I wanted to use it!  And I had been thinking when I bought the Q-tips, "gee, I wish I had a coupon for these."

And then, my husband picked us up a family move, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, from the RedBox and was able to use a coupon code for a free movie rental - another $1 saved!

That brings my 2010 coupons savings total to $117.19!!  I'm now putting my coupons savings aside as I save for a new macbook.  Wish me luck!

Saved $23.65 w/ coupons!

Good day for coupons! 

First stop was Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts where I bought a new crochet hook and some yarn.  I was need of a G/4 hook and decided to try out the soft touch crochet hook this time.  They're more expensive, so it was just the right time to use my 50% off coupon, saving me $3.50!

Second stop was Old Navy where I went to check out their clearance items.  All clearance items were an additional 50% off.  I bought a pair of shorts and 2 shirts for my oldest and 2 tanks, a dress, and slippers.  I had a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase that I printed off their site.  I was just under the $25 amount and had to throw in some clearance mints.  I spent $21.85 and saved $5 with my coupon (the mints ended up costing $0.39 after discounts).

Third and final stop was the commissary.  The big score today were in-store coupons on a few items I buy regularly like UP frozen fruit and Presto sandwich/garbage bags.  The coupons don't expire for a while so I stocked up!  We use frozen fruit in our smoothies and I usually buy at least a couple of bags a month - those coupons don't expire until September 2010!  It's only $0.35 off 2 bags, but since I buy them regardless, this was exciting (cheap thrills, right?).  Today's commissary savings was $15.15. 

Add all this to my $69.05 saved since my last trip plus $2.00 in RedBox coupon code savings and that brings my 2010 coupons savings total to $94.70!!

Cheap Date

Yesterday, we took a family bike ride down to the nearest RedBox to pick up a movie for the night. For $1, you get the movie until 9pm the following night. Even better is when you have a promo code for a free rental. While I'm a big fan of Hip2Save for most of my coupon/deal finds, I occasionally visit SwagGrabber to see if there are different deals listed. SwagGrabber often has free promo codes for RedBox on their site. When I see the codes, I jot them down into my phone and viola, free movie! I was able to do this twice this weekend.

And then, for dinner tonight, hubby and I served mac n' cheese and chicken nuggets to the kids, complete with the healthy balance of a homemade fruit smoothie. We bathed them, put them bed, and then sat down for a nice romantic dinner for two. We had Caesar salad, steak, garlic green beans, and mashed potatoes by candlelight. We love to do this every once in a while. My husband can't stand paying for steak at a restaurant because they "never know how to cook it." Dinner at home is much more affordable, it's quiet, and there's no cost for a baby sitter. Yes, we still have to cook and clean up, but it's just so nice doing it together without the commotion of our children that we don't really mind. So, cheers to a cheap date!

Getting Organized

With my new love of coupons, I decided it was time for a coupon organizer. While I was at, I bought one for my money too.  (They were under $4 each at Walmart)

Dave Ramsey promotes the use of envelopes - spending your money on paper first and then setting money aside for those expenses. In an effort to be more efficient than envelopes, I thought a coupon organizer for my budgeted money might work. I did this once before and found myself robbing from Peter to pay Paul or taking clothing money to pay the babysitter, so let's hope that I'm more stringent this time around. I'm quickly discovering all the things that weren't budgeted for. Like party favors for my son's birthday, wanting to buy a tomato plant for our garden and the $30 I had to spend on printer ink. My husband and I were both allotted some "blow" money that is ours to spend how we choose, but it wasn't very fun taking $30 of my blow money to buy computer ink. Hmmmm.....still working out the kinks. Now with my new handy money organizer, our going green project is in effect. My husband got paid on Friday and I took out a big withdrawal from the ATM and then sorted and divided the cash into the various categories.

As for my coupons, it's much nicer having them organized. I watched Collin's video on coupon organizing to help me determine what dividers I would want. I'm missing something for bread...packaged goods? I'm hoping this smaller, accordion organizer will suffice for a while. Collin using a binder and I'm just not sure I want to carry something that big around with me to the store.

Speaking of taking all this with me to the stores - I need a new, bigger purse now more than ever. I found one that would do the job at Wilson Leather when Hip2Save posted about a save they were having, but without being able to see it in person, I just couldn't commit.

