Sep 07

Do you prefer Big or Small packages?

–To get the most out of your coupons, most of the time, use coupons on the smaller quantities of items rather than the bigger quantities.–

Double check the unit price when you are paying full price.  Milk especially gets me… At Kroger it varies whether the gallon or the half gallon is cheapest…. But with a coupon, it’s a better value usually to buy the smaller package.

Example:  If you buy paper towels for $8.00 for 8 rolls that equals 1.00/roll.  If you get the smaller package that is $1.00 for 1 rolls, it’s still 1.00/roll.  Same cost.

Compare what happens if you use your coupon for .50 off.  (Which doubles at Kroger) For the larger package, you pay $7.50 for 12 rolls (.94/roll).  For the smaller package, you pay $.50 for  1 roll (.50/roll).  The better value is now the smaller package with a coupon, not the larger package.

This works a lot of times which you can get stuff free.

Just make sure you cost compare when you use a coupon. Check Unit Prices and do the Math.

 

Aug 30

The Nice Home

Thanks for the post, Arthur Lawrence

Having a nice home is great but one of the things I didn’t think about when I bought the place was keeping it clean. I felt like I was spending hours every weekend working on making it sparkle and it was such a relief when a friend referred me to a really good housekeeper to get some of the workload off my back. Terry has been wonderful and aside from her being really confused about how to operate the www.SecurityCHOICE.com alarm she’s gotten everything right. She cleans like a master and I never have to worry about her still being there when I get home. Payment’s been a breeze and she’s got a really great disposition so all in all I think it was a really good move for me. The house sure looks better than it does when I clean it and I’m not mad because I get to spend my weekends relaxing rather than scrubbing the floors like Little Orphan Annie! Oh the pitfalls of having too much stuff, you know what I mean?

Aug 25

Safety Online

I just saw this post on Cafemom…  and it crossed my mind that some people will answer questions like this where ever they are. The internet feels really safe – after all how would they really find out who I am, where I live and so on…

Do you save little stashes of money in your home?  You know, for maybe something a little extra that you want, or a project  that you want to do?  I used to be sooo good at stashes.  Now I just save change in a jar…….but a litlle stash is always special!  Do you have one?

In reality it’s not that tough to find out who someone is… Think of all the times you probably posted what town you live in – or what region… What the name of your subdivision is….  Even what school you go to (or what school your kids go to).  Identifiable information is easy to give out without even realizing it.  Just knowing what area someone’s from and what team their kids play on can make someone easy to find. Even identifying where you work can tell what town you are probably in…  Think Linked in Here.  Some sites are also geography specific, so just looking at a list of what other groups you belong too could identify your location.

In answer to this question 26 people had replied.  I’m sure the person posting the question and the people answering were just having a conversation, but you never know who is lurking.

One reply was:

We have a change jug. It’s one of those water jugs. We have a stash of gift cards and a little bit of money. We are setting stuff aside to use while my hubby is gone for training.

I would think the odds are high that it will be fine… but my person rule is to avoid posting about where I stash money.  I also avoid things like when our house is empty, when the kids are home alone, and financial information….

Aug 13

Embroidery Machine

I finally got the embroidery machine I wanted.  I’ve been having fun making designs and trying them out on the machine.

I’ve learned several things – from how to transfer a design to the machine to important things like bobbin color does matter.  I ended up with the Brother Machine.  The price was better than most and so far it seems good – other than the one I received (from Amazon) came with a case and the case smells like someone was smoking like crazy around it.  Putting it back in my small sewing room the room still smells horribly days later making it tough to do anything.  I was shocked that Amazon would send out something that so obviously had been around heavy smoking.

Once I figured out the threading (and self threading part) it became much easier, but I still need to work on switching out the bobbins.  I just went out yesterday to get more bobbins.  I looked at the separate bobbin winders, but I’m not sure if those are a great idea or not?

The software lets you take a graphic and digitize it to a design for the machine.  I’m still on the learning curve for that, but have created a couple things from logos.  One came out not too bad, but the other really needs work.  I need to figure out how to edit the design that the software creates…. That’s next on my list.

Aug 02

Trade In Program at Amazon

Have you heard of the Amazon.com Trade-in program? If not, don’t feel bad. Apparently, they’ve had this program in place for video games, but have now opened it up to books, DVDs, and electronics including cell phones, iPods, GPS devices, and even tablets PCs. The program is still in beta. I have some books I was getting ready to take to Goodwill so searching here first is now high on my list.

There are other trade-in programs out there, for example the one offered by Best Buy. However, Amazon.com currently doesn’t take laptops, but it does take a lot of other things and they’ve made it so simple. The three step process includes searching for the item you want to trade in, printing a label and packing slip, packing up your items and shipping them-for free. Amazon then will deposit the money in the form of a gift-card in your Amazon account to use on future purchases.

The Trade-In Store isn’t apparent when you go to the home page. When you access the Trade-In store, a list of your purchases can be found on the right hand side of the page with the trade-in value.