10 Tips for Budget Friendly Living

I don't know about you, but when I used to think about couponing and saving $, I thought it was something for those cheap crazy people who had a lot of extra time on their hands. C'mon now, .$25, why bother?

First, I went into Americorp. Try living at the poverty level for a year and see how frugal you become.

Second, get married. It was amazing to me how different it was to manage your finances when there were two of you than when its just you. It's not just your money to do whatever you want with. Being the one doing most of the shopping, I suddenly felt a greater responsibility to be smart with our money.

If you're at all like me, the idea of coupons and deal shopping can be overwhelming and somewhat out of reach. But you know what I've found? Its really not that hard. And its well worth your time.

So here you go. Here's 10 of my money saving secrets-some simple and easy ways that I've learned to live on a budget:

1. Coupons: I do cut coupons, but rather than saving all of the inserts, I just go through them each week and cut out the ones I need. I keep these in a coupon organizer in my purse. I also go online to coupons.com, redplum.com, and smartsource.com about once a month (preferably the beginning, they do run out after so many people print them) and print off coupons. These change each month. Be sure to keep printing until you reach the limit on items that you would buy more than 1 of. I also subscribe to All You magazine which contains several coupons each month. Some stores also have coupon books from month to month-you can combine manufacturer coupons (the ones you cut or print) with store coupons (the ones offered by the store) and really save a lot.

2. Walgreens & CVS: One of the biggest ways I've learned to save money is by taking advantage of these 2 stores. I buy the majority of my milk, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, cereal, coffee, makeup and many other supplies from these 2 stores. And guess what? I pay less than I would at Wal-Mart! The key is watching their sales and combining coupons with the sales to get the best deal. Both of these stores also have their own reward program where you can earn money back at the register in the form of store coupons that can be used like $.

Here's an example: This week CVS had a 2 days sale on Pepsi products. The sale was 6 12 packs for $20. Not that great, right? If you spent the $20, however, you earned $10 back in "ExtraCareBucks" (a $10 coupon that prints at the register to use on your next visit), meaning you got 6 12 packs for $10. I rarely see anything for less than $2 a pack.

It's best if you can reuse your register bucks to buy more things that will give you register bucks so that you're never really spending much out of pocket, but I usually end up paying some out of pocket.

I hardly ever buy milk anywhere besides Walgreens. They almost always have the best price, unless a grocery store has some kind of special going on.

Every week I read both of these stores ads and make a list, but I also refer to a couponing website called www.frugalcouponliving.com to help me out. They post a list every week of sale items along with places you can get coupons, whether they're using coupons from the Sunday paper or something they've found on the Internet. This has been the biggest help for me.

3. Read your ads!!! My grocery list for the week is comprised mainly of sale items that are found in the ad. Whenever there is a really good sale, I stock up. I also usually look at the online ad, as it has some additional items that are not found in the print ad (HyVee is my grocery store of choice). I also always do my grocery shopping on Tuesdsays b/c every Tuesday my HyVee offers 2 free items with a $10 purchase. Last week I got a free roll of pork sausage that I used to make supper.

4. Meal Planning: Personally, I do better planning my meals based on what I have on hand rather than planning meals and then buying the supplies I need. When you do that you're usually going to end up buying things that aren't on sale. Instead, I stock up on things that I know I use regularly and find different meals based on the ingredients I have. Bettycrocker.com and kraft.com allow you to put in the ingredients you have and come back with a recipe that includes those ingredients.

5. Eating out: Where we eat usually depends on what coupons we have. B1G1 Free coupons are usually the best deal, but there are many other things you can do without spending a lot of $. One of our favorite types of food is Mexican. There are several authentic Mexican restaurants in our area, and most of them have what is called an "al a carte" sp? menu. Whereas most entrees come with sides like rice and beans which I rarely eat, this menu allows you to pick and choose what you want for a much lower price. They also usually offer complimentary chips and salsa which my husband loves. Another favorite of ours is Little Caesars, which offers ready made pizza's for only $5. We usually also go online and get a coupon which allows us to get Crazy Bread for 1/2 price. Instead of going out every weekend, we also sometimes stay home with a Redbox movie and a Tombstone Pizza which I generally get at WalMart for less than $3.

Another thing you can do is buy an Entertainment Book for your city. If you go out a lot, it is well worth the $. As the year goes on, they become cheaper.

B-Day Clubs: Many restaurants have special birthday offers when you sign up online. Kev had a birthday recently and got a bunch of freebies. Restaurants I know of include Steak and Shake, Culvers, Coldstone, Ruby Tuesdays, Carlos O Kelly's, BWW's, Starbucks, TGI Fridays, and many more!

