Coupon Binder Tour

Coupons and price matching have been the only way I have been able to stay on a tiny budget.
I am what I like to call a "health-nut couponer". I am a vegetarian  who believes unprocessed food is the way to go, I prefer all-natural cleaners, I don't wear make-up or use perfumes and have very few toiletries, and I don't like to shop...and even I find good use for couponing and price matching. If I can, I suppose anyone can. Now that you think I'm some kind of weirdo *chuckle*, let me introduce you to my coupon binder, which helps me coupon without spending a lot of time cutting coupons!

One of the greatest reasons I hear for not couponing is how time consuming it is. Well it doesn't have to be! I want maximum savings for the things I do buy, but I don't want to spend more than 15-20 minutes per week creating my shopping list & preparing my coupons. I have organized myself and my coupon binder to best accommodate this.

Take a tour of my Coupon Binder via my Youtube webisodes: 

Saving Is All In the Details
At some point I will do an entire post on how I maximize my savings, but for the sake of this coupon binder tour I just wanted to briefly touch on a couple coupon basics I follow. 

1. Use a Coupon Database: As I mentioned in the webisode, I use a coupon database to do all the coupon and sales matching work for me. They match the sales for that week (from your personal store) with the corresponding coupons leaving you free to do other things! There are quite a few databases to choose from, so you should be able to find one that has your favorite stores!

• Moneysavingmom.com 
• Couponmom.com 
• Thekrazycouponlady.com
• Southernsavers.com

 I also recommend finding a coupon blog or database that serves only your local region, it will be a bit more specific and often list unadvertised deals in your neighborhood. I pretty much just do whatever my local coupon blogger tells me to do! *wink* A big shoutout to my awesome local deal matchers: Sisters Shopping On A Shoestring, and The Coupon High!

2. Make A Plan & Stick To It: Create a budget, menu plan, and shopping list. These three items can make all the difference in how much you spend! I cannot stress enough the importance of planning ahead...however you decide to do it, whatever methods you choose, plan ahead! You'll save gads of money and learn to buy efficiently. Even if you never coupon, you can cut your grocery spending just by sticking to a menu plan and corresponding shopping list! If you base your menu plan/shopping list on sale products from that week, you'll do even better!

3. Find An Execution Method That Is Flexible With Your Lifestyle:
My coupon and savings habits change based on how crazy life is at the moment. When I have more time for shopping trips I lug my entire coupon binder around with me, and it allows me maximum savings. When I'm strapped for time, I have my shopping list which I stick to, and carry my little poly vinyl pocket with just the coupons necessary for this shopping trip. Then I stick precisely to my list, which means I stay precisely on budget. 

Happy Saving!

Hosting A Great Garage Sale

Garage sales are a great way to make a little spending money, and declutter your house at the same time! 
I love garage sale season!  When you decorate on pennies you rely on roadkill furniture, thrift shops, and garage sales. This year I decided to get in on the garage sale action and host one of my own! It is such a great solution for me. I have quite a bit of inherited furniture and household goods that don't match my taste or that I just don't use. So I hold a garage sale to trade away those unwanted pieces for something a little more to my liking that fit my lifestyle and needs. 

Making Garage Sales Fun (& Effective)
Garage/Yard sales are a lot of work for what feels like very little money. So to increase my chances at making a sale, and making the process a little more fun, my family and I decided to pimp our garage sale! *grin*  Day one was great! Day two, not so much...eh, garage sales are definitely a hit-and-miss, but it can never hurt to increase your odds! The most important thing you can do is advertise, but in addition here are a few easy tips to make your sale go that much better. 

Sale Signs
Signs are like commercials for your garage sale, they either have the power to pull people in, or they are just kind of there. I can't tell you the number of times I have made split second decisions to follow a garage sale sign because the sign made me think they had quality goods (and lots of them!). I find myself drawn to attractive signs, or key words such as "huge", or "moving" sale...it means it is probably worth my effort because there will be lots of good items to choose from. 
Make your signs neat, easy to read, clear, and as concise as possible. If your signs are large enough it can be helpful to add the dates and times of your sales, or if your home is hard to find instead choose to add the address.
I noticed that I am not the only one with yard sale fever, Tatertots & Jello has the sweetest yard sale sign printables available!

