why you should shop at Goodwill

Recently I wrote a post on shopping at Yard Sales and why you should jump on that bandwagon! Well today's trip to Goodwill got me excited to tell you all about why you should also shop at Goodwill! I often run into Goodwill when I'm near it and have a few minutes to kill.  Honestly, the most time I usually need (even when just taking my time) is about 30 minutes or so.  I put Adeline in her umbrella stroller, and off we stroll through Goodwill.

Today's finds steals:

-Target navy button-up hooded jacket (12 months):  $1.50

-Vera Bradley ID holder:  $1.87

-The Grouch Ladybug board book:  $0.50

-A Christmas gift for someone that reads this blog so I can't show a pic (brand new):  $4

And my favorites...

-TWO pairs of infant girls Stride Rite shoes (one pair size 2, one pair size 4; one brand new in box and one just like new):  $1 each

The best part about it:

-The jacket would retail for at least $10!

-The Vera Bradley ID holder would retail for at least $10...and can easily be sold on eBay to more than double my money (my plan!).

-The board book can be sanitized and looks never touched...and will be one thrown into a stocking or added to a goody box for Adeline for Christmas.  (This would retail for at least $8.)

-Each pair of Stride Rite shoes would retail for $30-$40 and anywhere from $15-$30 on eBay.

-The other gift I can't show would retail for at least $25.

That's around $100 worth of stuff for just under $11!!!

Convinced yet?

Tips on "Goodwill-ing":

-Don't be turned off by the smell.  Just sayin'.  (Had to get that one out of the way.)

-Sanitize your hands when you leave.  (Okay--another one I had to get out of the way.)

-Look for name brand clothes and shoes.  (You'll get the best deal.)

-Check out the jean department! Seriously, people get rid of crazy, ridiculous, high end jeans that look like they have never been worn.  (Many of them probably haven't.)

-If you're like me, you don't want the smoke smell on your clothes...smell any clothes before buying them.  If they've been in a smoking home, they will still have a lingering smoke smell.

-Look for items that you know have a high value and (if you're into eBaying) you can sell on eBay.  (Vera Bradley is a huge seller on eBay!!)

-It's hit or miss.  So even if you don't find much one week...you may find tons the next.

-It isn't necessarily true that a "ritzy" area will have a better Goodwill.

-Look closely on the shelves...up, down, in-front-of and behind.  Move things around to find things behind them.

-Think "re-purpose".  You can do a lot with a can of spray paint and a creative idea in mind.

-I rarely shop with an agenda.  If you're looking for it...chances are...you won't find it. Shop with an open mind.

-The fun is in the hunt!

-Dig as much as you're comfortable with.  The infant clothes are usually in a big bin at our Goodwill...so I dig through it.

-Go middle of the week...they've had time to clean and prep everything people cleaned out of their closets and didn't sell at yard sales or consignment sales from the weekend.

I really like that Goodwill employs individuals that need a job and often employ individuals with special needs that may not be able to get a job other places.  You're shopping for a good cause and getting a deal...double bonus!

(Since I'm loving me some Goodwill today...I'm linking up with Jamie!)

How Much Can I Save in a Year? October Link-Up and Q & A!

<br /> <a border="0" href="http://www.cait-theblessedlife.blogspot.com" _mce_href="http://www.cait-theblessedlife.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5023/5575605478_84ee822740_m.jpg" _mce_src="http://photos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs170.snc3/19765_265054143834_265050838834_4530250_4491090_s.jpg"/></a><br />

October Savings 

$51.93

2011 Total Savings

$713.69

Best of Savings

Free or Almost Free Items this month with coupons:

-Four Covergirl blushes with two $8 off of 2 face product coupons (found the blush as Wal-Mart for less than $4, so even made money on them!)

A Little Savings Tidbit

This month we opened up a Q & A opportunity for readers.

Courtney is about to graduate from college and move back home for a bit.  She asked about "...the best advice you can give on what things are most important to budget for, and how much money I should save."

-When we budget, we always start with the items that are set amounts--the bills that we know the amount of (or approximately) for each month and start there.  (i.e. water bill, mortgage, internet, etc.) 

-Start listing out your monthly bills and find the approximate cost of those.  (For us this also includes our tithing amount based on our income.) 

