Spending Less

So I'm on a mission to spend less, which means I've been researching (a.k.a. googling) the best way to effectively organize coupons (the organizer in me). I've added to my 'favorites', websites that give daily updates to recent deals, and I've searched for blogs to help in my new couponing/money saving adventure (see the list of blogs I follow to the right).

In researching all of this, I also found this great site to download a debt snowball spreadsheet (I love spreadsheets). And this spreadsheet is nicer than the one I created for my debt snowball. Here is a link to the website if your interested in downloading it. This is of course one of the things you have to do when tackling debt on the Dave Ramsey plan and this guy created the spreadsheet specifically for Dave Ramsey users.

Anyway, for my coupon organization, I'm going to go with the "binder" method. So tomorrow I'm off to buy a binder with pockets, some clear baseball card holder inserts (for the coupons themselves), and some divider inserts (to categorize the coupons). I've also found (via a blog), what's called a 'Pricebook'. This is a way to track prices, products, and sales on items you buy frequently at the stores you shop. I found a spreadsheet version of keeping a pricebook, so of course that's what I'm using. By keeping record of price variations between the different stores I shop, I'll be able to establish target prices for the products I regularly buy. The task of getting the list going is daunting as it's is going to take some time, but in the long run it will serve as a great money saving tool! Here's the link to the site where you can download the pricebook spreadsheet. You'll have to edit the formatting of the spreadsheet a bit (the heading column was not at the top so I moved and "froze" the heading and added filters).

If you view the list of blogs I'm starting to follow, you'll also notice I've found some crafty blogs as well as money saving blogs. I've always had a natural "crafty" side to myself. I used to scrapbook, but it takes me so long to do one page because I'm such a perfectionist... the pages never seem "good enough". I've recently found a niche in creating picture slide show DVD's to music. I've completed 3 so far (self taught) and I'm learning more each time (so they get better each time). I did one for each of my kids for their 10th birthday, which was a slide show of their past 10 years. And I did one for my niece, Jenny, when she graduated from college. It was a slide show of her college years (she's a volleyball star, and traveled to Africa twice and Brazil on student athlete mission trips). Anyway, with following these crafty blogs, I hope to find a way to create unique (low cost) items that I can 1. use for myself (to help organize and decorate) and 2. as gifts. Some people can be hard to shop for and I love to give gifts, so this way when I need gifts (especially at Christmas), I can give something no one else can give because I created it (and hopefully I can give something great for little cost).