Random Money Saving Tips

I am far, far removed from being an expert on saving money. However, I am married to a CPA who knows how to save a buck and work a budget like nobody's business. And having been married to him for almost 10 years now, I've learned a few things along the way.

Back in 2006, we made the decision to move from 2 incomes down to 1 so that I could stay at home with Garrett. When we first put everything to paper to see if this was feasible, we saw that things were going to be really tight, so we started buckling down before we had even lost my teaching income. Here are a few things we either started doing at that point, have done since we've been married just because, or have learned along the way. They're small and somewhat insignificant, but literally every penny counts.

1. We don't have cable. We've actually never had it. Cable isn't available out here in our neighborhood, so our only option would be satellite and that is not remotely cheap. I understand that some people have one or the other for reasons beyond just having lots of TV channels, but sometimes this is an easy place to cut a good bit of money. We bought a good TV antenna (spending on it what we would have spent on 1 month of cable/satellite) and Keith put it in our attic. Thanks to living about 30 miles from DFW, we're able to pick up a lot of channels. And the digital channels have quite a few good options, not to mention a great picture that looks nice on our HD TV. We do have a Netflix account which helps to cover some of those extra shows we might miss or times when we need multiple cartoon options. It's nice and so much cheaper than the alternative.

2. We do use credit cards, but we never, ever, ever carry a balance on them. If we know that what we're wanting to purchase, we would not be able to afford to pay for it in full at the end of the month, we don't buy it. We watched TV on a 19" old tube TV from the 80's for years while saving up to buy the 40" HD TV we have now. We had used living room furniture that Keith bought off of his sister's friend for the first 2 years of marriage until we saved up for new furniture. We don't have a bedroom suit to this day. Just a mattress and box springs sitting on a bed frame that came free with our purchase. Keith's nightstand is an old end table from his apartment days (that his sister gave him) and my nightstand is a wood Winchester ammo box. Is it pretty? Nope, but we don't have a couple thousand dollars lying around to buy new, so we'll make do until that day comes.

3. Aside from grocery shopping, the rest of my shopping is done online 99% of the time. I find that this helps cut down on impulse purchases. I know what I'm needing (new clothes for the boys, Keith or myself. Christmas/birthday presents, etc.) and I find it and buy it. There are a few tricks though. I always google for any coupon codes for the site that I'm buying from. 9 times out of 10 I will find either a 20%, or greater, discount code to use, or a free shipping code, or both. I also keep a running list of things that are needing to be purchased and occasionally peruse my standard websites and when I see they're having a sale (especially when they're doing free shipping) then I will jump in and get what I need. I almost always buy things from Amazon and always look through what Amazon sellers have to offer. Sometimes I can find a used book that's almost like new to give to someone as a gift. Does that make me cheap? Maybe. And if the book or movie or CD were to arrive at my house and not look anywhere close to being like new, then I wouldn't give it to someone as a gift, but many, many times, I have found excellent deals for items like this and they almost always arrive in excellent, gift-giving condition.

4. This one is a combination of #2 and #3. Not only do we use credit cards, but we specifically have cards that work for us. Keith's card is a General Motors affiliated card. So his purchases accrue money towards a down payment on a new vehicle (more on that one up next.) My card is Discover and I accrue cash back bonus money. Not only do I accumulate money, but I can exchange that money for gift cards worth more than the money that I have accumulated. Here's how I combine 2 and 3. Today, I was doing some Cyber Monday Christmas shopping/necessary clothes shopping for myself. The website I was shopping with had everything for 50% off plus free shipping!! Score! Not only that, but I had $60 accrued with my Discover cash back. So I went to my Discover account, looked up this company and found that they had a $50 e-giftcard that I could get for only $40 of my cash back money. So I was able to save $50 on what was originally a $200 purchase, marked down to $100, purchased for $50. And it only cost me $50 actual dollars, plus $40 accumulated Discover dollars which is really free money from them. In addition to this, I also have signed up with a variety of online survey websites (like erewards(dot)com) which also offers reward money that can be exchanged for discounts from websites and all I have to do is take surveys that they email to me. I currently have 5 different free magazine subscriptions thanks to this website as well: Martha Stewart Living, Cosmo, Glamour, Elle, and Reader's Digest.

5. We currently have 2 vehicles, both completely paid for. Keith's truck is 12 years old and has over 200k miles on it. He's meticulous with maintenance which I think is the key to it lasting this long. My SUV is almost 9 years old with almost 130k miles on it. I do my best to keep it clean. I know that sounds weird, but I've found when it's dirty and trashed, I hate it and spend lots of time wishing and scheming for a new vehicle. But after I've cleaned it up, I'm much happier with it. We honestly have no plans to buy another vehicle anytime soon. When that day comes, it may be another used one (both of our current vehicles were bought used too).