-From that, find what is the difference in the amount you plan on spending and your monthly income.  -Whatever is left over, choose at your own discretion on the amount for other things--such as "blow money" (money to spend on whatever you want) and how much you want to set aside in savings for something (possibly to put toward rent or a down payment on house when you move out of your parents').

This will take time! We tweak our budget what seems like monthly right now.  I would also suggest Dave Ramsey's envelope system and checking out his Total Money Makeover resources.  You can find budgeting sheets on his website that include the approximate percentage of your income that you should put toward spending.  I also highly recommend his program to help in getting rid of any debt you may have. 

Another reader asked where to find freebies. 

-I use Ashleigh's Friday Freebies posts.  (Hint:  Create a free email account for when you sign up online for freebies--that way your regular email doesn't get bombarded with junk email from these companies.)

-I follow deal sights such as Ashleigh's and Money Saving Mom which post frequently about freebies and coupon scenarios that allow you to get freebies at stores.

-You can often use coupons that don't have a size restriction on them (such as for body wash) to purchase a travel size item for free.  Who says you can't use travel size body wash at home in the shower?

-In my area, Target, Wal-Mart, and Kroger's $10 for 10 deals are usually my best bet at using coupons to get items for free.

Now it's your turn! Link-up below! Whether its an update on your savings so far this year or just a great trip you had with great savings! Anything goes!  Also, make sure to go check out Thankfully Thrifty  to see  how Ashleigh's savings are going so far this year and answers to other reader questions!

crazy coupon lady

The title coins the phrase that my dad used when he first saw my new coupon system....my coupon binder.  (Don't be fooled, he was kidding and, as an avid Dave Ramsey fan himself, is always intrigued to hear what I'm up to with my couponing.)

I started out my system with a small picture album that I wrote about here.  It worked great, but I ran out of room for all my coupons.

Next, I went to one of those small accordion type plastic folder systems.  It worked okay, but I hated how I couldn't see the coupons.

Hence, why I finally broke down and decided to be one of those shoppers in the store with a binder at hand.  So far, I'm loving it!

THE binder

 I like how I have room in the pockets to keep my grocery list and a list of my electronic coupons that are on my store loyalty card.

To organize, I purchased baseball card sleeves (found at Target).   I used small pieces of paper and taped them onto the pages to use as dividers.  Among my sections are "canned", "breakfast", "Boone", "baby", and I even have a section specifically for Target coupons.

Each section of the page holds one coupon (unless I have multiples of a coupon, then it holds them all).  If I have to fold a coupon to fit, I just make sure to fold it to where I can see the specifics and the expiration date.

So what works for you with couponing?

how we paid cash for our new vehicle

my handsome hubby driving his new truck home

When we found out we were expecting, we knew it was time to make some changes with our vehicles.  Justin drives a Mustang and I drove a Honda Accord...both two-door cars and not baby friendly.  Thankfully, we had been planning for this!

A little background...

Justin and I are debt-free other than our mortgage.  We "don't do debt".  Which means financing, making payments, and credit cards are out of our vocabulary as a couple.  We both went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University before getting married and have used it as our financial foundation as a married couple.  We felt that God really spoke to us through this course due to the strong biblical foundation Dave Ramsey uses to explain the importance of staying away from "stupid debt" such as credit cards and financing purchases and using cash instead...with the main priority as being good stewards of what God gives us so that we can give as much of our earnings back to God as possible.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.

-Proverbs 16:3- 

It just made sense to us.  And it still does.  We've seen God bless us like crazy, bless others like crazy, and provide in ways we can't comprehend.  So needless to say, we paid cash for our most recent vehicle purchase and plan to do so for our next vehicle purchase.  Was it easy? No.  Frustrating? Oh my...yes.  But I do want to share with you what worked for us in hopes of helping you take the same steps in order to remain debt-free if your family feels called to do that.  (Please remember these are my personal opinions based on our situation and how we have seen God work in our lives.)

1.  Save, save, save.  In order to pay cash for a vehicle, it takes planning and saving.  Since getting married, we have worked hard to save at least a fourth of our income.  Recently, we've been saving half of our income.  A good sized chunk of these savings have been designated for car purchases.  This has been huge.  It takes intense budgeting, discipline, and saying "no" to a lot of tempting purchases along the way.  But it pays off. 

