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Building a Stock Pile

Koupon Karen — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:13:00 +0000

I’d like to explain some of the benefits of having a stockpile. You almost NEVER have to pay full price for something when you need it because you are stockpiling when things are on sale, and hopefully with a coupon. You almost always have something on hand to cook for dinner, make for lunch or to put together a quick snack. And if you happen to have bad weather, you’ll be all set for food. Stockpiling DOES save you money, if you do it slowly. Don’t try to get everything in one shopping trip. It could take months to build up a good stockpile. One thing to remember is that just about everything has an expiration date. When my mother first began her stock pile, she quickly realized she couldn’t stock pile everything because some things don’t have a long shelf life, like salad dressings. So be careful and if the shelf life isn’t long, then don’t get more than you can use in that time period. Most sales happen in cycles so you’ll be able to get more at a good price again.

Stockpiling is not for everyone but for those who do want to try and build a stockpile, here are some ways to get it going.

How to begin your stockpile….

Figure out how much money you want to spend each week building up your stockpile. You can start with $20 if you’d like. With sales and coupons, $20 can go very far.
Make a list of the things you seem to use most often or run out of the most. Those are things you DO want to stockpile first. Remember, we aren’t’ just talking about food. You can stockpile health and beauty items too.
Again, don’t run out and buy everything at once. When the weekly sales flyer’s come, sit down and look to see if any of the items on your list are on sale that week.
Next you want to see if you have (or can get) coupons for those items. Coupons can come from many different sources…. The Sunday newspaper, Magazines, Boxes of products, the mail, printed from the Internet, from your family or friends and you can even purchase coupons on eBay or from a coupon clipping service.
To begin, I suggest you ONLY buy items you have coupons for that are on sale that week. Figure out how much you can get with the amount you set aside for your stockpile.
Repeat this each week until you have a good stockpile going. Then just replenish as needed.

As you build your stockpile you may find items that never have coupons that you really want to stockpile. That is OK, but ONLY buy them when they are on sale. Remember the purpose to a stockpile is to help you save money. There will be weeks where you can get items for FREE with the right sale and the right coupons. If that’s the case, go crazy and get as much as you want. But try to leave some in the store for the next person. I know I hate when I go buy something and there are no more left.

Saving money can be and is addicting. Be sure to teach everyone you know how to do it so they don’t take everything from your stockpile!

Building a Stock Pile is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Getting In Shape & Saving Money in 2010

Koupon Karen — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:05:33 +0000

How about saving $387.03 & avoiding the gym this year, but still getting in shape? Here are some tips from esurance.com on how you can do just that!

Americans waste more than $15 billion a year on unused gym memberships. That’s a whole lot of money for absolutely nothing. The average gym membership costs $480 per year, but if you’re determined to get in shape this year, we put together a short list of affordable gym alternatives. Stick with the following suggestions and you could save $387.03:

Medicine ball – $36.99 Medicine ball exercises help to build muscle and burn fat, and you can do them almost anywhere. Suitable for all ages and fitness levels, medicine balls allow for improved range of motion, core strength, coordination, flexibility, joint integrity, and upper and lower body strength.

Workout games – $39.99 “Exergaming” is a fun, affordable, and increasingly popular way to get in shape. Games involve the player in dance, aerobics, kickboxing, sports, and martial arts. Like other forms of exercise, exergaming can help with weight loss and improve fitness and health.

Exercise bands – $15.99 Aside from being a great way to work out nearly every major muscle in your body, exercise or resistance bands are very affordable and so lightweight you can take them anywhere. Great for the hips, thighs, buttocks, arms, chest, back, and abs, you can also tailor the resistance to meet your specific fitness needs and goals.

Walking – $00.00 Incorporating just 10-15 minutes of walking into your daily routine helps improve health and wellness. A brisk 15-minute walk will burn at least 100 calories, and if you take 4 a day, you can burn as many calories as you would by walking steadily for an hour.

Make it your goal to spend only what you need to on health and fitness this year. Use these tips to save money on your workout routine and get a fast, free quote to see how much you could save on health insurance.

Getting In Shape & Saving Money in 2010 is a post from: Koupon Karen

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30 Ways To Pay For Your Vacation Without Dipping Into Your Savings

Koupon Karen — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:16:46 +0000

Guest Post by Melissa Hasan

Value is the new green. Consumers are still interested in saving the environment but the incessant bad news about the economy has changed everything. Now being frugal is fashionable and excessive consumption is out.

