Alright so I hope you have had time to order your papers get your coupons and organize them to your desired method. The two different methods are clipping and no clipping. Clipping means you cut out all of your coupons when you receive them and then organize them in some way such as in binder filled with baseball card sheets. The second is no clipping which is the method I now use and went over in my previous post.
The key to successful couponing is organization. So it is key to find a method that works for you. I am going to go over coupon lingo today.
Here are some of the common terms you will hear referring to couponing and what they mean... I only shop at Albertsons or Walmart so I will be covering these stores.
The inserts that come in the Sunday paper will be refered to as these initials
SS-Smartsource
RP-Redplum
GM-General Mills or Vlassis
P&G- Procter and Gamble
Coupon Lingo
B1G1-buy one get one free
WYB2-When you buy 2
B2G1-Buy two get one
OOP-out of pocket
MIR- Mail in rebate
FAR-Free after rebate
OYNSO- On your next shopping order
Stack- refers to using 2 coupons for 1 product (at albies you can use 1 store and 1 manufacture coupon on a single product. But you can't use 2 store or 2 manufacture)
YMMV- your mileage may vary
Some Lingo that stores use are as follows
Albies- Albertsons
Doublers AKA twice the value coupons- At Albertsons the main store I shop at they send out coupons in their paper every once and a while making it possible to double any coupon up to 1.00 value. Ex. 50cent coupon becomes 1.00, and $1 becomes $2.
Round up- Albertsons runs a promotion once and a while where any coupon under .99cents is automatically rounded up to 1.00. There is no limit on the number of coupons you can use and you don't need any extra coupons such as a twice the value for the coupons to be rounded up.
Catalina- These are a type of coupon that print out of the machines next to the register at Albertsons. These machines register when you purchase certain items.
So there is the lingo you will need to know. Hopefully this helps. I will do a post in a few about the double deals at Albertsons this week so check it out.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Craft fair...craft fair...craft fair!!!
Here is some of my latest items for the craft fairs I am going to be in. Let me know which ones are your favorite please! There will be more added as I make them.
One side of the blocks says Happy thanksgiving and the other says Merry Christmas.
2 sided blocks
2 sided blocks
I really want to know which ones people like best so I can make more of them. SO PLEASE comment and let me know thanks!!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Craft fair
I have always wanted to do a craft fair, but never knew what I would make. This year I decided to take a risk and try doing one. My sister and I are going to be vendors in the Rigby craft fair and we are so excited. I posted a post a little while back called just feeling crafty. I will be trying to sell some of those things in the craft fair. However today I wanted to post my more recent stuff. I am also in the process of some subway style art I will post pics when I am finished. I decided on doing vinyl blocks, tiles, frames, and cards. Here is a few and I will add more as I finish. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below, and if you have any ideas for me I would love to hear them.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Organizing coupons
So I wanted to wait a while before the next coupon post in hopes you would order your subscription to your paper and have the coupons to organize them.
There are really 2 ways that are great for organizing coupons. They are clip and no clip. I will first explain the clip.
Clipping coupons simply means that every week when you get your coupons you cut out every coupon and then put them into clear baseball sheets categorized by what they are. The clear sheets I'm talking about are pictured below.
There are some benefits to doing it this way and there are also some negatives. One positive aspect is you know exactly what coupons you have. This helps when you go to the store and you find an item on sale and wonder if you have a coupon for it. You can quickly turn to that section pull out the already cut coupon and you are good to go. A huge negative to this is the aspect of time. When I first started out couponing I would find myself spending hours and hours clipping coupons only to throw away a giant bag of unused coupons when they expired. After having our second kid I decided I had to find another way because I did not have the time or the energy to continue this route. If you have the time then by all means this is the way to go.
The second method of organizing coupons is the no clipping method. My method now. Each week when I get my Sunday papers I pull out all of the coupon inserts. I order 5 Sunday papers so I have 5 of each insert. I then take all of the same type of insert for ex. all the red plum inserts and layout each page together and then neatly stack it back into the booklet it came in. This helps so that when I need to cut out a coupon, with one cut I cut out all 5 coupons instead of making 5 individual cuts. I then go to my favorite website fabulesslyfrugal.com. On this website they have a listing of all the coupon inserts each week and what coupons came in each. I quickly print off the list and then tape it to the front of the corresponding coupon booklet. And that is it. My prep time each Sunday is maybe 30 minutes and I am set for that week.
