This weekend, the Northwood Temple MOPS group (in Fayetteville) is hosting a children’s consignment sale. My goal for the week is to get everything labeled and entered into their system, then dropped off for the sale. Obviously this is not a motivator for everyone, but check your local area for consignment sales and stores. It’s a great way to get rid of stuff you no longer need and make some extra cash!
Archive for August, 2009
Life Changes
28
Aug
Yesterday was a down day…we had an unexpected expense and we’re left $50 short for a bill payment. We’ll have it next week, but the stress of realizing you don’t have the money to pay a bill the day it’s due is not something I like to deal with regularly. And it’s something that I’ve had to deal with over and over and over since my husband was laid off a little over a year ago. Before that, I spent money without thinking about it. Cute outfit for one of the kids? Sure, I’ll take one! Long day, don’t feel like cooking? Let’s go out to eat! Book I want to read? Just buy it!
These days, I am grateful to the various people who have given us their hand-me-downs for the kids to wear. We don’t go out to eat (except maybe on Sundays after church, and only then if we have a coupon) at all. And a new book is probably one of the most frivolous expenses I could imagine right now. Since our library rarely has the books I want to read, I’ve been doing a lot of re-reading of old favorites. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I am learning a lot about how to save money and that is something that will serve me well when we’re back on our feet. But I’ll just say it…it SUCKS sometimes. Going from being very comfortable and solidly middle-class to scrounging in the bottom of my purse for change to buy something we need is not at all fun. It’s humiliating and downright painful at times.
But I’ve also gained a lot since this all happened. I was looking at my blog stats this morning, and saw this post listed as being viewed yesterday because someone was searching for Susan Harling. The title didn’t look familiar, so I clicked on the link and read it. And it made me cry, because the thing that I was lamenting a lack of (good girlfriends) in that post is something I now have in spades. This was also a few days before I found out I was pregnant with Violet, and a little more than a month before my husband was laid off. And suddenly everything was put into perspective for me again.
Yes, we have lost much since June 16, 2008. But we’ve gained so much more. I have said over and over again that I’ll be OK, even if we lose the house, even if we have to file bankruptcy, even if we get sued for that bill we can’t pay. Why? Because my people…my husband, my kids, my friends…they will all be there on the other side of it. I will never understand why people kill themselves and their entire families over money. Really? Do you not see just how insignificant money is in the grand scheme of things? No matter what, we’ll come out the other side of this because there are people who love us. And that, in the end, is all that matters.
Fun Stuff Friday — FREE Bowling
28
Aug
This one’s a little late and won’t last much longer, but you may be able to get a few games in! Last Friday my oldest son had a day off of school and we intended to take a day trip to the beach. But then we were concerned about rough water due to Hurricane Bill and scrapped our plans the night before. My husband had already planned the day off, so he wanted to do something anyway. I dug through some old emails and found one a friend had sent about free kids bowling for the summer. My oldest has been invited to a couple of bowling parties recently and really enjoyed them so I thought that sounded like a winning plan.
The website is http://www.kidsbowlfree.com. The closest free bowling location to Sanford was in Cary, so we printed the coupons, loaded up the van, and headed up Highway 1. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a sign on the door that said the bowling alley was now smoke free, since having 3 kids with asthma makes me more than a little paranoid about them breathing cigarette smoke. It was clean, the employees were great, and the kids had a lot of fun.
I think this is good through August 31, so if you have a chance to do it in the next few days, it’s worth the trip to Cary!
Thrifty Thursday — Triple Coupons
27
Aug
Last week was my first experience with “triples” since I started couponing. It was quite an experience, and I learned a lot by the time it was all over with. And not only did I learn a lot, but I saved a LOT! My final tally was $386.66 worth of groceries for $130.60. That totals out to a savings of 67%.
Some of the items I got included:
- Betty Crocker fruit snacks for 80¢ a box
- 32 oz jars of Welch’s Concord Grape Jelly for FREE (and I got 4 of them!)
- 6 oz cups of Dannon yogurt for 15¢ each
- Colgate Total for 25¢
- GUM toothbrushes for FREE
- Jell-O for 14¢ a box
- Bounty paper towels for 64¢ a roll
- Betty Crocker Warm Delights for 17¢
- Kix cereal for 74¢ a box
- Red Baron Singles pizzas (box of 2) for 75¢
- Dawn Dishwashing Liquid (which I use to strip cloth diapers!) for FREE
- Uncle Ben’s Long Grain & Wild Rice FREE
- Wishbone Dressing FREE
- 3lb bag of Mahatma white rice FREE
And the list goes on and on. Obviously I got multiples of a lot of these items. I had 2-3 of each newspaper coupon, as well as some printed off the internet. I knew that I if I had 5 of one internet printable coupon, I could only use 2 at a time. I knew that only the first 20 coupons under 99¢ tripled. And I knew that they might run out of things so that even if I planned ahead, I might find that flexibility was the key to a successful shopping trip. I also learned about how I could better plan ahead so that the next time they run triples I can save even more!
Here’s the math…
My kids love fruit snacks, but they’re expensive at $2.89/box. They are each allowed one package a day, so we go through a box of 10 in less than a week. This gets expensive, so when they go on sale for $2/box, we stock up. Except this time was triple coupons and I had a whole stack of 40¢ coupons for BC fruit snacks! This knocked an additional $1.20 off each box, bringing us down to 80¢.
- $2.89 each (or about 29¢ per individual package)
- minus 89¢ = $2 each sale price
- minus $1.20 for manufacturer coupon = 80¢ total for each box (or 8¢ per individual package)
For the jelly, I found coupons online and printed them. The regular price is $2.59 per 32 oz jar. They were on sale 2/$4, which made them $2 each. I had a 75¢ off coupon that tripled to $2.25, which made these completely free.
- $2.59 each
- minus 59¢ = $2 each sale price
- minus $2.25 for manufacturer coupon = FREE!!!
Wishful Wednesday — Who’s out there???
26
Aug
Today, my wish is to know who’s out there reading this blog. Just leave a comment and tell me. If you’re someone I know in “real life” (that I didn’t already know was reading) I promise I won’t be bothered…I know better than to put this out there and think someone isn’t going to find it and read it. So who are you?
To leave a comment, look down at the bottom of this post. There will be a link that says X Comments (X being the # already left) that you can click on. Just follow the directions and let me know you’re out there. And if you have a blog, link me up. I could use some new ones to read!
