The Benefits of Using Money Saving Coupons

One great irony of life is that people find it so easy to spend money and yet, they find it doubly hard to save money.

Almost 80% of the consumers, according to some surveys, tend to spend their money easily and find it hard to save even just 10% of their income or any amount of their earnings. They always insist that they have more expenses than they can handle; that is why it is so hard for them to really create a hefty amount for savings.

What people do not know is that they can easily save more money even on their daily expenses if they just know how to do it.

The point is that if they were really wise consumers, they would definitely take advantage of freebies and discount items that can absolutely cut their expenses almost in half.

One of the best examples is the utilization of money saving coupons.

The problem is that many people are still not aware of the benefits that money saving coupons can give. They contend that these freebies just offer such a little amount of money and that they can be better off without it.

Therefore, for those who are not yet fully aware of the benefits they can derive from these money saving coupons and what they can do in order to save more money, here is a list of some of tips on how to use these coupons for a cause:

1. Look for the right places

If you are not yet aware of the right places where you can get excellent money saving coupons, try to look in your local newspaper, especially the Sunday editions. It’s one of the best places where you can get discount coupons.

Usually, different establishments provide discount coupons to entice consumers to buy their products. That’s why they use the paper to distribute their freebies.

2. Shop online

Online businesses also provide money saving coupons. What people do not know is that online discount coupons provide more money saving percentage than what the newspapers can give.

Best of all, it is so easy to accumulate discount coupons. All you have to do is to sign up for the online business and you can easily get some of their freebies.

3. Coupons are great money savers

The very advantage of money saving coupons is that they can cut your bill to almost 50%.

Indeed, using money saving coupons can definitely save you more money than what you have expected. So, for those who do not know this yet, try to cut more coupons and start saving.

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Save Money By Making Homemade Cards

Cards are expensive, especially when you buy individual cards from a card rack. I have got to the point where I rarely buy cards from the store anymore. I make them instead. Now days with card making and scrapbooking being so popular, it is extremely easy to find supplies. I tend to buy my card bases in bulk when they are half price or I use a 40% coupon from JoAnn Fabrics, Hobby Lobby, or Michael’s. The larger cards I can usually find for like 40 cards for like $2.50. The smaller cards which are a little better quality because they are colored, textured cardstock are normally $9.99, but I get them for around $5.00 for 50 of them. You can buy special embellishments for card making, but you really need to be careful because you can easily over spend on this. The point is to save money, not spend more!!! One thing I do is buy embellishments that has several embellishments (or stickers) that I can use on several cards so I spread out the cost. So really consider what type of cards you use the most. Also, consider what gender of embellishments you need. If you have a house full of boys and only one niece to have cards for, it doesn’t make sense to have a bunch of girly, girl embellishments.

Some things you may want to have on hands for card making:
- card base or card stock
- envelopes (these usually come with the cards)
- patterned paper
- stickers
- embellishments
- ribbons, buttons, rhinestones
Here are a few of the cards that I have made:

Frugal Clothes Buying Guide

There are three main places to purchase used clothing; resale shops, thrift shops and garage/ yard sales. All of these places you can find good deals if you know what to look for, but they also have some draw backs.

Resale Shops- Usually has the best quality of clothes and are more likely to have designer clothes, but they are also usually the most expensive. The selection at resale shops is usually pretty good. If your looking for nice, adult clothes, this may be your best bet.

Thrift Shops- Also will have a good selection. The clothes may not be as high of quality as in some resale shops but many of them do get a good selection of good quality clothes, especially the thrift shops in more expensive neighborhoods. The prices are usually cheaper that resale shops.

Garage/ Yard Sales- These vary greatly and could be your best source of hitting a “gold mine”, but you have to be at the right place at the right time. Children’s clothes are easier to find at garage sales than adult clothes. Most of the time the prices are really good, but not always since this really depends on the individual and how badly they want to sell their goods. Many times you can get a person running a garage sale to go lower in price especially if it is near the end of the garage sale or you are buying a lot. Quality also varies greatly from garage sale to garage sale. If you go to a lot of garage sales, you will eventually learn what areas have the higher quality merchandise.

Things to look for when buying used clothes:

Zippers- Are the zippers in good working order? Is the zipper frayed? Does it slide up and down easily?

Buttons- Is the outfit missing any buttons? Are the buttons sewn on tight?

Hems- Are the hems in good shape? Are there any holes along the hem? Is the crease of the hem worn or faded?

Seams- Are any of the seams ripped or loose? Are there any holes along the seams? Make sure the seams are nice and tight.

Holes- Are there any holes in the fabric, along the seams or along the hem?

Fabric- Is the fabric in good shape or is it worn in areas? Does it look like the colors have faded or bled on other parts of the outfit? Are there any spots that aren’t suppose to be there on the outfit?

Fabric Care- Does this outfit need any special care?

Dry Clean Only- If the outfit is Dry Clean Only, you may want to consider if you want the extra cost associated with dry cleaning.

Are the colors and style good for you? It’s not a bargain, if it is not flattering on you.

Does it fit well? If it does not fit well, it is not a bargain. For children, it’s ok to buy ahead if you are sure they are going to be a certain size during a certain season.

