Basics — Moms Need To Know ™

Feeding a Family on $50 per Week: Part 1

By Mindi Cherry on January 22, 2009
in Basics, Frugal Living

I’ve been asked several times how I can possibly feed a family of five on only $50 per week ($57, if you include my weekly diaper budget). If you are like most people and spending $150 per week for a family of 4 (although from talking to people, I think that amount may be low), the idea of cutting your bill by 66-75% may seem like a pipe dream.

So how do I do it?

To be honest, there are two things without which I would be unable to spend so little: my extra freezer and my pantry. Without these, I couldn’t stockpile as well as I do. Take away my stockpile and I would be spending so much more each week!

The extra freezer has been wonderful and has allowed me to stock up on all sorts of things that I couldn’t without it. I can take 15 $.50 coupons to the store when veggies are on sale for $1 and walk out with 15 bags for free without worrying where to store them. When Acme had the best price I had seen in a year on cheese, I bought 20 bags and threw them in the freezer. And when Superfresh had chicken for $1.68/lb I bought 15 pounds, divided it in to 1-pound Ziplocs, labeled them and put them in the freezer. If I had to rely on the freezer in my kitchen, I wouldn’t be able to buy 1/4 of what I do. By having my extra freezer, I can stock up on items at their rock-bottom prices and have enough of a stash to hold me until the next time prices dip that low. Check out this guest post from November full of great tips on how a freezer can save you money (thanks again Marcy!)

If you don’t have an extra freezer (we keep ours in the garage), you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get one. Check out Lowes and Home Depot. They always have returned items, scratch & dent or floor models that they will sell you at a discount. It may take a few trips to the store to get one at the right price, but it shouldn’t take long! (Edited to add: don’t forget to check out Craigs List and FreeCycle as well! Thanks for reminding me!)

I highly recommend either getting a chest freezer or an extra “top & bottom” refrigerator. You want something that gives you room to stock up on larger items (like a turkey or ham) or even to stack up homemade lasagna & casseroles!

As for the pantry…

I was lucky enough that my husband built me a pantry when we were finishing the basement, but a pantry doesn’t have to be a separate room. It could be something as simple as a metal shelving unit in the basement or even a bunch of Rubbermaid tubs stacked up in the garage. You just need somewhere to catch the overflow from the cabinets. With my pantry I can stock up on cereal when I get it for $.80 per box, Muir Glen Tomatoes at $.29 per can and so much more! It even goes beyond food! If you have the room to “clean up” on these kinds of deals, you will get to the point where you think “Wait – you want me to PAY for toothpaste? Are you kidding?”. Did you find a deal where you can get a year’s worth of toothpaste and shampoo for free (like at SuperFresh when they are having Triples or a CVS ECB deal or a great deal at Wags)? Have no fear! You’ve got somewhere to store it and can replenish your stockpile as you need to!

So how does the freezer and pantry help in the Grand Scheme of Things?

By having my own little store, I am able to plan my meals around what I have, not based on what is on sale that week, rounding out with fresh fruit and veggies, dairy products and bread (although I do buy bread when I can get it super-cheap and freeze that as well!)

Each weekend, I simply think of and double check what I have in my freezer and pantry and with the help of the millions of online recipes out there, I can plan varied menus for the week with a minimum amount of money. I can even go to the Weight Watchers website or FoodNetwork.com, plug in a few ingredients and a list of recipes that use those ingredients will pop up!

I can even stock up on certain items with the idea of a Once A Month Cooking Day in mind. For instance, I now have a bunch of mozzarella, organic crushed tomatoes and pasta that I got dirt cheap. As soon as I hit a good price on ricotta I’m making a bunch of baked zitis and lasagnas with homemade tomato sauce and freezing them!

If you haven’t yet created a pantry, look around your house and see where you can create one. Once you have that, you can really start to maximize your savings!