Value doesn’t necessarily mean the least expensive but reasonable quality at an affordable price. And value seems to be across all socio economic levels. It’s not just about saving money but is socially responsible spending. It’s about living within your means and not borrowing or spending more than you earn.

So what’s a cash strapped family to do when it comes to vacation? We’ve put together a list of 30 ways to pay for your vacation by cutting out spending that doesn’t add value to your life in order to afford a vacation that will recharge your batteries and bring you closer to your loved ones. True value indeed.

1. Have a garage sale. Or two.

2. Stop smoking, one pack a day will cost $1600 or more a year.

3. Don’t eat meat twice a week. When we were kids, a trip to Europe was a big thing. I had a friend whose family wasn’t wealthy and the way they saved up to go was by changing to powdered milk (instead of fresh).

4. Cut out the latte or specialty coffee. Instead, make coffee at home and bring it in a reusable travel cup. It’s good for your wallet and the environment.

5. Pack your lunch – this can save you up to $1000 / year.

6. Get a short-term second job.

7. Stop buying name brand toiletries and start buying in bulk. Costco has some great deals. Go with a friend and split the oversize packages.

8. Instead of buying that book or DVD, borrow it for free from the local library. Yearly savings: $200

9. Buy the least expensive gas. Generally there’s at least one gas station in town that’s 10 cents less a gallon than the other stations. If you purchase 20 gallons per week, that’s $104/year.

10. Turn the lights off and unplug appliances that aren’t in use. If you can’t unplug the appliances, buy a Smart Power Strip which stops drawing power when the appliance isn’t in use. The device will pay for itself within a few months.

11. Canceling gym memberships for the summer months- exercise outdoors instead- you can save at $20+a month depending on the gym.

12. Get to your own bank for all your ATM transactions. Most foreign bank transactions are at least $1.50 per transaction.

13. As your light bulbs need to be replaced, put in compact fluorescent bulbs. They last longer and save $60 in electricity costs over their lifetime. That’s PER bulb.

14. Turn down the heat or AC. For every degree you can save up to 5%
on your bill.

15. Set your washer to cold and save 50% of the cost to heat the water. Only partially dry your clothes and hang them to complete drying. Or put up a clothes line in the summer.

16. Book a package, shop for a deal. Bundling air, hotel and rental car will usually save over booking each individually.

17. Really low on funds this year? Vacation close to home. You’ll save on airfare and possibly hotel rates if you live in a tourist area. Many of us haven’t visited the top tourist attractions in our own hometowns.

18. Consider camping. Although with budget cutbacks, reservations may be tough to get. Book early.

19. Consider staying in a hostel that offers private rooms for couples or families.

20. Consider houseswapping. Instead of paying a hotel bill, swap your house with another family and have all the comforts of home plus the added bonus of being able to save on meals.

21. Drop the land line. You can generally save at least $50/month. Most people have cell phones that they use all the time anyway.

22. Not ready to drop the land line? Can you live without caller id, voice mail and call waiting? Typically these charges are $10, $20 or more per month.

23. Drop the premium channels or cable altogether. That adds up to another $50 or more per month.

24. Cook at home more often. Eating out, even drive through fast food, really adds up, both in dollars and calories.

25. Plan your meals to maximize use of ingredients. Plan your grocery shopping and go as seldom as possible. You’ll save by not buying impulsively.

26. Most towns have a clipper magazine or entertainment book. Use the coupons to save on your meals out.

27. Use coupons for grocery purchases, restaurants and even travel.

28. Before you buy anything, go online and search for “product” coupon code or promo code. Typically you can find savings from 5% – 25%.

29. Carpool. It saves on gas and wear and tear on your car.

30. Check out Best Travel Deals . Net for free movies, coupons, last minute sales and jaw dropping deals.

Melissa Hasan is a travel enthusiastic, marathon runner, and soon to be first time mom living in upstate New York with her husband Joe and dog Blue. She blogs at Best Travel Deals.

30 Ways To Pay For Your Vacation Without Dipping Into Your Savings is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Staying in Strangers' Homes Around the World

Koupon Karen — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:21:39 +0000

Guest Post by Shel Horowitz

When I travel, I usually stay in the home of a total stranger-a member of the homestay network I’ve been part of since 1983.

