Save money with gift cards

Wow!  It's been forever since I've posted!  New goal: post at least once every week.  We'll see how well I do with that one ;)

My tip for today is to use gift card for purchases.  But you have to buy the gift cards at a grocery store.  Most grocery stores sell a large selection of gift cards for many popular retailers and restaurants.
*If you are planning to eat out or shop at a different retailer, buy their gift card at the grocery store.
* The grocery store will give you gas rewards points for the purchase of the gift card.
*Then take the gift card and make your purchases using the gift card.

For example: 

I am going to be building garden boxes within the next month or two(keep a look out for a how to post!).  I need to buy wood, nails etc. from the home improvement store.  

I am going to buy $100 in gift cards for the home improvement store AT MY GROCERY STORE.  

I will get $0.10 off a gallon for purchasing the gift cards.

I will then take the gift cards to the home improvement store and buy my materials with the gift cards.  

Also:  Need to get a gift card for a gift for someone?  Buy it at the grocery store and then you will get the gas rewards points!  

Good luck!  

PS: share your tips and hints with us!  

Cut Your Food Bills

I really struggled with putting this post in my money saving blog or my cooking blog.  I finally decided on the money savers blog since the purpose of this is to save money, not a new way to cook or season something.
I cannot take full credit for this tip; my nutritionist gave me this tip.  Buy veggies fresh from the market when they are on sale.  Then blanche and freeze the veggies.  Buy the veggies when they are on sale.  Most grocery stores and farm markets will put the veggies on sale the day they are supposed to go bad.  Buy the veggies then and blanch and freeze.  They are cheaper and the freezing process will make them last for a while.

All the veggies I got from the local farmers market.  Spent $6 on everything.

I will take you through the blanching process for the carrots.  It's very simple and easy to do.  

1.  Peel and slice the carrots.  Cook in salted boiling water for 1-2 minutes only! 

2.  After the 1-2 minutes of cooking time, transfer the cooked carrots to ice water.  This will stop the cooking process.  

Cooked carrots in ice bath to stop the cooking process. 

3.  After the carrots have cooled in the ice bath, transfer them to a baking sheet lined with paper towels to  remove excess water.  

Dry the carrots with paper towels. 

4.  Put the carrots in plastic bags to freeze.  Make sure to label the bags with a permanent market with the date and what is in the bag.  After your bags are filled, put in the freezer.  

Ready to freeze!

That's it!  That's the blanching and freezing process.  I spent $6 on veggies and it will last me about a month.  So much cheaper than buying frozen veggies from the grocery store.  

When you are ready to eat the veggies, just dunk them in boiling water for a few minutes, drain and serve.  

Flowers!

I LOVE having fresh cut flowers around my house.  They make the house seem so much more homey, bright and cheerful.  The down side is that the flowers died and you are kind of just throwing away money.  For me, this expense is worth it.  I have a few tips to make your fresh flows last longer, stretching your flower dollar.

Tulips in my living room.  $7 from grocery store. 

1.  Try and buy flowers when they are on sale.  Most flower shops or grocery stores will put flowers on sale when they are on their last leg.  Sunflowers are my favorite, so I will sometimes pay a little more than normal for them.  

I bought flowers from the flower shop stand at my local farmers market this week.  The lady working at the stand gave me some tips:

2.  Put the flowers in warm, not hot water.  Flowers do not like cold water.  

3.  Change the water and re-cut the bottoms of the stems about every other day.  Flowers hate dirty water.  

Some other tips that I have picked up over time:

4.  Dissolve and aspirin in the flower water.  

5.  I also read that a shot of vodka in the water will make the flowers last longer.  I have never tried this one myself.  

Sunflowers in my kitchen, from the local farmers market.
$10 for 3 sunflowers and the 2 purple flowers

Enjoy your flowers!  Please share if you have any other tips for making them last longer!

Make More Money

I was watching the Today Show yesterday and they had tips on how to make more money this year.  Their tips were stupid.  Not practical at all.

Here are their tips:
1.  Get a part time job.
2.  Start an online store.
3.  Charge petty cash for mini projects.
4.  Tutoring, or teaching a course.
5.  Babysitting or pet sitting.

Why these tips are stupid and not practical at all:
1.  Who has time for a part time job with a full time job?  It is NOT worth working all the time and never sleeping just to take in a few extra bucks.  You will go nuts and turn into a grouch.
2.  This one is sort of not stupid.  If you have something that you can sell online that people want/need, go for it.  Don't spend too much money for your online store.  The down side is that most people do not have extra money to spend on random things online.
3. People can't afford to spend money to mini projects that they could just do on their own.
4.  OK, who has time to tutor?  If you do have the time, the skills, and the clients, go for it.
5.  Babysitting is not practical for the majority of us, unless we are still in high school.   Most of us do not have the time.  If you neighbor is going out of town and needs someone to feed the cat, offer to do it for a small amount of money.  But this will not bring in extra cash to pay the bills.