(click here for part 2 of this series)

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Coupon Insert Preview: 1/18/09

By Mindi Cherry on January 17, 2009
in Basics, general

coupon_cutting2

As a reminder, when I list the number of newspapers that I will be buying, I take in to account that I am able to get them at the Dollar Tree for only $1/copy. To find a Dollar Tree near you, click here. Don’t have a Dollar Tree? Check out your local dollar store. Many supermarkets even discount the Sunday paper. I also live in an area where all of the stores double up to $.99 (so a $.75 coupon is actually worth $1.50). If your newspapers are more expensive or you live where they don’t double coupons, you may not find the inserts of the same value as I do!

A fairly decent week. We have a Proctor & Gamble insert and there are some matchups with local sales that are decent!

Here’s the link to the coupons this week.

Coupons of Note:

Bic Coupons: $2 These are all for the disposable ones that run about $4 each. Paired with an ECB deal at CVS, it could make for some nice savings!

Blue Diamond Almonds: these are all “off 2″ which makes them great to pair up with a BOGO deal. I just hope that our area gets the $.75 one so that it can double to $1.50

Blue Diamond Chilled Almond Breeze (half-gallon): I love the shelf-stable Almond Breeze for cooking and my coffee (Hungry Girl turned me on to it) so I am looking forward to trying the chilled version.

Campbell’s Chunky Soup: $.75/4. Most stores are having BOGO sales on these now. Buy 4, pay for 2 and use this coupon!

Colgate Adult or Kids Toothpaste: $.75 combined with triple coupons at SuperFresh or even just doubles at most stores, this makes for some cheap-to-free toothpaste

Daisy Sour Cream: $.50 this goes 3 for $5 all the time which makes it $.66 after doubling

Dreamfields Pasta: $1/2 I’m pretty sure that I saw this 10 for $10 lately. While $.50/box is more than I will usually pay for pasta, it is a good deal (and it’s a high-fiber pasta)

Healthy Ones Lunchmeat: $.75 With this coupon and the last triples at Superfresh, I walked out with 8 pounds of ham for $12. The 5oz packages go 3 for $5 and 2 for $4 all the time, making it very cheap after doubling!

Helluva Good Dip: $.40 perhaps the best French Onion Dip on the planet (even the Fat free version is good). Great coupon if you get it (unfortunately, we always seem to get the $1/2, which won’t double

Orville Redenbacher’s Popcorn: $1/2 ConAgra Catalina/Instant Savings deals were last week, but there should be another by the time this expires at the end of February

Totinos: $.35 10 for $10 sales are as frequent as they once were, but if we can get one before this expires, it makes for $.30 Totinos!

Yo-Plus 4-pack $1 I love this yogurt and it goes as low as $2 each (this week at Acme) and can be counted on to be included in most General Mills Catalina deals

I can’t believe It’s Not Butter: $.40 The coupon says “any” and Acme has the quarters on sale at 10 for $10 this week and the tubs are BOGO.

Kelloggs coupons: are all listed as “off 2″, but the last time that we got them, Philadelphia ended up with “off 1″. If they are “off 2″, use them for a BOGO sale

Knorr Pasta Side Dishes: $.75/2 we usually end up with a $.50/2, but these go 10 for $10 all the time!

Country Crock coupons: these go 3 for $5 and 10 for $10 with some frequency and margarine is very easy to freeze

Skippy Peanut Butter: $.60 (if we actually get a $.60 coupon, I will do a Yippy Skippy Dance right in the middle of my living room. Hold on to it until it is on sale at 3 for $5 to get cheap peanut butter after doubling)

Wisk 2x Laundry Detergent: $1.50/2 (this goes BOGO all the time)

The Proctor & Gamble insert is pretty boring…although if you use Clairol Natural Instinct, there is a $5/2 coupon! You will get better coupons with a longer expiration date here

So how many papers would I buy?