Why?

You get a much stronger sense of a place and its people; you live as they do for a few days, in a real neighborhood

You get steered away from tourist rip-offs and toward fascinating, offbeat destinations you might have never known about on your own

You sometimes make new friends

Sometimes, your host can hook you up with key contacts in your interest areas (we’ve hooked visitors up with mediators, body workers, local historians, art gallery owners-and when we’ve traveled, our hosts have connected us with peace and environmental activists, musicians, and writers

The world becomes smaller as you immerse yourself in another culture, another way of life

And of course, you save a BIG pile of money! From $50 or so per night in rural areas on up to several hundred dollars a night in the world’s great cities. If we average just 10 homestay nights a year, and the average cost of a hotel would have been $100, that means we save $1000 per year.

Do I worry about staying with strangers, or having them stay with me? No-someone vetted them.

Our group, Servas , was set up to promote peace and intercultural understanding, and offers homestays in at least 128 countries. We’ve met locals, shared meals and companionship; sometimes, we’ve maintained contact for years.

We’ve done homestays in/near Paris, Seville, Prague, London, Copenhagen, Pisa, Athens, Toulon (France), Zurich, Cinque Terra (Italy) several places in Mexico, Israel, and Wales-and throughout the U.S. and Canada.

With Servas, you can travel, host, or both. We’ve chosen both, and our lives have been much enriched by occasional visitors from around the world. Typically, stays are two or three nights long; no money changes hands. (We usually bring a small gift-bread, wine, fruit, or a book we’ve written-but it’s not obligatory.) Other homestay groups might work a bit differently: some offer longer stays, some charge a small fee per night.
Hosts usually spend time with you during and after dinner, and perhaps at breakfast. At other times, you’re on your own.

Eight favorite Servas travel memories:

Going to a school talent show-in Welsh-with our hosts who lived in a 400-year-old stone house in the wilds of Snowdonia, Wales.

Being pleasantly surrounded by a dozen very tame horses near Boulder, Colorado, and watching my children ride-bareback.

Watching Rob Reiner’s “The Robber Bride” dubbed in Spanish with hosts in Seville, Spain-and not realizing until halfway through that it was a comedy.

A long and passionate discussion of Middle East politics with Palestinian hosts in an Arab village in Israel.

Getting a bouzouki and piano concert from our host family’s two teenage sons in Athens.

Touring a private collection of thousands of exquisite Native American and Asian art pieces-the owners are working on setting up a museum for it-with hosts in Colorado (friends of the collectors).

Eating authentic homemade couscous in the apartment of a Moroccan graduate student, our host in Paris.

Staying in mansions, private guest houses, a working farm, a college dormitory, a converted churchŠ

In short, the people we meet, the adventures they give us, and the sights they tell us to see or avoid give us a far richer travel experience than we’d otherwise have.
Shel Horowitz’s seven books include The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant’s Pocketbook (having fun cheaply) and Apex Award winner Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First (business success through ethics and sustainable practices). He owns Frugal Fun and spearheads the international Business Ethics Pledge campaign.

Staying in Strangers' Homes Around the World is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Finding Last Minute Hotel Deals

Koupon Karen — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:15:48 +0000

Guest Post by Melissa Hasan

Last minute hotel deals are often some of the best you can find. While hotels may offer specific discounts ahead of time, the real deals are booked just before your stay, often within a week or two. These deals are perfect for the more spontaneous traveler. They could also be used to extend your vacation if you are having a blast and want to stick around to take advantage of a good bargain.

Why do these last minute hotel deals exist? Well, there are a few reasons that hotels may offer them.

Cancellations

It’s not uncommon for wedding parties, family reunions and convention groups to book a block of rooms for a specific date. If they later cancel, the hotel scrambles to fill the spaces, usually by offering a very drastic and last minute discount.

This can also occur when a large number of people cancel individually. This could be for no particular reason, just random coincidence, but it also tends to happen when people are scared off travel for a while, because of terrorist attacks, weather, or even airfare hikes. Whatever the reason, the cancellations are good news for you, the guest. They mean you get a great room for a fraction of the price.

Unexplained Lack of Bookings

Sometimes, even in the height of the tourist season, hotels can find themselves with a number of empty rooms. To prevent losses, they will often fill those at a much lower price, but you’ll need to move fast. These prices may come up just a few days before you want to travel, so you’ll also need to keep your eyes open.