6. I know you're probably expecting to see coupons on here, but I honestly don't do much with coupons. I know people who save lots of money with them. However, I know they also spend a lot of time researching putting everything together, not to mention driving all over to different places to save the money. We don't live close to very many stores, so that would require me to do a lot of driving to save this money and that just doesn't add up to being very cost effective in my mind. I do occasionally look online for some coupons for the things that I'm already going to be purchasing, but I just try to shop smart and the majority of my purchases are made at Walmart. I know a lot of people enjoy knocking the store, but I've always found good deals there and our local Walmart is clean and the employees are generally nice and efficient.

7. We usually limit our eating out to once or twice over the weekend. I'm not always a fan of cooking and generally I only cook 2-3 nights a week and the rest of the week is spend eating leftovers, soup, sandwiches, etc. I'm a huge proponent of crockpot cooking as well and have cooked quite a few different things in it.

8. I know this last one will be touchy for some, but I have to share it anyway. I am not a fan of smart phones. Yes, I know they're fun and it's so convenient to be able to access the internet 24/7 in the palm of your hand, but there are really very few people out there who absolutely need this ability. If someone was looking for a place to cut spending, this would be the first to go, in my mind. I honestly prefer an iPod touch as something small that can access the internet, but of course you have to have a wifi connection to use it, but do you really need to be able to check Facebook or read a blog when you're out somewhere that doesn't have wifi? Just food for thought.

I know there are many other tips and tricks for saving money and I'm sure there are plenty others that I do frequently that I'm also forgetting, but this will hopefully give you a few ideas.

Thanksgiving

This past summer, Keith and I had planned to take a family vacation when we found a week that worked for us. Unfortunately, Keith's work schedule didn't end up allowing him to take off any time between June and August, so we started making plans for an alternative time for our vacation.

We haven't been very consistent with taking family vacations every year. Our first one as a family of 4 was when Cooper was just 2 months old and we drove down to Galveston for a long weekend on the beach. Last year, we never ended up taking a true family vacation, though we did have a few trips due to visiting family. But I really want to make some sort of an annual vacation a priority for us.

We decided that since Garrett had several days off of school around Thanksgiving, we would take advantage and plan our vacation then. I'm typically pretty traditional when it comes to holidays, but I don't feel overly connected with celebrating Thanksgiving exactly the same every year (as I tend to be about Christmas). We picked Garrett up a little early from school last Tuesday and drove down to San Marcos, which is roughly 4 hours away. There are a lot of outlet malls there and Keith and I have shopped there once before and found quite a few great deals, so we wanted to check them out again. They were pretty crowded given the fact that it was a holiday week, but we were able to get some good deals, mostly on clothes. Then we headed back out, towards our hotel in San Antonio.

We checked into our hotel around 6pm that night and then headed out to eat supper at Mi Tierra. It's an experience you don't want to miss if you're ever in San Antonio. Christmas lights everywhere (and that's year round, not just because of the time of year) and a couple of different mariachi bands that travel around the restaurant serenading tables. Our table was chosen as one to serenade and both of the boys loved it! Cooper danced in his seat and Garrett just laughed and watched them closely. He was intrigued with the fact that they sang in Spanish. (We took pictures at Mi Tierra, but they're on Keith's phone. I totally forgot to bring my camera with me to dinner. We've already established that I'm a horrible blogger, so we can move on from that point.)

On Wednesday, we ate breakfast at the hotel (thank goodness for free hotel breakfasts, even if they are waffles and Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches!) and then we hung out in the room for the morning. Thankfully PBS was showing Curious George's Christmas movie, so that kept the boys entertained and our room had 2 TV's so Keith and I could watch HGTV which was nice since we don't have cable and can't watch that channel very often.

We headed to Chili's for lunch (yes, I know we were missing out on more great SA restaurants, but it was on our way and I knew the boys would eat well there.) After Chili's, we drove to SeaWorld. None of us had ever been so we were really excited about going. We got there right as they opened and the lines to get in were crazy! The night before, I had done my research on their website and put together a basic itinerary for the day as to what shows we would want to see and their times and locations. So as soon as we made it through the crazy line, we grabbed a map and headed straight for the first one on our list. Sesame Street Christmas.