If I were building a stockpile: 7-10

Now that I am in stockpile maintenance mode: 7-10

Why so many? The coupons for Healthy Ones are good, and chances are I will be able to do another deal with Triples before they expire. The I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter coupons will fit in with great deals at Acme…and there are a few coupons (Orville, Skippy, Knorr) that only show up about every 4-6 weeks

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Upromise: now with eCoupons and a $10 Restaurant.com Bonus

By Mindi Cherry on January 15, 2009
in Basics, Coupons

upromise_color

I admit that I am late to jump on the Upromise bandwagon…..mainly because I always thought that you had to use a credit card to qualify and we try to never use credit cards. I was also under the impression that only one of the local chains participated in the program. Oh – and I thought “how much could it really add up?” (turns out, from talking to other people…it DOES!)

So when my sister emailed me asking if I knew that Upromise will now load your grocery card with coupons, I decided to check it out again.

Turns out – you only need to register your grocery card to get the savings (and the 1-3% cash back for college). Of course, you can still link it to your credit card (or debit MasterCard, I assume) if you want your online shopping and dining out dollars to count towards your college savings!

AND

All the major Philadelphia-area grocery stores are now participating(Acme, Giant, Genuardi’s, Redners, SuperFresh, ShopRite, Weis, Wegman’s, etc)

AND

If you join and activate your membership in January, they will give you a $10 Gift Certificate from Restaurant.com

So here’s the deal:

1. Go to Upromise and register (it’s free, of course)

2. Register your grocery cards (note: even if your stores allow you to also use your phone number to get your store savings, you still need the actual numbers off the back of your card)

3. Navigate to the eCoupons section.

4. Click on the coupons you want and they will be automatically loaded on to your card!

5. Your $10 Gift Certificate will be emailed to you (it might not be instantly, since they say you will get it by 2/28/09)

I’m curious….do you already use Upromise? Do you make it a point to buy participating products? Or do you just register your grocery cards and shop as normal and see what turns up in your account?

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When Things Go Wrong

By Mindi Cherry on January 13, 2009
in Basics, general

turn-conflicts-into-problem-solving

Some mornings I wake up and think “what in the world am I going to write about today?”. Then God says “you want something to write about? I’ll GIVE you something to write about!”

You can be the most ethical couponer ever to walk the face of the Earth. You could walk in to every store with a smile on your face.

Sooner or later, you are going to have a problem.

It could be the cashier who gives you an attitude. It could be the manager who is always limiting your purchases (as they do have the right to do in most companies) or following you around the store or giving you dirty looks when you are there. It could be an unreasonable or inconvenient coupon policy.

I frequent a few coupon message boards and one of the things I see written all the time is “He made me feel like I was committing coupon fraud!” or “I was so humiliated!” or the worst (in my never-to-be-humble opinion) “I have to fly under the radar because I don’t want them to give me a problem”.

This may not come as a shock to my regular readers, but I refuse to fly under the radar. I fly smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-the-radar….with a big bullseye on my back. And when there is a problem, I do not feel humilated nor do I let anyone treat me poorly. I strike back.

Does that mean that I create a scene in the store? Of course not.

But what I will do is express my displeasure in two ways: with my words and with my feet.

So what should you do when things go wrong?

The first thing to do is to keep your cool. I know that you may have spent time gathering your coupons, creating your shopping list, printing off IPs, etc, but this is business, not personal. You may feel like the cashier hates you, but don’t let that bother you. Unless you were hoping to make the cashier your BFF, her opinion of you has nothing to do with it. You are simply conducting a business transaction and have every right to be treated the same as any other customer.

The second thing: never pay for anything unless it is at the price you planned to pay for it (unless it was your mistake and/or you must have that item that day). If you are trying to stock up on canned tomatoes and have a bunch of $1 Muir Glen coupons and the cashier will only accept 1, simply tell her to give you back the rest of your coupons and take the other cans off your order. Yes – it is a pain for the cashier, but unless you knew walking in that they might only accept 1 of the coupons, it’s not your fault.

The third: NEVER allow yourself to be talked to as if you were anything other than a valued customer. The fact that you are paying with coupons does not make you less worthy of respect. If a cashier is giving you problems, speak to the manager. If the manager is giving you problems, call or write to corporate.

