Tis the Season

Tis the season to over eat candies and cookies. Tis the season to buy lots of toys that our kids will break or never play with. Tis the season to buy ugly sweaters and useless gadgets for friends and family. Tis the season to return the gifts you didn't want and try to find something useful. Ever feel like that? It's so easy to get sucked into all the deals and hype of Christmas and forget what the true meaning of Christmas is all about.

Our first year as parents was the year that my husband had been laid off. He had yet to find another engineering job, and was working through a temp agency to make ends meet. (Well, get closer to meeting!) We had cut EVERYTHING out of our budget, except house payment, car insurance, and utilities. We cut our food budget to under $100/month. And those were our expenses. There was absolutely nothing left over for anything else. In fact, we had to utilize some of our savings during that time to cover even those monthly expenses. So, what did we do for Christmas?

Nothing. No one got any presents. We told family that we usually bought for not to expect anything. Our son was a mere nine months old, so he wasn't expecting anything, either. We did purchase a small tree and had a hand full of ornaments that we had stored from the previous year. That year, Christmas was all about being together, without the expectation of buying gifts for anyone, without the greed that comes from a pile of presents with your name on it.

The following year, we had two young sons (ages 20 mos and 3 mos). We knew it was time to start developing our own family traditions, and we wanted to include gifts in that, but money was still tight. We decided to only do stockings as a family. Mostly filled with items from the dollar store. For our relatives, we had a minimal budget, and told them not to expect much. Again, Christmas was about being together as a family, reading about the birth of Christ, and the joy of having a couple of small items to pull out of a stocking.

Fast forward a few years to the present Christmas. Now, we aren't wealthy by any means, but we have the money to do as much or as little as we choose. And we choose to continue in our tradition of minimal gifts at Christmas. We still primarily focus on the stockings. It's fun to take the kids to the dollar store to pick out items for each other. Play dough, small plastic toys, hair accessories, water colors, activity books...so many things to choose from! We have also added one present under the tree for each child. We have a budget for these items, and the gifts we buy for friends and family, and we stick to it. (We use an envelope method for our Christmas purchases, that I talked about in a previous post.)

On Christmas Eve, we gather near the tree and read the story of Jesus' birth from Luke 2. We have something hands-on to help the kids visualize the story- small items representing different aspects of the story or a nativity set that they can manipulate. We thank God for the birth of his Son, and what He did for us on the cross when He grew up. We do gifts then, but because there's only one present, it's not consuming our evening. The time is centered around the Lord and being together as a family.

Last year we started a tradition of having a family Advent wreath. Each Sunday we light one new candle and talk about what that candle represents. On Christmas Eve, all five candles are lit and we celebrate the birth of our Savior. At times, we have also had a birthday cake for Jesus with the decorations representing different aspects of the Gospel.

I highly recommend "the ADVENTure of Christmas" by Lisa Whelchel as a way of bringing Christ into the things that you do this holiday season. Everything from the Christmas tree, to writing cards, to wrapping the presents is given a significance and can strengthen our faith in the Lord.

What do you do during Advent or Christmas to center the time around Christ's birth? How do you handle all the hype around presents? For other ideas on a budget, check out Frugal Fridays.

Deals to Start Your Holidays

We're coming up on the holiday season. And that means that the stores will all be vying for your attention, or your dollar! They're not even waiting until the day after Thanksgiving this year. With all the great deals, it's sometimes hard to control myself! One thing we've found helpful is to set a budget for our holiday spending. Usually we set aside money each month so it's not such a shock come Nov/Dec. Have both an overall budget and a budget per person. Make a list of everyone you're planning to buy for early on, including teachers, work exchanges, etc. Don't let anything sneak up on you! Here are a few deals to get you started this holiday season.

Wal-Mart

Thanksgiving for Less turkeys for .40/lb and more

Free Samples updates every couple of weeks

Nov 7th In-Store Savings lots of electronics posted, not sure what else will be on sale

Younkers

Community Day Sale donate $5 to a local organization and get a coupon booklet- a $10 off plus many % off coupons

(I'm selling these for my local MOPS group, e-mail me if you want some coupons!)

Home Depot

Christmas light trade in $3 off LED lights

Power Drill trade in 15% off a new drill

Photo Cards 50 free photo cards

Most stores will offer free shipping from their online sites. See if your favorite store has a facebook fan page, or an e-mail newsletter. These are great places to get extra coupons or free products. Do you know of any other deals coming up in the next week or two?

Check out Frugal Fridays for more great tips this week!

Appliances pt 2

I'm learning more and more about saving money on all sorts of things. Here are some tips we've picked up over the last few years about getting good deals on larger purchases. For part one of getting great deals on major purchases, click here.

