Living Richly In Retirement- You Too Can Find Those Special Deals

Previously I wrote about saving money by spending time. That blog post referred primarily to “do it yourself” money methods. I talked about cooking for you instead of eating out, cleaning instead of hiring a house cleaner, and other “labor intensive” ways to save money.


There is a second way that spending time equals money saving however. That one has to do with searching for discounts, in order to afford the things we like and enjoy while spending less money. Most of the time, this involves using modern technology, aka the Internet.

Invariably, as I write about money savings, spending a little bit of time and searching the “net” comes into the discussion. Whether I have been writing about saving money on hotels or getting Christmas gifts for pennies, every article has an Internet reference at least once.

Often after I have written an article, I receive requests or suggestions. Sometimes people wonder how I have to time to do such searches, and sometimes they want me to share those deals with them. Although I have considered doing this, I have hesitated for a few reasons.

First of all, many discounts and specials are one day only, short term offers. By the time people came to my blog and read it, the deal would be gone. The recent Travelocity deal I mentioned for a half priced hotel was one day only.

My second hesitation is that, put simply, it doesn’t involve a lot of time to look for discounts. Most people have the time. I am a busy gal. I have two home based businesses (both in the labor intensive state). I have a house and a yard to maintain, a dog, and a college student still at home. I’m involved in church and social activities and read a minimum of two novels a week. Even so, I manage to get almost everything I purchase for seventy five percent discount. And I do this by spending about fifteen minutes or so a day online. If you need, or want to save money (and more cheaply), I think that fifteen minutes a day is a small time investment to do so. I do realize that some folks are busier than I, or less adept at looking for deals.

The other reason I hesitate to list deals and discounts is that, put simply, we are all looking for different things. Half price entry to a golf course means little to me, but it might make your day. Many of the discounts I find are area specific, or to local venues.

Because I love to share, I am going to begin listing special deals I find in italics above the current blog post. However, I encourage you to find your own sources of discounts and deals, and take advantage of them. You may want to begin by exploring those deal websites I have linked to the right of my blog. Each of these women lists everything from special coupons, to one day deals at group buying sites, to special offers. I encourage you to scroll down their websites each day and peruse the offers available. Even if you find just one really good deal a day, you are on the way to saving money for just minutes per day. Isn’t it worth it?

And meanwhile, I’ll continue to share how I do things, and list the occasional “too good to pass up” offer when I can.

My Good Deals

I attached a pic of some of the Kroger mega deals I got. I don't do as well as some other folks (mainly because its me and my kids part time). My total cost for all the mega deals was twenty some dollars and I saved $49.00 on coupons and Kroger discounts. I fell off the couponing wagon there, but now I'm baaaacckkk.

At Walgreens, I got 2 full sized Herbal Essences, Gillette Body Wash, Gillette Deodorant, and Dial Hand soap, for a total of $15.99. After manufacturers coupons my cost was $7.14 (unfortunately I had absolutely no more Register Rewards to Spend. so my out of pocket costs were fifty percent. I also got $5.00 in RR back, which will be saved towards another week,

CVS was better than I thought this week. I got 4 Oral B toothbrushes, 2 Olay body Wash (128 oz), and four Vick's items, for a total of fifty two dollars. After coupons my cost was 38.81. I received 5 bucks for the toothbrush's, five bucks for the Olay, and 10 bucks back for the cold medicine, giving me a rebate of 20.00. The smart move would have been to get the bucks back from the cold and spend on the items doing multiple trips (which I usually do), but I really don't like to shop on Sunday. I think I am going to take the liquid back for capsules.

I think I will use the bucks I have towards the free after extra bucks glucose monitors they have. since they are free, I should be getting them to give to the church to give out. Something that just occurred to me now. Normally I would not have gotten the two large body washes at fourteen for the two, but I was out and I love the stuff. In the end everything was free from cvs.