Finally – if it has come to the point where you are simply “done” with a store, do not go quietly. Let the store manager and corporate know why you are taking your business elsewhere. If you have received shoddy treatment, perhaps they can use this as training so that other customers don’t have the same experience as you. If it is the coupon policy that it is driving you away, let them know that (especially if there are other stores in the area who will welcome you and your coupons with open arms and no attitude). Do not let yourself be driven from a store. You are leaving for a good reason and they should know why.

I realize that all of this advice is easier for some people than others. Different personalities react to different situations in different ways. Some people may find it easier to walk to the moon than to speak up when they feel slighted. Other people may live in a 1-store town and not have any alternative. And some may not be able to conceive of anything worse than having people angry at them.

If you learn nothing else from me, learn this: using coupons requires using your backbone as well.

There are 2 famous quotes that I try remember whenever I am in a difficult situation:

“Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent” (Eleanor Roosevelt)

and

“Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be.”(Clementine Paddleford)

Try to think of them next time you have a problem! They can change your whole outlook on life!

And now – I have a letter to write!

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Coupon Insert Preview: 1/11/09

By Mindi Cherry on January 10, 2009
in Basics, general

coupon_cutting1

The coupons are not that exciting this week, but I could just be saying that because I am well-stocked on most of these items. If you are a newbie to couponing (yes – it’s a verb!), this can be a good week!

As a reminder, when I list how many papers I will be buying, I take in to consideration that I am able to get them for $1/copy at Dollar Tree. To find a Dollar Tree near you, click here (and if there isn’t one near you, check out other local dollar stores and supermarkets…many of them do carry the Sunday paper at a discount). I also live in an area where all the stores double up to $.99 (so a $.75 coupon is worth $1.50).

My regular source for the coupon insert listing isn’t up yet, so click here and scroll down to the second message to see the coupons that should be in the paper this week.

Coupons of Note

Ken’s Lite Accents Salad Dressings $1: these go as low as 3 for $5 which makes them pretty cheap after coupon

Ken’s Marinade $1: I’ve seen these as low as 10 for $10 which makes them free

Halls $.50: these go 10 for $10 and have been part of recent CVS ECB deals

Dole Fruit Parfait & Bowls $.75/2: wait for a BOGO sale or triple coupons at SuperFresh to get these very cheap!

Totinos $.40/2: these go 10 for $10 and 4 for $5 fairly often, which makes them pretty cheap after doubling

Cream of Wheat $.75: I haven’t seen a coupon for this in a long time….wait for a sale to get this pretty cheap)

Red Baron Pizza $1/2: wait for a BOGO sale

Johnsonville Coupons: it seems like every week some local store is having a BOGO sale on Johnsonville

SmartMouth MouthWash $4: I have no clue what the shelf price is on this, but how much can mouthwash be? Unless the mouthwash is ridiculously expensive, this should be a good one

Viva Towels $.75: I hold on to these until SuperFresh has triples and get $.24 paper towels

Lysol Neutra Air Freshmatic Starter Kit $5: these go as low as $4.99 at Walmart & Target

Purina Beggin BOGO: I don’t pay that much attention to prices on these, but I’m fairly sure that I have seen plenty of BOGO sales on them. Combine a BOGO sale with a BOGO coupon to get them both free

Pledge Furniture Care Product $.55: wait for a sale on the aerosol or the wipes to get them cheap after doubling

Windex Wipes or Antibacterial Trigger Mail-in-rebate: who doesn’t like getting money back?

Ziploc coupons: can always use these and when Superfresh has triples, these are great (or even just combined with a BOGO or otherwise good sale)

Glade coupons: I don’t know if there are any more Catalina deals coming up on these, but Glade products go on sale very cheap all the time

Suave Hair Care $.50/2: these go 10 for $10 or cheaper all the time.

Ocean Spray $1: the grapefruit juice is on sale 2 for $4 this week at Acme

Hostess 100-calorie packs $.75: Rarely see coupons for these and they go BOGO all the time

So how many papers would I buy?

