There's Snow in the South!

Okay, okay, so it's snowing.  For some, this is the end of the world. For me, it's working from home for a few hours today and probably a few more tomorrow.

But, if your job can't travel to your home like mine can, I'm sure you're thankful for the extra time to relax if you got sent home as well.

Things I like in the snow:
- fuzzy socks
- hot tea
- heavy beef and rice meals
- big blankets
- BOOKS

Speaking of books, I've got some snowy day recommendations on getting your read on for free.

In this day and age, there is no reason for you to pay for books. For a particular book, maybe it's worth it to invest, but for general cold day reading, there are plenty of resources for FREE books.  Also note that even if you don't have an e-reader, you can still read e-books on your smartphone OR on any computer.

1.  The library.  YES, they still exist. Every county has one. And you can get a library card with any proof of current residency.   Two really important things to remember about libraries - Firstly, you can not only borrow physical books from your local library, but also movies and TV shows on DVD.   Secondly, most libraries now offer digital borrowing; log into the library website using your library card number and sign up for the books you want to borrow. Usually, the ones you want are already checked out so you have to put your name on a waiting list.

2. BookBub. BookBub is a fantastic website that sends out a daily email of e-book deals. Some are on a super sale, but many are FREE. Plus, you can customize the types of genres you want to receive (Mystery, How-To, Religious and Inspirational, Fantasy, etc), as well as pick from the suppliers offering deals (Amazon, iTunes, nook, etc). Another resource for free e-books is BookShout, but this site requires you to use their particular app for reading on e-readers, tablets, and smartphones which does not work on many devices. But, if it works on yours or if you're willing to read on a computer, all the better!

3. Your Friends. I borrow books from friends all of the time. Obviously, borrowing physical books from friends and family may involve you actually going to their place of residence, which I do not recommend in the snow. HOWEVER, you can lend e-books you purchased from Amazon to anyone else (or them to you) as long as you know their email address, so there's no reason for going into the cold.  Follow these steps from Amazon.com:

"Your Account"  >  "Manage Your Kindle" (under "Digital Content")  >  change the view to "books"  >  Select the drop down menu labeled "Actions" next to the title you want to lend and select "Loan this Title" at the bottom > Type in your friend's email address. They will have a couple of days to accept the loan and then two weeks to read it!

4. Classics.  Many classic novels written in or before the mid 19th century can be found in e-form for free, including works by Jane Austen, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Oscar Wilde, and Charles Dickens.

Grab a nice cup of tea, read well and stay warm!

Simple Tips to Start Saving

Going from life as it is now to saving a few more bucks a month, or even to saving up to half of your income (my ultimate goal) is rough. It's hard to change your lifestyle, your current habits, and your routines. But if you have a goal of paying off debt, building a savings account, saving for a home, or whatever, small changes are the easiest to implement to get you started.

Here are some simple tips to start toward that goal:

1.  Quit your cable company.   I've harped on about this already. 

2.  Start couponing.  See previous ramblings here.  In addition, I always recommend looking online for coupons (or Groupons) whenever you plan to eat out, go to a movie, or go shopping at department stores.

3.  Shop smarter.  Assuming that you don't have time to coupon, you can still save money at the store.

           - For example, take advantage of sales on items you'll be buying anyway. If you're not picky about cereal, buy the brand on sale instead of what you usually get.  

           - Try the less "luxuried" brands. For example, try swapping out the super expensive brand of shampoo you've been buying for a less expensive brand like Suave.

           - Also, try the store brand, especially for basic items like sugar, flour, bread, chips, pickles, etc. B and I have found that 90% of the time, the store brand is just as good.  

           - Try local farmer's markets for less expensive produce and meat.

4.  Reuse.  

           -  B and I had been buying flats of water for him as a matter of convenience for his line of work. But my parents got him a light water bottle for Christmas, and he's been using that instead of spending $4-5 every couple of weeks on water. 

            - We also never use paper plates, despite our love for convenience, and we wash and reuse plastic flatware. 