Promotion

While most of the time a special promo will be run ahead of time, in some cases, a hotel will decide to capitalize on a special date and offer last minute hotel deals to help boost visibility in the market. Look out for special deals that are set up for holidays and special events like the Super Bowl. They will usually only last for a couple of days, but may be valid for a while after the promotion ends.

With any last minute hotel deals, it’s imperative to make a decision fairly quickly. You also need to be flexible. If you find a great hotel deal that is out of the way of where you’d planned to stay, you might need to reevaluate your priorities and stay in the cheaper hotel, even if it is slightly less convenient. Most deals are available online, so you will want to do frequent searches and make sure to stay on top of any potential last minute hotel deals.

Melissa Hasan is a travel enthusiastic, marathon runner, and soon to be first time mom living in upstate New York with her husband Joe and dog Blue. Melissa also blogs at Best Travel Deals.

Finding Last Minute Hotel Deals is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Easy Household Tips To Save Money

Koupon Karen — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:31:56 +0000

Guest Post by Bethany North

You may be surprised at how easy it is to save money around the house when you put your mind to it! The first change that my boyfriend and I made was to go down to a single car within our home. Not everyone has this option, but my boyfriend works about a mile away from our house, and I work at home. It is always convenient to have two cars, but one of our cars was constantly sitting there useless because we didn’t use it.

We sold our second vehicle on Craigslist, and we didn’t even make a profit off of it. We just sold it at an amount where we could pay off what was owed on it so that we wouldn’t have to pay that car payment any longer. This idea isn’t for everyone, but it was a great choice for us because it took away a car payment that was several hundred dollars a month. By only using one car, we are also saving a great amount on gas since we are only caring for one vehicle. Over the course of a year, we saved about $3900 on gas and car payments. This may not be the ideal option for a large family, but any couples that can do this definitely should because it makes a significant difference in your finances!

On top of that, there are many other ways to save money on household items. We normally like to spend a lot of time at home, which saves money on going out. When you are homebodies, you have the opportunity to invest in some nicer things around your house, like a big screen TV, so you don’t even need to go out. As far as our television watching goes, we have started ordering DVD series of TV shows on eBay so that we can watch them in their entirety. When we are done with them, we sell them back on eBay since we won’t watch them again. The entire cost for watching a full season of a prime time TV show is almost nothing when you resell it on eBay. You may even have the potential to make a profit!

Lastly, to save money on household indulgences like wine, it is surprisingly worthwhile to buy boxed wine. I have read up on boxed wine, and it is actually a great method for packaging wine so that it stays fresh and keeps it from being oxidized. If you love a few glasses of wine on a nightly basis, it may be quite expensive to buy bottle after bottle. We regularly purchase eco-friendly boxes of wine for around $15, and they can last up to two weeks. If you compare this to purchasing three bottles of $10 wine a week, you will be saving about $1080 per year on wine!

The bottom line is that if you want to save a little bit of extra money for a larger TV or a vacation, then you easily have the opportunity to do so when you make little tweaks in your household purchases. The best part of all is that you will not be sacrificing quality because you will be using your money for items that you really want!

~ Bethany North is a coffee fanatic that has spent the entirety of her career cultivating and studying all of the best uses and brewing styles for optimal coffee and espresso flavor. Her specialty site for all coffee needs, supplies, and Saeco Espresso Machines can be found at www.thecoffeebump.com.

Have you found other ways to save around the house? I’d love to hear them!

Easy Household Tips To Save Money is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Some Ideas to Start Your Journey of Saving Money

Koupon Karen — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:30:27 +0000

Saving money can be a lot of work, especially when you first begin. I’ve received several emails from readers that recently found me after an article I was mentioned in, and a lot of them don’t know where to begin and feel extremely overwhelmed after going through my blog.

It’s OK if you feel this way, you should! If this is all new to you then I don’t expect you to be able to go out to a store tomorrow and save $50. It’s just not possible for most to start out that way.

I will say this. Figure out what you want to do, where you want to start and how much time and effort you want to put into it. You can begin by making yourself a money saving guide and include areas you’d like to save money so you have a starting off point and over time you can add to it.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started. You can choose to do one or more of these ideas but don’t take on more than you can handle….

