One Of My Greatest Money Saving Tips

I try not to go shopping unless I have a plan. Some days I can go into a store and not purchase anything, just enjoy the "window shopping" experience, but there are other times, times when I go in without a plan, that I end up purchasing things I either don't need or don't have in the budget.

Here's what I mean by "shopping plan":

Whenever I go on a shopping trip and stick to this plan I'm usually quite successful and don't leave the store with that guilty feeling of going over budget. I not only enjoy the trip a lot more, but I enjoy the items I purchased even more. Going shopping with a budget plan is also motivation to hunt down good deals and maybe even have a little money left over to purchase a few "wants" :-)

Do you have a plan when you go shopping? Is there something you do that isn't on my list? Please share!

Keep pinchin' ;-)

A Shopping Spree With My Hubby

Going clothes shopping on a budget can be hard, but if you do it right you can replace the "hard" with pure "fun!"

Before we were married, both Jake and I had very different approaches to clothes shopping.

Jake would shop for clothes whenever he needed, buying many things he didn't need, whether he really had the money or not, and almost always he would be totally unaware of just how much money he was spending.

And I, ever the saver, would save and save and horde and horde my money until I could go on a huge shopping spree and splurge all I wanted. But at least I always knew to the dollar how much I had spent, she says proudly :-P

There are pros and cons to both methods, but, in the long run, neither are very responsible because neither one is really in control of the money. Back then, the money that we were spending wasn't allocated for clothes, wasn't accounted for on a budget, and wasn't part of a larger plan. Money that isn't part of a plan is money that just goes away.

Well, not anymore!

Last week Jake and I got to experience clothes shopping the way it should be. We had been saving money in our clothing budget for a while now in anticipation of needing to get a few new things. Our shopping trip required some planning because in our area you've got to drive at least an hour to get to any real good shopping places.

We began by going out to eat with some gift certificates that we had been saving, which not only covered the cost of our meal but also the tip. A free meal for two? You betchya!

Now onto the more interesting stuff. Shopping!

My strategy was to look for those clothing items that we really needed first, and then, if there was any money left over, we could purchase things we wanted.

When I enter a store I usually head to the back of the store first, or to wherever I know that they hide their best deals. I know marketing experts think they're being clever by pushing new merchandise "sales" near the entrance, but they don't fool me. I start at the back and work my way forward.

Few ladies have the luxury of being married to a man who likes shopping, or at least tolerates it well, but my hubby rather seems to enjoy it—so long as he gets to buy something. He's even learned some of my shopping strategies and is getting better and better at hunting down good deals—between two different stores he found three pairs of jeans all for about the price of one. He also hunted down a good deal on workout clothes.

I scored some great deals on some sun dresses and workout clothes—and splurged on a new pair of hot pink and black flip-slops.

When we returned home and I tallied everything up I was surprised to find that we had only spent about two-thirds of what we had budgeted. That was a great feeling for two reasons:

1. It's always fun to have a successful shopping trip where you found some great deals and saved a lot of money


2. But more importantly, Jake and I are finally learning to do this whole shopping thing the right way. Our money is working for us instead of slipping through our fingers. Every month there's a little bit more in savings, and the money in our budget for things like clothing grows a little bit more, which means there's more available when we need it.

It's times like these that make me realize how well our financial plan is working. Except it's not our plan. I shouldn't even call it Dave Ramsey's plan. It's simply a biblical way of handling money. It's how God has been telling people to manage their money since mankind had money. And when you think about it you realize that it's the best, most common sense way of handling money. It's less stressful. It's not challenging. It just takes time, discipline, and a little bit of practice.

Ok, a LOT of practice. In fact, Jake and I are still practicing, but more and more we're seeing the plan work! And I'm so thankful that we have a God who has it all laid out for us! We need only follow the plan.

So how do you score great deals on clothing? Do you go often to look at deals or plan a big trip? Tell us all about it in the comments below.

Keep pinchin' ;-)

The Great Shopping Trip

I think I was in high school when my older sister and I had the bright idea to do our family of eight's grocery shopping for the week. We figured this way we could get all the food that we really like that Mom never seemed to buy. We were both naive enough to think that since we had both grocery-shopped with mom for years that we had this thing down!

First, we knew that mom always built our meal plan around sale prices, so we spent some time scouring the weekly fliers to find out what was on sale. Mom gave us the same budget she would have and told us we had to have 7 days worth of food, and sent us on our way.

I honestly don't remember how long it took us to do the grocery shopping, but I'm sure it took us hours. Neither of us had ever really paid that much attention to where things were located in a grocery store, so, naturally, this part took us quite a while.

Finally we arrived home, exhausted, broke, and pretty darn frustrated because we had spent so much time trying to buy everything that mom told us we needed for meals that week that we hadn't had any money to buy the things we really wanted. In fact, I think we found that we could barely even purchase all the meal items. Talk about an eye-opening experience!

