Money, Love, and Change

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photo credit: ninjapoodles

I don’t bother to buy a Sunday paper unless I know that there are grocery coupons in it.  In addition, I can get away with buying a local paper if there are only SmartSource inserts, but need to buy the larger city paper if Red Plum inserts are printed.  So, I am always interested in knowing the coupon insert schedule.

The original link that I found was here on GottaDeal.com.  I also included a cut and paste of the information below:

2009 Coupon Inserts Schedule

January
4 – 2 Smart Source & 2 Red Plum
11 — Smart Source & Red Plum
18 –Smart Source & Red Plum
25 –Smart Source & Red Plum

February
1 — Smart Source & Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
8 — Smart Source & Red Plum
15 –No Inserts scheduled
22 — Smart Source & Red Plum

March
1 — Smart Source & Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
8 — Smart Source & Red Plum
15 — Smart Source & Red Plum
22 — Smart Source only
29 — Smart Source & Red Plum

April
5 — 2 Smart Source & 1 Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
12 — No Inserts
19 — Smart Source & Red Plum
26 — Smart Source & Red Plum

May
3 — Smart Source & Red Plum
10 –Smart Source & Red Plum
17 — 2 Smart Source and 1 Red Plum
24 — No Inserts scheduled
31 — Smart Source & Red Plum

June
7 — Smart Source & Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
14 — Smart Source Only
21 — Smart Source & Red Plum
28 — Smart Source & Red Plum

July
5 — Procter and Gamble only
12 — Smart Source & Red Plum
19 — Smart Source Only
26 — Smart Source & Red Plum

August
2 — Smart Source & Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
9 — Smart Source & Red Plum
16 — Smart Source & Red Plum
23 — Smart Source & Red Plum
30 — Smart Source & Red Plum

September
6 — No SS or RP Inserts – Labor Day One Procter and Gamble
13 — 1 Smart Source & 2 Red Plum
20 — Smart Source & Red Plum
27 — Smart Source & Red Plum

October
4 — Smart Source & Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
11 — Smart Source & Red Plum
18 — Smart Source & Red Plum
25 — Smart Source & Red Plum

November
1 — Smart Source & Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
8 — Smart Source & Red Plum
15 — Smart Source & Red Plum
22 — Smart Source Only
29 — No Inserts scheduled

December
6 — Smart Source & Red Plum & Procter and Gamble
13 — Smart Source & Red Plum
20 — No Inserts scheduled
27 — No Inserts scheduled

Happy coupon clipping!

photo credit: mcmorgan08

I am a little behind the times, I guess.  I just found out that if you make 2 $40 purchases using your American Express card when you shop at Walmart or Walmart.com, you will get a $20 statement credit.  This offer ends at 11:59PM on 12/18, so there’s not much time left to take advantage of this deal.

To see if your card qualifies and to register for the credit, you can go to http://offers.amexnetwork.com/walmart.

For more information from people who have done this already, visit this Slickdeals thread.  At first, there seems to have been some questioning about whether or not this offer was valid, but people are getting their statement credits.

I just registered my card.  I also talked to my mom, who shops at Walmart frequently, and she said that she would definitely take any gift cards I don’t use.  I’m going to stop by Walmart tomorrow, and if there are gift cards available (coupled with short lines), I might take advantage of this deal.

If you’re still doing some holiday shopping or get your groceries from Walmart, take a moment to see if your card qualifies!

photo credit: inoc

Wow – it’s environmentally friendly, and it’s free!  Treat yourself to a one year digital magazine subscription from The Read Green Initiative. All you need to do is pick your magazine and enter your e-mail address.

Then, sign up for an account with Zinio, which provides sales and distribution of digital content.  When I signed up for my Zinio account, all I had to do was provide an e-mail address and create a password (no physical address or credit card information was required).

Being a personal finance geek, I picked Kiplinger’s for my free magazine, but there is definitely something for almost anyone (US News and World Report was one of the choices, for example).

