SofaCoins: get a money saving tip, save a buck. Why not?

Hit the 99 cent store!

With the growing popularity of 99 cent stores throughout the country, you should be able to find one of these in your town, either now or very soon.  Shop at these stores for things like dish soap, toothpaste, canned goods—even socks!  I was a big fan of my 99 cent store in New York, and now I have found some good ones in Los Angeles as well.  Some dollar stores are even stocking perishable items like eggs and milk now, at lower prices than the grocery store.    Click here to locate a 99 cent store in your area.

In case you think I don't really do this, here is a list of things I have recently found at the 99 cent store:

1.    Toothpaste
2.    Ibuprofen
3.    Dog treats
4.    Composition notebooks
5.    12 bananas
6.    toilet paper (4 for $0.99)

Seriously-- find one and go there, just to see what they have.  Don't be afraid to save!

Fill up your freezer

This one came to me DIRECTLY from a woman at the power company, when I called to ask why my bill was so high one month.  She asked if I usually kept my freezer/ refrigerator less than full—she said that (besides central heat and air conditioners), the fridge was the # 1 place where people can save money on their bill.  It turns out that it costs MORE to cool an empty fridge than a full one-- something about it using up more energy to freeze empty space.  Who knew?   I immediately put a big block of ice in my freezer, and filled the fridge up with cheap bottles of water.  Sure enough, the bill went back down.  Now, I always make sure the freezer is full-- either of food that I get at Trader Joe's and freeze for future meals, or with bottles of water.   Apparently this is a popular way to cut down your freezer's overall use, because I later read about it in a money-saving book.  Go figure.

Try a money fast!

Every once in awhile, just for fun, I try to see how long I can go without spending any money at all-- that is to say, eat and use stuff that I already have in the house, find free entertainment (like a walk on the beach, watching something online, or visiting a friend), and of course not going out shopping or running errands I know are going to involve money.  Of course, some of these you're going to have to do eventually, but just a one day "Money Fast" can not only raise your awareness of money that you'd ordinarily be spending without giving it a second thought, but can also make you get creative in terms of looking at what you already have.   Who knows-- maybe you'll find an old gift card in your desk, or an outfit that you forgot about!

Unplug It!

 I've been reading alot about this lately, and it does appear to be effectively lowering my electric bill (when I can remember to do it, which is mostly when I'm going to be out of town on business).  Apparently 75% of the energy used by your appliances is potential energy, meaning the energy it's sucking up just by being plugged in and ready for your use.   Since unplugging is easy enough, why not try making it a habit, just for a few months, and see if it makes a difference?    This strategy is especially effective when used with larger appliances like TVs and computers.    I'm trying to consolidate time and money on this one by plugging everything in my office into one surge-protector, so I can just unplug the whole thing all at once when I'm not there.

Credit for printer cartridges....

I like to always get money back for things if possible, which is why I'm going to recommend that you toss those "recycle your printer cartridge" pre-paid envelopes that come with your printer ink.

Here's why-- HP, or whoever is making your ink-- is not really "recycling" your cartridges so much as "refilling them and selling them second hand," so essentially you're helping them make more money.

A better idea is to gather up the used catridges and take them to Staples, where they will put $3 on your Staples rewards account for every one, then send you a check at the end of the quarter which you can use to buy more Staples stuff.  I go there anyway and usually watch out for sales on stuff I use a lot, so this ends up being a good deal for me.  And yes, in case you're curious, I do buy the multi-pack ink at Costco, and Staples still takes those. 

Post-Christmas Returns-- how are yours going?

Well, it's been almost a month since Christmas ended, which means I've just about finished with my post- holiday returns/ revisions.  I am a shamless and brazen returner, meaning if I am not satisfied with something, you better believe I am going to try to return it, whether or not I still have the receipt or the grace period has passed.  I've found this works a lot better if you're clean, well-dressed, and look like you a) don't really need the money and/ or b) are likely to shop at the store again.   These things combined will make the people in the store more likely to help you rather than dismissing you as a "weird returning person."

