Mail Call YAY

Yay for samples.  After a dry spell of getting nothing good in the mail today was a surprise!

1 Full size bottle of the new Mio water flavor(I got watermelon/strawberry) and it had a coupon for $1.00/1 which is awesome because I didn't get the coupon in this past Sunday's paper(Supposedly they were regional to high target areas)
1 Sample size Purina BeyOnd dog food with a $2.00/1 any size
1 20% off 1 item at Bed Bath&Beyond-although I won't use this as there isn't one around where we live.


Now about the Mio flavor, this flavor I didn't care for but I have hopes for the other flavors they offer like sweet tea and mango peach etc.  I also read on another blog that their top wasn't on their sample and their hands were stained from it, so beware not to get it on yourself or let kids around it!

Homeland Ad 3/30-4/5

I shop at my local Homeland because they double coupons. I only go to wal-mart if I KNOW it's cheaper there with coupons. I wanted to post this weeks specials I plan on grabbing up and helping others with their couponing this week.

 Pilgrim's Fryer Breast or Breast Tenders $2.49lb-Coupon for $1.00/1 here IP

Simply Orange, Apple, or Grapefruit Juice $2.88-Coupon for $1/1(This was a IP that is now gone)

RRR Angus Beef Rump Roast $3.49lb-Coupon for $1.00/1 here-IP (Coupon says DND but you can print one everyday)
RRR Angus Beef Cowboy Cut Ribeye Steaks $7.99lb-Coupon for $1.00/1 here-IP (See above)

RRR Angus Beef Cube Steaks $3.99lb-Coupon for $1.00/1 here-IP (See above)

Country Crock Regular or Deluxe Sides $3.99-Coupon for $1.00/2 was in Sunday 2/13

 Fisher Boy $5.49-Coupon for $0.75/1 here-IP

Pillsbury Sweet Moments5.2-6.1oz-Coupon for $1.00/1 here-IP

 Digiorno Pizza $11/2-Coupon for $0.50/1 was in April All You Magazine
California Pizza $11/2-Coupon for $1.00/1 was in RP 2/20(Expires 4/30)
Jose Ole Entrees $4.00-Coupon for $1.00/1 here-IP OR RP Insert on 3/6 for $1.00/1(Expires 5/29)
Totino's Pizza Rolls $6/2-Coupon for $0.50/2 here-IP OR SS Insert on 1/30 for $0.40/2 (Expires 4/23)

 Lay's $5/2-Coupon for $1.00/2 in SS Insert on 3/13 (Expires 5/2) Regional value differs we got the $0.55/2 here in OK
Kellogg's Cereal $9/3-Coupon for $1/3 here-IP OR $1/2 in RP Insert on 3/6 (Expires 4/17)
Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks $4/2-Coupon for $0.50/2 here-IP OR $0.50/2 in SS Insert 3/6(expires 4/30)

 Planters Flavor Grove $5/2-Coupon for $1/2 in SS Insert 3/20(Expires 6/30)
Kellogg's Pop tarts $5/2-Coupon for $1.00/2 in RP Insert 2/6(Expires 4/3)

 Not shown in picture:
Hamburger Helper $5/4-Coupon for $0.75/3 in SS Insert 3/20(Expires 5/14)
Mt. Olive Pickles $5/2-Coupon for $0.50/1 in SS Insert 1/30 (Expires 4/2)
Smart Balance Spread, Popcorn, or Peanut Butter $4/2-Coupons in SS Insert 3/6 (expires 4/20) These coupons range from $0.75/1 Peanut Butter OR IP Here
Mio Liquid Water Enhancer $3.99-Coupon for $1/1 in  SS Insert 3/27 (Only select areas got these)

 Kc Masterpiece BBQ Sauce or Marinades $5/4-Coupon for $0.50/1 in SS Insert 3/13(Expires 5/15)
Vlasic Pickles $1.99-Coupon for $0.55/1 here-IP
409, Clorox wipes, Pine-sol cleaners$5/2-Coupon for $2/1 409 etc All You Magazine April issue OR Pine-sol $1/1 here-IP

