A Year Without Wal-Mart

DISCLAIMER: This blog is not affiliated with Wal-Mart or any of it's trademarks, names, places, employees, or stores. I have NOTHING against Wal-Mart and have been a faithful shopper there as long as I've had money to spend! This is merely a social experiment and blog project. Please don't sue me.

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I have spent a LOT of money in Wal-Mart (WM) over the years. The lure of the place is amazing. Everything you need in one, giant building. But, can I go one year without shopping in Wal-Mart? 

First off, this will be very difficult because I take my disabled father grocery shopping once every 2 weeks or so, and normally we go to WM. However...that doesn't mean *I* need to shop that day. I can merely be a chauffeur and cart pusher.

Second, I am starting this challenge not because I have some bone to pick with WM as a big, giant conglomerate or big business. I actually am a fan of big business. Especially a big business started by one little man with a dream. Has the final product changed from his original vision? Sure. But that's to be expected as time goes on and he is no longer around to run it. But this project has nothing to do with politics, fighting for anything or against anything. I do not care to Occupy Wall Street or Un-Occupy Wall Street. I run my own handmade business, so I understand the need, desire, drive to push products and sell an item. I'm down with that. Me and Sam Walton are A-Ok.

Third, some people that I care for very much work or have worked for Wal-Mart. This project has nothing to do with those people and they should know I love them and they can still bring me half price candy anytime... :)

I am starting this challenge because, A) my husband thinks I spend too much money at WM. B) I WOULD rather buy local or handmade. C) I just want to see if I CAN.

So here's a little background of my family and hometown situation and rules I'll set forth for myself:

We are a family of four, two adults and two kids, and one fat dog. We live in a fairly large town on the Northshore of New Orleans, LA and have plenty of access to local and chain grocery stores. I am an avid Amazon shopper (see, told you, no issues with big business.) Three of the four of us are Gluten Free.

I can do this.

RULES:
1.) I am allowed to set FOOT in WM. As I said, I need to take my father grocery shopping, and he may need to go to WM.

2.) If I must shop in WM, I must account for it here and confess WHY I had to. (and could I really have avoided it?).

3.) I must keep receipts of all money spent, so we can attempt to compare to previous year's Wal-Mart purchases. Not necessarily, to share all my financial business with you all (although, I do heart you all, you don't need to know EVERYTHING!) But for myself so I can see if I notice a significant difference in our budget. My husband does the bills so really he will be the one to notice this.

4.) This will all tie in my goal of "A Handmade Year," which involves, making what I can make, buying handmade what I cannot make, and buying local what cannot be handmade. Also, doing without if it cannot fit any of those descriptions.

5.) I still get to go to Target, because, well, I love my Target and you can't make me not go. Baby steps, baby steps.

Think I can do it? Want to join the challenge with me? Think I'll lose money? Save money?
I admit...I'm scared. I'll probably make one last maniacal Wal-Mart run on December 31st, just to do it...

I don't suspect I will miss it terribly. I think once I get used to changing my shopping ways, it won't be that bad.

It is on like Donkey Kong.

I'm on a mission...

The challenge starts January 1st.

~~Amy

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Digging the Coupon Thing...

Ok, so I'm slowly getting the hang of it. Today was  my first real venture into the world of CVS and Extra Bucks!! I'm no guru like many others, but I'm working it!

So I created my coupon binder this week! Much easier! I was even able to just hand a lady in the store a coupon that I didn't really need, so hopefully that saved her a buck :)
Today I hit up Walmart, Winn-Dixie, CVS, Walgreens and Target...all with the 5 yr old in tow. He did really well and I thought it was important to bring him to show him WHY Mommy does what she does...that if we plan and work at it, we can save enough money to do fun things!!

So here's today's deals!

