It’s a new year and time to start thinking of ways to save and earn more! I put together a quick list of some of my ideas on how to get started this year and throughout the year my plan is to help you cut your expenses for groceries, entertainment, + more!
So lets start with your grocery and household goods expenses:
Coupons
They are the most important addition to helping you save money. By using coupons along with sales advertisements you will save at least 25% more than what you have in the past! If you follow along I promise you will be able to improve that percentage to over 50%!
Here’s how:-
Follow Along with the updated 2014 Couponing 101. I’ll teach you you where to find coupons, how to use the weekly coupon match ups, and how to organize all of this in an easy way!
Keep in mind some of the top places to find coupons: Coupons.com, SmartSource.com & RedPlum! You will want to start also getting the Sunday edition of your local paper – for Saint Louis “The Saint Louis Post Dispatch.” Don’t forget to check the Coupon Database for coupons to use on your favorite items!
A couple of my favorite FREE coupon apps are the iBotta app and Target’s Cartwheel app.
Check in each week and review the weekly match ups for: Walgreens, CVS, Target, Walmart, Dollar General, Shop ‘n Save, Schnucks & Dierbergs
*Since organization is a big part of saving additional money also check out the My City Mommy Coupon Binder.
Entertainment/Restaurants
Be sure to check out Daily Deal websites. These sites give you at least 1/2 off of retail, restaurants, entertainment and more!!
We’ve seen quite a few come and go but my favorites are:
-Groupon
-Living Social
Voice Daily Deals
You will also want to sign for the e-club and facebook pages of your favorite restaurants for additional coupon savings throughout the year.
*Don’t forget to pick up your copy of the 2014 Entertainment book for over $15,000 entertainment and restaurant savings!
Plus sign up for Gofobo for Free Advanced Movie Tickets!
Earn Money and get things For FREE:
-If you are on the Internet frequently one of my favorite ways to earn money for free is Swagbucks! You just sign up and use Swagbucks as your browser which gives you free money that you can turn into gift cards! For example you can get gift cards to Starbucks and Amazon.com! Plus you get 30 Free Swagbucks when you join!
-If you have kids in diapers be sure to sign up for Pampers Gifts to Grow and Huggies Enjoy the Ride Rewards Program so you can earn points towards freebies. Since you are buying them you might as well be rewarded!
Cash-Back Websites – if you are going to shop on line then you might as well earn online! My tip is to pick one and stick with it for the entire year. That way you will earn more and cash-out much more quickly and frequently then if you go with the cash-back website with the greatest % each time.
Sites include:
–Mr. Rebates
–Ebates
-Want to make some money for your time? Petersons Marketing Research and Delve Market Research PAY YOU to review products! You do have to go to their offices but can get up to $200 for your time!
Don’t forget to check out Freecycle.org and Craigslist! These are easy ways to get things that you need for free!
SmartPhone Apps:
Be sure to take advantage of SmartPhone Apps that offer you coupon savings as well as freebies.
iBotta offers coupon savings as well as savings at restaurants and movie theaters. Just answer a few questions to reach the maximum savings allowed by the app and purchase the product or ticket and you will be reimbursed via paypal the coupon/ibotta savings. The great thing about iBotta is that it can be combined with manufacturers coupons to maximize your savings and give us some really hot deals.
The Cartwheel app is a must have for Target Shoppers. Not only will you find Target Coupons that can be combined with manufacturers coupons but you will also find % off coupons.
-RedLaser (Free)
Just take a picture of the barcode on the product you want to purchase and RedLaser searches thousands of ONLINE and LOCAL retailers for the best prices and features product results from Google, TheFind, eBay, Milo, and many more. The reason customers love RedLaser is because they use state-of-the-art barcoderecognition that can read virtually any product barcode or QR code. With their upgrade new features also let you create shopping or wish lists and share them with friends and family to make shopping and gift-giving much easier.
The free Coupon Sherpa mobile app brings hundreds of in-store coupons to your purse or pocket. With hundreds of in-store coupons (some exclusive to Coupon Sherpa) you can save more at your favorite merchants on clothing, shoes, restaurants, electronics, travel, jewelry, sporting goods, books and more. Just find a coupon you would like to use by searching for the store name or category then show it on your Apple or Android at check out, if you prefer you can e-mail it to a friend or yourself to print out and bring into a store
Ever get to a store and you’re stuck digging through everything to find your rewards card then come to find out you don’t have it at all? The Keyring app solves all of those problems by putting your rewards card on your phone! All you have to do is take a picture of your membership tag and you are ready to go. The cashier can scan the barcode from the image on your phone or enter the membership number.
iXpenseIt is an amazing app that lets you keep a record of your expenses as the happen to track your daily spending and habits. You can create a budget and get customized reports that show you where your money goes based on categories for example( gas, household expenses, utilities, groceries, restaurants) and more! You also have the ability to storre reciepts by photographing them with your camera.
–STL Mommy app is available in the Android Marketplace
52 Week Challenge
The concept is to print the image above (you can click the image HERE to print it) and then tape it to a jar and add the amounts listed each week.
This is a fun way to remind yourself to save a a little extra weekly so you can end up with additional savings at the end of the year.
This is great if you want to use it for something specific – next years vacation fund – Christmas money or just a little extra to put away for safe keeping.
If you have more that you can save you could raise the amounts and even put these totals weekly in a savings account OR do less with the kids so they can watch their savings accumulate.
Cash in on Freebies:
–Walgreens Photo: Free Brag Book
–24 Hour Fitness 7 day guest pass
–Walmart Photo 25 Free 4×6 prints
–Amazon Free Android/Kindle Game Apps
-500 free music downloads on Amazon.com
Last but not least Follow Along with me on STL Mommy! You can follow along on Facebook, Twitter or Subscribe to the once daily e-mail subscription.
Here’s to 2014!