Pick one store and try that out for a few weeks or a month and the add another store. Learn how to save money using Extra Care Bucks at CVS or Register Rewards at Walgreens. You don’t even need to combine these with coupons yet if you’d like. You will still save money.

For a few weeks just clip printable coupons and use before you move onto sorting through the Sunday coupon inserts. There are a lot of printable coupon sites and I’m sure you can find products you use. Even if you only use $10 worth of coupons in your first transaction, that’s $10 more you have than you would of buying the same products.

Only buy sale items and plan your meals around what’s on sale. If chicken breasts are on sale for $1.99 lb stock up and turn that into a few meals for the week. There is so much you can do with chicken as the main protein in your meals, you can even make lunches with chicken. If green peppers and carrots are on sale stock up on those and pull out your recipe book to see what you can do with them.

Just doing one or more of the above ideas will help you begin to save money. Once you get the hang of it you can slowly combine all of them together and shop 2-3 stores a week and buy what’s on sale using coupons. That’s what I do and you see how much I save.

One thing I do want to point out. If you’ve looked at any of my weekly reviews you’ll notice in the pictures that there’s not always ‘complete’ meals shown. That’s because I buy ahead when things are on sale and then plan my meals around what I have and sometimes combine that with what’s on sale that week.

Try it out and let us know how you do. If you have any questions or even ideas I might not have mentioned I’d love for you to leave a comment.

Some Ideas to Start Your Journey of Saving Money is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Frugal Plan for Holiday Shopping – Start in January!

Koupon Karen — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:17:00 +0000

I’ve been inspired by so many people to be even more frugal this year especially when it comes to the holidays and special occasions. There are so many ways we can save and still get so much. I was very happy with all the great deals I got this past Christmas on presents. I could of done even better had I started earlier in the year, but still I didn’t spend nearly as much as I normally do.

I put together a list of ways that we can be frugal when it comes to gift giving by using FREE gift cards that you can get through out the year.

A lot of credit cards will give you points you can then turn into gift cards. If you use your credit card to pay for your weekly shopping and gas purchases you can rack up points all year long and then cash them in for gift cards to do all your Holiday shopping. You just have to make sure you pay your credit card balances at the end of the month or it will defeat the purpose. There is also Discover which will give you 5% cash back for gas, groceries and travel and 1% cash back for everything else. Right now Discover has a $50 cash back bonus which is FREE Money! That money can just be stashed away for later in the year.

Another way to get gift cards is by doing surveys. A lot of survey companies will offer gift cards in exchange for doing surveys. If you let your balances add up all year long you can also use those for Holiday presents or you can use those to purchase Birthday presents throughout the year. At the end of this post I will list survey companies that I know of that pay you in gift cards. Of course there are so many Survey companies that pay cash too. If you leave the money in your account all year and just let it add up, you can withdraw it to buy gifts too, same as gift cards but CASH.

Swagbucks is another GREAT source for FREE gift cards. You can WIN FREE PRIZES just by searching the web. Swagbucks are digital dollars that you earn just for doing the things you’re already doing. You’ll never need another search engine! You just let you Swagbucks add up and cash them in for Gift Cards at the end of the year. You’ll be amazed how fast they add up too!

Another way to earn FREE gift cards is to get them as Incentives for trying products. Sometimes a dealership may offer you a gift card for test driving a vehicle. That’s pretty simple. You can also get gift cards by trying products or services and even for making purchases.

My Points is an online shopping rewards program. You can earn free rewards for taking surveys, shopping online, playing games & reading email? No catches! It’s free. You can save up all your points until the end of the year and cash them in for gift cards. They have a HUGE selection!

Survey Sites that pay in Gift Cards:

Opinion Outpost

Nielsen Home Scan

SayNation!

Daily Survey Panel

Valued Opinions

Squishy Cash – You can earn cash and also earn chips that you can cash in for gift cards too.

If you start planning now for the money you will spend later in the year, then you’ll have all you need and it will seem like you didn’t even spend anything at the Holidays.

