Friday, April 16, 2010

Coupons don't make people poor, people make people poor

Frugal Dad recently had a guest post from Neal Frankle of Wealth Pilgrim, titled Your coupons are making you poor. He had some questions within the post he posed but also ended it with some questions, so I will go through the post and answer all the questions he posed from my opinion as well as make some comments on the topic as well.

When you spend time thumbing through the paper or surfing the net for great coupons…aren’t you really just thinking about spending money?

Of course you are.

I absolutely do not, I don’t spend my time going through coupons just to spend money but to save it. I go through the ads, the coupons, and all the blogs looking for ways to save me money and to stretch what little I have.

Coupons are directly tied to spending.

I agree, of course they come from the manufacturer of the product or the store carrying the product. The companies agenda is to get you to spend, and if you don’t think about it then you will spend. And people do get caught up in couponing and buy stuff not because they need it but because they have a coupon for it. However, if you are smart about it and patient, you will wait and find a sale for the product you have the coupon for and use the coupon then to get an even better deal. If you wait for Walgreens or Cvs to have the product on sale with register rewards (walgreens) or easy care bucks (cvs) you can do even better. If you look for rebates for those items, you do the best possibly making the deal a money maker as the rebate amount is before coupons and RR’s and ECB’s.

Have you ever heard of someone telling you that they bought something just because it was on sale?

This is another tricky thing to watch out for. You have to ask yourself is it really a sale, is it really a good deal, do we really need this, will we really use it?

Best way to find out if things are really good deals is to start your own price book. Use columns and write where you got it, the size, when you got it, and how much it was. Do this for your most shopped stores. Bring the price book with you when you shop and next time you see a sale you can look to see if it really is a deal or not.

If you find it difficult or think it’s too time consuming or daunting of a task you can subscribe to The Grocery Game, which is a coupon site that tracks sales by their 12 week cycles and lists in color coded sheets if something is at it’s rock bottom price to stockpile. It cost’s to subscribe, but most people have said that they save what they pay for the site and much more. If your not sure they do have a discounted trial period. I was subscribed to their site myself, but I didn’t spend enough to justify continuing my subscription. I saved as much as I spent on the subscription so they just canceled each other out, but I was only spending around $100 a month, most families spend that a week.

Coupons were created by the Retailers Association of America probably. They did it to give you a reason to get into their store and spend money. That’s it. They know that once you’re there, you’ll keep spending. You might get a deal on toilet paper, but they’ll get you on the breakfast cereal.

He has a point when he says that retailers want to get you by getting you in the door for the good deal just so that you continue to spend and buy other things not on sale. Best way to avoid this trap is to make a list of things that you need and stick to it.

Of course, some people use coupons to stop spending money they don’t have — and I hope that describes you. But most people get sucked in. Coupons get you to buy stuff you really don’t need.

He goes to say that our trash cans being full is proof that we are buying more then we need. I disagree, I think if the trash can is full it means we aren’t using what we have. Something bigger then people getting sucked into spending more money because they have a coupon or because they didn’t just buy what was on their list and mindlessly put things in their cart is that we are a wasteful nation. A lot of people make too much food for meals and then don’t eat the leftovers.

Not to mention that many people don’t recycle and reuse items. Or that they get into just buying a new item when the old one is broke. Many people would rather buy new then spend the time fixing what they have. I have 6 people in my house my family coupons and stockpiles items at rock bottom prices and we don’t even fill up 1 trash can. Why? Because we only make enough for us to eat, if we do have leftovers we don’t let them go to waste. We also recycle/reuse and fix broken items. Just because something is no longer of use one way doesn’t mean you can’t find another creative way to use it differently; you don’t have to use something how it was intended to be used.

When I need something I go out and get it. I don’t clip coupons and then find a reason to need something. Maybe I pay more for the stuff I need than you do. But I don’t buy anything I don’t really need. At the end of the day, I spend less money as a result of not collecting coupons.

For me it depends on the person, you have to be accountable to yourself and your family. You have to be financially responsible. Clipping coupons is the it thing, you see it all over magazines. It is a marketing ploy to get people to buy their magazine, that’s one reason they are talking about it and the other as he said to try and lure people into spending.

If your smart about it, you can take the amount of money you spend now make a list of everything you buy for your house and then find coupons just for those items, that alone will save you money. Yes you may find yourself buying additional things from time to time, but when combining deals with coupons you should continue to spend only what you started out spending. There are coupon queens/kings out there who actually spend less.

A Thrifty Mom shared a post from one of her very first readers; you can see the post in it’s entirety here. The reader Jeanette wrote about living within your means and how her family made certain decisions about their lifestyle. They hadn’t always made those decisions and she speaks about that as well that hindsight is 20/20, and how they wish they knew what they know now.

I can relate to that myself, as I am sure most people can. I have tried to pass my own wisdom of my own life experiences onto my family and friends, sometimes it is well received while most of the time I get humored. Can you remember anyone warning you about something and you did it anyway? We all get advice and learn about so many things yet in the end it’s our life experiences that teach us the most. I am a firm believer that sometimes we need to fail at things and get hurt to really learn those lessons. Life is like college courses, there are parts where you learn from reading and being told and then the parts you learn from doing and experiencing yourself. We hopefully learn from our mistakes or as I read somewhere there are no mistakes just learning experiences.