If I were building a stockpile: 3-4

Now that I am in stockpile maintenance mode: 2-3

Note: the most exciting thing to me is the Viva coupon because I can use that at SuperFresh with Triples, but the rest of the coupons aren’t the best. If I had a dog I might buy more, as the BOGO coupon for the Beggin Strips is more than worth the cost of the paper all by itself.

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Coupon 101: Some Helpful Links

By Mindi Cherry on January 8, 2009
in Basics, Coupon 101

Grocery cart

I thought about creating a whole new post for each of these, but then I thought…”I’ve already done the work? Why retype them?”

So here are a few of my favorite past posts:

Baby Steps to Saving On Groceries

Creating a Price Book

Why I Stockpile

Baby Steps to Creating a Stockpile

Why Buy Things You Don’t Need?

These are all aimed at Beginner Couponers and I hope you will find them helpful!! Of course, please feel free to ask me ANY questions!

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Around the Blogosphere: 1/4/09

By Mindi Cherry on January 4, 2009
in Basics, general

Happy New Year! Here are some of my favorite posts from the week:

One Frugal Girl wrote a great article about “What Is the Definition of Living Beyond Your Means?”

Andrea at MommySnacks shared her great spreadsheet for tracking your savings. I think I’m going to start using it myself!

Living Well On Less reflected on her first year of frugality.

Northern Cheapskate wrote about her budget failures in the month of December. Call me crazy, but I just love when Frugal Bloggers admit their mistakes!

And just because it’s one of my favorite sites, check out these abominations that some call cakes for New Years Eve! I just love CakeWrecks and it is a funny addition to my Google FeedReader!

Have you seen or written a great post that you would like included next week? Email me the link!

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Coupon Insert Preview: 1/4/09

By Mindi Cherry on January 2, 2009
in Basics

coupon_cutting

Wow! After 2 weeks with no coupons (and spending yesterday pulling out all my coupons that expired 12/31/08), they are coming back with a vengeance! There are FIVE inserts this week! So grab a cup of tea and sit back!

As a reminder, when I list how many papers I am buying, I take in to consideration that I am able to get them at The Dollar Tree for only $1/copy (as opposed to the $1.75 cover price for our area). To find a Dollar Tree near you, just click here. I strongly suggest flipping through the papers before you buy them to make sure all the inserts are there. Many times I have found copies with missing inserts. Don’t worry if they give you funny looks while you are doing this. I once had an employee come up to me and ask what I was doing and I simply said “making sure that everything that I am paying for is in here” (and don’t try to be sneaky about it or it may look like you are snagging inserts out of papers that you aren’t paying for!)

As another reminder, I also take in to account that I live in an area of stores with wonderful coupon policies. Only 1 store limits the number of like-coupons they will double and they all double up to $1 (so a $.99 coupon would have a value of $1.98)

Here’s a link to the coupons this week:

Coupons of Note:

Airwick coupons: $1/2 and B1G1 (there have been lots of Catalina deals with both Airwick and Glade products lately)

Aquafresh Coupons: while I can’t guarantee it, we are due for an ECB deal on Aquafresh at CVS

Bayer coupons: $1 coupons and half-off mail-in rebate: if CVS, RiteAid or Walgreens runs a ECB/SCR/RR deal on this, the combination of coupon, rebate and store reward can turn this in to a moneymaker (edited to add: CVS has a “Buy $15, get $5 deal starting Sunday, so this WILL make it in to a moneymaker)

Boost Coupons: there should be plenty of sales on these in the next month. Grocery stores trying to catch all of the New Years Resolution dieters often include Boost & Glucerna products

Campbell’s coupons: Winter is “soup season” and is when the sales are best. Stock up on soup now to last you through Spring and Summer when there are very few soup coupons/sales

Finish/Electrasol PowerBall Tabs: $2.50 (WOOHOO!) This can be found at Target and Walmart for about $3.50, more or less depending on area. It expires pretty quickly (2/1/09), so I will hold on to it until right up to the expiration to see if I can combine it with a sale or Catalina deal before the expiration. If not, it still makes for some really cheap dishwashing detergent

Gerber coupons: rare, so get ‘em while you can!