I also installed the reader so that I can download the digital issues to read at my convenience (sans internet connection).  If you’re really into supporting the green initiative, you can also purchase subscriptions from Zinio.

If you decide to try this out, please drop a line and let me know what you think!

photo credit: Serendigity

If you’re a Rite Aid bargain shopper, you are already familiar with Single Check Rebates.  Basically, if you spend a couple of minutes looking through the Sunday Rite Aid ad, there will be products that qualify for a Rite Aid rebate after purchase.  All you need to do is enter information from your receipt online – your purchases are tracked for you, and a rebate check is sent automatically (you can also request it early if you have entered all of your receipts).

I have used this program to get things like shampoo, toothbrushes, and power strips for free.  I only buy what we will use, and usually I only purchase items that will be completely free after rebate.  Overall, I have never had any issues receiving my rebates in a timely manner, and am very satisfied with the program.

Since I get the items free after rebate, I was surprised to find that these same items qualify for the Rite Aid Gift of Savings program.  Basically, purchases from 11/16 -12/24 apply.  Spend $25-$50 to get $5 back, $51-$100 to get $10 back, and $101 or more to get $20 back.  When you enter your receipts for the Single Check Rebates, they are also applied to the Gift of Savings program, and the total applied to the Gift of Savings program is the purchase price before rebates.  That’s good stuff, since the only thing better than getting an item for free is getting paid to purchase it!

We do occasionally purchase things like the Sunday newspaper from Rite Aid – I am now making sure that I enter these receipts online as well.  If you find yourself making purchases from Rite Aid that don’t qualify for the Single Check Rebates, be sure to enter them for the Gift of Savings!

photo credit: naviniea

Christmas is going to be so much fun this year. Our little one is almost 3 years old, and he’s going nuts with all the Christmas lights around town. He’s been asking about a “Kees-mas tee” all week long, and today is the big day!

Since all of our Christmas shopping is done, it’s going to be a very relaxing holiday season. Here are some of the things we plan on doing as a family this year. Some do cost money, but we feel they are well worth it!

1. Cut your own Christmas tree – Yes, we are buying a real tree again this year. However, we planned ahead and included this cost in our holiday budget. There is a wonderful tree farm near our house – we take the dog and make it into a big event. There is a petting zoo, and you can print coupons for free hot chocolate online. As an added benefit, we always get some of our best holiday pictures on this day!

After the holidays, we cut off a small piece of the trunk and woodburn the year on it. After placing a small hook in it, we have a great holiday ornament!

2. Go see the lights! – Consider both going by foot and by car. I would also recommend seeing if there are any local light displays. For example, we travel to Baltimore each year to see Hampden’s Miracle on 34th Street, where every house is decorated. While many homes here could be considered just “over-the-top” with lights, there is also local art on display, including our favorite Hubcap Tree by Jim Pollock. Luckily, we have friends on 33rd Street, so we get parking earlier in the day and have made a tradition of visiting our friends and taking cider on our walk.

3. Bake some of your holiday gifts – It does cost money for ingredients, but I pick one or two recipes and scale them up to keep things simple. The kid always gets a special job, and after all the cooking is done, we have presents in a pinch. Besides, it’s nice to turn on some Christmas music and smell cookies in the oven!

4. Make holiday crafts together – It doesn’t have to be complicated! This year, for example, we are making construction paper rings for our tree garland. The fun is in the creative process itself – the end product is just an added benefit!

What are some of the fun and frugal things you like to do over the holidays?

In addition to getting an e-mail today letting me know that my credit limit increased on one of my credit cards (I thought things like this weren’t supposed to happen anymore?), we got a check from our mortgage company today for $180.  Our escrow account  was a little too high (hence the check).  In addition, our payment amount is going to decrease by roughly $25 per month.

We already overpay slightly on our mortgage (we just round it up to the nearest $50, so we pay an extra $48 per month), and we intend to keep making the same payment, but it is still a pleasant surprise.