            - We only use rechargable batteries for our gaming systems and cameras. They're a bit more up front, but I can't even tabulate how much we must have saved on batteries!

5.  Save Energy. 

            - Try keeping your A/C a few degrees higher when its warm, and your heater a few degrees lower when it's cold. Running these constantly really jacks up your power and gas bills.

            - Unplug chargers and turn things OFF when not in use, like your printer, Keurig, DVD player, etc.

6.  Limit what you spend.  

            - If you eat out three times a week, cut it back to two, or even one! 

            - Buy a coffee every morning on the way to work?  Make it at home and take it in a travel mug.

            - If you're really prone to impulse spending,  set a spending limit for yourself when you do hit the mall and stick to it.

The MOST important part, however, is to remember that the few dollars here and there you've been saving now needs to go toward that debt, savings account, etc.  It's very easy to splurge with the extra money you've saved, especially if you're not in the habit of saving. Resist it!!!

buy.it.freeze.it.save.it.eat.it

One MAJOR way we save money is by stocking our freezer to the max. Seriously, open at your own risk. 

But there are a TON of foods that I buy when they're on a great sale, and have one for now and freeze one for later. Examples:

- Meat - all things beef, chicken, hot dog, sausage, bacon, etc.
- Old wine, which you can cook with later

- Hummus, guacamole, or other dips
  - Shredded cheese (doesn't work so well for slices - they start to crumble after a while)

- Cookie dough

- Butter or margarine

- Fruits and veggies - Strawberries/blackberries/blueberries are all good for making smoothies later. I also like to pre-portion blueberries in cup-sized servings so I can make muffins with them. One of my BFFs would freeze bananas when they get really brown to make banana nut bread later. Veggies you can steam straight from the freezer to accompany any meal.

- Bread, muffins, biscuits, hamburger buns, or rolls.

- Pancakes - when we have leftover pancakes or waffles, I portion them into plastic bags for B to grab quick breakfasts later!

- Cake. My boss brought in a cake one day - it was beautiful (and delicious), but no one at work wanted any. SO I took it home, cut it into slices, wrapped each slice in plastic wrap, and froze them, for just one slice whenever I want one.

- B's mom likes to make big meals and then portion them out into single-serve containers for our freezer. We appreciate it a lot. And we've even started following suit when we have more leftovers than meals left in the week. We find that spaghetti and pasta dishes (and quiches or stews) reheat the best.

Make sure you check the label before freezing things - somethings say "DO NOT FREEZE", like cream cheese and probably anything Pillsbury that comes in a pressurized roll.


Happy Money-Saving!

Cats Can't Complain

We've had Pippin for about two months now. He's on his second bag of food and third container of litter. We have 7 mice, 6 jingly balls, 2 wands, and one FroliCat.

Here's the run down on how much he's cost so far:

Fortunately for us, Pippin doesn't have a sensitive stomach and will eat just about anything, so I'm able to buy any brand of cat food depending on what's on sale (provided it meets my health requirements). We also go the extra mile to NOT feed him people food, so he likes his food all the more. There are always coupons for the brand of litter we use. Between coupons and sales, I've probably spent less than $15 on cat food, and litter is about $6 and lasts for 3 weeks. And we buy toys from the dollar store - 3 mice for $1, 2 jingly balls for $1, bam. Lots of toys.

Cat for 2 months (excluding pet deposit and our negligible start-up costs): $5 on toys + $15 on cat food (and there's still over 10lbs left for the month to come) +$18 on litter = $19/month.


But, the real point of this post is refrigerator magnets. Not the chip clip kind, or the cutesy best-friend's-bridal-shower memorabilia, but those cheesy magnetic letters you buy for your nephew, Little One, so he can learn his alphabet.

Pippin discovered these such letters the other day. He was sliding them around on the fridge, then, when he managed to get one off, would bat it around on the floor, pick it up and carry it in his mouth, play with it in the living room, and it would ultimately end up under the couch, the fridge or the stove. The process would then repeat. At a certain point, Pippin lost all his marbles magnets, and B had to [attempt to] fish them out. Pippin helped.

