Couponing To The Extreme

Did you catch TLC's new series premier Extreme Couponing?  I watched in amazement at how these women leave the grocery store with 90-101% savings.  Personally, my best is 54% savings, so far.  I'm always learning new techniques and tips for saving as much as possible at the grocery or drug store.  How about you?  Do you coupon to the extreme or just a little, or can't be bothered?  My favorite part of doing a big haul is watching the total go down, down, down, and my stockpile build up, up, up!


Share your opinion or tips about couponing below.  I love to hear all about your savings!

Automatic Savings

Did you know Target offers two ways to save 5% off your total automatically?  Without even using coupons!  One option is a Target debit card, which is connected to your checking account and is deducted right away with no interest charges.  The other option is a Target credit card, which works like any other credit card and will require a credit check, but will deduct 5% off your total at the register.  If you pay the balance every month, the credit card is just as good an option as the debit card.  However, if you carry a balance you won't be saving that 5%.  I signed up for the debit card in the store last week.  It only took a few minutes and I was given a temporary card to use right away until the card comes in the mail.  If you want more info, check it out at Target REDcard. 

Recovering

The last six weeks seem to be a blur, but I'm slowly getting back in the swing of things.  I didn't know recovering from a hysterectomy would be so exhausting.  I thought I would work my way back into my routine by sorting through my coupon binder.  Wow!  I have just cleared out a huge stack of expired coupons that took so much time to clip and file.  After seeing all the wasted effort, I've decided to try a new method of couponing.  Instead of clipping all the coupons I think I might use, I'm going to use the coupon database available on Coupon Divas or How To Shop For Free. 

To coupon this way, all you have to do is look through the store sales paper, see an item you need, go to one of websites above and click on the coupon database tab. Type in the name of the product and click search.  If a coupon is available for that item, it will show up and tell you where to find it.  Keep all your coupon inserts from the paper, and refer to the dates on the spine of the inserts for the date they were in the paper.  For example, Smart Source 3/13/2010 will appear in small black type on the front of the insert up the fold for you to refer to.  This way you only have to clip what you need, when you need it, when it's on sale!!  Saving you time, and money, smartly.  If you need more info or ideas, Kitty on Coupon Divas has some awesome video tutorials.

I'll be posting more as life gets back to normal.  Well, my normal anyway!  Feel free to leave me comments or post any deals you come across.
      

Taking a break

I'm going to be away from my blog for a few weeks.  I have to have surgery and recovery will take a few weeks.  I'll be back soon with lots of updates!

Print Your Coupons

It's the end of the month and the internet printable coupons are about to reset.  Visit Smart Source, Red Plum and Coupons.com to get any coupons you need.
                        

Progress!

     I did it!  I finally posted my first recipe.  I hope you like it as much as we do.  Thanks to my sweet husband who drove on the messy roads, I have a new dryer.  All in all, it was a good day.

Pumpkin Roll

This recipe for Pumpkin Roll is one of my family's favorites.  Enjoy!

You'll need:                                          
3 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 c. canned pumpkin
3/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 c. chopped pecans

Filling:
8 oz. soft cream cheese1 stick butter, softened
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Grease and flour a 15x10 jelly roll pan or baking sheet with sides.
2. Beat eggs, gradually add 1 c. sugar.  Add pumpkin.
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and spices.  Add to pumpkin mixture.
4. Spread batter in pan.  Sprinkle chopped pecans over batter.
5. Bake at 375* for 10-12 minutes.
6. Sprinkle a couple paper towels with powdered sugar.  As soon as the cake is done, flip it out onto paper towels, roll up and let cool.
7. Mix together filling ingredients.  Unroll cake and remove paper towel spread filling evenly over cake.  Re-roll cake and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

                                                                 ENJOY!

