I’m guessing you’re here because you care about coupons and you care about your money. One way to create income is to cut spending, but the other way…is to create income. I know many out there are struggling to make ends meet and some are dealing with unemployment. I’ve been thinking about what I can do to help and I’ve decided that August is “show me the money” month at The Coupon Project!
To kick off the month of August, I’ll be featuring about 10 readers that are currently making money from work-at-home positions! The idea is to inspire and encourage you that there are legitimate ways you can bring in a paycheck at home. And I’m going to let them do the explaining. Many of my feature readers have additionally agreed to provide contact information so you can approach them individually with more about what they do and how to get started.
Later in the month, I’ll be running a series on how to improve your resume and cover letter. Why? Well one, because I believe you MUST have a strong resume and cover letter in place if you’re to make it in this competitive job hunting environment. And two, I’ve been told at interviews that my resumes stood out of hundreds of others. And three, because folks pay me to write their resumes. (So yes, I do know a thing or two about the subject and I’d love to help you!) I’ll also see if I can pester ask some of my friends that have worked in Human Resources to see if they can lend any ideas about how to nail an interview.
If you have additional topics you’d be interested to have me cover, please let me know!
I am so excited to be attending BlogHer 2010 in New York City next week!
It will be my first ever blog conference and my first time ever in New York City! I keep reading posts about all the anxiety newbie bloggers have about attending this event, so I thought I’d extend an invite to any fellow newbies out there.
If you will be attending as a BlogHer newbie and afraid you’ll end up in a sea of bloggers, please let me know who you are. I’d love to meet you and make sure we have a good time together! Please leave a comment or email me at thecouponproject at hotmail dot com.
And if I have any New York readers out there, I’d love your best tips about navigating New York! I will have a very limited amount of time to do any sightseeing, but I did make sure to keep some free time in my schedule.
Thank you to everyone who has emailed me in response to your interest in participating in the work-at-home series I plan on featuring soon! The response has been great and I’ve gotten readers from a wide range of work-at-home positions including real estate, virtual assistants, freelance writing, medical transcription, and more. I’m positive this series will encourage many folks hoping to make the leap from the office to the home office.
Today is the last day to email me at thecouponproject at hotmail dot com if you’re interested in participating. Please note that if I receive more than one person in the same field, I’ll have the first person who emailed me participate. For more information about this series and how to get involved, see my post here.
EDITED TO ADD: You only need to email me if you would like to be one of the readers featured that works from home.
For those that have asked, I’m hoping to run this series published in early August when I’ll be in New York for BlogHer.
I’ve started getting a number of inquires from folks wanting me to plug their site or company…
So I thought I’d take a moment and let you know that I currently have a limited availability of ad slots for sale my blog. If your company wants to get the most bang for your advertising buck, consider contacting me for rates and opportunities I have available. In all cases, I’ll make sure you’re a good fit for this blog before proceeding.
Why advertise with me?
- More affordable than traditional forms of advertising
- Repeated exposure
- Tracked results
- Personal touch
- Professionally written copy
Please contact me if you are interested in partnering with The Coupon Project!
Last week I shared some things to avoid when working from home.
I would like to feature the flip side of that by inspiring you with ideas of real ways you can make money at home. But I would LOVE your help!
Here’s my vision.
I would like to have a series of at least 5 posts featuring readers that work at home, sharing what they do and how it works. The goal would be to encourage others that want to take this leap and also give them any advice in getting started. If I get more than one reader in the same kind of job category, I will take the first one that emails me.
Here’s where I need your help.
I would like to feature a range of readers in various work-at-home positions. This could truly be anything…freelance work, a rep for a company such as Pampered Chef, an online business, eBay, etc.
If you would be up to be a reader feature, I will email you a series of questions including how you got started, what a typical day looks like, challenges of your job, and what you love about what you do. I would also love to hear how much you’re making…but if you’re not comfortable sharing a dollar amount, perhaps you could let us know if it’s paying the bills or just putting extra spending money in your pocket each month. All you would need to do is fill out the email questionnaire.
How you benefit.
What do you get in exchange for helping me out (besides encouraging others of course?) You will have full permission to promote your business – I will happily link to your site/blog and let you put in a plug for how folks can contact you if they’re interested to learn more. If you want, you can include a photo of yourself or your business.
As an added bonus, I will randomly select one winner from all eligible participants for a $20 Amazon gift certificate! I will select the winner after all questionnaires have been received back.
If you are interested in participating, please email me at thecouponproject at hotmail dot com by this Friday, July 10th.
Thank you for considering!!
Yesterday, I received the following comment in response to my June budget update:
So many other sites are all about “extreme couponing” and you seem to have a balance that fits my lifestyle.