All of this to say that I've realized that pets are only expensive if you make them that way.  Pippin probably doesn't even need dollar store cat toys. He seems to like refrigerator magnets better, anyway. In fact, it's harder now to get him to play with those dollar store mice! Side note, I also threw an old contact case, and he chased it around for 20 minutes. It appears that as long as it's a different color than the floor and relatively small, it's good enough for Pippin!

Letting Businesses Work for My Business

The initial reason I switched from shopping at Kroger to Publix was because of Publix's BOGO deals. Saving money = awesome.

But once I started doing business with them on a regular basis, I've been so much more impressed with Publix's culture.
If they've run out of a product I want to buy on sale, they'll give me a raincheck to come back later and buy it at the same price. 
If I want to return something, they don't even ask questions; they simply refund my money. 
If I ask for help finding a product, many employees not only take me straight there, but will also recommend less expensive brands they find to be equal in quality. 
And, most importantly, if I DO find anything to complain about, Publix asks what they can do to ensure I leave satisfied.

Sure, Kroger advertises all of their newly "lowered prices" (which are arguably no lower than before), but when was the last time an employee walked you out to your car and loaded your groceries into the trunk for you?

This is the kind of culture I look for in a company. Publix as earned my loyalty, and would have to screw up pretty big to lose it.

Kellogg's is similar in its commitment to customer care. A few weeks ago, I was on Kellogg's Family Rewards (doing what else?) printing coupons. I purchased the coupon I wanted to print with points I had collected from marked boxes of Kellogg's products. Well, the coupon in question did not print. I tried to address it with RedPlum, the printers of said coupon, but their recommendations did not work. So I brought it up with Kellogg's. They not only reactivated the coupon for me to reprint it, but they credited me with double the amount of points I'd spent on it. And later that week, I received a personalized letter in the mail from RedPlum with two coupons for any Kellogg's product.

Neither were huge gestures, and it probably only cost the companies 5 minutes and $2 each in coupons. But I felt heard and my problems were addressed above and beyond my expectations.

As a customer and consumer, I strongly feel that it is not my job to pick a company to purchase products from. Rather it is up to the company to positively and professionally convince me they're worth my time and money to do business with. Ultimately, the company I want to do business with is the company that does everything in its power to make certain I have nothing to complain about before I set foot in their store or visit their website.

You Don't HAVE to Use It

When I was little, I remember listening to my Grandma say she needed to go to the store, my dad asking what she needed, Grandma responding with "I have a coupon," and the ensuing discussion about how she didn't need to buy baby powder or cereal or whatever it was just because she had a coupon. Though he wasn't talking to me, I've found this an invaluable lesson in my money-saving ventures.

This holiday season, my inbox has been BOMBARDED with sales, promotions, coupons, gimmicks, updates on my "special interests" and everything in between. 7 for $25 here, $10 off your purchase of $50 there, and let's not forget 40% off site-wide.

Wow. Excellent deals. For someone so intent on saving money, all of those percentages off, dollars off, and coupon codes are very tempting. And tempting though it might be, just because it's on sale right now does NOT mean I need to buy it right now.

I'm not getting these advertisements because I'm special, because said businesses care about saving me money, or because they think I deserve to splurge. It's on sale right now and I'm targeted with these advertisements because the company is trying to move out stock to prepare for the new season and trying to meet it's sales quota.

I always have to remind myself that the best way to save money as a consumer is to reverse this process. Yes, I still am signed up for promotions from any store I could possibly need something from. But I wait until I need something and THEN start reading those emails. Once I've decided I really do need that toaster, accent pillow, scarf, etc, I start looking for the sales, promo codes, and printable coupons for the stores I know have what I want. But if I'm looking for a gallon pitcher, that does not mean I need to open the Michael's ad.

I find that during the winter holidays (and in all of the sales right after - I'm lookin' at you, January), it takes the MOST restraint out of any time of the year. They do this to us on purpose. But if you are in the market for something particular, now is the time to buy!