Save money with dry cleaning!

My husband wears pressed shirts every day for work.  I can't iron a shirt to save my life and so these head to the dry cleaners along with his pants.  Luckily we found a dry cleaners that has a great low price otherwise we'd be broke.  However, for my clothes and our sweaters I run these through the dryers (gasp horror arggh).  My pants are usually lined and for sweaters we wear a t-shirt or vest under and so the cleaning cloths help to freshen our clothing and enable extended wear before heading to the dry cleaners.

I ran out of these products the other day and yesterday googled for coupons, here's what I found:

GO HERE to request your free Woolite Dry Cleaner's sample, simply fill out the form and attach your dry cleaner receipt (ends 3/31)

Print a $1/1 Woolite Dry Cleaner's coupon here.  I picked up a box yesterday and found a rebate form on my box which enables you to get a free coupon which will be mailed to you.

Head to the Dryel site to grab some free coupons: You can choose

	1) Receive a coupon for $1 OFF DRYEL® via email OR
	2) Receive a coupon for $2 OFF DRYEL® and a total of $10 in coupons for other oneCARE products in the mail.

Share your dry cleaning secrets?

Enter your email address for access to fun freebies, steals and deals

Tuesday, March 06, 2012 | No comments | Read More

Ways to Save: If You Don't ask You Don't GET

As part of my Ways To Save Series I wanted to write about spring cleaning your bills.

 My husband and I are doing great, we both have great jobs, however, every month when the bills come in I'm astounded by how much goes out the door.  I feverishly save on my groceries, clothes and gifts through coupons, deals and of course freebies yet feel I'm still not saving enough because of these ever growing bills that seem to be a neccessity in our lives.  With a mortgage, two kids in private daycare, health, car & house insurance, taxes, Verizon triple package, cell phone, electricity and gas bills plus sundries it soon adds up tremendously.  Here are some ways to shave some money off those bills so you can divert the money saved into a savings account.  Yes don't spend that money, save it!

Verizon Fios

Recently, I looked at my Verizon bill, we have the Triple Play Package plus numerous boxes and as you all know thats a pretty penny! I hate paying so much but TV is part of our lives whether we like it or not, the kids enjoy their children's program, hubby loves his sports and me I love my sunday night Shameless show.  Of course, I need internet and well we don't need a landline but with two kids I feel secure knowing the kids can call 911 on a regular landline rather than hunt down a cell phone and figure out how to operate a cell.  So how can I shave some money off this bad boy? 

One option is to switch providers - afraid this is not going to happen for us as we're never going back to dish - Comcast may be an option if they can match Verizon Fios quality and they are slowly clawing their way up.  However, if you are looking into switching providers especially to Verizon Fios email me here as there is an incentive for you and I to earn $100 from you switching to Verizon.

My current plan has worked time and time again.  Last night I called Verizon and said "My 2 year plan is up and I'd like to save some money on my existing plan as I feel I'm paying way too much?  How can you help me lower this plan without me switching providers?"  Well I miscalculated and my plan is not due until September but.. she said to hold on and she'll see what she can do.  She told me that she'll take $20 off my bill every month for a year.  I cancelled my HBO/Cinemax package which is now saving me $22/month.  Typically, they offer free HBO or Cinemax packages throughout the year and my rep said she'll look into it this weekend and see if she can add it on for FREE.  SWEET - if you don't ask you don't get.  So that's a $480 saving right there!  BTW I had an awesome customer service rep but YMMV (your mileage might vary).  I typically call twice or three times a year and see what free packages are available - just remember to cancel the service once the free package expires.

Cell Phone Bill

With the recent iphone opportunities with Verizon, AT&T customers should definetely call into your AT&T center and negotiate a reduction in your rate.  Use the same "My 2 year plan is up and I'd like to save some money on my existing plan as I feel I'm paying way too much?  How can you help me lower this plan without me switching providers?".  All they can say is "No" right, so just try. 