6. Retail Coupons: Before I go shopping, I usually jump online to make sure and print off any store coupons that might be out there. I hardly ever go to JCPenney's, Gordmon's, Bath & Body Works, Old Navy, Payless or Younkers without a store coupon. Every time you shop at Penny's, look on your store receipt to see how you can fill out a survey for a 15% coupon on your next visit. From my experience, Penny's will combine these survey coupons with other store coupons, so you can really save some money that way. Gordman's sends me a 20% off coupon every month for signing up for the email list, which also lets me know when they're having things like an extra 33%-50% off their clearance. Old Navy has a website called oldnavyweekly.com where you can search for store coupons by clicking around. Although I usually think of Younkers as a more expensive store, they almost weekly send out coupons in their ad which can help you get some good deals. Today I got new bath towels there for under $3 and got Kev two new dress shirts for about $8 a piece. With places like Bath and Body Works and Payless, I am also signed up for their emails which have coupons, or you can go to a website like www.wow-coupons.com which has a whole list of printable retail coupons. Bath and Body Work has a Semi Annual sale in December-January and June-July where they offer many items 75% off. I've done a lot of Christmas shopping at these sales.

Last Sunday/Monday Old Navy had an additional 50% off their clearance items. I think I got at least 10 items for $40, which is usually more than I would spend but I had a $37 gift card and a $20 credit.

Right now, Payless has a 15% coupon out there and is having a B1G1 50% off sale. I got two pairs of shoes today for $12.

7. Thrift Shopping: Even though I am able to find some good deals at retail stores, by far the best deals are found at local thrift stores like Goodwill and also at yard sales. Every Monday, the local Davenport Goodwill has a $.25 day where items with a certain color of tag are only $.25, and every Tuesday its the same thing in Bettendorf. I have found some really good deals on these days. I've also had some really good finds at yard sales.

8. Household Deals: I'm sure all of you have heard of Craig's List, which we have here in the QC, but we also have another website known as QC Online where you can get good deals on used furniture, appliances and many other household items by buying directly from the seller. We'got our couches, our refridgerator, our stove, our headboard, our dishwasher, our kitchen table, our washer, our entertainment center, our patio door and many other things all from QC Online/Craigslist for a fraction of the cost of a new one. You can also post and sell things on this website for free.

9. Home Updates and Repairs: We are blessed with Kev being able to do many of the repairs around our house. When it comes to updating our house, however, one of our favorite places to go is the local Habitat for Humanity Store. This store offers many items that can be used in your home at a very low cost. For example, we found a vinyl window to replace our existing original windows for $20. If you're looking to do any home repairs, be sure to check here.

10. Menards Rebate Program: Menards has several items on rebate each month/week which make them free to much less than they would normally be. If you buy a rebate item (these are advertised in the ads and a list can also be found on websites like frugalcouponliving), the rebate "slip" will print out at checkout. All you have to do is include this slip with a small form that you get from the store and send it in to receive a check back for the rebate amount. This month we got some paint for $4.99 or so a gallon after rebate that we're going to use to paint our utility room. They have anything from paint brushes to tools to caulk often times for free.

Now, that's a pretty long list but these are simple and easy ways for you to save money. It might take a little extra effort, but the savings will make it well worth you while. Just think, if you were able to save only a $5 a week, that $250 a year! And believe me, you will be saving much more than that if you are committed to finding the best deals. You'll learn to be more careful with how much you spend when you know how much you could be saving.

Isabelle & Jazzie

If any of you know me, you know that I hate geese. With a passion. My Dad has geese and I hate them. Every time I'm there they chase me and I throw things at them. When Dad asks why there is a football or basketball near them I tell him that they wanted to play with it so I tossed it to them.

In light of this information, the two geese on my front step present a slight irony. If I hate geese so much, why do I have some those horrible statue type "lawn" geese on my front step?

If you know my Grandmother, you know that when she gets an idea in her mind, you might as well go along with it because any attempt to argue will be completely in vain. One day Grandma up and decided that it was time for the geese to move to my house, and next thing I know here she is at my house with my new "friends."

Not only did she personally deliver them to my house, but she also brought along their "laundry," which is what it says on the outside of their clothes box: Isabelle & Jazzie's laundry. And if you hadn't guessed by now, they even came with names.

Their original outfits were special "Purdue" dresses, and the big one-I assume this is Isabelle, even had a Purdue helmet. For Christmas they got brand new John Deere colored winter outfits. They even have little stocking caps to match. These were specially crouched by Grandma's 80 year old friend Earline.

Aren't they lovely?

Unplanned Saturdays

Since I am behind this is actually from last Saturday, so bear with me while I catch up.

Last Saturday Kev had many things to do on his to do list as usual. Before he got to any of those things however, he thought he should further investigate the mysterious piece of metal that showed up in the driveway one morning after he backed his truck out as he was leaving for work.

If you've ever seen a brake pad, this little piece looks a lot like what half of one would look like. Since he had recently plowed the driveway with the lawn mower, he thought maybe it had come from there but wondered how it didn't get buried when he pushed the snow around.

