I've decided to get my act together and start posting regularly. I was having a hard time for a while but now I've decided just to share the things here that I share with my girlfriends in the real world - nothing earth shattering, but fun and probably money saving. I also think that having a theme for posting tends to help keep me on track.
I'm thinking of the following: (please let me know if they sound ridiculous)
Savings Sunday (stores and sales I'm going to hit this week)
Manic Monday (an overview of what my week contains - meals/food prep)
Mama Tuesday (what my daughter calls it since she doesn't go to school T/Th - a fun "mommy" tip or activity to do with munchkins)
Wild Wednesday (the day my husband and I have together with no kids - either involves a very cheap date or home improvement - probably a rundown of something totally mundane with a tip to make it easier
Thrifty Thursday - some fun way to save money/stretch a buck
Take Five Friday - a link, story, antecdote to make you take 5 and enjoy life - also mandating I tell you how I took 5 over the week - trying to work in my own 5 is hard so I'm hoping to be accountable here
Family Saturday - suggestion for something to do all together whether your family is just one or 100
Also I will throw in additional posts that may not fit the schedule but this will at least give me some structure and guidance and also provide a regular posting routine for any readers that I might someday get :-)
Showing posts with label Organization Fairy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Organization Fairy. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Rebates - Worth it?
Today, as I was filling out a few rebate forms, I decided to share my thoughts on rebates and let you know the system that works for me. I will submit for some rebates, but I am not willing to jump through a thousand hoops just to get $1.00 back.
I have three file folders within one hanging folder that I use for rebates: Rebates - To Do, Rebates - In Process, and Rebates - Pending. Whenever I print off a rebate form or find a rebate program that I will participate in, I fill out the informational part of the form, name, address, etc. and drop it in my Rebates - To Do folder.
I then put the name of the item on an index card that is on my bulletin board. Currently the card has, "glade candles, huggies diapers, organic pet food, olay stuff" written on it. These are the products that I currently have "Rebates - To Do" for. The index card just reminds me not to throw away a receipt that contains a purchase for any of these items before checking to see if it works with the rebate.
When I have a receipt that applies to a rebate, I go ahead and pull the rebate form from the "To Do" folder, fill it out completely, copy it all, place the date sent at the top of the copy and put the copy in my "Rebates - Pending" folder and go drop it in my mailbox for pickup. This works most of the time unless it requires more action, then I use the "In Process" folder.
My "Rebates - In Process" folder contains those rebates that need more than one purchase to send in. Right now it has my Caregivers Marketplace information ($.75 back per pack for Huggies), organic pet food forms (buy 10, get 1 bag free) and the DVD circles from the backs of Raisin Bran (need 5 for a free DVD). With Caregivers Marketplace, you need to purchase at least 5 items before sending in the form so I just keep paperclipping my receipts to the form until I have what I need and then I follow the above steps for copying and mailing. The pet food requres UPCs from the bags of food so as I clip those, I attach them to the form and as I finish a box of cereal, I cut the circle and clip it to the form.
None of this is rocket science but this is what keeps it quick and simple for me. With this system, I know exactly what I need to save, where it is in the process and then I don't lose track of what should be coming in the mail. Today, all I had to do was sit down for about 10 minutes and finish off some rebates to get them ready to mail tomorrow. For 10 minutes time, I will receive: 1 DVD (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) from Raisin Bran, two $5 checks from Glade candle purchases, $13.48 from Olay quench purchases, and $5.25 from Caregivers Marketplace = $28.73 + a DVD!
The icing on the cake is that the cereal was free using double coupons and a killer sale, the candles were $.99 each after sale/coupon, the olay was BOGO and the diapers were bought on sale with a coupon and all of these items are ones that I WOULD HAVE PURCHASED ANYWAY.
I'm not going to purchase a product that I don't/won't use just to use a coupon to get a rebate to almost cover the cost of the item that I wouldn't have purchased in the first place :-) I'm not that girl.
I have three file folders within one hanging folder that I use for rebates: Rebates - To Do, Rebates - In Process, and Rebates - Pending. Whenever I print off a rebate form or find a rebate program that I will participate in, I fill out the informational part of the form, name, address, etc. and drop it in my Rebates - To Do folder.
I then put the name of the item on an index card that is on my bulletin board. Currently the card has, "glade candles, huggies diapers, organic pet food, olay stuff" written on it. These are the products that I currently have "Rebates - To Do" for. The index card just reminds me not to throw away a receipt that contains a purchase for any of these items before checking to see if it works with the rebate.
