BlogHer - saving money - Comments

Our decision to go car-free

greenyourdecor — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:50:55 -0500

Our decision to go car-free wasn't our own. Long story short, the economy got us. When we were living in a place with easy access to bus stops (albeit with an outdated bus system that stopped at 8 p.m.), losing the car was tough, but not impossible to overcome. We did a lot of walking (which led to a 40-pound weight loss for me...yippee!) and we bought bus passes.

Where we live now, however, the nearest public transportation is easily 10 miles away. The nearest grocery store is easily 15 miles away. No kidding. This has made our lives a lot more challenging. Thankfully, we have the ability to share a car with family, so we're able to get where we need to go. But if nothing else, not having a car has made us become a lot more savvy at planning trips so we can do everything at once. And it has also made realize that a car is a convenience -- not an absolute necessity, although it can feel that way when you live in a rural area.

I wish I'd written a post in time to enter the carnival, but I am certainly inspired to write one now :)

Thanks ladies!

Jennae Petersen

GreenYourDecor.com - Your guide to stylish, eco-friendly home decorating!

Day Five

How Green Is My Valley — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:32:51 -0500

So I'm realizing that this is the end of my car-free week; we have some pre-arranged car-dependent activities on both Saturday and Sunday. I suppose they could be done without the car, but I'm not sure that my biking skills (or my confidence) are strong enough to fill in the transit gaps--particularly in a less-familiar part of town.

With that in mind, Day Five--my final post for this challenge--is up.

Day Four

How Green Is My Valley — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:39:03 -0500

My latest post is up: Day Four, in which the course of my day is not really affected at all by the challenge. Sounds fascinating, doesn't it?

Very cool!

KYouell — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:10:46 -0500

I'm so glad that you linked to CafeMama's post too. I highly recommend watching the video of her Ignite presentation -- I mean meditation -- because it is wonderful. I think it really helps people to hear her voice and see that she's not some wacky person, just a mom who is living her convictions.

This morning on our way to our library walk I got to the top of a hill where I can see quite a ways out to distant mountains. As I descended the hill I realized I was looking through a layer of smog. My small little hill went above, through, and below that smog layer. Never would have seen that from a car, and I had the pleasure of knowing I wasn't contributing to the smog.

It's easy to go through the rush of your day and not notice those kind of things. To me car-free is very much like slow food. Your whole way of looking at your world changes if your eyes are open to it.

Thanks for giving me more to write about on my blog, too!

So far, so good

How Green Is My Valley — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:18:37 -0500

I'm still looking forward to ice cream, too! I didn't eat any last night, though, so I probably won't make a trip to the store until tomorrow.

A lot of what I'm doing isn't all that different from my daily routine. Most of my days are car-free or car-limited already. Most of the time I use the car for errands and to meet up with friends, but the majority of my commute is by bus. And I have ridden to the bus stop in the past; I just had fallen out of the habit. Today's visit to the farm market, which itself is new, will be a bigger test. I still haven't decided if I'm going to bike there and back, or take public transit in one or both directions. It'll depend on how I feel at the end of the day. And it'll depend on whether my panniers are still chained to the bike rack.

Still looking forward to ice cream!

Beth Terry — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:59:21 -0500

@How Green Is My Valley So far, are you enjoying the car-free life?

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

Day Three

How Green Is My Valley — Wed, 27 May 2009 22:02:45 -0500

It's been great to read about other people's experiences, and to have concrete examples about how a change of perspective can make a huge difference. Beth, thanks for setting up this carnival!

My Day Three post is up now, with more to come.

I just went to Walgreens and

MadreOates — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:23:36 -0500

I just went to Walgreens and bought all coupon items, only things I needed, and I got $56.19 worth of stuff for just $36.65! I was so excited! Right after that I headed to Harris Teeter, who is now doing triple coupons.....the bill before coupons was $123.56 and after coupons I spent just $74.32! $10.32 was how much I saved with the VIC card, and the rest were coupons! I did buy some things full price too. But I had a coupon for pretty much everything on my grocery list. I have a few more things I need to buy, and I will be saving my $1 coupons for FF double wednesday! I will post my savings I made with them after that trip!

$179.75 worth of groceries and I paid just $110.97!

I have yet to figure out how my friends are able to use more than one coupon (like a combination of coupons) to buy things, or how the heck do you get free stuff?! I am new to the world of coupons as well, I was buying ALL organic, but a recent mishap has made us REALLY tight on cash, and I find shopping this way MUCH more liberating and esteem boosting than eating organic. Hey, it's still healthy for you right?! And to think I used to throw coupons away!

That is so exciting! I

krisklip — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:40:09 -0500

That is so exciting! I know I get a high from saving money too! That's how I got hooked. You really hit the jackpot! Doubled up to $1.50! Oh yeah and them scanning your coupons twice was really great too because when the computer does it, it will only double up to 2 coupons for the same item. Anything past 2 it will just give it to you once, but if she manually scanned each twice you got credit for everything. That is so awesome. I am excited for you. I have never seen a newbie go head first like you just did! Great job!

Hello!