Laughing Cow Cheese Wedges: $.55 (these go on sale for just under $2, which makes them super cheap, after doubling. If you are joining me in the Frugal Fat Fighters, the wedges are only 1 Point each!)

Lysol Coupons: New Years Resolutions include promises to keep a cleaner house and supermarkets know this! Acme is having a pretty good sale on Lysol products and I’m sure many other stores are as well!

Muellers Pasta: $.55 coupons: by watching the sales, you can often find pasta for $1-$1.25/box. While these coupons do say “Do Not Double”, if the UPC code on them starts with a “5″, they WILL double unless the cashier overrides it!

Nestle Coffee-mate Liquid or Powder: it’s listed as a $.50 coupon (which will double), but the last time they put one out in my area it was a $1/2 (which won’t double)

Nestle Juicy Juice Product: $.50/2 (wait for this to go BOGO and then get 2 and it will double to $1 off!)

Nicorette, NicoDerm CQ or Commit: $15 (I think these are only about $23, so this makes it pretty cheap!)

Pop Secret microwave popcorn: $.50/2 (wait for it to go BOGO, get 2 and it will double to $1 off. Pop Secret is also often part of a General Mills Catalina Deal!)

Atkins Single Bar: $1/2 (these are BOGO at CVS starting Sunday and will likely be part of good sales in the next month as stores try to cash in on “New Years Resolution” dieters)

Barilla Plus Pasta: $1/2 (these go $10 for $10 all the time)

Colgate Total Advanced: $1 (CVS is always running ECB deals on Total. With a $1 coupon, you get it free or close to free after ECBs)

Fuze coupon: $.25 (these go 10 for $10 all the time and are part of the Catalina deal at Acme this week.)

Garnier Nutritioniste: $1 (there is a deal at CVS starting Sunday where you get a free facial cleaning cloth pack wyb 1 Granier Nutritioniste. use this coupon to bring down the cost.)

Glucerna coupons: these are high-value and will come in handy for an ECB deal at CVS

Powerade: $.40 (these go 10 for $10 all the time, which makes them $.20 after doubling)

SoftSoap: $.35 (these go 10 for $10 all the time)

Total Cereal: $.75 (wait for a Catalina deal and this will get you some seriously cheap cereal after doubling)

Welch’s Squeezable Jam: $.55 (wait for it to go 3 for $5 and use this to get it for $.56, after doubling)

Betty Crocker Potatoes: $.25 (these go 10 for $10 all the time)

Fiber One Chewy Bars and Nature Valley Granola Bars: $.50 (these go 3 for $5 and 2 for $4 all the time and are usually part of a GM Catalina deal)

Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers: $.50 (these go 10 for $10, making them free after doubling)

Pillsbury Toaster Strudel: $.35 (these go on sale for as low as 3 for $5, making them VERY cheap – and the Hubs LOVES them!)

Garnier Fructis Shampoo, Conditioner, Treatment; Styling Product: 2 $1 coupons (CVS has an ECB deal starting Sunday and with this coupon it will be free after ECBs and this coupon)

Johnson’s Buddies: $1 (use it for the bars of soap that are about $.97 at most stores to get them free!)

Kellogg’s Special K products: on sale almost everywhere this week and next!

KY, Tucks or Soothing Care: $3 (CVS frequently runs good deals on KY & Tucks)

Ludens Throat Drops: $1 (seeing as it is cold & flu season, there should be good sales!)

One Touch Ultra Smart Blood Glucose Montoring System: $30 (when CVS runs an ECB deal on this, it turns it on to a moneymaker)

Tylenol coupons: I can almost guarantee that before they expire at the end of March, there will be an ECB deal at CVS, making them free or a moneymaker

All laundry detergent coupons: these go BOGO all the time

Blink Eye Drops: $4 (not sure what the price of these is, but I see them listed as on sale or part of an ECB deal at CVS all the time!)

Captain Crunch Cereal: $.50 (because who doesn’t like Crunchberries?)

