General Money Saving Tips
 Be Content- Hebrew 13:5 Keep your life free from the love of money, and be
content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave nor forsake
you.”
 Be a Good Steward- I Corinthians 4:2 Moreover, it is required of stewards
that they be found trustworthy.
 Be Generous- Proverbs 31:20 She opens her hand to the poor and reaches
out her hand to the needy.
1. Have a budget
a. Consider God’s desires for the money He gives you first
b. Have a plan
c. Don’t spend a single dollar without knowing where it comes from
2. Do-it-yourself (if you can)
a. Household needs
b. Cooking with fewer prepared foods
c. Gifts
3. Cut out frivolous monthly bills
4. Make money by saving money
a. Don’t impulse buy
b. Live on less
c. Use coupons/play drugstore game
Drugstores
Walgreens-Register Rewards (RR)
 Earn “RR” for certain purchases each week
 Once you have RR’s, use them like money to buy the next weeks RR earning deal.
 Use manufacturers and Walgreen store coupons on purchases that earn RR as
well, to reduce cost or even increase the amount of RR you have to spend.
 General sales on needed household/grocery items
 http://moneysavingmom.com/2008/01/walgreens-101.html
CVS-Extra Care Bucks (ECB’s), must have a CVS card
 Earn ECB’s for certain purchases each week.
 Once you have ECB’s, use them like money to buy the next weeks ECB earning
deal
 Manufacturers and CVS store coupons can be used in addition to ECB, when
earning or spending them.
 Ask for rain checks when they are out of an item. They will give you the sales
price AND the ECB earned for buying the item and the rain checks never expire
(good for weeks when there is no good ECB deal and you have ECB’s expiring)
 http://moneysavingmom.com/2008/01/cvs-101.html
General Drugstore Notes
 Sometimes I have bought things I didn’t need because I was “making money” on
them to use on needed items later or I knew someone I could give the item to.
 If you make trips to other cities (Peoria, Morton, etc), there are so many drug
stores of either type that you can add them into your trip fairly easily.
Grocery Stores
Wal-mart
 Price-matching-great for saving trips to Peoria but give you access to “loss
leaders” at other stores (must be for identical item-brand and sizes, even produce!)
 Will take “manufacturer’s” coupons from other stores: Kroger coupons that
come in the mail, ones that print at the register at other stores
 http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/03/walmart-new-coupon-policy.html
Kroger
 Doubles coupons (but only take 2 like coupons per trip now)
 Combine sales, $5/10 type purchases, Catalina coupons and manufacturer’s
coupons
 Get rain checks
 Ecoupons…cannot be combined with paper coupons, so choose carefully
o http://shortcuts.com/
o http://www.softcoin.com/Sites/Kroger_ECoupons/Page/HomePage
o https://www.pgesaver.com/
o http://www.cellfire.com/
 http://moneysavingmom.com/store_deals/category/kroger-central-region
Coupons-Where to get them
1. News papers-Journal Star carries most coupon inserts now 
2. Printables
a. http://www.coupons.com/
b. http://smartsource.com/
c. http://www.eatbetteramerica.com/coupons/
d. http://www.bettycrocker.com/coupons-promotions/coupons/coupons
3. Other sources
a. Catalinas
i. Coupons that print out at the store
b. Clipping service-to get multiples of a certain coupon without buying lots of
papers….http://clippityq.com/
c. Free sample sign-ups (not worth the sample sometimes, but the coupon might
be good)
d. Ecoupons
e. Magazines
f. Junk Mail
Where I am at…
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I go to CVS at least once a month to recycle my ECB’s, certainly not multiple times a week or even
once a week. Rarely go to Walgreens.
Use a few coupons per grocery trip (maybe only 5 this last trip)
Check the Kroger clearance section (found olive oil for less than 66% off without a coupon and
stalked up)
Loving the Wal-mart price matching policy (produce especially, get cheapest prices from all the
stores in town with one stop)
Trying to make more from scratch instead of having to buy biscuit mix, pancake mix, cake mix,
etc., easier to keep baking basics on hand from Aldi than make sure I have every kind of mix
Would love to do a monthly baking day, but seldom have the time
Subscribe to a few money saving sites that come to my outlook email…not spend time going to
blogs, but can quickly see if a deal is good (online deals, store deals, groupons, etc)
o http://moneysavingmom.com/
o http://dealseekingmom.com/
o http://www.southernsavers.com/