I've said it before, and I know it's true: FIT-ness is always a pricey investment. And now that the holidays are over, we're all feeling the strain of our overspending and generous giving from the tinsel season. How ever are we supposed to get back on track when our budgets are too busted to afford the healthy foods and gym memberships?
Well, I'm known by many of my friends, family and even strangers at work or around town as the "coupon girl" or for my money-saving tactics in general. I've been able to meet my own healthily strict dietary needs on a small budget by using my usual tricks and trades, and it was brought to my attention today that this would be a great thing to share with my readers. So here I go:
To start: COUPONS! Don't be afraid to show up at the grocery counter with a handful, a stack even, of money saving coupons. 50 cents off on your favorite brand of shampoo and $1.00 off of two general mills cereals can be quite helpful, even if you think the savings is too small to matter. Trust me, these add up fast. Here's the breakdown of how I make the most of my coupons:
1. Clip coupons for everything you might like to eat, especially healthy and organic products. You can find these coupons in the Sunday paper, in the weekly/monthly flyer at your local organic foods store (aka Whole Foods and Co-Op grocery stores), and on websites like coupons.com.
2. Bring these coupons every time you go shopping. You never know when something you have a coupon for is something that you want to buy that day. It's always good to have these on hand for any and every purchase.
3. Wait for sales to save even bigger. A $1.00 off the purchase of any two Kellogg's cereals coupon does double duty when used while the cereals are Buy-One-Get-One-Free (BOGO) at the store (which happens about one week out of every month, typically). I have coupons in my wallet for 70 cents off of one box of Cheerios that I'm saving for when Cheerios are BOGO. This means that instead of paying $3.99 per box, I'll end up paying only $2.59 for two boxes. Nice!
Certain foods like cereals, frozen vegetables and granola bars often go on BOGO sales AND have usually coupons in the paper flyers. These are great choices for healthy foods that won't break your budget, as opposed to living on Ramen and Hot dogs all the time, foods that won't break your budget...until you get your medical bills a few years later.
For m southeastern readers, Publix offers something that even my Mom didn't know about til today (which is amazing, since she's the one who taught me how to do all this saving!). The "Publix Promise" is something I'm always trying to watch out for and take advantage of at the store when I can. It works like this:
-Something you are buying rings up at the wrong price at the register. The price is usually higher than the one listed on the shelf tag. Watch your prices carefully as your groceries are scanned so you can make sure everything rings up right.
-But something doesn't ring up right and you ask the cashier to go read the tag so she'll know it was supposed to be cheaper.
-When she comes back, don't assume she'll just fix the price and move on. At Publix, there's a rule where if something rings up wrong, you get one of those items for free. That's the publix promise! So make sure if this ever happens to you at the check out line, you ask your cashier to honor the Publix Promise so you get one of your items for free. Today this happened with placemats my om bought me. Free placemats for the win!
More money saving tips to come. But try these out in the mean time and see how the savings can rack up!
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