Hillshire Farms Deli Select Lunchmeat: $.55 (these go on sale all the time….FYI – if you stock up at a good price, they freeze beautifully!)

L’Oreal Cosmetic coupons: CVS, RiteAid and Walgreens have deals on these all the time!

L’Oreal Vive Pro Shampoo, Conditioner: Not as good as the BOGO coupon that was out in September, but CVS & RiteAid do like to run good deals on this!

Perdue Short Cuts: $1 (wait for a BOGO sale, because these are a little pricey. They freeze well!)

Quaker coupons: we are due for a Catalina Deal on these!

Rice A Roni or Pasta Roni: $1/4 (not that great of a coupon, but if you are an Acme Shopper, there is a deal where you get $5 off meat wyb 8 Rice or Pasta Roni. Since that coupon is actually for meat, you can use this coupon to reduce the OOP costs of your “Ronis”

So how many papers would I buy?

If I were building a Stockpile: 12-20

Now that I am in Stockpile Maintenance Mode: 12-20

Why so many? Because it is weeks like this that help you to maintain your stockpile. With the holidays being over, it seems that all the stores are kicking off 2009 with huge sales and these coupons are going to help me get a buttload of food at Acme super-cheap by rolling my Catalinas!

I’ll race you to the Dollar Tree!

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Coupon 101: The Lingo

By Mindi Cherry on January 2, 2009
in Basics, Coupon 101

Grocery cart

Since I started this site, I’ve had many people say to me, both online and in real life that they just don’t get it. I throw words around all the time like “Catalina”, ECBs and “IPs” and assume that everyone understands what I’m saying. I’ve had several friends asking me to teach them some sort of “Coupon Class”.

So welcome to Coupon 101!

Today we will talk about the Lingo of Coupons!

The inserts: there are 3/4 different kinds of inserts to be found in your Sunday paper

SS: The SmartSource insert. Among other things, this is where you find the General Mills coupons, which have been the best deals lately

RP: the RedPlum Insert. In many areas, the RP & the V are one and the same

V: the Valassis insert. In many areas, the RP & the V are one and the same

P&G: the Proctor & Gamble insert. This comes out once a month (typically the 1st Sunday of each month, but P&G follows their own schedule) and is the only place where you can get coupons for Tide, Pantene, Pampers and many other products.

Couponer: I don’t care how many times my spell-check flags this word, it has now become the descriptive for those of us who use coupons as if our survival depends on it!

IPs: shorthand for “Internet Printable”. IPs are the coupons that you can find online. Printing IPs require the installation of a “Coupon Printer” on your computer. Please don’t fear installing this program. The tracking cookie that it contains is in order to limit your printing of each coupon to 2 times per computer (which means if you have several computers in your house……). IPs have become a bit of an issue in the last 6 months because people with way too much time on their hands and without an iota of conscience have taken to using their Photoshop to alter them. I spoke more about them here and will revisit it in this series.

WYB: shorthand for “When You Buy”

OYNO: shorthand for “On Your Next Order”

Catalina: These generally cause the most excitement among couponers. When you see a sale worded something like “Save $10 on your next order when you buy $20 in participating products”, it means that you receive a coupon for $10 at checkout. The coupon is printed not from the register, but from that little white machine sitting next to the register. That machine is made by the Catalina company and the coupons themselves have come to be called a “Catalina”. There are very few grocery stores that don’t participate in the Catalina program (I think Walmart is one of them…anyone know? I stay out of that store whenever possible!). Some people also refer to a Catalina as a “Cat”

Rolling the Catalina: the ability to do this is why couponers get so excited about Catalinas. It simply means that you split your transactions in order to minimize your out-of-pocket costs. Let’s say that you are looking at a deal listed as “Save $10 OYNO WYB $20 and you have enough coupons to to that deal several times. There are two reasons that you want to split your transactions in to 3 $20 transactions. The first reason is that, in most cases, if you buy $60 in one transaction you will still only get a $10 Catalina (it depends on the deal, not the store). But if you split your transaction, you can minimize your out-of pocket costs by using the Catalina generated in one transaction to pay for the next. Check out this post to see how I rolled Catalinas to get $174 worth of groceries for only $12 out-of-pocket (or you could say they paid me $3 to take the groceries, since I still walked out of the store with a $15 Catalina)

OOP: shorthand for “out of pocket”. This is the cash that you physically pull out of your wallet. It is the cost of your purchase after all coupons, Catalinas, ECBs and RRs have been subtracted.

