For The Mommas - Save Money with Coupons, Freebies, Steals &Deals
Save Money Using Coupons, Freebies, Deals
Tomorrow night, Thursday..10/28 at 8pm EST, I will be holding a live chat in the Frugal Blog Frog Community. This week will be talking about getting the best deals online and Ebates 101. I know many of you will be doing much of your shopping this year online…. so bring you questions and join me and Cindy from Living Rich with Coupons for a 1 hour chat!
To Join us:
Head to the Blog Frog and join the Frugal Living Community:
Over the next few weeks, you will start to notice more “deals” on items I wouldn’t normally post. With the holiday season approaching quickly (Christmas is just 67 days away and Hanukkah is 44 days away), there will be more toys, electronics and such. I want to stress how important it is you are still careful with your purchases. The objective is to save money – not spend more. I want to provide great bargains for everyone. However, I do not want this to be seen as a reason to spend – just because its a deal doesn’t mean it is something you should buy.
Here are a couple tips:
1. Before you purchase, be sure you know who you will be gifting an item to.
2. Have a Holiday Budget Plan. Write your budget down and stick to it.
3. Make sure your purchase doesn’t break the budget – no matter how huge of a bargain it is.
4. Don’t overshop. Keep a list of what you have already purchased.
So, with that said, I do believe that bargain hunting early in the season is the way to find the best deals. I will be posting these deals as I come across them – many times they go very quickly, but do not get discouraged – there are always more.
So happy bargain shopping and here’s to tipping off a wonderful holiday shopping season!
P.S. If you are looking for any specific items, leave them in the comments. This will help me know what to post and keep an eye out for.
Tomorrow night, Thursday..10/14 at 8pm EST, I will be holding a live chat in the Frugal Blog Frog Community. Last week, was a bit informal – tomorrow we will be talking about coupon organization. So bring you questions and join me and Cindy from Living Rich with Coupons for a 1 hour chat!
To Join us:
Head to the Blog Frog and join the Frugal Living Community:
Many times people look at me as a little crazy for stockpiling. I have heard many comments about it. Well it is days like today, that reminded me why I stockpile.
1. It saves my family a ton of money.
2. I learn to use what I have on hand instead of constantly running to the store to buy stuff at full price.
3. I am able to give at a moments notice.
Tonight my Mom came by. She told me about a local food pantry whose shelves were empty. This pantry serves a dinner each week and supplies many families with food. They sent out a letter – saying they were in desperate need of food.
With a moments notice, we were able to pack up cereal, soup, pasta, noodles, hamburger helper, brownie mix, rice and canned veggies. While this won’t feed everyone who comes to the food pantry – it will be a small help.
Tomorrow, I plan on going to Weis, Giant, Redners and Acme to pick up all the free or cheap items that I can for the food bank.
I hope you will be encouraged to give when you can. I am thankful that couponing has allowed me to be generous with my giving.
Social Buying is still a relatively new phenomenon. Honestly, I wasn’t really sold on how it could work for me. I know some of you commented that you aren’t really sure about Groupons and similar buying sites. So, I wanted to show you how you can put these Groupon deals to work for you.
Gap
I used my Groupon that was available a few weeks ago. Basically, I paid $25 for a $50 certificate to GAP. Yesterday, GAP had an additional 40% off already marked down prices. I was able to get 5 boys long sleeved shirts and 2 boys sweatshirts for $26.01 or $3.71 each with the Groupon. The original retail price $126.50. Now, there is no way that I would ever pay full retail price for these shirts – but this Groupon makes it a fabulous deal with the clearance sale.
Shoebuy
I also used the $40 Shoebuy Groupon that was $20 to score these $72.00 winter boots (yep, it get super cold here) for just $20.00. They were on sale for $37.98 on Shoebuy – with free shipping. In the end, these boots cost me $20.00 shipped (plus I got a pair of socks).
Have you found any fabulous deals thru Groupon? Will you be using Groupon to shop for the holidays?
So are you a fashion diva? Do you score the hottest fashions at the lowest prices?
If so, enter to win this week on the Ebates Frugal Living Community here at For the Mommas. Now, I am not going to win this one. I am not fashion forward, by any stretch. I prefer to live in jeans and cardigans. But if you are a fashionista who can stretch a dollar, you can head here to enter. We already have one entry for a $.49 cent dress – that is really cute!
Our Fashion Photo Contest, we’re on the search for the ultimate fashionista and the grand prize is a $500 Ebates shopping spree!
To enter our Fashion Photo Contest:
Note: To register for the community, look for the sign up to join the fun link in the upper left hand corner.
We’ll announce the winner on Thursday, September 23rd during the #frugalfashion Twitter party. Think of it as an after party and you’re invited.
Good luck, I hope a FTM reader wins!
We spent the afternoon picking fruit at a local orchard.
If you have the opportunity to get out to an orchard, I highly recommend it. It is a fun time for the kids – my son enjoyed looking at all the different plants – even the ones we were not picking.
We picked about 7lbs of fruit for under $20.00. I couldn’t purchase in the store at that price — plus, it was fun family activity to keep us busy on a Saturday afternoon. Another bonus – nothing taste as good as fresh picked fruit. I see a blueberry pie our very near future!
Do you pick your own fruit? How do the prices compare to the grocery store?
Today’s featured shopper is Christy K. Christy really shows how getting the best deals at each stores and utilizing rebates works to your benefit! It is a little work, but in the end Christy is keeping her money in her pocket.. that is where I like to see it!
Hi Shannon!
First I must say that you have been an inspiration to me – - I have always been very frugal – but now that I have got a handle on how to save big money using coupons while matching up sale items, catalina‘s, gift card deals, register rewards, etc. . . my savings are unreal!! I credit you and your blog for my success!! I have become so good at saving money that I have started a stockpile of things to donate – - I mean, how many boxes of cereal or bottles of shampoo do you really need? Plus there is always a deal to be had!!! I just got the vocal point Kashi Heart to Heart coups in the mail today (one free box and 3- $1.50 off coups!) – – and it’s still on sale BOGO at Rite-Aid –guess I should go get more???? after all it would be free, right??? I can always give it away!I figured that I would send you my trip from today – - I hit several stores – Target, Giant Eagle, then Walgreens. . . I attached a picture of what I purchased:
Click below to Read all of Christy’s story!
Cyndi M. shows us her trips to Walgreens and Target. I love how Cyndi dealed with the grumpy cashier – going back the next day to get her money back! Yeah Cyndi.
I had such a fun day shopping a couple of days ago! I was able to get $49.05 worth of products between a trip to Walgreens and a trip to Target all for $16.77!! I originally had to pay $1.50 more than that because our cashier was a little grumpy and impatient with us, thereby not accepting one of our coupons. But I went back the next day, and they refunded me in cash!!
So $49.05 for $16.77!!Here are the ways I saved!
