Money Saving Websites

I've already educated you about Priceline, which is kind of cool because this is the most popular post I've ever written. I've also told you about how to use drugstores to your advantage.

Well, today, we're going to talk about ways to save money again. But this time, it's simpler. All we're going to do is look at some websites that can help you save money in your daily life. All you have to do is either add some blogs to your RSS feed, or mark some websites as favorites and check them occasionally.

So are you ready?

Money Saving Mom
I'm not a mom, and most of you aren't either. But this blog is great. I rely on her for keeping me aware of all the hot deals going on. She posts some free samples, where you just go type in your name and address and get mailed samples of food, toiletries, and even dog food. (Toiletries are great for travel!) She also posts restaurant deals - for example, did you know last Tuesday, Starbucks had a Free Pastry day? True fact. Finally, she posts grocery coupons - often these are printable, and sometimes they mail them to you.
If you go to this part of her webpage, you will see a list of about every grocery store that exists. You can sign up specifically for store deals from whichever store(s) you shop at. For example, I'm only signed up for Walmart because...well...I live in Waco. Each week, she posts the weekly store deals and ways you can combine those deals with coupons to save the most money.

Hot Coupon World
This is a website basically full of message boards where everyone posts all the latest deals and coupons they have found. The most valuable part of this site (I think) are the forums. There are forums for each store, as well as for free samples, and other topics. The other extremely helpful tool on this site is called the "Coupon Database." You can search for coupons for anything on your grocery list either by type of item, by brand, or whatever you want! It's so helpful if you have the time to do this before you go shopping.

A Full Cup
This is similar to Hot Coupon World - it's just another good resource. Sometimes if there isn't something you need on one website, you can go to the other one and find it.

Supercook
This is like the coolest website ever! You go here and type in the ingredients you have and want to use. As you add ingredients, different recipes from sites all over the internet come up using those ingredients. It also lists what other ingredients you would need to make that recipe, so you can check at a glance if it's something you're able to do. This is a great way to make sure nothing goes bad in your kitchen - it's so easy to find a use for all your random ingredients through this site.

Hillbilly Housewife
I don't use this site as much, but it's very helpful for making your groceries stretch out as much as possible. I have used a lot of tips from the articles from her site. For example, in one article, she shares how to buy regular ground beef and make it low fat just by cooking it a little differently. (And regular ground meat is way cheaper than the low-fat kind, so it saves a bunch of money!) She also has an emergency $45 menu for a week, and recipes for homemade convenience foods such as homemade biscuit mix, salad dressings, and beverage mixes.

Are there any websites you use to help you save money?

Classes are OVER for the Semester!

Yesterday was my last day of classes for the spring semester! I can't believe it. I still have a final left, which is next Thursday evening, but other than that I'm done until June!

Well, done with classes at least - so I'll have free Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Well, free Tuesdays and Thursdays except for my two weekly therapy clients that I see on Tuesdays, and supervision for those on Thursdays. And of course, not counting the interviews and assessment clients I've already allowed to talk me into coming into work for on those days.

Well.. in theory, it's a break!

Anyway, my Experimental Design professor, Dr. Kirk, stopped teaching us how to design experiments yesterday with about a half hour left in class. He told us he wanted to share with us the three most important pieces of wisdom that he has accumulated throughout his life. (Which, trust me...he's had a while to accumulate said wisdom). It was really pretty neat and felt like a good way to end the year we've spent with him.

His advice? Well, the first thing was really mostly applicable to people in academia. He said to make sure that when you do any research, you need to get at least three things out of it. So he used the examples of a journal article, a poster, a chapter in a book... but he said that you need to make sure you are getting the most out of all the work you do, and to do this, you need at least three publishable things for every project.

Advice #2: Network, network, network. Not only with people immediately surrounding you - really, Dr. Kirk advised against that - he said he spends all his time networking with other quantitative psychologists across the country. He spends hours each week specifically focused on networking with other people in his field! Wow.

And finally, advice #3: Hire the best accountant you can find. It's not how much money you make, it's how much money you keep. And you'll be able to keep the most of your money by working with someone who really knows the ins and outs of the laws. He got more in detail with this, talking about his own business, renting rooms to himself, and municipal bonds...but let's be honest, that's not so much my territory so I'm not going to try to repeat it and risk messing it up. The take home message here was that an accountant is a good thing.

