Modern Couponing For Beginners

Just extreme couponing is not cool, Like relying on couponing is not cool, But walking up to a joint with a coupon that's cool. You mean, like like an establishment, not like a drug and estab publishment. Can we go here? No? Unless I got coupons. Oh, you will hear funny coupons stories throughout this episode, So even if you're not interested in cute bodings, if you're interested in funny stories, stay tuned. Yes, but first, this episode is brought to you by our

annual debt Free Christmas Planner. It's ready, it's here. Debt Free Christmas Planner is back and it's still free. So this free twenty page planner will help you play in your holiday budget gifts, track online orders, right out your favorite holiday recipes. Because there is this one salted caramel apple pie recipe that I go back to and I have to refined every year, had to until I have the Debt Free Christmas Planner. It'll just help you go

through Christmas without going into debt. And who doesn't love that? There is even a tracker to say for next Christmas, and it's this cute tree and color and all the ornaments. It's very cool, just like a cupon. So if you are already on our email list, then check your inbox today. You will see it in there. It will be there.

If not, head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Christmas to grab yours and that will get you on our email list, which gets you all the freebes we send out, which is at least once a month we send out something free like this, So I don't know what you're waiting for. This all sounds so amazing And my biggest takeaway is that I'm now going to replace any time I would want to say cool as a cucumber. Instead, I'm going to say cool like a cuban, cool as

a coupon. Oh that's a shirt, that's a T shirt. We are like generally opposed to like setting up a lifestyle around coupons, but it's not as if they're not still helpful and useful, and it doesn't have to be. And this is where the modern comes in. Doesn't have to be like the nine nineties when our moms had like the accordion files and their purses, purses were always large and had to pull all that out and like rifle through it. Some people still do that. That's not

the modern version. Yeah, we're not about that that life. And we often make fun of cupon's that is kind of the general frugal thing that people think of, and we love to poke fun at them, but we know that we also use them in contexts where they make sense. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So not too good for a cupon, I'm not too good for as a cupon? Cool as a cupon. So some episodes you might want to cue up for after this one.

The last cupon episode we did, episode thirty nine. I'll just remind you we're at episode to fifty nine and our last cups which is I mean, we do a meal planning episode every like ten weeks so or last probably probably every six weeks. So if you can anticipate how important we think cupons are in the hierarchy, our last one was episode thirty nine, and this one is actually probably more important. It's episode seventy. Grocery store sales cycles to know about. We will talk about grocery store

sales cycles. They are important to cuponning, but they're important to saving money in general. So episode thirty nine, which is cuponning for extremely normal people. On an episode seventy, we're going to expound on episode thirty nine. It's not going to be the same episode, but it's going to

be an updated and maybe a little little deeper. This is more of a beginner's guide, So that's what we're going You want to get into our first article, Jill, Yes, This first article is from the coupon project dot com and the Art Goals title Couponing one oh one The Complete Beginner's Guide to Couponing, which is an accurate title. I think in my estimation, as I read through this, I started to get to the point where I'm like, this is a lot. This is a really exhaustive article.

I don't think I'm gonna go this deep into it. So even their beginner's guide really covers a lot, but some really useful stuff to pull out of here, And of course they begin at the beginning. Even when it comes to cuponning, You've got to know your why, and I like this part you gotta know your wife for like your savings goals and financial goals. Apparently you got to know your wife for cuponding as well. But why

do you want to start using coupons? And so they kind of break down some possible options, some possible reasons, like maybe your motivation is you want to save for something and so cutting costs wherever possible is what you want to do, or maybe you just don't want to pay full price for anything. Like figuring out why you want a coupon can help in how you engage with coupons, how deep of a dive you go, and maybe hopefully

make the whole experience just a little bit better. But I also like the two rules that they state at the end of this section about figuring out your why. First, you need to figure out what your family regularly needs and uses, and second, find the sales and coupons on

those items. I think one of the reasons that we can push back the frugal friends so much on coupons is that we have seen it tend towards a little bit of stacking and stockpiling or getting things just because it's on sale, and that is not the modern frugal way of living. So wherever we can find ways to cut costs and the things that we actually do use and we actually do value you, then absolutely that's when coupons can come into place. So I really appreciate that

