Who could imagine that there would be Christmas decorations and items on display of stores like Target before Halloween. As Christmas season starts to creeps up on us, now is a great time to start a plan to save money and earn money to have create a great "low cost" or "free" Christmas 2012.
Join me for my series the 12 "Saves" to Christmas to learn how to save money every day and learn how to earn money to build a Christmas fund.
The first "saves" to Christmas, my true love gave to me... Coupons.
How much can the average person really save per year by using coupons? If the average person saves just $25 per week combining sales with coupons, you could save over $1200 per year.
How much can the average person really save per year by using coupons? If the average person saves just $25 per week combining sales with coupons, you could save over $1200 per year.
Set a goal
- I find that it is a lot easier to save money when I define a goal and I can watch the savings grow!
Open a separate bank account
- It is easier to reach your savings goals when you can watch it grow. It is also less tempting to borrow from your nest egg when you have your funds separated. Be sure that you shop around to find a FREE account so that you can hold on to all of your savings. It is even better is you can find an account that pays interest on your money!
Learn to save money using coupons (I saved an average of $300 per month last year).
- How much can you really save? According to an article from the Wall Street Journal from March 2010, you can make $86.40 per hour clipping coupons. $86.40 is a great wage for part-time work!
- Extreme couponing can save you 90% or more on your monthly grocery bill, but if you are not ready to rush out and build an addition on to your home to store all your spoils, you can still save money with every coupon you use. Recently one of my favorite stores had a sale on Tillamook Cheese for $3.99 (2.00 off regular price), then I stacked it with a $1 off any cheese coupon to save even more. On this one transaction I saved 1/2 price on one of our family's food staples. Imagine how this saving snowballs as you use more coupons each week! Saving just $25 per week adds up $1200 per year!
- Combine sales with store coupons. I clip coupons from the Sunday paper inserts or print them from Coupons.com and other on-line sites. I then watch for a great sale to find items I need at 50% to 90% off retail. I try to only purchase items that I know I will used in a 3-6 month period which is the typical sale cycle for most products.
- Take advantage of double coupon offers to find free or heavily discounted items. Combine high value coupons to find items like toothbrushes, toothpaste, pasta, personal care items, cake mixes, diced tomatoes, cereal, cocoa mix and even pizzas for free.
- Find catalina offers to save even more money. Catalinas are coupons that print at checkout that can be used toward your next purchase. They usually have a value like $5 off toward any future purchase. Stores like Albertsons and Fred Meyer often combine catalina offers with sales. Walgreens has catalinas called register rewards while Rite Aid calls their catalina system +UP rewards. You can usually apply coupons to these purchases and still receive these catalinas, adding up to huge savings.
- Where can you find coupons ? Sunday papers usually include coupons inserts. You can buy multiple Sunday papers to have extra inserts. You can also often find great coupons on-line so you can print only what you need from sites like Coupon.com, Pillsbury, Box Tops and product web sites like Huggies. For big promotions, you can order multiple coupons at Ebay.com.
- Watch You Savings Grow - Apply the amount your saved using coupons toward your debt or deposit it in your travel or Christmas fund to watch it grow!
This estimate is quite low when you consider that during the past year, I have consistently saved an average of $300 per month combining sales, coupons and store promotions like Catalinas.
Learning to save and earn money is as easy as clipping a few coupons, watching sales and checking back at isitreallyadeal to find out my next idea to save for Christmas.
You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/isitreallyadeal or "Like" me on Facebook so you never miss a deal!
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