Walmart is hard to save a ton of money in, and overall MOST of their prices on groceries are pretty good.  I should note NOWHERE local doubles coupons..NO ONE. Target will "stack" manuf. coupons with Target ones but NO grocery store doubles. Bites, big time.
Anyhoo, so here is this week's Walmart finds...not pictured is another bag of chips ....DH stole those before I could take the pic. Between coupons and price matching, I saved 10-11 bucks...not major but helps! Grand total: $40.65

Winn-Dixie: I should note, I'm not a fan of most of the local grocery stores. Their "sale prices" are really not that great a deal when you look at how much cheaper they are at Walmart or even in bulk in Sam's or Amazon. But, their Buy 1 Get 1 (B1G1) deals are usually a pretty good savings. Not fab but not horrible. This round cost me $21.04---but I SAVED $23.16...more than I spent! So the non perishables go into my stock pile and the salads are to enjoy this week. I should mention...bagged salads are not NORMALLY a good deal. The CouponMom ran the numbers once and you basically are paying someone 5k a year to cut lettuce for you. Her theory is, if it takes you less than 5 minutes to do it yourself...DO IT. However, EVERY now and then, the bagged salads will be a better deal than the by the head lettuce. Today at Winn Dixie even the iceberg lettuce was 1.69 lb, so sometimes it's worth it for the convienence to me!

Next up, Walgreens. This one was funny because my son thought the Arizona teas were beer! Yes, little man...you stressed mama out so much she needs a Colt 45! They were out of the Crest Whitening Strips that were on sale, so I got a raincheck...but it's ok, I scored those later also at CVS.
Total at Walgreens: 2.68 saved 2.96. The teas were .50c ea with in store coupon, and the pantiliners were .99c with in store coupon PLUS I had a .75c off manuf coupon! ROCKED that one.

I didn't snag a picture of Target, it wasn't THAT impressive. 48 roll of Scott toilet paper, toy for the little human, movie for the little human (hey what's the point in saving if I don't splurge every NOW and then...his splurge cost me all of 13.00 bucks.) and 10 yogurts for 33.00! Not to shabby! Remember to sign up for the Target Red Card..you do NOT have to make it another credit card!! Mine is linked to a checking account and it gets you 5% off EVERY day!! If you're going to use a debit card anyway, not having a RedCard is like throwing money away!

Ahhhh, last but not least...CVS. Now...I'm a coupon virgin still compared to some and I haven't learned all the in's and out's of drugstore deals. I've not touched learning Rite-Aid yet...I wanted to master CVS and Walgreens first! So this is the first time I really paid attention and worked the CVS Extra Bucks program. The best way to work these deals is to break your purchases up! Also, the cashier told me, scan your CVS card every time you go in--REPEATEDLY! She said keep scanning it til it doesn't shoot any more coupons out!! She also said do it FIRST so you can help plan your shopping right when you walk in.
So today's CVS deal..I know many of ya'll can do WAY better, but this is great for me!
Grand total of $32.17 and that includes a 31.99 box of Crest White Strips (way in the back there if you can't see em!)

So basically I paid retail for the white strips then the cereal, candy, toothpastes, keychain and candy were free!! Now, I don't normally BUY Crest White Strips, but I figured I'd give it a try since it was such a good deal.

My point is...it CAN work. IT IS doable! You saw no meat purchases because I hit up Sam's and the recent sales already for that. My pantry and freezer is stocked! Just start slow and you can do it too!!

~~Amy

Year of Living Frugally--Purging and Cleaning

Hi all! While I don't really do New Years resolutions, I do like the changes a new year can bring, the clean slate, refreshing yourself and home.

I've continued my living frugally, cutting coupons, shopping the sales, stockpiling my pantry/freezer/fridge and I've made some nifty organizing/cleaning improvements :)

****Kitchen Organizing:
Print these freezer and pantry inventory forms from Organized Home. Instead of writing directly on the paper, I put the papers inside a clear plastic sheet protector, and write my inventory on them with a dry erase marker, and store the paper on a clipboard above my chest freezer.

