Revisiting the blogs I read

OK this post has officially gotten me angry.  It was beautiful... long, informative, witty.  Alas, Moofie got it.  (Am I dating myself with that term?)  So, here I am starting over.  I won't be so eloquent this time.  Ah, who am I kidding?  I'm short, sweet, to the point, but rarely eloquent.  Scratch that too.  Over explanation is in my nature.  LOL

So, it's been a while since I wrote a post that visits the couponing blogs I frequent and I thought it might be useful to do again.  As usual, I've added some and deleted others, especially since the advent of Extreme Hoarding Frauding Couponing.  I always use Google Reader to aggregate the blogs I read since there are so many.  I'd have more, but there are a lot of bloggers out there that only allow a line or two to be aggregated.  Too bad.  I don't have time to chase down a blog if they won't allow a full RSS feed.  It may seem snobby, but I don't just sit around waiting for more deal blogs to come through.  This is the reason I made sure mine will come through 100%.  I didn't want to waste anyone elses' time either.

That being said, I have a number of sub-categories that I've created folders for in my reader.  For couponing, I have general blogs, store specific and Texas specific.

General:

• Extreme Savings with Diva Desirae
• Grocery Coupon Guide (this guy is amazing!  Last year he was challenged to eat for the entire summer for $1/day and at Thanksgiving he was challenged to feed the entire family a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for $1/person - he succeeded!)
• It's Hip 2 Save!
• Jill Cataldo
• The Krazy Coupon Lady (I use her templates for my coupon binder)

Store Specific:

• I Heart Kroger (she's not in TX, so she's not affected by not having doubles and triples. also a lot of her deals are specific to her area. nonetheless, it's nice to see what hidden deals may be available.  I've mostly stopped shopping at Kroger since they got rid of the doubles/triples)
• I Heart The Mart
• I Heart Wags
• Totally Target
• Wild for Wags

Texas Specific:

• Coupon Kristin (she has a class coming up on the 9th - hurry to sign up!)
• Frugal Finds 4 Friends
• Jane 4 Girls (this woman is the one who put the bug in my ear to try couponing - she called in the Roula and Ryan morning radio show to say she had an $800 annual grocery budget. Amazing!)
• Katy Couponers
• My Litter

One last thing.. sometimes it's most advisable to check out a Coupon Forum or two.  It's especially helpful when you're about to create a shopping list and need to match up the coupons quickly.  You can also get some insider information on certain stores (for example, I didn't know about the HEB Fresh or Free Guarantee before checking out some forums).  Sometimes you can find out if there's a coupon hidden somewhere for a sale item that you'd like to match up using their coupon databases.  Here are the ones I like.

Forums:

• Hot Coupon World
• A Full Cup
• We Use Coupons
• Money Saving Mom

 Got any other good blogs or forums?  Share them in the comments! :)

What's for dinner tonight?

I have to admit that yesterday I wasn't a good, frugal girl. 

*gasp!*

Yes, sometimes it happens.  4PM rolls around and I realize that I haven't taken anything out of the freezer for dinner.  I HATE using the microwave to defrost meat because it tends to get cooked even in defrost mode. 

So, I ran to Kroger with the intent to buy only some meat and good deals if they had them.  I did pretty well.  I stuck to buying meat and WIC items mostly.  We were almost out of milk and the cereal wasn't going to spoil any time soon.  I held off on the WIC bread and juice for the day.  I picked up some mozzarella cheese.  Oh, can't forget the broccoli and bananas for PreK Newbie.

I still spent about $12, but most of that was on meat.  They had some killer deals on beef and pork chops.  I'm considering going back since it's right across the street from my closest Walgreens that I haven't checked on the Good Nites deal yet.  In fact, I'll do that.

I digress.  LOL.  I didn't do anything special with the meat, just fried in a pan with some salt and McCormic onion/garlic seasoning.  Boiled the broccoli and added some cheese.  Found some generic minute rice on the clearance aisle for $0.69 because when they opened the big box to stock it, this box was cut open.  Nice, inexpensive dinner.

Tonight?  It's time for something completely different (dang Monty Python references swimming in my head).  I decided to plug in all the ingredients I have into Super Cook.  Apparently with what I already have on hand I can make over 2,000 recipes!  Wow!  I'm definitely going to use this again.  Best of all?  It's totally FREE!  Going to try a little of this with a little of that on the side.  It's all gonna be served over rice.  I'm drooling just thinking about it!