First of all, do your research. Know what you want and why you want it. Pick out your model and get familiar with the costs associated with each of the features. Know about the models above and below that one, and which features you're willing to let go of to get a different model at a bargain price.

I think everyone knows about price comparing. Visit different retailers- in person and online. Check out the major stores, as well as the discount stores. Sometimes there will be a special in store that they're not running online, or vice versa. Get an idea of how much your item is selling for and which places have the best prices. What kinds of sales do they have? Are there any other promotions you can take advantage of?

Consider purchasing second hand. Sites like e-bay and craigslist are the favorites in our home. Make sure you really know what you're getting before you make any bids or phone calls. This is where knowing how much it costs new can really help you out. Generally, you should be able to find something used for at 10% off, but could get it for as low as 50% off depending on the product and the demand for that item.

Most of my second-hand purchases are for kids' items. Garage sales, consignment sales, and thrift stores are great places to find baragains. Sales like Neat Repeatz and Take 2 here in Lincoln are where I get most of my shopping done for the year. I haven't been brave enough to take all my kids to a garage sale in quite a while, but I believe that's where some of the best deals can be found, and you can have fun bargaining, as well!

Recently, I was looking for an infant swing. New, they're anywhere in the $60-$200 price range. I figured out which brands should get me a $20 swing and kept my eye on craigslist for several weeks. Nothing was coming to my price point, and I began considering the need to spend more than that. But wait! Here comes Take 2, and not only did they have a swing for $20, but there were two to choose from!

Look for the clearance, returns, scratches, and overstocks. These are usually found in a back corner somewhere. If the store is big enough, there will be an outlet store or something like it "nearby." Last summer, we needed a new dishwasher. We just happened to get a $75 rebate off our particular brand because of some problem with a feature we didn't even use. Within the time frame of using that coupon, ours actually broke- it's a lot nicer to run a dishwasher if the dishes get cleaned and the water stays inside! So, we went to a store that was doing some appliance promotional, as well. We found our dishwasher on clearance because the new year's model came out the week before! I can't remember what we spent, but after clearance price, sale, and rebate, we paid less than half the original cost of the dishwasher. At that point, even the most basic model they had would have cost us more money!

Have a budget and stick to it. This is a lot easier if you're planning to pay with cash. It's amazing what will happen when you say something like, "we'll just write a check" when they go into their store credit card speech. It makes me wonder how much time they spend on those that just get turned down. We were at a furniture overstock-like store to purchase some couches. They were a "special buy" and with the 10% off weekend, we thought we were getting a great deal. I was wandering around again while Greg waited for a salesman. I found a beautiful dining room table. Originally priced around $1800, it was marked under $300! The salesman even went to see if it would qualify for the 10% off! Anyways, he was moving kind of slowly with our purchases until we said we'd write a check. Boy, did he move fast then! The same thing happens on the car lot. They don't seem to know what to do with you if you pull out a checkbook! Dave Ramsey says to bring cash in, but we haven't tried that, yet.

Buying in multiples. This is the way stores like Sam's Club operate, but it can work on other things, as well. We love the Slumberland clearance section and often use part of a date night to wander around in there. One time we found three of the chairs for our dining room in the return section. Of course, we asked for a deal if we bought all three. Of course, we got it!

Be willing to walk away. This is especially important when shopping for something that you will actually bargain for- cars, furniture, etc. We were looking trade our car in for a van and had a certain amount of money to spend above that- and it wasn't very much. We didn't need the van, yet, so were able to walk away when the dealership wasn't willing to come down on the model we were looking at or show us anything in our price range. Just two days later, the dealership called and offered us the van for what we had! We got an exceptional deal because we knew our budget before going in and were willing to walk away. This is a lot easier to do this if you're paying in cash and the item isn't an urgent need.

Have we missed out on other deal opportunities? How do you get the best bang for you buck when you make a larger purchase? I'd love to hear some of your ideas for getting a great deal. We'll try them out when we make our next large purchase!

If you're looking for other ways to save some money, check out some other links at Frugal Fridays.

Good Deal vs Great Deal

Last week, we had one of the ladies from the "Chicks Dig Deals" blog speak at our MOPS group. It was great to hear from a "couponing" mom who's been doing it for awhile. Being good stewards of the money the Lord has given us is a great motivation for getting the best deals. It's kind of fun, too! I've been following their blog for several months. It was nice to see where the best deals on different products was at, so I could choose which store to shop at each week. But I think it's time to go ahead and start the process of clipping coupons and not just getting a good deal, but getting a great deal.

