"Black Saturday"

This year, more retailers seemed to have deals for today (Saturday) than in years past. For example, World Market's deal to get an ornament and a scratch card to win a prize/coupon is going on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, instead of just Friday. The Great Indoors had a big sale yesterday, but they chose today to be the only day they gave out $20 gift cards to their first one hundred customers.

Both stores opened at 8am, so I thought they'd be packed. I was wrong! My mom; my friend, Aminta; her mom; her aunt and I all arrived at The Great Indoors at 7:15am. There were about two dozen people there. We sipped on coffee as we waited in line for the doors to open. At 8am, we grabbed our gift cards, and then we left to go to World Market. There were still about 30 ornaments and scratch cards left when we arrived about 5 minutes after the hour. I got my free ornament and I won a free miniature bag of truffles. My mom used her $5 off of $20 coupon, and then we went back to The Great Indoors to use our gift certificates. Aminta snatched up a great deal. After two sale discounts and her gift card were taken off the price, she got a new toaster oven for $7. My mom bought four beautiful bowls (originally $15 each) for a total of $4. I decided to keep my trip free, so I bought a new potato masher (my plastic one was falling apart and not working well) and an organizer for my spice cabinet.

In all, I left this "Black Saturday" with an ornament, truffles, potato masher and spice organizer for FREE! This brings my total freebies this holiday weekend to: one miniature snow globe, two ornaments, one miniature bag of truffles, a bat & ball set, a potato masher, and a cabinet organizer. Woohoo!

Black Friday!

Black Friday is one of my absolute favorite days of the year. It's always my goal to spend as close to nothing as I can while still returning with a small load of goodies. Thus, I scope out the freebies and giveaways.

This year, I managed to spend absolutely nothing. With Andrew staying behind to watch Oliver, my friend Aminta and I met at 4am and drove to JC Penney. We collect the miniature snow globes they give out every Black Friday. Some years (if they give out good coupons), we return to make purchases, but this year, we grabbed our free snow globe, send thanks, and left without returning.

From there, we drove to Sports Authority. I have fun there on Black Friday. For my budget, they're a little pricey, but they give out free gift cards to their first few customers, and that makes some of their stuff more affordable. Last year, I got a running shirt that cost me about $5 after my free gift card. This year, we pulled up at 4:30am. There were other cars in the parking lot, but no one was out in line yet. I decided to be the first sucker and got out and stood at the door. First in line! Aminta and our friend, Phuong, joined us shortly after. With the $10 gift card I received, I found a bat and ball set for $9.99. It looked perfect for Oliver! I decided to get that with my gift card. Amazingly, the discount was taken off before the tax was added, so I didn't have to pay a penny! Additionally, after checking out, they gave me an additional $10 gift card that's valid for a few weeks starting Monday. Hurray!

After Sports Authority, we went to World Market. I love all the treats at World Market, but I try hard not to buy anything on Black Friday (remember--FREE is the key!). It was a very pleasant wait in line! The employees came buy with samples of coffee (so good!) and pastries (I liked the fig bar). Then, they came around with individual shopping baskets for our convienence, and in each basket was our free ornament and scratch card (for a chance to win a discount, freebie, or big prize). The highlight was when one of the employees checked to see if Phuong was 18. She's 27. Hahahaha. I won $5 off of $20, which I didn't use, and so did Aminta, which she did use. Phuong won a free bag of truffles! Score.

So, at 7:30am, I was up a bat & ball set, a snow globe, an ornament AND a gift card--not to mention my belly full of coffee and treats!

Tomorrow, our adventures continue. World Market is giving away another ornament with a chance to win a prize, and The Great Indoors is giving away gift cards to the first 100 customers. I can't wait!

A Penny Saved...

My job is taking nurturing my baby and taking care of the house as best I can. It doesn't pay, but I make a difference in our budget every month by saving money. I cut corners as much as I can. Here are a few more tips for me to share:

*Cut your sponges
Sponges get really nasty, so I change mine out every week. I save a lot of money by buying them in bulk at Costco (they come in packs of 18). Then, I cut each of those into thirds, so I end up with 54 sponges. That's enough for a year (plus)! The sponge still fits completely in my hand, and it's no hassle. Really, I'm just wasting less and making them last a lot longer.

*Turn off the heat & the lights
The heating bill is so expensive! We paid $110 to Xcel last month for heat and electricity. That's a lot of money, even though we cut as much as we can. As soon as I get downstairs in the morning, I turn off the heat. The heat stays off all day, and so we bundle up if it's chilly. We're moving around so much that it's really not a problem. Of course, in the middle of winter, we put it at a minimum (62 degrees during the day), but we turn that down to 55 if we're leaving our house for most of the day or if we're going out of town. At night, I turn it up to 67 so Oliver (OK, and us) can sleep well and comfortably. During the day, I also keep the lights off almost all the time. Sometimes it's a little dim, but why is that a problem?

