There are so many times that I learn of something new and great and want to share but soon forget. Not necessarily the types of things people pin, but the type of things we live. The most recent of these has to do with those muddy mongrels we just adopted, Max and Molly. Before adopting them I read a lot and found out that if I skimp on their dog food and buy the the crap stuff then I will most definitely pay for it in vet bills. However, we simply can't afford to spend more on the dog's food than we do on our own. So to start we settled with Purina brand food. This is really only a mediocre brand but it sure beats Ol' Roy! It is loaded with corn though, which makes dogs hyper... This posed a problem in that they are huge and I don't really want them bouncing all around, knocking the kids and us over, which is exactly what was happening. So... The good news... You do not have to sacrifice quality to save money after all! As it turns out, Costco sells dog food, produced by the Diamond dog food company under their Kirkland brand (I have discovered this is only sold in stores). The really good news... It is a fraction of the cost of the Purina crap! For a 30 pound bag of Purina I paid about $32, just over a dollar a pound. This much
higher quality food comes in 40 pound bags and runs about $25-27, well under a dollar a pound! This will require a Costco membership but it is well worth it with the money it saves.
Another great discovery... Shopathome.com and ebates.com. These websites give you a small percentage of your online shopping purchases back. Before I look to buy anything online I visit these sites and have earned about $42 back on purchases I was making anyway, just this year! Another secret to this is to go online and order items before even going to the store. For example, I needed soil and fertilizer last week. So instead of lugging all the kids to pick this up at Home Depot I went to shopathome.com, searched for Home Depot and was redirected to their site. I then ordered my bags of soil and fertilizer, which the kind HD employees went and got ready for me. All I had to do was go to the store, tell them what I ordered
and they loaded them for us. The best part is that I get a refund check for 5% on what I spent! Oh, and I was able to use a $5 off $50 Home Depot coupon I found on Shopathome.com! That made this frugal girl very happy!
Office max. They give me stuff all the time! Well, not exactly just like that but pretty much. They have a great rewards program! Here is how it works: Office Max advertises 100% back in rewards on certain products. So last summer I started taking advantage of this awesome, secret program. A desk chair was about $80 out of my pocket at the time. So I paid
$70 up front and at the end of the quarter they gave me $70 in their rewards dollars good toward any future products. They soon had cases of paper for $40 but offered 100% back in rewards. So I trekked myself down and bought 2 cases of paper. (It would take me forever to use all this paper so I donated most of it) this gave me another $80ish in rewards dollars to use in the next quarter. Then I see that they have writing supplies 100% back if ordered online. No problem! I love ordering online! They gave me numerous packs of markers, pens, Sharpies, highlighters, mechanical pencils, etc. and you guessed it... Rewards dollars! Once those rewards roll over I can use them again. Since it is going to be back to school time in July I know there will be lots of great opportunities to use them! Just to clarify, this is just a sample of the items I have actually purchased using their rewards. Some other items I have gotten for "free" (not completely free because you do pay money out of pocket for the first purchase, it's free after that) are: luggage set, a good quality backpack, other cases of paper, crayons, glue, batteries, etc. Their deals change each week and some weeks are better than others but there are lots of blogs that post the best deals, or just check out their flier either in the Sunday paper or online.
One last favorite of mine is actually a website for the kids. Readingeggs.com is the best site I have ever come across! This site has helped Addyson and Jacob a great deal with learning to read, and the best part... They love it! The creators of Reading Eggs also just opened a sister site called Math
Seeds that is just as great! Both of these are paying sites but if you let me know you are interested I can email you an invitation to try Reading Eggs for 2 weeks for free! The kids and I love these sites so much that I did end up paying for them.
Ok, those are all my secrets for today, I invite you to share any great "secrets" you know of in the comments below!
higher quality food comes in 40 pound bags and runs about $25-27, well under a dollar a pound! This will require a Costco membership but it is well worth it with the money it saves.
Another great discovery... Shopathome.com and ebates.com. These websites give you a small percentage of your online shopping purchases back. Before I look to buy anything online I visit these sites and have earned about $42 back on purchases I was making anyway, just this year! Another secret to this is to go online and order items before even going to the store. For example, I needed soil and fertilizer last week. So instead of lugging all the kids to pick this up at Home Depot I went to shopathome.com, searched for Home Depot and was redirected to their site. I then ordered my bags of soil and fertilizer, which the kind HD employees went and got ready for me. All I had to do was go to the store, tell them what I ordered
and they loaded them for us. The best part is that I get a refund check for 5% on what I spent! Oh, and I was able to use a $5 off $50 Home Depot coupon I found on Shopathome.com! That made this frugal girl very happy!
Office max. They give me stuff all the time! Well, not exactly just like that but pretty much. They have a great rewards program! Here is how it works: Office Max advertises 100% back in rewards on certain products. So last summer I started taking advantage of this awesome, secret program. A desk chair was about $80 out of my pocket at the time. So I paid
$70 up front and at the end of the quarter they gave me $70 in their rewards dollars good toward any future products. They soon had cases of paper for $40 but offered 100% back in rewards. So I trekked myself down and bought 2 cases of paper. (It would take me forever to use all this paper so I donated most of it) this gave me another $80ish in rewards dollars to use in the next quarter. Then I see that they have writing supplies 100% back if ordered online. No problem! I love ordering online! They gave me numerous packs of markers, pens, Sharpies, highlighters, mechanical pencils, etc. and you guessed it... Rewards dollars! Once those rewards roll over I can use them again. Since it is going to be back to school time in July I know there will be lots of great opportunities to use them! Just to clarify, this is just a sample of the items I have actually purchased using their rewards. Some other items I have gotten for "free" (not completely free because you do pay money out of pocket for the first purchase, it's free after that) are: luggage set, a good quality backpack, other cases of paper, crayons, glue, batteries, etc. Their deals change each week and some weeks are better than others but there are lots of blogs that post the best deals, or just check out their flier either in the Sunday paper or online.
One last favorite of mine is actually a website for the kids. Readingeggs.com is the best site I have ever come across! This site has helped Addyson and Jacob a great deal with learning to read, and the best part... They love it! The creators of Reading Eggs also just opened a sister site called Math
Seeds that is just as great! Both of these are paying sites but if you let me know you are interested I can email you an invitation to try Reading Eggs for 2 weeks for free! The kids and I love these sites so much that I did end up paying for them.
Ok, those are all my secrets for today, I invite you to share any great "secrets" you know of in the comments below!