Tag Archives: savings

Learning To Coupon (or Trying To Save Since I’m Not Earning Much Now)

Posted on July 3, 2014 | 2 comments

First of all, a little update on the job situation. I was not let go from my assistant job yesterday. However my boss said he really only wants to give it another week. If I can’t get the results that he wants, then the job will end. As much as I want to be optimistic about being able to get the right results, what he needs is about 3 times what I’ve ever been able to get. So it’s not looking so good for me. But at least I will have a job through next week.

While I’m not making much money right now, I’m trying to save wherever I can. Since I’m being sponsored by OrangeTheory for workouts right now, I’m not going to SoulCycle. I just can’t afford it. I’ll totally go back eventually, but for the next 2 months, it’s not in the budget (nor could my body probably handle more workouts in a week).

I’ve also been selling back old DVDs that I don’t watch anymore to Amazon. I’m sure I could get more money if I sold each online on EBay or something, but selling back to Amazon has been easy and for the condition that my DVDs are in, I think I’m getting a pretty fair price.

And the biggest change I’ve been trying to make is using coupons. I’ve never really been a coupon person before. I’ve tried to, but it just never works out. Either I forget to bring the coupons with me to the store or I forget to go get the paper on Sundays. And when you are only saving a few pennies here and there, the hassle doesn’t seem worth it.

Plus, I’m pretty much only grocery shopping at Trader Joes if I can. There are still a few items that I have to go to Albertsons for, but pretty much everything I need is at Trader Joes. And I find that I spend less money there than at other stores. But Trader Joes doesn’t take coupons.

So I’ve been focusing my coupon energy on CVS. It seemed like a pretty great idea from the start. Every other week or so I get a coupon either in my email or in the mail that’s good for 20 or 25% off all my items in one trip at CVS. That’s a pretty impressive savings to begin with.

Then, you always get like 100 coupons on your receipt at CVS. I used to be annoyed by that, but I’ve been starting to pay attention. There’s also a machine inside of CVS that gives you bonus coupons.

And finally, I’m going online and printing coupons from the internet instead of buying newspapers. That way I’m not spending money on coupons (which seems like a silly idea to begin with).

I know on those extreme couponing shows they show people making huge plans for shopping trips and seeing what coupons could match with what sale. I really don’t have the energy to do that all the time. Plus, there are times that I just need to buy an item.

So my focus is on what coupons (and Extra Bucks) I get from CVS and what coupons I can find online to match them with. It doesn’t take me that long because I’m not buying a lot of items. It’s mainly paper goods and beauty stuff. And I’m not going to use a different brand because there is a coupon, I’m pretty brand loyal. So if I see a coupon for something I use, I print it and try to wait until I have a 20 or 25% off everything coupon to match it with.

I’ve done pretty well so far with saving a lot of money on things I would have bought anyway.

IMG_3232

52% savings is pretty awesome. As my dad puts it, you can’t get that sort of return on money in the stock market that quickly.

The other day, I had some Extra Bucks that I needed to use and I got an email that there were more Extra Bucks waiting for me at CVS. I needed to buy some toilet paper, so I decided to go and use my Extra Bucks on that. I figured the Extra Bucks would save me over 50%.

I got to the store only to realize that toilet paper was on sale and was actually less than the value of my Extra Bucks! If I was a super organized couponer (which I might try to be), then I would have already known this! I didn’t want to lose the extra Extra Bucks money and the toilet paper was about $2 less than my coupons, so I grabbed 2 individual bags of peanuts that were $1 each. I always try to keep emergency snacks in my car (so I’m not tempted to get fast food) and peanuts are a good snack to have.

I went up to pay for my 3 items and had an epic savings!

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Yup, 100% savings! Technically, I still had to pay a few pennies in tax, but that’s nothing compared to spending almost $15!

I’m totally aware that I probably sound crazy, but this is exciting to me. Any extra money in my bank account is money that can go toward my debt. And sadly, that’s not going down that much due to my lack of income. So $15 is a lot to me!

If you are a couponer and have some advice to a couponing newbie, I’d love to hear it. I’m shocked that I got such a great savings so quickly, but I know that it was dumb luck this time. I want to make sure that I am able to figure out how to do this again.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Saving, Shopping

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Another Year Of Disneyland! (or Paying With Ink Recycling)

Posted on February 11, 2014 | 1 comment

It’s been almost a year since I got my Disneyland annual pass. And if you remember, last year I paid for a little bit of it by recycling ink that my mom gave to me (she doesn’t want to have to deal with going to recycle 10 inks every month).

Well, I saved all my ink recycling money for the past year so when it was time to renew, I had quite a bit more in gift cards than I did last year. I actually had enough to pay for almost half of my annual pass! So the balance that I had to pay on my own was only a little bit more than a one day park hopper ticket. Not too bad!