foundational piece. What do you need and use find the coupons on those things. Don't just be buying things because you've got a coupon for it. Yeah, definitely, So once you figure out your why. So maybe you're just doing it while you're saving for a vacation, while you are unemployed, etcetera, etcetera. Personally, I do it to buy stuff at Target and Starbucks. So we'll get into how I do that later, But that's my why for cuponding. The next is to understand

sales cycles. And this also says stockpiling. But I love being prepared, but I don't love clearing out space in the garage, buying an extra shelf, buying an extra freezer and buying a whole bunch of extra storage to stockpile. I'm not about that, LAFE. I do love it when I see people who still do a version of extreme cuphonnting, but only in order to donate that stuff. So I

love that kind of stockpile that's consistently donated. But I think the more important thing is to understand sales cycles, because most of the time you'll save a bunch by simply buying items when they're on sale, and then you can use a cup on on top of that for icing on the cake. So the article says, for example, a full price of a box of cereals three dollars, I'm sorry, it's four five dollars, and you have fifty cent cuban. If you use the cupan when the cereal

is at full price, will pay to fifty. But if you wait a week or two for a sale, you might see the price dropt to two, and then you'll get it for one fifty box, which in today's cost would be for fifty. So that's kind of usually six, yeah, depending on the cereal. Even normal cereals, I don't see them for less than four. But so yeah, no, the sales cycles. Go back listen to episode seventy where we

talk about sales cycles. But also you can just look at your stores circulars and you'll be able to see what's in season, like what season are we in, and you can pretty much predict what's going to be on sale. They don't make it hard. I love that concept of following the sales cycles, kind of knowing what's in season.

And I think even when we did that episode seventy on the sales cycles, there was research that pointed to, particularly when it comes to produce, that's where you'll see the most bang for your buck is getting this what's in season, and also some research pointing to the fact that that's what our bodies most need and do well on, is the produce that's currently in season for your area. So just a win win win across the board. So jumping to organizing coupons, the article also goes into how

to find coupons. We're going to get into that and the next article kind of our favorite apps for coupons. But then once you are into the coupon in game, figuring out how to organize them. Now this part is where they kind of lose me because I'm not going to be the one who's clipping. But of course, if you are going to your grocery store circulars or I don't think you ever really need to print a digital coupon online, I would say keep it digital as much

as possible. If you've got tangible coupons, then yeah, you're gonna want to make sure that what you've got is in date. It's for the store that you want to shop at, it's for the type of ingredients that you're purchasing. But all these pictures that are coming up, like plastic bins and drop files and accordion things, I don't know, y'all. I think I'm a little bit past that. I'd say go the digital route and keep it in a folder on your phone, pull up the digital coupon when you're

at the store. So I'm just taking a hard left turn off this article and saying do it digital. Yeah. And if you are in our for Well Friends club, then we are doing a simplified challenge this month, and the whole first week was simplifying your stuff, and part of that was your digital stuff. And so I know a ton of people have just gone through and kind of cleared everything out, and so this would be one of those things that gets a screenshot and a folder

and then you know, gets deleted. These folders get deleted regularly as they expire, so this would be kind of something to put in there and organize. So yeah, I mean manufacturers and stores are going digital. They all have their own apps. So a lot of the times you can go to your grocer's app and just clip the coupons there and just they scan one barcode. They don't have to scan a bunch. So yeah, keep it digital. That's the future. And anything you have to print out

you can surely find online. I almost scannerante it, yeah, or it's like a picture like you're saying, and then put it into an album on your phone. There's always a way. Definitely digital. So then once we find our cupons, which Jill mentioned we will go a little deeper into in the next article, we are going to use them.

