deal

50% off at Schoola!

Abby H.

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SQUEE! It’s back! 50% off at Schoola!  Just use Coupon Code  SPRINGBRK at checkout. And in addition, if you are new to Schoola, they are offering $20 free and free shipping when you sign up here.

In addition to offering awesome gently worn kids clothes, Schoola also gives a percentage (40%) of each sale to a school. So you can feel good twice: Once while your saving $$, and again because you are helping support a school in need.

To get started, click here. And I can’t wait to see what you have scored!

6 Tips to Save Money WITHOUT Clipping Coupons!

Abby H.4 Comments

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Trust me, it can be done! There are lots of people who ask me about saving money, but they announce that they don’t want to bother with clipping coupons. They either lose them, forget them, or are embarrassed to use them. That’s ok. There are still ways to save money!

Here are a few:

  1. Use money saving apps. My list of favs (and links) is here. I use these in addition to coupons and I save a ton. I was at Target buying shampoos and body wash the other day. After coupons and other discounts, I paid $14.86. After submitting my receipts to Ibotta and SavingStar, I got back and extra $7.99 in my paypal account!
  2. Don’t forget your loyalty card! Some stores like Vons, Ralphs, heck even Best Buy have loyalty cards. Some offer discounts on the spot, and some accrue discounts to more you shop and scan your card!
  3. Don’t forget your discount! Some stores offer discounts to military, teachers, and peace officers. And if you are a senior citizen there area plethora of discounts waiting for you!
  4. Buy what’s on sale! If you have a choice between an item that’s on sale versus an item that is full price that is comparable size….
  5. Check out the Price per Unit to see what is the best deal. Bigger isn’t always better!
  6. Reusable bags can net you some savings….In addition to helping Mother Earth, some stores (like Target and Sprouts) offer a discount of .05 per re-usable bag used. A nickel isn’t a lot of money, but over a year, they can sure add up! I use between 5-10 bags each time I shop.

 

Price Per Unit: Is Bigger Better?

Abby H.4 Comments

random-aisle-photos 013The price per unit helps you determine if the jumbo sized drum of applesauce is a better deal than a regular sized jar. How to determine the price per ounces is easy, most of the time stores do it for you! Take a look at the shelf tag- it should give you a price per unit, usually in ounces (oz.) or pounds (lb.).

If the price per ounce/pound on the larger container is smaller, then it is a good deal. When comparing, make sure both containers are using the same unit of measurement

Here is an example of what the shelf tags can look like:

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The majority of shelf tags will list:

  • The Item
  • The size of the container (in ounces, pounds, or units)
  • The Price of the item
  • The price per unit (in ounces, pounds or units)

This is also a great strategy to see if the store brand or a brand that isn’t your usual brand is a better deal than what you normally buy.

If your store doesn’t have shelf tags that break down the price per unit, here is how you can figure it out- I recommend using a calculator.

Take the price of the item and divide it by the number of ounces/lbs/units in the package.

Let’s use for our example the Uncle Ben’s Buttery Ready Rice, pictured above on the left.

$1.93 divided by 8.8 ounces equals .219, which is 21.9¢ per ounce.

If you keep a Price Book, you might want to  include a space for unit price, you would write 21.9¢ in the Unit Price Column. You can round up, or leave it as a fraction of a cent, to get an exact price for comparison. Learn more about price books here.

My trip to Target, or how you can find savings everywhere!

Abby H.
Seriously, this little face loves to shop!
Seriously, this little face loves to shop!

Last night, Bitty Bird and I headed over to Target to pick up a few things. Armed with my smartphone and a fistful of coupons, we were determined to save some dollar bills!

While browsing the aisles, checking the Cartwheel app for more savings, I was stopped by two college guys (they were wearing SDSU basketball jerseys) who asked me about bacon (why was the bigger package cheaper? Answer- it was a loss leader for the week! Come in for cheap bacon, fill your cart with full price groceries). Then they asked me what I was doing scanning everything with my phone.

Thus began a quick lesson in the middle of the grocery section of Target on how to save money.

