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Thursday, July 24, 2008

Penny Pinching and Time Saving

I've never been the best when it comes to finding deals, comparison shopping, checking prices, coupon clipping, etc. I was always the type to go in the store, wander the aisles for days, and get whatever I wanted. When we had 2 incomes, we could afford to do that. We could buy all the snacks and fun stuff we wanted.

Well, now that I am a stay at home mom, we are on a TOTALLY DIFFERENT BUDGET! We have a set amount we can spend on groceries and dining out. And even up until recently, I was never that great about really figuring out how to stick to the budget. If we would go over, we'd try to make up for it in another area of our budget. (entertainment, etc) Well, I've been totally convicted about how it is part of my job as a wife and mom to be a good steward of the money that my husband works hard to provide for us. So I began researching different methods of saving money at the grocery store. And WOW there are a ton of resources out there!

My college friend Kristin recently had a post regarding this same issue and listed some great blogs that help out a lot. Here are a couple that I check daily. They tell you all the deals that the stores are having so you dont have to go searching.

Money Saving Mom - she's my favorite. She's a Christian so her application of using coupons and saving money is very Biblically based. She has a list of all the printable coupon sites and detailed explanations of how to use the CVS system (which I am still clueless about)
Freebies 4 Mom - she's great about listing when places are having deals, giveaways, etc.

I got a lot of GREAT information from Kyle McVay's blog. She has an entire word doc typed up with details on how to save money at the grocery store, preparing a menu, etc. She provides a printable grocery list that I LOVE! It has everything categorized and I just went in and made minor adjustments to fit our grocery needs. I added a price column next to each column of groceries so I could write the price as I bought each thing. I used it today and seriously I was in and out of the g-store in no time! Well, actually it took me a while bc I had my calculator out and was keeping a running total of what I was spending. It was great!

So, anyways..I'm learning. Learning how to be a better steward of the income that the Lord has blessed us with. Learning how to keep my home running smoothly. And I'm loving it already!

On another note, I wanted to remind all the moms out there who are blog readers about Google Reader. I was totally clueless about this until a few weeks ago. Stop what you are doing and do this now. Go to google.com. In the "More" dropdown, go to Reader. You'll have to sign up for it (it's free) and if you have a gmail account you just use the same log in info. Then, you go in and put in the web address of all the blogs you read on a normal basis. So, when you get on the computer to do some blog surfing, go to your google reader and it will list all the blogs that have updated since you last read them! You will save HOURS! I'm telling you! You won't waste time going to blogs to see if they are updated. It's wonderful! I use iGoogle as my homepage, so when I get online, google reader is on my homepage, along with my email, the weather, etc. And that also saves me tons of time. But just starting with the reader is a good start. Just wanted to share that tidbit of info with my fellow moms out there who don't have all day to surf!

4 comments:

  1. Wow. SO glad I just read this. I can't wait to check out these new blogs and see what I can learn.
    I need to save some $$$!

    Hey, what's up with the reader shout-out. Come on now! :) Just kidding. Love you.

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  2. So glad you liked that post and it helped you out. I am always up for saving money! Thanks for the google reader tip, I could use that.

    Kristin

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  3. I LOVE google reader! You are right, before I would take a long time to click on each blog, and now I don't have to bother if there isn't a new post. And did you find the way to put a (Next) button up which goes to the next blog on your list? Look under settings and then goodies.

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  4. Thanks for mentioning me on your blog. I hope you are saving lots of money and if you ever have any questions do not hesitate to ask me. Stewardship is one of the hardest lessons this daughter of a docotor had to learn. I am blessed by your comments.
    Kyle

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