2.  Don't trade-in your car.  You won't get what it's worth.  We used Kelly Blue Book to price our cars, cleaned them up, took quality pictures, and posted them on Craigslist for free.  While we're still waiting for Justin's to sell, mine sold within a week of posting.  Even if it doesn't sell that quickly...it's worth the wait! We got at least $3000 more for my car by selling it to an individual and getting cash than we would have with a trade-in. 

3.  Research.  Of course, you want to get the most for your cash.  If you like a certain body style of a vehicle, find out what years it was made, and try to buy a vehicle with that model that was made earlier...it will save you money.  Based on the quality of the car you are purchasing and how well it has been taken care of, you may be able to go up in mileage, which will cut off some costs as well. 

4.   Negotiate prices and extras.  This is huge.  Be your own advocate.  We went into each deal we tried to make with our firm price.  We researched the value of the car and knew exactly what we were going to make as our offer.  Justin was so great at this because he doesn't get emotionally wrapped up into these things like I do.  Choose your number and stick with it.  (This is another great thing about using cash...when you are financing, it's easy to let the number go up...with cash, it's not.)  Also, negotiate for extras.  The truck we purchased was just a few hundred miles away from a standard maintenance that Justin has researched a lot about.  Because we knew this, we negotiated to get this into the final asking price and got it documented that they would throw in the maintenance. 

5.  Don't fall in love! Enough said.  When you get emotionally involved, you'll do crazy things...such as going over your budget.  There are plenty of the same vehicles out there.

6.  Watch for extra fees. If you buy from a dealership...they almost always try to throw in extra fees because "all dealerships do this".  Don't fall for it.  We were firm with the dealers that we weren't paying the fees...or at least they were going to have to go down in the vehicle price to account for it.  To give an idea into how crazy this is...one dealership we worked with had over $700 in fees while the one we purchased from just had a fee of a little over $100.  (And remember that taxes and licensing get thrown in at the end too.) 

7.  Negotiate for the "out the door" price.  As I mentioned, many dealerships will throw in fees.  You, of course, must pay taxes.  And then there is the licensing and registration fees.  Ask for those numbers.  Determine the taxes yourself (your state sales tax times the amount you are going to pay for the vehicle).  Once you see those numbers written down, negotiate for an "out-the-door" price.  By doing this, we got the overall price of the truck down by around $1500. 

8.  Buy at the end of the month.  I've always heard this and it worked wonders for us.  It wasn't, but from now on, we'll intentionally buy at the end of the month.  The dealerships have a quota they want to meet and each individual salesperson has their own quota.  At the end of the month, they will do some crazy things to meet that quota.  Because of our timing, we purchased the truck for $1500 off the asking price out-the-door.  We also got the routine maintenance that would have ended up costing us between $400 and $500, plus there was a quirk with the windshield wipers that they fixed for free that would have cost us around $200.  Because of our timing, our firm negotiating, and them wanting to sell the truck, we saved over $2000. 

9.  Hide your payment plan.  While we realize the whole world doesn't work on the cash mentality like us, we got very frustrated with some dealerships that basically laughed in our faces and didn't value our money at all.  Some would even tell us that we would get a better deal financing.  (Thankfully we called their bluff and are smarter than they think...knowing that financing often leads to you paying more than the value of the car when it's all said and done.)  We started hiding our payment plan when dealers would ask if we were financing.  We simply replied with "we're not sure".  Once they started in on numbers, that's when we threw in the cash bomb.  We bought from a dealer that valued the fact that we were paying with cash. 

10.  Remember, patience is key.  We got down to the final offer with three other vehicles before we finally found the truck we purchased at the price we budgeted.  While it's hard to stand up and walk away from something you've put in a lot of effort and time, it was well worth it.  Looking back, we see God's guidance as we obediently walked away from three different deals when they wouldn't accept our offer. 

Have you paid cash for a large purchase? I would love to hear about it! And please don't hesitate to contact  me through email if you have further questions about Financial Peace or our personal decision to remain debt-free. 

a budget buddy

 source

As most of you know from reading my blog, we live on a budget.  And lately with grad school, it's an even more tight budget.  Thankfully, although it's tough sometimes to not be able to buy all the "extras" and things we just want...we're being so blessed during this season of our lives where we only focus on the necessities.  And as Dave Ramsey says...."Live like no one else...so later, you can live like no one else."  That's a commonly quoted statement in our home right now as we try to remain focused.

