Shelley's Money Saving Tips

Here are some ways I save money.

First and foremost - clip and print coupons. It only takes a little while to do. Get your local Sunday paper and get the grocery coupons from it. Go to Google.com and type in printable coupons... you will find tons. Look to the side here for some links to various places you can print coupons. Check your mail! I get Red Plum coupons in my mail on Tuesday's.

Only buy what you really need. Do you really need 4 different shades of purple eye shadow? No. So don't buy it. UNLESS... it's on a super sale and/or you have a coupon. For example if you use Maybelline eye shadow and CVS has it for buy one, get one free and you have a coupon to go on top of that, by all means buy it and stockpile [see below].

Eat before you grocery shop. If you go to the store hungry, you WILL buy more.

Stockpile when the sale is good. If you can get something you use constantly for a cheap price after sales and coupons, then buy a lot and store it. For example, if Kraft dressing is on sale for $1.67 and you have $1.50 Kraft coupons, then buy A LOT and store them in your pantry.

Buy in bulk. I love BJ's Wholesale. I love the savings. I love the fact that they taken manufacturers coupons and send our their own coupons that you can use together. For example, I recently bought a box of Luvs diapers. They are priced at $29.99. I had a $5 BJ's coupon for Luvs diapers and a $1 manufacturers coupon. So I only paid $23.99 for a giant box of diapers. There are 180 diapers in the box so I paid $0.13 per diaper.

Buy the store brand when the national brand isn't on sale. On average I notice that the store brand is at least $0.20 cheaper and usually tastes just as good or better than the national brand. For example, my family prefers the taste of the Food Lion brand premium mac n cheese over the Velveeta brand.

Buy frozen veggies instead of fresh. Did you also know that frozen veggies can be more nutritious than fresh veggies (unless you pick them from your own garden)? The longer a fresh veggie sits out, the more vitamins it loses. And typically, pound for pound, frozen veggies are cheaper. And don't get me started on canned veggies. They are probably the cheapest out there but they are loaded with extra salts and sugars. The only canned veggie I buy is green beans and that's because my husband is picky.

Sign up with manufacturers. Often times if you sign up on manufacturers websites they will mail and email coupons to you.

Sign up with your favorite chain restaurants. Just like manufacturers, they will often send you coupons. Arby's is famous for emailing coupons.

Sign up with your grocery stores. Same concept at manufactures, they will send you coupons!

I'll keep adding to this so keep checking back!