What to do with the excess?

I have decided I won't be posting all my great shopping trips because it is just too time consuming. Don't worry though I'm still getting great deals-just today I got 4 big bags of groceries for under $2. A girl at work went with me yesterday and she was ecstatic to get 3 bags of groceries for $.76! I have also heard from a lot of you that it is too confusing for you to follow how to replicate the deals I have been posting. So my best advice is if you are interested in couponing you should contact me and set up a time for me to show you how.
I have come across a new dilemma. I am getting so much FREE stuff I am needing to give some things away. I have been saving up non-perishable food because 2 times a year my church collects food for a food drive. My church also runs a free health care clinic so I give the extra medications to them. But this week I got 10 packs of post it notes for FREE and we have no need for that many. I hate to waste things but I wasn't sure what to do with these. My friend Bri had a great idea-give your extra school supplies to a teacher. Lots of students don't have enough school supplies and teachers don't have much of a budget for these things. So if you have any extra school supplies sitting around-give them to a good cause.

Saving on the Basics

You can live a long time on milk and bread. Actually I'm kidding, I have no idea how long you could live off milk and bread. All I know is we go through a lot of milk in our house. About 5 gallons a week. We should buy a dairy cow. Unfortunately, we have no room for one so I have had to be creative with how to cut costs in this area.
Every other week in the Fred Meyer ad there is a coupon for $1 for half gallon of milk. That is the cheapest I can find it on a regular basis plus the Albie's brand is from cows not treated with rbst. Since I usually go to Albertsons twice a week (to get all my FREE stuff using my coupons) I use those coupons then and stock up on milk for the next 2 weeks until the next coupon comes out.

I put what we will use for the next week in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Now before some of you think "gross-frozen milk" you should try it. The Man was very opposed of me doing this at first so we did a simple test-1 glass of milk that had been frozen and 1 glass that hadn't. If he could tell the difference, I wouldn't freeze the milk. Guess what? We are freezing our milk. A couple things to remember about freezing milk-make sure you give it a few days to unthaw in the fridge, it will last about 5 days once unthawed, and can last about 3 months in the freezer. The milk will settle a little when you freeze it so just shake it before you pour it.

Every other week Fred Meyer also comes out with a coupon for their bread for $1.20. So I take it to Albertsons and they will let you get their brand of bread (Country Farms) with the coupon. Now this is the GOOD bread, 100% whole wheat no high fructose corn syrup. Normally this kind of bread is about $4. So I get enough to last us 2 weeks until the coupon comes out again. You could freeze the bread if you want but I haven't had a problem with it lasting 2 weeks.

Advent Bottles Update

Apparently everyone has questions about this. Sorry I don't all the answers as it seems to vary from store to store. BPA is a chemical found in some bottles that leeches into the formula and can be harmful. If you want more info on this you can google it. I don't know which bottles they are returning as each store seems to be making their own rules. My best advice is call ahead of time and ask. We were able to get in store credit for all our Advent bottles that we used even though I didn't have any receipts. Hope that answers everyones questions.

Avent Bottles

Today we went and exchanged all of our Avent bottles (due to the BPA in them) at Babies R Us. We spent a lot of money on those bottles so it was nice to get the money back, though you get it in the form of in-store credit. The kids were excited they got a sprinkler! I don't know how long Babies R Us will be doing this so if you have some you want to exchange you should do it soon.

Flea and Tick Control

I just got my FREE 3 month supply of Bio Spot Flea & Tick control for dogs. This is a great sample!

Enough Already

I am so sick of hearing about how gas prices have increased. Yes, I know already! Let me clarify, we have felt the pinch. My husband commutes 48 miles to work every day. I'm not liking the price increase either. But chances are the increase in gas prices is not what is killing you. Not living within your means and paying interest is a whole lot worse than the gas price. People are paying interest on credit cards, cars and everything in between-you are just throwing that money away every month. My husband works with a guy who, in response to the increasing gas price, traded his PAID FOR car in for a smaller car with a 7% intrest rate. Does this make sense on any level?
While we have limited driving, there is not a whole lot we can do about the increase in gas prices. However, most other things in your budget you can control. Would you pay $1 for bottled water (which you can get water for FREE)? That is $10 a gallon. Go to Starbucks and pay $4 for a coffee? That is $32 a gallon! I don't hear people up in arms about that. In fact Starbucks stock is up this week. Someone is buying it. Now I am not against Starbucks. In fact I love it. I used to work there in college and let me tell you the amount of money people spend there is rediculous. People would come in every day and spend about $5. That is $1,800 a year! I do love Starbucks coffee but I don't get it much because of the cost so I am pretty excited to try this recipe for iced coffee-just in time for summer.
Even though gas prices are out of our control-most of your budget is within your control. Little things add up to big costs. Stop blaming the economy and start taking control of your own financial situation. You need to know where your money is going and have control over your spending.