Will all this work and be full proof? Obviously not. But I'm open to adjustments.

Saved $10.05!!

It was slightly discouraging to only save $10.05, but the coupons weren't in my favor while doing my weekly grocery shopping yesterday.  There were several times that I had a coupon for the item I wanted, but another brand was cheaper or our commissary didn't carry a brand I had a coupon for.  I still made some good shopping choices, so I can't complain.  Ten dollars saved is still ten dollars.  The previous two trips, I had been able to buy Rayovac batteries with $3 off coupons and those really accounted for a big chunk of my coupon savings.  So, I will not be discouraged, but will continue to save and track my savings.  My 2010 savings total was $59 and this now brings it to $69.05 and the month is only half over. 

Saved $34!!!

Another successful commissary shopping trip. I save $28 yesterday. I bought 79 items and all but about 25 of them (some of them were produce) I had a coupon for. I had a few high dollar coupons, so not sure when I'll be able to top a $28 savings. Also, I saved $6 at Walgreens, getting 4 small boxes of Ritz and Saltines for free and getting Visine for about $2.50, plus I got $1 RR back. So, that brings my daily savings to $34 and my annual savings to $59! Most of my coupons come from coupons.com or from links posted on Hip2Save. I admit, my grocery shopping takes a bit longer, but there's also a thrill to using coupons and watching the total drop with the scan of each one!

Our family is going GREEN!

While I do try to reduce, reuse and recycle, that's not the kind of green I'm taking about. I'm taking about paying with Cash. In hopes that our family will do a better job at managing our finances, we're going to buy everything with cash (everything except gas because I'm not getting two small kids out of the car to go inside and pay. I'll leave enough in our account so that I can use my debit card). About a year and half ago, we became debt free thanks to Dave Ramsey's book, The Total Money Makeover. Since then, we haven't been meeting the savings goals we set for ourselves. Dave Ramsey's plan follows The Seven Baby Steps.
Step 1: have a $1,000 emergency fund - CHECK
Step 2: pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball - CHECK
Steps 3 - 7 are all about savings and while our family saves a lot, we've become much more loose with our money now that we're debt free. So, starting with our next paycheck, we'll be spending our money on paper and using cash! Now that I've posted it for the world to see, I'm hoping to stay motivated and to follow through. I did this a couple of years ago when I was working the 2nd step and paying off debt using an old coupon sorter. I often found myself robbing peter to pay paul - taking vet visit savings and using it for sitters, so I'll have to modify my methods. Wish us luck!

New Year savings start big!

One of my new year's resolutions is to make every effort to save with coupons. In a way, this will help curb some of my impulse shopping as I'll need to know what I'm buying and check for coupons first. Yesterday was my first big grocery shopping trip of the New Year and I was so pleased that I saved more than ever - $25!!! I shop weekly and this could easily mean a savings of $1,200 in year JUST on groceries. Part of my big savings was that I used 2 $3 off Rayovac battery coupons that made my 2 battery items FREE!! I'm going to do my best to keep track of how much money I can save this year.

Another bonus savings: my son lost his bike helmet, so we made him use his allowance to buy a new one. But before he headed out the door to Toys R Us, I gave his a $5 of a $25 purchase coupon! I won't add that to my savings tally since that was his savings and not mine. I love teaching my kids about saving a buck!

COUPONS!!!

I've rediscovered couponing to a whole new level. I've always used whatever coupons were available at the grocery store (I shop at the commissary) and grabbed extras on things I purchase often if the expiration date is a ways out. I was even printing coupons online when a monthly reminder would arrive in my email inbox from CouponSurfer. But now that I've discovered http://www.hip2save.blogspot.com/, I've been transformed into a coupon/money-saving machine! For the last 3 weeks, I've been hitting it hard on the coupons when I do my grocery shopping. I saved $17.05 the first time (see my picture!), I think $16 or so last week and saved $12.61 today (today was a lighter trip)! If I can average a minimum of $10 in weekly grocery savings, that's $520 a year!!! Now if only I can motivate myself to put all my savings money aside so that I can put it use doing something spectacular....we'll see.

Hip2Save is also great at posting all the latest deals - may it be a free gifts with purchase at different sites or a way to snag an outstanding coupon, it has been hooked and singing its praises. I plan to you keep you posted on my great finds!