General Mills Cereals 20% more $4/2-Coupon for $1/2 in Insert 3/27(Expires 5/7) OR There's various coupons here for individual cereals

                   BIG SALE- APRIL 1st-3rd

Same coupons as before for the Kellogg's cereals

Miracle Whip $5/2-Coupon for $1/1 -IP or go to their FB here
Lipton Family Size or Cold Brew tea Bags $0.99-Coupon for $1/1 was in Homeland Coupon Book OR $0.50/1 in RP Insert 3/27(Expires 4/24)

Johnsonville Italian Sausage or Brats BOGO Free-Coupon for Italian Sausage($4.99)-Coupon $1/1 here

Kraft Chunks, Cracker Cuts, or Shredded $1.69(Not sure if the coupons will be for the ones on sale)-Coupons$1/2 Natural Shredded SS Insert 3/13 OR $1/2 Touch of Philly

Pedigree Dog Food 15.9-20lb $9.99-Coupon for $3/1

I think that's it. I may have missed a few here and there but I need to get back to cutting and organizing my coupons because my binder is starting to not close because of all the stuff I put in it.

My short grocery trip

At our local Homeland(the only other place to buy groceries in my town) I made a short trip to get this weeks sales and to get groceries to last us the week.

Before coupons: $26.19
After coupons:$14.57
Savings of: 60%

Hamburger: $7(Was marked down from $10)
Vitamin Water: $1.25 x 4 Coupon $0.75/1
Ragu: $1.49x2 Coupon Free paste wyb 2 jars
Deans Dip: $1.49 Coupons $1.00/2
Welch's Juice $2.49 Coupon$1.00/1
Red Gold Tomato Sauce 2/$1 Coupon $0.50/2
Always Save MacnCheese $0.33x3

Not bad for a spare trip. 

This Saturday however will be a mega trip and I will be stocking up for 2 weeks worth of groceries I hope.

Where can you save money at in your life?

My life consists of a large part, searching for ways to lower our expenses and still live easy and happy now.  Now I have found many ways to do such, ranging from where I buy clothes to how often I buy certain things.

Clothing
Having 2 kids clothing for a family of 4 can be rough but I have found ways to clothe everyone with either new or gently used clothes for a fraction of the cost of new clothes.

• Thrift stores-there are certain ones that will have high standards for what they take in, these are the best ones to find kids clothing I've found.
• Trade-trade with parents around you or online(www.thredup.com  is an awesome website for this)
• Join websites newsletters(The Children's Place, Crazy 8, The Disney Store)  All these stores all send emails with discount codes and rewards often) I personally purchase a lot from Children's Place
• Buy in the off season.  I have bought shirts for $1 or less, leggings for $1 for 2 pairs just being out of season
• Look for the long term. I validate buying a $40 pair of jeans for my husband because they last him 1 year or more, where as if I buy the ones that are $10 they rip easier and I end spending more to replace them
• Shoes, as with the jeans I spend $40 or less on a pair of good sneakers ( I usually find them on sale) and those last 1-2 years at the very least

Entertainment
This is a big thing for us because I barely get out of the house being a stay at home mom, my weekly shopping trips are my time out lol so I've found ways to save money at home and still have ways to be entertained

• Internet-This provides much of our entertainment and allows us other ways of entertainment through the internet
• Netflix-We don't need cable because at $10.95 a month all of us including the kids are entertained with tvs shows and movies galore(This package also covers the 1 dvd at a time deal)
• Board games/Cards-we have multiple card games and board games as well that we sometimes dig out
• DVDs-another reason why we don't need cable when we can't find anything on netflix we dig out a dvd we haven't seen in awhile. You can also trade dvds on Swapadvd for ones you like 

Those are my biggest areas of spending, groceries, clothing, and entertainment.  My goal is to slowly reduce our trash and try to re-use as much as possible.  Comments and advice are welcome for ideas for this, with a family of 7 we produce a lot of trash. I am looking at things that I can re-use for my crafts and other things.

