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Sometimes I meet coupon non-believers. You know, the types that think that coupons are a waste of time. Usually the non-believers tell me that they don’t clip coupon for several reasons. The conversation sounds something like this…

1. “Coupons are only for processed food and we don’t eat processed food”
   My Response: You don’t eat any processed food? Not even Chef Boyardee or Cheez its? Just kidding. Many people don’t know that there are coupons for a lot of non-processed food including organics, meat, dairy and even vegetables. We eat a lot of tomatoes and make a lot of pasta sauce, so we’re always thrilled when the Muir Glen $0.75 coupons come out on coupons.com. The cans of tomatoes retail for about $1.50-$2.00 so free or $0.50 after a doubled coupon at the grocery store.
2. “Coupons aren’t worth the time”
   I don’t think I’ve ever come across a person who wants to spend more money instead of less. But if you’re that person, then maybe coupons aren’t worth your time. I’m a pretty frugal person, so I can save myself even $5.00 at the grocery store using coupons, I will. Taking a quick look at the deal sites and blogs and matching my grocery list with coupons take as few as 20 minutes. If you’re not an extreme couponer and don’t aspire to save 99% each trip, then a simple clipping of your weekly coupon inserts will take very little time. Just clip the coupons for the products you use and toss the rest.
   
3. “You can’t eat shampoo and paper towels”
   Nope, but the money I don’t spend buying shampoo and paper towels,can be spent on food that I do eat and enjoy. Or better yet, I can save the money I would have spent buying shampoo and put it into my emergency fund.
4. “We just buy generic, it’s cheaper than name brand”
   If you don’t coupon, that might be true. But if you do coupon, you can almost always get name brands for cheaper than the store brand. There are some products that we buy generic because we like them better, but for the products we enjoy that are name brand, we can almost always pair a sale and coupon and get a much cheaper price. You remember the Johnson & Johnson baby products I got for $0.50 a bottle? Even if I bought generic brand lotions and powders, I couldn’t have gotten them for that cheap.
   
5. “But why would you buy products you don’t use?”Because they are free, and people in America are hungry. I might not personally eat tuna fish, but if I can buy 10 cans for free I will. I give them to friends and family or I donate them to our local pantries. Lets just say, the boxes of cereal, razors and coffee that I’ve dropped off at our local shelter have made me a very “popular” visitor.

While I don’t recommend going “crazy” with coupons or getting “extreme” and stockpiling 15 years of toilet paper, I do strongly encourage people to learn about couponing and to buy products they use with coupons.

Curious about the cat food and treats? I bought them this past weekend at Pet Smart. I was lucky enough to match a sale with a coupon. When I got to Pet Smart there was a coupon that gave me a free bag of treats when I bought a bag of food (what luck!). Here’s what the transaction looked like:

Yup, you read that right, $3.96 for 16 pounds of cat food and 4 bags of treats. Our cats are big eaters and will finish a bag in a little under a month. The expiration date on the food is next year, so you can bet I’ll be back at Pet Smart buying a few more bags to stock up. Why pay $8.00 a bag when I can get them for $0.99? Once I buy enough for our kitties, I’ll be buying some for our local shelter.

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What Does Loan Consolidation Mean?

What Loans Can I Consolidate?

Researching Lenders.

Choosing a Lender.

Would I Consolidate again?

“Non”-Advice.

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I’m a nice girl (most of the time) and my mother taught me to play nice with others and hold my tongue when I have nothing nice to say. But it’s hard to talk when you’re holding your tongue and sometimes my inner mean girl is just dying to bust out.

This often gets me in trouble. Other times it’s incredibly helpful. I’ll save you the details of the former, but I can tell you that the later helped me pay off $30,000 in student loan debt.

Because I paid off my loans and lived to tell the story, when I hear people saying that they’re in over their heads and debt and want to give up, I want to scream at them. Not in a nasty way, in a “I’m going to shake up your world a little bit and make you think about what you’re saying, because you’re too smart to let that interest eat up your future savings (that was a mouthful).” kind of way.

My Student Loan Mess

I guess I get frustrated seeing other people feeling so bad, because I used to be in their shoes. I used to feel the same way… like debt was unavoidable, so I may as well just pay the minimum payments and learn to live with it. Fortunately I didn’t just “learn to live with debt.”

