How I Save Money: Part One

This is a two part series on how I stay within my $200 each month. This is by no means a perfect system, but compared to two years ago when I started couponing and paying attention, it's been a vast improvement! Any suggestions on how you save money that would benefit other readers' monthly budgets, please post below!

As promised, I am going to talk today about how to really save money off of your monthly budget and monthly budgets to come. Granted, these factors can vary depending on where you live-if you live in a metro area like I do, all stores such as Walgreens, CVS, Target and grocery stores are in pretty good distance from one another. But, if you live in a smaller suburb or in the boonies (trust me, I used to live in the middle of nowhere myself!), your trips out of town have to be more carefully planned and in tune with your needs. But regardless, here are my tips on how to save on your monthly budget:

When it comes to beauty items and cleaning supplies, CVS and Walgreens 95% of the time knock the rest of the competition out of the park. And I am not talking about everyday prices because they are always more expensive than the rest…but you can count within one month’s time, you will find the product that you need and use on a daily basis to be one sale at CVS or Walgreens with ECB’s (Extra Credit Bucks) or RR’s (Register Rewards). When you combine that with coupons, I’ve never paid more than $1 for a single bottle of cleaning solution for my kitchen, bathroom or living room. But one tip: remember to purchase items that you need with the ECB’s or RR’s, otherwise you aren’t technically saving (I usually buy milk or roll it the next week). Granted, you can find great deals at places like Target (when combining manu and Target Q’s or getting a gift card) or Walmart (their everyday low prices), but I find that I get a lot more things free or dead cheap at CVS or Walgreens. You can find the ads a little early most of the time at A Full Cup

The reason why I bring up CVS and Walgreens is because I go crazy there. Literally. They had a Febreze deal last week that now I don’t have to buy Febreze for another year, at least. I totaled up that I spent $27 on $65 worth of Febreze. You may think this sounds crazy, but I factor a yearly budget as well-my family of 4 gets $200 per month to spend. That’s it. But, I find that sometimes I will go a little over but take away from the cleaning portion on other months. I get $50 a month to spend on cleaning/beauty supplies. But, if I can get a year’s worth of cleaning/beauty supplies for $75 total, I split that up throughout the year so I don’t go over my budget. My husband at first thought I was crazy, but we haven’t had to buy toothpaste, Electrasol, Clorox, body washes or deodorant for at least a year. I estimated that I spent $150 last year on cleaning and beauty supplies where my yearly budget allowed for $600. That left room for those months like November and December where we are forced to go over our budget due to the holidays.

Since I brought up A Full Cup, it’s good to know that just because you have a great coupon and you are eager to use to right away, don’t: do your research. Now, it’s extremely hard for Target or Walmart ads to get leaked early, but you can almost always go at least 2 weeks ahead for CVS and Walgreens ads by heading over to A Full Cup. That way, you really can see what is the best deal and so you can plan your shopping trips accordingly. You’d be surprised to see what items are continually on sale, but that change in price and rewards.

If you are short on coupons or for some reason or live in a region where you didn’t get a particular coupon, head over to the Coupon Clippers every Saturday evening and see the newest batch of coupons to be in the Sunday paper. Have no idea what coupons will be in the Sunday inserts? Head over to the Taylor Town Preview every Thursday. Need printable coupons? Head over to A Full Cup and browse their Target AND coupon database for the latest coupons. They even have coupon matchups for most stores.

Tomorrow: Part two, how to save on your grocery budget