My Frugal Adventures

To wrap up my ramblings on saving money and stuff, I wanted to send you over to My Frugal Adventures.  This blog is great. She keeps you in the loop on all the deals at every store you could imagine. Just this week I saved bunches of money from just reading this blog and doing what she says.

For example: There was a coupon on target.com for $5 off any women's denim. I didn't print it because I didn't think $5 off was that great of a deal and I wasn't really in the market for denim. But then I read on My Frugal Adventures that a lot of jeans were on clearance at Target 75% off. I printed the coupon and went to Target and found a cute pair of skinny jeans. They were $6.24 so after the coupon I got them for $1.24!!!

This blog makes finding these deals really easy, so you don't have to keep track of all the sales and coupons yourself. If you are interested in getting into the whole world of couponing this is the best place to start!

Target Love

Yesterday I talked about some basics of money saving. Today I wanted to get into it a little more, and be a bit more specific. 

I love Target! We are lucky enough to have a Super Target, and it just happens to be the closest store to our house so I get to go there a lot. 

Target is an amazing place to shop if you are trying to save some money. If you don't have a Target close by then I pity you, aaaaaaaannnd also you might not find this post very exciting. 

There are a couple ways to save lotslotslots of money at Target:

Coupons: Did you know that Target will take a Manufacturer's coupon and a Target coupon for the same item? It's true! You can tell whether it is a store coupon or a manufacturer's coupon by looking at the top.

So if you had a Target coupon for $1 off Colgate toothpaste and a manufacturer coupon for $1 off Colgate toothpaste then you would totally get $2 off the toothpaste! This adds a whole notha' dimension to the money saving thing because you can do Sale + Target Coupon + Manufacturer's Coupon! You can get Target coupons a whole slew of places. Sometimes they'll mail you some, sometimes they print out with your receipt after you shop there, but the best place to get them is coupons.target.com. They put out new web coupons every Sunday (same day the ad comes out).

*** Something I should have mentioned yesterday is if you see a coupon for something you'll buy, print it right away. Some coupons are up for a certain amount of time, and some are up for a certain amount of prints (meaning if they set the print limit at 500 and 500 people print the coupon then it's gone). Another thing that I should have mentioned is that you can usually print each coupon twice, both at target.com and coupons.com***

Clearance: Target has some wicked clearance sales. You can expect things to go on clearance after any holiday. But there are random things on clearance all the time. Here is a list of some of the clearance sales I have seen in our store:

Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, etc: These items start to go on clearance the day after the holiday. 

Got these for .19 each this week. Luke loves pez so I am now equipped with a powerful bargaining tool!

Dollar spot: Have you seen the dollar section at the front of your Target store? Before they move in a new batch of dollar stuff they usually put the old stuff on clearance. I have bought sticker sheets, books, and crayons for .25 each when these things go on sale. 

Toys: A couple times a year Target has a massive clearance on toys. This year they had one right after Christmas. Last year they had one in July and we got tons of good stuff for Luke's Christmas and Birthday presents for soooooo cheap. 

Clothes & Shoes: I am always checking out the clearance section for toddler clothes and shoes (although they have clearance for normal people clothes and shoes too). Clothes will start to go on clearance when the season changes to make room for their new inventory. Sometimes I buy things the next size up for the next year. I actually just broke out a pair of shoes that I got on clearance for $3.24. I bought them and stored them away. So last night when I put Luke's shoes on him and realized that his poor little toes were all scrunched up, I just went to the drawer got out the next size up and slipped them on him.

Don't know if you can see the pricetag but this whole outfit was less than 6 bucks.  75% off!

I never wanted to shop clearance because I figured the reason it was on clearance was because nobody else wanted it, so why would I buy it? But that isn't always the case, a lot of the time they are just trying to get it sold to make room for new products. 

Target clearance usually starts out around 30% off. The longer the item sits there, the higher the percentage off will get. Seeing something for 75% off is not rare. I usually look at the clearance when it's 30% off and decide if it's something I really want, or if I can wait to see if it is still there by the time it gets to 75% off. 

So I hope you have found a new appreciation for the wonderful entity that is Target. And I hope these tips can save you some money! 

Frugalicious February

Not much exciting is going on in life right now, so I figured it was the perfect time to blog about one of my favorite topics: frugality(yay!). I know there are many blogs out there that teach you how to be frugal. But for me, none of those things helped at all until I understood the basics of it by someone who had been on the front lines of money saving. Which is why I am writing this rather than sending you off to a different blog. 

