Five Ways You Can Save Money on Hotel Rooms!

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FiveWays you Can Save Money on Hotel rooms!

I love taking road trips, but I try to be frugal about it.  The two most pricey things in road trips are the cost of hotel stays and eating out.  Today I'm going to talk about ways to cut down on the cost of hotel rooms.

1.  Find one or two chains you LOVE and be loyal to them.  For me, I have decided that while I have two chains I love, it's easier to reach rewards with one chain.  While it was tempting to go with the International Hotel Group as they have more of a variety of hotels (including Candlewood Suites which boasts a kitchenette in their rooms, cutting down on food costs for your trip), I opted to be loyal to the Hilton brand of hotels.  (This includes the Hampton Inn.)  Do everything you can to earn reward points for the hotel of your choice.  Sign up for their credit card so you can earn points on every purchase you make, even on groceries.  (Just be sure and pay it off at the end of each month so you aren't carrying a balance.)  Sign up for e-mails.  There have been a number of times I have been able to get extra Hilton points for just filling out a survey or updating my profile information.  While 1,000 points may not be a free night, it certainly helps.

One Month Pantry Eating Challenge

I'm working on a series that will be posted in full this year.  As part of that series, I want to show how much money can be saved by using what is in the pantry.  I don't know about you, but my husband and I tend to buy things and forget them, and then they are so old we don't feel comfortable about eating them.  Combine this with the fact one of our favorite stores is an Amish close out store where they often sell past-dated foods.  I am careful what I buy there, but usually I think, "I'll use this soon," and sometimes I don't, which means I only wasted money instead of saving it.

The Ultimate Guide to The Best Deals at Sheetz

I love Sheetz.  I've been shopping there for decades, and I want to share a few tips on how to stretch your dollar at Sheetz.  It's quite possible to get some great deals, especially on the Made To Order food.  I am such a "Sheetz Freak" that my credit card actually got shut down one time because the issuer thought it had been stolen because I had made so many stops at Sheetz in a 24 hour period. But why wouldn't I?  It's quality food, low prices and I don't have to cook!

If you don't have their My Sheetz Card, get one next time you go.  It's free!  This is key to the most savings possible.

Cut Your Grocery Bill WITHOUT Cutting Coupons

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Everyone knows someone who is a coupon queen.  (I used to be one.)  But what about those of us who don't want to take time to clip coupons and still get a good deal at the store?  Is it even possible? Yes!  Absolutely!   Here are my tricks for couponless savings.

How to Save Money on ANYTHING

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Every couple of months I receive an e-mail asking, "How can I save money on going to Disney World?"  I've received the same question about XBox Ones, PS4s, flights to Hawaii, and more.

Did you know you can save money on anything?   Well, kind of.  So often I see people who only want to save towards big purchases and don't think about the smaller ones.

Here are a few tips.

Tips for planning ahead for recurring expenses.

Did you know that with some bills if you pay the year in full you can get a discount?   I do this with my house insurance, and I'm working towards being able to do it with my car insurance.  Here are some tips when you decide you want to go this route.

* Sit down and figure out what your expenses are such as income and property taxes, costs associated with Christmas, back to school, and even your family vacation.

How to Create a School and Office Supply Stockpile on a Budget

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Have you seen prices on notebooks and crayons in February?  They certainly aren't on sale by any means! If you ran out of glue when your son was working on his science fair project, you likely ran to the store and could have kicked yourself for not buying another bottle when it was on sale during back to school sales.  You had the hassle of going to the store, and you also had to pay more than you would have in August so he could cover Saturn with copious amounts of glitter.

The first thing you need is a storage spot.  A shelf in a closet, a bin in the garage, a box under the bed in the guest room.  Just somewhere heat won't melt crayons and no musty smells will get into paper.

First, decide what you need.  This will vary depending on if you have children or are stocking for your home office (or both!).  Then it will depend on how old your children are.

