(Yes, I made my home gym the one by my work.  I used to be able to go at lunch time.  The ability to take a slightly longer lunch and work later was taken away by a boss, so I was just going straight from work to the gym, then metroing home all disgusting.)

While talking to a friend about the gym, I made a comment about this and she told me that I should be asking for the discount based on my job.  She had the same discount and was paying $5 less for her membership AND she got to use all the gyms at any time.  Clearly, I should be getting this same discount.

So I went in.  I asked.  And they immediately gave me the discount with no questions.

Thinking about it, I realize that I’m often hesitant to ask for discounts, even when I know they’re deserved.  Sometimes it depends on my mood.  When the coupon scanner at the grocery store won’t take my coupon, sometimes I’m willing to stand in line at customer service to get my money, but sometimes I’m just not in the mood. Sometimes I’m willing to take the cable company to task about the ridiculous rate they charge for substandard service.  Sometimes I just want to ignore it.  I should start to get better about asking for discounts and making sure that I am paying the proper rates for things.   I tend to avoid conflict, but most of the time, we’re not talking about conflict at all – just normal customer interaction.  Just by asking at the gym, I get a better service for $5 less.  That’s $60 a year I just saved.  I wonder where else I could find money.

Why is this noteworthy? Because only a few minutes before, I was updating my budget for the month and noted that I only have about $16 left in my monthly grocery budget.

Where is the money going? Have I really consumed that much food in the past few weeks? My grocery budget doesn’t even include the cash that I spend at the Farmer’s Market every week, and that accounts for the fruit in the crisper and the bread in the freezer. I don’t feel like I’ve eaten that much recently. In fact, in an effort to get healthier, I’ve been trying to eat mindfully and writing down what I eat and when. A quick glance at that notebook tells me that I haven’t been totally gluttonous over the past week or so.

Of course, if you pay attention to the news or your supermarket receipts, you know the answer to this is obvious. Increased food prices. Additionally, I’ve been spending less money on processed food and trying to buy healthier things – lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, plus more frozen vegetables than normal. All these things lead to higher prices at the checkout.

Solutions? Unfortunately, there’s no easy solution here. I admit that I haven’t been couponing much, but I found that I wasn’t finding coupons for the things that I regularly use – I see where they work great for families with kids, but for me, it didn’t make sense to buy a paper in order to get coupons that I might or might not be able to use. I do still check the online coupons – those are free, after all. I always peruse the sale flyer from the grocery store before I make my list – and if anything I use on a regular basis is on sale, I stock up.

For the most part, I’m not a meal planner. I’m just cooking for one, after all. And I don’t cook with a lot of meat, so planning my meals around what’s on sale doesn’t help a lot. Sure, I make a mean eggplant parmesan, and if eggplant happens to go on sale, I’ll definitely be eating that one week. But I typically just keep staples around the house and then throw together whatever sounds good. Every so often, I go on a batch cooking kick and make a bunch of things, package them in single servings, and freeze them for quick and easy lunches and dinners. I’ve even cut back on my Lean Cuisine consumption (though I do pick a few up when they’re on sale for those days when I’m too lazy to cook and have no leftovers to eat – spending $2.50 on a healthy meal is much better for my health and my budget than bowing to temptation and grabbing pizza from the place around the corner).

I’m not looking forward to the winter, that’s for sure, when fruit will be out of season and prices will skyrocket. I’m thinking about purchasing a bit more fruit than normal and freezing what will freeze well.

I’m not sure how to stop the increased spending. It’s not a huge problem – I just adjust my budget accordingly. But it feels ridiculous to be spending so much money on food. And not even splurge food! I’m not willing to sacrifice nutrition, which is unfortunately what a lot of families are being forced to do. Once the weather cools, I will be doing more batch cooking, I think, though I don’t know that it will save me any money. I’m also going to continue to look for recipes that are healthy and will freeze well – some hearty soups perhaps.