Well I'm always looking for something to help keep things "together" and organized while budgeting.  I love, love the blog Money Saving Mom.  Although I'm not a mom yet, she gives amazing advice on how her and her hubby got the point they are as frugal parents where she is able to stay/work at home.  Anywho...she offers awesome advice that really is in line with mine and Justin's money beliefs based on our Christian faith and what the bible says about being stewards of what God has give you and not to be in debt to others.

Mint.com  is a great resource I found through Money Saving Mom's blog and has become my "budget buddy".  If you're into budgeting (which I highly recommend) and enjoy organization like me (umm, yes please!), then this website is great for you.  (This isn't an endorsement...simply my own opinion for what it's worth.)  It links to your bank account (100% safely....I researched) and allows you to tag all of your transactions to fit specific sections ("envelopes" in Dave Ramsey language) in your budget.  You can set the specific budget for each section (i.e. eating out, gas, electric bill, etc.) and it shows how much over or under you are on your budget based on your transactions.  Being crazy about using cash in our envelopes to remain on track, we set an "envelope" budget and just tag that transaction where we get the money out each month as "envelopes".  The great thing is, you create the names and can even add a transaction if you need to just to remain right on track.  (For example, we recently just cashed one of Justin's checks.  I still wanted it to go through on mint, so I added the transaction to claim it as income.)  What's so great about this is that areas where we don't use cash for our envelope system, such as gas and tithing, we can keep track with how much we are spending much more easily than before.  Finally, you can even get help organizing setting aside money each month toward a "goal" such as a new car or even school payments.

If you are more interested in the "envelope system" lingo and want to check out Dave Ramsey, you can find his website here.

Questions about this? Feel free to ask! Your own ideas and thoughts on budgeting? I would love to hear them! Do share!

we love our frugal pup...free dog food for a month

Boonie's (or you all know him as Boone) "Gotcha Day" is coming up this Friday.  (As if I don't talk about him enough...come back then to hear me brag a little more about our sweet beagle/lab mix.)  We adopted him almost a year ago and I can't believe the time has flown by already! Well, my lovely blog friend, Ashleigh at Thankfully Thrifty let me know of a great deal Pedigree has going on right now. (Thanks, Ashleigh!) They are giving away a free month's supply of food if you have adopted your dog within the last year.  (She explained that it is a bag of dry dog food and then a few cans of moist food.)  You can find the link here. You just have to print out the form and fill it out...very easy to do.  You also have to add a copy of a proof of adoption (which I quickly located in Boone's personal file folder in our filing cabinet.)  Then just mail it off! I am anxiously awaiting our coupons in the mail! We include Boone's food and treats into our grocery budget, so this will definitely help out! We love our frugal pup.

grocery deals and freebies!

We had another snow day today.  That means we're into June now before we are out of school for the summer.  Annoying, but it was a good day.  Justin didn't work today, so I got to make breakfast and we spent a relaxing day together around the house.  Once he left for school this afternoon, I was off to the grocery store....coupons have been burning a hole in my coupon album! I was so excited to have a free afternoon to spend as much time as I needed with my grocery list and coupons.  As I mentioned here, we are on a $50 grocery budget...and that has been slashed in half from our first year of marriage.  (Could I get good enough at this that we could slash it in half again for our third year of marriage?!)  Since I had extra time for grocery shopping this week due to the snow day and Kroger was running some really good deals that end Saturday, I went ahead and planned my meals, created my list, organized my coupons and shopped for two weeks worth of groceries.  This includes stocking up on some personal hygiene items we use regularly because of good sales and great coupons.

Here's the stash:

(minus my new Venus Spa razor kit and Olay body wash--for some reason it didn't make it into the pic)

This is $158.77 worth of groceries and other items.

After my Kroger plus savings and coupons I paid......$89.84

I saved.....$26.62 in coupons and $42.31 in Kroger plus savings.  Even including the personal hygiene items that we rarely buy, we came in $10.16 under our two-week grocery budget, or $5.08 per week.  Most of these items will last us even more than two weeks...yay! (Can't wait to see what happens the third week of our grocery budget for March....this is like a game for me!)