Why you shouldn't compare your "Amount Saved" with someone else's

I often hear people bragging about how much they saved on something.  While it's true that they got a discount, but you have to wonder how much they spent, and if they purchased something they didn't need.

I donate items, sell on eBay, as well as buy items for my household.  Last month, I posted a photo of a receipt on social media where it said, "Today you saved $1200.00".  Many people commented on it.  But how I did it was Christmas items were 90% off and I bought tons of stuff to sell on eBay.  I was asked how I did it, but honestly, all it took was putting items in my cart.

As an eBay seller, I got a great deal.  I spent a little over $200 that day and made it back in a couple weeks with the stuff I purchased and still have stuff I can sell for quite some time.  However, as an individual, there was little that I wanted or need.

Five Tips to Save Money on Gasoline

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Even with gas prices dropping, I am sure everyone still wishes there was a way to get gasoline even cheaper.  Well, there is!  Here are a few things I do.  Each station is different, and promotions may vary, but here are some ideas for you to see if they will work for you.

*The GasBuddy App.  I think most people have heard of this.  You can look up to see what stations near you have the cheaper gas.  I've seen it vary as much as ten cents a gallon with stations on different sides of the road.

Debt Free For Seven Years. . . Now Paying Off Credit Cards

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I was debt free for seven years until the day I got married.  No, I didn't marry a man with debt, but most of it was because I got sick on my wedding night.  I
didn't have insurance, and my husband's insurance didn't kick in for another week.

I had done everything right.  I had saved a $10,000 emergency fund like Dave Ramsey suggests in The Total Money Makeover.  That went out the window when we were doing what we thought was a small update to my house, and discovered an electrical problem.  It was something we didn't feel safe putting off until we had saved up the money, so the emergency fund was depleted.

My 5 Favorite Stores to Shop to Reduce Grocery Spending

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It's Wednesday so it's time to link up with Five Faves over at The Big White Farmhouse.

Does it matter where you shop for groceries?   I believe it does!  Here are my five favorite places to shop for groceries on a budget.

1.  Local scratch and dent / surplus / salvage / closeout  stores.   There are some chains in parts of the country (Sharp Shopper in Virginia, for instance -- the chains often have higher prices than a local store).  This is my FAVORITE place to shop on a budget, but you often really have to watch best by dates.  There's a grocery closeout store run by the Amish near where I live, and sometimes you can find great deals, and other times, stuff is really past dated.  I buy what I can there and fill in around the edges.  There is very limited produce here, sometimes only tomatoes if that.  They don't accept coupons of any type, but the prices are fantastic.  Sometimes as low as 50 cents for a can of Progresso Soup or $1 for a box of cereal.  A problem with shopping here is they will get new stuff on a daily basis, and once stuff is sold it's sold.  It's tempting to buy a lot of one item, and then not get around to using it all before it goes bad.  That is NOT a savings.

2.  Aldi.  I think everyone has heard of the place you have to "rent" a cart (you put 25 cents in for a cart and then get it back when you return it.)  You have to bring your own bags here, but the prices are good.  There's a better overall selection than a scratch and dent store, but you won't find tons of brand names, nor will you find lots of varieties of any one item.  If you have a more specialized diet, it might be difficult to shop here.  (My mother had to have a low sodium, low potassium diet and I had a difficult time finding things at some stores she could eat, and Aldi would be one.)  But I love their produce section!  (Do not confuse Aldi with Save-A-Lot.  I often see prices higher at Save-a-lot than at Walmart, and I think the quality is lower.)  Aldi is the store to go to!