So now we go into how to use cupons, and she's got several steps and this first one, I love is to choose one store, and she says, yes, there are sales available at just about every store except Aldi who if you are blessed enough to have an al D. Forget this episode, turn it off, go to al D. If you are not, which we know many of you are not, so sorry, keep listening, but choose one store. Do not store hop for a cupon. Just don't don't do it. It's not worth your time for the money

that you will save. It may make you feel a little good, but I know most of the people listening are getting weight and realizing that that store hopping it's not the end all be all. So choose one store, even the cupon project says to and just prioritize that one and as you get used to the process, you can maybe add another store to your rotation. She says that,

But I'm just like, do one store. Do one storeman, and then pick that store's weekly add You can look at it online and pick it up at the store. They also will probably mail it to you. That's another thing. You don't need to print out cupons, because whether you want them to or not, they're going to get mailed to you. Every Wednesday is at my house is cupon Day. Every Wednesday is when we get our cupons. And no matter how many do not send me junk lists, I

sign up for at this point, I don't know. I'm just signing up for stuff that says don't send me stuff, And it doesn't matter how many times I sign up or where always get cupons on Wednesday? They know they're like, but she's got a podcast, she wants the Yeah, so you can get them there in the store. And then those would be the only in paper ones that I would use, And then it's it's also the last one,

which honestly is the first one. Free me is make a list, make a meal plan, make a list, and then cupon based on that, because as we'll see later, cupons are not made for you. Cupons are made for manufacturers and stores, so you got to protect you first, and that's with a list. So create your boundaries, stick to them. One store, one list, one meal plan, and again cupons are just the icing on top. Yes, I love that perspective. And the final reminder from this article

is that cupons are a marketing tool. So I think you know, it can be easy to get excited about how I'm getting a special deal and on so special and I'm getting money off of something. But again back to our basic foundational rules. Only if it's something we need and typically use not going out of our way to get a deal on candy we're never going to eat, or so that we actually know we don't like the smell of you're catching my drift. So they are a form of advertising to get you to spend on even

potentially things you might not otherwise purchase. I don't know if you've ever noticed, but a lot of times new products will have a coupon associated with it, just to get you to try something new and break your typical routine and spend money where you wouldn't typically spend it. So be on guard, be aware, remember the foundational rules. Coupons our marketing tool. But we can use those things to our advantage, but we've got to be wise and

intentional about it. Yes, if I know that I want a treat from the grocery store, and I have planned for that, and I look through the cupons of all the new products and I pick a treat based on that, that's great. If I know that I want to go out to dinner twice in the month of November December, and I don't know where, I use a cupon to narrow down my choices, that's great. So they can be used you don't have to plan things to a t

to the penny. But if you are planning, and you're planning for a cupon and you leave kind of that flexibility open, then these can work out in your favor. But yeah, I mean, don't allow the cupon to tell you what to buy. You tell the Cupon what you're gonna buy. Yes, who's in charge here? Yes you are, You're in charge. That's you, Jill. Let's go grocery shopping. And the last reminder is that some items never go

on sale. Some will not. A lot of those generic items they ain't going on sale, they're already on sale, and you know what, they'll probably be cheaper not on sale than even brand names with the cuban, So that's another thing you gotta look at. So really really think about your cupon usage as you are, and always be reevaluating as well. I mean, they are really the icing on top. You're lucky if you get a couple, and that's great. So let's just put it into perspective that.

I mean, if there's something you want and you're planning for it and saving for it and can afford it, you may not have to wait for Cupon for it, you can just buy it. It's okay, you have permission, it's okay. If you're not getting it for fifty cents less than the regular buyer, you're okay. You're gonna be fine. So let's dive a little bit deeper on like where are we finding these modern cupons? Where are the cupons? Now?

If you don't want to buy the Sunday paper Sunday papers like ten bucks now, it's probably it's not that much. It is expensive for you have to think about this if you're buying a Sunday paper for the coupons at like four dollars and you say four dollars based on the coupons, and there you have lost. You've lost the game. So yeah, like where's the free places we can get cupons? Is without a lot of time, especially when you see like the average amount that people are saving by cuponning.

And we're not talking extreme cuponners, but kind of throughout both articles that kind of referenced overall savings for most consumers, and you're talking like a hundred to two hundred dollars a year that you might save in intersecting with coupons. We're not talking about doing it in an extreme way, but yeah, a hundred to two hundred dollars a year versus is potentially spending five to six dollars weekly on a paper that math doesn't work out in the end. Yeah.

