YOU ASKED AND I ANSWERED: PART TWO

I am back to answer another round of questions today. I have gotten a lot of really good questions, both personal and about saving money and frugality. So I am going to mix it up a bit today and answer a little bit of both again.

01. Today’s first question comes from Pris. They asked:

With BOGO purchases, should you have a coupon for both of the items to really see a saving?

Absolutely. You should definitely use two coupons in a BOGO free purchase. Because one of your items are already free, it’s like taking the price of both coupons off of one product. I always use two coupons when I purchase anything in a BOGO.

02. Sheena wanted to know:

How did you find this new home to buy?

I’m currently only renting a home. Because of our growing family, I’m not quite sure at this point how much room my family will actually need once the boys get older. My fiance and I plan on buying a home within the next three years, but we want to save up as much money for a down payment as possible before we actually go forward with buying a home.

03. For my third question, Louise asked:

I’d like to start reviewing recipe’s on my blog. Have you found any sites with low cost, simple recipes?

I love this question, because as soon as I read it the perfect website popped into my head. I have been a big fan of the recipe website $5 Dinners. The lady behind this masterpiece feeds her family of four dinner each night for $5 or less. She breaks down the cost of each recipe and each serving. I have found many great recipes on this site for my family. Because we are a little larger then her four family meal, I just add in extra ingredients and go from there. She also hosts a $5 Dinner Weekly Challenge where other bloggers create meals for their family’s for $5 or less as well.

Another website I recommend is Crockpot 365: A Year Of Slowcooking. I became a fan of the crockpot last year and am on the search for another one. (Mines completely gave out right before my move.) At this website, the lady behind it vowed to use her crockpot everyday in 2008 to cook one of her family’s meals. Although the challenge is over, you can still go through all of her archives and read her recipes, complete with pictures.

04. Question number four comes from the lovely Pris. They wanted to know:

Can you share some tips on how you keep your coupons organized and accessible?

Oh Pris, you have read my mind, along with a lot of my readers minds. I am working on a downloadable mini eBook on coupon organization and how I organize my coupons. It is about ten pages long and will be available for download on Friday. I have included pictures of my coupon organization system, so if you stay tuned you will be able to see how I keep myself from having to clip every single coupon each Sunday.

05. For my last question of the day Sheena asked:

Do you have any general budget tips to share on how to manage the entire household?

Yes, I have plenty of tips. I am currently working on a new series for my blog where I will walk you through creating, and monitoring, your budget. It will come with worksheets and downloadable forms for you to print out and work on to help you come up with a budget for your family. This new series will be introduced in the next week or two.

Thank you so much for all of your questions. Please keep them coming. I love it when I am able to interact with my readers and answer your questions. I have received a lot of positive comments from all of you so far and I am looking forward to answering more questions this week.