If your plan is no where near expiring, then still go into your call center and ask whether your company offers a discount for employees?  My company offers a nice discount and by me simply saying I work for so and so (you might need to show ID though) I automatically got a discount.  However, again I got a superb rep and he said are you sure you don't work for Coca Cola?  I said no, he said if you are not sure you might need to reconsider as they offer a bigger discount.  Of course I remembered.... and now in AT&T's record I work for Coca Cola - again YMMV.

I'm not sure if AT&T still offers the free 1000 rollover minutes through a simple text but here's my original article here for you to try.

Electricity and Gas Bills

There is only one main provider in my area and I'm not really keen to switch despite the discount.  We got enough power outages this winter that by switching to a small less known provider worries me.  However, do look into your area as you may be able to switch to an equally good provider or maintain your current by using the same "I'd like to save some money on my existing plan as I feel I'm paying way too much?  How can you help me lower this plan without me switching providers?". 

I shave some money on my bill by signing up to the pay ahead scheme that my provider offers.  Do read your monthly bills as they sometimes offer nice incentives or check your providers website.

Taxes

Moving from the south up north 5 years ago was shocking.  House prices were significantly higher (we paid more for less square footage) and our taxes went up 3-fold.  Last year I appealed our taxes because the economy had caused a significant drop in the price of our local homes.  I found 3 local comps and submitted the paper work to my township and this year we received a significant drop in our taxes.

Education

Since I work daycare is a must, plus the well being and education of our children is important so I didn't skimp on the facility based on price.  However, refer friends to your childs school and you can earn yourself some referral money that can go towards tuition.

For older kids near college age, check with your HR to see if they offer scholarships for employees children?  read up on how to get scholarship money for your child at the particular school you are looking at.  Talk to the registrar and ask if they can suggest any scholarships.  Your local community might offer scholarship money.  If you don't ask you don't get.  I was very fortunate to be offered scholarships for both my Degree and Masters in England.

Insurance

My house and car insurance is bundled together with the same insurance company for extra discount.   Remember to update your info with your agent periodically, maybe you might qualify for extra discount because you are a long term member? and again throw the "I'd like to save some money on my existing plan as I feel I'm paying way too much? How can you help me lower this plan without me switching providers?" line out there.

Mortgage

If you can, pay your mortgage note earlier than usual.  You are paying a month in arrears so the earlier you pay you can shave off some daily interest.  While it doesn't seem much month to month over the 30 years or however long your mortgage is for it might be a nice saving.  If you can add extra payments to shave some time off the end.

Health Bills

There's no getting around the darn health insurance bills.  Coming from England where healthcare is free I find it extraordinary that insurance and hospitals can charge so much.  My husband and I have a good plan yet still pay an astronomical amount for health care for our family of four.  I hate to think how those less fortunate get around this.  The only way I can think of lowering your health bills is to stay healthy by eating healthy and excercising.  One who is in tip top shape should in theory require less medical attention.

I hope this Ways to Save helps you Spring clean your bills

Feel free to comment to how you shave money off those monthly bills

Thursday, March 03, 2011 | 11 comments | Read More

Are you saving your Box Tops from freebies? Its FREE money for your school!

As you all know I love superstacking. 

Superstacking to me is pairing a store sale, with a store and manufacturer's coupon and a rebate.  Online this means stacking an online sale with an online coupon code and ebates.  For the daily deals this means pairing a sale with a free credit and a coupon code.  The list is endless and just makes me tingly all over thinking about them all.

Did you ever think of Boxtops as a superstacking excercise?

Box Tops for Education was created by General Mills in 1996 as an easy way to help make a difference for kids and schools. Since then, schools have earned more than $375 million through the program to help get the things they need-from books and school supplies to playground equipment and computers. Help make a difference in schools by clipping Box Tops from more than 240 brands, including Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Hamburger Helper, Kleenex, Ziploc, Hefty, Juicy Juice, Avery, Welch´s, Land O´Lakes and Brita. Find out how much your school has earned and learn other ways to earn cash for your school at http://www.btfe.com/.

I've been collecting Boxtops ever since I had my son because the day care that he went to collected them to earn money for school supplies.  For each boxtop that you simply clip from the select brands that carry them it will earn your school 10 cents.  Even if you only get a few boxtops a month every little helps.  My children's old daycare used to run contests where the class that collected the most would earn a free pizza lunch and the child that collected the most would earn a free scholastic book.  Being the coupon junkie that I am my son won the free scholastic book several times in a row.....