So thankfully technology has really revolutionized cuponning, made it a lot easier, a lot less time consuming, but still used as a marketing tool for companies. And you just have to know anytime you're using an app for free, that app is making money in some way, and this is how their coupon apps are are making money. These companies pay to have these cupons on their app because they know people will spend more with them. So just go into it knowing and no, and be okay with that.

Own it if this is important to you. If not, then this might not be what you want to engage in. But I would even go a step further that, especially the ones where they're asking you to like link your credit card to it. There for sure collecting data on you, and they're selling your data and that's why you're getting the deals and the freebees, because they're making goo goo off of you by tracking you're spending. Yeah, and it's

not like personally identifying, it's just ambiguous data. We use all of these these four that we're going to talk about, we use all of them, and I'm totally fine with that. But yeah, just go in there knowing and you decide if you're okay with it. So let's go through. There's a list of six and and we have like a top four. We'll mention all six, but we're going to

dive into four. So what's our first one? Chill? So this comes from Investipedia and they're going through the best cupon apps, and the first one is the best overall, which is Josh. And essentially Josh is what you can sign up for through through this app and they kind of automatically apply cupon ones to all of your purchases. It's definitely super great for restaurants. You get a one dollar bonus when you connect your card and make your first cash back eligible purchase. You can go to Frugal

Friends podcast dot com slash Josh for that one. But kind of best overall, it kind of sinks to the purchases that you're making as you go along, it finds the coupons for you and automatically applies those discounts to your account. And I believe Yeah, it ends up in cash back for you that you can eventually actually have money in your pocket. You don't have to be hunting and searching for all the coupons. It's just as you

swipe your card and make a purchase. If there is a coupon available for what you've purchased, it gets applied to your account in the form of cash back. Yeah, so this is actually less of a cupon app and it's a cash back app. And I will also agree a lot of times these articles, these are all like affiliates, so everyone it gets a kick back when you sign

up through the link. Everyone gets a kickback when you go to Frugal Friends podcast, dot com, slash Josh, we get a little kickback if you sign up and link your card to Josh. Like that's everybody's doing it. But we're obviously not going to recommend ones that we don't use and recommend ourselves. And Dosh isn't the highest affiliate. These websites will usually put whatever like website or app gives them the highest kickpack, they'll usually put that one

at the top. I know for a fact Josh is not. And it's also my top pic because it is automatic you don't have to think about it. And it's local business oriented. So for us, it's mostly restaurants. I'm not sure how it isn't everybody's So this isn't really a groceries app. This is like if I want to go out to dinner twice a month and date night once a month, and we're like, okay, where should we do

date night? I will go into Josh and see what's in there and then pick something based on that UM and you can just get five percent back pretty much is standard summer higher, some are lower, but and I just connect the card. I don't have to scan any receipts. I don't have to select any rebates. Sometimes I will get cash back from Josh out of place that I did not even know is eligible, and then it just shows up. Yeah, and you don't have to choose gift

cards or anything. You really do get cash back. And so Josh, hands down is my favorite. I do believe it's the best overall, and I agree with this article. And some really recognizable brands where you can get cash back Walmart and Stacarte, Disney Plus, Duncan World Market, Thrive, Sephora. So if you're shopping at any of these places, it's definitely worth considering. Yeah, we took lift a lot when we were in Nashville and all of those rides I got cash back on Josh and I didn't even realize

it until I logged in later. So highly recommend. It's, just yeah, stacking saving because if you're also using a credit card on those things, then you're getting your points, you're getting your cash back. Yeah, just stacking it. And if you don't use credit cards, and it's also a great thing too, because it's a way to get cash

back without it. Yes, yes, all right. So the next one that we recommend that Investor PD also recommends is I bought A. So for many years, I've been between Fetch and I bought A and I bought It's just been there are some seasons where Fetch has been winning it for me, But right now I bought it is winning it for me. I bought A so many grocery cupans and it's got the coupons on any item which includes generics, and Fetch has just been losing it like