I’m very happy, because it is an additional $180 we can use to rebuild our emergency fund!  Dave Ramsey would be proud

My husband has been a casual woodburner crafter ever since we met.  He’s not a master artisan, but he has made some really great plaques and gifts for friends and family over the years.

I’ve mentioned in a previous post how craft stores can be great resources for gifts.  I was in our local craft store today with my 50% coupon and was looking for something for the in-laws for Christmas.  I found a cute picture frame that lends itself to woodburning (there is a picture of it here), and it came to $3 with my coupon.

I’ll try to post a picture of the frame when it is done.  Right now, we are just planning on keeping it simple and adding some “I love my grandpa and grandma” text or something of this sort.  However, we have carbon paper for tracing, and are open to suggestions!

Just to keep track of the Christmas budget, we are now officially left with a $227 balance!

We’re definitely taking it easy on the holiday gifts this year.  Our goal is to celebrate Christmas for a total of $250 out-of-pocket (tree, dinner, postage for gifts, everything) – we did buy some train stuff for the kid earlier this year, but we’re not going to count that.

I’ve been scoping out holiday deals, and made my first big purchase tonight.  I mentioned in a previous post that I signed up for a pretty good Shutterfly offer, and I coupled this with some additional codes that I found on Slickdeals.net and a $50 gift card that I got for free through ShopDiscover (that 5% back we got for gas was a huge help!).

Basically, for $20 out-of-pocket (It will actually be $18, since we’ll get $2.00 back for shopping through the ShopDiscover link) we got 75 holiday cards, 50 prints, and 4 calendars.  The holiday cards are a big deal for us – we send along personal notes and pictures, and it’s a great way to keep in touch with more distant relatives and friends.  The prints are for the kid’s photo album, and the calendars will take care of holiday shopping for me (this is my one gift to myself!), grama, great-grama, and grampa.  Our families really like the calendars, and love to show them off!

I’m also really happy to be getting our cards early this year.  I would like to have the kid “decorate” the envelopes with stickers and scribbles, so this gives us some time to play with.

So to keep tabs, $250-$20 = $230 left.  Do you think I can do it?

I am a big Shutterfly fan, and just found an offer for new customers.  Through Target Photo, new users can click here to sign up and receive a $10 credit, free shipping, and 50 free 4 x 6 prints that must be redeemed by November 12th.  They are also running a promotion on greeting cards/holiday cards right now where if you buy 50, you get 25 for free through November 5th.

We’ve just ordered a Shutterfly gift card through our Discover Card rewards program, and will definitely be taking advantage of this offer for holiday gifts.  The calendars make a great gift for gramas and grampas!

Everything seems to be in the crapper.  With election politics heating up (and not necessarily in a good way), an economic bailout that I am pretty sure no one has a real clue about, and the American dream becoming less achievable for many, things seem to be “not so great”.

Or is it?  I think that perhaps we’re really at a turning point — a sort of reality check where those that have not been realistic about what they cannot afford need to come to terms with the consequences.  While this is happening at a personal level, I am not really sure that it is happening on Wall Street and in the government.

I know that for us, things are a lot more tight financially because we are trying to rebuild our emergency fund quickly after some major truck repairs.  But we’re really coming together as a family, mostly because I am working evenings to generate additional income to rebuild our fund.  This is an added responsibility for my husband, since he has to come home from work and take over childcare duties.

Although initially it took some getting used to, I think that this is also a great opportunity for us to really evaluate what is important in life.  I think it has helped us develop a better appreciation for what the other person is doing, since now we are both working, and both taking care of the kid alone.

We’re also very thankful that we are frugal, and can currently handle our financial situation.  I don’t need to run out and make the big $$$, but can stay at home with the kid during the day.  At the same time, it has strengthened our resolve to get out of debt, and I am working harder to generate additional income streams.

How about you?  Are you keeping your head up in today’s economy?  Why or why not?