Trip Planning!

It's time to hit the road again! As you know we stayed home this winter rather than leave our beautiful granddaughter! But now that she's a year old, we might be able to leave for a few weeks without having withdrawal. First trip though will be to the beach with the baby and the kiddos! This will be our first family vacation in a while...in fact...the last one I can remember was our Christmas cruise with Libby and Chris. So first stop...Panama City Beach because they have more things for Savannah to do.  Then we head out in the motor home to Brown County, Indiana, South Bend, Indiana for a wedding, then up the Lake Michigan coast...finally to Mackinac Island! We've wanted to go there for about 100 years but just never got it together. Then to Sault St. Marie and on to Door County, Green Bay and then? We haven't figured out where to go next....that's the fun of being retired and owning an RV. Of course....gas is the highest since we went to Montana for 6 months when it hit $4.50 a gallon! We just can't start a road trip without gas going up. As always there is a tip embedded here....if you shop at Kroger, you can earn big discounts on gas. We are Publix people and they just ran a promotion that gave us a $50 Shell card for $40! I think it was to compete with Kroger. So watch for specials on gas and compare pricing between stations. We have a 5-8 cent swing just in our little town.

I just scanned through about 200 channels on TV and can't find a thing to watch..it may be time to down size my Comcast subscription! It must be bad because I'm watching the Kardashian's...I am embarrassed! So I think I'll scan on to something else. How about music videos? Not a bad choice. So second tip...how many of the channels that you pay for do you really watch? I did just save about $20 on my cell phone by changing my plan a bit. So that's at least one dinner out a month at Cracker Barrel or anywhere I have a coupon. I have a purse full of dining coupons...can't remember coupons for the grocery, but I always have one or two for meals.  I guess it's the little things that will add up over time. Like making coffee at home rather than Starbucks! Or if I just have to have Starbucks, getting regular coffee with room for milk instead of a Latte.

Can you believe the floods we're having...and storms...and earthquakes...and demonstrations across the world? I am beginning to wonder if the Mayans had it right that 2012 might be all we get. Our weather here in H'ville has been weird...in the 90's one day and a high of 58 the next. My sinuses are going crazy. Our world is really in a tizzy right now...Nostradamus may be on to something. So...final tip for tonight...never go to bed angry...hug your family and tell them you love them...be kind to others...do random acts of kindness even when no one is looking...and have a little fun along the way! Have a wonderful week peeps!


  

A Great New Find! Coupon Chief

For those of you who know me, you know I am addicted to coupons and use them all the time. I scour the papers and magazines, sign up for emails, and am always on the look out! Well, an old dog can learn new tricks. I just found a great site, Coupon Chief, where you can get the promotional codes and coupon codes that I always see that can be added when I shop online, which I do a lot! Now here's the deal...I never knew where those codes came from until just recently. One great place is to go on Coupon Chief.com and type in where you are shopping on line and tons of stores, restaurants, services and other things just magically appear with a promotional code that can get you great discounts. I have a beautiful granddaughter and we shop for her at The Children's Place all the time. Yesterday we took her to the mall to ride the carousel. She is decked out head to toe in her new spring outfit from The Children's Place right down to her matching tennis shoes! I'm getting ready to start shopping for a new computer and a few other electronic things and am going to try Coupon Chief for Best Buy when the time comes to make a purchase! I've also done a little preliminary research on dining options! You can use promotional codes to buy gift cards and then head to your favorite restaurant! So your tip for the day is to check out Coupon Chief!

Saving Money is Fun...and Other Fallacies!

Living on a budget is important to retirement success...to date...I am a miserable failure! I am addicted to Chicos and any place that sells children's clothes. I do try to check sales and stores like TJMaxx, but I still spend too much for an old retired girlfriend. There are a few tips...Chicos has a passport club that automatically gives you 5% off all your purchases and some days even more. You also get coupons that apply to purchases.  When you shop their sales and use the coupons and the passport discount, you can get cool stuff cheap! Plus their clothes are designed by real people so even if you're a bit square (physically not emotionally!) you can still wear things that don't look like your grandmother gave them to you! Coupons for department stores are a source of free money...keep your eyes open in the Sunday papers for deals! Another tip is to cash in your American Express or other credit card points for generic gift cards that can be used to buy things! AMX points can get you $50 gift cards that will go a long way to buying things that aren't on your budget! You can also give them as gifts.

