Thursday Thopping

Here's some coupon trivia I learned today:

I was at the supermarket taking advantage of their "buy 5 packages of pasta, get a dozen eggs free" and "buy three bottles of dish soap and get a pound of butter free" offer and the coupon said that the free items could be worth up to $3.00 each.

I grabbed butter and eggs costing only about $2.00 each, expecting to be reimbursed for the exact cost of the items. Well, it turns out that I was reimbursed for the full $3.00!

Of course, I combined coupons with the items I had to buy to get the free stuff, so it was a massive grocery score all the way around. YES!

That little Scottish restaurant...

So the other day we ate at McDonald's (thanks to our Secret Santa gift card) and we took a good look at the neon characters outside the children's play area.

Is it just me, or is Grimace flipping everyone the bird?

The Emperor's New Clothes

So for the past few weeks I've been doing a little experiment at work. Here's how it's going so far:

LOIS: Hey, did you notice that I've been wearing the exact same clothes every day this week?

COWORKER: Huh?

L: Yeah. Black T-shirt, black sweater, jeans, and boots. Same outfit every day. I do change my underwear and socks, though.

C: Didn't notice.

L: Did you notice that I wore the same clothes all last week, too?

C: No. Hey, what was I wearing yesterday?

L: I have no idea. Maybe if I wore a tie-dye muu-muu every day people would notice.

C: I doubt it.

Try it. What was your boss wearing yesterday? Didn't notice? You're not alone. Why are we so worried about our appearance when no one even notices? Of course, maybe it's experiments like these that make people leave bags of clothes at my door.

Thursday Thopping

Here's the killer deal I got today:

Scott 4-pack toilet tissue
Regular price: $1.99
Store sale price: $1.00
Coupon: $1.00 off

My final cost: FREE!!! THAT'S RIGHT, FREE, BABY!!!

The best part about my shopping today was having the luxury of NOT buying anything. Since I have a full pantry, freezer and fridge at home, I can be more selective when it comes to finding bargains. "Yeah, that chicken is on sale and I have a coupon, but I think that I'll wait until I can find it for even cheaper." And if I don't find it cheaper or if the coupon expires, then I've saved even MORE money by not buying it at all. Win--win!

In the "Doesn't That Defeat the Purpose" Department...

While perusing my grocery store circular, I came across this ad:

"Buy any combination of 12 Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Entrees and receive two 1.75 Quart Dreyer's Ice Cream"

WHAT??? Buy DIET frozen food and get free ICE CREAM??? What kind of diet is that?

Thursday Thopping

I am getting this new system down. I clip my coupons from my FREE newspaper (trial subscription) and compile them in my notebook. Yes, I have a COUPON NOTEBOOK. Don't mess with me, I'm saving money.

Let me just brag a little bit about my grocery shopping today --
Total: $108.53
Store Savings: $46.83
Coupons Tendered: $12.70
My final cost: $49.00

That's right! I saved over HALF my bill! Even the cashier was impressed.

You should see my pantry and freezer. Even my laundry closet is stocked. Of course, I still need more experience on what's a good price and what's not, but I have been able to keep to my goal of not paying more than $1.00 a pound for meat (and I'm not talking about the "meat" Nigel brings home from the scary butcher shop in the neighborhood with all the missing cats).

I'm amazed at how much I'm able to buy just by doing some research and paying attention to the prices and deals, but am I really SAVING? After all, I'm still BUYING. I'm just buying more. Hmmm.

Kill Bill

I'm a notorious bill fighter. If you dare to send me an invoice, be prepared to get a phone call from me contesting every charge.

I find that my "stupid woman" persona works best for getting charges reduced without getting up the ire of the billing specialist.

Here's how a recent conversation went with my kids' dentist receptionist:

"Dr. Painful's office, how can I help you?"

"I'm confused. I don't understand my dental bill."

"What seems to be the problem, ma'am?"

"Well, I'm no expert, but I don't see why Frances got charged $40 for the cleaning while Jeffrey and Alice-Grace got charged $43 for the same thing."

"Oh, gee, my, I'm not sure either."

"Oh, I'm sure it's not your fault. Probably just a slip of the fingers on the keyboard."

"Let me check on that for you."

Sure enough, I got a new bill in the mail, for $6 cheaper and a note of apology.

I've done this with my bank (they used to take one or two pennies more from my account than my checks were written for, but NOT anymore), my doctors (I get billed twice for procedures all the time), and even the IRS (yes, I beat down the tax man).

The best part is that they feel super smart and competent by helping out the "stupid woman" and I get my bill reduced. Win-win!

Thursday Thopping

(apologies to "Thursday Thong")

Today is my grocery shopping day. I'm trying something new in my quest to be a more savvy consumer. According to www.couponmom.com, the way to save money is to combine supermarket store sales with coupons. Of course, this works really well if your store doubles manufacturers' coupons (which only one store in my area does, and they only do it on random days -- which no one at the store could tell me when that is). My goal is to be able to buy groceries as cheaply as possible to try to build up my food supply. Here's my good deal for this week:

General Mills cereals, normal price $3.43 per box
Store special, 8 for $10.00, so only $1.25 per box
Combined with coupons, only 70 cents per box

SCORE!!!

If I just save a little more...

Nigel's dad, Jedward, grew up in an orphanage run by a chocolate company. Ironically, the children were not allowed to eat very much candy (though he was trained to be a confectioner).

Jedward came into a small amount of money and he was very excited about buying candy for just himself. Then it dawned on him that if he just saved a little bit more money, he would have enough for a small portable transistor radio.

When he saved enough for the radio, he realized that if he just saved a little bit more, he would have enough to buy a record player.

When he saved enough for the record player, he realized that if he just saved a little bit more, he would have enough to buy a hi-fi system.

When he saved enough for the hi-fi, he realized that if he saved a bit more, he would have enough money to buy a nice bike.

When he saved enough for the bike, he realized that if he saved still more, he would have enough to buy a car.

This continued and continued. Let's just say that at the end of all his saving, he bought his first house with CASH.

See what you can do with a little candy money?

The Parable of the Diet

"Shed" -- painted by Nigel

I went from a skinny child to a chubby middle schooler to a fat high schooler to an obese* college student. How could this be? I was eating and exercising the same as my much thinner friends. What was going on?

Then I decided to do an experiment. I was going to study my skinny friends and REALLY see if they were doing anything differently. OK. Thin people do NOT eat at all! We may dish up the same portions, but while I'm eating everything on my plate and licking it clean, they're throwing all of their food away. Even though we may be walking up the same flight of stairs, they're hopping and bounding while I'm crawling.

I decided to act like a thin person. I ate only half of what I wanted and wasted all kinds of energy bouncing around. In about six months I lost 45 pounds and by continuing to pay strict attention to what I do and what I eat, I've been able to keep it off through 17 years of marriage and three children.

Financially, I'm going to do the same experiment. I'm convinced that I'm as frugal as the next person, yet I can't seem to save any money. Am I scrimping as much as I think? Or am I blissfully unaware of my spending and consuming habits?

So 2008 is going to be my year of spending consciously. Just like in my diet where I stop and ask myself "Am I really hungry or am I just bored?" before I eat something, I'm going to stop and ask myself "Do I really need this or am I just bored?" before I buy something.

Let's see if I can find success in this area of my life just by being aware of what I'm doing.

*Please note that Nigel met and fell in love with me when I was at my heaviest. So another reason why he's the coolest guy on the planet.