Go on over here to southernsavers.com and check out the Kroger sales this week. I am so excited to stock up on cereal!! Let me know what deals you get. I will be going out this afternoon to shop and I will share my results.

Have a blessed Sunday!!!!

Cutting back on the unimportant things...........

As Christmas draws near, I am reminded of the stress that comes with it. Every year, I am always pulled in a thousand directions, stressed about money, and worried that I forgot to send a Christmas card to someone. I am going to put my foot down this year, and say, “Not again!”

I have heard other bloggers talking about ways to have a frugal Christmas, not sending out Christmas cards, etc. I have decided to take some of their advice, but basically, I am going to focus on the important things. First and foremost that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the real “reason for the season”. Christmas is not about Santa and his reindeer, and we do not talk about Santa a lot in our house, but if the kids mention Santa, we don’t “burst their bubble”. Next in line is family and being thankful for our blessings, not begging God to give us more blessings so we can buy our kid or family that perfect gift. Christmas should not ever be about how much debt that we can accumulate; however many times we do that before we know it. Yes, my kids want expensive things, and they can continue to want those things, but they need to be happy with what we CAN get them and most of the time they are.

So as I sit here and think about Christmas, I am thinking about what I want it to be like, and this year, it will be simple and to the point with lots of family and church time thrown in.

We will not be sending out Christmas Cards. They cost money and time; we do not have much of either.

We will be making gifts for the kids’ teachers and some friends and family. Not only will this save money, but it will be things that we can do as a family. Hopefully these gifts will be cherished more too. We will not “overdo it” on any gift, our gifts will come from the heart.

We will be eating more meals at home instead of stopping by fast food because we are so worn out from all the running. Again, saving money and spending more time with family.

We will sit together on the couch and watch movies while drinking hot chocolate.

I will clip coupons and shop smart so that I can save our family every penny possible, so I am not stressing constantly! (Black Friday here I come!!!!!! On a quick side note, visit blackfriday.org to check out all the Black Friday ads early!)

I will not stress about decorating the Christmas tree this year. I will enjoy my time with my family and not care if every ornament is on the bottom of the tree!

Most importantly I will count my blessings and not my bills. I will spend time with my family instead of spending time worrying about perfection. I will worship my Savior instead of worshiping how pretty my tree and decorations look.

No, my Christmas, I am sure, will not be perfect, but it will definitely be better than previous Christmases have been, because I am cutting back on the unimportant things!

I got my spice rack in today!!!

So excited that I got my spice rack in today that I got from housewaresdeals.com!!! It was a great deal and I had to share my excitement.

Free or Cheap Christmas Gift!!!

Go on over here and check out a great deal. I took advantage of it.

Couponing - Lesson #2

Stockpiling

Webster’s dictionary defines a stockpile as “a: a reserve supply of something essential accumulated within a country for use during a shortage b: a gradually accumulated reserve of something”. So yes, I do stockpile. When I find an item on sale, such as the pasta and cream of chicken soup on sale at Kroger this week that I got for free with my coupons, I buy as many as possible. Things like that will last a while, and I won’t have the weekly expense of that item on my grocery list.

Stockpiling not only helps reduce your weekly grocery bill, but I stockpile other items too, like diapers, wipes, medicine, cleaning supplies, and health and beauty items that I find at great prices. Many of those items, like diapers and wipes can be used as gifts at baby showers or cleaning supplies can be used to create a basket for a newly married couple. I also donate stockpiled items when my church takes up a collection for a local children’s home or when my kid’s school has a food drive. I don’t have to run out and add an extra expense to my budget because I already have those items in my stockpile.

I store my stockpile in my kitchen on a bookshelf. Do you have an empty cabinet, a corner where you can set a bookshelf or a dry basement that you can put a shelf in? There are lots of ideas out there, and I’m sure we all have clutter that we can get rid of to create a space to stockpile in.

