I have been sick this week but am feeling much better today.I took a sick day yesterday. I am bummed because being sick has cost me $40 in aerobics classes....You see, I teach aerobics, and each class pays about $20. Therefore, getting subs for two classes this week has taken $40 out of my paycheck from the rec center. This has especially bothered me because we are in the midst of implementing our money saving strategies. BUT...not much I can do about it. You can't teach aerobics when you've lost your voice.
In other news, Aldi does not carry soy milk. I love Aldi because it is cheaper, but Aldi really doesn't have all that much. And I am learning to think ahead. You see, they make you buy plastic ($.10) and paper ($.06) bags. When I don't bring bags, I get looks from the experienced Aldi consumers that say, "You novice." I am in this for the long haul, so I need to thinking about and bring bags. Friends at Aldi, I am one of you now. So there. Stop looking down on me. I can play this game.
Bill and I have done surprisingly well at saving money. I feel badly that Bill has had to cut back on eating out in Denver. I know that's one of his favorite things to do, and he's had to sacrifice there to some degree. I know he'll be fine, but he's sort of a "foodie" and trying new restaurants is a hobby for him. We have both learned that a lot of easy modifications can be made to our previous grocery shopping to save a lot of money. It's impressive what small changes can do.
I looked at www.restaurant.com. This is a website where you can buy greatly reduced restaurants gift certificates. I haven't bought any yet, but I have a few thoughts. First of all, this works better if you are in a bigger city (like Denver). There are not too many options for restaurants in my area. Also, you have to make sure you read the fine print. There may be a minimum amount you have to spend or maybe it's only good on certain nights. However, I think you could save a good chunk of money eating out by using this site if you wanted to. I am going to recommend to Bill that he check it out.
I have been using www.ebates.com whenever I have to buy stuff online. It's easy and really amazing. If you go to the site first, and then to your shopping site, you can get good cash back rebates on what you buy. I refill my prescriptions on www.Walgreens.com and ebates gives me cash back. I don't really have to do anything. I just think this is amazing.
There is another site that I've found interesting: www.cardpool.com. You can sell gift cards you won't use for cash. They sell them at a discounted rate. For example, you can buy a $100 1-800-Flowers.com gift card for $70. You can get a $50 gift card to Bass Pro Shops for $42.50. If you know you are going to be shopping at one of these places (or you were going to buy somebody a gift card anyway), it's not a bad way to go. There is free shipping as well. It's not like it's going to make you a millionaire, but it's something.
I redeemed some of my credit cards points recently, and I decided to get Target gift cards. (I had lots of choices of what to spend my "points" on.) I had enough points to get $280 worth of gift cards! I was pretty excited about this. It was interesting, though, because they chose to send me a box of 28 ten dollar gift cards instead of sending me gift cards in larger amounts! But...no complaints. I'll can spend them just the same.
Speaking of gift cards, I had a couple from Barnes and Noble and ordered three books on budgeting, saving money, etc. One of the books is Supershop Like the Coupon Queen: How to Save 50% or More Every Time You Shop by Susan Samtur. Everyone knows that when I get serious about something I read whatever I can about it--hence the hundred books on running I've purchased in the past 7-8 years. If you are wondering what the "Coupon Queen" looks like, she is small with big blonde hair. Not sure why, but that's exactly what I expected. I haven't really started on the book, but I'll let you know what I learn.
I have to admit that I just love earning points by putting purchases on a credit card. Obviously, you should not buy more stuff just to get points, but it's a great deal for stuff you would buy anyway. I had a friend recently tell me that she needed a medication that cost $6,000 at the pharmacy and wasn't sure if insurance would cover it. I asked if how she was going to pay for it if insurance didn't cover it. She responded that she would obviously put it on her credit card to get the frequent flyer miles.
I filed our taxes a couple of days ago. Poor Bill--I've been hassling him about getting his W2s together since January 1. He can't control when he gets them. We look forward to getting refunds from the feds, from Iowa, and from Colorado. I hear the federal refunds will be coming later this year due to late changes in tax laws--which annoys me since I am getting money back. However, I will just be grateful to get a chunk of change refunded! It helped that this year we donated a car to Gearheads for God, an organization that fixes up cars and donates them to people in need.
My mom is talking about coming out late this spring. I am excited about that--something to look forward to!
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