NO INTERNET!?!? WHAT!?!?

Well yesterday we lost internet after 11pm, needless to say we were lost. We had no idea what to do and everyone was bored out of their minds. The kids kept me busy for the most part but I was dying to check my email, msq, and my facebook!  I was able to use my phone to look at all 3 though it was a bit of a wait for it to load, thank god for data plans lol.

Once the kids went to bed though I was lost. I took the time to organize my coupons, separate the expired ones to send to Cortney in Japan, and then I tried to get a shopping list together for this week for stuff I could afford before the 1st.

Once all that was done I then began my newest project/experiment family cloth. Now you may have read about it here or on my moneysavingqueen post. Now when I first posted it my intentions were to see if anyone was actually doing it. The negative response told me certainly no one was doing this. After talking with my mother in law about it though I decided to try it.  Now I'm only trying it for when my daughter and I go number 1 for now.  We both use the bathroom quite frequently so I figured this along would save us money.  Now everyone is grossed out about it because they only seem to think of the poo matter of it, when really you do pee way more than you poo. I cut up an old toddler sheet last night that just happened to get ripped in the wash(almost like it was a sign to try this out lol)


Here is the result of the sheet and I only used half of it:

Now I wasn't sure how big to cut them so I just folded them 3folds thick(3ply)

Now in the bathroom for experimentally purpose I took a picture of how much toilet paper was left:

And then I put my family cloth into a empty wipe case seen here

My goal is to see how long that toilet paper will last now that I am at least using the family cloth....though dunno if they call it family cloth if only one person is using it.

Where to get coupons?

Now I'm planning on making a what I hope will be 1 of 2 trips for the month on the 1st. Our cupboards are getting pretty bare after couponing for a few months so this will be a stocking-up trip. Everyone is lost when they first start using coupons, you think how in the world do these people get this many items and use coupons for it all? Well here's some tricks.....

1. You can use 1 coupon for each item.

• Say you have 5 boxes of pasta you can use 1 coupon for each box

2. To get extra coupons

• Trade for them, with a group in your town, on a forum, family members in other states3

3. Coupons are regional so they vary in kind and price by area, sometimes you can trade for a higher value!

4. Buy them!

• Ebay
• Coupondede.com(I personally use her and she ships fast 3-4 days after my order is placed I get them in the mail
• Coupon Clippers
  

5. Know someone who delivers papers? Ask them if you can get the leftovers

6. Often times gas stations get reimbursed per newspaper if they don't sell on Sundays(I know this from actual experience) so why not ask if you can snag the coupons out of them before they do!

Ways to make/reduce the trash you make and save money

So in the past few days I've been thinking about ways to reduce the trash my family prodces(there's 7 of us in all). Today I really started to look things up and get some ideas. Now although I am still browsing the internet for ideas I wanted to go ahead and make a post with the ideas I knew already and then some I just learned.




1. I personally will reuse almost any container I can. I buy my kids yogurt(the big tub which is normally walmart brand) and I know I can reuse that container for my husbands lunch or leftovers from dinner.



2. I have bought a hard plastic cup for $5(I think it was made for slushies and such because of the straw) but I use it only. Therefore I am producing less dirty glasses and in turn makes less dishes that have to go in the dishwasher etc etc down the chain.

3. There are days that my son (who is 17months) just uses too many diapers for my liking so I'll put him into training pants, this may not seem like a huge money saver but at $0.20 a diaper anything I can make last longer will work for me. Now my son is not potty trained or anything of the likes so he does just pee in them and keeps going but I'd rather wash his underwear than throw 5 diapers in the trash because he likes to shuck them as SOON as he's peed in them.

4. I reuse the plastic bags from the store as trash bags in the small trash cans. I have debating do this at all anymore and just getting the reusable cloth bags to take to the store, but then I don't know what I would use for the trash cans, open to suggestions for this. :D

Now since wanting to reduce our trash take-out(we make about 1-2 bags of trash a day) I have started to look at what's exactly in the trash. I do some crafts and have begun investigating ways to re-use some of the stuff I throw away into something awesome for a gift or to sell.
New ideas I found for reducing trash!

