TODAY ONLY- Super Deal: $5 Teen Vogue Magazine Subscription- TODAY ONLY

I've been resting a lot, since I have been sick. It would have been great to have a stack of magazines to ready while I recover. When I saw this in my email, I thought this deal was so good, I had to share it. It said $5 subscriptions. I thought, wow! Then I realized the length of the subscriptions were also shortened. The only "deal here is Teen Vogue- $5 for 10 isues. It's still shareworthy. One Day Only!

Click here to subscribe to Teen Vogue for only $5!

Now back to resting! Enjoy your magazines!

New Hobby Lobby Coupon Up! Plus Sale Ad!

 

I love Hobby Lobby. They have great craft supplies, my favorite bead assortment, and lots of cute decor.

Check out their in store ad here. It looks like they have some good deals this week in jewelry making, crafts, and Easter decor!

You can use coupon code 2289 on the website (valid until Midnight March 2nd), or print out a paper coupon for use in the stores.

Click here to get your 40% off coupon good until March 2nd!

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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?

I Got My Free Magazine- Did You?

A few weeks ago I posted a link for how to get a free Bridal Guide Magazine. I just got mine in the mail this week. It is the November/December 2012 issue. I guess they distribute them rather early!

Anyway, here are some beautiful photos of the magazine I got:

I work in fashion design, so any style magazine is a good magazine for tear sheets and trend forecasting. For those of you who are preparing to wed, this will be a great resource for you since there's a list of ways to save money on your wedding plans. Remember, though, you can often find this same information online for free.

 I'll be passing my issue onto a friend at work.If you haven't gotten yours yet, check out the free Bridal Guide Magazine and see if they are still giving them away.

Be sure to let me know if you get one! What will you do with yours?

Use This Code For $1 Off 2 Blockbuster Express Rentals Exp. 9-16-12

Blockbuster Express just sent out a new coupon for $1 off 2 movie rentals. Snag this deal at the kiosk with coupon code SEPTDVDS.

Hurry, this deal ends 9-16-12!

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Saving With Selena is a blog dedicated to helping teach people tricks on ways to save money and time, and live a more zero waste sustainable life!

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What Size To Buy: Price Per Unit

Most people think that buying food in bulk will save them money. When I talk with friends and store associates about finding the lowest cost items, they are often surprised to hear that sometimes the bulk buys are actually not the best deal.So here’s a quick run down of how I calculate which size to buy so I can get the biggest bang for my buck.

Warning: This will involve using your brain and flexing your math muscles. Come on! You can do it!

Tip of the day: Compare prices per unit.

Don’t compare price per item because some packaging makes it difficult to tell how much product you are getting. If you factor in the size of the product, the material it is made from (glass, plastic, paper, etc), you’ll start to realize that some items take up the same shelf space but they don’t have the same amount of product.
So when you go to the store, pull out your calculator and do a little math.

Price / # of units = price per unit

If you have a coupon for a specific item, you will want to factor that into the equation:

(Price – coupon value) / # of units = price per unit if you have a coupon.

Sometimes items without coupons are cheaper and the coupons might not actually save you money. Keep this in mind!

Real life application:

Say for instance,  you have a coupon for $1 off of any Dr. Pepper 12 pack and the sale price at the store is 3 packs of any soda for $10.  This is the equation you will do:
$10/ 3 packs = $3.33 per 12 pack
or
$10/ 3 packs/ 12 cans = about 28 cents a can!

With a coupon your equation will look like this:

($10- $1 coupon) / 3 packs/12 cans =
$9 /3 packs = $3 per 12 pack
or
$9/ 3 packs/12 cans = exactly 25 cents a can!

Some of you might say, well 3 cents a can is not really that great of savings. However if you have one can of soda every day for a year and can save 3 cents per can, you’ve saved about $11 on soda alone. Now imagine you follow this same tip for all groceries and personal care products that you buy. Every penny adds up! Once you get this process down, it will come naturally.

No Calculator? Look at shelf tags:

If you forget your calculator or you are in a hurry, or have no coupons, look at the price tag on the shelf. Usually it will be listed as a price per unit. Watch out for similar products that are measured by different units. This can make one product appear to be cheaper than the other one.

This is a great tip, even for those of you who don’t clip coupons. If you follow this tip alone, you could potentially save hundreds of dollars per year.

I hope this helps break down one of my basics for how to find a great deal at the grocery store! This time, I hope you’ll grab whichever one is truly the best deal!

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?

Budget Breaker: Food Waste

 Part 1 of my new series: Budget Breakers! 

Because we all make mistakes sometimes...