To me Boxtops are a win win superstacking excercise.  From my General Mills freebies from pairing a grocery store sale with a store and manufacture's coupon I can benefit a school with easy free cash via the boxtops.  Are you collecting yours? 

Watch this YouTube video here to see how Box Tops turned a typical day at the grocery store into something extraordinary.

Disclosure: I was sent a link to this video thanks to my membership with My Blog Spark. I was not compensated in anyway for this post. All opinion expressed are mine and mine alone.

Thursday, January 20, 2011 | 8 comments | Read More

Are you turning your everyday spending into college savings?

Are you saving money with Upromise!

A friend recommended Upromise to me when I was pregnant with my son.  She said just by linking my store cards and credit cards I can rack up money into the Upromise account which can be used towards my sons education.  I had nothing to lose and all to gain!

While Upromise won't pay for College entirely it will be a nice little chunk of change to go towards a laptop or books when my children is of college age.  So through my everyday spending I save some money towards college.

Its so easy to set up, I linked up my drug store and grocery store cards plus my credit card and Upromise takes care of the rest.  Its crazy to see the money accumulate without me doing anything.  You can go above and beyond e.g. add ecoupons to your account to ramp up your savings.  Sign up here.

Thursday, January 13, 2011 | No comments | Read More

Ways To Save - Reduce your Household Bills

This is the Ways to Save Series Number 6.

We're living the American Dream which typically consists of sending a huge chunk of our paycheck to our everyday bills and mortgage.  I love the commercial where this guy is driving around on his brand new ride on lawnmower and says "I'm up to my eyeballs in debt".

After having kids we realized that we can still enjoy the American Dream but we have to be smart about how we spend our money.  I'll start with the basics and discuss smart ways to reduce your everyday household bills so that you have more money to put towards savings and rainy day funds.

Shop Around

Compare prices and ask for information from your suppliers and make sure you only buy from reputable companies

Pay by Direct Debit

Many companies offer discounts of up to 13% on services if you pay by direct debit. Direct debits are an automatic payment from your bank account and usually spread the cost of goods or services over the year, and you can often pay a standard amount each month, making it easier to budget.

Double up on Products

Most suppliers of utilities or insurance offer a discount if you purchase more than one of their products, like both house contents and car insurance, or gas and electricity (often called dual fuel).  If you are interested in switching to Verizon then check out my post here in which Verizon has a referral program where you can score a $100 cash card by using the referral link!

Use Less

It may sound simple, but using less of your gas, electricity and water can really help you save. This doesn't just mean turning off the lights when you leave a room, but also by making sure your home and appliances are efficient.  We switched all of our lamp light bulbs to the CFL light bulbs - I got the bulbs all for free by finding $1/1 coupons a while back and pairing them up with a $1/1 sale.  Now need to find a deal for all the can lights in the ceiling.

Stockpile
Whenever a freebie deal comes up I try to stockpile as much as I can - so this means gathering up as many coupon inserts from friends and family or asking family and friends to print as many coupons as possible for freebie deals.  For the months of August and September I was super busy with work and we were away on vacation and I was not able to freebie shop as much as I had the previous months.  However, we managed to live off our stockpile and only went out to buy the necessities such as fruit, milk and bread during those months.

Free Products
The most obvious way to get free products is find free coupons in the Sunday inserts or magazines although these are far and few in between these days, the most popular is to pair a coupon up with a sale or do rebates which require some work.  However, I spell it all out on my blog so sign up for my alerts via email, google friend connect, facebook (Addictedtofreebies) or twitter (Freebiealerts) and you can get up to the minute freebie deals especially since there are many time sensitive freebies out there.  My favorite and quickest way to get free coupons is to write complimentary letters directly to the manufacturer - yes thats totally true.  With the age of internet its free to request free coupons too and no postage is required, I just find the contact us section and email them my compliments and my last sentence comprises of "Any coupons that you may send would be received well".  Note, not all companies send free coupons, some send money off coupons and others none whatsoever.  But if you have some time, send 1 or more emails a day and you'll soon find how addictive it is when you open up your mail box daily and voila is your nice letter from Mr Company saying how nice your compliments or ideas were and here is a coupon to enjoy their product for free.