I have no idea what my three pieces of wisdom would be...but it's something fun to think about. Discuss amongst yourselves...

A Simple Life

I've been reading a lot lately about living simply. I think it probably has a lot to do with the recession, which has given everyone a renewed interest in enjoying life without spending a lot. It seems like a lot of blogs and news articles have been focused on how to enjoy a more simple kind of life.

Even in the field of psychology, I've noticed a trend toward focusing on the simple things. There's a lot of recent information about "mindfulness," which is basically being aware and focused on the present moment. It might include noticing all the sensory details of your situation, or explicitly thinking about what's unique each day, or even doing some relaxation exercises to become calmer and more present-focused. Being mindful actually can help people with depression feel better, and there's a lot of other research coming out about its benefits for everyone.

Combining these two, it might be a good idea for everyone to take some time to really pay attention to and be thankful for what we're experiencing right now. It will not only make your day more enjoyable but it doesn't cost anything! :)

The first thing that came to my mind when I was thinking about this is our family's morning routine. Every morning, Dan gets up about an hour earlier than me. (Yeah, that's what happens when you're a teacher and have to leave for school at 7:15!) Sammie usually gets up with him to go outside and eat breakfast, but then she comes back upstairs and snuggles with me. When Dan gets all ready, he comes back upstairs too and we spend about fifteen minutes just laying in bed, talking with each other and playing with our puppy, and just overall preparing for the day. It's small but honestly it's probably the most precious part of my day. I love focusing on just being in that moment rather than worrying about the rest of the day ahead. I think if I was focused on the future rather than the present, I would totally miss enjoying those fifteen minutes.

What about you? Have you been trying to live more simply, or be more mindful? Is it working?

Priceline Guide (Tips for Getting the Best Room at the Best Price)

Do you use Priceline to book all your hotel rooms? If not, you are wasting your money! Dan and I have used Priceline to book every hotel room we've stayed in for the past year or two. We've stayed in a suite in San Antonio for $45 a night, a Hyatt Place in downtown Austin for $50 a night, and a 4 star hotel in Dallas for $55 a night. Priceline is so easy and cheap - if you use it correctly. So here is a guide to using Priceline for your hotel rooms - you will have no excuse to waste your money after you read this! :)

1. Go to Priceline and find the "Name Your Own Price" section. Type in the city you're interested in, then click on "Bid Now." Right now, you're not actually bidding on anything. You just want to see the different zones for that city to decide where exactly you want to stay. The bigger the city, the more zones it is divided into. So for example, Dallas has 17 zones! By looking at the map, you can figure out which of these zones you would be okay staying in. Jot these down on a piece of paper.

2. Next, go to Bidding for Travel. This place is the key to Priceline bidding! It's a website where people let you know what offers they bid on Priceline, whether it was accepted or not, and what hotel they ended up in. This is your key to knowing how much to bid and what hotel you are going to get. 

Click on the city and state you are interested in. 

The top post on the page for your city and state will say "Hotels List for ____." (I'm currently looking at Hotels List for Dallas, Texas). Click on this. This shows you what hotels are offered by Priceline in each zone for each star level. This is what is so helpful! For example, most places we've stayed at, I've only bid on three or four star hotels. But when we went to San Antonio, I saw a 2.5 star hotel in a good zone was definitely nice enough for what we wanted. So you can easily see all the choices that Priceline will give you. I usually go to the hotel's websites to check them out if I'm not familiar with them.

3. Once you've gotten an idea about what zones and star level (i.e. 2, 2.5, 3, or 4 star hotels) you want to pick, it's time to look through the message boards. Look and see what prices have been accepted for the zone/stars you're interested in, and what hotels people have been getting recently. Usually, there are 3 or 4 hotels for each star level, but it seems like Priceline usually gives them out in clusters or alternates between two. You can usually get a very good idea of what hotel you'd get if you bid on a specific zone at a specific star level, and even better you can get a great idea of how much to bid!

