Great and Inexpensive Advertising

Even though sales might be down, it's no reason to stop promoting yourself and your products.

A wonderful way to do this is through Total Indie Coupons. I've been participating with this project since the beginning and it is a wonderful and inexpensive way to get your name out to 5,000 shoppers who are already web savvy and who support handcrafted works. And it is only $50!

Unlike most promotional materials where you pay for, say, 5000 postcards which would be sent to 5000 people who may or may not even read it, with the Totally Indie Coupons, you are only paying for 125 pieces, yet are still getting your name out to 5000 people who you know already support indie businesses!

There are only a few spots remaining so head on over, read about the requirements, and sign up.

For me, these coupons have definitely paid for themselves. They have pretty long expiration dates and I've received orders from previous coupons even after the expiration date.

Don't be intimidated by having to create your own coupon...it's really quite simple and if you just can't do it, they'll help you out for a very small fee.

A huge thank you to Lily from A Planet 4 Creations - she rocks and has helped with the coupons for what seems like forever.

I hope to see some new names for this Round 10 of Indie Coupons!

$97 in 10 Days

Hubby has been doing his part to stimulate the economy lately. The turkey.

I balance the checkbook and pay the bills. So I notice when there are multiple trips to Burger King in one day. He hasn't quite figured out the 'take cash out of the savings account' bit to avoid my detection.

Not that I'm mean about it or anything. I am just cheap and would prefer he take a lunch for work. He says he's not mature enough to make his own lunch. That much I agree with. :) And I am NOT his mother.

I keep trying to remind him of this fact. I have enough work to do to get myself ready for work without making his lunch and coffee.

But when I added up how much he'd spent (just by himself) in the last ten days even he said "ouch."

Those little stops of $7 here and $10 there add up to real money. Money that he could use to buy bullets (something he's been asking to do and I keep saying no). Or hats. Or whatever he's interested in at the moment.

The problem coming up is that he's switching to nights and he often stops for his lunch break in the middle of the night at a 24 hour place like Jack in the Box. Nights suck so I usually don't bug him but we need to pinch some pennies. Maybe I will start making him sandwiches on the weekend...and peanut butter celery. He loves that.

After all my hard work to save using coupons and sales I don't want to see the savings blown on fast food.

Although I do love Burger King. :) Don't tell him I had breakfast there last Saturday, k?

Speaking of Age

What is with my body? I turn 3o and suddenly I fall apart?!?

A couple of weekends ago, Trooper and I went to an agility demo for Fido's Farm. I loved it and had a great time - and I'm sure that Trooper did too. He got to meet all kinds of fun and new dogs and people. He wanted to eat my lunch (I had a hot dog) but he had to settle for his kibble.

However, that night I could hardly walk. Both of my knees hurt SO bad. I've never had bad knees and I didn't do anything particularly strenuous at the demo. We were there for 4 hours and worked hard but I don't remember wrenching anything.

Ever since then my knees have fluctuated between dull aches and severe, cringe inducing pain. Today I ran a couple of errands - it didn't take more than 2 hours - and then I ran around cleaning up the house to get ready for our foster puppy's new family.

And now my knees feel like balloons...lead balloons that are pulsating.

What the flippin' heck? I hate taking pills but my mom says I need to take ibuprofen. *sigh*

And it's Sunday night...I hate Sunday evenings. It means work starts tomorrow and I'm reminded of all the things I did not accomplish over the weekend. The never ending list of chores with not enough hours in the day.

The good news? I had a fabulous time shopping and bought over $200 worth of product and spent less than $15. Woot! Coupons rock. :)

Successful Shopping - Saving 87%

I've been clipping and using coupons religiously now for a little over 2 months. I started back in the middle of May.

I debated whether or not to share my success for a couple of reasons. One, I don't want people thinking about saving money when I want them SPEND money on my jewelry. *grin* And two, if more people start couponing then it could decrease the number of deals out there. Granted, this second one is probably just psychological since there are so many people who will just never coupon. No matter how much they could save.

So because I'm having so much fun saving and getting free stuff I decided that I had to share. It's taken over the last couple of months - clipping coupons, finding coupons, trading coupons, and learning about corporate policies and where the deals can be found.

Yesterday, Walgreens had a Buy $20 get $5 off coupon that was only good for that day. These are a big deal because if you do it right you can end up with quite a bit of free stuff. I wasn't too interested in some of their rebate items so I ended up paying a little bit - but not $20. Not even $15.

I estimate (conservatively) that the products above are worth around $70 retail. I paid less than $9.

Well, actually, I plunked down $28 but after rebates and a register reward coupon worth $7 my total becomes $8.98. Using a raincheck, coupons, sales, and rebates I saved more than 87% of my bill.

[Caveat...I'm still unsure how to count that $7. It is off of a future purchase so I technically am not saving that $7 on this order. But it is like money and can be used on future items that I'll get for free or cheap. Most people double count the savings but I don't like doing that. My total before the RR then becomes $15.98 making my savings 77%. The RR will count as savings off my next order.]

Will I use 6 bottles of Herbal Essence shampoo/conditioner? Not today. Not tomorrow. But we will use it. I'm probably going to give away the Bio Infusion shampoo/conditioner - it was free and I'll earn about $1.20 on it. The chocolate is now at work and will get eaten very quickly. Who doesn't love expensive chocolate? It's even better when it's so cheap (regular price is more than $4 a bag). The Kleenexes we go through like water and I'll be buying more of those as they go on sale this month. I have about 30 coupons for them. :) The cat litter is for my mother in law and I paid $2.99 for 14 pounds (regular price is $7.99).

If you are looking to squeak more out of your budget I highly recommend joining Hot Coupon World. It can be intimidating at first and takes some getting used to (it almost feels like learning a new language - MIR, FAR, IVC, etc.) but is well worth it. I'm well on my way to building a significant stock of items that we will use - some of them bought for $0 and some of them I even got PAID to buy!!!

I am officially a coupon addict. And I've brought my little cousin and my aunt over to the dark side as well...and I'm working on a coworker. It's so much fun! =)

Yes...I have issues.