And I’m going to continue to watch for deals and be careful about splurge purchases. I’ve learned that I can’t completely eliminate them from my budget, and in terms of nutrition, splurging every so often on a few mangos is much better than grabbing a (cheaper) candy bar.

What are you doing to save money at the supermarket?

So if you haven’t already, check it out! I know I’ll continue starting my online shopping through their portal. I realize I’m starting to sound like an advertisement, but seriously, it was exciting to suddenly discover that I had an extra $26, especially after saving on the purchases to begin with.

Have a great Friday, and a safe holiday weekend to all those celebrating Memorial Day.

For the first time in a long time, I clipped coupons last weekend. I made a point to go to the store, pick up a paper (for $1.50 – but I plan to subscribe in the upcoming weeks), clip the coupons, and then, because I’m a bit obsessive, I started a spreadsheet with the coupon data. The theory there is that I can watch for expiring coupons, and I can have all my coupons listed on one page rather than just stuck in my coupon organizer. Having already done the major grocery shop for the week, I decided to look at the CVS circular to see what was on sale and if anything matched up with my coupons.

Lo and behold, I found a number of deals! Items already on sale that I also had coupons for! Items that I use all the time with ECBs offered this week! I’m trying to do my best and only buy things that I would normally buy – because otherwise, am I really saving any money at all? I realize that’s not always the way to play the drugstore game, but I think that’s how I’m going to play my version for now. Realizing how productive this trip was, I decided that I also needed to start looking at the grocery store circular every week.

I tend to do my shopping early in the morning on Saturdays or Sundays, and my store’s circular goes online on Fridays. Perfect! I can browse through the circular, figure out what’s on sale that I use and compare that to my coupon list. This should also help my plan to have more of a stock of food around the house, in case of emergencies (and let’s be honest, also in case of “too lazy to go to the store”).

I’m not sure why I haven’t done this before. It didn’t take long to go through the paper on Sunday morning, and I did it while catching up on some tv. I know some people spend hours planning their shopping, but for me, that just doesn’t make sense. I shop at one particular grocery store (plus Whole Foods on occasion) and I go to CVS. That’s what’s within walking distance for me – anything else requires getting in my car, and that’s when it becomes too much of a hassle in my mind. So I just need to block out a little bit of time every week for couponing. Shouldn’t be hard at all.

Yet another money saving plan to implement when I get home from vacation.

The latest draw is Netflix. I’ve never been a Netflix subscriber. I do like movies though, and I especially like watching movies at home. For the most part, I tend to wait until a movie is available on DVD before seeing it, unless it’s something I really want to see or a friend suggests we make an evening of it. I think this year, I’ve seen Under the Same Moon and The Other Boelyn Girl. That’s it. (And I highly recommend Under the Same Moon – excellent movie.) I’ll probably go see the upcoming X-Files movie in the theaters, just because that seems to be the sort of movie that would be best on a big screen, plus I was an XF fan for so many years that it seems appropriate.

So I seem like the type of person who Netflix would be great for. I love the idea of being able to create a queue. I love the idea that I don’t have to go anywhere to get my movies. I don’t love the idea of spending $20 a month for this service. While I like movies, do I actually rent them all that often? No. Maybe twice a month, and as of late, I’ve been using Redbox and getting them free. InsideRedbox has a list of free rental codes that you can use at Redbox locations. Even if you don’t use a code, a rental is only $1 a day. Yes, the selection is limited. But it’s $1 a day, or even free! You can’t beat that.

I have a fairly sizeable collection of movies and tv on dvd at home, some of which I haven’t watched in years. I’m embarassed to admit I even own dvds I’ve never watched, things that were gifts or picked up on sale. Rather than go the Netflix route, I think I’m going to make it a point to watch every single dvd I own – both tv and movies. Once I do that, then I can consider a Netflix subscription. Or maybe suggest it as a Christmas gift.