When I have a receipt that applies to a rebate, I go ahead and pull the rebate form from the "To Do" folder, fill it out completely, copy it all, place the date sent at the top of the copy and put the copy in my "Rebates - Pending" folder and go drop it in my mailbox for pickup. This works most of the time unless it requires more action, then I use the "In Process" folder.
My "Rebates - In Process" folder contains those rebates that need more than one purchase to send in. Right now it has my Caregivers Marketplace information ($.75 back per pack for Huggies), organic pet food forms (buy 10, get 1 bag free) and the DVD circles from the backs of Raisin Bran (need 5 for a free DVD). With Caregivers Marketplace, you need to purchase at least 5 items before sending in the form so I just keep paperclipping my receipts to the form until I have what I need and then I follow the above steps for copying and mailing. The pet food requres UPCs from the bags of food so as I clip those, I attach them to the form and as I finish a box of cereal, I cut the circle and clip it to the form.
None of this is rocket science but this is what keeps it quick and simple for me. With this system, I know exactly what I need to save, where it is in the process and then I don't lose track of what should be coming in the mail. Today, all I had to do was sit down for about 10 minutes and finish off some rebates to get them ready to mail tomorrow. For 10 minutes time, I will receive: 1 DVD (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) from Raisin Bran, two $5 checks from Glade candle purchases, $13.48 from Olay quench purchases, and $5.25 from Caregivers Marketplace = $28.73 + a DVD!
The icing on the cake is that the cereal was free using double coupons and a killer sale, the candles were $.99 each after sale/coupon, the olay was BOGO and the diapers were bought on sale with a coupon and all of these items are ones that I WOULD HAVE PURCHASED ANYWAY.
I'm not going to purchase a product that I don't/won't use just to use a coupon to get a rebate to almost cover the cost of the item that I wouldn't have purchased in the first place :-) I'm not that girl.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Organized for Savings
I have found that the more organized I am, the better I can find something for myself, husband or children, the better I can tell how much of something we have or need and generally, the better I feel. When you are organized, you can find things; when you can find things, you know that you don't need to go buy them again; when you don't buy them again, you save A LOT of money!
I am a HUGE fan of The Container Store and, while some of their products cost more than Target or Walmart, I have found that the quality far exceeds the difference in price. They have these clear storage boxes in all different sizes that we use at our house to contain just about everything. They also have really great (and reasonably priced) boxes and jars for putting home made mixes and baked goods in. We have an older home with no storage space and we have used their elfa closet system in all our closets, in our garrage, in our pantry . . . In short, I absolutely love The Container Store!
Right now they have a promotion going on here where you receive a $25 gift card when you purchase $100 worth of gift cards. The limit is $500 on one gift card at a time, netting you $625 in credit per transaction. While I don't necessarily advocate purchasing $500 worth of gift cards if you don't need to, this is a great deal if you were planning on purchasing some things to keep you organized in the new year.
I went to ebates, where The Container Store offers 4% cash back, clicked through to The Container Store, figured out what I wanted, put it in the shopping cart, figured out how much it would be, then opened up a new window, purchsed enough gift cards to pay for my purchase, received my bonus gift cards, then went back to my original window and paid with my gift cards.
While this may not seem like a super steal to some bargain hunters, The Container Store rarely has coupons or sales so, for any of you who shop there anyway, taking a few minutes to purchase the gift cards ahead of making your purchase to save at least 25% off makes good financial sense to me!
I am a HUGE fan of The Container Store and, while some of their products cost more than Target or Walmart, I have found that the quality far exceeds the difference in price. They have these clear storage boxes in all different sizes that we use at our house to contain just about everything. They also have really great (and reasonably priced) boxes and jars for putting home made mixes and baked goods in. We have an older home with no storage space and we have used their elfa closet system in all our closets, in our garrage, in our pantry . . . In short, I absolutely love The Container Store!
Right now they have a promotion going on here where you receive a $25 gift card when you purchase $100 worth of gift cards. The limit is $500 on one gift card at a time, netting you $625 in credit per transaction. While I don't necessarily advocate purchasing $500 worth of gift cards if you don't need to, this is a great deal if you were planning on purchasing some things to keep you organized in the new year.
I went to ebates, where The Container Store offers 4% cash back, clicked through to The Container Store, figured out what I wanted, put it in the shopping cart, figured out how much it would be, then opened up a new window, purchsed enough gift cards to pay for my purchase, received my bonus gift cards, then went back to my original window and paid with my gift cards.
While this may not seem like a super steal to some bargain hunters, The Container Store rarely has coupons or sales so, for any of you who shop there anyway, taking a few minutes to purchase the gift cards ahead of making your purchase to save at least 25% off makes good financial sense to me!
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