My “Saving Addiction”

My Dutch genes are just too strong! I have the urge again to share more about savin’ the dough! Over the years I have written a list of websites that offer money-saving tips, coupons, homemade recipes, saving on merchandise, and just how to “work the system” so to speak. By that I mean save money the round about way – but the legal way :). Again, if you have any other ideas on the how-tos of saving money, or if you are just plainly Dutch like me, let me know what your secrets are!

First of all, I have to thank my sister Kari for letting me on one of her secrets! She sent me the link to the website http://www.savingaddiction.com/. It is PHENOMENAL! It is easy to navigate, lists the stores on the right side with savings, and each day it gives tips on how to save at what I would call “normal” stores. By normal I mean Meijer, Target, Walgreens, and Rite Aid. It has the direct links to the coupons needed, shows pictures of the sale flyer of “where” the deal is, tells you EXACTLY what to do to get the deal, and it’s a very fun website. I used it this week to do my grocery shopping and there were deals that I would’ve missed if I did not head to this website. CHECK IT OUT! So thank you Kari for letting me in on this one!

Here are some other grocery websites with coupons:
http://www.couponmom.com/ – the only thing with this one is that it is a tad confusing. But it still offers good suggestions!
http://www.smartsource.com/
http://www.coupons.com/ – easy click and print website! Just have to download the printer app (like w/ most coupon websites).
http://www.valassis.com/
http://www.redplum.com/
http://www.valpak.com/
http://www.hotcoupons.com/
http://www.coolsavings.com/
http://www.restaurant.com/ – good restaurant coupons!

I know, it seems daunting to go through each of these websites! Don’t worry, I don’t – only because I think some of them overlap and with great websites like savingaddicion and couponmom, they already tell you what deals to look for. I go to these websites to print coupons off for the future typically.

Awesome recipe websites:
http://www.crockpot.com/
http://www.allrecipes.com/
http://www.despirationdinners.com/

I usually just stick with my cookbooks, but I often go to the internet if I’m looking for a “mock” recipe of something I’ve had at a restaurant – like Olive Garden’s famous salad. There are so many recipes online for it! And I must say, they taste pretty similar! You’d be amazed what “cheats” you can find online! One of my favs too? Red Lobster rolls – num yummy :)!

So how about merchandise? If I have to make a big purchase, I usually do a LOT of research beforehand – I figure TIME IS MONEY! I’m not a splurger so to speak. For example, last fall Dan and I had some gift money, and I wanted to buy a computer for our house (so that we didn’t always have to use Dan’s work computer). Well, I went to a few merchandise clearance websites, and with the type of computer I wanted, it was still actually cheaper for me to just go to Best Buy and get it. Here are a few websites that offer GREAT discounts though if you are looking for something more high-end, but don’t want to spend a high-end price:
http://www.overstock.com/
http://www.nobetterdeal.com/ – boy it’s fun to see what comes through there!
http://www.6pm.com/
http://www.ideeli.com/
http://www.shopgoodwill.com/ – fun to see what’s on that too!
http://www.craigslist.com/ (obviously :))

I know some of the items listed there are for “used” items, but sometimes used items are as good as NEW! Back to the computer…so on nobetterdeal.com, the price that I wanted to pay, was lower than the computers listed on the discounted website. So just because it’s a GREAT deal, doesn’t mean it’s the RIGHT deal. Yeah it would’ve been an AMAZING computer, but it would’ve been more “computer” than I needed. It’s just like groceries – it may be a good deal, but it may be more “grocery” than you need! So instead I went with a low-end computer that does just the basics, and I have not regreted my decision at all! It does exactly what I need!

I feel like with saving money, it all comes down to needs/wants. Yeah, you can find amazing deals ALL OVER the place! Look at the websites that list good deals! But, are they things you need? If you go to the store and there is just an outrageous deal on a shirt at clearance price, but you only end up wearing it once or twice, was it even worth the couple of bucks you spent on it? Or could you have saved those few dollars? And now if you’ve done that with 3 or 4 shirts, that is $10.00 you now could’ve saved. Something to think about!

All these things listed above, I am still trying to tweak myself – figure out the best system for me. For each person it is different! Saving is addicting 🙂 – but I would say this is one addiction that may be listed as “okay.” But I suppose there are things that can be taken too far, like even in saving money, that they become more of a priority than the other things in life, like God, family, etc. So I suppose I have to keep myself in check! What I do know though, is that God has called us to be stewards of our money – besides, it’s really not OUR money anyways, is it? I believe it is not. With that said, I think being frugle and “Dutch” isn’t necessarily a bad thing then :).

Like I said earlier…if you have other great ideas…please shoot them my way! If I get enough, I might just have to do another posting 🙂