FREE Lunch Meat

Click here to get coupons for FREE lunch meat. Click on FREE LOF Taste Escape.

FREE Stride Gum

Play this game to get a FREE pack of Stride gum. Click on settle to end the game faster.

Learn to play the Walgreens game

For those of you who are not yet playing the Walgreens game maybe this will inspire you. I got all this for FREE at Walgreens this week. You can learn how I did it here.

FREE Cereal

If you haven't already print these coupons and take them to Wlamart for some FREE cereal. You could also use them at Safeway or Albertsons with your SDC although I'm not sure if you could get it for FREE unless you wait for a sale. Remember to hit back so you can print 2. Let me know if you have any problems with any of the links. Enjoy all your FREE cereal!
Kraft Live Active
Kashi Cereal
Kashi Vive Cereal
Honey Bunches of Oats
Honey Bunches of Oats #2
Honey Bunches of Oats #3

FREE Movie Rental

You can rent a FREE movie (thanks becentsable!) at the Red Boxes using these codes:
667HW0G
7RFSTWW
Not sure how long this will last so hurry!

Cheap Date

I hope you all signed up for the birthday FREEBIES I told you about here. We have been enjoying this month! Since 3 out of 4 of us have birthdays in June it has been a very FREE month. We went to Red Robin one night and I got a FREE burger and so did our daughter (which she split with her brother) so we got dinner for 4 for about $10! Tonight my hubby and I will be going on a date night-yeah!! He will be using his FREE birthday steak dinner at Black Angus and then we will be going to the movies for FREE. I won FREE movie tickets through the Dr.Pepper sweepstakes. You really should play sweepstakes because you never know what you might win. A full date for about $15 is pretty exciting. That and not having to cut up anyones dinner thanks to grandma watching the kids!

Don't Buy Things You Can't Afford

Seriously....What is the best way to get out of debt and save? Stop buying things, especially if you can't pay cash for it. Check out this SNL skit-Don't Buy Things You Can't Afford. Funny, yet sadly many Americans haven't grasped this concept.

Financial Wellness Score

Do you know that the average 20-something year old spends 125% of his income each month? We live in a generation that makes more than previous generation but saves close to nothing. How are your personal finances? Are you in debt? Do you spend more than you make? Are you saving for retirement? What about your children's college funds? I ran across this great Personal Finance Wellness Score. Check it out and see how you are doing.

Walgreens 2 FREE Power Toothbrushes

Inspired by Sienna's post, I have decided to try my hand at playing the Walgreens game. That is really all couponing is about,learning to play the game. When you figure out the rules for that store-it is fun to see what you can get for FREE each week. When I told my husband about my new adventure he said "Do you really need more FREE stuff?" PLLLLEAASSEE!!! Can you ever get enough things for FREE? When I can get all our food for FREE each month then I'll stop. No, okay that is probably a lie. Then I'll fill up the food bank pantry. Nothing I get goes to waste.
This week at Walgreens I got 2 Oral-B Power toothbrushes for FREE using my RR and the BOGOF coupon from last Sundays paper.

FREE DVD+R

I want to let everyone know about this great freebie. Fill out the form here and Office Depot will email you a coupon to take into their store for a FREE 10 pack DVD+R! Hurry though because this offer ends 6/21.

Enter to Win a Wyndam Family Vacation

I wanted to pass this along to you all. Enter to win a Wyndham family vacation(thanks to Freebies 4 Mom). I didn't win the grand prize but at the end it did give me a great coupon for Aunti Anne's pretzels. If you play leave me a comment and tell me what you got. Good luck!

