Being a saavy shopper: Saving Money on Christmas & other needs and wants...

[MOMof3]

I noticed the post below about the expense that comes with Christmas shopping and other things such as Birthdays, Weddings, etc... Since I've been in a chapter 13 and can no longer put things on my card to pay for later (at a much higher cost), I've learned to do a lot of things to try to save money. I will say that I shop for things ALL YEAR, I try not to wait until the last minute when it's easy to make an impulse buy. My husband and I made the mistakes to get into this mess, not our kids, so I have tried not to let them feel the pinch if I can. Although education about money I think is VERY important! My kids know that the first place they need to look for something they want is on-line and with a coupon code--LOL. I know I spend less, but I feel sometimes like I get so much more because I am really paying attention and looking out for bargains. I was thinking we could all list some money saving ideas we've found and all help eachother save a few bucks.

One of my favorite places is woot.com and kids.woot.com I was able to get my son a great remote control car for christmas last year, exactly what he wanted, all terrain, very high end for around $40 with shipping. I also bought my daughter's birthday present via kids woot 6 months ahead of time, I bought a thomas talking railway set for I think $50, These usually run well over $100. You have to check Woot every day. I purchase things way in advance as long as I have the funds available. I've already purchased quite a few items for Christmas this way!

I ALWAYS, and I mean always (my 11 year old daughter will attest to this), look for coupon codes first before any on-line purchase! I usually use flamingoworld.com, but there are a few other sites out there too.

Another favorite place to shop is Craigslist! I was able to find a nearly brand new bedding set for my oldest daughter as well as a new (used) bed for my son & bunk beds for my girls. We have also purchased countless other things (and sold numerous outgrown/un items), off of CL. I sold my kids old VTech play system a couple of years ago for $50 and used that money to buy three games for their Wii. We also traded an old pickup truck that we had for a new TV (our other one broke)--so bartering is cool too. This year I plan on selling off some baby items to help purchase new things for the kids.

I'm not a big coupon clipper, I admit I probably spend too much on groceries, but I do shop the generic versions of things & sale items & also shop at Fred Meyer and love getting my .10 off gas at the pump & quarterly rebate checks & coupons.

I know this is a small list...but hopefully we can get a good thread going so that we can help save people some money over the holidays! I can't wait to see everyone elses secrets!

[mrskal]

Great advice, I also look for coupon codes for everything! Just found one for my moving truck rental that saved 20%. I am doing some craigslist shopping myself. Got a couch, loveseat and chair for $250, practically new since it was in their basement and never used. I sold my old washer and dryer to my friend and am going to use that to buy used ones once I get to Florida. That way I did not have to move them.

[enginegirl]

I sold my old washer and dryer to my friend and am going to use that to buy used ones once I get to Florida. That way I did not have to move them.

most places in FL have a washer and dryer already! (or at the very least one down the hall!!)

[momofthree]

As I posted in another thread, I shop the 75% off Target toy clearance every year. It is, without fail, the last Thurs of each July (they also have one in Jan). I've gone the past 5 years. This year, I got $800 worth of toys for only $200. That more than covers all 3 kids birthdays AND Christmas, as well as gifts for their friend's b-days for the entire year! Great stuff, too!

I coupon shop pretty hard-core when it comes to groceries and household supplies. You should never have to pay for things like toothpaste/brushes/floss, hair products (shampoo/conditioner/stylers), or most over-the-counter meds. Name brand cleaning supplies normally cost me less than $1 if I can't get them free (Lysol wipes, toilet bowl cleaner, pledge dusters, etc.). Toilet paper I won't pay more than 16c per roll and will only use Charmin or Cottonelle. Most of my deals are from taking advantage of store sales and rewards (CVS extracare bucks, RiteAid UP rewards + rebates, and Walgreens Register Rewards) which are nationwide, so if you have any of those stores, you can get all your household goodies free too! Half the time they pay ME to take their products home! You can check out the forums at http://hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php I don't get anything for referring y'all over there. It's a forum just like this one, but it's dedicated to saving money on groceries. Enjoy! Last month I spent $417.10 on groceries and household supplies for a family of 5 (with gluten & dairy allergies!) and saved $641.63. In other words, I got $1058.73 worth of groceries for only $417.10. That's normal for me. It's a lot of work, but TOTALLY worth it! And, yes, I keep all my receipts and track my progress each month in case you were wondering why I had those numbers, lol.

My kids are still young, so I can get their clothes off of ebay for pretty cheap. I've found that if you buy in the off season & in large lots, you can get the best deals. I usually don't spend more than about $1.50 per item of clothing (after shipping) for brands like gap & old navy that are in good condition. I usually allot around $100/year to clothe each of my kids, including shoes (luckily we have a sketchers outlet down the street, which helps as well).

We installed ceiling fans in all our rooms and keep our thermostat at 80 degrees during the summer months. It didn't take long to get used to it, & with all the fans running, we're comfortable.

We canceled our cable tv and got netflix instead. With the instant streaming, my kids still get to watch all their fave tv shows using our Wii (can also use an xbox) and I watch all my shows on the internet. Plus, we get unlimited movie rentals as well.