“We have made financially poor decisions over the years. We have used credit cards and then felt the burden of getting out from under them as the interest quickly accrues. We have longed for things we couldn’t afford. However, in the end, we have learned to work with what we have. And I am always looking for new ways to stretch our budget. Couponing is my newest find. I started only a couple of months ago, but it has become a challenge and game for me to see how much I can really buy with my money. I find that I am spending as much or less than I was before, but am getting 2-3 the amount of things for that same money."

Way to go Jeanette! It isn’t easy, using coupons can be confusing and in the beginning you might get caught up in spending, but I think most people learn from that and get to where Jeanette is, yes Neal she buys more then what she needs, but she is stockpiling when there are sales and she is spending less then what she initial was, you too can do it.

I myself subscribe to Refund Cents, Michele Easter has made books, videos, and interviews about her coupon experiences. She compiles deals for walgreens and cvs, but also mentions a lot of other deals out there. I go to the website but also get the newsletter and she always has success stories from familys showing how much they got and for how little, you really do get inspired by seeing what other can do with coupons. And you can’t beat the cost, even I who doesn’t spend a lot of money per month saves a lot of money, one trip to walgreens I saved around $75.

Of course I also have free blogs that I go to as well, here are the ones that I follow:

For financial matters I subscribe to Frugal Dad, he has great articles, but mostly I love all the links he has to tons of other great articles.

For couponing, frugal, thrift shopping:

A Thrifty Mom
Frugal Living Skills
Money Saving Mom
Passion for Savings

Saving with Shellie
Clipping Money

Frugal Living and Having Fun
Kansas City Mamas
My Frugal Lifestyle

Saving and Giving
Thrift Jinxy

Monday, April 12, 2010

Cowgirl coat hanger redo

I started out with this


Removed the hooks that were simply screwed into the back.


Then tried to think of where I was going to place the cowgirl hanger turned decoration, either over the mirror or over the fuse box.

I then measure the space between the mirror and the ceiling since the mirror is higher than the fuse box.


The space between the mirror and the ceiling is 11 inches. The halfway point is 5 1/2 inches. The cowgirl sign is 5 1/2 inches from base to the top of the cowgirl hat and 4 1/2 inches from the base to the top of the L. After I took all the measurements I subtracted the measurements of the cowgirl sign from the available space between the mirror and the ceiling. Since I suck at fractions I counted each point on the ruler and calculated how much space I should have below and above the cowgirl sign if it was centered.


My next step was to place the sign above the mirror and take a picture to see how it would look above the mirror. Once screws were drilled it wouldn't be directly on top of the mirror so I adjusted my conception and just visualized it a little higher.


I then placed the sign above the fuse box and took another picture.
I then compared the two to pick the placement I liked best.

I then measured between each of the hanging plates on the back of the sign.
Then I took all the measurements I had and made a few marks on the wall. Note that making measurement markings on the wall a flat surface with a measuring tape is not easy with the part on the end; a fabric measuring tape would have made it easier.
Even with the measurments and the level I still didn't get the screws exactly spaced right, but it was good enough and just fit.
Look at the finished project, ask bf if he thinks it's level, bf says it's level, lay down and think about it, go back unscrew and measure and mark again and move the sign down a little more.


Look at the finished project for the second time this time satisfied it works and that I got at least that one thing off of my to-do list.
What do you think?






sew pretty

I started out with this bag of sewing supplies.



And this cleaned up old pickle jar. Note if you want to clean out a food jar and get rid of the smell first clean it with regular soap and water. Then put a little bit of bleach in it put the lid back on it and shake it so the bleach gets all around in it, then dump the bleach out and rinse with water. That's it. You don't have to let it sit for any period of time, just shake it, dump it, rinse it. If you want to test this out after you clean it with soap and water smell it, you will see that the smell is still there even if you washed it by hand or in the dishwasher the smell is still there. Then do the bleach shake and rinse, and smell it again....smell that clean fresh smell. I love bleach. It gets rid of the smell right away, no waiting.



I took both and combined them and now have a very pretty useful and decorative display.

Every time I look at it I smile, it's so pretty. Now I just have to find out where to put it.


cleaning the vintage high chair

I have a vintage red vinyl highchair that I got for free last year. I saw a posting on craigslist from a lady who was unloading everything in two garages for free, first come first serve. I got a few things from those garages, but this is one of my favorites. I had been on the look out for vintage items especially vinyl.

vintage highchair metal and red vinyl

Please ignore the mess surrounding the high chair.

As you can see although it's in very good condition, no rips and is structurally sound it doesn't look clean to eat off of. So I took some goo gone and attempted to clean it. Here it is after the first scrubbing.


Still doesn't look like you should eat off of it.


It appeared like the goo gone wasn't spreading all over. Goo gone is a very oily substance. I wasn't thinking at the time how water and oil don't mix very well, I just thought I wanted to spread out the solution more, so I combined it in a spray bottle with some water. That was when I was reminded of how oil and water don't mix, the oily solution went straight to the top. I did the only thing I could think of, before every spray I shook the bottle and sprayed. This helped to get some solution and some water. After I sprayed it I let it sit for a while.


This is what it looks like after it sat with the solution and I then scrubbed it again. Although it looks better then it did in the beginning it still shouldn't be eaten off of.


So in the end I used a bottle of goo gone from the dollar store and I got all of this off of the highchair and it's still not clean.
I was thinking of silver polish that you use on silverware and bowls and such. My bf thinks I should look for a metal cleaner. I don't know what I should use next. I would prefer to try other solutions to get it clean before I go to the last resort for this highchair which is spray paint. I love spray paint, but in this circumstance I would rather keep it original unless I end up not having any other choice.
Any suggestions?