I have actually been mulling over for some time now who I am as a couponer and what The Coupon Project is all about. If given the choice, I think you’ll find the majority of what I share falls more into the category of what I’d now like to coin “Common Sense Couponing” vs. “Extreme Couponing.” Here’s what I mean by that.
1. Not all deals are crazy, amazing, put-that-up-on-my-blog worthy. Do I know how to work a hot Albertsons promotion? Sure. Have I ever turned a profit buying stuff at Rite Aid? You bet. Are the majority of my trips like this? No. Do I care? No. Can I be done with the questions already? OK.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: there are two kinds of shopping trips. The first are my stockpiling trips. These are the ones where I try to hone in on those freebies and cheapies. And incidentally, these are the ones I often feature on my site for inspiration. But guess what – I also have trips (such as one I had yesterday) where I used no coupons and just do my best finding deals (which I did!). These are called need-based trips. And sometimes, you can have stockpile items mixed in with stuff you need – see my picture above from a recent June trip.
2. Don’t be surprised if other bloggers are like me, too (even in secret). Sometimes readers mention that these other amazing bloggers only post amazing deals on their site. Guess what? I bet if you asked a majority of them would admit to the occasional splurge grocery trip or trip where their savings rate was only a meager 25% or less. Or maybe they coupon so they can enjoy eating out once a week or some other nicety. I just don’t want you thinking that there are people out there that get this 100% perfect all the time. We’re human.
3. It’s all about the budget. Did you know it’s entirely possible to save an average of 80% on your groceries yet STILL be over budget? If you do all the deals you can find, you can actually start spending more than you want. If given the choice, I’m going to focus on living within my budget vs. getting lots of great deals just because they’re there.
4. Getting items you want. Sure there have been hot deals on Hamburger Helper in recent months, but what if my family doesn’t eat Hamburger Helper? A lot of folks will say “donate it!” OK, I can do that. But what if I wasn’t planning on going to the store? This might come off as selfish or mean, but I think the purpose of couponing should be first and foremost to save YOUR family money on YOUR groceries. I have a limited amount of time to shop and coupon each week, so it’s important to me that those efforts are working first to help my family. Now I do go through my pantry regularly and donate items to our church. And pretty soon, I’ll be talking about working with local food banks. But what I don’t get is this obsession about getting every darn deal out there whether or not it serves any purpose in your family’s pantry. That, my friend, is the antithesis of frugality.
5. Understanding the importance of your time. This ties in with #4, and it’s something that’s become increasingly important to me. There are times, more frequently than not, where I have to stop and ask myself, “is this deal worth my time? My effort? My gas?” Recently there was a pretty hot deal on yogurt and fruit snacks at Albertsons. I let it ride after contemplation. I knew the fruit snacks would turn into binge items in my house and I’m pretty much the only one around here that actually starts and finishes an entire container of yogurt. So…not worth my time. Don’t be afraid to sit out a deal. Don’t be afraid to let a coupon – even a high value one – expire. YOU, my friend, are worth more than the deals you get.
I want to conclude with a confession. There are bloggers out there, and even readers out there, that can do this couponing a whole lot better than me. And I’m completely unafraid to admit this! What I will say is that having couponed for less than 2 years, we’ve effectively slashed our grocery budget in half and our pantry is stocked. I’ve slowly shifted my deal-getting tactics to a more manageable, common sense approach.
If you’ve been beating yourself up about getting every last deal or thinking you could never compete with the extreme couponers out there, stop. Remember that everyone’s cart and everyone’s approach will be different. I give you permission to coupon this way, and you should too.
If you’ve been following my other blog or follow me on Facebook, you probably noticed I was busy this weekend running 13.1 miles!
Want to know something funny (although it wasn’t terribly funny at the time)? I decided to run with my pedometer, and when I crossed the finish line, it read 14.83 miles! So looks like I got an added bonus. (Not to mention the 2+ miles I spent walking to and from the car and waiting in various lines…)
If you’re at all interested in the marathoning process or just hearing my recap on how the race went, you can read my post over HERE. And if you’re just joining me, you might be interested to know that this is my first long distance race since the birth of my second child a couple years ago. Starting in December, I got serious about my health and fitness again and have dropped nearly 20 pounds. I went from struggling through a 2 mile run to finishing a half marathon yesterday.
I know this blog is all about couponing, but I want you to know that you really CAN turn your life around and make a change if you believe it. I have had the pleasure of watching many of my friends complete both half and full distance marathons…so I’m convinced of how do-able this is and you can’t tell me otherwise! During the race, the back of a girl’s shirt caught my eye. It read “the courage to start and the faith to finish.” That pretty much sums it up!
Now…back to saving money!
I am so excited to share this announcement with you I can hardly stand it!