****Kids Room Organizing:
My boys room has always been a disaster because they have bunk beds and until recently, my youngest was still in the crib. But he has successfully moved to a big boy bed so it was time to move that crib out. Doing so opened a huge part of their room and thus made a nice book corner for them :)

My boys also received a moon lamp from their grandma that shows the phases of the moon. Naturally it comes with a little remote that of COURSE is required to make the moon work. So, I decided to find a way to make sure they don't lose the remote.

Now if only I could find a big enough piece of velcro to use on the boys when they get outta hand...just stick 'em to the wall!!

What's new in your cleaning/organizing/frugal world??

~~mama

A Year of Living Frugally--Update

Time for an update gang!

Well my Adventures in Couponing is 2 months in. I can't really say whether it's totally paid off yet, although I do obviously see the savings at the register. For instance my bill yesterday at Walmart went from 318 to 272 with coupons! Mind you, this was a BIG shop but included hardly no meat...it was the "coupons are expiring shop". :) I now have a plentiful supply of bath and body/cleaning/personal products. Our teeth shall always be clean in our house!!

But that is one of the points from CouponMom, you should NEVER run out of stuff like toothpaste, tissues, toilet paper, etc, if you shop with coupons and when it's on sale. Those are also items to combine savings at drugstores on and save them for easy donations. For example, a .97 Secret deodorant with a .50 coupon means for .47c you can donate that deodorant to your nearest women's shelter for a woman who has quite possibly escaped with only the clothes on her back. Will you save her life? No, not literally, but you could provide her with a little comfort and nicety in a difficult time for her.

Also, please don't forget the military. Military families on bases can use coupons past their expiration date. So NEVER throw out those coupons! You can find info on the Military program here. PLEASE follow the rules and do not waste time sending coupons that are over 6 mos expired. Remember you also don't have to wait til their expired. As you go through your coupons, if you will not EVER use the product, put it in your folder for military ones!

I will say, I have not hardly bought any meat since the first of November! I went then and purchased boneless, skinless chicken breasts, ground meat, bacon and lunchmeat from Sam's Club. I also snagged 3 turkeys when they were on sale for Thanksgiving, and 2 Roasts when they were on sale in November. Since then I have only had to buy 2 ground meats (and really only because they were on deep sale, I didn't "need" them.) and 1 bag of chicken leq quarters (which at 6 bucks a bag, makes 5-6 meals in my house, so that's a good price!).

So only time will tell if all this stockpiling is really going to save me money. I suspect that I will not actually SPEND less but I will get FAR more. I have an extra stock pile of non perishables in the garage, and have been able to splurge on some sodas and a few things for the boys that I don't normally because I saved money in the food dept. I'll be reevaluating my spending in January as that will be the 3 mo mark of starting my adventure, and we'll tally it up and see if I REALLY got more for my money :)

The main lesson I've learned is, if you'll REALLY use it, and the coupon makes it cheaper than the store brand...go for it!!

~~Amy

A Year of Living Frugally--Update

So how goes your frugality!? Finding any good deals? Learning new ways to save money??

My next major post on frugality will be on how to use social networking to help save you some dimes, but I wanted to check in and share this week's major savings!

Walgreens has Coffee Mate buy 1 get 1 free (liquids 2.49 value). I used this coupon and you can find more here. So I snagged 2 Coffee Mate liquid creamers (french vanilla was all they had, but hey!) for .49c!! Can you beat that?????

I also snagged up the Reynold's Aluminum Foil for .89...the ad was for 20 sq feet but they didn't have any, just the 25 sq feet, so I snagged up 3 of them for .89c each! :) That goes in my extra stock pile in the garage along with other non perishable items!!

I'm enjoying the challenge of saving money and hope you are finding some good deals too!

~~Amy


Pssst, don't forget to enter my giveaway to win a badge reel or ponytails!! Hurry before Thanksgiving, because once the Saints/Cowboys game is over, the giveaway is over!

