Home Made Simple HomeMailer New Link

I love getting coupons in the mail... here is a great coupon offer to sign up for...

HomeMade Simple has a new link to fill out for this awesome homemailer.

Usually this book has higher value coupons than what we get in our inserts,

Go here to request your free one.

Thanks to Katy Couponers for the link

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. Grace

Save Money On Groceries Or Throw Away Your Dollars Your Choice!!!

Today I was thinking of the many ways we can save money while at the grocery store or we may choose to let those pennies and dollars slip through our fingers. It is up to us to either shop smart or not.
I have come up with ten ways so far...
1. Make a menu plan for the week around the items you already have in the kitchen and those that are on sale at the store.
2.Sign up and USE a rewards card if your store offers them.
3.Clip Coupons and once again USE those coupons. There is many times I forget my coupons at home and need to buy that item while at the store.
4.Best to not buy items you know you will not eat even if on sale. Food thrown away because it has expired is throwing away your money.
5.Buy items when on sale... best to make a "price book " so you know what is the best price for the products you use and stock up when on sale if financially possible.
6.Stay away from the grocery store if hungry.
7.Compare unit price so that you are getting the best price per ounce. Some stores even have this information on the shelf price.
8.Buy the store brand if cheaper and it usually is.
9.Use up your left overs.. once again food thrown away is money thrown away.
10.Cut back on meat usage. An example we use in our home is to buy a three pound package of ground beef and divide into 4 meals.

Those are ten ways to save money at the store. I would love to hear of any other items you can think of .

Thanks for stopping by... Lets keep saving together... Grace

HOW DO THEY DO IT

I keep reading different blogs of feeding the families of 4 or 5 for $1200 or LESS a YEAR using coupons, rebates and free items. I really do not how they can do it. I use coupons, buy on sale but still spent between going out to eat and groceries $400 to $600 a month and there is only 2 of us.
We do not go to expensive places to eat, sometimes have a coupon to reduce our bill or get a senior discount.
I am adding a couple of these blogs to my site so I watch their progress. I plan on asking if they eat out and if so much how much is that amount a month. That needs to be added into the total budget. I know if we cut out the eating out I could cut ours in half. But that would not be a $100 a month would be $250 a month maybe. As I watch their progress maybe I will get some insight from these bloggers and cut my expenses some. Hope you will watch with me their progress and my progress. If you would like to be added to my watch site I would love to hear from you.

Never to late to start

I believe it is never to late to start over. I am the mother of 2 sons, the step mother of 2 stepsons and 1 step daughter and to overwhelming pride the grandmother of 13 fantastic grandchildren. I have been married to a great guy for almost 20 years. We have had many wonderful adventures during those 20 years. We have had our good times and our hard times.

We are now going thru another difficult time. This year has been really tough for us. My internet business is down so income is down. Then to make matters even worse our landlords raised our rent an extra $110.00 a month.

Off and on I have kept a record of grocery spending and coupon use. No sooner will I start ,then I will quit doing it on a regular basis. I find myself doing the CVS game but not following thru. I will go to grocery store and use coupons, buy store brands and sale items. But I never seen to walk out spending very little money like I hear others doing. Lately I have been surfing the web and looking at different blogs where they are sharing how they save. They have a goal to spend only $25.00 to $35.00 a week. Then to top it off they are a family of 3 or 4. How do they do it? Here it is only myself, my DH and Spooky our cat. I wonder how can they do it. In February we spent almost $250.00 on groceries and that does not include the cats' special diet food. I don't even want to get into what we spent going out to eat in February, but it more than what we spent at grocery store.

Here we are in the first week of March and my goal is to be smarter with our food money and to eat out less often.

At the end of April we will be moving to Texas from California to be nearer family. We need to start spending less now since that will be costly move.
I would love to put money in a savings account. The experts say that we should have 6 months living expense in the bank. We do not even have a savings account let alone any money in it.

Every year we try to give some of our income to a church and to a shelter to help feed the hungry. This year we gave very little, not only were times tough but we spent foolishly.

Now is the time to start over. We are moving to Texas where I will help my nephew in his business. Not only will this bring in some income to us, I hope to be an asset in growing his business on the internet. I pray our own internet business will improve.

We will be closer to Minnesota and our children and grandchildren
My goals are to spend less money every month.
Start sharing what we have with the needy.
And start a savings account.

As I start on my journey, I hope that you will join me with your prayers, your ideas and maybe even some of your goals and desires for this year