Here's where I am so far with post-Christmas returns:

1.  Took two gifts back to Costco (I knew they came from there, or at least I was relatively certain).  One was a book I got two copies of, and one was a higher-end gift I will not name because I don't want to hurt the giver's feelings.  It turned out it just didn't work as well as I wanted.  Costco has a great return policy (meaning, they take almost everything back and don't require a receipt), and I ended up getting a good-size Costco cash card, which I immediately used to buy some stuff we needed anyway, plus I had money left over for next time.  During this trip I also used the rebate from my year of Executive Membership (which I will cover in another post), so that was awesome.

2.  Best Buy--returned a camera bag that ended up being the wrong size, but ALSO (this is cool), got a retroactive discount by bringing in my Reward Zone coupons, which never came during December and which I called to ask about.  You might be like "that takes too mich time, but $30 was worth a phonecall to me.

3.  Took a clearly defective "grow your own herb garden" which grew mold instead of parsley back to Cost Plus.  They were extremely cool about it, and gave me store credit which I used to buy some fill-in glassware for my house.  This was kind a stretch, but I did come in with the actual moldy herb garden and the packaging, and since I look like a person who is reasonable and can follow directions, they helped me out.

Bottom line-- I would never just throw away or give away a gift until I had at least attempted to return or exchange it.  That's your money in those gifts, even inadvertently or directly.  Make sure you're satisfied! 

New Ways to Save for 2009

I decided to try to make my "financial savviness" even more powerful in 2009, so I'm now actively trying to notice ways to save.  So far it's totally working!  Here's what I have accomplished thusfar in this area:

--Asked my dry cleaner if he could give me a discount, since I've been going there for a long time and bring him alot of stuff (as well as always recycling my hangers).  He agreed.

--Signed up for MyGroceryDeals.com.  I'm not usually the "bargain shopper at the grocery store" type because typically I've found it takes up too much time, but I've decided to give it another try by using this website, since grocery prices don't seem like they're going to go down anytime soon.  Just by using this site, I totally found some good deals at my local CVS, where I went yesterday.  Buy one, get one free detergent?  I say yes!

--Bought a copy of the Sunday paper, just to see what was going on around town and to pull out the Centinela Feed & Pet Supply flier because we needed dog food.  Not sure I'm quite ready to dive into the coupon thing yet, but you never know.  I am open.

Money Saving Strategy # 4: Transforming Spare Change into Music

So, about a year ago I bought four canisters for the kitchen counter, mostly because I liked them, but also because we had no good place to put spare change (and by that I am meaning change that comes out of your pocket, or change that you find in your desk drawer when you clean it out, or even....your sofa.  You get it).  Anyhow, somewhere along the course of life I read about CoinStar, a company that now has machines in a bunch of grocery stores around the U.S.  (check the link to find out if there's one in your town).   This seemed like the perfect alternative to the "rolling of the coins and cashing them in" thing that we all did as kids, except for the somewhat disturbing fact that if you just want them to count your money and give it back to you, it costs 6 cents on the dollar for that service.  Ouch!  That's 6%!

CoinStar obviously noticed that this was going to be a barrier to entry for some people, so they cleverly partnered up with big companies like Amazon, Apple, and others to offer gift cards at those stores.  In exchange for you spending your spare change money at their stores, they will pay the counting fee for you, so you get to keep all the money.  This was a good deal for me, as we spend a not-insignificant amount of money at the iTunes store every year.  When the jar filled up, I took it down to the CoinStar machine at my CVS Pharmacy, poured the whole thing in the machine, and came out with (wait for it):

$256.32 worth of iTunes credit, including the $15 worth of coin-counting fees that Apple picked up for me.   Even if you're not a big music fan, you should be able to find some company where you know you'll spend the money anyway.  Other partnerships include Circuit City, TGI Fridays, Borders, and AMC Theaters.