I store each coupon booklet in a clear sheet like the ones below.
There are really 2 ways that are great for organizing coupons. They are clip and no clip. I will first explain the clip.
Clipping coupons simply means that every week when you get your coupons you cut out every coupon and then put them into clear baseball sheets categorized by what they are. The clear sheets I'm talking about are pictured below.
There are some benefits to doing it this way and there are also some negatives. One positive aspect is you know exactly what coupons you have. This helps when you go to the store and you find an item on sale and wonder if you have a coupon for it. You can quickly turn to that section pull out the already cut coupon and you are good to go. A huge negative to this is the aspect of time. When I first started out couponing I would find myself spending hours and hours clipping coupons only to throw away a giant bag of unused coupons when they expired. After having our second kid I decided I had to find another way because I did not have the time or the energy to continue this route. If you have the time then by all means this is the way to go.
The second method of organizing coupons is the no clipping method. My method now. Each week when I get my Sunday papers I pull out all of the coupon inserts. I order 5 Sunday papers so I have 5 of each insert. I then take all of the same type of insert for ex. all the red plum inserts and layout each page together and then neatly stack it back into the booklet it came in. This helps so that when I need to cut out a coupon, with one cut I cut out all 5 coupons instead of making 5 individual cuts. I then go to my favorite website fabulesslyfrugal.com. On this website they have a listing of all the coupon inserts each week and what coupons came in each. I quickly print off the list and then tape it to the front of the corresponding coupon booklet. And that is it. My prep time each Sunday is maybe 30 minutes and I am set for that week.
I store each coupon booklet in a clear sheet like the ones below.
The benefit of organizing your coupons this way is it takes way less time! A downside is that if you are at the store and you find an item you know you have a coupon for you have to quickly cut it out. However you don't waste time cutting out coupons only to throw them out when you don't use them. This is my recommended method.
If you are just starting to coupon and haven't ordered your papers yet... there were doubles for Albertsons in this weeks paper. For $10 I will give someone a one on one lesson with 5 sheets of doubler's and whatever coupons you need to get the great deals this week. I will also set up your transactions for you. I only have one available for either today or tomorrow. The doubler's expire tomorrow night. So comment quick if you want the lesson.
My next coupon post will be on how to figure out deals.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Just feelin crafty
Well I have been feeling crafty lately and I had a bunch of unused 2x4's sitting in my garage so I went to town. I even used a power tool by myself for the first time. Yes I cut all the boards with a circular saw and sanded them. Then I drew out some different ideas. Here is what I came up with...
So there you have it. All you need is some wood, paint, scrapbook paper, sand paper, vinyl lettering, and mod podge.
I also found a old window in the basement of our house we bought. The glass was tinted extremely yellow but I wanted to use it somehow. The frame was blue... yes blue who wants a blue window... oh right the old lady that owned our house who had an obsession with blue. So I spray painted it black, added some scrapbook paper, vinyl, and photos and this is what we got...
Okay here is the back of the Merry Christmas blocks...
This is the front of the blocks
This is the back of the blocks.
So there you have it. All you need is some wood, paint, scrapbook paper, sand paper, vinyl lettering, and mod podge.
I also found a old window in the basement of our house we bought. The glass was tinted extremely yellow but I wanted to use it somehow. The frame was blue... yes blue who wants a blue window... oh right the old lady that owned our house who had an obsession with blue. So I spray painted it black, added some scrapbook paper, vinyl, and photos and this is what we got...
Well hope you like my recent crafts.
Friday, September 21, 2012
DIY cheap curtains that look expensive...
Okay so our house we bought has like a bazillion windows!.... okay that is a bit of an exaggeration... we only have 63 windows. Yes just 63. Each and every window had some really nice blue lace curtains when we moved in like the ones below.
Awesome I know and they really help with the whole privacy thing. Of course why doesn't everyone have awesome blue lace curtains. Oh yes that is right because they don't work. Oh and minor detail they are ugly.
So we went to Walmart in search of some panel curtains, curtain rods, and tie backs. After pricing it out just for our living room windows we were going to be at about 200 thanks to our giant windows. That does not include the tie backs or rods... which are even more expensive then just the fabric. We looked at buying straight up fabric and having me sew them but that was going to be about 300. There was no way we were going to pay that. Then my genius husband had the best idea ever!
