Surviving At Home

My curiosity has been piqued by this blog post in which we are introduced to the “Coupon Queen” and the fact that she saves $7,000 a year on her grocery bill simply by using coupons!

My first question: how do you keep track of your savings? Do you have a shoebox full of the year’s grocery receipts?

I am trying to be a believer because since I started clipping coupons again I have noticed an average savings of $35 each week. Not bad since it all adds up, right? But holy cannolli, Batman, give me the scoop for saving $7 grand!!

This Coupon Queen could make a small fortune sharing her strategies for saving money at the grocery store. I’m willing to let her keep one trade secret to herself but come on, share the wealth with all the other stay-at-home moms that are struggling to make ends meet. I like to write…I’ll put the words on paper for you! Anything to get you sharing the goods!

My second question: Do you bring your children shopping with you? If so, doesn’t the constant droan of “Mom, can I have ____?” get on your nerves? 

Every Sunday my husband hands me the two piles of coupon fliers and if I’m good and organized, I’ll sit right then and start clipping. Normally I’m not that good and they are stuffed into a cabinet until the next shopping day when I’m scrambling to see if I can find any coupons to use. I don’t like being this disorganized, especially if organization can save me some money, so a remedy is in order.

One of the problems, I find, is that there are bunches of coupons for products that I simply do not use, so those end up in the trash. And the coupons that offer 25 cents off 2 boxes just don’t seem worth it to me, even if they are doubled. Give me $1 or more and now you’re talkin’. Or is it that I need to just think of the bottom line savings?

My third question: How big is your coupon file container? Is it small with lots of expired coupons (like mine) or is it magumbo size so you need a table of contents to find what you need?

I have also heard of some programs where for some kind of fee you can buy coupons for products that you use regularly. I can’t get my head around that idea either because you’re paying for coupons that will save you money; won’t you end up spending more money buying coupons??

Well, until the Coupon Queen contacts me about writing her bestselling book, I’ll continue to clip away. Hey, how about a cross-blog conversation revealing some useful tips? I’m game!

My mortgage broker called me out of the blue last week. We had not spoken in three years since we refinanced our mortgage to help pay for our basement renovations.

I immediately thought that she was looking to drum up business. You know how it goes: you get the phone call, you chit-chat, then they ask you if you know anybody who can use their services. I know this type of networking is important but more often than not, I feel like all these people are after is a name.

Rather than feel like a slab of used meat, my broker sincerely asked how we were doing and that this was a courtesy call to let us know that with all the hullabaloo in the mortgage industry, our loan was safe and the terms would not change.

Honestly, I have no idea what problems she was referring to. We generally don’t watch the news and I remember seeing a few headline online about problems and lots of mortgage companies going out of business but I really don’t know how this could affect us.

Come to find out during the course of this conversation, lots of people’s loans will adjust to much higher payments in the coming months, which will catch many of these people off-guard. I’m not sure how that happens; do you apply for an adjustable rate mortgage and then forget when it adjusts? My broker said that these people would get slapped so hard in fees that many of these properties would be in foreclosure soon.

That’s truly frightening! I guess it’s the old saying, “Ignorance is bliss” but it’s not bliss if all of a sudden you’re on the brink of foreclosure and bankruptcy. Gone are the days of Leave it to Beaver and I Love Lucy (am I totally dating myself now?) where the women were given an allowance and were otherwise oblivious to their financial situations.

Mortgages can be complicated, especially when it comes to sorting through multiple offers and finding which one serves your family’s needs. Contact a mortgage professional to get the best service and to get the best loan for your needs.

*This is a paid post*

For the last several months I have been stressing a little about budgeting our money better. I’m not sure I like being in charge of the household finances when the quarterly bonus checks aren’t as big as they used to be!

So we’ve been trying to cut down on miscellaneous expenses, which means that mom (aka me) hasn’t spent much money on fall clothes or things that she needs. I’m much more prone to put gas in the car or pay for school trips than to buy myself a pair of shoes. Instead, I cut the loose threads and continue on with my day.

(Just so you know, this sounds like a much worse picture than it actually is! We’re simply cutting household costs…not dumpster diving for food…)

Enter the email from Bass shoes offering us 30% off our purchase during their sale this weekend. Add in the $10 off coupon we received last month when my hubby bought some shoes for work. PLUS, as if those two things weren’t good enough, the clogs I wanted were marked down 50% in-store. Yes, clogs sound boring and are probably a typical staple in “the mom uniform” but those things are the most comfy shoes I own!!

So let’s do the math…

$70 shoes marked down to $35 - 30% off coupon = $24.50 – $10 coupon = $14.50 – $3.00 because I used my points card = $11.50!! OK…add in another $10 for 3 new pairs of socks and we’re back up to $21.50 but still…an AWESOME deal!!

So right now Bass is my new best friend as is Van Heusen where I’ve also gotten great coupon deals (the two companies must somehow be related because I usually get a VH coupon from Bass).

Mama’s got a new pair of shoes and not feeling guilty about it!!

It’s amazing to me how many projects I can start but how few I actually finish! I tend to get bored very quickly so I move from project to project and nothing ever gets completed. That’s why it took me 5 years to finish my daughter’s BABY cross stitch sampler! (Luckily she loves the design and it wasn’t too babyish for her room).

So for this week, I am vowing publicly to finish these 2 smaller projects. First, I MUST finish painting our front porch. I did the primer back in May or June, definitely before school let out, and here we are in the 3rd week of the new school year and it’s still just primer. Ugghh!! Can you say P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-I-O-N ?

My second project is to get my girls’ fall/winter clothes out of the basement and into their closets/drawers. That always seems never-ending as well because in the morning waiting for the bus it’s quite chilly but then the days warm up to the 70s, so right now we’re in mix-n-match seasonal clothes.

I’ll let you know how I make out next week…