Can I get a Price Check?

I get very excited when I find items I use a lot are on sale. You really have to check and make sure it is in fact a deal. One of my local grocery stores often has a sale buy 10 for 10 and get one free. You can mix and match so it is usually a good deal. One day I was shopping for baby food and I saw in the flier that it was 10 for 10 and get the 11th free. Great, awesome right? Yeah I thought so, until I realized that the item only cost 88 cents to begin with! So, I was thinking they want me to pay an extra 12 cents? I don’t think so. We pointed out the mistake to an employee and they kind of thought I was dumb for pointing it out. I thought it was kind of deceitful to act like it was a better deal when it wasn’t. I often wonder how many times we think something is on sale because the sign covering the price says so.

I always have a million things going on while I am at the grocery store. I don’t check every sale price with the original price every time. I have started to remember to do so. I hope you will remember to make a point to check out prices when you shop and make sure just because it sounds like a good deal that it really is.

Coupon Confessions

You all know how much I love coupons right? I have a confession; I used to clip coupons that weren’t worth clipping. I was on a coupon train for a while and I would clip every single coupon even for things that I would think others might need. Some of them were for unique items, that only a select few would use. I would also get really excited about triple coupons and dollar doubles it was like my Christmas seriously. I would clip coupons for things I would never get unless it was free, then I would try and donate them if I could. For a while I had a huge collection of deodorants, ketchups BBQ sauce etc. Whatever I could get for free was like a gift to me. My cabinets and drawers became over run with free things I got from those sales. My mom and I used to joke about how many armpits we would need to use all the deodorant we had in our annex. You need to know when a coupon might not be worth clipping.

I try and use coupons whenever I shop if it is possible. I usually look for printables online if it is for a specific store. I also try and find coupon codes if I am shopping online. There are tons of printable coupons and coupon codes out there if you know where to look. I really like shopping at The Children’s Place for clothes for Noah and I am always looking for Children’s Place coupons. I like to get more bang for my buck. It is like a hunt for me. Do you like to shop with coupons? What are some deals that you have gotten that stick out in your memory?

Why buy something when you can get it for free?

I find most books really helpful with learning new things. There are books on practically everything. I think books are important but I also think that the internet is a valuable tool as well. You have millions of different types of information at your fingertips. Of course I still love books and the internet doesn’t replace them by any means but I don’t know how people will write books about stuff that you can search online for free, especially when it comes to frugal tips. These little tidbits can be found for free by typing in frugal tips or tips on making your own baby wipes in the search engine of choice. Who needs to pay 10 to 12 dollars for a book that is essentially many other people’s ideas that you wrote down and claimed as your own? I don’t think it is right to make a buck off of other people’s ideas without giving them a cut. In my opinion, I believe it is wrong.

I have lots of respect for those authors that come up with their own content and do their own research. Those are the books you should be reading and buying. They are honest writers that put in a lot of hard work. I don’t think it is a good idea to buy such a book. It is the equivalence to me searching say Food Network’s website and writing a cookbook about it using their recipes. That example reminds me of an episode of Saved By the Bell where they start selling Screech’s Secret Sauce and they find out the recipe was from the Betsy Crocker cookbook. I am kind of shocked that the publisher even published it. It seems like it would be a law suit in the making in my opinion. Unfortunately, plagiarism is everywhere, even some of my blogging friends are getting their content stolen.

I was on Amazon earlier looking at books and I came across a book called, Instant Bargains: 600+ Ways to Shrink Your Grocery Bills and Eat Well for Less, I was reading through the description and the reviews and the book seems like it would be a total waste of money in my opinion as I said before, You can search the internet for anything. Instead of 600+ ways you could have 600,000 from the internet.

I personally think I will save my money and continue to search the internet for all things cheap. I guess my thinking is…If you are cheap why would you pay for something that is free? It kind of defeats the purpose in my opinion. If anyone wants to throw away their money please email me and pay pal it to me instead. I am sure I can put it to good use.