Another Giveaway!

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BOLO BOLO!

First off, at my law school we got sent emails alerting to us of any dangerous occurrences, i.e. car jacking, that occurred to an anonymous student. The subject of these emails was always BOLO BOLO- meaning, be on the look out. And if I have any readers ere, I'd like you to be on the look out too, but not for danger. :)

Anywhoosie, there is a great giveaway going on right now at one f my favorites: Coupongeek.net:

I myself have really wanted to get into freezer cooking, and she is currently making an offer that should really help give a jump start. If you're interested, you can get more info here!

Dealing with Websites- The Alter Ego

One of the major pitfalls to online deals is the repercussions for signing up everywhere: spam email! Maybe spam isnt the right term for it, but receiving messages from every company I once registered with is overwhelming and unnecessary. Further, many companies are now active on, and provided coupons through, Facebook. Which means that my couponing ways are suddenly subject to the scrutiny of everyone I know as they see on their newsfeed that I have liked Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Cheez-Its, and NeilMed's Neti Pot all in one day.

The short of it is that I don't like my deal stuff taking over my life, whether it is my Facebook wall or my email. My solution? An alter ego of course! The email I use for my deals, inf act the email I use for this blog, is not my primary email. In fact, I have taken pains to make sure that is never associated with my real name. Not only do I have an alternate email address, I also have an alternate facebook account, so that I can "like" all sorts of products without having to worry about my friends, relatives, and former professors judging me or dealing with the consequences on their newsfeed! Win-win, in my opinion.

Keeping up with the Dealses

Everyday, I find new deals and blogs chronicling deals on the internet. EVERYDAY. It can be pretty overwhelming and intimidating, but one of the solutions I have come up with is to choose a core group of websites that I check daily (let's be honest, multiple times a day). Now, I have whittled this number down to about 15 or so sites, which is still alot! However, I have simplified things even further with the help of my google account. I use igoogle, which lets you devise a homepage suited to your personal interests. Using this, I have made a tab exclusive to my deal saving sites, and I leave this up on my computer at work or home all day. Every once in awhile, I hit the refresh button, and see if anything new comes up in my feed of interest to me.

Not a perfect system, but it helps streamlines things so I can see more deals and coupons and not get too overwhelmed. Anyone read this blog? And if you do, to catch deals on the internet?

W= Deals

So this evening I managed to impress both my husband and the Walgreens cashier with my deal-making abilities. We stopped at both Walgreens and Winn Dixie tonight, first heading to the drug store, where my husband and I picked up 2 bottles of body wash and two deoderants for a total of $9 out of pocket, but we also got $9 in register rewards for our next purchase. all in all, pretty sweet.

Next, we swung by Winn Dixie, on a trip that made me pretty nervous as i attempted two large deals with coupons that i wanted to use two of each, thought he coupons themselves said limit one per transaction. They rang up just fine though! and if you notice in the picture, we were able to bring our bill from $62 dollars down to $26. Also, we had a $25 Visa gift certificate that my mother in law gave me as a graduation gift, which meant that for our groceries we ended up only spending about $1. Win!

All in all, I spent $10 tonight, and got a $9 RR for future use!

FAILBLOG

Ok so I didn't update this for waaaaaaaay too long. And I know it. But I thought about doing it alot! Alot of things have changed since I was last here, oh I don't know 6 MONTHS AGO, so here's the short version of it:

-I graduated from law school!

-I accepted a full time position at a nonprofit

-I succeeded in bringing in our weekly grocery budget into the neighborhood of about $50 a week (jaw drop)

-I've stopped going to Wal-Mart at all

-I have booked a trip in September and then another one for next March

- I have saved the highest percentage in one transaction (75%)

- I have saved the highest dollar amount in one transaction

So lets look at these a little more in depth. When I started this blog, I was in law school, participating in the law clinic, as well as working part-time. Busy! I'm arguably busier now though, as I began bar preparation, GRE preparation (i know i know, but i really want to!) and work full time while doing some research work on the side. My part time job during law school was what led to the full time offer, but let me tell you: NO MONEY. AT ALL. Hence, a) I've managed to bring our budget in to around $50 a week to help compensate for that (which is amazing given the fact we had initially been spending $120 and I was attempting to bring it down to $80!) and b) why saving money and keeping notes of it is more important than ever. I may not have the same joy in money saving that I did when I started this blog ( the honeymoon may be over...) BUT I do have the same fervor and have gotten better and better at saving money.