A Y ear of Living Frugally--Be Entertained....

Ahh, we continue the year of living frugally. I've been diligently cutting coupons, scouring the net for deals and tricks. I have to say I think it's going fairly well. I am now stockpiled with enough meats to get through our family dinners for several weeks or more!


So carrying on with my little experiment....how shall we entertain ourselves on the cheap?

Entertainment
This is one area where we don’t need much help because we rarely do anything! We are the family that has no problem using a TV we got for free until it literally falls apart, we rarely go to the movies, we take walks, play games, read books....we're rather low key.

Here’s what we’ve done so far that helps:

MUSIC:
Pandora.com: This is a free music service you can use on your PC (and I’m guessing it has other mobile apps, but that’s obviously something I don’t waste money on). You create custom radio stations based on your fave artists, songs, music genres and viola---free music! I believe you are only allowed 30 free hours a month, so use it wisely. It took some time but I have trained myself: I pause the music or turn it off when I’ll be out of the room for any length of time. It automatically stops the music for you in some time if you are not ‘active’ on the site for some time. It has nifty features like song lyrics, the ability to buy a song, and social networking connections. You have to listen to a few ads every so often, but who cares? I buy CD’s only for the artists I REALLLLLLLY love.

Movies/DVD’s: Okay seriously, we RARELY buy or even go see movies. We don’t even belong to anything like Netflix. But if we did, it would probably be Netflix where you can stream videos on your computer or with your Wii! We just aren’t huge movie people. We buy the ones we REALLY love that we want to keep forever, and the few that the kids want (and we do so on sale or with discounts!). With as much is on television these days, we don’t have time or need for buying/watching movies.




Redbox is also a great way to get movies. There are tons located around the country and for 1.00 you can check out a movie. Return it the next day and you have spent 1.00 and tax (and a little gas) for a movie! You can use Redbox.com to pay, hold movies and if you sign up for the emails, they usually send freebie coupons every so often!

Television: We currently use Dish Network. It was cheaper than DirectTV and WAY cheaper than our local cable company.  We have the 2nd cheapest plan meaning, for us, we get the channels we want for the most part and a DVR for under 50 a month. Your plan will vary for your families needs. For us, the DVR is priceless, because instead of buying my kids movies, I simply record their fave tv shows and viola…30 minutes of peace. Dish Network also regularly previews other channels not included in your package so if you see a show you like on that preview channel…just DVR a whole mess of them. That is how I have my stash of Golden Girls episodes. Don’t be hatin…you know you love the girls.
Dish even showed a marathon of all the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" episodes that were off air when Dish and Fox had their little spat over money and airing their Fox shows. I find their customer service to be superb over DirecTV.

Hulu.com is also a great resource for FREE television. You can also watch many of your fave shows on the website for their network, for example, you can watch ABC Primetime shows on www.abc.com.

Books: Seriously, do I even NEED to spout the benefits of going to the library???? REALLY? Books for free. DUH. Videos too! If you simply MUST purchase books and you do it on a regularly basis try your local bookstore chains rewards program. Some cost, some don’t. But if you buy books enough, the cost of the program should be far less than the savings you’ll receive. If you do NOT save more than you spend on the program, um, duh, drop it. Amazon and Ebay are great places to get good priced books as well. There are also various swap websites and trading websites for books, but I don't have experience with them. For that you shall google.

And get your behind to the aforementioned library.

Black Friday and this time of year is the time to stock up on family board games also! One Black Friday (when my oldest was a newborn and I was up before dawn ANYWAYS) I stocked up on several of the traditional kids games (Candy Land, etc) for 5.00 each a game!

Memberships for Local Activities: These things will vary based on your area. Generally speaking, if you are even a small family and you visit your local museum, zoo, aquarium, etc more than a few times a year....joining the membership is worth it. For us, we also go more since we are members. We may still only go to the zoo 6x a year or so...but if we even go 3x we have paid for our membership. We are blessed to have access to the Audubon Institute were we can go to the zoo, aquarium and get discounts at the IMAX and the Insectarium. Keep an eye out and scope around for deals on local activity memberships on the cheap!