*Open the oven
This kind of ties into the last point. After we turn off our oven from cooking, we crack the oven door. This way, the heat from the oven goes into our home and not into the walls and out into the neighbor's house (we live in a townhome) or outside. Also, if I'm going to use the oven to, say, make dinner, I'll also take that opportunity to bale anything I might need for Oliver's baby food (like a squash). This way, the oven only needs to heat up once.

*No cable
I might have written about this before, but I don't think there's a need to have cable if you have good internet access, as almost every show is available on its network's website or on hulu. We recently cancelled our Netflix subscription as well to save that $9/month.

*Use the library
I love our library! The only problem I have with the library is that ours is about 3 miles away, so we have to drive. Still, I don't see the sense in buying a book when I can just check it out at the library. Besides, it gets me out of the house! Also (and this ties into my last point), you can check out movies at the library. So, if you need help with your budget, I recommend cancelling your Netflix or stop going to Blockbuster and start going to the library.

*Redefine what's fun
Andrew and I can't afford to go out much anymore. When he meets up with his friends, it's to hike. My mother-in-law gave me a pass to the Denver Botanic Gardens, so I try to head there with Oliver when I want to get out of the house. They often have free and discounted activities for members, too. I'm looking forward to their movies at the gardens this summer. I also keep my eyes peeled for deals and discounts. For example, Baskin Robbins has 31 cent ice cream cones tomorrow. This will be a very nice, fun, and cheap family outing for us! I've been looking forward to it for weeks, and, really, would going out anywhere else be more fun? Nope. Finally, last week, Andrew and I tried pub trivia with our friends for the first time. It's completely free, and it's a blast! We even won a $15 gift card to the pub for next time.

Do you have any tips on how you save money for your family every month? I'd love to hear them.

Pinching Pennies

A large part of being a stay home mom (for us, anyway) is learning to save money in as many ways as possible. One of the biggest ways we've done that since having Oliver is rarely going out to eat. We went out to eat last weekend as a treat from Colleen; it was a thank you to Andrew for assembling her toilet (she just redid her bathroom). Before that, I seriously can't remember the last time we went out to eat. Wait, yes I can. It was for 5280, when we met up with friends and spent way too much money (but had a great time) at an Italian restaurant downtown.

At home, cooking, I've been learning to save money, too. Whenever there's a big sale item, I stock up on a lot of it. Last week, for example, there was a big sale on cheese at Safeway (and not because it was going to expire, either). Bags of cheese are normally about $3.50 a pop. They had bags of cheese for $1.49 if you bought at least four. So I did. Whenever there are frozen lunch meals on sale, I buy a bunch of those. That way, even if we're in a hurry in the morning, Andrew has a lunch to take with him to work.

Before, when we had a little extra money, I'd follow recipes exactly, even if that meant going to the store to buy a few extra ingredients. Now, I play with recipes. I use dried herbs instead of fresh. I'll chop the tomatoes I have in the fridge instead of buying a new can (even though canned tomatoes aren't that expensive, it still saves to not go out and buy more!). If I have regular onion in the fridge, I'll use that instead of green (or vise versa). It doesn't matter what kind of cheese a recipe calls for; I use what I have.

I've also been working very hard at not wasting food. Before, I might have half of an avocado left from a recipe. It'd sit in the fridge, unused, until it went bad. Now, I search for recipes by ingredients online. Last night, for example, I made soup because I had an extra bunch of kale in the fridge. The soup recipe I found called for tomatoes and onions and kale, which I had in the fridge. Also, it was mostly water based. To use the kale, I just had to go to the store and buy a can of beans and some vegetable boullion. The soup was good for dinner last night, lunch today, and lunch tomorrow. Each time I do this, I probably save about a dollar or so by not throwing out an item. It adds up, and I feel much better about not throwing out any food, too.

Last week, Andrew and I had date night at home. I spent a little extra and bought stuff to make a nice torte for dessert. Today, I'm meeting up with a friend for tea. I decided to bake a treat here to bring with me rather than spending a couple dollars on a single cookie (Yes, I'll be spending a couople of dollars on tea, which you can easily argue is expensive. However, I say spending $2 on an evening out with a friend is relatively cheap). A quick survey of my pantry showed me that I had flour, sugar and cocoa. I also decided to use up the extra semi-sweet baking chocolate I'd purchased for the torte. I found a recipe for brownies at allrecipes.com, and I halved it because I only had two eggs instead of four. It's OK if it doesn't turn out perfect. I chopped the semi-sweet chocolate and used that instead of chocolate chips. And, you know what? It smells wonderful. Once they're cool, I'll cut them and package them for lunch treats, and I'll take one with me tonight to enjoy with my tea.

I'll be sure to update my blog on occassion to include the various ways we work to save our money. I might not be able to stay home with Oliver forever, but the more I penny pinch, the longer I can be here with the little man. Besides, I've come to enjoy penny pinching. I see it as a challenge.