So I aim to get better at using this blog, so that I may record proof of my money savings accomplishments to help me remember and be proud at how good I've become at keeping my own money in my pocket!

Winn Dixie Rock Star

I did it! I actually saved twice as much as I spent! Oh happy daaaaaay!

I took advantage of Winn Dixie's BOGO Free's and added in some coupons. Quite the victory :)

Happy Shopping

Last week at Winn Dixie we spent $28, and saved $27! It was glorious. We were really able to take advantage of a bogo free at Winn Dixie, coupled with some excellent coupons we had clipped. Today, I ran buy walmart and saved a 1/3 on my groceries using coupons printed from internet as well as ones from newspaper.

Also a highlight, when going through my catch-all drawer in the kitchen, I found a dollar off coupon peeled off a frozen pizza box and saved, which doesn't expire until 6/2010. Woot!

Happy saving people!

Tasty Noms

So at big lots a couple of weeks ago I picked up numerous boxes of Betty Crocker's "Complete Meals" in a variety of flavors:

These are inexpensive quick dishes by normal standards- around $3 usually at the grocery- but these had been marked down two two dollars apiece. I love these boxes as a quick easy meal that requires a little bit of stirring and no thought or effort. I emphasize the quote unquoteness of the title, however; for while betty claims the meal is complete, there is no vegetable in sight. I usually continue with the casserole concept, however, and add several servings of complimentary vegetables to whatever the dish is. Thus, for the cheesy taco bake, I will add frozen or canned corn or black beans. I dont add them until after cooking according to directions (save the last step of adding a topping, if there is one.) A favorite in our house is the chicken alfredo, to which we add one entire block of [thawed] frozen spinach. Delicious, fast, and comes out to no more than $3 to feed a family, especially since adding the vegetables really ups the filling fiber aspect of the meal, as well as adding needed nutrients. It may not be gourmet (we can't all blog about our adventures through Julia Child's cooking!), but it is tasty, satisfying, and very inexpensive.

Target/Big Lots Score

So yeah, I killed it with coupons and deals this weekend. At Target, by maximizing coupons and the current foods they had on sale, I saved $8, or cut a third of the grocery costs.

I also stopped by Big Lots, where I scored flavored wheat thins @ .75 cents a box! 33 cent tomato paste, and my favorite snack, pringle stix, at a mere 50 cents. FTW!!

Note that my total at Big Lots was a whopping 3.33, and I even bought a 4-pack of cinnamon applesauce too!

Name 'Splain

So I chose the name Happi Consumer for a reason. I get an intense feeling of happiness and satisfaction when I know I've scored an amazing price or deal. I feel a level of satisfaction that is almost unreasonable. Even today, I caught myself smiling as I walked into my part-time job at a non-profit, thinking of how successful my weekend shopping excursions were. It shouldn't come as a surprise, however; I am after all a consumer in a consumer society, and thus my ability to maximize my consumerism is an unsurprising source of, dare i say, happiness. If we were categorized as an agrarian society, the self-satisfaction and joy at a high yield or high profit crop turnout would be expected and encouraged, and thus the same should be for economic success in shopping. so there!

Heads up People!

I would love to win this, or for anyone who reads this blog [already] to win, check out the handy coupon organizer over at Moms Need to Know.

Hello World!

The purpose of this blog will be to document my effort to never spend more than $80 dollars a week on groceries. It will generally reflect an effort to save money, cut costs, and find good deals. Yay!