Coupon 101

I will be teaching another coupon class tonight but I am finding a problem. I have lots of people asking about how to find great deals but fewer and fewer people coming to my classes. I know everyone is sooo very busy, life just kinda happens and messes up our plans. So I thought I would post tips, step by step, over a few days on how to save. Then you can read at your leisure and follow the steps yourself. By the way, if anyone has a group that you would like to get together I would gladly come to you to teach a class. I don't charge- so what do I get out of it you ask? Nothing really, just the satisfaction of helping others. I have been blessed in many ways and I just enjoy seeing others go WOW! at a great deal. Consider it the "Pay it Forward" philosophy. Plus, I just love sharing how I survive with only $100 or less a week for groceries, hygiene products, paper products including diapers, and household cleaners for my family of 6.

So tip #1: Get your coupons!
In order to work the coupons ya gotta have COUPONS. They mostly come from the paper. The Post Register has a "coupon" or "pinching pennies" deal where you get a daily paper but on Sunday you get 5 copies for $17/month on auto pay. Now, why would you want 5 Sunday papers? To get 5 copies of each coupon!!! Then when a great sale comes along I can stock up with my 5 coupons then sit back and enjoy until another great deal comes along. This is how you build your WORKING food storage. It will start to accumulate really quickly with 5 coupons. I spend about an hour on Sunday clipping my coupons AND filing them into my binder (more on this later) so it is not too time consuming either. The other places to look for coupons is in the mail, along the store aisles, or by trading with friends and online. Rebekah likes Suave shampoo, I like Pantene, so we swap. 10 Pantene coupons for the next sale YAHOOO!! It's win/win for both of us. Sound good? Get your subscription to the paper- YES it's worth it. Rebekah watched me for a couple of months before realizing she couldn't afford NOT to get the coupon subscription. You definantly get your money back.
Watch for how to organize your coupons next.... and leave me a note and tell me if this is helpful or not. I sometimes wonder who, if anyone, ever reads my wanderings...

200+ bottles

Last week I was a canning fool! We held our own canning marathon. I needed to get the house cleaned up but first had to finish the canning. I got home from working all night and set in immediately. At 9pm I shut the stove off and drug myself up to bed. I was exhausted. I had not slept in over 24 hours!

71 bottles of corn, frozen broccoli....

pickled beats....

jam and corn.....

more corn....

peaches and pears....

18 quarts of beans
By Saturday night I had canned over 200 bottles of pears, peaches, jam, pickled beets, green beans, carrots and corn and frozen numerous bags of broccoli. WHEW! Now the fruit room is stocked full. I only have salsa and stew left to do. It is a lot of work but I have very happy to see my storage built up. We may be out of a job but we will still have full bellies. The Lord is watching over us and blessings abound. (I just have to remember this EACH day!)

Clean Carpets!

I spent my grocery money this week on carpet cleaning. For $104 I got 3 rooms, the hallway and my stairs cleaned. It was worth it! What do you think? Best Price Carpet Cleaning did it. They were a great bunch; nice and very efficient. Here is my living room before- yuck!

and the after:

You could literally see black and white as they were cleaning. Now to keep it clean. I thought of demanding "stocking feet only" but they are usually barefoot....hmmmm gonna have to think.....