My Tips For Making More Money: 
1.  pick up some extra shifts at the full time job you already work.  Most places will pay you overtime.  And you don't have to get another job.
2.  Go through your house and find things that you do not want.  Sell them online or have a yard sale.  This will not bring in tons of money, but it might give you a little extra cash.
3.  Sell clothing at consignment shops.

Good luck!  Please share your money making tips :)

Start Fresh In The New Year!

Wow!  It's been almost a month since I last posted!  The past month has been crazy busy for me.  I just moved into my new house, my first big girl house.  No more apartments for me!  Anyway, that has really taken up a lot of my time over the past month.  Work has also been crazy busy, and I have revamped my schedule, so things will be less stressful for the new year.

I have a few money saving goals(resolutions) for the new year.  These are my personal goals, I encourage you to make your own money saving goals to accomplish in this new year.
Some tips:
1.  Make the goals reasonable.  Don't make the goal something that you know you cannot achieve.
2.  Make a timeline for the goal.  Split the year up into quarters, and set mini goals within the larger goal to make by the end of each quarter.
3.  Ask for help.  Don't ask people for money, that is a bad habit to get into.  But if you need help organizing your filing cabinet, ask for help.  If you need help understanding a bill, ask for help.
4.  Don't stress!  Take it easy; the goals are supposed to make the year easier, not more stressful.

My money saving goals for the year:

1.  Pay off my credit card debt.  Yes, I have some credit card debt.  From about age 18-21ish, I have racked up some credit card debt.  This year, I want to pay it off.  Making monthly payments on a credit card is a waste of money, with the interest rates racking up.  I want to pay it off, and not make any more purchases with my cards.  CARDS ARE FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY!

2.  Organize my filing cabinet and set up an organized bill paying system.  I have some ideas for a good organized bill paying system, I will be posting about this system within the next month.  An organized bill paying system will prevent paying bills late and prevent late fees.

3.  Maximize my take home pay.  I don't want to work 60 hours a week just to take in more money, I would go nuts.  I would like to keep my full time job the way it is, and add something else to bring in some cash.  I will be posting another blog within the next few weeks about ideas for taking in more cash.

What are your money saving goals for the new year?

needs vs. wants

When trying to save money, one of the first places to start is looking at where you money is going.  Are you spending the majority of your money on needs or wants?  In order to save money, it is helpful to make sure you are spending the majority of your money on NEEDS.  Print out your bank statement for the past month and highlight all your needs in one color then highlight all your wants in another color.  You should have more needs highlighted than wants.  If not, make some changes; stop spending so much money on wants.  Cut back on 1 want per month and you will save money.

So what is a want and what is a need?  Sometimes it is hard to tell.  Do you need to buy your morning coffee or tea from the coffee shop?  Probably not.  Do you need to buy groceries to feed you and your family?  Yes.  Do you need to buy that cute new sweater?  Probably not.  Do you need to have enough clothes?  Yes.  Make a list of what you think your needs and wants are, this will make it easier to see where you can cut back.

Here is my challenge for you:  Do you NEED TV?

When you think about it, the answer should be no, I don't NEED TV.  Cut back to basic cable or get ride of cable altogether.  You can watch shows online or get a mail order DVD service for shows and movies.  Either way, it is much cheaper than spending money on cable.  You will also cut down on your electric bill, saving you even more money.

DIY Skin Care

I have found that one of the things I spend the most money on is skin care products.  I have acne prone skin, and probably will for the rest of my life.  My mom still gets break out and calls then her "sign of youth."  I'd rather skip the sign of youth and get rid of the break outs.  And in my quest for crystal clear skin, I end up spending tons of money.

I was browsing Pinterest the other day and found a tip for DIY skin care.  They used 3 uncoated aspirin and water to make a facial mask/scrub.  This is supposed to help with acne prone skin.  I was really skeptical at first.  How can aspirin clear up my skin?  But I tried it and it is AMAZING!  My skin has never felt so smooth and clean after using this DIY mask.

Here's what you do:
Take 3 uncoated aspirin in a bowl and add a tiny bit of warm water.  Using your fingers, mush up the aspirin in the water.  It will make a thick gritty paste.  Put the paste all over your face and rub in with your fingers.  It will dry quickly.  Splash your face with warm water and rub the mask into your skin, then rinse off.  The results, beautiful smooth skin!

Save money:  Buy the aspirin at the dollar store!   I spent $1 +tax on a bottle of aspirin that I will use for this face mask.  You will get about a month's use about of this $1 that you spent.  WAY cheaper than any other skin care product and works great!