Frugal Gift Giving Ideas

This is a blog inspired by Heather's suggestion. Let me first say I am so not the person who should write this. Gift giving is not something that I think I do well. It is not my love language and I don't put a lot of value on it. I LOVE giving a gift to someone when I know it is something they want. Usually, though I find I have no idea what they would want so I buy them something for Christmas/birthdays just to give them something which I really hate doing. I usually feel like I am just wasting money on something they probably don't really want/need.
Lest you all think I am just a cold hearted jerk let me explain. Growing up my family was pretty poor. We didn't receive a lot of gifts and most of the ones we did recieve came from the church or the food bank. There wasn't ever much emphasis put on gifts. We became very creative with gifts. So many of these ideas may seem way too frugal for you but hopefully you will understand where I am coming from.
1. Be CREATIVE-Last year one of my husband's favorite Christmas gifts was a jar of Peanut Butter that my mom gave him. The Man loves Jiffy but I only buy Adams since it is so much better for you (no hydrogenated oils) so my mom bought him a jar since she knows he never gets it.
2. Don't spend money-For about 5 years my sister and I have not bought eachother birthday gifts. Instead we have a journal that we pass back and forth with letters to eachother. These letters are much more meaningful to me than anything she could ever buy me.
3. Be Humorous- My husband and brother in law have been passing back and forth this hideously ugly wooden wall plaque as a gag gift for years.
4. Give of your time- I got to say, having small children, that free babysitting so my husband and I could have some quiet time would be just about the best gift ever! You could also make gift certificates for lawn maintance, house sitting, ect..
5. Use your creativitity- Last year in an effort to save money for Christmas I made all the women in my family greeting cards. We also have made some homemade wine to give to our friends. I think homemade gifts are the most special.
6. Last but not least do something RADICAL. This is not a frugal idea but I think it is the best, give a life saving gift in someone's name. Click here to find out how you can give a gift to change a life. You can feed a hungry baby for a week for only $9, buy a goat for $70 to provide a whole family with milk, provide someone with medication to cure them on TB for $15!
For me, I really struggle with the consumerism in America and I am trying to break away from it. What do I NEED?? Not much, yet I have so much when others have nothing. What I really want is just to know that my friends and family thought of me.
I would love to hear any ideas from you all so please leave your comments!

Start at the Back of the Store

Today I scored at Albertsons. While shopping don't forget to check the back of the store for majorly discounted products. Many times the only thing "wrong" with these products is the store has decided not to carry the items anymore. I got organic crackers, noodles, stuffing mix, and boxes of energy bars for only $.50 each! For organic food, this was a steal. If you live near me don't bother going to the Albertsons here because I bought it all! Remember when you find great deals to look at the expiration date and stock up on what your family will use in that time frame. I also like to get extra and donate the excess to charity.

Any Input?

I was wondering if anyone is finding this blog useful for saving money? If you are what sort of things do you want to see more of? Money saving ideas? Coupons? Freebies? Certain weekly store savings? My passion is to help others live debt free and save through frugal living and I want to make sure this blog is doing that.

Albertsons for $1

Here are the deals I found at Albertsons this week:
I got all this for $1!

I got the Land of Frost lunch meat FREE: Enter their sweepstakes here and they will let you print a coupon for a FREE bag (it let me print multiples)

Wild Harvest Organic crackers: Use coupon here (click view recipe and then it will let you print coupon) +SDC= FREE (you can also get tortilla chips)

Fiber One Yogart 2/$4 Use MFC +SDC= $.50

Did anyone else find any great deals I missed?

Walgreeens One Day Only Sale

I just got this great coupon in my email and I wanted to share it. Note it is for tomorrow only and you must spend $20.

Another Organic Coupon

Here's another organic coupon for everyone (thanks Virginia!). This is Albertsons brand of organic products which when combined with SDC make for some cheap organic food. When you go to the site click on view recipe. Make sure you arrow back after printing because it let me print two.

The Why's Behind Our Goals

When we started Financial Peace University 4 years ago we made some financial goals as a couple. If you haven't yet done this you really need to. There have been ups and downs through those years but our goals have helped us keep moving in the right direction.
It is also a great idea to write down WHY you have these goals. In our culture it is much easier to have debt than be debt free and saving money. You will not do this by accident, you have to be very intentional. When hard times come and you're tempted to do something you shouldn't do financially (go on vacation on your credit card, buy a new car, spend money that isn't in the budget ect..) it is good to know why you have chosen to live the way you do.
Here are my why's:

Our family has chosen to stay out of debt (except our house), be frugal, and save for the future because:

1. When we get to the retirement years we want to be able to actually retire and
never have to be a financial burden to our children.

2. We want to be able to give money to charities we think are making a postitive impact on the world.

3. I want to be able to stay at home as much a possible to raise my children while they are young.

4. We would rather be making interest on our money than paying it.

5. These are the financial values we want to instill in our children and you cannot teach something you yourself are not living.

6. We want to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us.

7. Money problems are the number one reason couples divorce and we choose not to have that as an issue in our marriage.

I encourage you, if you haven't already, write down your financial goals but also write down WHY you want to do this. It will serve as a great motivator.