3.  Kroger!  Of "traditional" grocery stores this is my favorite.  They readily accept coupons, they have great offers with their Kroger card (be sure and utilize digital coupons!)  You can set your Kroger card up to give back to charity (why not, it only takes a couple minutes and you're set up forever, and help out a school or community organization.  I donated almost $6 without even thinking about it last quarter.  I have mine set up to go to an extremely rural school in West Virginia that has only 140 students), Ibotta savings,  Savingstar, fuel perks, and a credit card that offers extra cash back when shopping at a grocery store, and it's easy to see why Kroger is my favorite traditional grocery store.  (In one recent shopping trip, I spent $128.15, saved $206.27, and got $1 back with Ibotta, and $9.26 back with SavingStar)
.  I figure they can use the money.)  Kroger has free Friday downloads where you can get one free item a week through their digital coupons, and a few times a year they have stock up sales where you might get $10 off for buying 10 participating products.  Combine that with coupons,

4.  Walmart.   I'm not a huge fan of Wal-mart, but there are a few things that I can't get at the above places.  For instance, the only place I can find Jimmy Dean turkey breakfast sausage is Walmart.  I also live an hour from my closest Kroger, so I only get there once or twice a month.  I also use the Walmart Savings Catcher.  Because of my rural area, there are few stores it compares on my receipt, but it only takes a second.  If I live in a more populated area I'm sure I'd get more money back from it, but the only stores it compares for lower priced items for me are drugstores, and dollar stores.  My Walmarts are very bad about accepting coupons, and the coupon policy changes depending on what cashier you get and what manager is on duty.  I've been told that I can't use totally free item coupons, more than one like coupon (say I'm buying two boxes of Cheerios, I couldn't use two coupons, but would be limited to one.) and more stuff that goes against the corporate coupon policy.   I used to carry a copy of the coupon policy with me, but the cashier, CSM or manager would would make up a story about how that wasn't THEIR policy.  Yet, unless I want to travel for an hour each way, this is where I have to pick up some stuff.

5.  Amazon.  Yes really!  You have to watch prices on items, especially food items, but this is often the cheapest place to get household items and health and beauty aids.  I have been able to find things on Amazon that were impossible for me to find in stores (remember the low sodium diet I mentioned my mother was on?  I found a number of no salt added items on Amazon I couldn't find at Wal-mart or Kroger.)  Amazon is my go-to for trash bags, dishwasher tablets, facial wash, and more.  Years ago I switched to using Swagbucks as my search engine and have earned hundreds of dollars of Amazon certificates for doing what I normally would be doing online.  In fact, I have one I can cash in right now, but haven't yet.  When you use the certificates you earn from your everyday web searches, you can save even more on your order.  Having Amazon Prime has a whole host of benefits, and it seems like these days people focus on the streaming video and forget that there is free two day shipping for prime members no matter the size of your order.  They also have a Prime Pantry grocery area, which I think is more expensive than shopping the regular site, but if you have enough Amazon cards you earned for free, it is another way you can save.


Your milage may vary depending on what stores are in your area, but for me, these are my go-to stores!

4 Ways to Reach a Small Financial Goal

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I often hear people say, "I would like _____ but can't afford it".   I have never been one to think that finances should stand in the way of a goal if there is something you honestly want / need.  I am not saying to go into debt, but I am saying GET CREATIVE.

Here are some things I have done:


1.  Find a way to make do without the item, at least temporarily.   Right now I have my eye on a Samsung Wireless Monochrome Printer (SL-M2020W/XAA)  at $127 and with me having an eBay business, it seems like it's a reasonable want/need, right?   Well, here is my plan.  I am going to keep an eye on this and see if it goes down in price (that's one thing an Amazon wish list is great for!)

The Non-Prepper's Guide to Prepping for Winter

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I live in West Virginia.  As far back as I can remember, we always prepped for winter, although we used to call it "stocking up".  We didn't go all out, but made sure we had enough no matter what the winter might bring.  Some of our worst winter situations were:

Being stuck in the house for 19 days straight.  

Losing electric (and heat) during Hurricane Sandy and us being hit with a blizzard.

Losing power (and heat) when the wind chill was sixty below zero.

Water pipes froze and we had no water for almost 2 weeks.

Even in the best case scenario, I don't like dragging a bunch of groceries in the house when it's cold, snowing, and icy, so I always do some prepping for winter.

