Money Saving Tip of the Day: Check out The Krazy Coupon Lady

I was talking to a buddy of mine a while back, catching up on family and such. A little while into the convo, he told me that one of his sisters was actually making money to shop for groceries. I asked if she was a secret shopper, and he said he wasn't really sure how he did it, but that he was pretty sure she wasn't a secret shopper. Being the Cheap Scot that I am, this obviously piqued my interest. I later found out through his sister's blog that she had learned her awesome new skill via all of the great information on The Krazy Coupon Lady website. I have checked out the site a bit, and it really is a cheapskate's heaven. It lists the top coupons from retail giants such as Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS Pharmacy, and many more. The Krazy Coupon Lady takes it further than your average, everyday coupon website though. The publisher of the site has an awesome tutorial on how to go from a "coupon virgin" (as the site affectionately calls us) to a Krazy Coupon Lady in 10 days. The link to this tutorial can be found here. The site also has many great tips on how to save tons of money on groceries each week. The Krazy Coupon Lady has been featured on the TLC show, "Extreme Couponing", which my buddy swears is totally a cool show (I won't name names to protect his recently questionable manliness), proving that it is has a lot of valuable information. It is a free service and definitely worth a bit of perusing. Check it out here

Money Saving Tip of the Day: Skip the Shopping Cart

If you're anything like me, you have a nasty habit of buying things at the store that you don't need. You see something that looks delicious or is bright and shiny and you decide to throw it into your cart. Why do we do this? Well, we are hard-wired by evolution to do so. Just as with eating, our caveman roots cause us to consume as much as possible. This hereditary habit comes from a time when we weren't so lucky to have unlimited food and other goods available to us via stores, so our ancestors would hunt and gather as much as was possible for them. They didn't know if they'd have another chance at it, so they would consume everything in site. We still have this problem nagging us today. Even though we don't need many items at the store, this impulse kicks in and tells us to buy as much as possible. Wanna know an easy trick to overcome thousands of years of human habit? Skip the shopping cart. Just think about it: the less space you have to carry stuff, the less you'll buy. Instead, opt for a basket. Or even better yet, only buy what you can carry in your hands. Now I understand that this trick may not work if you're buying groceries for a lot of hungry mouths, but it does work for those buying just for themselves or those buying just a few items. Try it out a few times. I guarantee you will save a lot of money by avoiding impulse buys.