Needless to say, that was the first and last time we ever took on that responsibility!

I share this because even though my sister and I  may not have entirely succeeded on our mission, we obviously learned some things by observing and participating in the process of grocery shopping. I think it's important for parents to have their kids take part in activities like this because someday they will have to do it for themselves, and learning to do it properly takes time and practice.

As your kids get into their teenage years you might even want to challenge them to take on the job of grocery shopping so that they can have real life practice in a skill that will help them be good stewards of their money later on in life.

Although I don't shop for groceries exactly the same way my mom does, the basic core is with me—look at sale flyers, know prices from different stores, and stick to the budget!

Do you have any memories of trying to do the family grocery shopping when you were young? Or an experience with your own kids? Leave us a comment to tell us all about it.

Keep pinchin' :-)

When You Want To Throw A Tantrum

Last week I wrote about how I don't cry at the grocery store anymore, and though that is true I said nothing about throwing a tantrum! Haha!

Today I went to get a "few things" and yet it still came out to almost my whole weekly budget, yet I felt like I walked away with so little. So what's a girl to do? BAKE and COOK! It's a simple solution to making your husband believe there really is food in your house.

Here are a couple of recipes for you that have been stamped with the hubster's approval:

Hot Dog or Hamburger Rolls

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon of instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 egg

Directions:

• In a small bowl, heat milk, water and butter in the microwave for about a minute, or until butter is melted and you can place your finger in the mixture without feeling like you would burn yourself.
• In a large bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix milk mixture into flour mixture, and then mix in egg. Stir in the remaining flour a 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Or you can make it in your KitchenAid mixer and knead for a couple of minutes.
• Place dough in greased bowl, cover and let rise in your cold oven for one hour.
• Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Shape into smooth balls, and place on a greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly. Cover, and let rise for another hour in the oven. Take out of the oven to preheat and brush egg yolk or melted butter on top.
• Bake at 400 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown.
• For Hot Dog Buns: Make sure to roll the dough out into a rectangle, and then roll dough up along the long side. Pinch ends to seal shut. This will more than double in size when you let them rise for an hour, so make them very skinny, but long.

I chose to make both hot dog and hamburger rolls out of one batch—because there are only two of us—and I came up with six hot dog rolls and 10 hamburger rolls. 

Then I made yummy chewy granola bars:

No-Bake Chewy Granola Bars

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quick cooking oats 
• 1 C rice crispy cereal
• 1/4 C shredded coconut
• 1/4 C butter
• 1/4 C honey 
• 1/2 C brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbs peanut butter
• 1/2 C mini chocolate chips

Directions:

• In a large mixing bowl, mix together the oats, cereal and coconut. Set a small saucepan over medium high heat and melt the butter. Add the honey, brown sugar and salt to the melted butter. Stir together then leave it alone as it comes to a boil. Once the boil has reached all the way around the edges of the pan, begin timing. Allow this mixture to boil for 2 minutes and 15 seconds. During this time, you may need to turn the heat down a bit so it doesn't overflow, but be sure it keeps boiling.
• Add the vanilla and peanut butter then pour the mixture over the oats, using a rubber spatula to get all the sugar mixture out of the pan. Mix the ingredients together until the oats are completely coated. Add in chocolate chips then press very firmly into a lightly greased 9x13" pan. If you like your bars thicker, you can use a smaller pan. If you do not press firmly enough, the bars will fall apart when you eat them. Place them in the fridge for 20 minutes then cut to size and wrap individually if you want.

For more variations of this recipe and to see the original check out My Kitchen Escapades.

Keep pinchin' :-)

Ten Ways to Save

People are always asking me what are some ways that we save, so I thought I would share a few things that have come to mind.

1. We turn down the heat, especially when we are going to be gone or at night. They say you can save 3% on your heating bill for every degree you go down.

2. We hang all of our laundry up to dry. In the summer we use a line outside, and my husband set one up in our upstairs porch if it's raining. In the winter we hang the clothes on a drying rack next to our wood stove, which dries pretty fast. Then we toss it in the dryer for about 10 minutes to help remove lint and soften the fabric.

3. We wash and reuse plastic Ziploc bags—well, until they get a hole in them or become so greasy that we can't get them clean.

4. We try to use rags over paper towels whenever possible. Someday I would like to make these awesome reusable cloth towels, but until then I just have rags.

5. I make my own laundry detergent—which I plan to write a "how to" blog the next time I make it, with pictures of course!

6. I don't buy many pre-made meals or food, but instead basic groceries that I know I can make many different things from. I would love to be really organized someday and have a meal plan or do freezer meals, but until then this has worked for us.