with the variety and stuff. So I'm gonna say I bought a. Fetch isn't even on this list, which I was actually very shocked about. But you do get a if you are not already on Ibota. They have so many coupons, and I was looking at cupon tom which kind of compiles a lot of cupons, like you can search like downy and it'll tell you all the Downy cupons and where they're located, and gosh, they're just all on Ibota. Some are on cupons dot Com. But I

mean this is just where the retailers are going. I mean, if you're a retailer in a grocery store, you're bound to have a cupon on Ibota at some point. So that is kind of why I'm leaning towards that you do get a ten dollar bonus after you redeem your first brand name offer if you sign up through forr Girl Friends podcast dot com slash I bought a fun Then on this list, we've got Honey, which they list as best for automatic savings. I don't really know why

they called it that category. It's a chrome extension. It's because Honey finds cupons online. It's similar like racketin would be cash back. Well, Honey is actually upun codes and instead of searching for the cupon codes, it just you click a button and it tries all of them, so that's kind of it's thing. Yeah, it seems like Josh is also looking for the coupons. No, Josh is not cubans. Josh is cash back, just cash back, but on the

things that you buy. Okay, I mean it kind of all ends up being the same for us as the user getting money back for purchases. Capital one Shopping is its closest competitor, which is the next on the list, But I for sure like Honey more than Capital one Shopping, and they have Capital one Shopping down here is best for price comparisons, which sure, but that's not a cupon, So yeah, I definitely prefer Honey. Honey. You add it to Chrome, so it's a Chrome extension that kind of

automatically searches for these coupons when you're shopping online. So that digital component, just like a lot of these other apps, is fantastic. So you can apply it to to a lot of the online shopping. And then the article states that you can only get cash back in the form of gift cards, but you can get it in money. Honey is operated through PayPal, so you can get cash back as it searches for the coupons for the things

that you're buying online. Yeah, so you get every time you It's ambiguous now that PayPal is pot Honey, I don't fully know how it works anymore, but for making certain purchases using Honey, I don't know. You end up with these rewards, and it used to only be you could redeem them for gift cards. But now that PayPal owns Honey, you can cash out via PayPal, so that is nice. Capital one Shopping you can still only get gift cards. So if I'm going to download one, which

I do only have one, I'm using Honey. I'm not using Capital one, Jen. Are you aware does Honey work with Amazon? Yes? It does. It definitely does. Tell me to PayPal and Amazon play night. So no, it's not going to give you. It's not going to find you coupons for Amazon products. It is going to show you the price history of Amazon products. And that's why I love Honey. It does all the things Capital one Shopping does,

it just does them better. And so Honey will show me over a six month period if the thing I'm looking to buy has been at a lower price at all, and if there is some kind of sales cycle that the seller is using, so I can maybe predict, Oh, if I just wait two weeks, this is going to be this price again, and you can go back I think up to six months of price history, or it will say, hey, this is the lowest this has been in six months. Grab it. So, yes, Honey does work

with Amazon. I have. It's between Honey and Camel. Camel. Camel is another one, Yeah, that does a lot with Amazon that doesn't offer it's not like a cup on site, but if you want to do like price comparisons and stuff. But I'm pretty sure Honey has caught up to Camel Camel Camel, So wow, Honey seems slower than Camels. But maybe. Frugal Friends Podcast dot com slash Honey. You know, we've

got links for all of it. I don't think that there's a bonus, but if you want to, you want to get to Honey in the roundabout way, Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Honey, it'll take you there if you want to type in a much longer U R L to get to Honey. That's the one, and the last one is probably it's my second favorite. It's the one that's usually at the top, and I never hate that it's at the top because it does offer the biggest bonus for both you and the refer it's racket In.

And honestly, this is the time of year we use racket In. It is these holiday months November, December, and January when we're using the gift cards we got his gifts, So tis the season for Racketin. And their bonuses like vary from thirty to forty dollars after you make thirty

of qualifying purchases. So essentially, if if the bonus is forty bucks and you make forty dollars of qualifying purchases within ninety days of signing up, so you buy a forty dollar gift for someone, then you get that money back. So you're essentially like you get something for free. So that's the welcome and you don't usually you don't have to do it in one purchase. If you spend at least forty dollars within those ninety days, you could buy

what seven five dollar things? Eight five dollar things? I can do, man, maybe just buy two then that's good. So I had to make it to really break it down into small yeah, which is crazy because I remember their bonus used to be twenty dollars and I thought that was great, and they just keep increasing its keeping up with inflation people are buying and racketons and marketing tools.

