Saving Money Other Ways...
Would you ever give up cable? NO! Not us, never. Because we are big fans of our TV time. But circumstances this past two years led us to the conclusion that we could save a LOT of money by getting rid of our huge cable bill each month-our largest utitity bill. So, we did the unthinkable (at least unthinkable to us) and cancelled the HD channels, the DVR player (I thought I might cry at this one), all the movie channels, Disney-Cartoon Network (Gasp is heard for miles from our kids), and yes ESPN (my sports fanatic hubby very nearly cried at this one). We took it down to basic cable and by basic, I mean CBS, ABC, NBC, and the local govt channel and only because they (cable co) begged us to keep that at a much reduced rate for 12 months (insert smile here).
I thought it would be terrible, NO DVR?? My kids thought the world ended, no cartoon channels?? No ESPN?? But guess what? We have all survived it, found new outlets to fuel our TV time, and even bonded more as a family!
Do go on-you say...I have found that almost all of my favorite shows can be viewed for free online, we already had an ipad (also free thanks to my hubby winning multiple sales contests at work) and on the ipad we downloaded the cartoon network app and it allows the kids to see cartoons that we don't already have on the tons of DVD's that they already have. My husband has watched his beloved UK Cats on the internet via live streaming ESPN or whatever channel they are being shown on and we found netflixs! Netflixs is cheap (9.00 a month for streaming internet movies via the wii and wi-fi) and mailed DVD's which come super fast. So we cut our cable/internet bill from 200+ dollars a month down to less than $60 including the cost of internet/local channels/netflixs. Thats a lot of moolah over the course of a year!
So, think outside the box...what can you change in your daily life that will make a big difference? Brown bagging your lunch, limiting your eating out to once every few weeks (and only with coupons!), cutting a cable or telephone bill? Every little change can really add up!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Why do we call it Couponing for Christ?
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| My Crew-4 of the 5 Olivers! |
I was asked this question recently and wanted to share our answer with you for our newest followers. Brandi and I have been couponing for over a year now. We had talked about our love of doing it and as good friends do, we hung out a lot. But instead of going out to eat or for coffee (not that we don't love our Starbucks!) we would go shopping late at night after the kiddos were in bed and many times after church on Sundays. We would lug in our huge binders and tote bags (Brandi's all nice and neat, mine-um...not so much) and we would shop, talk, and usually go over the lesson or sermon of the night. We were (and still do) getting stopped by people all the time, inquiring about our massive binders, our buggy full of food, and at the checkout-claims of amazement and people begging us to teach them how to do what we were doing. After a few months of this and of helping out several friends from our neighborhoods and church, we decided that maybe God was trying to tell us something. That we had a gift and that we needed to help others.
So, we decided to give it a try. We started out with a bang, hosting many successive coupon classes and people asking us if we had a website. Brandi's talented husband set up the website and we begin to slowly blog. While we don't blog as much as the big sites, we do try to come up with interesting and not so "blogged" about deals, especially locally. We encourage everyone that comes to our classes to contact us if they need us for deal questions, prayer concerns, anything really...we want to really "be" there for our friends.
We really encourage everyone to use the blessings that you receive from couponing (and yes, there is really a lot of blessings to be had from couponing and saving money) to help others. You can bless others with your stockpile, donate to local charities, hospice, church food banks, and help out your family. You can take the money that you save or make from these deals and use it for the glory of God. Brandi and I both tithe out of our coupon class money, yard sale overage sales, ect. We use our stockpiles to make baskets up for neighbors, donate to the monthly projects at church, donate to local charity (my personal favorite is Greenhouse Ministries in Murfreesboro), and we let our family "shop" in our freebie closet!
Brandi is a stay at home mom of one who is super talented and busy...always helping out neighbors and running her side business MOMMY MAINTENANCE SERVICE, teaching Sunday School, Adult class at night, and helps with the Children's Ministry. I am a now working mom (that was a brief stay at home mom for the last 15 months until recently) who is an accountant, with three kiddos and a super talented hubby, who is always on the go. You can find me at the ballfield or at church most of my spare time. I serve on the Finance Committee at church and my husband is a Sunday School teacher and on several of our church committees.
So, there is a little bit about us...we hope to use our talents in whatever way is pleasing to God, be it a small crowd or a large crowd. We have been SOOOO blessed by the opportunities we have been given to meet some of you (planned and randomly (and sidenote, do you know how amazing and such a God thing it is to randomly meet someone who follows our page out in public???). We hope we continue to get to meet you all on a personal basis, talk with you on the phone, read emails, comments, and texts from you (yes, you can contact us anyway you see fit!). We hope you and whomever you have mentioned, recommended, and brought to us is fulfilled by our posts, excited about our deals, and as always feeling the love and prayers that we have for all of you!