7. I try to do all of my trips to town at once. I don't like making a bunch of 20 mile round trips, so when I am out I do it all. Sometimes, when it's convenient, we carpool with friends.

8. Both Jake and I have trouble sleeping without some kind of white noise in the background, like a fan, but we traded running our fan all night for a sound machine that makes various white noises. We noticed a significant difference on our electric bill when we did this.

9. I try to buy decorations after the holidays when they are on sale. This week I scored some Christmas wreath mesh and a candle for 90% off, taking the cost from $44 to $4!

10. Instead of going out on expensive date nights we do free at-home or local dates, part of my year of dates for my husband that I gave him for his birthday. Stay tuned for some pictures of some of the ones we have done these past couple months.

So, there you go! Ten ways we have saved during our journey to debt free living.

Keep pinchin' :-)

Extreme Couponing: To Be Or Not To Be...

Recently in the wee hours of the morning I saw the TLC show Extreme Couponing. At first I was amazed by what these women, even a 15 year old, were able to do. They would go into a grocery store and buy $600-800 worth of groceries and walk out with often times paying less than $20! The penny pincher inside of me liked the sounds of that.

However, as I was talking about it with a friend, and then doing some research, I found a few problems with this craziness.

1. These women were often buying products in such mass amounts they couldn't possibly use it all before it expires—300 bottles of BBQ sauce anyone?

2. It has become such a quest to these women to bring in a big haul that they will buy products they have no need for just to save a lot. Take the woman who bought 150 dog collars for example—she doesn't even own a dog! She could always donate them to an animal shelter or something, but instead they sit unused in her stock pile.

3. Many stores won't even allow this kind of couponing. In order for these women to get some of the deals featured on the show they have to do upwards of 15 transactions because many stores only let you double so many coupons per transaction.

4. A lot times the products these women are able to buy at super-reduced prices, or even free, aren't the healthiest things in the world—like the 99 Raman Noodles that one woman said would last her family for four months.

For me this whole extreme couponing is impractical, especially due to where I live. We have one grocery store and a Walmart. That's about it. If I lived closer to a city that had three or four grocery stores I would have a much better chance of getting more with my coupons. Another factor I find unpalatable is the time involved. One former extreme couponer admitted that if she worked a part time job she would work the same amount of hours she spends couponing but would make more than she saved.

To be clear I'm not condemning couponing, but I think it's wise to take what's featured on the show with a very large grain of salt. I think coupons are great. I use them often, but I'm not going to use them just for the sake of getting something for free or really cheap. I want to shop smartly, but I also want to make meals that are healthy for my family.

Have you seen he show Extreme Couponing? What did you think? Do you use coupons, and how do you do so effectively? Leave a comment below to let us know!

Keep pinchin' :-)

I LOVE Sales!

I love getting things on sale, and once I've gotten them for a great price it's hard to ever pay close to whole price again.

For example, a few years ago I snagged a pair of Banana Republic jeans for around $5. Since then the lowest price I have ever seen them is $20-30, and even though to some that might be a great deal, for me it's hard to pay that price again. Recently I found out that one of the Aeropostale stores in my state was going out of business, so I made my way over and came out out of the store with two pairs of jeans, two pairs of sweatpants, one sweater, and four pairs of socks—a $250 retail value—for about $50! Yeah, I think I scored pretty well that day.

When I go shopping I always have to keep a few things in mind though:

Do I need it? Am I just purchasing this because I think it's a great deal and it's something I want, or is it really something I need? If it's just a want I try to only purchase it with my personal spending money or money I've been gifted. If I always purchase items because they are a great deal, they can easily become a lousy deal because I spent money on things I didn't need.

Will I really wear it? In the past I have been guilty of purchasing items that I needed, but maybe they weren't exactly what I wanted. Like the time I bought a pair of jeans that were really cheap, but I didn't like how they fit, and in the end I didn't wear them much. Now I try to make sure that not only is it a good deal but it's something I feel comfortable in so that I'll get my money's worth out of it.

Is it really trendy? Sometimes I am guilty of wanting new clothes just because I want the latest styles. I'm not usually big on following the latest fashion, but sometimes I get sucked in. Like leggings. At first I swore I'd never wear them, probably because I usually saw them worn inappropriately. Then I bought this cute sweater dress, that ended up being too short for me to feel comfortable in tights, so I thought I would try leggings, and I LOVED them! I love to wear them around the house with baggy sweatshirts, as they are so comfortable.

For Christmas my awesome husband gave me a pair of purple fleece-lined leggings, and after wearing them for a day—and LOVING them—I saw an ad online for six pairs for $29. Leggings might not be "trendy" for long, but I don't care, I'll keep wearing them until I've worn them all out!

With these three thoughts in mind I am able to better use our clothing budget, buy items that we need and will wear, and consider whether or not the investment is worth it.

