If it's not on sale - Ask for a Discount anyway!

Here is another tip for you Frugal types out there - when you do go shopping, if the item you want is not on sale, ask for a discount anyway. The worse they can say is no. The best they can do is provide you with a discount that saves you lots and lots of money (or at least a good percentage of the purchase price!). Here are a few of my latest requests which helped me save money:

1. Purchase of kid's birthday gifts at Toys R Us - Ok, I only do this once a year and was ready to bite the bullet and pay the price for the items which they had picked out when the cashier saved me.....she had coupons which she applied to my purchase! What was great is the kids had each gotten a $3 gift card in the mail to apply to the purchase of their items, so when the cashier applied the first coupon to the first purchase (I had to make the purchases separate in order to use both coupons we got in the mail) I quickly asked if she had any more of those great coupons behind the counter, could she please apply another one to the second purchase! She did and I came out spending about $30 less overall than I had calculated. All just for asking...

2. Purchase of clothes at Lane Bryant - They usually send out great coupons which I never remember to take with me to the store. When I was there recently and purchased a number of items, I asked the cashier if she might be able to still apply the coupon discount to my purchase because I had received one, but had forgotten it at home. She was happy to apply the discount and the simple act of asking saved me $50. Way to go!

3. McDonald's - The McDonald's I stop at some mornings on the way to work offers a discount card for the students of the local college. (Buy 10 value meals, get one free.) When I learned this, I asked the cashier one morning if I too could have a discount card. She was happy to provide me one and now, about every six months, I get breakfast for free!

These are just a few of the ways in which I have saved money just through asking for a discounts. If you have some great stories to share on this same topic, please add them to this post through a reply.

Until another frugal moment hits...

The Frugal Queen

Great Frugal Dinner Idea!

Now that my hubby is picking up an extra shift during the week (he is a Chef and works part-time at a restaurant - up to now only on the weekends), I am faced with the dilemma of making dinner for the kids after spending 8 hours at work and 2 1/2 hours commuting. I was not exactly thrilled with the prospect, but set my mind to find something I could easily make which would be hot, fresh and not cost a lot (in other words - no prepackaged dinners).

That is when I hit upon the idea of having breakfast for dinner on "Mom's" night to cook. I billed it to the kids as a mid-week treat and they are now hooked. I am hooked as well, because as we all know, breakfast is one of the cheapest meals to make as long as you keep it simple.

Last week we had pancakes, eggs, corned beef hash and toast. The total for the entire meal was well under $5 for all four of us. Plus, it was easy to whip up - it only took me a total of 15 to 20 minutes to cook it all (and that was while I cleaned up the kitchen from the day's events and loaded the dishwasher - you have to have something to do while waiting to flip those pancakes!).

Next week, I am going to plan on waffles, plus anything else I find in the frig that is breakfast type food which they will eat and which will not take me a long time to cook.

So, in the old days I would have found somewhere to buy dinner for the 4 of us on my way home, at an average cost of $30. Now, I have it down to approximately $5 and we are more likely than not eating healthier (I am certain someone will debate this with the above reference to corned beef hash, but it is not a staple in our house, just a left over from our summer "camping" food that happened to be in the cupboard).

Even if you don't have breakfast for dinner once a week like I am planning to, even once every other week and once a month will still help to bring down your overall food cost!

Until another frugal moment hits,

The Frugal Queen

A Great Financial Resource

I have found a great new resource for frugal individuals such as myself - the transforming Debt Into Wealth system. I have listened to the CDs (which I checked out from the library for free, thank you!) and his system makes sense.

I am going to give it a try and I will give you periodic updates on how I am doing. If you are interested in learning more about his system, check out his website at:

http://www.johncummuta.com/

Remember though, I was able to check this resource out of the library, so make certain you look there first. ( I am NOT getting paid to promote this program, I just liked it when I listened to it and felt it made sense.)

If you have any good resources for debt elimination which you have come across, please feel fee to post them as an addition to this post.

And so not be be negligent in my posting, here is your frugal tip for the day - use your local library first before purchasing resources. My family frequently visits the library (my little ones are on a first name basis with the librarians in the children's section) and we are able to check out books, games for the computer, books on tape/cd, music and movies. So long as we remember (that is Mom remembers) to take them back on time, it is a completely free service! Just think of the savings in movie rentals along!