In addition to roadside signs, I thought it would also be helpful to add one more large sign right in front of our house... so there would be no speeding past. And of course, my girls would say balloons are a must! But you already knew that. ;)

Name Tags
I hate showing up at a busy garage sale and not being able to tell who is hosting it. Call me bashful, but my idea of a great time at a sale isn't walking from person to person asking "is this your garage sale"? 
For fun and function, the girls (who I put in charge of the sale) wore "Cashier" tags, and were sure to greet each potential customer with a cheerful "Welcome to our garage sale!". They also handled all the money (great practice!), and I was quite impressed at the skill of my little mathematicians. Of course, it didn't hurt that kids were doing the selling... *wink*

Offer Freebies
Create a "Freebie" box with a sign easily seen from the road. Advertise that you will have freebies (first come first serve). You can even advertise the good from your freebie box on freecycle.org following your local group rules. A little extra enticement can go a long way!

Update The Goods
I have a few pieces that are lovely, and if I had the space or use for them I would keep them. Of course, these pieces need a vision and that is not always something buyers will have. So I took 5 minutes and gave a few pieces some new life with a little spray paint! It allows me to offer it for a higher price, and send pretty pieces to good homes. 

Optimum Sale Arrangement
I know that this is a garage sale, but why not optimize? I figure my time is precious, and I want to get the biggest buck for my time, so why not use the tried and true business methods? Stores are smart in their arrangement, so why shouldn't I be? 
I tried to arrange my garage (well, yard...) sale much as you would see a furniture store arranged. Well, as much as possible anyway. This way every item is clearly visible and attractive to the potential buyer. If you have enough items to do so, why not set up items by room? It is also a good idea to put a few of your nicest pieces closer to the road for best visibility. 

Finally...
Have fun (inasmuch as possible), make lots of money, and remember that it is a good thing to streamline your home and declutter your life! So if you haven't used it in a year, please lose it! *grin*
Good luck!

Barely Budget Decorating

The biggest expenditure I have ever made on any one item in my house is the washer/dryer because it was a necessary evil, but besides the necessary appliances, I would have to say it is the $80 I spent for my daughters twin sized mattress, a close second is the $60 I spent on a couch. To say we are frugal may be the understatement of the year. When you add my husband's impossibly practical cheapness and his lack of decor savvy to my frugality, you have basically end up with no decor budget. Of course, our priorities are paying off our house by the time we turn 32, having college funds for our 3 kids, and we've spent the last 9 years of our marriage paying off college and cars so we could be completely debt free. These goals have been much more important than purchasing new furniture when hand-me-downs suffice, or putting money into purely decorative items. So yes, for the past 9 years I have been lucky to spend $30 per month on household goods, and I choose to live with hand-me-downs, mismatched dishes I scored off of freecycle, and do without many niceties. 
That being said, I ADORE a beautifully decorated and organized space more than most. So finding the pennies to create my dream home is an ongoing challenge I am willing to work hard to achieve. How am I doing it? Slowly and carefully, pinching every single penny along the way. *grin* 
That's what this blog has been about, creating a beautiful house little by little...patiently growing a home. 

Here is my key to decorating on a non-existent budget... 

Thrifty Shopping
I'm always excited when I find a consistently good thrift shop. However, thrifting isn't the only answer. Often you can find a discount center or warehouse that will sell brand new items at a fraction of the original cost! But I'll tell you more about that in the next post... click here to read.
Then of course there are methods to get discounts at the dream stores themselves: such as signing up for floor (display) models, shopping discount aisles & racks, using discount codes & coupons, price matching, and more depending on the policies of that store. It is still a pretty penny (at least where my budget stands), but for those big ticket items it is worth the wait to invest in a sturdy as well as lovely piece of furniture. Lol! I'll let you know when I finally get one of those!

