Free Plants & Mulch

This month I have a tip posted on Bankrate.com's Frugal $ense Tip Contest. I hope you'll vote for mine (entitled Free Plants & Mulch) with the highest rating (7 on a scale of 1-7). Here is the link where you can read the tip and vote. The winner gets $100 from Bankrate.com.

If you can get your friends and family to vote 7 for my tip too, I'd really appreciate it. The contest ends June 30, 2009 (despite the fact it currently says May 31st). So, vote before the end of this month. Thank you!

The Bankrate.com editors actually truncated the tip I submitted. Too bad because there was an additional good point about using Freecycle and Craigslist. But just for you Save 4 Fun readers, I'll post the whole thing here:

When planning yard landscape, consider looking to friends, family, and neighbors for new plants. Take advantage of their surplus and no-longer-wanted plants when they are thinning out their flowerbeds. I’ve filled our yard with beautiful flowers for free. My parents gave us some daffodil bulbs from their yard. A coworker thinned out her irises and gave me some. I got some daylilies from someone on Freecycle.org who needed them removed so he could use the space for a vegetable garden. (Freecycle.org and Craigslist.org are great sources for free plants, including shrubbery, perennials, herbs, groundcover, etc.) Also, I get free mulch from my county’s waste management department. Like many municipalities, they turn brush and leaf pick-up into mulch and offer it to residents free of charge.

Sphere: Related Content

Carnival of Personal Finance #157: Third Anniversary Edition

Last week was the first time I have submitted an article to the Carnival of Personal Finance, and It Pays to Heed My Own Advice was chosen! I haven't had a chance to read any of the others yet for this week, but there are always great articles on the Carnival. So enjoy this edition! Thanks to Flexo over at Consumerism Commentary for including my article.

By the way, the printer came 3 days sooner than Circuit City's earliest estimated date of delivery. So, I didn't even have to wait but a couple of days to get my order!

Sphere: Related Content

Welcome Coupon Mom Readers!

If you are visiting Save 4 Fun from Coupon Mom's blog, a special welcome to you! I'm a huge fan of Stephanie Nelson's and have so appreciated her great website and blog. I hope you will find my blog to be useful, interesting, and inspiring too. If you do, while you are here, subscribe to get my blog posts via email or in a reader through Feed Burner.

If you are visiting Save 4 Fun from another source and aren't already familiar with Coupon Mom, go check out her site. You don't have to be a mother to find savings through her website. She has great, free resources and tips available including Grocery Deals by State which does the work of looking through grocery and drug store sales ads for you each week. She'll even tell you where to find coupons that are available for this week's sale items.

Sphere: Related Content

Saving More on Airfare - Priceline

As I mentioned last week in Saving on Airfare, I recently got a good deal on tickets to my honeymoon destination. Beyond the good deal, I was also able to use a coupon for American Airlines that was in the Entertainment Book and get some extra money back from Discover Card's current 5% Cashback Bonus program.

Coupon Mom just picked up my tips for one of her blog posts today. (Thanks, Stephanie!) And in that post, she also mentioned that Priceline will give a contribution to your Upromise college savings account when you book a reservation. I love Priceline!...and I love that they are a Upromise partner! But why, you ask, didn't I use them for my honeymoon flight reservations?

There is a potential drawback to bidding for your airfare on Priceline: flight times. Their website states, "Domestic flights are scheduled to depart anytime between 6am and 10pm unless your city pairs require off-peak travel. International flights can depart anytime on your travel dates." In the case of this part of the honeymoon, we aren't going to be gone a full week, and we want to see, do, and relax as much as we can. So, for this trip, we opted not to go the Priceline route for fear that we'd arrive late and have to leave early, which would cut into our already short vacation. The savings wasn't worth the risk.

However, we have bid on airfare on Priceline in the past. Here are some of what I think are their great benefits (pulled from their website): "Your flights will be confirmed for the dates and airports you agree to. Your flights will have a maximum of one stop each way, unless you agree to two connections each way. If you have a connection, your layover time will never be longer than three hours for domestic flights. You will never be put on a red-eye or off-peak flight unless you agree to one. You will know the total amount of your purchase before completing your transaction."

So, if arrival and departure times and the carrier aren't important to you, Priceline is a great option.

Here's an example from a trip we took last spring:
For the flights we took, the airline website was offering $330 (total price with fees and taxes). Kayak.com found the best deal on these flights to be $321 (total price). Our winning bid on Priceline was $263 (total price). That was a 18% savings over the lowest fare we could find. At the time, Priceline was offering a 1% contribution to a Upromise account, which meant another $2.63 in savings for me. Currently, Priceline is offering a 2% contribution to your Upromise account when booking through them -- so check it out, travel, and save!