First I told them basically everything I mention here.

But really, I told them, what you need is Cartwheel. Target Cartwheel is any Target shoppers best friend. It’s the best app! With that app, I can scan products and it will tell me if there is a discount available for that item. If there is, with one quick swipe, the discount is added to your cartwheel account. At checkout, present your smartphone to the cashier, with the Cartwheel app open, the barcode is scanned, and the savings is instant!

One thing not mentioned in my previous Target post is that Target now has these awesome text coupons. There are signs all over the store so you won’t miss out if you keep your eyes open. Like this week text CARE to Target (827438) to save $5 off a $20 or more purchase on personal care items. These text coupons work just like cartwheel. Pull up the text, click the link, and present the barcode to the cashier at checkout. These coupons are stackable with store sales, manufacturer paper coupons, and cartwheel deals too.

They ended up saving about $25 between Cartwheel, the text codes they found while in the store, a couple coupons found on products (and a few I gave them), and the rebate apps I hooked them up with (you can see my favs here).

Saving money doesn’t have to involve tons of work, hours of clipping coupons, or being “that lady” (or guy, there are couponing dude too).

And for what it’s worth, after my coupons, codes and Cartwheel, I saved over thirty bucks! My bill went from $86 for $53! It’s not sorcery- It’s smart shopping. It’s your money, spend (and save) it wisely!

 

Gardening: Fun for the whole Family!

Abby H.
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watering and talking to the bell pepper plant.

Henry loves to garden. He loves planting seeds, watering, talking to the plants , and harvesting the fruits and veggies (even if he isn’t too hip on eating them all-yet!)

I think that it’s because of our heritage. My Maternal Great-Grandfather was a farmer in Minnesota.

Since we live upstairs in a condo, we don’t have 40 acres to plow and sow. So, like many urban farmers, we turn to container gardening. I have a growing Pinterest Board dedicated to container gardening, and I encourage you to join it!

Here are a few ways that we were able to start our garden on a budget:

  • I kept my eyes peeled on Craigslist free section for pots, I also put feelers out on social media for anyone getting rid of pots. That’s how we scored an awesome clay pot for our wild flowers!
  • We purchased heavy duty plastic pots at 99 Cents Only. They have a great selection of basic gardening tools, pots, planters, and tomatoes cages- all for $1.49 or less!
  • I found a great deal on seeds at Dollar Tree. I was able to pick up this box of seeds for only $1.00!  I only used part of the box, since we don’t have a lot of room for our flowers. In addition to American Seed brand, they also had some Burpee brand seeds!
  • Most gardening stores are having sales right now- check out your local shop and see what kind of plants are on sale! We picked up a huge bag of soil, organic tomatoes (complete and in a planter with a cage), Green Bell Pepper, a 6 pack of strawberries, and a lavender bush for less than $50.  We opted to purchase some plants in addition to seeds, just so Henry doesn’t lose interest in our garden (waiting for a tomato seed to grow into a bush is mind-numbing).

We are saving money on water too! Whenever it rains, we get out our rain buckets and collect as much as we can. It usually is only a few gallons, but we are able to use that water and not turn on the tap.

If you are new to gardening and aren’t sure what to plant or where to plant, check out Sunset Magazine’s Climate Guide. It will give you the ins and outs of when and what to plant. Luckily here in San Diego, it’s pretty temperate all year, so we can plant a lot of different plants.

Some of you may be wondering why we are growing wild flowers and lavender, since neither will produce any food. Well, no food for us, but food for bees! Without bees to pollinate the flowers on our fruit and veggies plants, there would be no food for us to harvest and enjoy! I try to plant flowers each year to entice the bees to visit our garden!

Our Garden Stones!
Our Garden Stones!

Last year we hand garden stakes with the names of our crops written on them. The sun faded them in no time. This year, we opted to do garden stones. I found a great project on pinterest and changed it up based on our needs.