Why Back To School Sales Should Interest you -- Even if you don't have School Aged Children

I don't have children, school aged or otherwise, but I'm really looking forward to the school supply sales.  Why?  Well, for one reason I'm an office supply junkie.  The other reason is because I love bargains.  So why should you be interested in back to school sales?

1.   Christmas.   What do you need at Christmas time?   Tape.  Scissors.  More tape because you misplaced that last roll.  Pens.  These things don't expire, so the perfect time to buy them is at Back to School.   Also, sales on fun notebooks, pencils, etc. make good gifts to children.  I know when I was in school, it was near mid-year that I needed new notebooks.  My parents never bought extra, so they had to pay full price.  If you are making a gift of notebooks, don't use the cheap notebooks, but the ones that are fun.  Also, Crayola items are often on sale and these make great stocking stuffers.

Taxes, Smart Phones, and Finances

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U.S. Cellular offers a FREE PRINTABLE Parent Child agreement to help you discuss safety of the Internet, cell phone usage, limits, and courtesy with your teen or tween.  You don't even need to be a U.S. Cellular customer to access this, although I have been for 10 years and highly recommend them. 

When I first started blogging, I wrote mainly about deals I got from coupons, freebies received in the mail, and other small money saving items.  I was a coupon queen before it was cool, and once popularity hit, seemed like deals dried up, so I started looking for other ways to save money.  One of them which really surprised me, is to do my taxes myself.  Did you know that many accountants charge by the number of papers you have?   Last year I earned a small amount of interest in a few different accounts, won a sweepstakes prize, blogging income, and I had a whole slew of 1099s.  There was one for three cents!  That would have cost me an extra $20 or more at the accountant in town just because I earned three cents in interest.  So I did my taxes myself.  I was even able to do them on my tablet with TurboTax -- and if you are lucky enough to get a refund you can track it with MyTaxRefund if you e-file.  Some might think that because I like to save money I should have gone with IRS Free File but that only allows you to file federal and I wanted to file my state taxes as well.  Another app that will help you file federal taxes is H & R Block for iPad.  While not free, TaxAct Ultimate Bundle for $17.95 uses an interview process to help save you money.

A debt Free Christmas -- February

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Christmas is ten months away.   Why think about it in February?  Right?  WRONG!  If you want to have a debt free Christmas then the best way to do so is think about it every year.  This is the second in my series of having a debt free Christmas.

This month, let's make some lists.  Make a list of all the people you want to send Christmas cards to.   This next month, plan on getting the cards and stamps.  It's sometimes cheaper to buy your own Christmas cards and add a photo inside.  Check out the fantastic prices of these cards at Family Christian.   They even have some as low as 16 for $1.  So if you haven't purchased Christmas cards yet, figure out how many you need and purchase them now!  You certainly won't find deals like this in November or December.

Also, plan for stamps.  Did you know you can order holiday stamps at any time of the year through the usps.com site?  So order your Christmas cards and order your stamps.  That way you will have them come Christmas.

If you don't send cards, then just set the money you would have spent on cards back for expenses as they come up IN ADDITION to what you are already saving for gifts.  If you aren't sure how much that would be, just set back $50.  Put it in a "Christmas" envelope because you'll be spending it before a bank Christmas club account would come due.

A shopping trip that cost me nothing!

Yesterday, I stopped at a store a little out of my area.  I had won $45 in gift cards and had been waiting until I could stop at a store of this chain to use them.  I was disappointed at how many items I picked up off the shelf that were already past their best by date, and that prevented me from getting some stuff I was hoping to get, but here is how my shopping trip played out.

Using sales and coupons, I saved $13.  Using my gift cards I won that took my total to zero.  Then I made a point of purchasing items where I would receive $8 back in a mail in refund.  So, technically I made money on this shopping trip.

I have a Facebook friend who says I paid $44 for it all because I used gift cards, but since I got the gift cards for free, I don't consider that I paid for it.  It's a store I would not have gone to if I had not had the gift cards.

A nice shopping trip for certain.

Debt Free Christmas, 11 months to go.