Click below for a nice list of companies to email that will mail out free coupons.....

Saturday, October 02, 2010 | 6 comments | Read More

Ways to Save for Family Vacations

I love going on vacations with the kids - I want them to be world travelers and see beyond their backyard.  We just got back from a wonderful European vacation last week to see my family (I grew up in East London and hubby wanted to do a Guiness and Jamison tour in Dublin).  This was the kids first trip abroad with their brand spanking new passports.  So we cashed in our Mastercard miles (that we had been savings for 5 years) and my husbands frequent flyer miles to score free airline tickets for all four of us.  We stayed at my brother's house (free accomodation) and we ate breakfast and dinner at my parents each day (free food).  I went online to scope out discount tickets and free things to do with the kids.  I always sneak my 3 year old into tours by saying she's 2 (free ticket).

Last year we took the kids to Disney World.  We stayed on the Disney property so we could be part of all the action and this was a once in a lifetime trip for us as a family.  As you all know Disney World is not a cheap trip by any means.  I booked our flights when a great deal came by and booked through ebates to get cashback on my purchase.  My 2 year at the time had free entry.  I searched online for all the Disney hotel discount codes available, my sister in law had old entry passes that were transferable which helped tremendously (free entry tickets).  We took in our own food and drinks and found great websites to help reduce our overall bill.  There are so many websites out there that gives you advice on what to do and see and all on a great budget.

So I'm now thinking about a Disney Cruise maybe in 2 or 3 years time.  Click here for a free planning DVD - and then figure out what you want to do and then go online and figure out how you can reduce that enormous bill. 

Taking a family vacation can be a great educational experience for your child.  My children know that England has a Queen and her Palace is closely guarded by Guards who carry bayonnets with spears attached and they know all their Disney Characters.

 Where there is a will there is a way.  Where will you go tommorow?

Tuesday, September 21, 2010 | 8 comments | Read More

Ways to Save Series 4: Save $300-$500 a year

Here are my measurements 32 32 36 36

You're probably thinking what's up with the 4th measurement?  Fortunately, I will not be divulging my body measurements here.  These are the recommended tire pressure measurements for my car. 
Do you know yours? 

I'm a BzzAgent and I'm working on the Michelin Tires BzzCampaign and I tied this BzzCampaign with my Ways to Save series.  Here you'll learn how to save yourself $300-$500 per year and also if you are in need of some new treads then we have a $70 rebate form, read on....

FACT: A majority of cars on U.S. roads are operating on tires inflated to only 80 percent of capacity.

FACT: Poorly Inflated Tires Increase Fuel Costs and Emissions. 

FACT: The average person who drives 12,000 miles yearly on under-inflated tires uses about 144 extra gallons of gas, at a cost of $300-$500 a year.

FACT: Any vehicle running on soft tires is contributing as much as 1.5 extra tons (2,880 pounds) of greenhouse.

FACT: Fully inflated tires are safer and less likely to fail at high speeds

So what shall we do:

• Check Tire Pressure Monthly and When Tires are Cold
• The correct air pressure for tires that come with new vehicles can be found either in the owner’s manual or inside the driver-side door. Beware, though, that replacement tires may carry a different PSI rating than the originals that came with the car. Most new replacement tires display their PSI rating on their sidewalls.
• Tires must be replaced when the tread is worn down to 2/32 of an inch

Check out the Michelin Tires Bzz Campaign to learn more about Tire Safety and also win yourself some great prizes by participating in the fun activities.

Click here for a $70 rebate when you buy 4 new Michelin brand passenger or Light truck tires.

Is Shorter really better - check out how here

If you like my blog then please vote here

Thursday, July 22, 2010 | 3 comments | Read More

Heads up: Shop at Sam's Club Membership Free

If you have a Sam's club nearby, do not have membership and do not want to pay the membership fee, Sam's club is letting non-members shop for three days in early August (August 6, 7 & 8).  Basically try Sam's Club for free.  Sam's club has not officially announced to the public yet but watch out for more details.