About the time I did my free class for The News Tribune, I started getting requests for coupon classes. I really love being in front of a crowd and have no problem presenting, but…I had to do some soul searching. You see, I work as a blogger and freelance writer so I can stay at home with my kids. While I’m happy to accept limited speaking engagements on a case-by-case basis, anything that takes me out of the house and away from my kids on a regular basis I simply can’t commit to at this point in my life.
At the same time, I am listening to you. You want more interaction, more personable teaching time and I think I’ve come up with a solution…
On Monday, June 21st at 7pm PST I will be going LIVE! You will be able to watch me LIVE from my website and I will dive into teaching you just as I would a formal presentation. But unlike a vlog, you will be able to interact with me via a live chat stream that will run alongside my video. This means you’ll be able to ask questions and make comments as I present my material.
I’m hoping to offer The Coupon Project Live! at least once a month. (I’d love your feedback on this one!) For my first show, I’ll be starting at the very beginning: stockpiling. To tune in, all you need to do is head under “Getting Started” and then click on the Live! tab. When I start broadcasting, you’ll be able to watch me. You’ll need to create an account to chat, but my husband assured me it took just a few moments during our tests.
Miss the show? Guess what – you’ll be able to watch it on my YouTube channel afterwards! And by the way, you can also view my YouTube videos via my Facebook page now.
Please join me in my newest adventure! Thanks for inspiring me with your feedback and emails…I do listen.
Some of you that are just joining me have commented that I don’t post Safeway deals each week. You’re right, I don’t. Here’s why.
1. I am only one person. Truth be told, there are lots of stores in my area: Fred Meyer, Albertsons, QFC, Safeway, Top Food… but each store takes considerable time to do matchups for each week. I realized early on that two stores was my limit. I wanted to be deliberate about which stores I wanted to follow. For grocery stores, I think Albertsons offers consistently better stockup promotions. And for great deals on healthful, everyday groceries, I like Fred Meyer. I feel these stores complement one another in what they have to offer.
2. Safeway gave me headaches. It seems that if deals don’t work…they are Safeway deals. I’ve had more readers leave comments and email me about their Safeway trips gone awry than any other grocery store. There seems to be little to no consistency in how they handle coupons from store to store, and even within stores. On a personal note, the very first time I tried to use coupons at a Safeway, I was belittled by a cashier who told me to “read the coupon!” Guess what? She was wrong, but since I was new, I ended up leaving discouraged and frustrated. A few months later, I had an equally frustrating encounter with a cashier who rolled her eyes at me at another Safeway store. Not good.
3. Safeway has a wacky, ever-changing coupon policy. Did you know technically you’re not supposed to use a printable coupon if it exceeds 50% of the item’s value? Don’t believe me? Read this. I’ve also heard of cashiers randomly telling customers that they will only accept ONE kind of a coupon per shopping trip (so if you want to buy 2 cereals with 2 coupons…you wouldn’t be able to do so). Their “Super Coupons” frustrate me since they require a minimum purchase, and I recently heard of how a local Safeway harrassed a couponer – pulling her aside simply for using printable coupons and questioned her if she was practicing coupon fraud. When I tried emailing Safeway awhile back about their policy, they were evasive. While I understand not all Safeway stores are like this, I tire of hearing these stories. Bottom line? Safeway is not reliable for being coupon friendly. And personally, I’m not a huge fan. Since this is my experience and my blog, this is what I’ve decided to do.
4. Our Safeway stores don’t double coupons. Many other Safeway stores do, ours don’t.
5. Safeway’s prices are high. In general, I feel your coupons can be better matched up at other area stores.
I completely understand and fully expect that not everyone reading this will agree with me. And that’s OK! There are many wonderful local blogs that regularly cover Safeway matchups. I’m just not one of them. That being said, I am known the feature the occasional Safeway deal – such as the Ziploc one currently running. The same way I’ll occasionally mention a Top Foods, QFC, or Summit Trading deal.
What about you? Do you like Safeway or not? Have you had issues with their coupon policy, or is your store coupon friendly?
Well, the day is here and truth be told…I’m nervous! But I’m also incredibly excited!
In just a couple hours I’ll be headed off to The Tacoma News Tribune to get ready for my 2-hour couponing seminar. As a reminder, this event is FREE to attend. And please know there is still plenty of room, and we’d love to have you! (You can see the full scoop HERE.) And do be sure to check out the awesome multiple Sunday subscription deal for the News Tribune/Olympian! If you attend, I hope you’ll come introduce yourself at the end of the class; it would be great to meet some of you!
Can’t make it? I’m going to be putting up some of my handout materials online later tonight or early tomorrow for you to enjoy.
I’ll be off the computer for the rest of today, but I’ll be sure to check back in later for Albertsons deals. Looks like there might be a ConAgra promotion happening this week.