Sphere: Related Content

Budget Article in the Loudoun Times Mirror

I had the good fortune on Monday to speak with Lina Hashem, a reporter from the Loudoun Times Mirror, about some of my savings tips. The interview with me was mostly in regards to Coupon Mom's website. The whole article has some good ideas and inspiring money-saving stories. Read Trimming the Budget Without Trimming the List. (Kudos to Kim Jenkins of Leesburg for racking up on some awesome deals on toys!)

For me, it's fun to share my savings tips and to find out what ideas other people have. I hope folks in Loudoun County find Lina's article useful and make their way to Save 4 Fun on a regular basis. It's exciting that Lina referenced my January 5 post of this blog.

Lina mentions Target's clearance items in the article. I know where all of the clearance sections are in my Target store (mostly end caps in out-of-the-way areas). I always make it a point to swing past these sections every time I'm in the store. While I don't find something I need or want on every visit, I do often find great deals.

I've noticed that some of the best clearance items at Target are in the health and beauty section. Sometimes they'll get a promotional package of lotion, toothpaste, or the like. It might have extra ounces or a sample of another product attached for free. (For example, 30% more lotion for free or a free toothbrush attached to the package of toothpaste.) They don't always keep those things on the regular shelves until they sell out. After a certain period of time, they'll move them to the clearance section. So, you might get a larger size of a product you want on clearance for 15%-50% less than the regular size on the regular shelf. You just have to look for the areas of each department that have the big red "Clearance" signs and see what good stuff might be there. I've found it's worth the extra minute to take a look.

Sphere: Related Content

Saving on Baby Shower Gifts

I've noticed this time of year that Target puts a lot of their baby items on clearance. So, it's time to stock up! No, I don't have any kids and am not planning to have them anytime real soon. I'm stocking up my gift closet because I do go to my share of baby showers and know lots of couples who have recently had babies or are expecting.

Gift-giving on a budget can be tough. I see so many things I'd love to buy people, but I could go broke that way pretty quickly! I used to go crazy in the baby department, spending tons of money on people...even people who I wasn't even all that close to. All of that little-bitty pink and blue stuff is so cute! How can you possibly decide what to get?!

A few years ago I was invited to a baby shower for someone I'm not really good friends with. I asked my sister-in-law (who had an infant at the time) what she suggested I get for this person because I had decided I was going to the shower. She said all of the toiletries and other small items are things that people often forget (or don't know they will need). So, I got several items and put them in a basket. It was a nice gift.

Later, when more people I knew were starting to get pregnant, I decided to also give them baskets, bags, or boxes filled with all sorts of necessary (and even some cute) little baby things. They are all things that they will need like rattles, teething rings, wipes, lotion, baby wash, toothbrushes, etc. The good thing is that you can usually find these things on sale and also find coupons for them. I've been able to give much nicer gifts on my budget.

I actually won a contest on BetterBudgeting.com for this tip last spring! I got $25 and a huge stack of coupons they clipped from the newspaper. You can read the full Baby Shower Gift Basket tip which is posted on their website.

Here is a listing of my savings by using this idea:

Value: $100.39...Price Paid: $46.41...Saved: 53.77%
Value: $84.86...Price Paid: $49.57...Saved: 41.59%
Value: $70.74...Price Paid: $29.34...Saved: 58.52%
Value: $19.58...Price Paid: $6.55...Saved: 66.55%
Value: $78.57...Price Paid: $40.78...Saved: 48.10%
Value: $31.67...Price Paid: $13.85...Saved: 56.26%

So, even if you aren't excepting a baby, start planning early and stock pile things to make into a nice gift basket when the little one arrives.

Sphere: Related Content

The Little Things Add Up

While I don't have an actual figure to share with you, I'm certain that lots of little things add up to big savings. Here are a few things that I've used or done today that are really easy, cost no additional money, and actually have saved me at least a little money. As a bonus, they all have also helped me be a little more environmentally friendly too.

1. I live in a place that was built in the early 1980s. I'm pretty sure that the toilets are the originals, meaning they aren't the water-saving models that you could get today. As I mentioned in my Frugal $ense winning tip article as well as my Water, Water Everywhere post, I try to reuse some of my excess water in various ways. However, I've also recently put a half-gallon milk jug in my toilet tank. It is filled with water so it will sink to the bottom of the tank. However, each time I flush, that half a gallon of water does not leave the tank or have to be refilled because it stays in the jug. I'm estimating that's about a 2,000 gallon and $18.40 savings per year. Not huge -- but I'll take it.