Do you have any secrets to great deals, or things you keep in mind when purchasing clothing? Leave us a comment to let us know!

Keep Pinchin' :-)

Falling Off The Bandwagon

Over the last couple of weeks I've realized how easy it is to start over-spending and fall off the budget bandwagon.

It started out with just spending a few extra dollars on groceries. I would think to myself, "This is ok, as long as I spend less next week. I'll still come in on budget at the end of the month. No problem!" But when you do this a second time, and then a third time, that's not good! So after over-spending three weeks in a row, I checked our monthly allocated spending plan and realized that if I was careful it would be possible to still come in on budget. But, still, I had boxed myself into a corner.

I know why this happened, too.

When Jake and I first created our budget I was taking advantage of Dave Ramsey's "cash only" system for certain things, like groceries. And I can see now why Dave recommends doing this: when you go into a grocery store with a debit card it's easy to overspend, but when you go in there with a set amount of cash there is no wiggle room whatsoever. It's one very affective way of controlling spending.

After several months of doing this—and doing it well—I decided to try doing it with the debit card. At first I did ok. Occasionally I would spend an extra dollar or two, but that was easily remedied the following week.

Then Christmas came. The month of December is always full of extra expenses—heating oil, tire changes, increased electricity, presents, extra groceries to make sweet treats... you get the idea. I've found that the more times you swipe that little plastic card the easier it is to do it again and again... and again. I even overdrew my checking account for the first time in over two years! Thankfully I have overdraft protection, so the fee was minimal.

At the end of this week we start a new monthly budget, and I plan to go back to using cash. Using cash keeps me more accountable and aware of what I have to spend. Thankfully, even though I feel like I've way overspent this month, we should be ok, but it was a close call. I am going to have to spend a lot less on groceries this coming week, or just eat up those Raman noodles sitting the cupboard, whether my husband likes it or not.

If you find yourself blowing out your budget, don't get discouraged. Try using cash, for a little while at least, until you get back on track.

Keep pinchin' :-)

It's the Holiday Season

As far as I'm concerned it's the "most wonderful time of the year," however my husband doesn't always agree, particularly when I turn on the Christmas music in October. As the time draws nearer, with the sparkly lights and blankets of snow, it's just splendid!

As much as I love Christmas time though I can't deny that it can be a very stressful time of year. Since getting married, Jake and I have endured the trials and triumphs of juggling family visits and traveling on snow-covered roads. The stress can get out of hand if I'm not careful.

Probably the most stressful aspect of the season is the shopping - shopping, shopping, shopping - but with long lines, pushy people, and a limited window of opportunity what should be a girl's dream come true can easily turn into a nightmare. Here are some tips to making this holiday season more enjoyable for the penny pinching pro:

1. Create a budget for you holiday spending. Hopefully you have been doing this throughout the year by putting aside some money for gifts, but if not decide now what you can and cannot afford and commit to going plastic free this Christmas.

2. Limit the amount of trips to the stores. Plan ahead, make your list, and then go shopping. The less time you spend in the stores with the masses the less stressful you may find yourself, and the less you'll spend on gifts you don't really need to buy.

3. Consider how you have been gift giving and how you might want to change it. Growing up my parents had a set budget they would spend on each of us kids, which would usually amount to about 10 presents for each of us. Now just imagine with six kids in our house, that was 60 presents! Not including the gifts we got for our parents, and those that we got for each other. Now as a kid, I loved it! In fact I would have probably thrown a fit been sad if they tried to change it, but now that I'm an adult - or at least pretend to be - and am contemplating how I want to handle gift-giving with my own kids I've decided that I want to keep it simple. My husband and I have decided that maybe three gifts, each representing one of the three gifts given to Jesus from the wise men, would be a good way of not only limiting our holiday spending, but also drawing some attention to the real meaning of the season. If you don't have kids already, or they are really little, now would be the best time to change what you do for gift giving.

4. Don't be afraid to go homemade! Whether it be spending time baking together as a family or with friends, or making some of the gifts you give to others, consider how you can make the holidays a special time without breaking the bank. And at all costs, do NOT start dipping into that "emergency fund" for Christmas. Christmas is not an emergency!

5. Create traditions or keep some of your childhood traditions alive. Consider giving each other new PJ's on Christmas Eve so you look half decent great for pictures on Christmas morning or have a family Christmas movie marathon. (Both of which are things that we do. *smiles proudly*) Traditions can be so much fun, and they can give you something to look forward to continuing each year.

Hopefully these five things will help to make your holidays less stressful and more enjoyable. And don't forget what this season is all about: celebrating our Savior's birth! Make that your focus and it will be a wonderful time of year.

Let us know what you do to keep your stress level low on Christmas. Got any favorite family traditions? How do you give gifts in your family? Leave a comment below.

Keep pinchin' :-)