So many people have asked me in my day-to-day how we save money. With a small income despite both of us bringing in money, we have more in savings than most people in our situation (though I never divulge money talk, I do talk about us being able to buy a house in a year or two and trying to keep it all together, of course). I mean, I get the whole, "How are you guys affording three kids on your income?!" and the truth is we struggle. We struggle with the balance of trying to keep our living affordable and splurge enough that we have things that we want. It's not easy for us either.
The other truth is; it has to do with mindset. As Pagans, we live pretty simply. I don't have a lot of decorations around my house because in my opinion, it would be a waste. We don't own this apartment and it would be clutter that we'll eventually have to pay to move to our permanent home (when we buy it). We have little furniture, just enough that all of our needs are met (and honestly, it is almost too much for our apartment anyways!) It's not even that we're disinterested in having decorations and furniture, I would love to hang a bunch of pictures and paintings and have decorative pieces that make our place more homey. It's just not practical for us right now in terms of space and storage. Not to mention we're about to have three littles to babyproof for. The other piece is; we don't smoke and Daddy J only drinks a bit of beer now and again. We don't have expensive hobbies because we know that we can enjoy ourselves with it costing us ridiculously; and we always discuss and rationalize with one another: Does it serve a need? Does it serve a want? If it is a want, can we justify the expense? If we can't; does it still serve an irreplaceable service? Sometimes we have the be the voice of reason to one another and remind ourselves of our long-term goals.
Well, when we're sitting in more comfortable times we don't watch our spending as closely. This has come to bite us in the butt. It's not even that we have ever gotten ourselves into a pinch; it's just that we saw our bank account suffer and knew that if something hugely dreadful happened (such as to our car; which is nearly 17 years old) that we would take a big hit and then have to scrape and scramble to get by especially since my job is part-time so hours vary widely (I've had anywhere from 15-40 hours per week) due to departmental production which determines the hours available to divide up between employees and individual production which determines what percent of that you can be given. I would love to discuss how ridiculous this is in my field but I also like making money and not being fired. Wink wink.
As we've cinched our belts up I've come up with some really great ways to save money but it's really nothing new to most people. Couponing and rebates. I swear. Now, I'm no expert and far from a master. As Pagans also trying to live responsibly and as natural as possible; there are also a lot of products we just don't buy that are from the main coupon categories. So we have to keep it to mainly food items or household items we really need even if it's not our preferred brand (sacrifices, sacrifices). We don't really use Groupon or other things that still cost money like to go out to dinner or those type things.
So, we shop usually at our local Winn-Dixie and Aldi's which has some of the best prices in our area (besides Walmart, but not by enough). I get the ads weekly and make a list of what we need; then price compare from each store. Aldi's doesn't take coupons, so I have to keep that in mind when I price compare. I may be able to get similarly priced items for much cheaper at Winn-Dixie if I have coupons and/or rebates. With Winn-Dixie we're also part of the baby club so they send us a monthly coupon sheet on things like diapers ($3 off any), wipes ($1 off any), juice, chips or crackers, etc. I can use those on top of any manufacturer's coupons so it's a double whammy, but only once a month.
So once I have my list of price-compared items, I go to my two go-to rebate apps on my iPod, Ibotta and Shopkick. Ibotta is #1 in terms of breadth of items, the amount of rebates, and stores (ie. you can get rebates for going out to eat anywhere and purchasing any kind of chicken strips or buying alcohol anywhere). So I brand-compare at that point (ie. if a specific brand of snack is on rebate vs. a brand we usually get) and then check against the ads and prices, tallying the rebates into the prices. Once I have that done, I check my Winn-Dixie app on coupons and then print manufacturer's coupons (if any available) and check my Catalina coupons (the ones that print on the registers at the grocery store) and tally in that price. Now, I know that Winn-Dixie also takes competitor's coupons, so I sometimes also combine competitor's coupons with my manufacturer's, store, and rebates.