I hope these were helpful tips and saves you some moola! Do you have any tips you can share with us!!??
~~~Amy

Living Frugally Weekly Confessional

So I'm actively attempting to save money and thought I'd share this week's adventures! :)

I checked out the ads in the free paper they throw around my neighborhood and it has the weekly ads in it. I knew Toy Story 3 was coming out, and that I had to get my son's blood work done on Tuesday, when the movie came out (nifty coincidence so that could be his reward!)

So I saw the CVS ad and noticed if you bought 25.00 worth of certain items you got the movie for 3.99. Usually I disregard those type of ads because they are lures and it's not really worth the savings. The movie itself is 15 bucks at Walmart or Target usually, so spending to save doesn't make sense to me usually!

But this time I did the math. I looked at the items on sale that qualified for the deal. I looked through my coupons. Lo and behold I had a coupon for every single item I would have normally bought in that deal! So that's how I ended up with:

20 count Charmin Toilet Paper for 9.97
8 rolls of Bounty Paper Towels for 6.97
10pk Duracell batteries (x2) for 5.97 eac
Crest Pro Health Toothpaste (x2) for 2.75 each
Dawn dishwashing soap for .97c
Puffs Tissues for .97.

So that meant I got the movie for 3.99.

So in the end I spent 39 and got all that stuff plus the movie. I could have not gotten for example, the batteries, but everything I bought was stuff we use on a normal basis. Everything I got was on sale and had a coupon, not too shabby considering the movie itself (with its fancy useless to me blue ray disc) is 30 something alone in some stores.

And I have plenty of toilet paper...can't complain about that....


~amy/mama

A Year of Living Frugally--Introduction

So I've been dabbling in this world of saving money..(what? People DO that?) and I'm rather enjoying it. November 1st starts my true Year of Living Frugally. I hope to chronicle how it goes, share the tips and tricks, and STICK WITH IT! A little backstory:

We are a one income family and have been for nearly 4 years. We could absolutely benefit from me working full time, but at this point it's not a viable option. After I paid for daycare and other work costs, the profit would not be much and having a child with Autism at home, it's an even less a viable option. You don't just put your child with special needs in just any daycare. Both boys will be in full time school within 2-3 years so we can certainly reexamine the situation then (or if a sudden opportunity comes up before then).

Right now we are blessed with me being able to stay home with Eli. However that doesn't mean we don't need to pinch pennies! It seems everywhere I turn in my life, friends are suffering from illness, job loss, and needing to save money or just weather the storm. (I'll refrain from discussing the political angle of this for now) I can't help but wonder, how long before I'm next?

So I've been experimenting for some time now with saving money. Thus far, here are some things that have worked for me in the area of running your day to day household chores.


*Making my own laundry soap. The materials are fairly inexpensive, and the costs vary. I purchase cold process soap from CosmicCleanBody and the rest of the materials from local stores. Just google "How to make laundry detergent" and you'll find a ton of resources!

*Line Drying Clothes: This is a less oft used solution for me because living in the deep south leads to great humidity which apparently does not do great for line dried clothes. But as we are FINALLY getting cooler I plan to start drying on the line again .When I do tumble dry clothes, I do several loads at once so once the dryer has heated up once, it doesn't have to work so hard at drying the next few loads.

*CrockPot Cooking: I have no data to back this up, but I highly suspect that crock pot cooking saves money. Not only do you generally make a meal that lasts for days, and gives you leftovers to freeze, you aren't running your stove/oven for hours. So I've got no actual cents on this one, but I think it saves money. It definitely saves time!!