I got mad really freaking pissed at my student loan debt and I decided I wasn’t going to let it take a free ride on my back for the next 10 years of my life. Paying back the debt one small payment at a time just wasn’t something I was willing to do…

No, I wanted to kill my debt. Get out the ax, chop it into little bits and bury in my backyard (I don’t have a backyard and I don’t have an ax for anyone who was just assessing my stability).

Fortunately, my other “homicidal debt plan” involved working harder, budgeting more and picking up extra side gigs. Much less violent, but just as effective.

The Turning Point

I believe that each of us has a turning point when we make the decision that we no longer want to live with debt. You know, that moment when you’re so “sick and tired” of being “sick and tired” that you take control of you debt and get on the path to debt freedom.

For me, that moment came when I learned that I’d be in debt for 10 years and would pay back over $11,000 in interest over the life of my loan. I knew that I wanted to reach certain goals including buying a home, having a family and starting my own business and I knew that those goals would turn into more complicated decisions if I had $30k hanging over my head.

So I got aggressive with my debt. I started pushing it around a little bit and told it not to get comfortable living at my guest room. I told vacations, clothing and fine dining to stop courting me and I focused solely on paying off my debt for a couple years.

When I wasn’t kickboxing my debt into a corner I was working extra jobs, planning my meals and clipping coupons. I made a budget and I stuck to it. And in the end the “pay off” was enormous. Emotionally, spiritually and financially I finally felt free. A feeling that was priceless and well worth the temporary sacrifice.

Are You Fighting Debt? What Made You Mad Enough to Fight?

Images: Markhillary and Naval History & Heritage Command

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Gift for My Cousin’s Baby-Cost $7.00

It’s probably just my age (the big 3-0) but everyone I know seems to be knocked up. Friends, family, co-workers… Apparently I roll with a  fertile crowd. With so many people pregnant, the cost of baby shower gifts was really adding up. A shower here, a shower there and I’m broke. Ok I’m exaggerating. But with all the baby showers, wedding showers and bachelorette parties I’ve been invited to (love you guys, don’t stop the invites) I’m feeling a little cash strapped.

Sure I budget for gifts, but nobody could anticipate so many gifts “coming due” at the same time.Throw in the regular birthdays and holidays and my budget has taken a beating.

Instead of skimping on gifts or sending impersonal gift cards or cash, I’ve decided to get a little strategic about my gift gifting. Thanks to coupons and a crafty ex-roommate who taught me to knit, I’m revolutionizing the way I think about baby gifts. Here’s how:

• Make My Own. 1 Skein of yarn ($4.00 or less when I use a 50% off coupon at AC Moore or Michaels) and about 6 hours yields an adorable little baby sweater. I have several big boxes of yarn that I bought when I was obsessed with knitting in college, so I’m still working through that yarn. I typically knit on the bus and while watching TV at night. When you figure in the time…could I buy something cheaper, yes. But it wouldn’t be a handmade original made with love by me. I also make baby clothes and booties, and sew burp cloths and baby quilts-see below (when I have time).

Quilt Made for My Nephew

• Buy On Sale. Whenever I see baby stuff (or any type of toys or games) on deep clearance I buy them. I stock up on baby items and stick them in my closet for upcoming showers. I recently picked up a bunch of cute Easter onesies for $1.00 a piece (none of them said Easter, they were just pastel colors) to keep for future gifts.
• Use Coupons. Sales combined with coupons are my favorite way to get free and really cheap baby stuff. Johnson and Johnson baby products often go on sale and combined with a coupon you can get them for free. I recently found a sale on baby lotion, body wash, and powder. All of the items were $2.00 a piece. Combined with a $0.75 coupon that doubled at the grocery store I got them for $0.50 a piece. They typically retail for $4-6.00 each!

Even the Cat Knows Coupons Are Serious Business

• Give Coupons. Sounds a little strange, but diapers, formula and food can get really expensive. A few years back a friend of mine was feeding a pretty expensive formula. She was always asking me for the formula coupons from my paper. She had her shower after the baby was born, so to surprise her, I gathered a bunch of papers from my friends and clipped a whole stack of the $5.00 coupons for the formula she used. She told me it was the best “gift” anyone gave her.