Usually by the end I have two very clear-cut lists of what I'm buying at one store vs. the other and have all of the coupons ready. If I go to Winn-Dixie, I also know that they mark certain items down with in-store coupons if they are close to expiration or overstocked. I have seen $5-8 off of meat in-store leaving steaks to be just $3-5 before coupons (if you have any) although I don't buy their meat just because of our local reasons. So now I'm up to five ways to save in coupons: I have manufacturer's/Catalina coupons, store coupons, in-store coupons, competitor's coupons, and rebates.
The hard part is you always have to make sure that the coupons match up with each other, ie. quantity. If you have a store coupon that says $0.75 one juice and a manufacturer's that says $1.00 off of two; you can still redeem both offers but you would have to buy 2 juices to get the manufacturer's coupon (and then the $0.75 will apply to just one juice of the two.) However if you're buying something like vitamins; and a competitor's add says buy one, get one free at say 50-100 count, that means that only the bottles with 50-100 vitamins in them will count. So if you have a manufacturer's coupon that says you can have $1.50 off of 2 bottles of vitamins 200 count, you can't use both. In my opinion, it's easiest to forget to check the count or quantity on things so always double check when you plan to combine deals.
Now I shop! At Winn-Dixie I always double-check produce, dairy, and bakery for items with in-store coupons. If I can get $1 off a one gallon jug of orange juice, I can combine that with the store coupon for an additional $0.50-0.75 off which is still a good deal; and sometimes I can get $1 off a name brand juice (or two, if another coupon specifies) and still get to use the manufacturer's, competitor's, and rebates.
Let's just pretend that Simply Made is on sale at Winn-Dixie for $3 each, and you have a manufacturer's coupon that says $0.75 off of two Simply Made juices; and then you have a store coupon that says $0.75 off of one juice, but you also have a competitor coupon where their deal is buy one, get one free. Now imagine that each bottle of Simply Made is 5 days before expiration so there's a $1 in-store coupon on both. So, let's combine. Buy one, get one. So you're just paying $3 for the one. Take off the $1 coupon on each, so you're paying just $1 already. Now use your manufacturer's coupon for $0.75 on two, and now you're down to paying $0.25 on two juices. You still have your store coupon, so that's another $0.75 off. You've now made $0.50 but Winn-Dixie doesn't give cash-back because of coupons, so your juices would just be free. So you have 2 Simply Made juices for free. But it gets sweeter. You still haven't redeemed your rebate. On Ibotta, they have a $0.75 rebate on any Simply Made product. At home, scan the barcode on one of your juices (you can only redeem one item rebate per transaction) and upload your receipt to the app's standards. Within 24 hours, you now have made $0.75 on your juices.
Now, it is VERY rare for a deal like that to work out so profitably. But it happened to me this week (not exact circumstances, though). Most of the time you will just get your items for extremely cheap. Extreme couponing like on tv is very rare and an unrealistic bar to set for yourself if you coupon. Know that you will not always get the best deal and that you will sometimes still have to pay full-price if there are no coupons out on any brand of item that you need. I usually can get at least $0.75 off of most items. This week for example, Winn-Dixie had a great deal on Yoplait! 20 for $10 (or $0.50 each) which each yogurt costing usually $0.75 each. There is a Yoplait manufacturer's coupon for $0.50 off of 5 Yoplait. Since Winn-Dixie limits 5 like coupons, and you're buying 20; you only need 4 of those coupons anyways. So I was able to get $2 of the sale already ($8 for 20 yogurts now). Then I actually got to the store and they had a whole row of yogurts 4 days off of expiration that were an additional $0.25 off (in-store markdown). Now, I can't eat 10 yogurts in 4 days... the idea is to have a lot of yogurt on hand that I can eat for say, two weeks or something before shopping again because I know that this deal won't come around for a few more weeks if at all. Anyways, I bought 5 yogurts that were close to expiration so I got another $1.25 off of these yogurts, bringing it down to $6.25 for all 20 yogurts. So not even close to free, but I saved $8.75 on yogurt!
There weren't any rebates on the yogurt; but the thing I love about Ibotta is it offers you flexibility with essentials most people buy. They have rebates for any bread, any eggs, any milk, any orange juice, but also on bananas, onions, and tomatoes in any quantity. If you split up your transactions for multiples (say, you need two loaves of bread then split them up into two transactions) then you'll get the redemption for both breads even if you buy them 2 minutes apart. As soon as the first rebate clears, you can redeem the second loaf. It's all about following the rules and thinking of your transactions like savings tetris.
