Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

Just signed up for this. It's a site where you can earn freebies, trials, etc. Still working on exactly how everything works. You get "smiles" based on the number of missions that you complete. These "smiles" move you up through the ranks, thus earning you more opportunities.

Thanks MoneySavingMom!

Cooking from the Pantry

I've been inspired!

In January, MoneySavingMom is doing a month of cooking from the pantry. I've got a stockpile, I'm looking to cut my grocery bill even more, so I'm going to try! I'm not going to do it for a month, but maybe a week. I'm going to see how her first week goes before I try it, too. There's something intimidating about it to me for some reason. Why can't I cook from my pantry and my stockpile? We'll see how this goes!

Watch for updates...

My Savings Goals - 2010

I'm not really a resolutions kind of girl, but there's nothing wrong with setting goals, right?

In 2010, this is what I want to do to keep practicing a more frugal lifestyle:

*Raise my coupon savings to over $1000;

*Get our grocery bill to $100 or less a week. Currently budgeting $120 a week;

*Not get burned out on coupons and utilizing my resources;

*Reduce our non-mortgage debt by at least $7,000;

*We are having to buy a new TV soon since our main TV died last week, and I pledge to only pay cash;

*Only buy clothes that the kids really need, mainly for E Belle. I'm already seeing that she's got quite a summer wardrobe. She doesn't need a Gymboree spree;

*Look even harder for good deals.

As you can tell, I've got several food oriented savings goals. I feel like that's the easiest place for us to cut, and it's one of the areas that I have the most personal control over. We'll see how this goes! What are your goals?

Grocery Game - Second Attempt

Before the cashier hit the total key at Harris Teeter today, the screen read $183.30.

After she hit the total key and ran the coupons through, the screen read $98.38.

The Grocery Game is definitely helping me shop the sales at HT, but I was hoping to see more coupon usage as well. My coupon savings only totaled $8.15 today, which is kind of low for me.

But one of the couponing elements that I have a hard time with is when to use a coupon and when not to buy the item at all. Today, I'd guess that 90% of my coupons went with an item that was on sale, making the item free, nearly free or cheap. I've gotten burned in the past by using a coupon on an item not on sale, only to find it on sale the next week. So, my new guideline is only buy items with a coupon when they're not on sale if I absolutely need it for that week. Not just because I can.

The best sale today was the buy 1, get 2 free on chicken breasts. I saved more than $30 just on chicken alone today because I bought six packs. I'm up to my eyeballs on chicken, but it's a rich deal when you pay $16-ish for nearly 10 pounds of chicken breasts.

Of course, right in the middle of my free trial, I find out that I have won a subscription to a competing website called the Savings Angel! I'm very happy to have won, and I look forward to checking out the new site and being able to compare it to GG. We'll see!