Do you know people who go on shopping trips and get everything for free or for ridiculous prices and you wonder "How on earth do they do that??? When I use coupons they are for .50 off of a $5 product and I usually forget to use them anyway."? This was me (and still is sometimes).

And don't get me wrong, even those coupons for .50 add up. I usually head to the store once a week with around $3 worth of coupons (varying from .50 to $1 off) for a grocery trip that is costing me 80 bucks. But they are coupons for things I was going to buy anyway, so that ends up saving me about 150 bucks a year, which is great!

The aforementioned P&G coupon book finally came! Woop!

But the whole extreme money saving thing made sense for me when a seasoned veteran said something like this:

Coupon + Sale = Good Deal

Those people out there who are getting amazing deals are not just using coupons or buying things on sale. They are usually doing both. 

So how do you get started?

 

The coupon part of the equation:

Ever heard of Coupons.com? 

There are a lot of sites where you can get printable coupons, but I have found this site to be a great place to get started. They have lots and lots of coupons for lots of different things. 

I usually browse coupons.com and print out any coupon for something I would normally buy, or was planning on buying in the near future. That way if a sale comes up on that item I already have a coupon for it. Or if I'm definitely going to be buying that item anyway, I get it for a little cheaper.

The sale part of the equation:

Which stores do you normally shop at? If you go to that store's website they usually have a digital version of the weekly ad, which tells you the sales. Look out for sales on anything that you have a coupon for because if your getting it anyway, you might as well get an awesome deal on it. 

Now, an example from my experiences so that you can get a better understanding of what the heck I'm talking about:

My son owns a tag junior reader. It's this little thing that reads books to him so I don't have to. Ha! Anyway. I am always on the lookout for coupons/deals on these books because they are always a good gift for him. Sometime last year a coupon came out for $3 off any Tag Junior book, it didn't expire until February of this year. I printed it just in case a sale came up and I could get an awesome deal. Then in December Target had a sale: buy one Tag book get one free. Now these things are normally $10.99 each. But with the BOGO (buy one get one) sale and my $3 off coupon I got both for 7.99 or $4 each instead of $11 each. Good deal! 

If you're thinking, "well good for you but I'm not in the market for Tag Jr. books right now." No worries, this was just an example, things like this happen all the time with all kinds of different products. 

So, to summarize the lesson for today:

-Print coupons for things you would normally or will buy.

-Check the weekly ads for the stores you normally shop at. 

-If you see a sale for something that you have a coupon for AND would normally buy/WILL definitely use, BUY IT!!!

I will get into everything a little deeper tomorrow and throughout the rest of the week. If you have any questions about what I have said - comment - I WILL answer. =)

Inspitation in Goal Setting

I like to make goals. I have to. I am such a scatterbrain that if I didn't set goals there would be very essential things in life that I would just never do.

 In the process of setting my goals for this year I have come across this bit of wisdom that made me look at my goals in a whole different way. It's called Parkinson's Law, and it states:

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"

I love this because it puts into words a phenomena I have seen occur thousands of times in my life. Here's a little scenario for you that has happened hundreds of times in our home. 

Monday-Friday: Supposed to clean the house because mother-in-law is coming on Saturday. I start cleaning the kitchen counters and somehow get caught up working on one corner of the counter. All I accomplish in 5 days is a square foot of clean counter and tornado-ridden rest of the house. 


Saturday Morning: Mother-in-law coming in 20 minutes. Clean, vacuum, sweep the entire house and have it sparkling clean by the time the MIL gets here. 

This perfectly illustrates Parkinson's law (okay, I'm sure not perfectly, but I think it's pretty good). When I have a week to clean the house and don't set any specific time limits for specific tasks I end up getting distracted and caught up on one thing. The house does not get clean. 

When I have 20 minutes to clean the house, it is cleaned. 

In the past I have always been timid about goal setting because I didn't want to overdo myself. But this has made me realize that making more goals for myself rather than less is the way to go. So for my 2011 To Do List (aka goals) I plan on adding lots and lots of things to the list and making sure I define my time frame so I don't get too carried away on one thing. 

I am so excited to have stumbled upon this Parkinson's law. For years I have struggled with time management and I feel like this is exactly what I needed to be reminded of. I hope this helps someone else out there. 

i share printables

I just wanted to share a link to this site in case there is anyone who hasn't heard of it. It's called i share printables. It is a collection of cute printable stuff that you can download for free. They have a lot of cute stuff for holidays: cupcake toppers, candy wrappers, and cute quotes to frame.

