How to Get MORE Coupons: Part 1

 I once purchased 32 FREE bottles of baby formula over a month to give away just because I was able to gather a LOT of extra coupons that gave me overage.

 The way to save the most money with coupons is to stock up and buy things when you can stack a sale with a coupon to get the lowest possible price.

Kitty doesn't want to trade. ;)

When I started couponing a year and a half ago, I found all sorts of ways to gather extra coupons. In fact, my friend and I even went around to the apartment complexes in the area (where coupons arrived in the mail, not the newspaper) and gathered hundreds of discarded coupon booklets. I shared my secrets and favorite coupon blogs and she shared some delicious meals. We had so much fun clipping and discussing our savings and comparing our stockpiles.

 One simple way to get more coupons is to start a coupon swap.

How To Coupon Swap:

To Coupon Swap you will need to access couponing websites or find some couponing friends.
Facebook fan pages like the ones for The Krazy Coupon Lady will allow you to "meet" people with whom you can trade coupons online.

1.  Post a comment on your Facebook page and let your friends know what coupons you have and what coupons you are looking for. It works a little like bartering.
2. Remember, coupons are similar to cash tender in the store. Offering a fair trade, dollar for dollar, not coupon for coupon will get you the best results and build your network of coupon swappers.
3. When you decide a fair trade, you can pass them off to each other or mail them to one another.
4. Decide if you will pre-clip them for each other or hand off the scrap pages.
5. Once you decide on a trade, make sure to send the coupons right away so that they have the chance to use them with any current sales that may be going on. Trust that they will send yours ASAP too.
6. Be cautious. Don't give too much personal information to strangers. If you coupon swap extensively and have access to a secondary address, be sure to use it. I prefer to coupon swap only with people within my real-life network. If you choose to coupon swap with strangers, just be aware. If they are local to you, you may consider meeting to swap coupons at the grocery store, so you don't have to waste money on stamps or give out your address.

Want another way to get more coupons? Check out tomorrow's post, How to Get MORE Coupons: Part 2.

Like the "Train" idea? Try it out with other things like children's clothes and toys, garden supplies, etc. A few weeks ago I mentioned starting a seed trade or seed train to save free seeds for your garden for next year.
Do you ever trade coupons? Do you have any other ways you get MORE coupons?

How To Talk Your Way Out of A Late Fee

Eeek! I committed one of my very own Budget Breakers! (Insert embarrassed "oops" face here). With the stress of being sick, and moving to a new department at work (I get to work on itty bitty baby clothes! Yay!), I completely forgot about my electric bill until I did my budget yesterday and realized it hadn't posted yet. I thought, "Oh no! I got a dreaded late fee!"

 Can you hear the scary music and my thriller scream?

Fear not, I found a way to use my skills of persuasion to get the late fee removed and stop me from committing a Budget Breaker. I worked in a call center while I was at college, asking friends and family of Purdue to donate money to help improve the school. I learned a thing or two about "selling" and communicating ideas to encourage the other person to help you. I also learned what call center people hate to hear.

So without further ado...

How To Talk Your Way Out of A Late Fee

Here's what I did and here's how you can do it too:

Step 1: Schedule autopay.
After I saw the problem, the first thing I did was schedule autopay directly from my bank account on the service providers website. If you schedule autopay you will never have to pay another late fee (unless for some reason your bank account balance is negative). Nip that problem in the bud before it happens and you wont have to waste your time with steps 2 through 7 ever again.

Plus this gives you something to talk about in step 5.

If it is an option, you can also set up the autopay on the phone when you talk with the service provider.

Step 2: Call the service provider.
When you finally get through the automated system and find a button to press to get a live person, very carefully follow the next few steps.

Step 3: Be nice.
I know you are probably angry at this point from all the automated systems and the waiting. But remember there is another person on the other end of the line and they are just doing their job to put food on the table for their family. They have reasons of their own to be nicer to people who are nice to them. You'll understand this more when you get to step 7.

Tips from being a telemarketer:
 - Remember to smile while you talk. This sounds crazy and feels crazier but trust me. It makes you sound friendlier, which makes people more likely to like you and help you out.
 - No matter how upset you are about the late fee, remember that it was probably your fault.
 - Even if it wasn't your fault, it certainly wasn't the fault of the little guy on the other line answering phones who probably gets paid somewhere in the range of minimum wage for a job that is hard work. Being nice can be the difference between them rushing to get you off the phone, or taking the time to look into things and answer your questions to ultimately meet your goal of fee removal.

Step 4:  "Say my name, say my name..."
Beyonce knew what she was talking about when Destiny's Child wrote that song. It's a scientific fact that...

people like to hear their own names. 