Couponing for Decor & DIY
I am such a huge advocate of couponing, and clearly not just for groceries! There are often printable coupons for many products I use for organizing and decorating. I have used brand coupons for paint, plastic storage, command strips, hardware brands, glassware, fabric, etc. etc. etc. 
I recommend shopping at fabric/craft stores and hardware stores that accept competitors coupons. I recently bought a gallon of Martha Stewart (Glidden) paint from Home Depot on sale and used a 40% off coupon from Sherwin Williams! I also use Michaels store coupons that include sale prices at Jo-Ann Fabrics so that I can combine a coupon with Jo-Ann's sales. Jo-Ann Fabrics do produce their own coupons, but they exclude sales.
I do the same for organizational products at office supply stores such as Staples and Office Max. I wait to purchase until I have a coupon from them or from their competitors, then I use it on a sale or combine it with their rewards programs and coupons. You can find coupons in the Sunday papers, search online (codes, or printables), or by signing up for their rewards programs and store emails. 

Here is the thing about couponing, or saving for that matter: When you are sticking to a budget, it isn't the total amount saved that counts, it is the total amount spent. Don't get excited that you saved 70% if it means you had to go into debt for it or blew the rest of your budget. I'm not saying there isn't a time or place to use your budget on one "investment" item, but that means you have to be willing to sacrifice and consider your spending done for that period, and fyi, this should never be the rule.  

My favorite time of year for couponing is the Thanksgiving to Christmas season when stores such as Kohls mail out coupons for $10 off any $10 or more purchase. Every time they send me one of these, I score a nearly free item... just look for a $10 item and only pay tax! If you can combine these types of promotional gift-card coupons with sales or other coupons (when allowed) you can score expensive items nearly free. See that picture of the receipt at the beginning of this post? That was a nice white dish from Kohls I had been eyeing that cost $24.99. I waited for it to go on sale at 50%, then used my $10 promotional coupon. My final cost after taxes was $2.66. 

Supplemental Money
Saving money is the obvious strategy when decorating, but not the only strategy! There are many reward programs that pay you to get bombarded by ads from their sponsors. My preferred program is MyPoints. They will give you points for every email/website you open, every search you do, shopping online, using their coupons, etc. Honestly, I do the bare minimum, things I ALREADY do... I use their search engine from time to time, and I print coupons for groceries...that's it, and amazingly I make enough points to redeem a $10-$25 gift card every 4 months or so. I get a few extra bucks to spend guilt free wherever I feel a whim, usually at my beloved Target. If I'm being diligent I save up my points and get a $50 gift card to some snazzy home goods store a few times a year. Let these gift cards do triple duty by combining them with coupons, and sales, and if you are smart about it, those $25 gift cards can get you $50+ worth of home goods!
There are other point based programs out there. I'd love to know if you have discovered one that works well for you.

Repurpose, Reuse, UpCycle!
I have a love-hate relationship with upcycling, more accurately an adore-despise relationship. When every major piece of furniture you own is either a hand-me-down, or found on the side of the road, you learn to adore upcycling, it becomes the saving grace to the ugly and mismatched. So while it is a lot of effort and creative energy to make the ugly amazing, it is well worth the effort! Sometimes you have to have a little vision and revamp something entirely, but other times all it takes a is a little sanding and paint!

I admit I'm a little shy about looking at someone's thrown away furniture sitting beside their trash can...but it is a shyness worth over coming! Not only have I found many wonderful pieces of furniture that just needed a little TLC, but occasionally I will stop and raid a piece of furniture only fit for the trash so I can salvage hardware from it. I also love Freecycle.org for scoring items to repurpose or salvage goods from without having to sit near someones trash can. It is a network made up of (your local) groups, where people post things they no longer want/need, or things they are looking for! It is fantastic!
I have also purchased thrift store items at a few dollars because it had really great castors (wheels which are really really expensive!), or to salvage the drawer gliders (also adds up when purchased from a hardware store). 
Start a small collection of useful salvaged hardware (bolts, castors, gliders, pulls, etc.) so you can build or revamp things yourself. That will save you a huge wad of money! 

DIY'ing
When push comes to shove, make it yourself! I may not have the skills for big building projects, but the way I figure it, after 10 years of trial and error I will become an expert. "I don't know how" just isn't a good excuse in this information age. My whole world opened up with websites and blogs, and online video tutorials that share all the how-to's! DIY'ing makes for a healthy hobby worthy of pursuit, and skills worthy of teaching your children.  

Finally...
Remember that frugal decorating means patience. We won't get the same satisfaction of seeing a room go from ugly to amazing in a weekend. It will become a labor of love that may just take a while. I'm still waiting for all the elements to come together in...well almost every room. In the meantime I make do with what I have, and make it look its best!