Frugal Plan for Holiday Shopping – Start in January! is a post from: Koupon Karen

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A Frugal Night Away

Koupon Karen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:41:00 +0000

My husband and I have been together for 10 years December 1st and we’ve been married 7 years. We have 2 small children so we don’t really get much time together, especially since my mother is the only one we’ll leave them with and she has a life so she can’t babysit all the time. We decided to spend the night out in honor of our 1o years together, but when we thought about it we both knew we really shouldn’t spend the money, especially with Christmas coming. I was determined to get our night away so I began looking into how we could do this without spending a lot of money. I was very successful in my search!

Here is what I did:

1. I applied for a Marriott Rewards Visa and with that we got 1 free night’s stay. It includes everything (tax too) = $.00
2. We get a free full Breakfast = $.00
3. I got a $25 gift card from Olive Garden as a reward from my visa card + there was a $4.00 coupon off two dinners in the inserts recently. Total to spend on Dinner: $29.00 (We will probably spend a bit more but it’s better than paying for the entire dinner).
4. We are going to go to Toys R Us and do a little Christmas shopping so I gathered up some coupons for that trip. I have (2) 15% off Any one toy coupons and (3) $3.00 gift cards my daughter got in the mail for her birthday (not sure why we got 3). We will do as many transactions as we have to in order to use all these coupons.
5. (2) Coupons for a free dessert when you buy a 20 oz coffee at Borders. Borders is near Toys R Us so we can go there and get some dessert when we buy a coffee.
6. We also plan on going to the movies so we are going to go to a early show to get the cheaper price. It’s been so long since we’ve gone to the movies I don’t even know how much that will cost us. Last time we went they were $6.00 each. I am still looking for coupons for that, but not sure if I will find anything. The movies will probably be the most expensive part of our weekend.

We are heading out this weekend, as long as no one else in my house gets sick. I am really looking forward to this, like I said, we don’t get to spend too much time alone together so it will be nice. I’m also happy to know that we are doing it with spending as little money as we possible can. I will let you know how much we do spend next week.

A Frugal Night Away is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Frugal Holiday Gift Ideas!!

Koupon Karen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:17:00 +0000

The Holidays are approaching and if you’ve been in just about any store by now, then you know that the Christmas stuff is already out! It’s amazing how fast they get the Halloween stuff out and the Christmas stuff in!

For one of my giveaways a few weeks back for a $10 CVS gift card, I asked readers to comment about a frugal gift idea. There were so many great ideas, I wanted to share them in case you missed them.

Homemade picture frames with family pictures in them especially with black & white pictures.

Gift baskets of things geared for the person and with coupons most of the ‘gifts’ are free.

A basketful of homemade goodies.

Jars of spiced tea mix. You can buy the ingredients and jars in bulk, then prepare for a cheap and easy gift for friends and neighbors.

Homemade apple butter

Pillow cases for the kids in the family. Super easy. If you don’t have a pattern (and need one) just cut up an old one. Go to Walmart and buy a yard of fabric to match each kids intrest/style/personalilty/etc. It takes just a few minutes to sew them up, and the kids/teens LOVE getting them.

5×7 photo Christmas cards you designed yourself in photoshop. Send them off to be printed and you have a whole stack of Christmas cards for less than $0.50 each. (note from Frugal RI Mama – two of my favorite places to get photo cards and gifts are Shutterfly and Snapfish. Here are some offers they have right now: Easily create personalized holiday Photo Cards at Shutterfly. OR Snapfish November Promotion 15% off holiday cards + 50 FREE 4×6 prints to new customers! )

Homemade Salsa

Baskets Full of personal care items from all the freebies!

Favorite frugal gift to get is an Entertainment Book!!

Painted light switch covers for friends and family (*note from FrugalRIMama I’ve made these from wallpaper pieces and border pieces too!)

Photo slide shows on DVD and family recipe books!

Kitchen gift baskets. You can see post about it HERE.

Homemade coupon for a meal.

A CD of all the pictures taken throughout the year, plus some photo paper.

Baked goods.

Homemade cookies and candies.

Home Crafts – Like a Snowman muffin tin wall decor You can collect used muffin tins at garage sales all summer and then paint them for Christmas gifts. First Spray paint them (on the back side)country blue. Then splatter them with white paint. Each muffin circle is going to be painted as a snowman face. Just paint the bottom of the muffin white by sponge painting it…do all 12 and let dry. Then come back and paint on black eyes and black coal smile and orange nose. Glue a pretty Christmas ribbon with glue (E600) for a hanger. E600 glue glues to almost anything.

Home made bath salts.