Poor piggy...

I was going to write you an article about how to save money buying discounted meat. I found a good deal on chicken at the grocery store. I took it home and put it in the refrigerator and promptly....

I would have saved 44 cents a pound and bought this at a decent price of $1.04/pound.

forgot about it. :(

 I give myself the excuse of being sick, too tired to cook, sleepy from medicine... but really, I should have just frozen it. I have no excuse.

Last night I opened up my meat drawer to find it, and frantically began thinking of ways I could cook it all... only to find out in the end that it had gone bad.

So as much as I hate to waste food, if it smells funny, it's going in the trash.I'll admit, 5 bucks is not that much money to lose but 5 bucks here, 5 bucks there adds up over time.

Moral of the story: Meal planning is your friend. So is your freezer. There will be more on meal planning and freezing soon enough...


How many times have you wasted food? How much does that add up to wasted food and money over a year? A lifetime?

Free Bridal Guide Magazine! (GONE)

Click here and you can get one free issue of Bridal Guide Magazine!

Not getting married anytime soon? Already married? That’s OK! Sign up and then give it to a friend. I’ll be giving my copy to a girl friend at work who got engaged a few weeks back. I always give her bridal catalogs and she loves those so she will be very excited about this!

Hurry, before the deal ends!

How To Get What You Need Without Spending Anything!

No, it's not the "5 finger discount."...

It's bartering!

Back in the days before we had dollars and cents, let alone a rapper named 50 cent,  before we had Ben Franklin’s portrait on paper, bartering was the most common way of getting what you needed.

Think back to your elementary school days- what did we do when we had a snack in our lunch box that we didn’t really want?  We bartered. Nowadays this concept seems pretty foreign, but I promise you, it is innate and it works for almost anything… except perhaps utility bills. There are plenty of places you can find to barter. Try farmers markets, craft shows, local bulletin boards, and websites like Craigslist.org.

1. The key to successful bartering is that both parties must walk away feeling like they won.

2. Offer a reasonable barter…

Keep in mind that they may counter you. So don’t start with your absolute best offer. Aim a little better and wiggle back and forth until you both come to an agreement.

3. Don’t be too eager.

If you really need something, that puts the ball in their corner, meaning you could end up with the bad end of the deal. Don’t show all your cards right away. Be aloof but firm and leave your emotions at home.

4. Remember the value of your bartering relationship.

Whether the deal is better on their end or yours, or one of you concedes slightly for the sake of the bartering relationship, at the end of the deal you should both walk away satisfied with what you are receiving.

5. Finish the paperwork…

Have fun, be honest, be aware, be kind, and of course, if these items are large ticket items, make sure all the proper receipts are accounted for and the paperwork is squared away. You don’t want to take your items home and find out they were stolen goods, or worse- be scammed out of your item by someone who was playing you all along.

6. Safety First!

If you don’t know the person with which you are trading very well, make sure to take a buddy!

Eat Cheaply: Lentil Soup

My lunch today.  Remember my "secret" to making any meal look fancy.

Bean dishes are known for being especially tasty, especially cheap, and healthy to boot! According to this site, lentils are high in fiber, iron, B vitamins, and protein. So eat up! 

Here's my very own cheap and easy recipe for lentil soup.

 

 

Ingredients:

2 cups dry lentils
Water
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Salt
Black pepper

Optional:

Ham or Steak bone (already cooked, meat removed from bone)
Red pepper flakes
Minced onions
Chopped chives
Fresh parsley for garnish

Prep:

1. Put 2 cups of lentils in a big bowl. I prefer a Tupperware bowl or Mason jar, but anything big enough that can hold liquid will do.
2. Rinse and strain.
3. Then cover with twice as much water. Loosely cover with a lid.
4.  Let sit overnight at room temperature. The lentils will soak up all the water and grow up to double their size. They may even possibly show signs of beginning to sprout. This is perfect!

Cooking:

1. Rinse the beans one more time.
2. Then pour them into a saucepan, and top with water, just above the beans, or more if you like your soup thin.
3. If you have a ham or steak bone, now is the time to add it.
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Add spices to taste (sorry, I never measure...trust your senses).
6. Boil for 20 minutes or until beans are soft.

Enjoy:

1. Remove bone and give it to your dog. He will love you.
2. Scoop soup into bowls and add garnish before serving.
3. Take a photo and post it on my blog. ;)

This is a great soup when you are stuck home sick (like I have been the past 2 days) or when the weather gets chilly.

I wrote this blog using the Blogger app while sitting in the doctors office. Do you have any go-to soup recipes for when you are sick?