Annieflies — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:10:03 -0500

I just came across your blog while doing a search for 'using coupons at farm fresh'. I have to tell you I am new to the coupon game, and just went to FF last night for my first 'double coupon Wednesday' shopping session. I had only been 'couponing' once before, the previous week, at Harris Teeter during their triple coupon week, and was completely hooked. A friend showed me the ropes there, and I came away with 43.66 (after VIC card discount) worth of groceries for 14.66. I immediately went home and reorganized my coupons into a larger 3-ring binder with pocket pages, like the ones used for trading cards. Per my friend's instruction, I have been buying and/or scamming from friends and family 5 total newspapers on Sundays, and cutting 5 copies of everything, whether i think i will use it or not (my hubby luuuuuvs to cut coupons - who knew, lol!). As I file them in the binder, I decide whether or not I will really use this one or that one, depending on the amount of discount or likelihood of using the product. My MIL collects the unused ones and ships them to Germany to an army base there, where they can apparently use expired coupons up to 4 months later. I have not gotten into any coupon sharing sites yet, but that is next on my research agenda. Anyway, I was on such a high last night after shopping at FF, that I couldn't sleep and was up til 2:30 am! Forget movies and expensive entertainment, I can just get my jollies from shopping at FF! I bought approximately 252.00 in groceries for only 141.55. Plus, as I was checking out the girl at the register informed me that one, I had forgotten to get my 'free eggs', which actually turned out to be 3 dozen free eggs due to buying at least two of three different qualifying items, and two, that they were running an unadvertised special that day only for double coupons up to $1.50, not just $1.00!!! The other great thing, and I don't know if it will ever work again once they get their new computers fixed, is that since none of the codes were doubling automatically on their new system, she had to manually run each coupon over the scanner twice. The significance of this is that they either didn't care if I got credit for things like the 5 free vitamin waters, plus the .50 per bottle overage, giving me a credit back of 2.50! Nor did she even bother to check to see whether any of the coupons had limits or 'Do Not Double' on them, which a few of them did. I don't know if that is standard operating procedure or not, but I do know that they don't have a limit on the number of coupons you can use per visit or per day, and I used about 70. Sorry this is so long, I am still in shock from the trip last night, and needed to share with someone! Long story short (well, not really!), I walked away with 223.19 worth of stuff I had coupons for, plus 29.26 in full price purchases, for a total of 141.55 out of pocket. According to the calculation on the receipt, that was a savings of 110.90, or 45%. However, I also paid the bill with a FF gift card, which they are promoting this month, which saved me another 10% off of the total! You buy the GC for 300.00 and they load it with 330.00, hence the 10%. This is running thru April 15, so I plan on getting some more as soon as I can afford it. On top of that, I got a gas receipt discount to use at the FF gas station of .28 per gallon of gas, up to 15 gallons, giving me a total of $5.20 off my next tank of gas - whooohooooo!!!! I know they double those gas discounts on Fridays, but I think there may be a limit, i will have to check on that. So, finally, after checking out, they gave me my receipt and the in-store coupons that print out, and I got a $5.00 off coupon for my next visit! The fun never ends!! The bag boy was so excited, and the guy behind me in line was just awestruck, they had never seen someone save over 100.00 by using coupons before, and frankly, neither had I! Whew! It was a LOT of work, cutting and sorting and filing, plus the laborious shopping and calculating, but man, I am ready for next week! I totally understand the whole storage issue thing, I bought 6 sour creams, just cuz they were only .25 or something ridiculous like that, lol! I already have a huge tub in my fridge (like restaurant bulk size sour cream), so I am on a quest to find recipes that use sour cream now, plus all my neighbors are getting free sour cream this week, lol! Thanks for listening, and again my apologies for the long post. Just sharing the joy, I'm sure you understand!

ps - I shopped at the FF on Battlefield blvd south, in Great Bridge, just fyi.

Hate the Thought of Two Cars!

SpillZone — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:42:45 -0500

We have three young kids (and carseats) riding in the back of of our
4-door car. We are relunctantly considering another vehicle, but I am
REALLY dreading the extra expense, despite the added convenience factor.

I am an idealist. My husband is a realist, but he usually rides his bicycle or takes the poorly-timed bus to campus, where he's a full-time PhD student. However he now needs a car for work on the weekends.

I care for our children at home, so the main uses for the car are outings and errands. We've been a one car family for our entire 8.5 years together. I wishing our city did ride-sharing, but having a car (or two) is regarded as essential by most people here, no matter how low one's income is.

We've done allright with one vehicle for so many years. Obviously it can be done. The question for us is: for how much longer?

Good thinking!

Thorne — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 01:17:43 -0500

We also use plastic water bottles as plant warmers. The bottles absorb heat during the day and hold it pretty well at night (not quite this early, but soon!)

"I don’t at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes one far too conceited." - Oscar Wilde

<a href="http://thornesworld.wordpress.com">Thorne's World</a>

Great Idea!

annewalk — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:17:37 -0500

Smart (and quick!) thinking. I used to have a raised bed garden as well. Love them to bits. From now on, all raised bed gardens should be equipped with poles on the corners for just such and occassion :)

living small at tinymine

Laina@abundantfoodsavings

lallen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:32:19 -0600

Laina@abundantfoodsavings

Where do I sign up for the Brownie of the Month Club?

ewillse — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:37:01 -0600

Oh right. Season of giving. Not getting. Heh.

These are great ideas- some familiar and some new discoveries.

- E

elizabethwillse.wordpress.com

Freelance Book Reviewer