I have not written in my blog much lately. I have been working 50+ hours per week which will hopefully provide me with some job security since my company has been laying off left and right and myself and son have been sick on and off since November (will it ever warm up here?)
This week’s Spin Cycle is about Cost Cutting. Not only do I think that I have some expertise in this but also I owe a note to a friend (about a month late) about this topic so I figured no excuse – write in the blog and send the note to my friend!
Dear Jamie (name changed),
I am sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your e-mail about saving money, coupons etc. Work, as usual, has been rather busy. You ask about cutting coupons and saving money and I would like to tell you how I do this.
First things first- every Sunday Lowell and I receive the Sunday newspaper. It is delivered for $1.50 a week (instead of the $2.00 front page cost). We negotiated the rate down from $2.00. My purpose for getting the paper is not to read the news (that is what the internet is for) but to clip coupons and find sales. Here are some of the things I look for in the paper:
- Grocery coupons – I clip anything we may use and have an organizer I store them in. (Last I saw, Target is selling the coupon organizer in their $1.00 bins.) When I go shopping for groceries, I know that store brand may be cheaper than name brand with a coupon and look for that.
- Publix ad – In GA, Publix has a penny item. The coupon is always in Publix’s Sunday ad and is for a store brand product. (We have purchased Publix brand salad dressing, cereal, paper towels, coffee etc for a penny.) You have to spend $10 in Publix to get the penny item but of course that is not a problem. Lowell and I found that the cost of food at Publix is 20% - 50% more expensive than Walmart or Target so we only shop at Publix for the deals. In the Publix ad, there are a number of items that are two for one. If these are items that Lowell and I regularly use, we stock up. For instance, V8 Berry Blend Splash Juice which is our favorite was two for one last week and we bought 6 of them because we knew it was a good deal. We also buy our milk from Publix since it is hormone free. Other than the deals, milk and sometimes deli, we do all our other shopping at Walmart and Target. One last note about Publix, get to know the prices of items, when an item rings up incorrectly, you get the item for free (except alcohol). We tend to get one item for free per week.
- Shopping ads – We look through all of the ads at stores to see what specials are happening this week. Petco regularly has the Science Diet dog food we feed our dogs at $8.00 off and we buy then.
If there is an item you know you are buying that week, try the internet for coupons. The contact lens solution we use is pretty expensive and I can usually print out a $1 or $2 off coupon from the website each time I need to buy it.
Going out to dinner – Lowell and I usually pick out our restaurants by coupons. You can find buy one/get one free coupons all the time through the mail. Also, we sign up for e-mail lists from restaurants we like to get additional coupons and have the Entertainment book which has lots of coupons.
Satellite TV- when we moved into our house, I shopped Comcast, Dish Network, and Direct TV to see where I would get the best rate. Dish Network won and gave us the best rate. After a year with Dish Network, our “special” rate ended and out bill went up. I called Dish and said if they wanted to keep us as a customer, they needed to lower their rate. After talking to a supervisor, we were given $20 off a month for 6 months. When the 6 months expired, I called Dish and said to keep us as a customer, they need to renew the $20 off a month for 6 months. They did and we are not even under contract.
XM radio - When I bought my car, it came with XM radio. Once the free membership expired, I was asked to renew. It was either $12 a month or $20 a month. I felt those rates were too high. The channels I liked had commercials and I just would not pay that much. I called XM and talked to a customer service person and said the service is not worth more than $5 a month and if they could get me to $5 a month I would even pay for a year in advance. The customer service agent went down to $5.85 a month.
Buying my car – Before buying my car, I did a lot of research. First I narrowed down which car I wanted by test driving a few different models. Once I decided on the car I wanted, a Honda Pilot, I looked up the invoice price on kbb.com (Kelly’s Blue Book). Finally, I e-mailed every Honda dealership in GA the same e-mail which basically stated the exact car I wanted with the accessories I wanted. I got quotes back from each dealership. I took the lowest price of the car and the lowest price of accessories (all below invoice price) and e-mailed the dealership closest to me to match the price. I said if they matched the price, I would be in that week to buy the car. And, they did. It was a no hassle deal, the nicest time buying a car ever because when I arrived at the dealership, I did not have to negotiate a price. Now, I don’t think I could have done that with an Acura (a more luxury car) but easily with a Honda. (and I love my car)
A couple of other notes I forgot – I buy in bulk for many items and we have a membership to BJs who not only sends coupons each week but also accepts coupons. Last week, we bought bulk toilet paper and used a coupon where we buy toilet paper, we get 4 things of toothpaste for free ($7.50) value plus $.50 off (coupon from the Sunday paper).
CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid all have a program where you receive money back for a product bought. (Whether it is mail in rebate or money back for next time in the store). Since these stores are much more expensive than Walmart or Target, I only do this when the savings is a lot (over 50% of the cost of the items).
I apologize if this e-mail is exhausting but please let me know if you have any questions.
Alison
