by heather | creative tips
I am very coupon savvy. My friends call me the Coupon Queen. I love couponing. Saving money makes me happy.
My friends are always amazed when I tell them my coupon stories, like when I got $60 worth of groceries for just $7 (see picture below). Yep, all of that for just $7. And the $3 milk wasn’t even on sale.
The other week I got all of the groceries here for less than $20…
Now the fun part…..the couponing tips!
• Ask family and friends who get the Sunday paper to save the coupon inserts for you that they haven’t used. Most people just toss these out, and that is a shame!
• You can print coupons online. At least half of the coupons I use are printed right from my home printer. And it is FREE. There are a number of websites like Coupons.com,RedPlum.com, SmartSource.com, even companies like Betty Crocker have bunches of coupons available each month. All you need is a printer, ink and some paper!
• Find your favorite brand of foods online. Sign up for their newsletters and like them on Facebook to have easy access to their coupons and promotions. For example, I love Wholly Guacamole. They offer $1 off coupons every month that they send right to my inbox. I started a separate email account just for my coupons so they don’t bog down my regular account.
• Ready for a super secret tip? Any coupon can be printed twice! All you have to do is hit the back button on your browser and the coupon will magically print again.
• Get a binder and some clear plastic sleeves to organize your coupons. This will keep everything in one place and easy for you to sort through. I always organize my shopping trip and pull my coupons before heading to the store so I don’t look like one of those crazy couponers….even though secretly I am a little.
• It’s all about the matching up the sales with the coupons. Or waiting for a store like Harris Teeter to have a Super Double Coupon or Triple Coupon week. That is really when you hit the jackpot. IT IS SUPER DOUBLE COUPON WEEK AT HARRIS TEETER STARTING TODAY! They will double coupons up to $2.00 – limit 20 per day. See the Harris Teeter website for more details.
• There are bloggers out there that do all of the hard work for you. I visit MyCouponTeacher.com every week to see what the latest coupon match up deals are for my local Harris Teeter. These couponing bloggers will tell you what items are on sale and which coupon to match it to to get the best price available. Sometimes they even link to the coupons that you can print out for free. Like I said, they do all of the hard work for you. I just skim the list each week and see which products I am interested in that match up with whatever coupons I might have stashed away.
• You can get free groceries. I often get free items at the grocery store by matching up sale items with coupons. Even if I am not interested in the product I will go ahead and get it. I can always give to a friend or donate to someone who could use it. I will never pay for another toothbrush, chapstick, mustard or hot sauce again. I get those free all of the time.
This is an example of what your receipt might look like when you start couponing – notice the coupons tendered at the bottom.
This really only scratches the surface of couponing. There are many more tips out there that I have even yet to learn. Please feel free to comment on this blog post if you have any amazing coupon tips to share. I would love to hear them! HAPPY COUPONING!
by Mandi | personal
As a graphic designer I love EVERYTHING that has to do with design. I love not only graphic design, but art, fashion and especially interior design and home decor.
When I thought about the word for this week… savvy I am very excited to share with you my passion for home decor. I love it, but do not love the price tag that comes along with finding furniture and artwork. My solution for the past few years is to beat those prices, be a little more savvy, and do a lot of the work myself! I visit Goodwill, antique yards, yard sales and even sometimes the side of the road (I am not kidding) to find a random piece of furniture or salvage and make it into a new piece of “art” for my house. Below I have shared two rooms in my home with an explanation of where I got my pieces and how much I actually spent project! I hope it will show you ways that you can also be SAVVY with your home decor!
First up is my living room:
1. These are old floor grates that I found at a local antique yard and cost only $5 each! I didn’t have to do a lot to these – just sand them REALLY well and spray painted them with a clear protecting layer.
2. This table I had bought for my apartment in college YEARS before as part of a 3-piece set at a local flea market. The entire set was $75. I have both of the side tables (one here and one in my office). I sold the coffee table about a year ago for $50, so I am left with $25 dollars for two side tables! They were a light wood, so I painted them white and recently gave them another update with some simple stencil work.
Here was my inspiration piece I saw one day while out shopping.
I took that inspiration and made one for myself! I was really happy with how it turned out!
3. Tucked in the far corner you can see a frame. For this space, I have typed out one of my favorite quotes and printed it out to fit the frame. This was very simple and very inexpensive for a another piece of custom art! The frame was free (re-used one I had), new mat for $2.99 and a custom print that will typically run you just a few dollars at any local print shop! Here is the quote I used, from one of my favorite RomComs – Hope Floats!