Find a Sam's Club near you here

We're already members to Costco since Sam's club is further away.  I can normally get a lot of products for free or near free with coupons, but we joined Costco since my company offers a really good discount compared to the regular fees and we can buy bulk items that do not have coupons and also its great place to buy bulk food for big parties.

Thanks Kathy for the heads up to this article

Thursday, July 15, 2010 | 1 comment | Read More

Ways to Save Series 3 - Coupons

This is the 3rd of the Ways to Save Series and its about the use of coupons - my favorite topic : )

Well I thought the best way to explain how to save through coupons is through an actual example.

I went to Genuardis this week and spent $12.52 in 5 transactions and got over $114 worth of groceries:

Well for those who think coupons are a waste of time or not an efficient way to spend your time well I think the evidence above speaks for itself. 

For the Genuardis deal above the deal was buy 8 of the participating products get $4 off (locate this in your weekly store flier online or one that is mailed to you). I found coupons for the ones I wanted to buy and made a plan with the aim to use as many coupons as I could to lower my out of pocket.

Here is a list of ways to get coupons -

Coupons from Sunday paper inserts

Consider getting the Sunday paper delivered to lower your paper cost. 

Buy the paper from your dollar store

Buy multiple coupons from a clipping service or ebay

Internet Printable Coupons
There are many sites that host printable coupons - the top three are my favorites.  You will need to install the coupon activator onto your computer and generally you can print 2 coupons per computer - of course you need a printer too : )  If you have multiple computer/laptops in your household consider printing from them all.  Many store do take printable coupons but please find out your store policy on internet printable.  For example, my Giants PA store will not take BOGO printables.

• Coupons.com

• Smartsource

• Redplum.com

Home Made Simple

• Boodle.com

• CoolSavings

• CouponBug

• Pillsbury

• Betty Crocker

• Eat Better America

• Box Tops 4 Education

• Very Best Baking

• Making Life Better

• weusecoupons.com - Online database to search for coupons

Electronic coupons
Electronic coupons are an awesome feature to couponing but only limited to certain stores - it works for Genuardis for me.  Basically, you sign up with shortcuts and cellfire and download coupons directly onto your store card.  The beauty of it is both sites hold similar coupons and they will both be deducted at the same time on your purchase. Plus, you can stack it with your manufacturer coupon.  In my example  transactions above I had loaded the same coupon at various times and for transaction 1 above I had 4 ecoupons for 1 product which was awesome as this made it a moneymaker and the overage was used to cover my total spend.

• Shortcuts

• P&G eSaver

• Cellfire

• Upromise

Store coupons

Don't forget stores have their own coupons which can be found in their weekly fliers, mailing list and emails.  You will need to figure out whether your store allows you to stack a store coupon with a manufacturer coupon.  Target, CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid allow such stacking.

There are many varieties of coupons that you can actually find in the store:

Blinkies: Pull these coupons from the “blinking” machines at the grocery store

Peelies: Coupons that are stuck to the actual product

Tearpads: Pads of coupons typically found on special displays at the store, tear off one or two or three…

Magazines

Flick through your regular magazines as you’ll find some provide many coupons. I love All You magazine, its sold at Walmart only and has a great source of coupons – sometimes the coupons are for frees. I subscribe to the magazine to get a cheaper deal.

Home Mailers

One of my favorite ways to get free products is to email the company directly via their website (no stamp needed) and tell them how much I love their product. At best they send a complimentary coupon for a free product, more often than not they mail coupons and other times not. But you have nothing to lose so write away.

Catalina coupons

The grocery stores usually spit out a coupon when you make a purchase. Read these carefully as sometimes if you buy a product the Catalina machine will print a coupon for a free competitor product to entice you to switch. In my example transactions above I brought 4 Kraft dressings and I received a $3 catalina coupon - I rolled this into my next transaction to lower my out of pocket.