It’s easy to hear about great products and think “Oh, that’s perfect for me!” because you hear the good points and how other people use the product and don’t think about how it’s going to work for you. I just need to continue to think through my purchases. I think we could all save a lot of money if we just slept on it. 24 hours later, would you still think it was a good idea?

Well, my student days are thankfully over, but when I moved to Washington, D.C., I didn’t bother to subscribe to the Sunday paper. I figured I wouldn’t end up reading it, and the environmentalist in me struggled with the idea of having all that extra paper (even though I recycle, of course). It seemed like a cost that I didn’t really need.

But I wasn’t thinking about the coupons. (I also wasn’t thinking about the money I would save by always using the comics to wrap presents.) Given the rising food prices, I think this is an idea I should revisit.

I often struggle with whether or not coupons are really worth it. I’ve always believed that you should only use a coupon on something you would buy anyway – don’t think of it as a “deal” on something new. Unfortunately, it seems like most coupons out there are for new products hitting the shelves. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with trying new products, especially if it’s a type of food you consume regularly. For example, if you eat a granola bar for lunch every day and the paper has a coupon for a new kind of granola bar, it doesn’t hurt to check it out – provided that with the coupon, the new granola bar is cheaper than your old standard.

(This is probably a given, but be sure to watch your base price. How much is in that package? What are you paying per base unit? I’m lucky enough to shop at a store that lists the unit price on the shelf tags so I can determine which item is the best buy, but if you don’t, be sure to do the math in your head or carry a calculator. Trust me, it’s worth it.)

The other thing is that I’m always trying to eat healthier, and it seems like so often, coupons are for processed foods. I’m not going to find a coupon for apples or other produce. But even though I do try to be healthy, I admit that I’m still stuck on a number of processed foods, and there are coupons on things I use, such as various canned soups and vegetables, and occasionally rice and other grains as well. Besides, I need things like detergent and toothpaste too, and there are often coupons for those products.

You can also print coupons online, though I have sporadic luck with those. Sometimes it’s products I use, but most of the time, it’s nothing I want. Conveniently, I don’t have to print those. The big sites are SmartSource and CoolSavings.

The CouponMom is a highly touted resource for coupon usage. The site has a database of coupons from the Sunday paper (you do still have to buy a paper) to help you figure out what’s on sale and when you’ll get the best deal combining coupons with a sale.

A number of bloggers have been talking about The Grocery Game. This is a subscription based site ($1 for a 4 week trial, then $5 a month). Every week, you get a list of the lowest priced products at your supermarket matched with coupons and specials. Of course, to do this, you need to stock up on the coupons, as frequently, the coupons in this Sunday’s circular will be best used in a few weeks to match up with sales. I haven’t tried this yet, but I think that I will sign up after I return from vacation. A summer experiment of sorts.

I also read a lot about the Drugstore Game on various blogs. This is played at CVS or Walgreens, though I admit, I only pay attention to the CVS discussions, as that’s what’s nearest to me. The theory is that by combining coupons and products with ECBs (Extra Care Bucks – basically coupons for $X off your next purchase, no matter what it is), you can save hundreds of dollars. This oftentimes means buying products you wouldn’t normally buy, just to get the ECBs. I see the point – an example would be if I buy this shampoo with this coupon, I spend $2.00, but I get $3.00 in ECBs. So I technically got a dollar for the purchase. It’s just hard for me to make that expenditure, especially if it’s something I don’t normally buy. I’ll have to look into it further though, especially since I work within walking distance of a CVS – I could play on my lunch break!

Don’t forget coupon codes for online shopping! I’ve mentioned Ebates here before – it’s where I start when I’m shopping online. Not only do you get cash back, but they often have some great coupon codes as well. And of course, before you submit an order, do a quick Google search for StoreName Coupons. Who knows what you might find!

Want more info? Check out these links:
The Zen and Art of Coupon Clipping
Coupon Tips and Tricks That Can Cut Your Grocery Bill By 80% (some great ideas here!)