Starting on December 1st through December 24th, Savealotmom is offering 24 DAYS worth of tips and tricks to help you save money. Happy Holidays!
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December 1st - register for a secondary email address strictly to get emails of coupons and notifications of your favorite stores' sales notifications. This will keep your personal/professional email clean and less cluttered. Make up a fun name for your couponing email address, for example: CrazyCouponCathy@gmail.com or SusanSaver@yahoo.com.
December 2nd - If you make purchases online, take advantage of programs such as Ebates, which offers you coupon codes and cash back on all your online purchases. New members will receive a $10 gift card when they spend $25 at their favorite store(s).
December 3rd - When searching online, don't use Google, use BING. You will get rewarded for doing searches. Make it your homepage so you can instantly search without thinking about it.
While you are looking around, make sure you "like" Krazy Coupon Lady, Raining Hot Coupons, Coupon Mom, Totally Target, Wild for Wags , Coupon Cabin and I heart CVS to get the latest and best deals. These are popular sites!
December 4th - Get acquainted with the staff at your favorite stores. Be nice and treat them with respect. Getting to know them may open doors to save more money. They can suggest tips/tricks, perhaps offer special coupons and deals to you, even let you in on a secret on an advanced sale. They will go that extra step to help you. (Make the staff homemade cookies - you'll win them over!)
December 5th - If you have done Tip #1 and #3, consider getting text message alerts as another way of getting more savings. Target, Starbucks, Family Dollar, Dollar General and other stores offer special store coupons. Some stores like Starbucks and Bath & Body Works requires you to sign up through their site, while you can text directly to these: Target:827438-OFFERS, Kohls: 56457 - Save15, Family Dollar: 28767 - DEALS, Toys R Us: 78697 - GO, RedBox: 727272 - DEALS, Military Exchange: 95613 - EXCHANGE, and Dollar General:34898- DG.
December 6th -Get familiar with the coupon policies at your favorite stores. This will help better prepare you with extra savings that you can do and alleviate disappointment. Keep in mind that these policies are to offer you expectations from each store AND it can change based on manager's discretions. (due to coupon fraud/abuse). Here's the list to print to put in your binder or bookmark it for easy access reference.
December 7th - Use Favado phone app! This is an amazing phone app that will help you find items on sale at your local stores! Need Tide Detergent? Type in the search box and it will tell you what stores have it on sale and it will even list coupons that are available to use on it!! Or maybe you want to see what's popular on sale at Walgreens, click on the Walgreens store and it will show you all the great items on sale for the week, along with the coupons listed available that you can use on it. This will shorten your time looking around.....this app is a blessing to have!!!
December 8th - Take advantage of the reward programs on your favorite products! Stouffer's. Iams pet food, L'Oreal Hair Color, Huggies, Coke products, Pampers, Kelloggs and other name brands offer points that you can trade in for free stuff and high value coupons. If you are using them a lot, why not take advantage of it? So before you throw the package away, inspect the box for any rewards program info and check inside to see if there's special codes written on it.
December 9th - Take advantage of money making phone apps like Ibotta, Shopkick and Reciept Hog, which are the only 3 apps that I use! I find these apps to be easy to use and VERY easy to make money. Click on each app for more information on them.
December 10th - Surveys to save and win! When was the last time you looked at your receipts and did they surveys? Some survey offers chances to win and some offer discounts or free items!
Walgreens, Target and CVS rely heavily on customer service feedback and offer chances to win giftcards. Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Hallmark Card Store, GAP offer discounts or free items! Take advantage of these surveys...they don't take long to do and you and the companies benefit from it! It's a win-win!!
December 11th - Take advantage of popular printable coupon websites such as coupons..com, smartsource.com and even on target.com/coupons! I check them every 3-4 days for any new coupons and even the popular one that have reset!
December12th - Tis the season for special offers on gift cards! Select restaurants and stores offer extra bonuses when you buy gift cards! Chilis ($10 bonus w/ $50 gift card), Outback Steakhouse (offers $20 bonus with $100 giftcard), Red Lobster ($5 off every $25 giftcard), even GAP offers $25 shop card with $100 purchase! If you want a discount on gift cards, check eBay. Those Starbucks gift cards came handy for me! I transferred the amount to my Gold registered card so I can reap the benefits yet still getting a deal on the amount!