I’m really excited to have another annual pass. As you’ve all seen in my posts about Disneyland, I like to go to the parks. I have fun there and I do get a ton of walking in.

With not having a job right now, I’m going to try to take advantage of the free time and do some more mid-day park adventures. I’m actually thinking of paying the extra money for a parking pass so I can do that more often (it takes 10 visits to pay off the parking pass, and I went 9 times last year).

I’m spending an hour every morning and an hour every evening applying for jobs (if I spend more than 2 hours job hunting I start to go a little crazy). That leaves the middle of the day open for me right now. I’ve been going for walks or planning on going to spin classes (I’m going to the 10:30am one today!) in my mid-morning through afternoon free time. But I think I’m going to start going to Disneyland maybe once a week.

I don’t always ride the rides, especially when I go alone. But it’s such a gorgeous place to walk around and if I don’t have to pay the $14 to park there, it pretty much makes it a free outing (not counting the gas to get there).

I’m a little nervous to spend more on my annual pass because I don’t have a job right now and I’m pretty much living off my unemployment (which barely covers everything). So I’m going to spend this week trying to budget and plan it out (I don’t think I’ll have time for Disneyland this week so I don’t have to worry about it yet).

But at least for now, I know that I can go into the parks almost any time I want and not have to pay a penny! And this will come in handy because in the spring I have a multi-day Disneyland adventure planned! But more about that when it gets closer to the date.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Saving

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Can I Cut The Cord? (or Trying To Change How I Research TV)

Posted on November 16, 2012 | 1 comment

As I’ve written previously, I have to watch everything on tv in order to be prepared for any auditions I might get. I love having my DVR for this. There is no way that I could watch my shows on the time that they actually air with the work schedule that I keep.

For my birthday this year, my brother got me an Apple TV. I love it. I mainly use it for Netflix streaming, but I did start using it for Hulu Plus recently. I started using Hulu Plus because my DVR can record 2 shows at a time, but on Tuesdays, there are 3 shows that air at the same time that I enjoy watching. So I record 2 and watch 1 later on Hulu Plus. I tried using Hulu on my computer, but I’d really rather watch on my tv where I can relax on my couch.

Between Netflix and Hulu Plus, I spend about $16 a month. And then I still pay for cable. Part of my cable bill is my internet, so I’m not going to give that up completely. But I’ve been toying with the idea of cutting back on what I pay for with the cable company and starting to switch over to watching more on streaming.

I really want to do this, but I’m a little unsure on how it would work. I would have to keep some of tv on cable because there are some shows that I can’t get online. And I don’t know how to watch premium channels (like HBO and Showtime) online without having a paid subscription or waiting for the DVDs to be released.

I’d really appreciate any advice any of you might have for getting rid of cable. Not watching tv isn’t an option, but I’d love to not be spending as much as I do right now. Anything that I could save could go to paying down my credit card debit and helping me meet my goal of paying it off completely soon.

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Saving

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Trying to Budget for Disneyland (or Does Someone Want to Give Me an Annual Pass?)

Posted on September 20, 2012 | 2 comments

I love Disneyland. Totally love it.

As a kid, I think I went to Disneyland once a year when my family drove down from the Bay Area to San Diego to visit family. I don’t remember loving Disneyland as much as a kid as I do now.

Since I’ve moved to LA 11 years ago, I’ve had several years of having an annual pass. When my work schedule was different, I would sometimes go 2 to 3 times per month. A bunch of times I would just go and ride a few rides, grab a Dole Whip, and head back to LA.

So much of the iPhoto on my laptop is filled with Disneyland adventure pictures like these:

(you can totally see me at all my different weights in those pictures)

My last annual pass expired last year in April. And I really want to make it to Disneyland now. I haven’t been on many of the new rides, and I just miss it there.

But as almost everyone knows, Disneyland is not cheap. A 1 day park hopper ticket is over $100. And if you are going to go at least twice in a year, the annual pass is the way to go. But the cheap annual passes have so many blackout dates that it’s tough to make sure you go on valid days. And when I get an annual pass, I almost always pay for the parking add-on. The best annual pass is $650 (but that includes parking). So if I can make it to Disneyland 7 times in a year, that pass will totally be worth it. And I’m not taking into account all the food and merchandise discounts you get with the passes.

But $650 is $650 and right now, I don’t have that. Well, I do, but I’d rather put it towards my credit card debit than Disneyland (I never thought I’d ever say that). I’m looking at the 2nd and 3rd cheapest annual passes, but those are both over $300.

I’m not going to get a pass until I know that I’ll be going to the park, and I think I’ll be going sometime next month. So I’m trying to see if I can budget for one of the cheaper passes. It is always an option to upgrade a pass or add-on parking later, so maybe I’ll have an amazing sale at work that will cover the cost of an upgrade or add-on.

This budgeting stuff is hard! 😉

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