personal finance in a coupon blog

They say there's a light at the end of every tunnel.
A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
A silver lining to every cloud.

No matter which way you state it, the fact remains—after every grueling, tedious and downright frustrating period of time, there usually follows a period of happiness.

Tax season is no different.

After all those hours you put in, and for all the research, receipt copying and math you had to do to get through for your taxes, the light at the end of the tunnel for tax season is the freebies and discounts that many companies offer on and around tax day. Read More »

Parenting is one of the hardest but most rewarding jobs in the world. Unless you're a parent, you really don't know what a parent goes through. I remember after having my oldest daughter, people would often times ask me what I did. When I told them that I was a stay-at-home mom, they would proceed to ask me again what I did for a living. Just to clarify, the people asking these questions were not parents themselves.

Of course, now that my kids are older, I do have a "fulltime" job, but that does not take the weight off in parenting because it is a 24-7 effort. When you're parenting, there are so many pieces to the puzzle. You have to make sure your kids are well-fed, healthy, happy, learning, respectful, listening, cooperative and the list goes on and on. It goes beyond your selfishness, as their well-being is in your hands. Oprah once said, "I always say moms have the toughest job in the world if you're doing it right." This statement rings true to me (I must say that this is true for dads as well).

As parents, we're always looking for great resources to help us along the way. I've compiled the 411 on everything from potty training your child to having them earn their own income. Read More »

Tax time! If you haven't done your taxes, what are you waiting for? Perhaps, a killer deal? I actually have a couple of those waiting for you below.

While I'm not trying to stress you out, you're only 6 days away from the deadline. Stop procrastinating and get yourself to file because after it's said and done, you'll feel so much lighter for doing it, even if you owe money (well, I did).

Unlike me, I hope you get some money back from Uncle Sam! It's like Christmas all over again and think about all the things you could do with that extra money.

To jump start your tax filing duties, I've got 5 great deals that will get you going: Read More »

Read More »

Having a big family is like supersizing life. It's more of everything- the good and the bad. I never grew up wanting a big family, but since I have one I've learned it means you are totally outnumbered for the rest of your life. Forget man-to-man defense, forget playing zone. It's like David vs Goliath, and you're the little guy.

Having a big family can be a supersized helping of fun as well. Here are seven tips for raising seven kids.

1. You will never have enough food, so shop smart and make a plan.

Kids eat, and big kids eat even more. You will spend a large amount of your time as a mom of many making food for your family. You will go to the grocery store, spend $400, and open the fridge three days later to find it practically empty. You can go broke feeding a half dozen (or more) little people every day.

Menu planning is the key to staying within the grocery budget. Plan breakfasts, lunches, and dinners for maximum savings, shop the sales, buy in bulk, use coupons, and eat more whole foods to save money. Teach your kids when they are young to eat grown up food. If not you'll go broke buying fast food and frozen food at the grocery store. Picky eaters can sabotage the grocery budget.

Make a meal plan and shopping list and stick to it. You'll still spend a lot of money every month on food, but at least it won't go to waste and you won't be making unplanned trips to the store. Read More »

Spring Break is happening over the next couple of weeks around the country, and it's unfortunate that a lot of us probably won't be heading down the beach for a vacation. More than likely, we'll be entertaining little ones all week and it will feel like anything but a "break." 

Here are a few tips for frugal activities you can plan with the kids this week to keep them entertained. 

1. Get a City Pass to see the local attractions. Depending on your city, you can save as much as 52% by purchasing a City Pass to see local hot spots. For example, in Atlanta you can see 5 of the big attractions (World of Coca-Cola, Georgia Aquarium, CNN Studio, Zoo Atlanta or Atlanta History Center, and Fernbank Museum or High Museum of Art).  Read More »

As the mother of three children with a fourth child on the way, I have learned many ways to save on a family vacation. With the end of school approaching in a couple of months, it is time to start thinking ahead to your summer plans. Here are 6 tips on how we save thousands of dollars on our summer vacations each year.

1. Vacation during the off peak months. Find the off-peak months of your vacation destination. This will give you the off peak rates which can be thousands of dollars less than even the week before.

2. Rent a house instead of a hotel. We like to rent a vacation house right on the beach, we use the beach for FREE entertainment all week and save a lot of money by not going out to eat every meal. You can also invite another family to attend and split the cost of the rental. Read More »

Freebies, anyone? Libman is giving out 1,100 cleaning products a day through the month of April (I already got one!). If you have a cat or dog, you can get a bag of Hill's Ideal Balance for free after rebate.

There's also a few snacks you can score for free: Bagel Clusters at Einstein Bagels, yogurt at Pinkberry and coffee at Pete's Coffee & Tea. You can even request a free seasoning sample to use at home. While you're at it, grab the free country music downloads so you'll have something to listen to while your scoring all your freebies!

Freebie #1: 8x10 Photo Canvas w/ Friend Referral - Found this in my email! Refer 5 friends to Easy Canvas Prints (by sharing their email addresses), and they each get a $10 discount code emailed to them.

Read More »

(photo credit: Coco + Kelley)

I am on a quest to get my house organized. In my search for ideas and a better system I found some great ideas via Pinterest.

1. Place shower rings onto a hanger to keep your scarves organized.

Read More »

(photo credit: foshydog)

Recently, Samoa Air started to charge by weight. What this means is that you would pay for what you weigh and what you want to carry on, as in bags. How it works: you would go on their site and guesstimate your weight and get a rough idea of your total trip cost. But it doesn't stop there, once you get to the airport you will be weighted again, so there is no room for white lies or fibbing.

While this may sound very attractive to people who are on the lower weight side or business travelers who may not need to carry a lot of bags, for those that are on the heavier side, this may be a form of "concern bullying" as many media outlets have put it. Read More »

A wise relative who works for an enterprise storage company once told me, "There are two kinds of people: Those who have lost data, and those who will lose data." Read More »

(photo credit: OTENA)

After you're done with spring cleaning, you're left with a huge pile of things that you no longer need or want. You have the option to donate to a local charity, offer them to your family and friends, or you can have a yard sale to make some extra money.

If you have at least one day in your weekend to dedicate yourself to a yard sale, not only is it worth it, you may get addicted to this new found "business". Here are 5 tips to make more money at a yard sale: Read More »