T2S 1 - Paying your bills - Do you write checks and send them in the mail? Do you pay a 5% or $3 fee to pay the bill directly to the company? Well here's how to save a ton of money and not even know it. A lot of banks do what is considered "Bill Pay" or something of that nature. You pay straight out of your account and they pay the company. If you break it down postage is $0.44 and if you pay 10 bills a month with a check maybe $0.05 per check, and a stamp then that's approximately $4.90 a MONTH that you save! Over a years time you will save $58.80! That's a lot of money when you look it like that. Now I understand that not everyone has a checking account but if there's a way to pay the company and not pay a fee then that's the way to go. Let's look at another situation - if you have a store credit card that you have a balance on then instead of paying and possibly paying a fee to pay on their website, one try to set them up in bill pay or straight from your checking account or two, if you are in the mall or the store and it's almost the due date, go ahead and pay it in the store. I know all the major department stores accept store payments.
T2S 2 - Have a price point - When you start looking at sale ads, know your prices. Watch your sales and write down the prices of items that you buy the most. When they hit what is known as "rock bottom" then stock up! Here's one of favorite things to stock up on - ground beef! We eat more ground beef then anything in my house. All the time it's advertised "on sale" for $3.99/lb! Well let me be the first to tell you that is NOT a sale price!!!!! That is the regular price and the stores are trying to get you to buy it anyway, it's a way of advertising. The STOCK UP price on ground beef is $1.99/lb. 9 times outta 10 that it goes on sale at this price it's the "family size" or the 4lb packages. It's okay if it is - either ask your meat department to split it up for you before you leave the store or split it up yourself when you get home. The last time I bought ground beef my TOTAL for 4lbs was $8.50 for each package - just think if you buy it at $3.99/lb your total for ONE pound would be approx $4.15 then you multiply that by FOUR!!!!!! Another price point is Renuzit Air Freshener Cones - Walmart ALWAYS has them for $0.97. If they are "on sale" 10/$10 that is NOT a good price you are paying more then the everyday price at Walmart. CVS likes to put them on sale for $0.88 (this week they are on sale) and then that is the price that you want to buy them! So stock up! A few days ago I posted a $1 off 3 coupon that was on the Renuzit facebook page. I will be stocking up because with that coupon and CVS' sale it makes them $0.55 a piece! So know your prices and remember "for sale" is not "on sale."
T2S 3 - Try a different brand - How many of you have one brand that you stick too?? I know I used to. I refused to any thing other then Tresemme shampoo and conditioner. Well how often do you see a Tresemme coupon?? MAYBE once a quarter! Well that isn't often enough for me and Tresemme is expensive and their coupons aren't to high value. So I started buying the brands that I had coupons for. My first ever time I bough Herbal Essences and I tried it and I liked it - so I stocked up and then I tried Suave Professionals - liked it and stocked up! Herbal Essence coupons come out every month in the P&G insert and Suave usually comes out the next week. So if I ever run low I know a coupon is coming! Buy the brands that have coupons and you will always end up on top!
T2S 4 - Stay out the gas station stores!! - One thing that ALWAYS gets my husband is he always thinks that he needs to buy a Mountain Dew at the gas station. Well let me tell you he used to blow through some money! Not any more. Catch your favorite drink on sale at your local grocery store and stock up. Here's your example - My husband drinks more Mountain Dew then anyone and last week the 16oz bottles were 4 for $11 at Food Lion - well I matched that with 2 $2 off any 2 Pepsi mutlipacks. I ended getting them 4 for $7, making each of them - $1.75 for EACH SIX PACK or $0.29 for EACH BOTTLE! At the gas station it is $1.49 for EACH 20oz - WOWZERS! I realize these are only 16oz but that's not that big of a difference. I stocked up for a WHILE on Mountain Dew for him.
T2S 5 - Roll your rewards - One HUGE thing that I do that you will see a lot is that I roll my rewards. Whether it's CVS ECB's, Walgreens RR, or Rite Aid +Up Rewards, I ALWAYS split up my transaction to save the MOST money. This week at Walgreens there are 5 free items, don't go in there and buy all 5 of them in one transaction! Go in there and buy them one at a time. I gave you the way to buy it. If you go to CVS and you are getting $5 in ECB for buying $10 worth of an item then buy that first and spend your $5 ECB in your next transaction to pay for everything else. Rite Aid is the same way as CVS.
T2S 6 - Earn rewards at the pump - Have you seen the price of gas lately? Where I live it's about $3.25 per gallon. Well I started researching my gas stations and found out that the one next to my house has a reward program! Each month it has a list of items that when you purchase that item $0.05 to $0.50 goes on your gas card. You can let these rewards build up to as much as you would like. *I know I told you to stay out of gas station stores, so here's the kicker.* The same gas stations that does those rewards is connected to a grocery store! Yay! So I do a lot of my major grocery shopping there and use my rewards from my groceries to pay for my gas! It's a win win situation!