Don't forget to check out Lynn's Tightwad, Frugal, Penny Pinching Place at: http://www.squidoo.com/tightwad-frugal-penny-pinching-page

Coupon Binder

Tightwad tip- Use a coupon organizer so you can take your coupons with you to the store for those "unadvertised sales" and so you don't loose your coupons.

My coupon binder:


For more information about my binder and how to make your own, see this link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4664321_coupon-binder.html If your new to this blog, please feel free to check out my sidebar. I have a lot of links to frugal sources.

For more Tightwad Tuesday posts, go to Mary's blog.

Frugal Articles

I have written a few articles for e-how on being frugal that I thought I would share with you. Here they are:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4623620_save-money-grocery-shopping.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4610573_grocery-store-coupons.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4602307_price-book.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_4620411_have-frugal-christmas.html

Shopping Duds...

Reusable Grocery Bag by lynnhsmomof2
Make your own photo tote bag From Zazzle
See other Food Drink Bags

Coupon Diva T-shirt by lynnhsmomof2
Shop the t-shirts section of www.Zazzle.com
More Food Drink T-Shirts

65 Cents!!!!!! :)

I purchased all of this for only $.65 at Staples!!! Several of the items were FREE!!!!

I had-

10 folders - free
2 packs of pencil erasers- free
3 pencil sharpeners- free
2 pencil boxes- $.05 each
2 3 hole punches- $.25 each
plus $.05 tax





One pencil sharpener wasn't shown on the receipt so there should have been 19 items instead of 18!

CVS Game from a newbie

Total Spent: $12.14
Extra Care Bucks back: $5.00

Great Deal at Meijer

Meijer had Tilapia (sp?) fish filets, 1 lb. frozen bag, on sale buy 2 get 2 free. Then at this site http://www3.meijer.com/mealbox/mealbox.html they had coupons for $2.00 off. So I got 4 pounds of fish filets for $7.98.

CVS Game

This is my very first week trying out the CVS game, so I was a little timid about it. I hope to get better in time.

Lysol Wipes 2@ $2.50 each
Lysol Spray $3.49

2 $1.00 coupons

Total before taxes $6.49

I also got a rain check for All Small and Mighty.

Frugal Sites

Frugal Fun
Frugal Village

Coupon Links

~Grocery Coupons~

Boodle
Smart Source
Upons
My Savings
Penny Pincher
Cool Savings
Coupon Bar
Mrs. A's

~Order Coupons~

The Coupon Clippers
Coupons and Forms Central
The Coupon Master

~Articles~

Cut Your Grocery Bill
How to use coupons
Coupon Queen

~Coupon Binder~

Built It Yourself
Binder
Another Binder
Smart Spending Resources
Coupon Organizer

Advice for Moms

Go Mom
The Family Planner
Mom Central

Cooking Resources

Chef Mom
Healthy Lunches and Snacks

Couponing

A great way to say money is by using coupons. Couponing is becoming very popular as more people are trying to find ways to save money. Here’s some simple steps to get you started.

1. Go about it as a game or a challenge. Try to beat your record on how much you can save at a grocery visit.
2. Combine coupons with sales if possible.
3. Only use the coupon on items you would buy anyways.
4. If the generic is cheaper than name brand w/ coupon and your family will eat the generic, then buy they generic.
5. Get your coupons organized. I am working mine into a binder, which I hope to show in a future post after it is done.
6. Take a calculator with you to the store so you can figure price per weight and can get the best deal.
7. The Sunday newspaper is one of the best places to get coupons.
8. Ask friends, family and neighbors to save their extra coupons that they don’t use for you.
9. If you belong to a homeschool group or Bible study, see if the other women would like to bring their extra coupons and do a coupon exchange.
10. There are several places on the web that you can print your own coupons.

http://www.coupons.com

http://coupons.smartsource.com/

http://www.upons.com/

11. You can order coupons on line for a very small price. A lot of times there is a small minimum to buy. Example: You may be able to order a $1.00 coupon for Huggies diapers at $.05 a piece, minimum to buy 5. So if you buy Huggies all the time, you spend the $.25 for the coupons and save $4.75. Some of the places may have a separate processing fee for the total order so make sure you read the terms and decide if its worth it.

http://www.thecouponclippers.com/

http://www.cnfcentral.com/coupons.asp

http://www.thecouponmaster.com/

12. Watch the cash register total. The sale price does not always come up, coupons don’t always ring up right, they swipe too many times, ect.

13. Do not go shopping hungry!! Everything will look good to you.
14. Stick to your list but be flexible. Sometimes stores have unadvertised sales that you may want to take advantage of especially if you have a coupon for that item.
15. Last but not least, leave your children at home if you can. It will save you money. If you husband is not happy with the idea about being left with the kids, explain to him it is an effort to save more money. It’s really hard to calculate prices, search for coupons, watch the cash register total and such when the kids are begging for things, whining about being tired, trying to grab things, trying to climb out of the shopping cart, ect.

Frugal Friday!

This is my first post on this blog. I am striving to be more frugal and this is my accountability blog. My goal is to be more frugal with our resources so we can pay off our huge medical bills. My husband and I are both wanting a new house because the one that we have does not fit us or our lifestyle well. We are wanting to be able to put our children in activities like piano lessons and we are still considering having another child but until we get these medical bills paid off, there is no extra money for these things. So my first frugal goal is to get myself organized so I know what I have and no longer rebuying things or letting food expire because I lost track of it.