At the entrance to SeaWorld

Until this point, we have never taken our boys to any show where they would see their favorite characters live on stage somewhere. So I was really excited to see their reactions, mostly

Cooper because he's a big fan of Elmo. He did not disappoint and, while he was excited to see the others, as soon as Elmo came on stage he immediately started telling us "There's Melmo!" and yelling "Hi Melmo!" It was so fun.

After this show, we had some downtime, so I was talked into riding a water ride with Garrett. Yes, it's November, but it was in the 70's so it was comfortable outside. We rode a ride called Journey to Atlantis. There are similar rides to this one at other places like 6 Flags. You get on a boat that has about 4 rows of people with roughly 4 people per row. The boat climbs up to the top of the hill and then comes down into the water making a big splash. It was fun and it had been a long time since I had ridden a ride like that. Thankfully, we did not get overly wet.

That's me waving!

Then we made our way to a new area at SeaWorld called the Sesame Street Bay of Play. They have a lot of younger kid rides there, plus some play areas and swing sets along with a few of the Sesame Street characters to take pictures with. The boys and I rode a carousel while Keith took pictures and manned the stroller. We also got a picture of Garrett and Big Bird. Cooper was not interested in meeting him. We never saw Elmo out for pictures, so we missed getting to "meet" him.

After this, we made our way to the Shamu show. This was definitely one we didn't want to miss. We grabbed some water and stood in line until the show opened, then we had to sit in the stands for another 20-30 minutes but it was worth it because we had good seats and they had other whales out entertaining the audience as well as a saxophone player who played Christmas music.

The show itself was so neat and it's really impressive what those whales can do. I will admit to getting a little choked up watching them with their trainers because I was remembering the Shamu trainer in Florida that was accidentally killed by that Shamu last year. I know, I'm crazy. You can tell just by watching those trainers how much they love those whales. It was very sweet watching them together.

Once this show was over, we immediately headed over to the dolphin show along with 700 of our closest friends who had made the same choice that we had. At first the dolphin show seemed to be a bit of a disappointment. I mean, you go from watching huge whales doing amazing things in the water, to seeing dolphins doing essentially the same things and I'm thinking "Yeah, well, you should be able to do that. You're a fraction of Shamu's size. What else you got?" Then I realized how ridiculous that was and I enjoyed myself much more. In addition to the dolphins, they also had synchronized swimmers and divers, so we were pretty impressed with what those humans could do too.

From there, we made our way to a Polar Express 4D Experience on the other side of the park. Out of all the times we had to wait in line for shows and rides and to simply get into the park, people were the absolute most rude waiting in this line. I don't know why exactly, but it was a sight to behold. We had our spot in line, which was relatively close to the doors and there was a group of people who brazenly tried to cut in front of us. I immediately looked the ringleader in the eye and said loudly "There's a line and it's back that way" and they moved. The worst part about that was these people did not have one child with them. The youngest in their group was in their 40's. I'm not saying they shouldn't be allowed to watch these shows, but don't cut in front of families with small children! When the doors opened, you would have thought we were all horses in the Kentucky Derby. Everyone took off running and elbowing and pushing. It was

nuts! Once we got inside I saw absolutely no reason for anyone to be acting so crazy. It was just a big theater that seated about 700 people, so there was plenty of room for everyone.

Keith and Cooper had ended up getting out of line because it was about 4:30pm at this point in the day and Cooper hadn't eaten since Chili's, not to mention that he had not had a nap and had woken up before 6am that morning, so he was not at his happiest. Garrett and I snagged seats in the very back row and then I texted Keith to tell him where we were and they were able to walk in without a fist fight breaking out. That was a fun show. They basically shortened "The Polar Express" movie down from roughly 2 hours to about 30 minutes, showed it in 3D, plus the seats vibrated at different points when the train rumbled and we had puffs and air and water blown into our faces at other points in the movie when it was appropriate. It was really cool.

From there, we made our way over to the dolphin feeding area and watched them eat. After that we hit up the gift shop and headed back to the hotel (picking up dinner on the way). SeaWorld was very fun and I think this was the perfect time of year to go. The weather was nice and I never once felt hot the whole afternoon we were there.

Probably the most stressful part of SeaWorld, aside from the line experience, was the stroller situation. Of course we brought our stroller because Cooper is 2 and there was no way he was going to keep up with us without it. But when you go to the shows, you have to park your stroller outside. I had a few problems with this. #1 I don't trust people. Yes, I realize we're

talking about a stroller that a good percentage of people in this world have zero use for. But I still don't trust people. Even people with small kids will take something that doesn't belong to them if they're of that mindset. #2 It's a nightmare trying to find your stroller among literally hundreds of other strollers. #3 Every time you would park the stroller, you then had to empty it of all your belongings that you didn't want to possibly be taken. That entire aspect of SeaWorld would be much more enjoyable if you were taking older kids who don't require a diaper bag or stroller. Having said all that, we somehow managed to make it back to our house with the same stroller we took with us. Keith's opinion on it was "Well, if someone takes it, that's one less thing we have to haul home."