Free Items:

-$2.09 Gallon Kroger 2% Milk....Free
-$2.09 Gallon of Kroger Skim Milk...Free
(Kroger is running a promo where you get 2 gallons of milk free when you purchase four Kellogg's or Keebler's items for $2.50 each....however, use $1.75 in coupons like I did for the purchased items, and you get an even better deal!)
-$2.00 6-pack of Diet Cokes....Free
(after purchasing 2-12 pack of diet cokes...plus I used a Kroger coupon for $1.50 off)
-$4.99 Salmon fillets....Free
(Buy one/get one promo...I purchased Gorton's frozen shrimp for $3.99 with a $1.00 coupon and got the salmon free)
-$5.47 23 oz. Olay Body Wash....Free
(after purchasing the Venus Razor kit for $4.94 with a $2 off coupon)
TOTAL FREEBIES:  $16.64

Great Deals:
-$1.99 Suave Body Wash for Men...$0.99 after using a $0.50 coupon that was doubled
-$1.00 Blistex lip balm (with 50% more)....$0.30 after using a $0.35 coupon that was doubled
-$1.00 Trident Layers gum....$0.25 after using at $0.75 coupon
-$2.35 Minute Brown Rice....$1.35 after using a $0.50 coupon that doubled
-$3.69 All Detergent-concentrated on sale....$1.69 after using $1 cut-out coupon and $1 coupon loaded to my Kroger card from their website
-2 @ $1.55 each Right Guard deodorants....$0.55 each after using a $2 off 2 coupon
-Diet Coke...after Kroger coupon for $1.50 off of $10 in soft drinks and a free 6-pack of diet cokes, $0.26 per can

Can you tell I was excited about my great week at the grocery? And I bought a lot of extra stockpile items...not items we don't use...but items we use on a regular basis that were on sale.  Of course, because this is a welcomed challenge for me, I have things I can improve on.  Just taking one step at a time toward spending less money.  Hope this will inspire you!

So what makes my grocery budget work?  I cut out coupons from the Sunday papers, load coupons from Kroger's website onto my Kroger Plus Card, and I print coupons for items I need from websites such as Cellfire.  I also study, study, study those ads, plan our meals for the week before going to the grocery store, and only buy items that we really need.  Check your grocery's website for store-specific deals and coupons loadable to your shopper's reward card.

Happy budgeting!


I'm linking up....

a budget warm and fuzzy

I discussed here how the hubby and I follow Dave Ramsey's envelope system.  (FYI...it's a cash-crazy, insanely intense form of budgeting).  Sounds fun, huh?! Oh...it is! (No sarcasm there...I am budget-crazy enough to really mean that.) Check out his website for details...or email me personally if you have questions of what all the fuss is about.

Anywho...when we first got married I had no, I mean no idea of how to grocery shop for the two of us.  I had done the minimum grocery shopping needed to get me by in the dorm and my apartment in college.....but that didn't prepare me for "wifehood".  Well, so we budgeted a whoppin' $100 a week (yes, I said week) for groceries...for the two of us.  No babies.  Not even a puppy for the first 8 months.  This is where I will give you permission to laugh at me.  Yes, laugh at my ignorance.  It's okay, I'm human. :) Well, let's just say after a year and half of marriage, I kinda feel like I have our eating patterns down.  I know what we need for lunches (we both take our lunch every day to work) and I plan my meals for the week before I go to the grocery.  So I dropped our grocery budget to....drum roll.....$50 a week.  Oh my heart is smiling.  That puts us at a savings of $200 a month.  That's $2400 a year.  I could keep going. My mind plays these little games on the envelope system. 

February has been our first month on this "slashed in half" grocery budget.  Last week I came home sad.  Before leaving, I cut my coupons like crazy (only the ones for items we actually buy), had them organized just-so like I blogged about here, studied Kroger's ad, strategically planned my list according to sections of the grocery so I wouldn't be distracted by running all over the place and could focus on my coupons and unit prices, and I still came in over budget.  With coupons...my total came to $61.00.  Boo.  However, I got home, pouted a little, and my sweet hubby reminded me that I had cut our grocery bill by $39.  With that, I felt better and even more determined to win this fight.