Once I buy and make all the gifts, I put it them in a basket and tie it up with a big ribbon. Easy Peasy and really fun. I’ve received really good feedback from friends and family who have loved their baby gifts.

How Do You Save Money on Gifts? Do You Make Gifts?

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Before

Remember last weekend I had my Cinco de Mayo house party? Well what I didn’t say about the prep for that party was my house was a complete and utter disaster. My mom helped me do some err clean my whole house before the party so my friends wouldn’t think I was a disgusting mess.

Now, my friends are polite and nobody would have said anything, but I wanted to avoid the whole, “This place is a mess” apology that I usually make when friends come over unexpectedly. What’s funny about living in the NYC area is that nobody ever comes to your house unannounced. Yeah the delivery driver or a repair man, but friends rarely come by your place without an explicit invitation.

It’s almost like an unwritten rule that you shouldn’t, “pop by” someone’s apartment without prior notice. If you’re in the “neighborhood” you might call them and meet up for drinks, but you would never go to their house. In fact, I don’t even know most of my friends’ addresses.

So when I realized I’d have everybody at my place, I frantically began cleaning and organizing. I’m a pretty organized person by nature, but I get busy (excuses excuses, I know) and before I realize it, my clutter has gotten out of control. What’s funny ironic about when my house gets cluttered, is my life also seems to get “cluttered”.

After

This clutter has a trickle down effect on my finances and somehow I seem to blow my budget when I’m not keeping up with housework. I end up buying things I don’t need because I can’t find the things I already bought. The other day bf bought deodorant because he couldn’t find any in our “stockpile”. Why couldn’t he find it? Because I stuck it in the closet and didn’t put it in the container labeled “deodorant” (bf cannot “look” for anything. Is this all men or just mine? Seriously, he “looks” for something, can’t find it. Calls me in and .02 seconds later I’ve “found” it).

The same thing happens with our food and our housewares. I know we have a juice pitcher, but bf looked for it, couldn’t find it in our cluttered cabinets and surmised I must have thrown it away when we moved to the condo. Wrong, I kept it he just couldn’t find it behind all of the crap sitting in front of it. He bought a new one, so now we have two.

So, out of all of this, I’ve learned that I need to keep the house more organized. Not just when people come over, but all the time. Not only does it make me feel better to have a clean and organized home, it also saves us money and helps me stay within my budget.

Does Clutter Make You Crazy? Does it “Cost” You?

Continue reading »]]> **Just FYI: This post reads better if you hum TLCs awarding winning song, “No Scrubs” as background accompaniment. Before anybody gets upset, scrub-like behavior can be found in guys and girls.**

Ever have a, “friend” cough cough, who’s significant other is a real user? You know, a first class, “scrub”? If you haven’t had this experience (good for you, keep doing what you’re doing), but if you have, here are some of the tell tale warning signs you snagged yourself a deadbeat.

Better Known as the Scrub Alert!:

• He always forgets his wallet at home when it’s his turn to pay
• He asks you to buy something and says he’ll pay you back, but doesn’t
• He borrows your car and brings it back on “E”
• He treats you like like his personal payday lender, borrowing to get by from month to month
• He asks for expensive gifts buy doesn’t reciprocate (if that’s what you want-I’d rather my bf save his cash, but that’s an aside)
• He drinks your good beer and never offers to buy another 6-pack, or replaces your good Belgian craft brew with Natty Light
• He asks you to pay his electric bill, “just this one time”
• He asked you for a loan and a year later he still hasn’t paid you back anything
• You share a place and are supposed to pay 50-50% but something always “comes up” and he’s not able to pay his share
• You put him on your cellphone family plan but he always, “forgets” to pay his part
• He asks you to co-sign for a car or apartment that you know he can’t afford
• He asks you to help out his mom or another family member with medical bills, but nobody can verify the family member is sick (ouch!).
• You’re supposed to buy groceries together for both of you, but when it’s his turn to buy he’s “on a budget” and when it’s your turn to buy he wants steak and ribs.
• He always claims he’s, “broke”, but mysteriously has money to buy video games and go drinking with his friends.