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It's less than 11 months until Christmas!   Are you ready?   I don't mean fully ready, but last night my boyfriend and I finished the book  The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

In it, he says Christmas is not an emergency and not to dip into your emergency fund for it since you know it's coming.

What have I done so far this year in preparing to get ready for Christmas?   Well, I hit a 90% off sale right after Christmas.  I bought a few items for gifts.  Some things I will sell on eBay come Christmas time, as well as Christmas gift wrap and ribbons and bows.

Now is also the time to go ahead and start entering blog giveaways in hopes of winning some stocking stuffers and gifts throughout the year.  Here is a list of blog giveaway linkups.  If you are a blogger, it's a great resource to list your giveaway.  If you want to enter, it's a great list of places where you can find giveaways to enter.

Also, how much did you spend last year?  Take that number and divide it by 12.  Put back 1/12 of your Christmas money now.  

If you are the creative type, you might want to start planning now about what gifts you can make.  I am a cross stitcher and a nice piece can take a couple months to finish.

Christmas isn't a surprise, and it shouldn't cause debt.  If you start planning now, it won't!

Tightening the Belt Financially

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I know it's unusual to see a post about frugality this close to Christmas.  Most people wait until after the holidays to start saving money and trying to cut back.  Possibly we would be the same, but right now it's a time of high spending for us and we're trying to save all we can.

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

It is less than six months until the wedding.  (Talk about expenses.)   Plus I decided it was time to do some major renovations on the house.  When I won a bad kitchen sink contest, I don't think that's being wasteful.  The living room carpet is about 60 years old.  The entire house is paneled.  I would like to get the house looking a little more 2000s and a lot lets mid-century retro.  (Which would be cool if it was the neat designs of mid-century!)

My fiance and I have started reading The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness.  In a way this feels odd to me because I've always been good at managing money.  But I also know it's time to cut back.

I'm going to have to be a "spending saver" for a while.  Flooring for the house.  Drywall.  Wedding expenses.  But I'm going to try and cut back in other areas.

One thing that I'm cutting out is my rather regular fill up of my soda mug.  I found a 100 ounce refillable mug a while back.  For under $1.50 I can get it filled with Diet Pepsi.  (Love that stuff.)  But if I did that every day for a month, it would cost over $40.  I need to get myself used to drinking water, but for now I'm making iced tea.  A five pack container of generic Crystal Light costs about $2.50.  Because it makes five mugs, that's about $15 a month.  I'm still spending money, but less than I would be otherwise.  And that $25 I save?  Two months of that and I have saved enough for a high end can of paint for the house.

Over the next few months, I will be spending more money than it cost me to get through college back in the 1980s/1990s.  But I want to make wise decisions about how I spend my money.  I feel like so many of these house repairs are needed. This was a fixer-upper when my parents bought it and while they put $10,000 into it in the mid-1980s, not too much has been done since.  It's also been difficult living in the same house after both my parents passed away.  (I helped Mom out the last few years of her life.)  By painting the rooms, making things more "mine" will help me realize it's now my house and I can let my personality show through.

I'm excited about fixing up the house -- and terrified of the cost of it.  But I know it will be worth it in the end.

Shop like a Pro on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

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U.S. Cellular offers a FREE PRINTABLE Parent Child agreement to help you discuss safety of the Internet, cell phone usage, limits, and courtesy with your teen or tween.  You don't even need to be a U.S. Cellular customer to access this, although I have been for 10 years and highly recommend them. 

It's that time of year again to don your Santa hat or your elf suit and start buying gifts.  Can you believe next month it's Christmas?  I know I can't.  My gift closet is unusually sparse this year.  One year I started Christmas shopping BEFORE Christmas the year before.  That's how I have often been, but this year has had so many things going on that I haven't been able to stock the gift closet like I usually do.  So that means buying more like an "average" person.  I'll obviously be watching sales and shopping bargains, but this is certainly not like the year I had my Christmas shopping done before spring thaw!