That is exactly how we save the most money and where we save it! It's all about the Tetris art.
The other truth is; it has to do with mindset. As Pagans, we live pretty simply. I don't have a lot of decorations around my house because in my opinion, it would be a waste. We don't own this apartment and it would be clutter that we'll eventually have to pay to move to our permanent home (when we buy it). We have little furniture, just enough that all of our needs are met (and honestly, it is almost too much for our apartment anyways!) It's not even that we're disinterested in having decorations and furniture, I would love to hang a bunch of pictures and paintings and have decorative pieces that make our place more homey. It's just not practical for us right now in terms of space and storage. Not to mention we're about to have three littles to babyproof for. The other piece is; we don't smoke and Daddy J only drinks a bit of beer now and again. We don't have expensive hobbies because we know that we can enjoy ourselves with it costing us ridiculously; and we always discuss and rationalize with one another: Does it serve a need? Does it serve a want? If it is a want, can we justify the expense? If we can't; does it still serve an irreplaceable service? Sometimes we have the be the voice of reason to one another and remind ourselves of our long-term goals.
So the big question is: How do we do it?
Well, when we're sitting in more comfortable times we don't watch our spending as closely. This has come to bite us in the butt. It's not even that we have ever gotten ourselves into a pinch; it's just that we saw our bank account suffer and knew that if something hugely dreadful happened (such as to our car; which is nearly 17 years old) that we would take a big hit and then have to scrape and scramble to get by especially since my job is part-time so hours vary widely (I've had anywhere from 15-40 hours per week) due to departmental production which determines the hours available to divide up between employees and individual production which determines what percent of that you can be given. I would love to discuss how ridiculous this is in my field but I also like making money and not being fired. Wink wink.
As we've cinched our belts up I've come up with some really great ways to save money but it's really nothing new to most people. Couponing and rebates. I swear. Now, I'm no expert and far from a master. As Pagans also trying to live responsibly and as natural as possible; there are also a lot of products we just don't buy that are from the main coupon categories. So we have to keep it to mainly food items or household items we really need even if it's not our preferred brand (sacrifices, sacrifices). We don't really use Groupon or other things that still cost money like to go out to dinner or those type things.
So, we shop usually at our local Winn-Dixie and Aldi's which has some of the best prices in our area (besides Walmart, but not by enough). I get the ads weekly and make a list of what we need; then price compare from each store. Aldi's doesn't take coupons, so I have to keep that in mind when I price compare. I may be able to get similarly priced items for much cheaper at Winn-Dixie if I have coupons and/or rebates. With Winn-Dixie we're also part of the baby club so they send us a monthly coupon sheet on things like diapers ($3 off any), wipes ($1 off any), juice, chips or crackers, etc. I can use those on top of any manufacturer's coupons so it's a double whammy, but only once a month.
So once I have my list of price-compared items, I go to my two go-to rebate apps on my iPod, Ibotta and Shopkick. Ibotta is #1 in terms of breadth of items, the amount of rebates, and stores (ie. you can get rebates for going out to eat anywhere and purchasing any kind of chicken strips or buying alcohol anywhere). So I brand-compare at that point (ie. if a specific brand of snack is on rebate vs. a brand we usually get) and then check against the ads and prices, tallying the rebates into the prices. Once I have that done, I check my Winn-Dixie app on coupons and then print manufacturer's coupons (if any available) and check my Catalina coupons (the ones that print on the registers at the grocery store) and tally in that price. Now, I know that Winn-Dixie also takes competitor's coupons, so I sometimes also combine competitor's coupons with my manufacturer's, store, and rebates.
Usually by the end I have two very clear-cut lists of what I'm buying at one store vs. the other and have all of the coupons ready. If I go to Winn-Dixie, I also know that they mark certain items down with in-store coupons if they are close to expiration or overstocked. I have seen $5-8 off of meat in-store leaving steaks to be just $3-5 before coupons (if you have any) although I don't buy their meat just because of our local reasons. So now I'm up to five ways to save in coupons: I have manufacturer's/Catalina coupons, store coupons, in-store coupons, competitor's coupons, and rebates.