Can fresh fruit when it is in season and give it as gifts in the wintertime.

Photo gifts (Note from FrugalRIMama: Snapfish.com by HP
is offering 20% off all their photo gifts!)

Picture collages with words or something that is home made like quilt, burp cloths etc.

Movie gift baskets (Blockbuster gift card, popcorn and movie candy). (Note from Frugal RI Mama – A subscription to Blockbuster Total Access or Netflix! is a great idea too.)

Handwritten decorative Christmas cards.

Cute photos in frames you can collect during the year (on sale of course).

Personalized gift baskets. You can buy a few items from the dollar store (candles, lotions, picture frames, etc.) and add something homemade as well such as fudge, party mix, cookies.

Pretty holiday trays or tins you can get at a $1 shop and fill them with cookies, candies, and dipped/decorated pretzel rods.

Homemade Bread.

“Gifts in a jar” – Just put all the ingredients and a recipe for cookies or cake or something on a mason jar and tie a ribbon around it.

Pretty soap sets. It is something that will be used.

Handmade Fabric book with finger puppets.

Handmade gifts like mittens, blankets, wrist rests for a keyboard, baked goods.

Marbled tile coasters with the kiddos pictures.

Handmade scrapbooks, paper bag albums, cards etc. (Note from Frugal RI Mama, Here are some of my favorite scrapbook supply stores (I’m an avid scrapbooker!) Scrapbook.com: Thousands of scrapbooking supplies. HUGE daily discounts! and Two Peas in a Bucket and Paper.com and my favorite one of all A Cherry On Top, Scrapbooking Shoppe. You can get all the supplies you need and some of these places even have message boards you can join and get lots of inspiration from!)

Magazine subscriptions. You can usually find good magazines for under $10 and it is the gift that they receive for the whole year. (Note from Frugal RI Mama Check out these places: MagMall.com and MagsForLess–Largest Selection and Cheapest Magazines Anywhere!!! Just use coupon code cjsave15p. OR MagsForLess Save 15% off any magazine subscription order over $25.00.)

Free samples as stocking stuffers.
(Note from Frugal RI Mama – you can get lots of samples that I have listed in the Free Sample section)

Homemade bath stuff (salts, oils,, etc)

Hand soap from the Body Shop. It is useful and they usually put out a coupon around the holidays.

Homemade jams. Put a couple in a basket with a loaf of homemade bread.

Green and Red candies and treats.

A few other ideas for “frugal” gifts that I came up with:

You could join, get the 5 DVD’s for .49 each and give them as gifts. That could cover 5 people!!!

If you are getting someone an IPod for Christmas you could preload it with 25 FREE songs when you join emusic, or get them a subscription to emusic!

Photostamps are an awesome gift, especially for those hard to buy for people and especailly grandparents! The last two years in a row, we’ve recieved these from friends and family members with pictures of our girls on them. I save them for when we send Cards or Thank you notes. Everyone loves getting them!

Omaha Steaks is another favorite of mine to recieve. We received this from our aunt and uncle a couple of years ago and it was, if I remember correctly, 2 complete meals for 2. It included potato’s and veggies. They have a great special right now where you get 2 free gifts. This is another good gift for those that are hard to buy for or even for those who live far away. Then you don’t have to worry about shipping it once you buy it.
And then there is always Amazon, they have great deals all the time.

As I come across more Holiday Gift Ideas I will add to this post. Please let me know if you have an idea please share!

Want to become Frugal? Learn how to HERE

Frugal Holiday Gift Ideas!! is a post from: Koupon Karen

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Building a Stock Pile / Buying in Bulk

Koupon Karen — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:10:00 +0000

I began buying items in bulk about a year ago. I never thought I’d become a stockpiler, but I have. My first exposure to a stockpile was at my mother’s house a few years ago. I didn’t realize at the time that is what she was doing, I just thought she was crazy. When Stop and Shop and Shaw’s started with their 10/$10 promotions, my mother thought you had to buy 10 items so she began stockpiling the items she could get for $1.00. I laughed at her but whenever I’d go visit, I’d go and shop in her store. Now she laughs at me and shops at my store! Funny how things happen.

My friends husband does not understand the reason to buy things you don’t need immediately, or buying in bulk. Part of their situation is they don’t have room but if they decided to buy in bulk then they could find the room, but he doesn’t want too. That’s OK, it’s not for everyone but for those who do want to try and build a stockpile, here are some ways to get it going.