Coupon Policies

Many stores have their coupon policies online. I like to print them up and keep them in my coupon binder for times that I have difficulties using my coupons at certain stores. It's always a good idea to do this. I haven't had to use it yet, but I've almost had to a few times. If you don't, sometimes coupons become a your-mileage-may-vary situation which is NOT good for you as the consumer. You spent your time researching these deals. You also spent your energy choosing this particular store. If a store wants my business again, they will keep me as the customer in mind, not the uneducated checkout lady that isn't familiar with the coupon policies.

Keep in mind, you get more flies with honey than with vinegar. Be nice when you're asking for "clarification" of what you don't understand.

• Wal-Mart
• Target
• Walgreens (no matter how much we beg, they seem to want to refuse getting a written online policy)
• Kroger doesn't have a policy, but Mommy Snacks has the most comprehensive list of FAQ's that she sent to corporate and got answers for.
• HEB also doesn't have a policy, but Hot Coupon World has a very comprehensive FAQ's also. update 3/10/10: There's another post by Frugal Reality about what one of her readers' conversations with HEB
• Randall's
• Fiesta - I can't seem to find one online. If anyone reading might know of where I can find one, please leave me a comment. :)
  

Neilsen Facts on Coupon Usage

Promotions Get Personal: The coupon constituency of today and tomorrow | Nielsen Wire

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I found this interesting. See, I'm the geek in my family so I like to look at background information. Seems like I'm not the demographic they're targeting with coupons, but I am at the same time ;)

Are Clipping Coupons Worth It?

Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, it is! You can read how they rationalize that you'd be making $86.40 an hour just by clipping coupons here.

As the old song says, "nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try." :)

Couponing Bundle

In case anyone is interested, I created a Google Reader bundle of all the couponing blogs I read. It might be an easier way to just subscribe to the feeds I have listed in my previous posts. Go here to check it out!

More Blogs I'm Reading

I have added a LOT to the list of blogs I've been reading. Well, I do have a few more minutes than I used to... not much, mind you, but I do have more. Keep in mind that the more blogs you add, the more repetitive some become. On the other hand, the repeats of local sales sometimes catch deals that another didn't or that someone didn't think was a deal. I get hundreds of posts in my Google Reader every day, so keep that in mind when you add these. Also, you can always check The Frugal Map to see if there's any blogs locally that will help you save money right where you are!

1. $30 Weekly Grocery Challenge
2. A Few Short Cuts
3. A Lot of Savings
4. Attention Target Shoppers
5. Attention WalMart Shoppers
6. Be Frugal, Be Happy, Save a Bundle
7. Centsible Savings
8. Cha Ching Queen
9. Cha-Ching on a Shoestring
10. Common Sense With Money
11. Coupon Dad
12. Coupon Mommie
13. Coupon Saving Game
14. Couponing for 4
15. Daily Essentials and Deals
16. Fabule$$ly Frugal Mom
17. Freebies 4 Mom
18. Frugal Coupon Living
19. Frugal Fun and Fortune
20. Frugal in Houston
21. Frugal Living and Having Fun
22. Happy Couponing
23. This blog (yeah, I'll shamelessly plug it here ;) )
24. Houston Blogs: SuperSaver
25. Houston on the Cheap (the woman who writes this blog is an AWESOME lady! She couldn't go to the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover Live Event, when it came to Houston last weekend so she sold me her (transferable) tickets. She bought hers when they were $10 each and I missed out on them - but she came to my rescue! Thank you so much, Vicki!)
26. I Heart Saving Money
27. I Heart Wags
28. It's Hip to Save!
29. Madame Deals
30. Maven of Savin'
31. Moms Need to Know
32. Money Saving Mom
33. My Penny Pile closed as of 2/6/2010
34. Nicole's Nickels
35. Pays to be Frugal
36. Pocket Your Dollars
37. Puget Sound Prudence
38. Saving Your Cents
39. Southern Savers
40. STL Mommy
41. That's Just Nifty Thrifty
42. The Coupon "High"
43. The Coupon Project
44. The Good Deal Gal
45. The Krazy Coupon Lady
46. To Save A Penny
47. Totally Target

Now, remember that each one of these blogs has a RSS feed that can easily be added to Google Reader. This makes a total of 62 money saving blogs I read regularly. The hardest part was when I didn't have internet. I tried to read them all through the WAP reader on my cell phone. Whew, was that hard and totally a chore that took all day every day! It's NOT recommended you do this. It IS recommended that you find ones in your area that will help you save locally. Good luck!

FREE coupon e-course

I just found out about this and was so excited that I had to share it right away! I know there's no couponing classes in my area (Clear Lake, TX) because I've looked. Now I can do a course online for FREE! Sounds worth it to me..

Now to just find the time to do it between work and caring for Coupon Boy.