God bless all of you!
Jen <3
Fisher price coupons + target q= good deals!
Head on over HERE to print coupons for Fisher Price toys. Pair that with the Target 20% off q found HERE
and you have yourself a sweet deal on Fisher Price toys!
Come back and let us know if you snag any of these...they would make a great gift for a baby shower!
Thanks TotallyTarget.com
New Daily Deals Site!
Check out this new Daily Deals Site...I am loving all these new sites popping up!
Saving money other ways- Series One
Just a few thoughts this RAINY morning (thank you Lord for the rain, our grass and flowers need it!)
Saving serious money has to be a train of thought...a constant thought process before buying ANYTHING! There is savings to be had in so many venues that before this train of thought, you wouldn't think of...
For instance, my hubby and Brandi's hubby take care of the car needs and maint. For years my husband has gotten up, drove to the local oil change place and local car parts place and bought what he needed. He would complain about the high costs of some of this stuff...but we never really did more than complain about it. Until I started couponing and pouring over blogs in my spare time (which isn't much with 3 active kiddos!)
and now we both know to search the web for coupons, coupon codes, ect. My husband has figured out that he can save us a ton of money the following ways:
1. Order our motor oil online in bulk from the supplier (big, big savings!)
2. Order the car parts online site to store using discount codes...saves him at least 20% a part and at $200 for the part, that is $40.00!!! And in most cases, he can pick up the part in an HOUR at our local Auto Advance...wow!
3. Coupons for oil changes...they are everywhere, but you probably ignore them...on discount cards the school sells, in the newspaper, in the coupon mint...in your junk mail! And if your oil change is normally $50-70 dollars, and you get it for $20-30, another $20-30.00 savings! Adds up with 2-4 vehicles in a family!
4. Car washes...yeah, we all love good quick run thrus at these local places...but most of them are costly. I bought Butch a carwash set from Target that ended up being a moneymaker last christmas. So, we only pay the cost of water to wash the cars...the car set came with soap, towels, brushes, wax, ect!
5. Rebates...did you know there is rebates on car parts? Frequently there is, you have to look around the store for signs, search the sites, ect. Windshield wipers are an item that I see rebates for on quite a bit.
So, that is series one of "Saving money on Other Items" and remember-saving money opens up doors to allow you to give more time and money! And the more you bless others, and the more you take care of your finances in a way that is pleasing to God, the more he will truly BLESS you and your family!
Saving serious money has to be a train of thought...a constant thought process before buying ANYTHING! There is savings to be had in so many venues that before this train of thought, you wouldn't think of...
For instance, my hubby and Brandi's hubby take care of the car needs and maint. For years my husband has gotten up, drove to the local oil change place and local car parts place and bought what he needed. He would complain about the high costs of some of this stuff...but we never really did more than complain about it. Until I started couponing and pouring over blogs in my spare time (which isn't much with 3 active kiddos!)
and now we both know to search the web for coupons, coupon codes, ect. My husband has figured out that he can save us a ton of money the following ways:
1. Order our motor oil online in bulk from the supplier (big, big savings!)
2. Order the car parts online site to store using discount codes...saves him at least 20% a part and at $200 for the part, that is $40.00!!! And in most cases, he can pick up the part in an HOUR at our local Auto Advance...wow!
3. Coupons for oil changes...they are everywhere, but you probably ignore them...on discount cards the school sells, in the newspaper, in the coupon mint...in your junk mail! And if your oil change is normally $50-70 dollars, and you get it for $20-30, another $20-30.00 savings! Adds up with 2-4 vehicles in a family!
4. Car washes...yeah, we all love good quick run thrus at these local places...but most of them are costly. I bought Butch a carwash set from Target that ended up being a moneymaker last christmas. So, we only pay the cost of water to wash the cars...the car set came with soap, towels, brushes, wax, ect!
5. Rebates...did you know there is rebates on car parts? Frequently there is, you have to look around the store for signs, search the sites, ect. Windshield wipers are an item that I see rebates for on quite a bit.
So, that is series one of "Saving money on Other Items" and remember-saving money opens up doors to allow you to give more time and money! And the more you bless others, and the more you take care of your finances in a way that is pleasing to God, the more he will truly BLESS you and your family!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
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