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IMG_3957We were recently gifted with two HUGE boxes of craft supplies and they contained these really cool wooden Whirligig/spinners (kinda like these). All we had to do was paint them! We quickly painted them up and added them to our planters!

I think gardening is a wonderful project for any family. It can be as small as a tomato plant on your patio, or as big as renovating your backyard to have a mini-farm! Gardening teaches kids about the life cycle of plants, and how to care for something else. I think it’s important that everyone know where food comes from, and how hard it can be at times (especially when you are waiting for it to ripen), so that we don’t take for granted our food.

Talk Back: I’d love to see your gardens too! Please comment with a photo, or let me know what you are growing!

Score a free box of Quest Bars from VitaCost!

Abby H.

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We eat a lot of protein bars, especially when when we are on the go on the weekends and on busy school mornings. I love a cup of black coffee with a protein bar in the morning!

Right now you can score a free box of pumpkin pie Quest bars from Vitacost.com when you use code FREEPUMPKIN at checkout with any $25+ purchase.

I love Vitacost- They have great deals on vitamins, supplements, and natural skin and body care.  They usually have great promotions and freebies too! Just type in Free Sample into the search bar here.

Oh and it gets better! Free Quest bars, Free Samples, and $10 off!!  Sign up through my link here (I get a $10 discount off my next order of $30 or more too) and you’ll get $10 off your order of $30 or more.

Not sure what to buy? I get PB2 from Vitacost!

Learn a new skill from Craftsy for free!!

Abby H.

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I love Craftsy! I love making stuff and being creative, but sometimes it’s hard to learn a new skill or hone one you already have on a budget. Craftsy to the rescue! They have awesome free classes where you can learn to do all kinds of cool stuff from cooking and baking to knitting!

The free mini classes can be viewed on any device, so you can learn anywhere! Right now there are 47 mini classes that are free. Mini-courses  feature student-led discussions and are shorter in length than regular courses. They are a perfect way to learn new skills and experience the Craftsy platform first-hand.

Here are just a few of the ones I’ve saved to watch and explore:

For the complete list, click here.

Which Mini-Classes are you going to take?

a2 Milk: .29 at Sprouts!

Abby H.

Screen Shot 2016-02-20 at 9.04.55 PMWho doesn’t love almost free milk?

Right now, you can score a 1/2 gallon of of a2 milk at Sprouts for just .29 after rebate!

Here’s the deal:

  • 1/2 Gallon a2 Milk (any variety): $4.29
  • Use $1/1 printable here, or some local Sprouts have $1/1 Peelies
  • Submit $1/1 Ibotta Rebate
  • Submit $2/1 Shopmium Rebate (Sign up here- please use Code YHFAYCTP to score an extra $2 in your account!).
  • Total after rebates: .29!

Lil’ Man sometimes has tummy troubles with  regular milk, so any time I can pick up a@ milk at a discount, I’m on it!

 

Cutting the Cord: Going without Cable

Abby H.

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Disclaimer: This money saving strategy isn’t for everyone- I’ll admit it. If you HAVE to watch “your shows” or sports games and they aren’t available to stream on the TV channel’s website (FOX, CBS, NBC, and AMC have tons of their shows streaming on their site), this won’t work for you.

We don’t have cable.  Never have. Mr. C watches sports over Antenna TV or he’ll go to the gym and spend time on the treadmill or StairMaster while he watches football!

In my area, cable tv (with Cox Cable) is $61.99/mo for the cheap-o plan.  It’s usually on special for less, or you may get a discount if you bundle it with your home phone (we don’t have one!), but after any introductory rates have expired, the monthly price is $61.99/mo at a minimum.

So, in the 10 years we’ve lived together, we’ve saved roughly $7500 by not having cable. That’s A LOT of money.

There are a few things to consider:

If you want to cut the cord, before you call your cable company and tell them to shove it consider this. How old is your TV?  If it’s older than 3 or 4 years old, you’ll need a digital convertor box.

Why?  In 2009, the FCC made the switch from analog (over the air) TV to digital TV to free up analog airwaves for emergencies.