 I love this quote so much! And I love that all I have to do to turn it into some cute valentines day decor is print it and frame it.

 I thought these candy baggie toppers were too awesome! And the download comes with those little stickers to top off the Reeses. So cute!

I'm going to be checking this site before I send off any holiday treats or throw any parties in the future. And maybe someday I'll contribute with printables of my own. But for now, it's nice to have a place to go where the work is already done for me. All I have to do is click print.

'Cute as a Button' Framed Heart

          One thing we are always needing more of in this house is decor. We have all kinds of little shelvy things with not much to put on them. When I saw this framed button heart floating around the blogosphere I knew just where I could use it. So I got to work making it. 

Supplies:

-Valentine's colored buttons

-Coordinating color of paint

-Paintbrush

-Cheap frame (got mine at $Tree for TWO for a dolla!)

-Glue gun

-Paper

          I started by painting the frame and letting it dry. Easy. 

          

          Then I made a template from the paper that came inside the frame. I did the old 'perfect heart' trick to get my heart super cute and right in the middle. Then I traced the heart and the shape of the paper onto cardstock. 

          I started gluing down the outline of my heart. Once that was done I filled it in. It was not easy. The frame was 4x6. I think a bigger heart would have made for easier piecing. I ended up overlapping a couple of the buttons because I didn't have just the right size for some of the spaces.

          To finish it off I stuck on a label. My labeler was in the same box with my buttons and I'm glad it was, because it gave me the idea for the perfect finishing touch. A little 'love' at the bottom. 

 It's super fast and simple. You could even make it with a kid if you swap out the hot glue for some tacky glue. I like how it looks on my shelf next to my blocks from Target!

Marathon Man

Over this past weekend our family headed out to Death Valley, CA, so that Todd and his dad could run a marathon together. I had never been to Death Valley and was kinda worried about what Luke and I would do while Todd was running all day, but it turned out to be really awesome!

The hotel that we stayed at was like a little village with a general store, restaurants, horse stables, a playground, and even the Borax Museum, which had old buggies, wagons, stagecoaches and trains. This was soooo perfect for Luke as he is obsessed with anything with wheels on it.

 Luke was so lucky to get to spend the whole day with his awesome Grandma Bibi, or "Grandma Baby" as he calls her. She ran around with Luke all day! Luke absolutely loved it, and it was nice that I could take a break from chasing after him!

 About an hour before Todd and his Dad crossed the finish line Luke, "Grandma Baby", and I camped out at the finish line to wait for our boys. We got the opportunity to cheer on the runners that crossed the finish line before Todd came. It was such an amazingly inspiring experience. We watched at least three 70+ year old men finish their marathons and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't get a little lump in my throat every time I watched those men cross the finish line.

 I was so proud to see Todd and his Dad finish the marathon. They did great! Look at that semi-smirk on Todd's face. I know that after 26.2 miles I would not be able to muster any kind of a facial expression.

Luke and I got to give Todd his medal!

We had such a nice, relaxing dinner when the runners were all done, and I can only imagine how good it must have felt for those boys to sit down and eat after the day they had. 

This is the gorgeous sunset we caught on the way home:

I know Death Valley doesn't sound like an ideal vacation spot, but I actually came away quite smitten with it. I am putting it on my list of getaway destinations when Todd and I get the chance to take a little vacation together.

Fun at the Zoo!

One of my goals this year is to spend more productive time with Luke. Like, instead of watching back to back episodes of Ni-Hao Kai Lan (Which, by the way, is teaching him horrible habits! You would think that a network that advertises that it is like preschool for your child would be more careful about what they are teaching kids. )we would do something that would help him learn, or that would be more fun for both of us. 

On Saturday we went to the zoo in Hesperia. I love this place. We got in and out of there for less than 20 bucks including admission, 2 cups of food for Luke to feed the animals, and a little cheetah print jeep toy for Luke. 

                 ***Funny tidbit: Some of the animals, like the monkeys, have little toddler tricycles in their cages to play with. Luke is sooooo obsessed with trikes and cars that when we are looking at those animals he is pointing to and looking at the toy instead of the extremely fascinating animal in front of our faces!

If you live in the area, especially if you have little kids, you need to go here! And I'm so glad we opted for real tigers rather than the cartoon Kai Lan tiger that tells his friends, "I DON'T WANT TO PLAY WITH YOU ANYMORE!!!" Yikes.