The hard part is you always have to make sure that the coupons match up with each other, ie. quantity. If you have a store coupon that says $0.75 one juice and a manufacturer's that says $1.00 off of two; you can still redeem both offers but you would have to buy 2 juices to get the manufacturer's coupon (and then the $0.75 will apply to just one juice of the two.) However if you're buying something like vitamins; and a competitor's add says buy one, get one free at say 50-100 count, that means that only the bottles with 50-100 vitamins in them will count. So if you have a manufacturer's coupon that says you can have $1.50 off of 2 bottles of vitamins 200 count, you can't use both. In my opinion, it's easiest to forget to check the count or quantity on things so always double check when you plan to combine deals.
Now I shop! At Winn-Dixie I always double-check produce, dairy, and bakery for items with in-store coupons. If I can get $1 off a one gallon jug of orange juice, I can combine that with the store coupon for an additional $0.50-0.75 off which is still a good deal; and sometimes I can get $1 off a name brand juice (or two, if another coupon specifies) and still get to use the manufacturer's, competitor's, and rebates.
Let's just pretend that Simply Made is on sale at Winn-Dixie for $3 each, and you have a manufacturer's coupon that says $0.75 off of two Simply Made juices; and then you have a store coupon that says $0.75 off of one juice, but you also have a competitor coupon where their deal is buy one, get one free. Now imagine that each bottle of Simply Made is 5 days before expiration so there's a $1 in-store coupon on both. So, let's combine. Buy one, get one. So you're just paying $3 for the one. Take off the $1 coupon on each, so you're paying just $1 already. Now use your manufacturer's coupon for $0.75 on two, and now you're down to paying $0.25 on two juices. You still have your store coupon, so that's another $0.75 off. You've now made $0.50 but Winn-Dixie doesn't give cash-back because of coupons, so your juices would just be free. So you have 2 Simply Made juices for free. But it gets sweeter. You still haven't redeemed your rebate. On Ibotta, they have a $0.75 rebate on any Simply Made product. At home, scan the barcode on one of your juices (you can only redeem one item rebate per transaction) and upload your receipt to the app's standards. Within 24 hours, you now have made $0.75 on your juices.
Now, it is VERY rare for a deal like that to work out so profitably. But it happened to me this week (not exact circumstances, though). Most of the time you will just get your items for extremely cheap. Extreme couponing like on tv is very rare and an unrealistic bar to set for yourself if you coupon. Know that you will not always get the best deal and that you will sometimes still have to pay full-price if there are no coupons out on any brand of item that you need. I usually can get at least $0.75 off of most items. This week for example, Winn-Dixie had a great deal on Yoplait! 20 for $10 (or $0.50 each) which each yogurt costing usually $0.75 each. There is a Yoplait manufacturer's coupon for $0.50 off of 5 Yoplait. Since Winn-Dixie limits 5 like coupons, and you're buying 20; you only need 4 of those coupons anyways. So I was able to get $2 of the sale already ($8 for 20 yogurts now). Then I actually got to the store and they had a whole row of yogurts 4 days off of expiration that were an additional $0.25 off (in-store markdown). Now, I can't eat 10 yogurts in 4 days... the idea is to have a lot of yogurt on hand that I can eat for say, two weeks or something before shopping again because I know that this deal won't come around for a few more weeks if at all. Anyways, I bought 5 yogurts that were close to expiration so I got another $1.25 off of these yogurts, bringing it down to $6.25 for all 20 yogurts. So not even close to free, but I saved $8.75 on yogurt!
There weren't any rebates on the yogurt; but the thing I love about Ibotta is it offers you flexibility with essentials most people buy. They have rebates for any bread, any eggs, any milk, any orange juice, but also on bananas, onions, and tomatoes in any quantity. If you split up your transactions for multiples (say, you need two loaves of bread then split them up into two transactions) then you'll get the redemption for both breads even if you buy them 2 minutes apart. As soon as the first rebate clears, you can redeem the second loaf. It's all about following the rules and thinking of your transactions like savings tetris.
That is exactly how we save the most money and where we save it! It's all about the Tetris art.
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