4. Once you have your zones, star level, and bid figured out, go back to Priceline! Bid and see what happens. You do have to enter your credit card information to bid, but nothing gets charged unless your bid is accepted. If it gets accepted, great! If not, you either need to expand your zone search or raise your bid.

Here is the thing - normally, Priceline will only let you bid once per day. But if you follow these instructions, you can bid many more times in a row. I can't explain it nearly as well as the Bidding for Travel FAQ, so if this is something you're interested in, click here and scroll down to Question 9. (The FAQ also answers lots of other questions you might have, so I recommend checking it out anyway even if you don't need to re-bid the same day.)

5. Once you got your bid accepted, Priceline will immediately tell you what hotel you're staying at and give you the confirmation sheet. I definitely recommend printing out the confirmation sheet and bringing it with you to the hotel, just in case you have any problems. But you're done! You now have a hotel!

Don't get discouraged if your offer doesn't get accepted right away. It seems like some hotels release some rooms to Priceline way in advance, and then they release even more much closer to the date. I have bid the exact same price on a room and been rejected one week and then accepted a week later. 

Please ask me if you have any questions! But I promise, this is so simple and you will end up getting hotel rooms so much cheaper than the retail price. Good luck!

Guess how I made over $100 this week?

Even better, guess how I made over $100 this week with things we had lying around the house?

The answer - Amazon Marketplace!

I have used Amazon Marketplace to sell textbooks at the end of a semester before, and I've been able to make a decent amount from it. However, now that I'm in grad school, I should maybe keep some of the books I'm buying. I was so tempted to sell some when we got home from Christmas break, but I managed to keep myself in check and instead looked to see what else we had that might sell.

I looked at our movies, CDs, and books. All you have to do is go to Amazon.com, type in the title, and then look at the prices it's selling for under the "New and Used" heading. Most CDs and older books were selling for a dollar or so each, which is a great deal for buyers, but not so much worth it for me. (Although I'm sure it could add up and it would be a great way to get rid of your clutter and give it to people who really want it!)

DVDs were almost all at least $5, though, and I had a few books that were worth around $10. And...here's the kicker... we had a DVD of "To Sir, With Love" that was worth over $60! Who knew that they discontinued it? I got it for Dan a couple years ago for his birthday, but we'd only watched it once or twice and so it was collecting dust on our shelf. Can you believe people are paying $60-$150 for a DVD I paid $10 for? You better believe we put it up for sale.

The cool thing is that it is SO EASY to sell your stuff. As long as you have an Amazon account, you just have to go to the item you want to sell, click on the button that says "Sell yours here," and basically name your price. Then they will list it for you. I pretty much routinely put in a price that is just a little bit below the lowest price currently listed, with the hopes that a buyer would choose mine first.

Then Amazon emails you when it's sold, and you just have to go to the post office and ship it. They deposit the money into your bank account, minus a commission and plus a shipping credit (which basically end up cancelling each other out). I put 5 DVDs and 3 books up for sale on Sunday, and this morning sold the last book - with a total earnings of $112. Of course it really helped that we had that one DVD worth so much, but still, all the $5 and $10 sales add up really quickly.

There is a lot of debate about whether Amazon Marketplace or Ebay is better. If you google that, you can see the arguments on both sides. In my opinion, Amazon Marketplace is a lot easier and takes all of the messiness out of selling online. However, if I had items besides books and DVDs, I'd probably list them on Ebay. I've done both and really, I think they both serve their purpose and you won't be unhappy either way.

We're going to put the money toward our trip to Fredericksburg. By the way, this is the B&B we're staying at if you're interested. :)

Some Savings Tips

As we get closer to Christmas, I know a lot of people are feeling the pinch right now. I have a few new really easy ways I've been saving money recently so I thought I'd share them.

1. Count the number of prescriptions that you have and need to fill before January 10th, 2009. Follow this link and print out the coupon that number of times. The coupon is a Walgreens coupon for a $25 giftcard if you transfer a prescription to Walgreens. (It expires Jan. 10th, so you have plenty of time even if you don't need any refills right now.) I've done it twice in the past week and it worked perfectly both times. I just went in, told them I wanted to transfer a prescription from Walmart to there, came back in 45 minutes, gave them the coupon when I paid for my prescription, and voila! a $25 giftcard. I got two, giving me $50 at Walgreens, which I spent on things such as deoderant, contact juice, and hair gel. I ended up paying about $4 for $54 worth of items. It was seriously the easiest $5o ever.