We went to the sheets and found a color that we liked. We had measured out our window length and height prior to going to the store. We bought 4 twin size sheets ($5 each) and one Full ($10). We got the rods we needed and we picked out some tie backs that looked really classy. We walked out paying $80.
I then came home and washed and dried the sheets. I then laid them out on the table and cut one line down the middle of the sheet leaving the top hem on the sheet. (DO NOT CUT THROUGH THE TOP HEM...IF YOU DO YOU WILL HAVE TO DO MORE WORK). I then sewed a small quarter inch hem on both sides of the cut I just made. On the sides of the top hem I just made 2 small slits, slid the rod through, attached the tie backs and we were done.
This is how they look...
Awesome I know and they really help with the whole privacy thing. Of course why doesn't everyone have awesome blue lace curtains. Oh yes that is right because they don't work. Oh and minor detail they are ugly.
So we went to Walmart in search of some panel curtains, curtain rods, and tie backs. After pricing it out just for our living room windows we were going to be at about 200 thanks to our giant windows. That does not include the tie backs or rods... which are even more expensive then just the fabric. We looked at buying straight up fabric and having me sew them but that was going to be about 300. There was no way we were going to pay that. Then my genius husband had the best idea ever!
We went to the sheets and found a color that we liked. We had measured out our window length and height prior to going to the store. We bought 4 twin size sheets ($5 each) and one Full ($10). We got the rods we needed and we picked out some tie backs that looked really classy. We walked out paying $80.
I then came home and washed and dried the sheets. I then laid them out on the table and cut one line down the middle of the sheet leaving the top hem on the sheet. (DO NOT CUT THROUGH THE TOP HEM...IF YOU DO YOU WILL HAVE TO DO MORE WORK). I then sewed a small quarter inch hem on both sides of the cut I just made. On the sides of the top hem I just made 2 small slits, slid the rod through, attached the tie backs and we were done.
This is how they look...
The key is to measure your windows first and then just look at the back of the package of sheets. It will have the dimensions and you can figure out how much you need. You are going to want the length of the window + 1/2 of the length. This way it will bunch at the top and look better. The big window is just two twin sheets sewn together at the top hem. There you have it cheap curtains that took about 3 hours to buy, sew, and hang.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Fall turkey
Well Fall is coming which means fall decor... my fav. My sister in Law was over about a week ago and we were feeling crafty. She had wanted to make a turkey that she saw on pinterest a while back but just didn't have the supplies. She showed it to me and I had everything so we started making our turkey. This is how it turned out.
Sorry my camera date is way off...
To make it you will need
a 5" tall piece of 2x4 or however tall you want the body
5 popcicle sticks
some fall colors of scrapbook paper
brown paint
a paint stirring stick
a paint brush
maybe sand paper if you want to rough it up a bit.
First paint the 2x4 and paint stick brown so it can dry while you do all the other parts. Trace your popcicle sticks on the back of your scrapbook paper of choice and cut them out. You will need to trace only 5 sticks. Use some mod podge and attach the paper to the sticks. Attach your turkey head (paint stick) to the body (2x4). Attach the feathers (popcicle sticks) behind the body with some hot glue. I just cut out a beak and gobbler with some scrapbook paper and scissors and mod podged them on. I used some sand paper to rough up the body, neck, and head to make them stand out a little. And that is it you are done. I might add a ribbon around the neck or a little pilgrim hat.
Sorry my camera date is way off...
To make it you will need
a 5" tall piece of 2x4 or however tall you want the body
5 popcicle sticks
some fall colors of scrapbook paper
brown paint
a paint stirring stick
a paint brush
maybe sand paper if you want to rough it up a bit.
First paint the 2x4 and paint stick brown so it can dry while you do all the other parts. Trace your popcicle sticks on the back of your scrapbook paper of choice and cut them out. You will need to trace only 5 sticks. Use some mod podge and attach the paper to the sticks. Attach your turkey head (paint stick) to the body (2x4). Attach the feathers (popcicle sticks) behind the body with some hot glue. I just cut out a beak and gobbler with some scrapbook paper and scissors and mod podged them on. I used some sand paper to rough up the body, neck, and head to make them stand out a little. And that is it you are done. I might add a ribbon around the neck or a little pilgrim hat.
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