Oh, The Places You'll Go!

Hello everyone!,

FRIDAY already! Woohoo!!! I can't believe we made it through another week. This will be our first weekend in many that we won't be hitting the road, so I plan to enjoy as much of it as possible with my feet kicked up, hanging out with my family, eating delicious food, and getting ready for next week. We've all been working so hard the last few weeks that it will be heavenly to just turn the phones, computers, and cars off and ENJOY being together.

The purpose of this blog post is to highlight some of the places that *I* go to save (and make) money so that you can decide what would work for you!

1) Obviously, I go to the Sunday coupon section of the newspaper each week, but did you know that I also go through magazines, the Parade section of the paper, the inside of every food box that I use, the store shelves looking for "specially marked packages" when I'm shopping, and the internet looking for great coupons?

2) I collect points...Huggies, Pampers, Wachovia Possibilities rewards, and etc. These kinds of things add up VERY slowly, but they do come in handy about once a year for a $10-$20 gift card. Worth it to me! I'm already buying the product, why not get the points?

3) I collected Swagbucks for awhile, but the search engine just didn't return enough relevant results for me and I haven't made time to do the daily treasure hunt for Swagcodes. This could be fun though if you had enough time to dedicate to it daily!

4) I play the stock market! Thanks to my little brother, I've discovered how much fun it is to watch the ups and downs of the stock market on a daily basis...thanks to text messaging, I also always know when he makes more than me on any given day! This game that we play serves multiple purposes - it teaches us about investing, it makes money (hopefully :) ), and it keeps us aware of what's going on in the broader spectrum of things so that we have an idea of what our other retirement accounts may be doing.

5) I am an Amazon Associate. This program allows me to provide links for specific products or for Amazon.com in general that are embedded with my "code" and that earn cash back on whatever is purchased from the site. I also have a banner ad at the bottom of the main page of my blog that refers you to my aStore, where you can purchase Virginia Tech apparel and accessories! From this program, I've made approximately $20, so it's also a slow earner BUT every $20 helps!!! I didn't have to "work" for that...they basically gave it to me just for referring people to their site! If you decide to do this, expect about a 4% cash back return on purchases. (And if you don't want to do this, but you plan to order anything from Amazon, let me know and I'll give you a link!!! :-D )

6) In addition to checking my receipts, I also check my bills, my bank account, and my insurance policies. I call vendors with any disputes that I have, negotiate with my phone and insurance companies whenever possible, and always ask if there's a promotion available or any other discount that we're not currently getting.

7) We run a household free of pay TV, and have since January 2009. Since making that switch, we've saved approximately $980! We watch free digital channels over the air (and the pictures is in high-definition when available from the provider) and stream other things from the internet. Scott and I both resisted this change for a few months before we made it, but neither one of us really misses very much about receiving a monthly cable/satellite bill. :)

I'm sure I could name a lot more ways that we save/make money, but these items should give you some brain food for today...what can YOU do to help your family?

All my love,