So if you have an old tv, plug it in and flip the channels, you’ll get static because your TV can’t access the digital airwaves without a convertor box. Convertor boxes run between $40-$60 and can be purchased anywhere that sells electronics. You need one convertor box PER television in your house that is over 3-4 years old.  If you are unsure if your TV has the convertor internally, check online or call the company that manufactured your TV.

Pick up a convertor box.  But you’ll still need one more thing.

An Antenna.  Not a pair of rabbit ears.  Newer antennas plug into your television, and the wall (yup they have an amplified signal, so you’ll get more channels!), and they hang on the wall. You’ll need one for each TV in the house.

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This is what ours look like, it’s a slim, shiny back box that hangs on the wall. They run anywhere from $45-$90 (depending on what type you get)

OK, so Convertor box (if needed)-Check!

Antenna– Check!

Now your are all set.

The directions that come with the antenna will tell you how to set it all up and find your local channels.

Now, you can call the cable company! Remember to return the cable boxes and remotes so you aren’t charged any extra.

Now the next question I get is: How many channels will  I get?

Depending on how strong the signals in your area are, you should be able to receive:

  • ABC
  • CBS
  • NBC
  • CW
  • Fox
  • PBS
  • V-me (Spanish PBS)

There are additional networks that are available in various areas of the county.  Here in So Cal, we also get:

Plus we get a few more spanish language channels.

So- the take away is this: depending on how many TV’s you have in your house, and their age, you may spend a few hundred dollars up front to get all set up, but you may be paying a few hundred dollars a month on cable or the dish.  It will pay for itself in just a few months.

You won’t get ESPN or MTV or any of the other eight million other channels. But, you’ll get more quality time as a family.

We’ve never had cable. We’ve lived together for 10 years, and we’ve lived with broadcast TV (over the air with an antenna and converter box), Netflix- Streaming only (a gift from hubby’s parents!), and we have a HuluPlus subscription (at a whopping $7.99/month).

We’re not addicted to TV.  We watch Netflix or a show or two on Hulu at night, and Little Man and I watch PBS in the morning for Sesame Street and many other educational cartoons. We read, talk, or play games while most people are glued to the tube each night for 4-5 hours. We go for to the gym, or for a walk as a family.

 What would you do with an extra $700+ per year? What would you do with the extra time you could have not being glued to the TV each night?

 

 

Changes coming to SNAP by Groupon!

Abby H.

UGH. Seriously. So many awesome rebate companies have come and gone. And now, RIP to SNAP by Groupon…. Check this out (I posted this on FB this morning too):

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Important Changes Coming To Snap
Valued Snap Customer,

Great news! Starting on March 1, 2016, Snap will be expanding to include Groupon’s inventory of nearly 70,000 digital offers at top retailers in the United States and Canada. With this update, Snap will be transitioning from product-specific to retailer-specific promotions.

Since these new promotions allow for easy redemption and instant savings, we will be sunsetting Snap’s cash back feature.

What does this mean for my existing Snap balance?

If you have a balance of $20 or more, you can still request your check. If your balance is less than $20 on March 1, per the terms of the Cash-Back Program, you’re not entitled to request a check, but we will be giving you promotional Groupon Bucks in an amount equivalent to your Snap balance rounded up to the nearest $5. Those Groupon Bucks will expire on September 1, 2016, so spend them soon.

For more information about how the transition affects your Snap balance and for the terms that apply to Groupon Bucks, please click here. During this process, we will also be converting your Snap account into a new Groupon account. You can opt out of this conversion by clicking here by February 29.

Thank you for being such a valued customer, and we look forward to bringing you even more ways to save extra money online and in store at places where you shop every day. Please feel free to reach out to SnapSupport@groupon.com with any questions.Thanks,

Snap by Groupon

So, there you have it. If you have a least $20 in credit, cash it our ASAP. Otherwise be prepared for a Groupon Bucks reward.

I do like that they are rounding it up to the nearest $5- That’s cool.

But other than that, to quote my four and half year old boy, “LAME!”

 

Another one bites the dust 😦