 

Murphy's Law

Well, it's been almost a week since I started into this adventure with good intentions and big plans.  It seems as though my plans have not worked out like I had hoped, however.  Between appointments, snow, changing appointments because of the snow, and my endless list of household responsibilities, I can't get a good block of time to give to my new blog.  Then, this evening, after my boys came in from playing in the snow, they put their wet clothes in the dryer.  About ten minutes into the cycle, my dryer died.  I've been through two dryers, and my very first dryer I ever owned finally quit after 16 years.  This is a major inconvenience when you do as much laundry as I do!  And since it's snowing down like crazy, i can't go get another one.  Ah, what can go wrong, will go wrong.  RIP my old friend.

Snow Day

                                                               Snow Day  At Home

Snow

They say we are to get three to six inches of snow tomorrow.  I'm waiting,  I'm in the mood for some snow this time.   I've not been feeling well and could use a good excuse to lie on the couch all day.  Snow is always a good reason to lie on the couch all day!  Tomorrow I'm going to post my first recipe.  Stay tuned!

My favorite website

I wanted to share my favorite website with you, it's called www.coupondivas.com.  She has some really great info on her website.  Today she has a post about where to find coupons (I'll post the link below).  Watch the video if you would like to know where they are available other than the Sunday paper.  She also has many other "how to" videos showing you how to work store deal and coupons.  She doesn't have a page for some of my local stores, like Weis or Martin's, so if you shop those stores like me, you can check my Deals section where I'll post any deals I find for those stores.

So follow this link for some great places to find coupons: http://coupondivas.com/how-to-find-grocery-coupons-top-10-places-to-look

Target Printables

I just went through and printed my Target coupons from their website and the majority of them are store coupons.  This is a great thing because for example, if you have a manufacturer coupon for Kellogg's Special K cracker chips (they were in the paper two Sundays ago) and you print a Target store coupon for the same product, you can use both of the coupons together at Target and save big!  I'm actually looking forward to making my list this week.

Catching On

    I'm still getting everything set up and figuring out how this blogging thing works.  It's interesting to see all the options available.
    After flipping through the coupons and Sunday sale fliers I'm excited to see tons of bargains I will be posting later.  You can find them in the Savings tab.  Also, this evening I will be going to a coupon class to learn even more ways to save!  I can't wait to share all my tips with you.
    Hope everyone has a nice Sunday evening.

A New Journey

     So, this is my very first post on my new adventure.  Recently, I've been told that I should start my own "business" and help others save money by sharing my tips and tricks.  I thought about it for a while and at first I wasn't sure I could do it.  I thought no body would be interested in something like that.  I started out posting the deals I found and the savings I had on my Facebook status.  To my surprise, my friends had questions about how I did it, and how I found the bargains.  So I thought about the idea of sharing this info again and decided to give it a shot.
     I thought about what I wanted to say, and I didn't want to write strictly about bargain shopping and coupons.  Even though I am passionate about saving money, I have other interests too.  I enjoy cooking and have been asked for my recipes too many times to count.  So why not include a section about cooking and share my recipes in one convenient place?  I think I will!
     Along with cooking comes growing my own food.  Admittedly, gardening was not always something I enjoyed.  It started out as my husband's hobby, something he enjoyed and did as a way to relax his mind.  As his day got busier and he had less time to spend in the garden, he would ask me to do things such as water or weed for him.  Then he asked me to harvest things that were ready, such as tomatoes and cucumbers.  The more time I spent in the garden, the more I started to like it.  I started to notice the changes the plants were making as they grew, the birds singing, the crazy things my dog does when she thinks no one is watching.  I was enjoying being outside, thinking about the things I was going to cook with the veggies we were growing, teaching my kids about growing food.  Before I knew it, something I never thought would happen, happened.  I was in the garden, wearing long sleeves (in August), harvesting corn with my youngest son and loving it.  I had become a gardener!
     I look forward to sharing these things with you.  I'm sure there will be mistakes along the way (I'm not the best with computers), and some laughs too, and hopefully we all will learn a thing or two.