Link Luv: Twelve Money Saving Hacks from Trent at the Simple Dollar

Trent at www.thesimpledollar.com is one of my favorite personal finance writers, and he posted a great list of twelve money saving hacks for substituting cheaper and more environmentally friendly products in place of disposable or commercially created products. Go check it out here.

You Sweet Talker: Spectacular Deals on Box Top For Education Products at Pick N Save This Week

Ladies and gentlemen: start your printers.


This week at Pick and Save, beginning today, Thursday, September 10 through Wednesday, September 16, there are SPECTACULAR sales
on Box Top for Education products, as well as a Bonus Box Top promotion. When you buy 10 Box Top for Education products in one order, you receive 50 bonus box tops (a $5 value for your school) and when you buy 15 products in one order, you recieve 100 bonus box tops (a $10 value for your school).


There are also SPECTACULAR coupons in the coupons.com blue bar on the left side of this blog, for very high value coupons for Box Top for Education products, including General Mills and Cascadian Farms cereals, snacks, and granola bars, Pillsbury biscuits and doughs, Betty Crocker products, Huggies diapers and wipes, Kotex pads and liners, Scott and Cottonelle paper products, and Ziploc products. You can also get high value coupons at http://www.bettycrocker.com/


If you wait until Wednesday and take these coupons with you, the first five you hand to the cashier will double in value. This will make some of these products FREE.


Also, if you buy FOUR General Mills granola bar snack boxes (including Chex Mix, Fiber One, and Nature Valley) you will get a FREE coupon for a gallon of milk.


If you're from my kids' school, or you have kids at any school, here's a quick and dirty deal that will get you 6 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of granola bars, 2 tubes of biscuits, 3 boxes of Hamburger Helper, a coupon for a gallon of free milk, and 100 bonus box tops for education (a $10 value for your school) for about eighteen bucks.


Step one: Go to the blue bar and print out 6 coupons for your choice of General Mills cereals your family enjoys. There are coupons for .55 off one, .75 off one, and 1.00 off one selected cereals. While you're there, print off 2 coupons for 1.00 off 2 Grands biscuits, one coupon for .75/3 boxes of Hamburger Helper, and coupons for your choice of four boxes General Mills granola bars, which are anywhere from .50-.60/1 (you'll need four) to 1.00/2 (you'll need two).


Step two: Go to Pick and Save on Wednesday; pick out the six cereals, four granola bars, two tubes biscuits, and 3 boxes Hamburger Helper that match the coupons you have.


Step three: Go to the register. Hand the lady your Pick and Save Card, and five coupons that have the highest value (Ideally, you want to hand the lady 5 coupons for 1.00 off, but make sure you hand the lady the five highest value coupons you have). Let her ring them up. If you have 5 1.00 off coupons, it will take 10.00 off your total.


Step four: hand the lady the rest of the coupons. These will not double, but will still take the face value of the coupons off your bill.


Step five: pay the lady. Wait for her to give you change and your receipts. Check the receipts in your hand. You should have the register tape, one coupon for one gallon of milk, and one coupon for 100 bonus box tops in your hand.


Step six: Eat the food (or donate it if it's non-perishable), send the box tops to school with your kid, and put the coupon for the gallon of milk in your wallet for next week's grocery run.


If you so desire, rinse, repeat. If you don't go on Wednesday, no sweat: your total will be five dollars higher or so, but that is still a screaming deal for all that stuff; about 1.45 per item, including the milk, and you got ten bucks to donate to your kids' school. It's all good and for a great cause. Also, remember to trim the Box Tops off the boxes you got!! And for an even sweeter deal for the PTA, buy Scrip for Pick and Save for a little extra oomph. Your twenty bucks can go a long, long way for Roosevelt or Immanuel this week.


If you'd like to see the other deals you can get matching printable coupons with sale prices at Pick and Save and Sentry, check back often!

Owlhaven's September Grocery Challenge

In keeping with our Budget Lockdown theme, Mary Ostyn and her husband and ten (yes, ten) children engage in an annual Month of Nothing wherein they challenge themselves to spend no more than necessary. In addition to homeschooling that big brood and writing not one, but two books, which I've linked to on the sidebar to the right, Mary blogs at www.owlhaven.net -- please follow her this month as she endeavors to spend no more than three hundred dollars total to feed her family (yes, of twelve) in September. Mary was living the low impact large family lifestyle before I even had a family and she is truly inspirational. Check her out.

Tightwad Tip Tuesday: Pack Lunches the Night Before

This seems more like an organizational tip, and it is that, but it also saves money. At night, while you are cleaning up the dinner dishes, pots, and pans, dish up the leftovers into a tupperware (or pyrex dish, if you are concerned about BPA leaching into your food in the microwave like I am -- sue me, I'm a little freaky about these things) and stick it in the fridge. The next morning it is ready for you to grab and go.

I cannot tell you how much money this has saved us; the wonderful combination of Baboo's thriftiness and slight to moderate culinary laziness means he prefers leftovers for lunches, and if they are ready to go he will happily grab them out of the fridge and eat them.

Similarly, if you can't bear the thought of two or three bucks per kid for school lunches but find the thought of packing lunches in the morning even more intolerable, make them the night before and stow them in the fridge. In the morning, plop them in the backpacks before they head out the door. Again, this has, quite literally, saved my sanity with five children. I might be exhausted when I drop into bed at night, but by golly, at least lunches are packed!!!

Three Bucks A Day Gourmet: Lunch at Chez Loose Change

Today, I made brunch for the bunch. Total damage is as follows:

french toast (10 eggs, 1 loaf whole grain bread, 1/2 loaf apple danish bread, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, sugar).

bacon (26 slices)

milk (1/2 gallon)

and no leftovers.

Donations of farm animals would be appreciated. kthxbye.

Low Impact Larger Family Living: Check Craigslist First

Y'all know I love me some Ikea, and y'all also know I have five, count'em, five kidlets, ages 6 thru 9. Although we have a biggish house, we have smallish bedrooms and the kids are at the age where private space would be a wonderful thing. I have been eyeing these loft beds at Ikea: They would get all the kids out of bunks and open up a bunch of floor space, especially for my daughter, who has a postage stamp sized room (but a room of her own, which every girl needs). I could whip up some fun privacy curtains for the bottoms and each kid could have a quiet space to read, think, get away from siblings, even those that share a room.

However. Five times 199.00 is a little steep for us right now. We were going to have to bite the bullet and do something, though, because one of the bunk beds is broken. Soooo, I planned to take a little trip to Ikea next weekend to get two.

Except my sweet Baboo, ever the environmentalist, said "maybe we should check Craigslist first." And when we did, we stumbled upon four (count 'em, FOUR) of this exact model, barely used, all available, and some with extra add on shelves and desks to boot. The grand total for all four? $525. Saved at least 300 bucks, saved the impact of manufacturing four new beds, and saved the time and cost of driving to Schaumburg.

Okay, not that last part, because I'm still going to Ikea next weekend. :p

The moral of the story? Check Craigslist or Freecycle first. And if you have a trip planned to Ikea, for heaven's sake, don't cancel it.