So fast forward to this week's grocery trip.  After reflecting...last week's trip did include our drinks that last us a couple weeks and other items that are a little more expensive, but last us a while.  (I have learned that it seems every other grocery trip is like this.  The next week's trip is usually just for some "necessities" to add to the pantry for the week.) This week was one of those "necessity" trips.  I do use that term lightly...as I am still learning, folks. :)  Are you ready for this? Remember how I told you I get easily excited? Well I was tonight.  Our grocery bill came out to be $28.75! Yay for the "newlywed" wife!

So if you add the previous week's bill, this week's bill, and the $9.50 we paid for Boone's food that we bought this week (yes, we include his food in our grocery budget.....he is our child after all).....we came in at $99.25 for two week's worth of groceries.  (Some of the items of course will continue to carry over into other weeks.)  That means for the first two weeks of this month we have spent what we spent on just one week's groceries in past months.  Oh, I love this!

A few things that made this week's shopping trip so "warm and fuzzy":
-Boone's Purina dog food was on sale from $14 to $11 and then I had a $1.50 off coupon.
-When pouring Boone's food into his bin, we found a "free" coupon for a Purina granola treat...so he got a $3.99 treat for FREE. (We love our frugal puppy.)
-Kroger doubles coupons $.50 and under....even if it says "do not double"....gotta love those grocery rebels!
-Simply the fact that Kroger has great "generic-brand" products that are much cheaper and you don't feel that you are sacrificing quality.

Check out our $28.75 spread....that does include the ingredients to make a heaping amount of that yummy tortilla soup I gave you the recipe for on a previous blog.  (We have snow on the way, people.  A good homemade soup is a must-have!)

Of course, Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace has been a huge inspiration for our budget.  However, for more grocery saving inspiration in the blogging world, visit Money Saving Mom.  You can find great coupon scenarios, printable coupons, freebies, links to other money-saving bloggers and tons of other thrifty tips.

Happy budgeting!! (Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?)


blessings, Cait

coupon and clearance crazy

So I am a little obsessed over trying to save money. I really do my best to never buy things at full price...other than necessities such as groceries. It's almost like a challenge to me. I find it so fun to find a bargain. Here are just a few of my tips that work for me. I hope they can help you save some pennies, leading to more to give during the Holiday season. :)

*COUPONS! Yes...it is worth your time! Get a really cheap small photo album and put your coupons in the places for pictures. I try to keep my food coupons in the front, household item coupons next, dog coupons after that, and finally shopping/restaurant coupons in the back. I keep it out of my purse as I grocery shop. It's great!

*If you shop at Kroger, they double any coupons that are $0.50 or less.

*If you bring reusable bags to Kroger, they take three cents off your bill for each bag you bring or you can choose to earn 3 gas points for each bag you bring in. The points then rack up for you to get the 10 cents off gas.

*More about Kroger...you can load coupons onto your Kroger card from their website AND they send you packets of coupons once you are a Kroger Plus member.

*At Target...look for the RED. :) Those are the clearance tags...especially at the end of the aisles. Love it! (Did I mention the dollar aisle? Even that aisle is at clearance price at times.) And Justin wonders why he can't get me out of that store...

*Don't be afraid to talk prices with people. For example, I called Insight and let them know of Direct TV's better deal they were offering and that we are really looking for the best deal...the phone conversation ended with us getting some free movie channels. :)

*Justin and I live by an envelope system...thanks to Dave Ramsey's class. Yes...real envelopes. Allot so much cash for each month. For example, we have a grocery envelope, a restaurant envelope and a "blow money" envelope (money to just "blow" on anything we want each week). You can pick and choose what is most important for you to have in the envelope system. It really does help to budget and figure this out. You'll be amazed how much money you can save when you get control of your money!
http://www.daveramsey.com/

*Half Priced Books...if you haven't ventured there...do so! Magazines for $0.50, books for less than $5...and so much more...amazing! (Even better...you can get a few dollars for bringing in old magazines and books.)

*Flea Markets...shop for cheap treasures. You can find some great items for the home and neat things to reinvent for your taste.


These are just a few things I do to save money. Find what works for you! :)

Blessings!