December13th - Share the love! A lot of cell phones, electrical, and internet companies offer Refer-A-Friend programs but they really don't talk about it! Take advantage of such programs to reduce your monthly bills. This is perfect if you have a lot of friends and family and you do a lot of networking! The same applies to money saving phone apps such as Ibotta, Shopkick and Reciept Hog!
December14th - Don't set high expectations. A lot of things can go wrong during your shopping trip....had a wrong/expired coupon(s), item(s) was out of stock, cashier mistakes and miscalculating your list are just some of the issues that can sabotage your feelings of savings. It's ok! It's going to happen! For the beginners, if you save $2-$5 from a shopping trip, that is GOOD! Could you imagine how much you would save monthly, evenly yearly if you did that for EVERY shopping trip? Remember this: every little bit counts and you will get better at it. Trust me, I STILL make mistakes and learn something new! (even though I have been couponing for over 15 years!)
December15th - Create weekly spending limits. Having a limit for each week will prevent you from overspending and will help assess what's really important on your shopping list. Look at past receipts and see how much you normally spend each week and decide what's a good goal for you.
December 16th - Part of the reason to use coupon is to save money. If you create your own spending limits (from Day #15), you can see how much money you actually save. Diffuse the mindset of "I saved $50 this week, let's go spend it on dining out!". Save that $50 and put it in a savings account and don't think about it! One tool that I use is a phone app called "Expense Manager Plus". You can take pictures of all your receipts and it will help you keep track of your spending. Check it out!
December 17th - Save money sending Christmas presents through the mail!
Go to www.USPS.com and print your shipping labels!
You can pick up a variety of Priority Mail envelopes and boxes for free right at the post office or order them at no charge through the site!
Printing labels from home offers discounts up to $1.50 off per label, save you time by not waiting in line and most post offices have a drop box so you can walk in, drop it and walk back to your car!
Unfortunately, it doesn't work on APO addresses. They require customs forms and validation of acceptance with a postal associate.
December 18th - Keep the change. Put a jar or a dish near your purse or wallet, or in a room where you change you clothes, even in the laundry room (when you empty out the pockets) and put all your loose change in it. Every Saturday, I take all the loose change and put it in a tall plastic jar that has the device on top to count your change for you. This adds up to some serious cash! This is would be perfect for kids to do as well.
December 19th - Watch your weight and size, meaning when you buy items that offer different ounces and quantity counts. Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Family Dollar and other stores that offer generic values sell items that are smaller than big box stores like Target and Walmart. At times these stores put on sales that sounds enticing but look at the sizes! A Swiffer 12count refill at Dollar General can run up to $9 but you can get the same at a 24 count at Target at a similar price. Take pictures and/or write notes to keep track of this.
December 20th - Here's a price expectation list of basic items that helps me decide if certain items are a great deal. This is Savealotmom's expectations so it may be different from yours. This will offer an idea where your expectations are on product pricings. Creating your own list will help you. Keep a copy where you keep your coupons.
December 21st - If you are on your phone and computer a lot, why not play some games, do surverys, search online and do some reading and actually get rewarded for it? I use RecycleBank, Swagbucks, BING, MySurvey, and GlobalTestMarket.com to kill some time but ultimately, Recyclebank and Bing are highly used.
December 22nd - Tis the "after" season! Start next year's Christmas shopping the day after THIS Chirstmas! A lot of folks will be doing returns and stores will be running specials to get people to buy after they do the returns. Also, this would be ideal to save a little extra cash for Janurary when stores start marking down "out of season" items to make room for spring and summer products. Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret will have their semi annual sale in mid January. Old Navy, JCPenney's, GAP, American Eagle, The Children's Place and other clothing stores will be reducing their prices as well. Walgreens, Rite Aid, Target and CVS will most likely be moving their seasonal markdowns within the week after Christmas. This is the time to buy holiday decorations for next year!
December 23rd - Be familiar with the coupon policies. This will arm you with knowledge so there are no surprises in your transactions and this will also alleviate any problems for you, the cashier and the manager. Please note that these policies are to provide a guideline, not set in stone since managers have the right to improvise the coupon policies. Keep copies with your coupon binders.
December 24th -
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