Cell phone coupons

Target has a new program where you can receive coupons on your cell phone.  When you pay for your purchase pull out your cell phone and they scan the coupon directly from your cell!  I have not tried this yet but sounds pretty cool!
There are many sites with forums that discuss coupon use and how to score that big deal.  I have listed the ones I use below. 

weusecoupons.com

Hotcouponworld.com

afullcup.com

I do find these sites very overwhelming sometimes and you can spend a whole day on them and still be confused about how to do it.  My strategy is I just browse these sites for the particular store that I want to shop, find the deal I like and and then flick through my store flier and my coupon stash and see if they match up.  

Here are a few mottos that I like:

Don't buy without a coupon

If its not free, don't buy it

If its not on sale this week it will be on sale next week

What is your coupon strategy?  I'm interested in hearing your comments : )

Thursday, June 17, 2010 | 5 comments | Read More

Ways to Save series 2 - Summer of fun for free

My Mom was a stay at home Mom so my childhood summer memories consisted of being out in my neighborhood with my friends from dawn till dusk playing hide and seek and coming home when our bellies rumbled.  We all know we live in different times now and I certainly do not feel at ease leaving my children to play in my unfenced backyard alone let alone roam the cul de sac neighborhood by themselves.

As a working Mom, my kids who are 5 and 3 will spend most of their summer week days at a fun summer camp close to our house.  Our goal for them is to be outside enjoying nature, playing kids games, swimming, overall to be a kid in a safe environment.  Summer camp is by no means cheap and even if you are a stay at home Mom trying to entertain kids who have spent the majority of the year in a structured environment can both be costly and frustrating for everyone concerned.  So here I list some fun free summer activities: 

1. Go to the Library

You'd be amazed how much of what the kids learned at school during the academic year is lost during the summer, so encourage your kids to read during the summer and spend the day at the library.  Here are some ideas for the library:

i) A million and one books for the kids to be entertained with

ii) check out some DVD's or games

iii) Check out the free summer activity schedule at the library

iv) free air conditioning to keep you all cool

 Here are a few summer reading programs that have cool free incentives:

i) Borders is offering a free book after reading 10

ii) Barnes and Nobles offers a free book after reading 8

iii) HEB free t-shirt after you read 10 books

iv) Free $10 for reading 10 books via TD Bank (need to open a kids account)

My kids are not old enough to read by themselves but doesn't stop me from reading to them and participating.

 

2. Movie days

Regal Cinemas Free Family Film Festival - Selected G or PG movies start at 10:00am every Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. Tickets and seating are first-come, first-served and are limited to theatre capacity.

Free Redbox code - Sign up for text message to your cell phone and you'll get a free redbox code the first Monday of the month.

Here's some Blockbuster Express rental codes for a free movie - June Expiration Dates:

GT16A (expires 7/30/2010)

GL15A (unknown expiration)

G616A3 (unknown expiration)

3. Free Attractions

Search the free attractions directory and find something local to your area

Check out your local community/church calender

If you are a Bank of America cardholder then you can enter some museums for free when you show your card.  Click here for more information.

Go to your local park, make a day of it, bring a blanket, picnic and ball.

Enter my giveaway for a free pass into the Crayola Factory, PA.  Check out more details here.

4. Free Play

Organize a potluck neighborhood event or even a street party with your neighbors

Play soccer/football/baseball with some neighborhood friends

Have a yard sale and with the profits put it towards a fun activity.  This will teach the kids the value of money.

Set up a lemonade stand for charity (Alex's Lemonade)

Grow your own vegetable garden - not only does this teach your kids about where vegetables come from but the responsibilities involved in growing your own free food.

Take your kids on a bike ride through the park or your neighborhood

Go on a hike in a local park or even just your neighborhood - go meet some new neighbors

If your kids are older get them involved in cutting out coupons and let them see how much they can save or even make money through the freebie deals presented on here.

Stargazing - print star maps here and make a night of it

Kidsbowlfree - 2 free bowling all summer long

Find restaurants where kids eat for free

This is the second of my Ways to Save series. Check out the first here.  Please feel free to add any other summer free fun in comments below

Sunday, June 13, 2010 | 3 comments | Read More