I Love Money

O.K., I said it, I love money. I love the smell of it, the feel of it in my hands, the way it changes people lives for the better, I simply love money.
I realize for some, the love of money is a negative thing, but for me it means the difference of helping others versus scraping between pay checks. I don't think money is everything, I think money is an important form of energy, passing between me and the world I live in.
When I chose to do this full time, I realized I would be scraping for an income, for a while. Building a new career in my forties was never going to be easy, yet I can't imagine doing anything else. The dream is so much bigger now than I had ever imagined. My original dream was more about what I would be able to do if I had the time to write. Now it's the chance to influence my world, or at least a corner of it. I have gotten the opportunities to do so much more than my mind could conjure.
Back to my loving money...Mike took a new position that would stretch all of us, including our budget for a while. It's a temporary change, but in the mean time, we would have to adjust to the new income, time shortage and possibility of him needing to move very far from home. I began thinking of what I could do to make things better. I am forever looking for signs to guide me when I feel like I have no answers to my endless questions.
I had seen these women who cut coupons and search for deals before and was awe struck by their ability to save hundreds, nay thousands of dollars at the grocery store. It took the one thing I have always been short on, and that was time. Now I had the time to look beyond the Sunday paper for deals. I have the time to cut coupons and make them work for me. I went on the hunt to find what it is they do that saves them so much money. I have been spending hours on-line to find sites to help me. Nate Berkus, an Oprah protege, has a show on in the morning. It boasted of having two women on as guests who were coupon, savings experts. I took a notebook and pen, watching carefully to see what they did. The site I now use is www.thekrazycouponlady.com. On the site she shows how to organize the coupons, find the deals and "stack" coupons. Being excitable, I was engrossed and totally in. I bought my binder, she suggested, the clear page covers, the filing tabs, all of it.
We spend approximately $1000.00 every month for groceries for 6 people. If you average that out it equals to $166.66 per person per month, or $41.66 per week. It's not a bad number as you can see. A person living on $41.66 per week is not an unreasonable thing. However, I felt we could do better. I decided to try my little coupon experiment, doing what the Krazy Coupon Lady said to do. I organized my coupons, put them into a binder and got as many as I could off the internet. I searched manufacturers sites too, for any deals not listed on the coupon database. If we used it, I hunted for it. The next thing I did was to get my stores circulars looking for sales or store coupons matching my manufacturing coupons. There were tons of things we use all the time that had both. My next step was to go out and use my coupon stacking method, stores coupons and manufacturer's coupons and see how it added up. This system delivered like Dominos! My main grocery bill was cut by 50%. I had meat, cheese and some produce in my basket, not all prepared foods like I had originally thought it would be. It was what had originally held me back, the idea that I would have to buy all prepared foods, instead of fresh like I was used to doing. By matching BOGOs with coupons I got meat for next to nothing. My original rule for meat was only to buy what was on sale. It had to be less than $2.00 per pound. By using coupons, BOGOs and stacking coupons, some of my meat was less than $0.50 per pound. Bingo, Jackpot, Yatzee! I bought $180.00 worth of groceries for $90.00. The lady behind me huffed and puffed at all my coupons as she had to wait for the check out girl to go through them all. I stood smiling the whole time as the register unwound the price backwards with every one. By the time she was done putting all of the coupons in, my total shocked everyone within ear shot. "Your total savings for today was $90.00?" The checker looked stunned, as did the "huffer" behind me. I almost danced out of the store, giggling like a school girl, thrilled to be able to tell Mike about the results of my experiment. I went to the drug store next and saved another 50%. I rinsed and repeated this several times. I will tell you that a certain store wouldn't honor some of my coupons and kept them anyway. I only saved about 20% and will not be back. The checker was a little surly and the prices ere just O.K. It is a Texas based store, which in normal circumstances I would try and be a patron of, to support my local retailers. But she wasn't nice, or patient and made me feel as though I was interrupting her day. I don't need that kind of headache so, so long store...there are bigger fish to fry.
Do you know that Walmart matches prices of other stores, even on generics? Say you know the price of a generic item that is on sale in a circular. You can go to the checker and ask for the same price on their equivalent generic item. Most times you can buy brand names cheaper this way than you could generic items.
A good friend of mine lives in the beautiful state of Arkansas. She has this down pat. She has saved her family a bundle by cutting coupons and stacking them. Now, she is an expert, while I am a beginner. This was my first go around trying the coupon experiment.
What I know for sure is, this works. When I organized my coupons for this week it took minutes versus hours thanks to my binder and file folder. I don't go to any store without them, and check online for any needed items too. I grocery shopped for the next 3 weeks and ended up saving 32% overall, which is equal to $201.00. because I was able to buy this way, I also was able to stock pile certain items, which will save me the next time I shop. Thanks to Superbowl weekend, I got 5 bags of chips for free, 4 12 packs of Coke for $9.00 and enough hot dogs in the freezer to keep my boys fed for a month.
The other thing I do is freeze almost everything. I make dinners ahead on Sunday, when I take the time to cook in mass. I freeze individual servings so the kids can take a packet out and make their own. I either re-use the bags or recycle them. I make my own bread, I am going to make my own frozen pizza this week, and my refrigerator will now only have items we use in a week instead of leftovers that get lost in the shuffle.
Although I am completely new at this, I am an expert on house renovation. I can take a project that would cost $30,000.00 and reduce the cost to $1,500.00. I know where to shop for faucets, cabinets, and granite tile for half the retail price. I have installed everything from cabinets, tile, and chandeliers (Mike is my partner in this). I know how to roof, frame, drywall and do finish work. If I don't know how to do it, I will find out how in a matter of hours. The guys at my local Home Depot practically know me by name. We have spent hours together going over the projects and figuring out how to get things done. I am also a frequent guest at our local hardware store for those impossible to find items(which I usually buy with a coupon!) I will take pictures of my work and do a blog on that also, especially for the girls who feel that construction isn't something they can do. I have never met a project I haven't been able to figure out.
I love money! I love money, the feel of it in my checkbook, as I skip my coupon cutting butt out the door of the store that just gave me my stuff at half the price.
Oh, and the granite tile counter the binder is sitting on...we put that in too, for less than you would think! ;^)