Now for the grandchildren!  Each year I set a budget for birthdays and Christmas for the kiddos...and do pretty well for those two holidays.  It's the spontaneous purchases when I gravitate first to the children's department in any store I enter and the other holidays like Valentines, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Ground Hog Day and 50 other major and minor occasions for which I am compelled to purchase presents! I can't give you any tips other than never enter a store again or at least shop the sales racks first. I do try to stay away from toys as I never know what they already have unless I get their Toys R Us Christmas list...that worked great!  I could pick things they wanted and didn't already have.

I'm also trying to write a closet plan...a closet plan lists the things that I have and the things that I need to make the things I have work.  Like more pants.  Last year it was tops and jackets.  I can't seem to get organized.  I also need to move the things I can't wear because I still haven't lost that 10 or 20 pounds.  By moving, it needs to be to eBay but it may just be to my storage closet in the attic.  A girl can dream! You can sell high end stuff on eBay without too much trouble.  I had several Brahmin purses that went really high.  A closet plan should be a realistic plan based on what you really wear in retirement...not what looks really cute.  An Ellen Tracy suit does not really fit in at WalMart, regardless of how great it looks. Let's face it...when you are retired you don't need as much...and if you have a closet plan you may actually only buy things you need and would wear.

I think shopping for clothes, shoes and grandchildren stuff has been the hardest thing for me to control. So...if you have any tips besides just say NO, let me know.

Reward Cards and Free Stuff!

We went to see a great movie today...No Strings Attached....and yes, it's a silly little romantic comedy but it was Woody's day to pick! I really enjoyed it too...we got in free and with our Regal Reward card (http://www.regmovies.com/), we got a free soft drink. Periodically we get a free ticket on our Regal Rewards card but we have a more reliable way to score free movies. Now, you ask...how did we get in free? We use our American Express to pay bills and buy any big ticket items and use the points to get free movie tickets and gift cards for dinners at our favorite restaurants. The AMX for bill pay came for convenience when we were always on the road and bills still needed to be paid...those that would take AMX earn us points and the rest come directly out of our checking account. We use AMX but almost all the cards have a points option. We've bought carpet, cruises and, in Woody's case, a pickup truck on our AMX cards!

We started the points thing when I had a corporate card and spent even more money than we do now. In fact, years ago we used Diner's Club points, our then corporate card, to buy Savings Bonds! Which come to think of it have probably gotten really close to maturity....hmmm....wonder if we have enough for a cruise? But back to freebies...who wouldn't want free stuff. Many of our favorite "survival" restaurants offer coupons. By survival, I mean those restaurants like Shane's Rib Shack, Sam's Sports Bar, China Buffet and lots of others where you eat when you don't want to cook. If you watch the local paper, coupons through the mail, and magazines, you'd be surprised at how many buy one get one coupons or 10% off or "two for one" deals are out there. By using coupons and watching for special offers, we haven't had to quit eating out in retirement. One of our favorite places is Red Lobster and we just scored two $25 gift cards for a mere 5,000 AMX points! Can't wait to use them.

We also have reward cards for my favorite vice...casinos! For years we didn't get those lovely cards that fit into the slot machines and passed up tons of free offers. Since I'm going to gamble and even occasionally win, we signed up for the cards and now we get free offers all the time. We saw Miranda Lambert in concert with free hotel...and we just got back from our trip to Jacksonville for the Gator Bowl and stopped off for two nights at the Harrah's casino in Biloxi free! Now Woody says our hotel rooms were about $130 for the two nights which is what I lost, but the rooms were still worth more than that so it's still a cost savings!!

And of course, my personal favorite, 5% off at Publix (http://www.publix.com/) on Wednesday for Senior Citizens! That discount, coupled with coupons (when I remember to take them) lowers our food bill...we do love to cook now and saving here and there always helps so I can tackle exotic recipes like beer butt chicken and omelets. Remember I traveled for years and forgot how to cook!

So...my tip for today is look for rewards cards, coupons, special offers and discount days and you'll be surprised at how much you can still do or get, even when the stock market tanks in your retirement!