This week, for the first time, I took the plunge and went to the store with the express purpose of getting some deals. Last night I spent some time going through each store's ad (made vastly easier by the fact that the "Chicks" had already done so!) to figure out which store had the best deals on the things that I wanted to buy and had coupons for.

So, here's my haul!

1 Betty Crocker potatoes pouch (Reg .99, Sale .69, -.40 MQ)

2 pkgs Keebler chocolate chip cookies (Reg 3.89 each, Sale 2/$4, -1.50 MQ)

9 pack of Charmin big rolls (Reg 5.75, Sale 4.39, -1.00 MQ)

4.3 lbs Braeburn apples (Reg 7.69, Sale 2.92, -.30 sticky coupon)

16 oz Bird's Eye frozen broccoli (Reg 1.99, Sale .77, -.35 MQ)

2 Coffee-Mate flavored creamers (Reg 2.58 each, Sale 2/$3, -1.50 MQ)

My total was $11.03

My savings from sales $13.61

My savings from coupons $5.05

My total savings was $18.66

I thought I was getting great deals before, but this is amazing! Granted, the cookies and the creamer wouldn't have been on my list without them being such a great deal. But come on, they were a great deal! Actually, that reminds me of one of the points she made last week. "The goal is not to "save" money. The goal is to spend less." (I think I'm going to write this on my coupon folder!) If I'm spending money on items I wouldn't have bought because I'm "saving" money, it's not helpful to me or my budget. Some things are nice to have on hand, though, and it's okay to spend the money on instant mashed potatoes for that night that I don't want to cook because then I won't be spending it in the drive-thru!

So, if you've seen any of my weekly meal plans and accompanying cost estimates, you may have wondered how I can feed my family of six for under $30 every week. One reason is because I tend to buy things I use a lot when they're on sale rather than waiting until I need them and paying full price. I'm excited to learn more about coupons and seeing how little I can spend!

You can see how others live frugally over at Life As Mom.

Healthy Eating on a Budget, pt 2

It's hard to eat healthy and serve the family healthy meals. Especially on a budget. When I'm standing in the grocery store and I have a choice between a cheap store brand or a healthy, whole grain, organic option that costs three to four times as much, guess which one I choose? I'm on a budget! Of course I go for cheap! But at what expense to my family's health? Let's continue our discussion of healthy choices while maintaining the budget...

So, what about whole grains? Store brand bread is so cheap, but we all know that whole grains is what we're supposed to be eating. In Lincoln, I have found a bread store that carries good wholesome breads and other baked goods. I go once a month (because it's on the other side of town) and purchase the reduced bread and stick it in my freezer. I also get bagels, english muffins, and other things as I find them on the reduced shelf. In this way I can get 100% whole grain items for $1/package. That's much better than the $3 the same product will be in the store! I haven't priced the cost of making a loaf of bread in a while, but if you're home and have the time to keep on eye on rising bread dough, that's definetly another option to look into. Especially if you need to use specialty flours to avoid gluten.

I know there are many folks out there who are going organic. In our area, organic is still more costly than "regular" products. I think that the same principles of couponing and waiting for sales to stock up will apply, but the cost probably isn't going to get quite as low as with the non-organic items. I've also wondered if the produce is going to be peeled before being eaten if it's making a difference anyways. Does anyone out there know?

And meat...there's something you can't find a coupon for! I always check for the "manager's special" stickers. This means that it has a sell by date of usually today or tomorrow. I'm just going to take it home and stick it in my freezer, anyways! I recently grabbed up several 1 lb rolls of ground turkey and a couple of pork sausage for less than $1 each this way. This is also how I get roasts, pork chops, and chicken breasts. Of course, stretch your meat farther by cutting it into casseroles or stir fry rather than cooking a roast or steak. It's a lot easier to control portion sizes this way. I'm also lucky in that my husband hunts and fishes. One deer (even a small one) can almost provide a meal a week for our family for a whole year. Needless to say, I don't buy beef, anymore!

And I would tend to think that the special diet items would have a similar concept. Scour the websites and papers for coupons and hold onto them until a sale for the maximum savings. Because there's only one or two brands to choose from, it may take longer for a great deal to come your way, but be ready for them!

I had to go dairy-free when I was nursing the baby and in some ways I saved money- less ice cream and cheese. But there were other products with hidden dairy that I had to avoid- most seasoning mixes and even my non-dairy creamer! For our family, having more stir fry and fewer casseroles with creamed soups was both cheaper and healthier.

If you're looking for more frugal ideas, head over to Life as Mom for Frugal Fridays and read lots more tips!