That night the boys slept like little logs from all the fun we had. On Thanksgiving morning, we ate hotel breakfast again (score!) and then headed out to the Riverwalk. Our hotel was about a mile from it so we drove and parked at the mall parking garage (which is also located right on the Riverwalk). I had done all my research and found that the riverboat tours that take place along the Riverwalk, are opened on Thanksgiving. So we were the first ones in line to buy tickets for a boat tour that morning. There were only about 10 people on our tour, but it was fun. The boys enjoyed riding in the boat and seeing the sights and it was a fun tourist thing to do.

After this we walked over to the Alamo, which was also opened on Thanksgiving. When we got inside, it was PACKED with people. I've only been there 2 other times and I've not seen it quite that full. We weren't able to really look into any of the side rooms because it was so crowded. We basically just walked through, explained to Garrett what we saw, and then walked out. We went to the gift shop to get a souvenir (Alamo tree ornaments!) and then took a few more pictures outside.

Then we walked back to the mall where we watched Happy Feet 2 in the theater there. Again, there were only about 10 people in the theater with us and none of the others had little kids. I found that to be an odd choice of a movie for people with no kids, but who knows. It was cute, and FYI, you don't have to have seen the first one in order to watch the second one. In case you were wondering.

Then we drove over to a Cracker Barrel for our Thanksgiving dinner. They had a mostly traditional Thanksgiving meal, so it was nice to have some turkey and dressing like most everyone else in America was doing. They were probably 3/4 full and it was about 1:00pm when we got there. Why is no one doing traditional Thanksgivings?! Or did everyone just decided to copy our gameplan and go "untraditional" this year?

We headed back to the hotel and the boys and I swam in the pool while Keith got some peace and quiet for a little while. We watched TV and just hung out for the rest of the day and then started getting our things packed up to leave the next morning.

At about 8am on Friday, we loaded up the car and headed to Denny's for breakfast. There's only so many breakfast sandwiches and waffles that my husband can take before he wants some real scrambled eggs and maybe a piece of bacon.

The final stop on Family Vacation '11 was at Natural Bridge Caverns, just a few miles north of SA. There are some caves there that you can tour and I thought that would be a fun way to end our trip. It was fun, but there was a lot more hiking involved than I was expecting, not to mention that Cooper wasn't fast enough or willing enough to keep up, so Keith and I had to alternate carrying him (unfortunately strollers just won't work in a cave, darn the luck!) While I was expecting it to be cold since we were ultimately going 200 feet below the surface, it was 70 degrees with 99% humidity. Needless to say, we were all a puddle of sweat by the time we huffed and puffed ourselves back up to ground level. But we did make it and we survived and we saw some pretty awesome stuff down there. It's amazing the things that God does above and below the surface of the Earth.

On our way home, we passed quite a few different shopping areas and malls and got to enjoy the madness and chaos surrounding them from the onslaught of Black Friday. I somehow managed to find some good deals from my couch and laptop that night without being peppersprayed. It was nice after the battlescars from SeaWorld.

A couple of weird confessions

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats, but rest assured, the clothes were found.

Big sigh of relief, I know.

They were in the back of the attic, but thankfully they were found, have been washed, and now are waiting for hanger space in the closet. Cooper's closet is a bit smaller than Garrett's and that fact has never been more obvious than it is right now when I'm trying to organize a couple of different sizes and seasons of clothing in it. We have to have warm and cold weather clothes around the majority of the year because the weather down here is so fickle, so that makes it hard to squeeze everything where it belongs.

A weird confession. I love going through these clothes that were boxed up for the past several years. It brings back so many memories of when Garrett was this age. I usually have atleast one memory for most of the clothing so it's kind of like looking in an album. I'm sure that sounds so weird to other people, but if there's ever a load of laundry I enjoy folding and putting away, it's either brand new clothes or our hand me downs.

On a completely unrelated note, I feel so behind with Christmas preparations. Again, a weird confession. I normally have had a few things bought by this time and have a good list going for who is getting what, but I don't so far. I read posts on FB that say how many days are left until Christmas and I feel panicked and behind. I just gave the boys some toy catalogs, so hopefully I can start getting those lists knocked out.