Just Saying…If you’re looking for a partner, you’re gonna want to weed these jerks out of your dating pool. Once you’re all giddy and in love, it’s harder to see your guy for what he is, a scrub! And, “a scrub is guy who can’t get no love from me!”

Chime in with some scrub-like behavior. Is your Sig. other making you broke?

Continue reading »]]> The past few weeks have been really busy here and I haven’t been able to put up a Standouts post. While this one is late, late is better than never, so here’s what’s going on in my world… I had my final exam in my psychopathology class and I’ve signed up for another one (possibly two) courses that I’ll be taking this summer (lord be with me). I’ve also been doing some freelance writing which has taken up a good bit of my free time, so I haven’t had as much time to comment and interact in the blogosphere as I’d like. I’m still reading, just haven’t had a lot of time to comment.

Last week, I published another post over at Dimespring. The title of the post is: 5 Smart Ways to Organize Your Bills. Here’s a little snippet: “Do you ever look at the people around you and think, “Wow these folks are so disorganized; it’s no wonder their finances are a mess?”  You know the people I’m talking about. You go to their house and they misplace their remote, their keys and their credit card in a five-minute time span”. Head on over and check it out if you’re interested.

The Standouts:

• Budget and the Beach-Confessions
• The Happy Homeowner-Shameful Things I’ve Done to Save Money
• Daily Money Shot-Overwhelmed and Eliminating it, Day 4: Failure Isn’t So Bad
• Our Freaking Budget-OFB States Project: New York
• Monster Piggy Bank-Do You Trust Your Partner With Money?

My Posts This Week:

My Mother is Wonder Woman & Happy Mother’s Day
How to Host a Fabulous Party For Free
If You Can’t Afford to Tip-Stay Home!

Thanks so much for mentioning me!:

Eyes on the Dollar, Young & Thrifty, Prairie Eco-Thrifter, Thirty-Six Months, This That and The MBA, My Money Design, Fat Guy Skinny Wallet,

Happy Mother’s Day & I Hope You Had a Wonderful Weekend!

See You Tomorrow With a Fresh TLC (yes, the 90′s hit music group!) Inspired Post

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As a woman, I’m intimately acquainted with the expectations put on women by our society, our peers and ourselves. Although I’m not a mother, I have a mother and I’ve seen the stress that she experienced trying to be “perfect” during my childhood. My parents divorced when I was 6 and she was my sole caregiver. To my credit, I was a pretty self-sufficient child and mature child (something about being an only child I think) but raising me was still a 24-7 job.

A single mother until I was in 6th grade, mom was like a crazed mad woman multitasking 50 things a day. She worked 40 hours a week with a hour commute on both ends of the day then picked me up from cross country practice, made dinner, helped me with homework, baked cookies for the PTA fundraiser, french braided my hair (wet so when it dried I’d have funky waves in the morning), and packed my lunch for the next day. This routine was only for weekdays during “down times” of the year.

Weekends were the times she should have been relaxing. Instead, she was chauffeuring me to gymnastics lessons, picking me up and dropping me off at friends’ houses, hosting sleepovers and trying to catch up on the tasks she’d “neglected” the rest of the week. She cleaned the house from top to bottom, did laundry and cooked meals to have on hand for the rest of the week etc. My mom never got a manicure or a massage, and never got a “day off”.

Holidays and special occasions would add about 15 new tasks to her “to-do” list. Making Halloween costumes, planning my birthday pizza parties and sleepovers, decorating the house with seasonal decorations and making special holiday foods.

What I’m trying to say is my mother was (and is) pretty much the best mother anyone could ever ask for. The consummate perfectionist, she sometimes says that she could have “done better” by me. Newsflash mom, I wasn’t a Juvenile delinquent and I haven’t turned out too bad as an adult either I love you!

Was Your Mother Wonder Woman too? Are you an Aspiring Wonder Woman?

Happy Mother’s Day!

Image:Andertoons & Dani P.L.

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This weekend the bf and I hosted a Cinco De Mayo Qdoba House Party. Sadly a lot of our friends were out of town for the weekend, but we were able to round up 9 hungry guests who were thrilled to try out Qdoba catering, play a little pin the tail on the donkey and drink a few (OK many, Margaritas).