4. My tv credenza was a steal at Goodwill for $40. It was tucked away and was a dark wooden color. I brought it home and with one coat of white paint, well – maybe a few more than one, I it turned out great! I get so many compliments on this thing – and for only $40!
5. These antique ceiling tiles were another great steal at the antique yard at $10 each. I loved that they had aged and have some great discoloration that matched my living room just perfectly!
Secondly is my guest bedroom. I use this space to display some of my personal artwork as well as a few other custom pieces:
1. This custom headboard is hand-made by… me! My sister and I started this trend years ago when we were in college and had no money to put towards an actual head-board. Dad cut a piece of wood to size, we covered it with some backing and then again with a piece of fabric of our choice. Under this headboard I am sure there is probably about 4 other custom head-boards that have been used throughout the years! This takes about 2-3 years of fabric. I think mine was about $10 a yard – so I have a headboard for $20 – $30 dollars!
2. This was a piece of art that I painted at a local art shop. It is from an art studio where you bring your own wine and they teach you to paint a picture. I bought this on a groupon so I think the cost was around $20.
3. This was again another piece of furniture that I have had since college. I painted it a fun shade of blue and added a new drawer pull making this total makeover about $3.
4. Probably my favorite piece in the room was free! This is a quilt that my great-grandmother made. Every piece of fabric is an old shirt of my great-grandfather or a dress of another family member. I am lucky enough to have a few of these and LOVE having them around my home!
A few other pieces in the room are below.
This idea is to take a mirror and give it a punch of color. This mirror was an old mirror from my great grandmother’s house. I gave it a new look by adding a fresh coat of paint (The same color of the side table). The shower curtain you see was a custom-made from the same material that I used for the headboard!
Another inexpensive idea is to frame a few greeting cards. These cards cost me about $3 each!
I got inspiration for this piece from The Nester. I love her style and ideas for home decor! The cost of this was $8 for the canvas and about $4 for the map “wrapping paper”.
Finally here is one more custom piece of art – just a simple design that was easy to paint in under an hour! I re-used an old canvas, so this was another FREE piece of art!
I get the majority of my ideas from other bloggers that share my love for thrifting and repurposing. A few of my favorites that show great before and after ideas as well as inexpensive ways to decorate your home are listed here. There are many more, but this will get you started!
The Nesting Place
Southern Hospitality who does a reoccurring post titled Thrifty Treasures. Here is last week’s post.
Button Bird Designs
Better After
Vintage Revivals
Nate Berkus
I am a firm believer that everyone needs a creative outlet. Something that you do for fun outside of work. For me it is finding or creating these one of a kind pieces for my home. I once saw a sign that said, “Surround yourself with things you love”. Since then I have taken it upon myself to only have things in my home that I love – that bring back memories or that either I have created of a friend or family member has created!
by steph_egan | weekly specials
When we all sat down to come up with ideas for weekly topics, Savvy made the list. We went back and forth on it for a while… is there enough substance to build a week around this word? And what is savvy anyway? A funny word if you say it over and over in your head as I’ve done while starting this post (like many words you say one too many times until it turns into a new one altogether).
And so Savvy stuck. Because it’s actually quite simple.
It’s who you are. And it’s what you do. Something that makes you unique, or something that gives you so much in common with others.
Business savvy
Tech savvy
Fashion savvy
Design savvy
Photo savvy
Music savvy
Book savvy
The list could go on and on.
And then I think of my friends and can easily attribute a savvy-ness to each them… my own little experts in certain areas, something I may lack an understanding in and someone I can go to for their knowledge, expertise and opinion.. (for example, wait ’til you see Heather’s post later this week… it may change your whole life when it comes to grocery shopping!). Our friends bring so much to our lives; have you ever stopped to think what it is that makes them so unique… what they’re “savvy” at and why you admire them for it? And what would they admire about you?
I took 5 minutes to write down a list of 5 savvy things about myself… and 5 savvy things I love Heather, Jenn and Mandi for.
It may sound silly.. but tape it to your mirror, monitor, or car dashboard for the next few days, and remind yourself how awesome you are… and even better! how fortunate you are to have awesome people who make your life better. You may just need their advice soon!
