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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Saving Some Money

So since I started this thinking that I would write about how we save money I figured this blog was about due!  So tonight I plan on cutting apart my ALL YOU magazine.  This month has 56.76 dollars worth of coupons in it.  I admit its one of my favorite magazines.  I know you can get this magazine at walmart.  I have a subscription to it.  To be fair I paid 97 cents for 3 issues.  I am a member of mypoints and if you want to join they rock.  I love them; I cannot say what amazing luck I've had with them.  They sent me a 5 dollar gift card to use to magazines.com and I used that to get my 3 month subscription to ALL YOU.  I also received 500 points for getting my subscription.  With the points you can get gift cards, air miles, money in your paypal account and basically they have any kind of gift card you could want.  http://www.magazines.com/ also sends me gift cards for 5 dollars randomly and sends out coupons for 5 dollars off certain magazines.  On a sad note I'm not sure they sell all you anymore.  If you want other cheap magazines for less then 5 dollars a subscription leave me a comment and I will look up the place I use to get my sister her bridal magazine and my brothers car mags for Xmas.  Yea I'm thrifty they like their gifts tho! Also magazines.com will send you sign up bonus', they randomly send out emails and give you a chance to give 5 friends a 5 dollar gift card and when your friend uses the gift card you get a 10 dollar one even if the friend finds a magazine for 5 dollars so doesn't spend anything!

OK back to the magazine with all the coupons.  After reading through it and reading about healthy foods and ways to save money I cut this bad boy up.  I figure even if I spend the 20 bucks for a years worth of the magazine I should get my money out of it.  Seriously though if you want to save some money instantly don't buy brand names.  I know the packages are prettier on the cereal and there's a free gift but seriously does it taste better to you?  I guess I usually don't notice much difference between brand name and store brand.  We do indulge in certain thing I don't like Wal-marts canned corn as much as other brands so I go for a different brand.  Nick likes litehouse blue-cheese dressing so he gets that.  We also never buy water we just drink the tap.  To be fair we have very good well water.  I know your thinking but coupons are for name brands usually!  Well if the coupon doesn't make it cheaper then the store brand and you like the store brand as well don't use the coupon!  Simple stuff.   I love the grocery store at home.  It's small and usually way more expensive then wal-mart but every week they have sales and the sales make their items a better buy then walmart and when paired with a coupon (under a dollar our store doubles) you can really save some money.  Not to mention do your little local stores carry things that wal-mart and bigger ones don't?  Our store carries a large pack of fake crab meat.  I love that stuff and hey carry the small size which is a brand name the smaller size is less then half the size of the bigger package and cost the same!  We always buy the big package and divide it up.

Divide up your meat!  I grew up on a farm so was lucky having our own beef cut the bill a lot.  Now that I am off the farm we buy more meat at the store.  Though I have to admit I rarely buy beef I just don't think it taste right.  Not to mention my fiance has connections and bought some beef from a friend who was selling part of a cow.  I know people will raise a beef  and then sell it in quarters or half and you can have yours cut how you want.  Nick just got hamburger but it taste so much better then store bought and way less greasy!  I usually buy my boneless skinless chicken at wal-mart and get it for 1.78 a lb and just get home and divide it into individual packages which saves me money instead of buying small packages for 2 people I get the family pack and freeze excess.  We also buy our pork in large packs I like the picnic roast usually cheap and yes it has a lot of fat on it but boy does it taste good!  When I can get it for 1.20 a lb or less I grab a big one and cut it into several pieces.  Yes its messy and a pain but that's a bargain.  No I don't buy brand name bags.  I usually look for a large package of bags which is cheapest in the long run.   

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