[This month's savings: $501]
Hi all! This month we took advantage of Memorial Day sales to save on groceries & stock-up items. We also took advantage of a couple of one-time rebate and cash-back offers (it pays to do a quick web search for specific product coupons). We're still reaping the rewards from switching over to TWC (from AT&T) and I paid off a 0% interest for 6 months loan, freeing up an extra $137 in the budget (which, hopefully, we can put towards paying down our credit card debt—but we'll see what the Universe throws at us).
Next month is going to be more of a challenge because we're adjusting our diet to include only pasture-raised, grass-fed dairy and poultry, which is more expensive. Summer months too, are when we do a majority of our Farmers Market shopping, so we'll see if that saves us any money.
In garden news, it looks like we may have the beginnings of some peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini. Now, let's just hope we can keep the critters away (any suggestions you have would be welcome).
As for the savings breakdown this month:
May
Week 1: (We saved $107.50)
- Continued to save on our Internet service (because we switched to TWC over AT&T)—[$12 savings per month]
- Continue to save on purchased modem instead of leasing from Internet provider @ $10/month in perpetuity—[$10 savings per month]
- Used Amazon credit for purchases [$17 savings]
- Used B&N gift cards (thanks Mom) [$30 savings]
- Kept heat / ac off for 5 of 7 days this week
- Made batch meals
- Took lunches to work [$37 savings]
- Used ibotta* [$1.75 added to my ibotta acct.]
- Used Mobisave [$1.50 savings]
- Used Ebates when purchasing plane ticket [$1.50 added to my Ebates acct.]
- Used Mobisave acct. to pay $2.20 on my Paypal loan (I know, it's not a lot—but this way PayPal doesn't take a percentage & hey, my loan is $2.20 smaller)
- Continued to make coffee at home (I've sort of stopped calculating this on the monthly level)
Week 2: (We saved $74.50)
- Took lunches to work [$37 savings]
- Kept the heat / ac off for 6 of 7 days this week
- Used Starbucks gift card [$10 savings]
- Took survey for free parking @ the hospital [$3.50 savings]
- Used a $40 for $20 Groupon coupon to buy mom flowers for Mother's Day [$20 savings]
- Also used an Ebates code on my Groupon purchase [$4 savings]
- Additionally used Ebates when buying mom flowers from the florist's website [$0.96 added to my Ebates acct.]
- Continued to make coffee at home
Week 3: (We saved $108)
- Took lunches to work [$37 savings]
- Made scones from scratch & froze for morning breakfasts / snacks this week
- Made a batch of granola
- Made about 8 dry cups / 12 (ish) servings @ about 45¢ per serving
- This basically kept us from buying cereal at the store, which saved us between $9-$12 this month—[$9.00 savings]
- Although if we were to do an oz. to oz. price comparison, we saved about 10¢ per oz. (or $1.69 / box) over our favorite cereal.
- Rebate: Claimed rebate offer for one free 40 lb. bag of cat litter from DrElseys.com [$17.99 savings]
- Then I signed up for repeat delivery of our specialty cat litter from Petco to save 20% + no shipping [$2.92 savings per bag]
- I also signed up for their rewards card, which accumulates points toward $5 off coupons, so essentially, I'll get a $5 off my order a couple times a year.
- AND, I used Ebates to get 15% cash back from the first Petco order [$4.71 added to my Ebates account]
- Used ibotta when I purchased T.P. from CostCo/groceries [$3.50 added to my ibotta account]
- Used Lowe's credit card to save 5% on purchases, then paid off the balance [$1.79 savings]
- Bought organic chicken with coupon at Costco (this was such a good deal that a guy and his wife had filled up their cart with organic chicken) [$7 savings]
- Used SavingStar rebate for lettuce [$0.25 added to my Savingstar account]
- Used Mobisave for groceries [$1.30 savings]
- Used Target debit card for 5% savings [$3.73 savings]
- Used Cartwheel app (Target) [ $1.55 savings]
- Shopped Memorial Day grocery sales & used rewards card & coupons [$31.57 savings]
Week 4: (We saved $165)
- Took lunches to work [$37 savings]
- Continued to make coffee at home
- Bought gas at the cheaper gas station ($2.05 v.s $2.25 / gallon) [$1.60 savings]
- Finally bought covers to protect our deck furniture. We used a $50 off $200 coupon from Kohl's, plus a coupon code for $27 off, then signed up for a Kohl's credit card and got an additional 30% off. [$126 savings]
- Additionally, we got $30 Kohl's cash
- Cleaned out the junk drawer and found a $10 B&N gift card
- Cleaned out the closet and posted a few things to an online garage sale (+ donated the things we didn't sell. This will end up as a deduction on next year's taxes—savings TBD.)
The Summary
We also joined a subscription service to save money on our cat litter. We were spending $18/40 lb. bag (with a coupon) every 3 weeks. Now we're spending $15.08 a bag with free delivery. Add to that the $5 rewards coupons we'll receive twice a year and over the course of a year this will save us about $60. (sure, we could save more by going to a cheaper litter, but one of our cats has asthma and since we switched to Dr. Elsey's brand litter he's not had a single asthma attack—which means fewer vet bills and fewer prescriptions.)
Utilities Update
Our electric bill was $9 less than the previous month (and about $3 less than the same month last year).
Our gas bill (which covers our water heater) was $29 less than the previous month. We didn't really do anything differently, but we did make sure that we were washing our clothes mainly in cold water and we kept the water heater set to just under 120 degrees.
This is an additional savings of $38 for the month.
Coupon & Rebate Savings
In going over my savings, I thought it also might be helpful to break down the rebate & coupon apps to see where I'm getting the most reward. I'll try to do this every month from now on, to see which apps et. al are worth the effort.
So far, Ibotta, Ebates (both the rebate app and the coupon code finder), Honey, Cartwheel, & the Target debit card are saving me the most money.
I just signed up for My Points, so we'll see if that is worthwhile for online shopping or not—and I may give Swagbucks another chance. Again, it's all about the time suck. If it takes up too much of my time, I won't end up using it.
So far, Ibotta, Ebates (both the rebate app and the coupon code finder), Honey, Cartwheel, & the Target debit card are saving me the most money.
I just signed up for My Points, so we'll see if that is worthwhile for online shopping or not—and I may give Swagbucks another chance. Again, it's all about the time suck. If it takes up too much of my time, I won't end up using it.
| Amount Saved (So Far) This Year |
||
|---|---|---|
| Ibotta |
$12.45
| |
| Mobisave |
$2.90
|
|
| Checkout 51 |
$3.75
|
|
| Ebates |
$7.17
|
|
| Savingstar |
$3.00
|
|
| Cartwheel |
$8.43
|
|
| Target debit card |
$38.33
|
|
| Manufacturer coupons, coupon codes, & rebates (Mostly thanks to the Honey app & the Ebates app) |
$139
|
|
| Swagbucks |
n/a
|
|
| My Points |
n/a
|
|
| Other |
n/a
|
|
Total
|
$215.03
|
*Note: the ibotta links above are affiliate links. If you sign up through any of those links, you can earn a $10-$20 welcome bonus and I will earn a $5 referral bonus.
The Mobisave, Savingstar, Honey, & Ebates links are also referral links. The sign up rewards vary, so try out the links and see if they'll save you any extra money.
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