So make sure to ask the company representative their name right away. Write it down. Throughout the conversation, whenever it is natural to say his or her name, make sure to do it- but only for positive things. If possible, do this a few times, especially to show gratitude when they help you with something.

"Great, that makes so much more sense after you explained it to me. Thank you,  (insert name you wrote down)!"
 
Step 5: Ask questions to build rapport.
Since you just set up your autopay, now you can ask questions about how it works. For instance:
 - "What day does the auto draft occur?"
 - "Can I set up the autodraft to be on a certain day?"
 - "If the autodraft is due on the 15th, does the payment post on the 15th or does it post before or after that date?"

Questions like this show engagement and will assure the representative that you are sincerely sorry for your blunder and want to make sure you get it right from now on.

**It is important not to skip step 5. Building rapport with the representative will softens them up for the big important question.**

Step 6: Save the late fee for the last question, unless they bring it up earlier.
After you've had all your other questions answered and have been really nice and thankful throughout the conversation, they will try to close with a final question. "Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

That's when you say, "Yes, (insert name you wrote down) I was wondering, could you waive the late fee for me just this once?" Or throw in casually "now that I think of it, (insert name you wrote down) would you by any chance be able to remove this late fee just this once? Now that I have autopay, I know it won't happen again."

Unless you are a repeat offender (tsk, tsk!), they will likely say, "Sure. I can remove this late fee as a one time courtesy for you."

Poof! 

Late Fee Vanished!

Budget Breaker Averted! 

Step 7: Close nicely and thankfully.

Phone representatives get scored on random phone calls. Help them get a better score for helping you out! After you write down the confirmation number, don't forget to say, 

"Thank you so much, (insert name you wrote down). You've been such a great help. I really appreciate it. That will be all and have a great day!"

Yes, it really works!

Click here to see a real Budget Breaker: Food Waste.

Have you ever gotten a late fee? What did you do?

Zero Waste: How To Make Lazy Pickles

The easiest pickle "recipe" ever!

I love pickles. There's something about the salty, sour flavor that makes me crave pickles when the weather is hot and stormy. When I buy pickles, they are usually gone before I know it. I save the pickle jar with the brine for making "lazy pickles." There's really no recipe. All you do is clean 'em, cut 'em, and drop 'em in. Simple as that. Chop, chop. Splish, splash.

As if cutting the cucumbers in half would make me eat less... ;)

I also really enjoy purchasing fresh vegetables when they are on sale, or buying "seconds" at the farmers market. I'll post more about seconds in a future blog, however this one covers the easiest pickle recipe ever. If you have cucumbers, carrots, or peppers that started to go soft, cut them up and put them in your pickle brine and set them in your fridge at least overnight to let the vinegar set in.

In case you are worried, the vinegar and salt combo kills any germs there may be so the brine lasts a long  time and is perfectly safe to re-use.

When I get around to doing it, my next pickle post will hopefully be about lactofermentation... exciting! For now, these simple pickles will do.

Do you ever pickle veggies that are going soft? What other ways do you save your soft veggies from going to the trash?

Reason #1 to Save: Surprise Medical Needs

Some of my feel-better stash.

I am sitting at home sick. Actually I've been laying in bed for the past week with a case of pleurisy (an infection of the lung lining. Yuck!) and it doesn't feel great.

Luckily I work for a great company that allows sick pay, and I also had already scheduled vacation days on top of the Labor Day holiday.

The cost of being ill:

Factoring in the cost of 5+ days of work, expensive medicine, childcare while you rest (if you have them), and doctors visits... it adds up. Except for an occasional coupon from your doctor for expensive non-generic medicine, you can't really cut corners here.

It's times like these when I am glad that I use coupons and live frugally. I can't imagine what it would be like for someone who works hourly and spends without thinking. Something like this, or worse, could be devastating.

When my friends say they just don't have the time to coupon or save money, I say I just don't have the time not to do it. The first year that I started couponing I saved over $3000 out of pocket. That's $3000 that I could use somewhere else.

Being sick reminded me of that, and made me thankful that I made those financial decisions earlier on. I decided to start a list of all the reasons why I live frugally. I'll post these reasons as they come to me, in no particular order, starting with this one.

I know that not every tip that I give will be something you use. However, I hope I might convince you to do a few things differently, or spark some new ideas on how you can live more frugally.

Remember it's not about being cheap to be cheap. In fact, that sort of poverty mentality is one I hope you learn to avoid. Sometimes it's more frugal in the long run to buy higher priced items (more about that later).

Saving money and living frugally is about improving the quality of life that you lead no matter what your income level is.

*For information on stockpiling basics for emergencies, see my upcoming blogs.*
*This blog was brought to you by the Blogger app for Android... Yes, I heart my phone*