“Saving Money Using the Squirrel Method!”

http://budgetingmommy.blogspot.com/2009/04/saving-money-using-squirrel-system.html

If there is one thing I have learned while budgeting is that the only thing better than a good deal is several good deals…

In our home we call this the squirrel system.

Each week I have a certain amount of money in my budget for things like groceries, necessities, cleaning supplies… so on and so forth. Each week I also allot about $10.00 for my squirrel system.

Imagine that my monthly budget for shampoo and conditioner is $15. Now, imagine I walk into Wal-mart, coupons-in-hand to find that my favorite brand of shampoo and conditioner is revamping it’s bottle style and all of the ‘old’ bottles are on sale 50% off… in addition to that, I have several coupons for $1.00 off. Do I grab one bottle? No! I buy as many of those bottles as my budget and squirrel system allowance will allow!

Why would I do that, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you!

Imagine you are a squirrel… Winter is coming and you have a limited amount of supplies, a limited amount of time and a limited amount of man power. You are traveling around the neighborhood and JACKPOT… a yard full of nuts! Do you, the squirrel, collect one nut? two nuts? three nuts? Of course not! You collect as many nuts as possible in the amount of time with the amount of resources you have available to you…

Do you see where I am going with this?

Times are hard… You work, you have kids (or both), you have limited time, limited resources and you have found a preverbial jackpot of savings! Get to gathering, honey! Winter is coming! Okay, maybe winter isn’t on the way, but you get the picture!

The only thing better than one smoking hot deal is several smoking hot deals! The only thing better than saving $4.00 for shampoo and conditioner is saving $12.00 for shampoo and conditioner!

Now imagine you utilize this system for everything you buy! You print the coupons for the laundry detergent and instead of paying $6.49 a week for laundry detergent you use your coupons and store discounts to get 2 bottles for $1.00 each after discounts. You have now saved $10.98! What if you print two at home and your husband prints two at work? You just saved $21.96! Now we’re talking!

Now imagine you have printed Johnson’s Buddies Soap coupons and received 6 of them free, you redeemed your CVS Extracare Bucks for three free tubes of toothpaste and Walgreens is offering a full rebate if you buy scrubbing bubbles… Now we are talking savings!

Now, think ahead even further… Several weeks have passed. You now have lots of items stored…

You will begin to find a place in your financial life where you are no longer living ‘paycheck to paycheck’ as far as supplies, necessities and essentials are concerned. Long gone are the trips to the store to buy shampoo, conditioner, laundry detergent, dish detergent, fabric softener and paper towels… all at regular retail or pennies off the dollar! Soon will be the days where you are buying strictly based on what is an incredible deal and/or what you are soon to run out of!

Once you are in a position where you are stocked up on all of the things you need, you will be able to devote your entire budgeted amount towards those incredible deals…

And I am going to teach you how to get most of those things for free or nearly free!

Stay Posted!