Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Questions



Today i will attempt to explain myself as well as answer some questions that I have received. They are random and not in any specific order.




Question: Do I feel everyone should shop the way I do?

Answer: NO. There are a lot of things to be considered. Your time, the needs of your family, your children's ages, your driving distance, your personality, your interests, etc.

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Question: Do I enjoy shopping this way?

Answer: Yes! Yes! Yes! I enjoy the challenge of it and have enjoyed trying to figure out what works best for my family. I will see if I continue enjoying the challenge after child #3 makes it's arrival. Somehow, hauling 3 kids in and out of 4 or 5 stores doesn't sound too fun. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

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Question: Why did I start this blog?

Answer: A lot of my friends had questions about it. When I get excited about it I can't seem to keep my mouth shut and it seemed like a good way to tell my friends why it has worked well for me. I was also hoping some of my friends who are pros at this could critique me and give me tips and pointers.

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Question: Do I feel everyone should try to live more frugally?

Answer: Yes. I believe most people raise their standard of living every time their income is raised. The whole idea of being frugal is not because you are forced to save money or spend less but because you can use that money elsewhere or give to those in need.

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Question: What are some of my favorite sites?

Answer:
1. All time favorite -
Hip2Save (she does a lot of posting so you may find yourself feeling like you're wading through a lot of stuff that isn't useful to you. Her match ups are almost always correct and legal. :) I've found some other sites try to use coupons for items other then the size or product they were intended to be used for.)

2.
Money Saving Mom (She has a lot of stuff to wade through but writes some wonderful articles on menu planning, shopping and saving)

3.
Frugal & Thrifty Mama (Love this because I know Michelle and it's been great to connect with her this way. It's not fair that she has a Krogers though. :) If you are a newbie, Michell's site is perfect for you. You would benefit from all her posts without having to wade through a bunch of other stuff.)

4.
Saving in Akron (The only reason I use this site is because it's the best site I've found for Giant Eagle match ups.)

What's your favorite site? Maybe there's a site that I've been missing out on all this time. Please enlighten me!

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Question: Which Sunday paper has the best coupons?

Answer: The bigger the city, the more coupons will be included. Our small town papers often don't have near all the coupons in them. The biggest one sold in Dalton is the Akron-Beacon Journal.

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Question: What does do the little letters stand for in coupon match ups?

Answer: RP stands for Red Plum, SS stands for Smart Source and P&G stands for Proctor & Gamble. These are the 3 different inserts that are sometimes found in Sundays paper. Hip2Save has written some great stuff on couponing basics. I would recommend you check out her 'Couponing 101'.

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Question: If a person doesn't have a lot of time, how can I best save money?

Answer: I think one of the fastest ways to save a buck or two is price matching at Walmart. Take some sale papers, circle the best deals and price match it. You don't need to hop from one store to the next to save. I never pay more then $.33 a lb for bananas or $1.99 for milk. Those are two items I buy every week and price matching enables me to save on them every week too.

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Question: Do we eat a lot of rice and beans?

Answer: Actually, I love rice and beans (and lots of other Mexican fare) but somehow I don't think that was the point of this question. :) In my opinion, we eat very well and not like some poverty stricken family. My husband is a meat eater and I don't think I could get away with cooking very many vegetarian type meals. I try to stock up on meat when the price is right. Meat is still a big chunk of my grocery budget.

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Now it's my turn to ask the questions? What are some of your living frugal/money saving tips? (Grocery, Eating Out, Around the House, Etc.) How often do you go get groceries and other household goods?

7 comments:

  1. You picked my 3 favorite sites! Michelle, Crystal, and Colin! :)

    I don't have any eating out tips other than using coupons and drinking water. :) We only go out to eat every few months. (If that)
    How often do I get groceries? Every week, some weeks I go shopping twice.
    I think you are doing great with your blog and couponing. :)

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  2. On eating out...it's true that we don't eat out often, but I do like my coffee shops!! ;)

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  3. this was really helpful!! thanks for taking the time to answer Qs. i so admire what you do. for some reason, it`s not me-- i can`t seem to get the hang of it. still LOVE to read about the deals you get though.
    to answer your question- i shop at aldis, save all the coupons i can and make a lot of rice, black beans, oatmeal type dishes. lame, i know. ;)
    jenny @ www.baileyandme2.com

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  4. Jenny,
    I was wondering WHERE IN THE WORLD you dissapeared to! I looked on xanga, chronic conversations....and no trace! LOL!
    Wonder blog you have!

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  6. Aww..Heather, how kind of you to list my blog as one of your favorites. Hip's is one of my all time favorite blogs. As for saving money when eating out? We always to to hit Applebee's during Happy Hour so we can get 1/2 price appetizers.

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