A Little FYI On House Party:

What is House Party? If you’re not familiar with the, “house party model”, the parties are sponsored by companies who give you products, a “Party Pack” of their products to eat/use/try/share. You invite friends and family to a party at your home and share the products with them. Advertisers know that word of mouth advertising is the best way to gain loyal customers, thus the House Party model has become pretty popular.

How Do You Sign-up? It’s easy, you sign-up at houseparty.com and start a profile (similar to facebook and other social media mediums). After you make your profile, you can apply to be a party host.

How Do You Get Chosen to Host? Participation on the site (sharing photos, tweeting, sharing on facebook etc.) are good ways to show the companies that you’ll be a good promoter of their brand. The more engaged you are they better your chances are of being selected as a host.

Our Qdoba House Party:

Our Qdoba party pack included the following:

• (1) Qdoba certificate good for a 20-person Catering Bar ($170 value!!)
• (1) Bamboo spoon and (1) Bamboo tong
• (1) Tote bag and (1) Apron
• (12) Plastic margarita glasses
• (4) Molcajetes to make and serve guacamole
• (12) Qdoba rewards cards loaded with one free entrée (awesome!-we used these as favors/prizes)

So Technically the party wasn’t “free”. The food was free, but we had a few additional costs…

Additional Costs:

• Beer-What’s a Cinco De Mayo themed party with cervaza? We bought a few 12-packs of beer (Dos Equis of course-to fit the theme). I had a Beer Rebate for the beer, so the beer will actually end up being free after the rebate.
• Balloons-$1.30 x 6=$7.80 + “Fiesta” balloon $3.99 (total balloon cost=$11.79)
• Tequila-$25.00 for the Tequila plus $2.99 for mixers x 3=$8.97 (total Margarita cost=$33.97)
• Donkey kit- $4.99, but well worth the cost for the amusement it provided. The tails came with markers and foam stickers so you could decorate your own tail.
• Total Spent: $50.75

Fun Factor:

We had so much fun hosting the party. This was the first time a lot of our friends had been to our condo, so we were really excited to be able to host them in such “style”.

Everyone remarked on how delicious the food was and how fun it was to make their own burritos. We ordered the naked burrito bar that came with steak, chicken, and all the fixings (salsas, cheese, guacamole, chips etc.). The catering set-up came with everything we needed to keep the food hot (chafing dishes, Sterno etc.) and all the napkins, paper goods and serving spoons.

Bottom Line:

Qdoba catering is really tasty and makes hosting a party a breeze. If you like to entertain and try new products, House Party is a really good way to do so for FREE! Who doesn’t love free?

What are the most expensive part of party hosting for you? Have you ever hosted a “House Party” sponsored by a company?

Continue reading »]]> Being a service industry “veteran”, I get pretty agitated when I hear that people aren’t tipping because of the, “recession”, or because they’re on a budget and trying to save money. Newsflash broke-asses, if you can’t afford to tip your waiter, waitress, bartender, hairdresser (fill in the service industry professional here) stay at home!

Obviously I’m a huge proponent of saving money and being frugal when possible, that’s how I paid off $30,000 in student debt. But frugality is never an excuse for not appropriately tipping service industry professionals. I paid for a large chunk of my college and graduate school thanks, in part, to jobs in the service industry.

You name the job, I’ve probably done it. Housekeeper, waitress, bartender, dishwasher etc etc. From those experiences, I can tell you that it’s not easy work. In fact, it’s often back breaking, gross and physically exhausting work. There’s no such thing as an easy, or quiet, day when you’re working in the service industry (and you wouldn’t want there to be because if it’s slow you’re not making any money).

In most cases, your tips literally make up your salary. So if you get a few tables of non-tippers, or have a really slow day, you could end up making less than minimum wage. Because I know how hard the work is, and I know that service professionals aren’t making an actual salary I’m an excellent tipper (probably too generous in some cases). I look at my teenage waitress and think to myself, “That was me, trying to pay my way through school”.

So when I hear that people aren’t tipping because they’re trying to save money it really makes me angry. If you have the money to pay for your food, you better have the money to tip your waitress. Otherwise buy fast food, or stay at home.

Have You Ever Worked in the Service Industry? Have You Ever Seen Someone, “Save Money” By Not Tipping?

Image: BradleyGee