There is a new CVS coupon for $3/$15. It expires 1/9/09. You can head right over to I heart CVS for the details in how to print it out!

I am so excited about Christmas this year. It's my son's first. Hubby & I like to joke that it's also our last (meaning all the gifts get transferred to the child in Chrsitmases to come). We'll try our darndest not to let that happen. In the meantime, we are just enjoying our time with family. I hope that you are also. Merry Christmas!

Can you say 17 freebies at CVS this week! Oh my, it's as good as the day after Thanksgiving. Time to get your coupons organized...

I LOVE all of my free 8x10s at Walgreens. There's yet another promo running right now only good through December 20th. Go now and get your free portrait. You won't be disappointed with the quality. If you have trouble with the link, go to Walgreens.com & use the code FREEGIFT.

I have been loving all of my amazing Food Lion finds. I must admit, I was not an avid Food Lion shopper until just this year when I discovered that Food Lion internet printables could be combined with manufacturer's coupons to rack up the savings. I digress.

I'm even more excited to announce that Food Lion has finally joined Upromise (it's about time people). I love Upromise because you can save money for college for your children, yourself, or anyone else (my son is currently accepting kind benefactors just in case anyone could not find a worthy recipient). In fact, I joined Upromise before baby David was born. Yippie, I'm all about getting a jump start on things.

Be sure to add your Food Lion card to your Upromise account right away. If perhaps you have been in hiding and have not yet signed up for a free Upromise account, you can do so here: Upromise – The way to save for college . I entered all of my grocery store cards, CVS card, & my credit card so that a portion of each purchase I make saves for my kids' education. That's in addition to frequent flyer points and other incentives. Works for me!

To those of you who read here regularly, you will notice that I often suggest that you collect multiple copies of the Sunday paper and purchase many items at a time to get the best deal. Although every week is different, the story is often the same.

One of the results of this kind of shopping is the accumulation of a number of toiletry items, medicine, and canned goods that you may not use for some time. The accumulation of these goods is often called a stockpile.

In coaching a friend in saving the way I do, I heard them say, "that's a good deal but I have enough of that item right now." I quickly thought how different we were in even approaching deals and shopping. My personal philosophy is that I shop & store stuff when an item is free or drastically reduced. This prevents me from running out of something an having to pay full price. For example, a grocery store in my town and triple coupons (up to $1) in the summer. I had fabulous coupons for turkey bacon. Since we try to eliminate pork completely but spend a small fortune on breakfast meats, I stocked up. I purchased like 20-30 packages of meat that were about 90% off the normal price. Only now are we dwindling down to our last packages of meat. I do the same with soap, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. When something is free or at a low price, I stock up. This works best for me for a few reasons:

1. We have the space at home to store stuff. We have a large basement with storage, an extra refrigerator, and a large laundry area to store goods
2. I build the extra money in our budget each month for things that are on sale. In the meat example, I was able to buy enough meat for the rest of the year & still stay in budget
3. I have a flexible schedule where I can run around to nab sales. This is fun to me & doesn't cause stress

Stockpiling may not work so well if:

1. you become excessive in getting and storing. Stockpiling works for me because when I feel like we are getting too much we donate it, use it for gifts, or sell it in our family yard sale.
2. you have limited space. Not all items have to be stored at a certain temperature. Considering storing some items outside or in protective containers if space is an issue.
3. you don't also plan to organize your goods. There's nothing worse than buying something only to realize that you had one tucked away in the back of a cabinet somewhere. I'm no queen of organization. It seems like I just don't have the time to ever get things the way I want it, but keeping your stockpile organized will save a lot of time and energy.
4. money isn't a motivator for you. Perhaps time is more of a driving factor in your life right now. A stockpile system might not work for you.

I thought about writing this today because there are a number of layers to saving money. One is the art of spending at the right time, sometimes even before you need something. You'll have to test the one for yourself. To stockpile or no?

Last week I started writing on the Top Things You Shouldn't Buy New. You can read day one's post here. I was inspired after reading an online article on new and used items for the holidays. To be frank, for some items it is just really silly to buy used. As an entrepreneur and business owner, I am really shooting it straight here. This is just my list of things that I buy used for pure financial reasons. I'll be adding to this list over the next few weeks. These are the top two things this week (at least in my view) that you should never buy new:

#3 Furniture
In order to make my list of things to buy used I thought immediately of furniture. Did you know that furniture has the largest markup of any retail sales item? It's true. Sometimes furniture is marked up as much as 50% above the cost of production! We have always saved money on furniture by taking our time in making these purchases. For example, my living room set was purchased at a state drug seizure auction. In fact, we love to find furniture at auctions. If you don't mind waiting to find a good deal, this will work for you. You can check out this post on how to find auctions for more information. Of course, the newspaper is a great resource. You'll find lots of sellers in the classifieds in addition to yard sales (my favorite).

For clarification, second- hand doesn't have to mean mismatched or worn out. I like to think that our home furnishings are very modern and well put together. It just takes a little to scout a good deal before shelling out the cash. The only furniture item to which I recommend a new purchase is mattresses. Need I explain why?




#4 Car
We've all heard that cars loose most of their value the minute you drive it off the lot. I fight with this one because I have actually never owned a new car before and I would love to. That's not to say that I will not purchase a new car one day, but from a sheer dollars and cents perspective, it is wiser to purchase used over new when it comes to vehicles. Not to be redundant, but I also purchased my car at a government surplus auction. It was the best thing I ever did. I got a car with only 11,000 or so miles for about 1/4 the price of a lot. The downside is that auctions often have no financing available so you have to save up, but the savings are overwhelming. Since the car was a government vehicle, it was in perfect condition and serviced all the time. I'd recommend looking into the U.S. General Services Administration which sells cars at auction to the public.