Check out your local library - its a frugal person's paradise!

Until another frugal moment hits -

The Frugal Queen

Online Shopping - Great Money Saving Ideas

When online shopping, I have learned a great idea for saving money which I would like to share: always search for coupon codes before finalizing your purchase.

Coupon codes are promotional codes provided by the online retailers to entice shoppers to their websites through offering free shipping or a percentage off.

I receive coupon codes in the mail frequently, but don't always have them handy when I need them to enter into the website. So, instead of purchasing the item without the coupon code, I "google" the name of the retailer and the word coupon.

A good example of this would be "googling" the terms "lane bryant coupon" all together (less the quote marks).

When I did this just a moment ago, I received a link to a page from coupon cabin which I have pasted below. It contains various coupon codes which I can use on the Lane Bryant website to save money when making a purchase. (certain limitations do apply, just like in the regular store)

http://www.couponcabin.com/coupons/lane-bryant/index.htm

or this one from Coupon Mountain:

http://www.couponcabin.com/coupons/lane-bryant/index.htm

It works for many online retailers. Try it out and if you find another great coupon posting website, please let me know!

Until another frugal moment hits,

The Frugal Queen

Red Box is the Best Find Yet!

Red Box is a new phenom which is extremely cool and extremely cheap! I love it!

On our way out of the grocery store last night, I spied a machine where we could rent a video. I had noticed earlier while standing in the pharmacy line that a large sign said "enter this code_____ and receive a free one night rental from Red Box". (Sorry, I don't remember the code right now.) Anyway, I thought what the heck, I would give it a try. Well, it turned out that the twins each decided they needed their own movie. (Like you didn't see that one coming.) So I decided to rent a second movie. Well, here is the best part - it only cost me a dollar!!!

Yes, that is one dollar (plus tax of course) for a one night rental of a new release (I am talking, it just came out this week new release). Unbelieveable! Here are the catches I saw:

1. Must be returned by the follow day, before 9 PM, or you will be charged another dollar for each day it is late.

2. If you keep it more than 25 days, you bought it.

Well, the original charge is not bad and the late fee is certainly not bad at all! I can tell right now that my family and I are going to be Red Box fans!!!!

Here is the link to their website if you want to check them out:

http://www.redbox.com/

You can search online to see where the nearest Red Box machine is located to you. Ours happen to be in a Giant Eagle grocery store and a Walgreens Pharmacy. I did read online that they are also located in McDonald's restaurants.

Here are a couple of other pluses:

1. You can search the inventory of the machine online before traveling to the location and also rent your movie ahead of time, so all you have to do is pick it up!

2. You can return your movie to any other red box machine, it does not have to be the same one where you rented it! (This is going to be great for long car trips!)

I will follow up in a few months and let you know how it is going. But right now, I am pumped about this new find!

Until another frugal moment hits -

The Frugal Queen

Frugality Must be Planned For...

...it is the times when it is not planned for that we spend the extra money. Case in point is this evening. The twins and I went down to the townhall to set up for the pancake breakfast. I really thought we were only going to be down there for a hour at most as there were also going to be a number of other people there to help.

The problem occurred when it was discovered that we were missing the cord to one of the griddles we use to cook the pancakes on. This meant that someone (me) was going to have to go get another one if we were to have three griddles at the breakfast in the morning. But, I had not yet fed the twins dinner.

So off to Dairy Queen we went on our way to the store to buy another griddle. I should have know better and fed them before we left the house. Or at a minimum have made them something to take with them.

Lesson learned. (Again.) I hope next time I remember and am able to be proactive instead of reactive.

Until another frugal moment hits...

The Frugal Queen

Frugality While on a Business Trip

This week finds me at the Ohio SHRM conference. (SHRM stands for Society for Human Resource Management)

In the past when I attended a conference, I would always come back loaded down with presents for those who I had left behind. No more I say! Those who were left behind don't really want a momento of the time they had to spend away from you. They want you home.

So, to appease myself more than anyone else, I have now started looking for kool items at the various vendor booths. What ever I find will be the "gift" to those who I left behind. Nothing more. This way, I won't have spent any money on the items.

Save your money for presents that count - holidays and birthdays.

Until another frugal moment hits,

The Frugal Queen