We realized that we pretty much never use long distance and the $45/mo we were spending on our digital phone service just so that we could have unlimited long distance was a huge waste of money. Now we just have local calling with no extras and it's only $10/mo! We bought a magicjack for ($19.95/year) for those rare long distance calls that we do have to make and it works just fine.

Shopped around and downgraded our cable internet to dsl and are saving $25/mo there. All-in-all, between canceling the cable, long distance, and switching to dsl internet, we are saving over $100 a month and we barely even notice the difference!

We also only have prepaid cell phones for emergencies. We usually spend around $250/year total between the 2 of us ($125/year/phone).

I use restaurant.com to buy discounted gift certificates for the few times that we actually go out to eat, using 80% off coupon codes of course (the codes normally come out at the end of each month)! Can usually get a $20 gift certificate for around $2! That said, there is usually a minimum purchase of $35 or so, but still a great deal.

I'm sure I'll think of more ways that I save money, I'll update ya as I do. I am the queen of frugal (drives my dh crazy!). lol.

[cspa522]

I'll add my 2 cents here. I LOVE woot.com. I have a folder in my Favorites called "Daily Sites" and I go to Woot.com every morning to see the deals. I got my kids new ear buds for their mp3 players (2 pairs for $10) just 2 weeks ago. And if nothing else, read the descriptions of the products because they'll crack you up.

Another "Daily Site" is dailysteals.com. They have AMAZING things - sometimes they're FREE with just a $3 or $5 shipping cost. For example, one of today's Daily Steals is a Wii Nunchuk controller, normally $50, for FREE. Just pay shipping.

And if you're not on Groupon, you're missing out! Groupon.com offers local deals, coupons, whatever for YOUR area. Restaurants, events, museums, theme parks, massages, manicures, hair cuts, clothing, etc. I got $50 in a Gap credit for $25, and for my husband's birthday I bought us 2 tickets to go zip-lining for $40 TOTAL (80% off the actual price)!!

[Peeps]

I've been using ebates-dot-com in conjunction with things like eBay or other online stores. They give small rebates for purchases and also offer lots of coupons and discounts. Then after a few months they add it all up and send a lump of dough. I've gotten rebates ranging from $70-$200. I also like the retailmenot-dot-com website for coupons. Bigcrumbs-dot-com and mrrebates.com are similar to ebates and have a different mix of stores that offer varying rebates. I love saving money online... it's the thrill of the hunt, I guess. Like someone else mentioned, I'm not getting any money/perks to promote any of these sites, although I do think some of them have offers that they extend if you have friends that eventually join so feel free to share the love with others.

[Freddy03]

I love groupon.com

You can buy half off gift cert for many local resturants, salons, entertainment, etc.

[momofthree]

Oh MAN! I wish I could have gotten in on that nunchuck deal. We only have 1 and my kids fight over it all the time! lol.

[mrskal]

@momofthree-I checked out that hotcouponworld thing. Looks really cool, and I signed up, but way to much to read and learn about for now! It will take me away from here LOL! I look forward to really getting back into shopping with coupons at the stores, used to do it ages ago. My sister in law used a site similar (or the same, not sure) and she would literally get bags and bags of groceries or products totally free or close to it. She would get so much, she would often give it to me. She showed me her reciept one time for one store and her total was $114 spent, saved $430. I would not have believed it if I had not seen the receipt. It was just bags and bags, upon more bags of groceries!

[NowImDownInIt]

I've become an avid user of all of my company's discount programs. Ask your HR if they have one if they don't advertise it.

That "woot" thing is awesome. Thanks for the tip.

I shop around extensively. Use cloth napkins (but keep two rolls of paper towels on hand for bacon/sausage/etc.). I use e-mealz for meal planning, because I know that it will keep me within budget on food. This is really best for working parents with children in childcare as it's evening meals only. I use coupons in combination with that when I can, but it goes off local sales and will feed 6 people for less than $80 a week.

I keep an organized pantry so that I don't buy things that I already have. I buy chicken breast in bulk from Sam's Club once a month. This helps make my monthly food budget come in at around $340 a month for my family of 4.

Coupons can get you in trouble if you aren't savvy. Many of those things are for stuff you don't normally need.

I use restaurant.com from time to time, but we don't really go out to eat much at all, especially this second half of the year.

I use the two months with 3 checks as the time to buy cleaning supplies (enough for 6 months), new/more cloth napkins, seasonal kids' clothing, and other items that I need to have on hand, but can't always budget into two paycheck months.

I set up a Christmas club account with my credit union. It automatically transfers $25 every Friday and $25 more every other Friday (I'm paid bi-weekly, my husband weekly). Essentially, it's taking $25 from everyone of our paychecks throughout the year and putting it in an account we can't touch. This comes out to almost $2000 in November, which more than covers Christmas (obviously). The excess we put into our emergency fund (which we contribute to at least once a month from any sector that we came in under budget.) These accounts have a pretty big APY, so that's an additional bonus. This account takes the money out before we have a chance to think about it and we aren't able to withdrawal (without closing the account) until they send us the check in November. We've had to withdrawal early once. I think that regular banks have these programs too.

It's easier than we thought to cut the $25 a week in certain areas in our budget. Most of ours came from the food budget. Also, little things like switching to auto pay on our cell bill. Saved us $8 a month. On our auto-insurance I think it saved us even more than that. We leave our A/C off during the day. This saved us more than I can say.