After some investigation, he found that not only was it indeed a piece of a brake pad, and not only were his brake pads totally shot, but that his rotors were also damaged from the brakes being so bad. If he were to have ever to have slammed on his brakes, there would be a major problem.


Interestingly enough, the day before he was very close to having to do that. As he was crossing the I-74 bridge, he felt his truck start to "dance." Fortunately he was able to get things slowed down and under control, but if he would've had to hit those brakes, there probably would've been a major problem. On top of that, he happened to look over towards the median and saw an SUV that had apparently did the exact same thing and ended up over there. Had Kev not have felt that and been able to slow down, he probably would've ended up much closer to that SUV than he would've liked.

It's amazing how God's protection is on us when we don't even know it. Had he not found that piece of brake in the driveway it probably would've been awhile before he noticed. Nonetheless, 3 trips to OReilley's, $300 poorer and 9 hours later, he hadn't exactly spent his Saturday as he had hoped to:

2009 in Review

I got this idea from others that have done it, but thought it was a good idea to start the new year out about reflecting on the previous one. So here goes: the Hendress 2009 year in Review...

January: It seems like we always start the year off with changes. In Jan 2007 I started going to LeClaire and met Kev. In 2008, we were on our honeymoon. By Jan 2009, we were starting out in our "new" church. May not seem like a big deal, but it was a pretty big deal to us. We loved our church in LeClaire, but after much praying and a "coincidental" lunch with some friends, we felt God very clearly leading us to a new and different one.

At that same lunch with friends that went to what would be our new church, we also happened to run in to another friend that invited me to a Bible Study that was just down the road from us, so I also started attending that in January.

Oh, and let us not forget, Kev turned the big 3-0 on the 11th!

March: We are finally able to finish off our 2nd bathroom! Kev started building this back in 2007 when he bought the house. His plan was to finish it off with a drop ceiling, which he did in March, my plan was to finish it off with some much needed paint and some decorative flair, which I did in the next couple of months. I also painted our upstairs bathroom.

April: Kev decided that it was time to start his garden. Rather than doing the gardening in pots this year, we decided to go ahead and dig up a piece of our yard. I think he got a little carried away-we ended up with 18 tomato plants.

June: Having been in our new church a few months by this point, I was involved in getting the VBS program up and running, which took place in June. We had 30 kids that came and went throughout the week with 5 salvation decisions!

We also replaced our deck in June into July. It was basically rotting at the seams, so it was good to get done.

July: I had strep on the 4th of July, so we got to watch the fireworks from the comfort of our truck on some back road outside of Grand Mound. Shortly after my strep began what became a long drawn out health issue for me lasting all the way up to, well, now. Thankfully I was able to see a specialist that finally helped me to determine the cause, but not until October, which made for a long next few months.

My aunt Pam also got married in July! I was her personal attendant and also did her invitations and programs for her.

And how could I forget, Kev's annual "Tractor Pull" at Walcott Days. For July, it was amazingly chilly as you can tell by coats and sweatshirts!



August: In an interesting turn of events, we actually ended up leaving the church we had felt "called" to as we were never able to feel at peace with joining and felt it was finally time for us to look elsewhere. We are still without a church "home."

We also made our annual State Fair trip with my family. This year we got to see Steven Curtis Chapman along with Jeremy Camp. My Mom also rented a car this year so we could all drive up in one vehicle, which made things a little more interesting than usual.

Kevin's parents also came over for a visit and helped us replace our patio door. It was also rotting and once we took it out the glass started to fall out of the door.

September: I guess I forgot to mention that sometime in the spring of 09 I was asked to be a discussion leader in my Bible Study, so I began that in September. We also made another annual trip to the Old Threshers Reunion in Mount Pleastant.

October: I was finally able to get in to see the specialist and get relief from the health issue I had been struggling with for several months. We also took a trip to Dubuque to look at the leaves and enjoy the colors of fall.

November: Since Kev's parents had just made a trip over in August, they opted not to come in November when they usually do so Kev and his Dad can go to the Dyersville National Toy Tractor show. So guess who got to go instead?

December: Kev applied for a new job (within Deere), but a much anticipated change as it allowed him to move up a pay grade. Although it involves being on call for a month at a time, its said that they are lucky to get one call after hours in that month, if any. Having just got off call where he got 5 calls in one day on a weekend, he's really looking forward to that.

Doesn't sound like much when you write it all out, but we did a lot of growing this year, and I'm sure we'll continue to do so in the upcoming year. Things didn't always turn out how we expected, in fact, they usually don't, but we know that God is good and he will see us through whatever he brings our way. I'm sure next year will have its ups and downs as well, but every year is another year to see his goodness as he continues to work in and through our lives.

Have a blessed 2010!

New and Improved!

As you can see I've made some changes...my hope is to become a more frequent blogger-so far I'm struggling, but I'm working on it. So here it is: new and improved. Hope you enjoy!