1. Family Cloth-for those families that use a lot of toilet paper this could potentially save you $20-30 a month. It's basically torn up sheets and other clothing that you wipe with. You can read more about it here.

2. Newspapers-I know those that use coupons tend to buy in bulk with our newspapers and if you don't have the availability to a recycle bin what can you do with that stack of paper?

• Donate them to a friend with a new puppy
• Use them for wrapping paper(the comics are really cute for this)
• Cleaning windows(I've heard this is ideal to get everything clean)
• Make paper with them(Cool idea, sure they have tutorials and such if you do a google search)
• Paper Mache(just thought of this one) I had planned on making a pinata for my daughters birthday(super easy to make)

3. Easter eggs- containers, now I know we always let the kids play with them until they are either a pain to keep cleaning up OR they just get trashed. Well now you can use them as containers(nails, change, pantyhose). They could also become pool toys by weighing them down and possibly sealing them. Make them into new party favors by painting them.

I'm sure there are tons more ways to reduce, reuse, or recycle things today, if you have an awesome way to reuse or recycle something send me an email with a picture if possible and I'll share it and give you all the credit!

Email: monikarclark@yahoo.com

Coupon Lingo

One thing I discovered when I began couponing is like any other hobby/skill it has it's own lingo that goes along with it. Now most of it you can kinda work yourself around if you don't know it but eventually it's a must learn for avid coupon clippers!





For beginners:
-BOGO-Buy one get one
-DND-Do not double(coupons sometimes say this at the top by the expiration)
-MFG-Manufacturer
-HBA-Health & Beauty Aides
-ISO-In search of
-SS-commonly used for SmartSource coupon inserts
-RP-RedPlum coupon inserts
-PG-Proctor&Gamble coupon inserts(commonly found once a month inSunday papers)
-Tearpad-found in stores by items
-IP-Internet Printable(Plenty of websites like www.coupons.com allows you to print coupons)
Diving in to the long list of couponing lingo:
-Blinkies-instore smartsource coupon dispensed near product
-Catalina - coupon dispensed at register after purchase(Make sure to ask for these!)
-WYB-When you buy(sometimes coupons give you a deal on multiple items)
-OOP-Out of pocket(What you pay after coupons and discounts for your items)
-MM-Money Maker(When you can purchase something with a coupon and get money back from it)

Store lingo:
-WAGS-Walgreen's
-RR-Register Rewards(Walgreen's reward program that print when checking out on special item)
-ECC-Extra Care card(CVS card)
-ECB-Extra Care Bucks(CVS, earned when scanning card in store and purchasing items)
-HL-Homeland
-FL-Foodlion
-WM-Walmart

I'm sure there's tons more out there, but these are the ones I see and use on a everyday basis with my coupon forum usage. Hope this helps some of you. :D

Amazing Discovery!

So a few months ago I watched an episode of TLC "Extreme Couponing" and I had used coupons here and there of course and thought to myself " I can do that". Now I knew I would not EVER want an stockpile like those people did, but a good buildup that would last 1-2 months wouldn't be bad.


I joined the website advertised on the show www.couponmom.com . This has an awesome forum and it's even more awesome for trading. You're exposed to people all over the US(not sure about if people in Canada etc are on there), it's a cool way to talk and trade coupons.

Add the Money Saving Queen on Facebook as well: Here

I then saw an advertisement for a local coupon website called www.moneysavingqueen.com and heard about it from a fellow Oklahomian(Okies, I dunno what they call us here lol). I LOVE this website and visit it more than 10times a day. I read all the new info for users and started clipping coupons. Now for obvious reasons if I go into too much detail in this post it might get a bit confusing so I'm going to break the coupon stuff into different posts. I now am able to get a match-up for stores that are local to me and save my family tons!