2. I pay some of bills through means other than mailing a check to the company I owe. However, I still get the statements in the mail which include a blank envelope every time. I save those for when I need to mail something where else (i.e. mail-in rebate). I just write the mailing address on a small slip of paper and tape it on the inside so that it can be seen through the window of the envelope. I haven't bought envelopes in ages, so I'm not sure how much they cost. However, I would imagine I'm saving at least $3-$5 per year.

3. I use grocery bags to line my small trash cans. They aren't exactly pretty, but it works. I just realized something new today. I can tie off or cut down my dry-cleaning bags (the clear plastic ones that cover the clean garments) to fit my small trash cans. Now, I have plain trash bags without the name of a store on them. It looks a little nicer. Again, I don't buy small trash bags, so I don't know how much they cost. However, I'm going to guess that I'm saving at least $5-$8 per year.

Like I said, each of these things doesn't save me large sums of money. However, if someone gave you $30 each year, would you turn it down? That's how I see these little savings tips. They don't take any more of my time or energy, and they save me money. So, I'll keep at it and see what other tricks I can learn to save little bits (which add up to a lot).

Sphere: Related Content

10 Ways to Spend Less in Stores (for the Holidays)

Stephanie Nelson (aka Coupon Mom) has an article in the December issue of Good Housekeeping. Check it out here and see if you recognize anyone mentioned (hint: in tip #6)! I'm online and in print now! The article is on page 121 of the magazine -- look me up this month when you are in line at the grocery store. ;-)

Like I said in my tip, you can get some really good deals for Christmas by using rebates. Last year, my sister had a flash drive on her wish list. I got one (1 GB) at Office Depot which had a regular price of about $60 for $12 because it was on sale and had $32 in rebates.

Each year, my sister and I get some gifts for the Salvation Army Angel Tree kids in Lynchburg. I got Twister and Connect Four for part of the gifts last year. I saw them for regular price at Toys R Us for $14 and $13, respectively. However, I got them the day after Thanksgiving at Target for $7 each, and I had a $2 rebate from the manufacturer for each game. That made them just $5 each!

As part of our gift to our brother last year, my sister and I got him an Ethernet adapter. The brand he wanted runs about $60-$70 regular price. I found it on Buy.com for $44 (after a $20 rebate), and they were offering free shipping...and there's no sales tax charged for shipping to Virginia!

Actually, Buy.com was a really great discovery. Last January, I got a $45 1-GB disk for my digital camera for free after rebate. They didn't charge shipping or tax. Okay, if you want to get technical, I may have had to actually mail in the rebate versus submitting it online (which some places offer), but then it was only the price of a first-class stamp.

I've added the link to Buy.com's Deal of the Day to my blog (left column). You can find some really great deals (like my free camera disk) that way. You can find other great deals on everything from toys and baby products to sporting equipment and books to appliances and computers to cameras and electronics through Buy.com too. Free shipping is available on many items. Tax is only charged for items being shipped to CA, MA, and TN.

Here's to having an enjoyable, but less expensive, holiday season!

Sphere: Related Content

What's so fun about saving?!

Saving is fun!

The title of this blog is actually a play on words. Yes, saving is somewhat of a game to me (how much can I get for just a little bit of money?) -- and games are fun! You can also save your money and resources so that you can do fun things, go to fun places, and have fun with your friends and family. You are actually saving for fun (stuff). Get it?!

Being stressed out about bills, credit card debt, rent/mortgage payments, health-care expenses, etc. is also the exact opposite of fun. Living on a tiny Social Security check (if there is one by the time I get to that age!) or working every day until I'm 75 or 80 also doesn't sound like fun. So, I think saving for the future and saving to ensure I don't have to worry about the many expenses of day-to-day living is indeed FUN!

This summer I won Bankrate.com's Frugal $ense contest. As a part of the prize, one of their staffers called me to do an interview that was posted on their website. In that article, I talked a little about this game called "Saving" and some of the fun stuff I can find to do with my money. The interviewer Sheyna Steiner seemed to like the idea of saving on every day things in order to have more spending money. Another person who thought that this was a good idea was Stephanie Nelson. In fact, it was Stephanie who suggested I start a blog and see if I could help other people save and have fun doing it.

So, let the saving and the fun begin!

Sphere: Related Content