*Planning your Menu  This seems like a no brainer to me but I am shocked to hear how many people do not plan their menu. Now this is not to say I stick to it religiously. There are plenty of days where I forget to thaw meat or something, so I shift to another days schedule..but because I have a menu and I purchased my groceries based on that, I have the items there to make the planned meals. I combine this with coupon clipping, looking at the grocery ads (that they throw in the free sample paper 1-2x a week), and basing the menu off whats already in the freezer/pantry. And while we're at it: Keep your freezer/fridge Full: This keeps the air circulating just so and your appliance doesn't have to work so hard to pump out cold air. Just don't pack it TOO full or it'll not be able to move the air freely.

*Cleaning: This is an area of our lives that people probably waste a lot of money in. Quite honestly there isn't much in this world that can't be cleaned with vinegar, baking soda and a lemon. But just assuming that's not your thing, here are some ways we save money cleaning. 

• Reusable Cloths: I do buy paper towels for some things but for cleaning, I try to keep with reusable cloths. Now, I sew, so I have in my possession, a wide variety of fabrics. I make my own cloth flannel wipes, reusable Swiffer Wet Jet Pads, grocery bag holders, laundry bags, etc. I so firmly believe in this lifestyle change that I run Micro Mops with my fellow penny pincher, Dee :) You can keep a stack of cloths in your drawer and just throw them in with your regular laundry. Don't sew? Check out my shop or head to Sam's or another big box store and buy a giant pack of terry cloth el-cheapo towels.
• Refilling Cleaning Solutions: Chances are you can use far less of the amount listed on cleaning solutions. Or you can refill them when you think you can't. Use a Swiffer WetJet? Well when the solution runs out, simply hold the bottle upside down so the top is submerged in very hot-boiling water for just a minute. This loosens the glue so you can remove the cap and refill with your fave cleaning solution. Continue this until the bottle is too grimy to use anymore! If you use liquid hand soap, look into buying in bulk, or the larger refill bags, you can reuse the same container and just refill with the liquid when it runs out. 
• Washing Items in Cold Water: You REALLY don't need to wash much in Hot water unless its really dirty (like soiled towels/sheets) or the care label specifically says to wash in hot. Save your money and energy and wash in cold, with homemade laundry soap and then line dry! Laundry on the cheap! 
•  Clean from the Top Down: Dust from the top down...wipe from the top down...pick up from the top down...you get the idea. It's just silly to clean something you already cleaned. Let your solutions do their work by spraying and letting them drip down mirrors, tubs, etc.
•  Stick to Cleaning Solutions You Trust: I do spend the extra bucks for some items. I personally love Mr Bubbles bathroom scrubbing bubbles cleaning sprays/solutions. I find they work extremely well, I spray, let sit for a few minutes and let it do it's magic...and viola, I can WIPE the tub/sinks/toilets/etc out without killing my back. It's beautiful.

Routines are my friend. I try to stick to routines and when I get off base from them I find myself easily distracted and things don't get done. Of course I am an easily distractable person, so routines are against my better nature, but if I don't force myself to stick to lists and routines, I'll put off EVERYTHING and then get stressed trying to do it all at once.

Of course I'm blessed that both my husband and I are realistic that we don't want or need to live in a Martha Stewart house. Children do not remember how clean the house was, how fine their things were, but they remember the time spent with them. So that is what I aim for every day, a healthy balance of kids, house, spouse, fun and time for me.

I'll be back soon to share more of my tips and tricks and some experiments. I'll conclude with an ongoing list of what I want to accomplish to save money/time.

*Cut down on paper usage: towels/napkins/paper plates
*Line dry 3-4x per week
*Cut more Coupons--while analyzing if they're really worthwhile!
*Plan menu based on the sale papers, not on what we want...perfect this plan
*Utilize the things we have memberships to: Audubon Zoo, Children's Museum, etc.
*Keep track of daily money going out that I alone spend. Strictly limit that
*NO fabric/supply purchases unless necessary for a pending order!

Do you have frugal tips? Feel free to share them!!

~~Mama Amy