Couponing is changing my life!

Changes in my life due to money-saving strategies:

1. gotten bold and asked a few people for their Sunday coupons. no problem, 100 percent "yes" response. (note to file: know who to ask)

2. now look forward to filing coupons.

3. going to a file box for filing coupons. (used to be able to carry all coupons in this cute case my daughter gave me. I still carry that in my purse with restaurant and "major" coupons.) I have not crossed the line and carried my file box into the grocery store, but I feel it coming.

4. going to grocery store early Saturday morning so that I can savor the shopping-and-saving experience in the quiet of non-crowded aisles.

5. cashing refund checks and combining them with my reimbursement checks from work and paying cash for almost everything in my day-to-day activities. There is that weird science where cash really does spend more slowly than plastic. And yes, I try to give exact change, so don't get behind me at Aldi's! I'll slow you down!

Couponing Correction

I am so excited! Please see the response to my last entry. Thanks, J! (who maintains couponmommie.blogspot.com) I have had a major heart change on the getting-with-coupons-stuff-you-don't-use-personally issue.

Getting into couponing is reminding me a lot of my faith journey. When I first had a true change of heart through which I realized where I was going after this world, I was all excited; but I was SOOO unschooled and unskilled that it was best to be very careful in sharing my newfound awareness.

Just like couponing.

As a toddler only thinks about where he is going and might knock some things down in getting there, my comments were short-sighted in that I hadn't gotten beyond thinking about me and my immediate needs. That is why the response to the March 9 blog is so important.

My change of heart is that now I will be thinking of others when I put together deals. Homebound, homeless, unemployed. There are a lot needs out there. I can help a little. I can donate a few tubes of toothpaste, a few rolls of toilet paper, and maybe even a bottle of bodywash once in a while.

Couponing Gone Wild

I have a new obsession. I cannot get enough of the coupon and savings blogs. I open one, and it has links that lead to others, which lead to others. Of course, all these bloggers across these great United States are nameless and faceless to me.

While this is not a scientific analysis, I believe that the typical profile is the at-home mom. Huggies diapers seem to be a big focus of the on-line chatter, something that makes me feel a bit alienated. Ronald Reagan was in the White House the last time I bought diapers.

I am impressed by the number of items that these people get FREE, but there are a lot of things which do not appeal to me. I DON'T want or need free Irish Spring Body Wash that you can get at Walgreens this week, a biggy that has been noted in at least five blogs I have read this morning. (I am a good old bar soap user. If I happen to crack open a body wash bottle at a hotel, I bring the rest home and use it to wash hand-washables.) I don't need the scent devices that seem to be free with a little planning. If I want to make things smell nice here in the condo, I light up the candles that I bought from one of my Bible study buddies who was selling them on behalf of her son's band.

Yet there are a lot of bargains that are helping our bottom line: essentially free toothpaste, deoderant, very reasonable cost of frozen pizza. I'm having fun and saving money.

Grocery Stores

Living in a medium-sized town makes for store envy on some fronts. We do not have Whole Foods or Trader Joe's here in Knoxville.

A couple of weeks ago when in Nashville, my husband and I munched our way through Whole Foods and bought some salad items for a very indulgent supper when we got home to Knoxville that evening (for you food safety freaks, it was still cold and we put the food in the trunk). We then popped over to Trader Joe's.

I, the cheapy of us two, had been mesmerized by Trader Joe's on a November trip to Chicago organized through the Knoxville Museum of Art. While the trip included dining with other members of our group at very nice restaurants, we could balance our spending with bringing in some wine and munchies to our hotel room from the Trader Joe's that was located just a couple of blocks away.

Unfortunately the shine was off my February Trader Joe's experience since I have been impacted by serious couponing habits that I have been in the process of developing since January. The Trader Joe's brands are competitive, but I can do so much better on brand names combining specials and couponing at conventional grocery stores. And interestingly, the produce at Trader Joe's was not that much lower than Whole Foods.

What I am excited about is ALDI'S!!!! It has come to Knoxville. It didn't make sense to maintain our Sam's membership after we moved downtown, so I am really looking forward to some major savings on meat and produce. Aldi's is not exactly in my neighborhood, but Mapquest tells me that it will cost me $.88 in fuel costs to get there and back. That's a number that I can live with.

Vehicles

As I said, I live downtown. A lot of our loft-y neighbors have pared down to one car. We can't because both of us need our vehicles in our respective jobs. However, I am very fortunate because I make a two-mile beeline to my job from my home.

And fortunately my drive takes me right by my credit union . . .

which gives me a double daily dose of yet another economic indicator.

There is an increasing number of vehicles in the front lot for sale. Repossessed cars. While my friends have, by choice, eliminated their vehicles, of course the former owners of these vehicles had their choice taken away from them. One, ironically, is a Hyundai; and Hyundai now has a program where they will take your car back if you lose your job.

Hair Deal

Hair: for a mid-fifties year-old woman who has made the decision not to go gray, expenses relating to upkeep can be dear, so for some years I went CHEAP, NOT thrifty.

For some time I colored my own hair and got my hair cut at one of the strip mall facilities. When I finally decided to upgrade, the hair stylist remarked that my hair reminded her of cotton candy as it was so dry due to overuse of peroxide, and the cut was rather stumpy.

This is NOT the person who I am going to now. I have NEVER heard a mean-spirited word from my current stylist, Tabby Davis at Barnes & Barnes on Market Square. Getting your hair done should be a positive experience, and Tabby delivers. And my hair looks WAAAAY better!

Does this sound like an advertisement? It is! And while her prices are very competitive, Tabby has promised a discount for some of the first service to anyone who I send her way.

As a downtown resident, I had decided to support as many downtown merchants as I could, so I just walked into Salon Barnes & Barnes, and I was set up with Tabby. One of the best moves I have made lately.

Interested? Check out their website marketsquaresalon.com or call 637-5149 (closed Mondays) and tell Tabby that Thrifty sent you.

Picking Up Change

Last week as I was walking through the grocery store parking lot, I noticed a nickle. I picked it up. A few paces later there were a few pennies, and a dime. I imagined what had happened: Someone was pulling out their keys on the way to their car and out came the change, unnoticed.

I always pick up change.

Andy Rooney of 60 Minutes did a piece on this very issue. Along the sidewalks of New York City, his crew scattered a few coins. While the quarters always got picked up, the pennies almost never did. But I don't live in New York. I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, where pennies still count. I got a "free" box of Reynolds Wrap at Walgreens a few days ago combining their store coupon with one I had clipped some weeks before. (This was my only purchase besides a prescription.) Of course, I still had to pay the eight cents of tax on the Reynolds Wrap. Most likely the coins I used to pay this tax were the very ones I picked up just a few days earlier, so my acquisition was truly free to me.

I am always wary of stooping down, though. It's sort of suspect behavior. I occasionally get a funny look. When that happens, I think about the short story by Guy de Maupassant that I first read in high school: A Piece of String. If you haven't read it, I just found the entire story on line through ask.com

My husband found this and found it appropriate to this entry:

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