But first let me explain some of the benefits of having a stockpile. You almost NEVER have to pay full price for something when you need it because you are stockpiling when things are on sale, and hopefully with a coupon. You almost always have something on hand to cook for dinner, make for lunch or to put together a quick snack. And if you happen to have bad weather, you’ll be all set for food. Stockpiling DOES save you money, if you do it slowly. Don’t try to get everything in one shopping trip. It could take months to build up a good stockpile. One thing to remember is that just about everything has an expiration date. When my mother first began her stock pile, she quickly realized she couldn’t stock pile everything because some things don’t have a long shelf life, like salad dressings. So be careful and if the shelf life isn’t long, then don’t get more than you can use in that time period. Most sales happen in cycles so you’ll be able to get more at a good price again.

How to begin your stockpile….

Figure out how much money you want to spend each week building up your stockpile. You can start with $20 if you’d like. With sales and coupons, $20 can go very far.

Make a list of the things you seem to use most often or run out of the most. Those are things you DO want to stockpile first. Remember, we aren’t’ just talking about food. You can stockpile health and beauty items too.

Again, don’t run out and buy everything at once. When the weekly sales flyer’s come, sit down and look to see if any of the items on your list are on sale that week.

Next you want to see if you have (or can get) coupons for those items. Coupons can come from many different sources…. The Sunday newspaper, Magazines, Boxes of products, the mail, printed from the Internet, from your family or friends and you can even purchase coupons on eBay or from a coupon clipping service, which I will explain more of later.

To begin, I suggest you ONLY buy items you have coupons for that are on sale that week. Figure out how much you can get with the amount you set aside for your stockpile.

Repeat this each week until you have a good stockpile going. Then just replenish as needed.

As you build your stockpile you may find items that never have coupons that you really want to stockpile. That is OK, but ONLY buy them when they are on sale. Remember the purpose to a stockpile is to help you save money. There will be weeks where you can get items for FREE with the right sale and the right coupons. If that’s the case, go crazy and get as much as you want. But try to leave some in the store for the next person. I know I hate when I go buy something and there are no more left.

Where to get coupons…

I mentioned above that you can buy coupons on eBay or from a coupon clipping service. First let me explain, you aren’t actually buying the coupons, but you are paying a service for them to clip, sort and send you the coupons. They don’t ever cost as much as face value, usually just a small fee is attached to each coupon. If you look on eBay, just do a search for the product you are looking for and you’ll get (possibly a big) list of what’s for sale. Most people will combine shipping so you don’t pay a lot for more than one purchase. You can also do a Google search for ‘coupon clipping services’.

Trade with other people through message boards. The one I use the most is Hot Coupon World. You can also do a search on Google for ‘money saving forums’ and you’ll find more. Besides trading coupons, these forums are a wealth of information for saving money and using coupons.

Write, email or call the manufacturer and ask to be put on a mailing list for coupons. While you are contacting them, it’s always nice to let them know how much you enjoy their products. I’m sure they get a lot of complaint and very few complements. Some will even send you a coupon for a free item. Those are always nice. Make a list of who you contact so you know who sends you something and who doesn’t. You can probably contact them again after a year for more coupons.

Search on Google for printable coupons. When I find good one’s I will post them on this blog so you can always check Printable Coupons to see what I have found. You can find some printable coupons on the right sidebar of my blog all the time.

Send for as many free samples as you can because almost always they send a coupon too. I will post here also when I find some so check Free Samples to see what I’ve found.

Buy more than one Sunday paper and/or ask your friends, family and co-workers for their coupons. Keep the coupon sections on hand until they all expire, even if you don’t cut them all out because there might be a good sale down the road for something you don’t normally buy or you wanted to try, or that you can get free or even make money on. You never know when you might need a coupon.

Look in the stores while you shop. You can often find coupons right in front of the product or display that you can use then or save for later. If you take more than one, remember to leave some for other people. You can always get more the next time you go shopping.

Saving money can and is addicting. Be sure to teach everyone you know how to do it so they don’t take everything from your stockpile, unless of course it’s your mother or daughter. That’s OK. LOL

Want to become Frugal? Learn how to HERE

Building a Stock Pile / Buying in Bulk is a post from: Koupon Karen

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