By the way, our CVS has a sign up that says "We accept all competitor's prescription transfer coupons." I have no idea if that is true everywhere, but pay attention! You could probably use this coupon at the drugstore of your choice.

2. I got the book Clean House, Clean Planet as an early Christmas present from Grandma Ann. This book is amazing. It gives you really easy recipes using baking soda, vinegar, and other cheap and non-toxic ingredients to clean everything in your whole house or apartment. I've already used her solutions to clean the tub, mirrors, and kitchen floors and they've worked great! The best part is that you probably have a lot of these things already around your house. And even if you don't, it's still cheaper to buy them (and far better for your breathing) than to buy the pre-made cleaners. I love this book and it will totally help you save money, plus keep a healthier living space.

I'll just leave you with both of those for now, but as always, feel free to add any new money saving tips you've discovered!

5 Tips to Help You Be In Fashion (By Being Frugal)

I've been reading a lot lately about how saving money is now "in fashion." Beyond the fact that you can't think about that sentence too much or your head might fall off, I think it's true! People are way more into finding ways to be frugal in their lives lately.

My frugality first took hold when we were planning our wedding. I didn't want to be cheap, but I wanted to be frugal and get the best possible [fill in the blank] for the best price. I really enjoyed the challenge and ended up being very pleased with the results.

So we've been continuing on that frugal path throughout the first year of our marriage. When we buy things, we do a lot of research to get the best product for the best price. I thought it might be fun to share some tips with all of you about ways we save money:

1. Buy online. Dan found our TV online at amazon.com for much cheaper than any retailer was selling it (the exact same model) in town - and it came with free shipping and no sales tax. We also both just got new running shoes online for 20-30 dollars cheaper than they are sold in stores. Seriously, you will be amazed at how much money you can save on so many things by purchasing them online.

2. Sign up for free samples. When I get bored, I will do a Google blog search on "free samples" or "freebies," and then sign up for the ones that we will use. I have gotten samples of dog food and treats, coffee, granola bars, you name it.... Walmart always has at least a few different ones on their website. The best part is that they frequently come with coupons, so if you like the product, you can then get it for a discount!

3. That brings me to my third point - we use coupons! I've talked in previous posts about the CVS and Walgreens games people play. Those are awesome and I still want to begin doing that someday in the future. But for now, I take an easier approach. I still read a lot of those blogs that detail CVS couponing, and I still print out the coupons that I might use. After all, most of the printable coupons are good anywhere, not just at CVS! There are also specific blogs for almost every grocery store that detail out their sales and match coupons with them each week. I use the ones for Walmart but to find ones for your local grocery store, just look here.

You can be as serious or casual about this as you want. For example, last week I just brought three coupons for 1.00 off Starkist tuna (which was priced at 86 cents), 75 cents off Idahoan mashed potatoes (which were priced at 75 cents), and 2.00 off hair ties, which were 2.12. So I was able to get all those items for free, basically! It's really a great idea just to scroll through the websites as you're planning out your shopping trip and print off coupons for items you will use.

4. Use Dry Cleaner's Secret. You can buy it at the grocery store in the laundry aisle, and it dry cleans your clothes in the dryer. I was nervous that it might not actually get my clothes clean, but so far it has and we've saved a ton on dry cleaning bills!

5. Go meatless. Both of us were a little wary about this at first, but we now regularly go meatless at least twice a week. Here are some ideas that we regularly use: omelets or some type of eggs, rice and beans, pizza, soup and cheese sandwiches, quesadillas, or pancakes. Most of these still have plenty of protein - but they are all delicious and save you quite a bit of money!

I hope I can now be considered cool and "in fashion" for sharing these with you all! I'd love to hear your ideas because I'm still constantly searching for ways to get the most out of what we have!

Sam's Club - Opinions Needed

Sam's Club is currently running a college student special, where if I signed up for the membership ($40) I get a $15 gift certificate. So, a $25 membership basically. Is this worth it? Will we save a lot on groceries/ household things? Tell me if we should join!