Journal Jar-Saving Money

With the economy how it is, and especially because we will soon have to be paying off student loans and a house we are trying our best to save money in any way we can think of. So todays journal jar question is:

What are some of my money saving techniques? How do I save money?

*Saturday is free fishing day in the state of Utah, so I told Branch and he is now going fishing with some of his family. I told him that he had to at least bring home a fish this time for dinner!(He has caught fish before but only brought home dinner once or twice).

*I am starting to coupon. I have really gotten into recently though I am still not good at it but I have already saved $80 in two shopping trips! How cool is that. We will have student loans to pay off and eventually we want a house so a penny saved is a penny earned. I have been keeping track of what I have saved and I am thinking about every month putting what I saved (which before I would have just given the store before I started couponing) and putting it in a separate bank account. That will be our emergency money. I think it is a good savings idea!

*We very very rarely eat out without a coupon anymore. Newspapers and even flyers have coupons all the time for restaurants. Most of the time we have never been to that restaurant before so not only do we get to go somewhere new but we save by doing it. (Not all the time though, sometimes when you have never been to a restaurant you don't know the prices originally! So that means sometimes we spend more, but we actually spend less than if we hadn't had a coupon! If that makes sense...) Even when we don't have a coupon, that means we are at McDonald's or something like that, most places have children s menus or even dollar menus. Awesomeness.

*Speaking of coupons. There are people out there that actually figure out ways to buy things using coupons and promotions and catalinas and everything and then blog about it. They tell you what to buy where to get the coupons and how much out of pocket it will be. My favorite money saving blog is krazycouponlady.blogspot.com.

*Deseret Industries. I will be able to stock up for Little Miss at about a $1 a purchase there. You can't go to any other store and walk out with 3 shirts, a pair of pants, and 3 shoes for $8. I love DI.

*Redbox. You get one free movie code a month. Cool. And when you don't have a code they are just a dollar a night so really cheap.

*Little Miss and I went to the Murray Library and get a library card. We got three movies for me and a book of colors for her. For free. Nice.