Toledo Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Couponers
I don't think that's really a word... but do you use a website or anything, or do you just get the paper on Sunday and clip coupons? My hours are getting cut back and I want to actually try to make an effort to save some on our grocery bill. We are also getting rid of directv and hooking a computer up to the TV and streaming our TV.
Re: Couponers
I follow a couple blogs (Deals for the mommas, faithful provisions, smart couponing) and then I print coupons from coupons.com and coupons from the Sunday paper.
The blogs I listed above tell you exactly what the good deals are at which store. They tell you which coupons to even use.
Have fun!
Hopefully Rockthis will chime in, as she's a coupon queen!! I'll tell you what I do though.
I go through the Sunday paper and pull both the coupons and the ads. I also keep track of any coupons we may get from the register, or from a box of something we bought before. Occasionally I will also check websites like redplum.com, coupons.com, etc., but I don't heavily rely on them.
I go through all of the coupons and grab ones that are for things I may use/need, and I compare them with the ads and what's on sale for that week to find the best deal. I have a coupon organizer that's split by department, and I also write up a very specific grocery list with little marks next to each item that is either on sale or that I have a coupon for, to make sure that I'm getting the right brand/quantity/etc. to get the best deal.
Another thing to be cautious of is thinking that just because you have a coupon, you're getting a better deal. There are many times where I have a coupon for the name brand version of something, but even after the coupon savings, the store brand is still a better value. If that's the case, I will either re-file the coupon if it has an expiration date far enough in the future (hoping for a sale to come up) or I will put the coupon on the shelf so that someone else can use it, and snag the store brand item.
I get mine from the Sunday paper (and my parents' paper, lol) and use these sites for printable coupons:
coupons.com
smartsource.com
redplum.com
EatBetterAmerica.com
Pillsbury.com
BettyCrocker.com
upromise.com
makinglifebetter.com
And I use this blog and this blog to see the coupon matchups (because they're around here - the first one is in Toledo, the second is in the Columbus area). I pretty much only shop at the Kroger in Perrysburg when couponing, only because they double $1 coupons. Otherwise, I'll just check the sales at the other grocery stores each week to see what they have for decent deals.
I refer to www.savingmoneyintoledo.com and also www.bargainstobounty.com You do have to be carefull and not buy things you don't need. But if its something we use often and on sale/coupon we stock up. Also if the store has a limit of so many don't be afraid to check out 2x's or as many as necessary. I love the meijer Uscan, I usually have to have the cashier come and scan my coupons, but they never have a problem. Just seems like the regular cashiers are natzies! I get tons of stuff for free of just like .50cents alot of times. Last week got 5 boxes of noodles for free just as an example. They were .99cent sale at meijer and had online coupon of $1 off. Just be prepared to be organized. Here is an idea of what I do.I keep my coupons in a binder by week, I just write the date of that paper on the top corner of each coupon set, and then put them in a sheet protector, then I refer to the above sites and seek out the deals that they list, ex .50cent coupon from 05-01-11 in SS,(Smart Source) for whatever item. Then I go to that section clip it and put it in an envelope, I have an envelop for each store and a list for each store. My kids are very distracting at the store so I have to have a list, and then I have all the coupons w/ the list so I'm not having to dig them out in the store. Once you get into it I think you will love it, to me its like a challenge. I got really good at it a few years back when I had a newborn and no job. Had to find ways to save money and now its helped us be where we are today. I know that if we were not so thrifty we could not have the nice things we have today. Just sayin =0)
Face
"Cheese!"
Re saving money in Toledo- I would lurk and NOT participate in anything she does. She scammed me (it was $1.00 I'm not really that upset about it) but I wouldn't sign up or participate in anything she does...just an FYI.
DH and I left cable last summer and never looked back. We pay $39.99 for buckeye internet (the 29.99 plus ten cause we don't have cable) and it's fast enough for everything we watch and or stream. If you need some sites let me know and I can FB them to you. Most are at home but I have our favs off the top of my head...inc...how to watch Bear's games in the comfort of your own home.
We use a LOT of Hulu during regular season shows. Some shows that we watch are not avail...(like USA/Bravo shows usually) then we have another website we use for that.
We are slightly addicted to Swamp People on History and it's been a little bit of a chore to find it online.
Some of my co-workers have had really good luck with Netflix. My only thing is all the streaming stuff isn't current. So if you wanted to watch the latest episode you can't.
If you have any questions in the TV stuff let me know and I can fill you in on how we do it.
ETA: Do you have an HD TV, or an older TV? There is a converter box (not the one for the HD signal but a box to convert the VGA or computer signal to your TV.) For our old TV we needed one. I think it was $30 and paid for itself in a month. We ordered ours on amazon. Again if you have a newer HD TV there is already a monitor feed on the back of the TV. You need to look at the back of your TV. If you have a VGA plugin you should be fine, if you only have RCA (red yellow white) you need the converter.
Here's the box we got
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003BVVYSM
(I've heard S-video also works well but every time we tried it on the old as well as the new it didn't work for us.)
Another blog besides those listed above I follow is : The Krazy Coupon Lady, she was on the 1st Extreme Couponer show. Believe it or not FB is one of the best places for coupons! Mostly free ones.
I went to Kroger Sunday and I used $71 worth of coupons! It was crazy. That was my biggest savings to date. I had a ton of free items also.
I just lost my coupon binder last week and am so sad about it. I think I left it in the cart while fussing with the kids in the rain. The worst part is that I had gift cards in it too
Anyways, I was going to add if you shop at Kroger add your card online and get their e-coupons.You just add them and they come off automatically...plus my store still accepts those plus the paper coupons for double the savings...they are still fixing their system to prevent this I hear, but until then....