Great Stop for Cereal

I needed cereal so I made a quick stop yesterday at the Kmart near me. Here is what I ended up doing for shopping since I am a rewards member: I bought all of what you see below and a pound of hamburger and I only spent $13.32 plus I got $1.00 catalina, $2.50 coupon off my next pet purchase, a coupon for extra 2,000 points off my next $10.00 purchase and picked up 4 more mfg. coupons for $1.00 off two Pup-Peroni/Milo's Kitchen or Milkbone for Kmart for Saturday (the next double coupon day).

I got the following on my stop

Two 25.5 oz Pup-Peroni (wait till you see why so large) Price 2/$5

Two 5.0 oz Milo's Kitchen snacks 2/$5

One dozen Eggs $1.99

One pound Ground Beef $2.99

One jar Ragu Sauce $2.00

One box Barilla Spaghetti $1.00

Five Boxes of General Mills Cereal $10.00

Grand Total before Coupons and savings: $29.35 with the tax included

Used the following coupons

Free eggs with $25.00 purchase (Kmart Coupon)

Two $1.00/1 off Pup-Peroni treats 5.0 oz or larger ($4 off with doubling making each bag $0.50)

Two $1.00/1 Milo's Kitchen treats 5.0 oz or larger ($4 off with doubling making each bag $0.50)

One $1.00/2 boxes of Cheerios Variety General Mills Cereal

Plus since they actually stocked the 25.5 oz bags on the endcap marked 2/$5 I was able to get the larger bags at the marked price (bonus) which is 5 times the amount of the smaller bags of Pup-Peroni treats.

Yesterday was also double coupon day for up to the first 5 coupons.

I will go again on Saturday and get the Pup-Peroni treats again with the new $1.00 coupons I have and the $1/2 coupons I have plus I can use my $2.50 off coupon on my pet supplies and get my extra 2,000 points and to help pay for it I can use my $1 catalina and the points I have already. 

Klippin Krazy!: Who wants 40 Pounds of FREE chicken? ENTER to WIN...

Klippin Krazy!: Who wants 40 Pounds of FREE chicken? ENTER to WIN...: Welcome to the Zaycon 40 Clucks Giveaway and $1.69 per pound Sales Event! Whoohooo... You get the chance to take home a 40 lb. box ...

Tweet

Start Simple: Step 2

Hot Water Heater or Energy Eater?

I never thought about our hot water heater as a major consumer of the electricity in our home. Boy I was wrong. Use Energy Wisely shows you just how much on average things in your home consume. This gives you the ability to figure out without paying someone easy and low to no cost ways to save energy. Our Electric company not only told me that an electric hot water heater in a home that uses propane/natural gas furnace is the main electrical cost of the bill. I thought she was joking.

Now not every electric company offers the same incentives but ours offered a brand new hot water heater for $300.00 (not installed) as long as we put on a controller that allowed the electric company the ability to shut off the hot water heater during peak times of use during the week. We did this program and got a 105 gallon hot water heater with a lifetime warranty. Our hot water heater was 12 years old. I still didn't think we would see much difference in our bill but any savings and an updated water heater seemed to make sense.

Due to the program we saved $50.00 the first full month and $83.00 the second month. This savings is 44% of the cost of the hot water heater. I realize that this is not what everyone should expect but it was well worth looking into what our electric company offered for incentives.

Now the plus to this was that our electric company also has an annual rebate sheet for things we purchase anyways like the new style light bulbs. I get $1.00 back for each bulb I replace and submit a receipt for. We just bought LED Christmas lights prior to the end of the year and I will get $1.00 for each strand of lights when submitting a receipt.

Now that was all simple for me, took little effort and time and saved a lot. Keep reading and see the next steps to saving by STARTING SIMPLE

Start Simple

START SIMPLE TO SAVE MONEY

I like most people don't have time to sit in front of the computer for hours finding all the best deals but of course I want to save money. I believe it is possible to save, maybe not to the extreme, but save on the things you purchase without spending all your time, which is worth money too, on the computer or at the store. I am not some huge money saving blogger and just write my blog for whomever wants to read it and learn from what I do what to either try or not try. Here is my START SIMPLE to saving steps:

1. Order you Sunday newspaper or pick one up on Sunday and clip the coupons.
2. Organize them how it works for you. I use envelopes because that is what fits in my purse and a binder, which I used to use is not something I am willing to do at this point in my life.
3. Make your grocery list and make it detailed. I just started using a spreadsheet so I can predict what my normal prices are so that I know when to stock up on items.
4.Pull your coupons for that list and clip them together or put them with your list.
5. Follow a blog that will figure out deals for you when it comes to household items like kleenex, medications, etc.
6. Look at the weekly ads for surrounding stores if you shop Walmart and circle the items you want to price match off your list in Black Sharpie. Use sticky notes to tab those pages for easy find for the cashier. I also highlight those items on my list.
7. Make an "i want" list for the things you want when they are on sale....the extras
8. When shopping put your price match things separately from everything else to make check out easier on you and the cashier.
9. When shopping make sure to look at your "I want" items to see if they are at a deal price with coupon or without coupon.
10. Watch when checking out to make sure that your cashier properly price matches items, and that you get the sale price (sometimes I write the sale price on my list or the pricematch price)
11. When you get home place your receipt in the ENDORSE envelope to send at the end of the month.
12. If Walgreeens/CVS shopping, place your RR/CVS coupons in envelope for next trip (I keep that envelope in my purse always)

I like this system because it doesn't involve a lot of time or effort and still saves me money. I watch a few blogs for the stores I shop at. I live where there is no Double Couponing, No Kroger, Meier, or other great store like that so my savings may not be extreme but I bet I knock off $40-50 a week this way.

The next big step is the next post in how to save money simple.