Good luck stockpiling! Join me for Lesson #3 when I will go into detail about shopping at Kroger.

Couponing - Lesson #1

By popular request I am going to be doing a series of couponing lessons. Lesson #1 will be the basics.

I started out by clipping every coupon, and I still do.

· My main source for coupons is the newspaper. I get the Sunday edition of the Lexington Herald Leader. Some people get more than one newspaper, so they can have multiple coupons, or they ask friends or family who do not clip coupons to put theirs aside for them. Another source for coupons is magazines. Always flip through your magazines for coupons. A great magazine to buy is the ALL YOU magazine that they sell at Wal-Mart. It almost always has $60 or more worth of coupons in it. It is cheaper to get a subscription for it than to buy it at the store.

· Now that you have all these coupons, you are probably asking what on earth do I do with them. You can be creative and come up with your own coupon organizer, you can buy one online, or you can copy mine. I bought a small index card holder, some index cards, and some sticky tabs to label my categories. You can separate them however you want. Just do what is easiest for you. I go through my coupons once or twice a month and get out the expired ones. My girls take gymnastics on Tuesday nights, so I normally just take my coupons in with me and go through them while they are in class. Work it into your schedule.

· You also may ask, “Why do you clip every coupon, especially when it is something you know you won’t use?” There is a very simple answer. If that item is on sale and I can get it for free with my coupon, I can donate it or give it to family or friends. My favorite saying is “If it’s free, it’s for me!”

Now, let’s talk about internet printed coupons.

· I only print coupons off the internet if I think I will use them. There are tons of sites where you can print coupons (www.coupons.com , www.smartsource.com , www.redplum.com , just to name a few). Almost always, you can print each coupon twice from each computer in your house. The sites recognize your computer, not your printer, so you can use the same printer with each computer. Our printer is wireless, so we can just hit print from our laptops without having to unhook everything. Lots of companies also offer coupons if you become a fan on www.facebook.com. Always check out the manufacturer websites too, because lots of times you will find great coupons there.

· It does take paper and ink to print these coupons and you may wonder if it is really worth it, but I have to say that it is. Office Depot and Staples have great sales at certain times of the year where you can get a box of paper for nearly free with rebates and coupons. Also, I always make sure that if just one coupon prints per page, I will rotate the page and print another coupon in the opposite direction, so I don’t waste paper. Also you may want to consider getting your ink cartridges refilled. Lots of stores offer great deals on that too.

Finally there are Digital Coupons.

· Digital Coupons can be really awesome. Here where I live the only store that we can use these at is Kroger, so that is where I do nearly all of my grocery shopping. Digital coupons are pretty simple, you go to the websites (www.cellfire.com, www.shortcuts.com, www.pgesaver.com, and www.kroger.com ), put in your information and your Kroger plus card number, and select the coupons that you want to load to your card. When you purchase those items at the store, the coupon will automatically come off. You can also use paper coupons on those same items. This makes for awesome deals, especially when that item is on sale.

· My only caution to you is to not load too many coupons on your card. Sometimes if you have too many on there, I have experienced that the most recently added ones do not come off.

My suggestion is that you pick a store to start with and not overwhelm yourself. The stores that I do are Kroger, CVS, and Walgreens. I normally do my shopping on Sunday afternoons, after church. I always make sure to check my favorite coupon sites (www.southernsavers.com, www.hip2save.com, www.stockpilingmoms.com, and www.faithfulprovisions.com) for coupon match-ups. Whatever store you decide to start with go to these sites, click on the store, and read up on that store’s policies and information. These sites are full of information for beginning couponers and it is how I got started. Don’t make this more difficult than it is, just have fun and save money!

Housewares Deal of the Day

Every day housewaresdeals.com has a deal of the day. Today is a 16 jar spice rack for only $19, shipping is around $5. This is a great deal and includes free spice refills for 5 years.

Go on over here and check it out!

Thank you stockpilingmoms for this!