Living in a small town has its benefits and its challenges. One of the bummers is that I am away from lots of restaurants and entertainment. I love a good night at the theater, dinner, I could go on...

One of the things I miss is getting my city's entertainment book each year. It is chucked full of coupons and more than pays for itself after the first few uses. Now the book has online savings too. Toward the end of each year there is typically a good coupon that surfaces. The best I see so far is this coupon for $10 off and free shipping. Enjoy!

• DO stay positive and optimistic. It's okay to share with your kids that you are experiencing tough times, just not okay to freak out. In the article, Dr. Kirkland offers this line, "We're having some money problems, but we're going to get through this as a family."



• DON'T transfer pressure to your kids. I can remember going through financial challenges as a kid. Even as a teenager, I certainly felt the burden of not being expensive. Kids should not be responsible for grown up feelings.



• DON'T be secretive. This is a hard one. Nearly everyone I speak with has trouble divulging money issues to a close friend or family member let alone their kids. I agree with the doctor here. Kids deserve a realistic picture of what's going on and a positive outlook on the future. Shielding money problems only perpetuates a cycle that problems need to be hidden.



• DO find free ways to connect with your kids. I can't wait until my son is old enough to understand what I do & what we talk about here. I simply can't wait until he becomes a savvy shopper in his youth. Beyond shopping, there are lots of free things to do in the community. Schools, parks, and places of worship host lots of events open to the general public at no charge. It's really time to dig in and get creative with all of the available options. Let's not leave our children out this challenging financial time. What do you say?

I read an interesting article that was discussing the environment, waste, and money. How in the world do these relate together? Well, it turns out that some counties are considering having homeowners pay by how much waste they produce. Here's the idea:

• the wealthiest of the US would pay for their proportion of waste
• it would increase recycling/ composting since that would be free
• it may affect the way consumer goods are packaged- you know what I mean here. Have you ever purchased a product wrapped in five layers of plastic, 20 boxes and two twist ties?

I'm all about the green efforts. I sport my reusable shopping bags and the whole nine but I'm not really sure how I would feel about being charged by how much waste I produce. I think it was a mighty interesting and creative discussion though. What do you think?

I was inspired today after reading an online article on new and used items for the holidays. I am quite particular when it comes to buying new and used items. For example, I never buy used shoes or undergarments. For one I am finicky about being comfortable and in terms of wearing someone else's undergarments well......



This strikes a chord in me though when I think about how many other things that are super silly to buy new. Over the next week or two I'll share some of the top things you should never buy new (at least in my view).



#1 Timeshares

A few months back hubby & I got a chance to sneak away to Myrtle Beach, SC. I was super surprised at all of the things to do, a big tourist area I tell ya. Well, since we moved here from Orlando (aka tourist capital USA) I know all about timeshare sales. Lo and behold we were hit up to take a 2 hour presentation for about $100 bucks. Most people that attend these presentations don't actually set out to buy a time share, but after two or three hours of high pressure sales, the vacation rentals look more and more attractive. But the reality is that unlike most other real estate, time shares loose an incredible amount of their value. Instead of buying new check the many resources that offer timeshares at a steep discount from owners wanting to unload their "investment."

#2 Books

Since I started my doctorate program in 2005 I can't exactly say that I've completed much pleasure reading recently. In fact, it's been a reaaaaly long time since I've gotten the chance to read a good book. I can't wait for this summer (my hopeful graduation date) when I bust loose and get the chance to read just for fun again. I digress. I add books to the things you shouldn't buy new list because there are so many alternatives. Have you ever heard of half.com or alibris.com? They sell used books that you can literally get at a fraction of the cost. The best part is that most sellers are really up front about any writings or markings that might be in the book. Unless you just have to have the latest release, you should always consider the low cost used alternative. It's definitely worth it.

Looks like Hersey's Special Dark Chocolate & the Hersey's Milk Chocolate bars are buy one get one free (BOGO) at Food Lion through January 20th. Well.... check your 11/9 SS newspaper for BOGO coupons that say "Buy one milk chocolate bar, milk chocolate with almonds bar or special dark chocolate bar and get one special dark chocolate bar free."= two bars of free chocolate for every coupon you have. If you can believe this, I actually don't care for chocolate much but I LOVE chocolate covered strawberries- whoot whoot!

• Huggies $2/1- Usually these only come out for $1- $1.50
• King's Hawaiian bread $1/1 - my favorite very fattening bread!
• Success rice $1/1- These usually only run $1.50 or so at Walmart & my stores so $0.50 for rice works for me
• Betty Crocker (BC) cookie mix $0.75/1- can you say triple coupons?
• BC muffin mix $.45/1
• Dove $1- This looks like a Target coupon so it can be combined with another manufacturer's coupon
• Bisquick .75/1- great for triples
• Chex mix- .60/1- I'm pretty sure these are buy-one-get-one-free at Publix & Food Lion this week
• Pizza rolls $.35/1- my very favorite lunch snack
• Progresso broth $.50/1- sooo many deals for this during the Thanksgiving & Christmas holidays

These are the best deals for my household but there are many more. I'll keep you posted on the next coupon site update!