ECBs: stands for “Extra Care Bucks” and is specific to CVS. CVS’s Extra Care Buck program is a great way to get most of your toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo and many cosmetics for free. More on CVS to come!

The CVS “Boyfriend”: this is the price scanner that many newer CVS stores have (sniff – the closest one to me that has one is about 15 minutes away). It looks like any other free-standing price-checker that you see at Target, etc. The reason people like it is because if you scan your CVS card at the scanner, very often it will print out extra CVS coupons for name-brand products. If you have a manufacturers coupon for that item as well, you can use both of them at the same time to further reduce your costs! (added 1/3/09)

RRs: Walgreens version of an ECB program and it stands for “Register Rewards”. Walgreens 101 is coming soon!

BOGO, B1G1, B1G2F: different ways to say “Buy One Get One Free” or “Buy 1 Get 2 Free”

MIR: shorthand for “Mail In Rebate”

PSA: shorthand for “Prices Start At”

Blinkie: sometimes you will find a little machine hanging on the shelf in the supermarket aisles that dispenses coupons. These are called Blinkies because the machine usually has a little red blinking light on it

Peelies: these are coupons that you can often find stuck to the product itself.

Hangtag/Winetag: these are usually found on bottles (salad dressing, beverages, oils, etc)

Tearpad: can be found anywhere. they are simply pads of coupons found near the product display

Land of No Doubles: those horrible places in the country where grocery stores do not double coupons. The 3rd circle of Hell

Did I miss any? Just let me know in the comments and I will answer your question and update the post!

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Financial Goals for 2009

By Mindi Cherry on January 1, 2009
in Basics, Frugal Living, general

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So it’s the New Year and like I said, I’m getting caught in the trap of making New Years Resolutions. But I like to think of these as Goals, not Resolutions!

1. Finish paying off all debt. Barring any disasters, this should be completed with our tax return, leaving us debt-free, except the house.

2. Fully fund our emergency fund. This is likely going to take the entire year, although about half of it should be effortless. Brad currently socks away 10% of his income in the employeee stock plan and has for the past several years. We have always taken that money every 6 months and used it to pay the credit card debt that we accumulated from living beyond our means. Now that we have learned to stick to a budget, we should be able to just hold on to that money (note: I realize that this is not what Dave Ramsey would consider “liquid” because it isn’t just sitting in a bank account. However, if we need to access it, it has never taken us more than a week to get to it).

3. Save money to buy Brad a new car with as little financing as possible. Brad’s car should last at least another year, but it is already a “beater”. He’s going to need another one soon. If we have to, we can just use the money from the emergency fund that we will be building. I would rather be back to “square one” with the Emergency Fund than take on another debt!

4. Set up an IRA. We currently contribute 6% of Brad’s income to his 401K. I have an old 401K from my old job. I want to roll that over to an IRA so that once our Emergency Fund is full funded, we can start to throw money at that. We don’t intend to increase Brad’s 401K contribution, as he is maxxed out with the Employer Match. Better to put it somewhere where we will have more control.

5. Increase my streams of income. One way I can do this is to get more exposure for this site. I just have to figure out how to do it without becoming a total AnnoyingMomsNeedToKnowPimp

Those are my goals. I will be revisiting these on the first of each month and hope to be able to deliver good news on each.

In case you are wondering, I do realize that some of these are out of order from the Baby Steps. Brad never agreed with the idea of suspending his 401K contributions while we worked on our Debt Snowball and by continuing to contribute 10% of his income to the Stock Purchase Plan, we made an easy 10% on his contributions (which we cashed in immediately and used to pay debt). It may not be perfect, but it works for us!

What are your goals for 2009?

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