Cloth Diapers

I've made the switch. Yes, the thing I always said I couldn't do. We are now using cloth diapers! Yes, I know I'm a little late since hopefully the kids will be potty trained in the next 6 months but hey, I was a tough convert. My friend Alison won me over. She has been awesome about answering all my millions of questions and loaning me stuff.
Now there are 2 main benifits of cloth diapers. First and most important to me is the enviornement. Do you know it takes 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose??? That means those diapers will still be around when my great-great-great-great-great-great grandkids are born! That is convicting. Since I had kids I have become much more aware of the environment and how I want to leave the planet for my children. We have made a lot of green changes this year and this was always something I thought we should do but I just couldn't. I felt so guilty throwing those diapers away so FINALLY I thought I'd give cloth diapers a try. You know what? They aren't that much more work and it isn't messy. My only regret is that I didn't start 2 years ago.
The other huge benifit is saving money. You will pay about $2,000 for diapers from birth-2 years old. Cloth diapers cost about $1,000 and each additional child is practically FREE. Now that is a bargain! Might as well have a bakers dozen. If you want to check out the diapers I bought click here.

Albertsons Deals

*UPDATED:
Here are the deals I found at Albertsons this week:

~Band-aids Nick Jr. 25 ct $1-use coupon here(on page 2) + SDC= FREE

~Bertolini skillet-$4-use coupon here+SDC+$1

~Kaski cereal 2/$6- use $2 off MFCP here and SDC= $.50/box (hint:arrow back after printing, it let me print it twice)

~Pert Plus 2/$5- MFCP $2 off and SDC=FREE (I had 3 MFCP so I got 3 FREE bottles)

Organic Coupons

I know many of you are trying to buy more organic foods, like I am, so check out these great coupons here(it is under coupons-Muir Glen) and here. I would recommend taking the coupons to Walmart for the best deal but you could also take them to Safeway or Albertsons and use Safeway's double coupon. Many times to get coupons online you need to sign in. A great thing to do is create an email just for this because you will get a lot of spam.

Walmart Deals

This is the stuff I got at Walmart this week for FREE. I also got a lot of cheap stuff, to find out how click here.

$1.96 Target

I got all this for $1.96! To find out how click here. The only thing I found not on her list was Degree deodorant on clearance for $1.52 and I used my $1 off coupon from the paper and got it for $.52.

FREE Starbucks Drink

For my birthday I got a Starbucks gift card. I love Starbucks but I don't go there much anymore (except as a treat) because it can get so expensive. I found out that if you register your Starbucks card they will send you a free beverage coupon! Might be worth buying a $5 gift card for yourself if you don't already have one.

Green & Frugal Parties

Often times being green and frugal go hand in hand. For Princessa's birthday party we used our regular plates, cups, silverware ect. instead of using throw away stuff. Really, if you have a dishwasher it is not that much more work. So, for your child's birthday why don't you give them a gift that will last forever and take care of the planet they have to live on for the rest of their lives? In my effort to live greener this year I have also decided I won't buy napkins/paper towels but use cloth napkins instead.

Coupon Class

I will be having an intro to couponing class at my house on Saturday at 11 am. If you'd like to come let me know-I'd love to have you!

Kids & Money

Yesterday I was going to let the kids watch some TV and I asked Little Man what he wanted to watch, to which he immediately replied "Dave Ramsey"! Can you tell what show I watch the most? Growing up The Man and I were taught little about how to handle money. Don't get me wrong, I think our parents did the best they could and I'm sure my children will think I short changed them in some area-but finances won't be it. Dave Ramsey has some great products to teach kids about money if you are looking for some resources to help you.

Getting the Most out of Couponing

There are 2 essential things that go along with couponing. First you need to stock up on whatever is FREE or very cheap for that week. I always look at the expiration date and calculate how much my family will go through by then. Of course, if it is FREE or very cheap you may also want to get some to donate to your local shelter or food bank.

The other thing that will really help you save money in your grocery budget is to plan your menu for the week based on what is on sale. This week I got potatoes and mayo for very cheap so for Princessa's bday party I will be serving potatoe salad and polish sausage dogs, which were also on sale. You'll be amazed at how much money you will save by doing your meal planning this way.

Winner!!

And the winner of today's FREEBIE is Kelley! Stay tuned because there will be more FREEBIES in the future-you just never know when they will pop up.

FREE Give Away

I've been loving getting so much FREE stuff by using my coupons and through the blog freebies 4 Mom so I am going to pass some FREE stuff onto my readers! Randomly I am going to post something FREE on my blog and whoever leaves a comment first gets it. The only catch is you have be willing to pick it up and live near me because I am not shipping it.

Todai & Baskin Robbins

Today for my birthday we went to one of my favorite FREE birthday places Todai. On your birthday you get a FREE lunch or dinner for their all you can eat seafood/sushi buffet. The food was incredible. I loved the crab legs, which my hubby cracked for me-now that is romantic! We also went to Baskin Robbins and each got a free ice cream for our birthdays since they are both in June and you get a coupon when you sign up to use anytime during your birthday month. I hope everyone signed up for all the birthday clubs out there. I've still got a stack of coupons for FREE stuff and I'm loving birthdays!