So again, they have the most robust list of places where you can shop online, and when you shop at one of their qualifying retailers, you get cash back on your purchase. Depending on sometimes there will be like category exclusions, but for the most part now so I have the racketin Chrome extension that just pops up and says, hey, there's cash back here, which is you do have to fight that. You know, if you're like on the verge of making an impulse by and you see cash back,

that is something you have to fight against. But otherwise, if I was going there to make a purchase anyway, it's like dang okay, of course I'll get six at extra six percent in cash back and get that big fat check. I love that The minimum to get your cash back is five dollars and one cent. It is the lowest threshold of any of these apps. You get it quarterly, so it's the most straight forward. They will just automatically send it to you, whereas other apps you'll

have to cash out. I think racketings super transparent. I think they're authentic as far as like these kinds of cash back and app like things go. So we've used it and recommended it longer than anything else on this list since day one of Frugal Friends, we've been recommending it since they were called something else ebates. That's right, Yeah, I forgot what it was, but I'm like, they used

to be called something else. You can still go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash ebates and get to racketin, but you can also go to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash or racketin r k you t e n get to your forty bucks. It's usually not a lot on the cash back, just because I think it is such a robust and there's so many rea tailors. But again, like I'm always getting every I get small fat check every month from things that I didn't even plan to

get cash back from. Yeah, well, I think I've said this in previous episodes, but and this would have been a couple of years ago, but I used racket in to purchase a vacation through group on and got you know, it was a small percentage of cash back. But when I'm spending over a thousand dollars, I got like a hundred fifty dollars back on that, So that's real nice. I did the same on price Line. I got a hotel room via price line and got cash back there

that I wouldn't have gotten. I don't think if I, or more than I would have gotten it on the website because it was a Disney hotel, so I probably wouldn't have gotten any cash back. But I did because I booked it via price Line. I got a lower price on the hotel room, and I got cash back via racketin. So you know what else we can stack on stack on stack and is always giving back, always gives back. We have been recommending this and stay zero of the show the that's right, it's time for the

best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hi guys, Well, I am a Bill of the Week fan, but I'm a new listener and Originally, I'm a bill of the week avoider. I avoid them. They come in the mail, I don't open them up, especially if I think they're

going to be enormous. So my bill of the week, as I had a store credit card bill that was coming and it kept coming. I thought, oh no, I must owe them. I must have forgotten to pay the bill. I was zy and I was in a financial difficulty. Oh footnote or commercial break. I'm working on debt repayment. I've gone from fifty five thousand to twenty seven thousand old in about nine months. I think it is so thank you for that that I'm really encouraged by the

debt repayment stories on your podcast. Anyway, So I'm getting this mail and it's driving me crazy, and it's freaking me out. Finally I bite the bullet. I go in there online. I don't even have the card registered. I have to register it. I go in online, I find it, and I owe them one dollar. One dollar. All of that stress was for one dollar. But the reason I beat the bullet is because I kept hearing about the bill of the week, and I said to myself, this is going to be the bill of my week. So

thank you ladies. Keep up the great work. Oh my gosh, thank you Tamarra. That was There are so many parts, There's so many things I could say, but I'm so glad the bill of the week inspired you to open this bill. Also so glad it was only a dollar. It felt like such a journey. And my favorite part is when you took your own commercial break. But during the commercial break you just announced like some massive credit card to pay off, which is amazing commercial break where

there's like inspirational, motivational accomplishments. Well done and good job facing your fear. And sometimes when we face our fear, it's not a scary monster. It's just a one dollar bill. So well done paying off that store card. I assume, I assume you sent them their dollar. You know what. That's usually when we look at things, they are not as scary as we think they are going to be. It is really the anxiety of the anticipation that is scarier than the actual truth of reality. So I hope

others are inspired by Tamra story. Maybe your bill is not a dollar, maybe you're not getting off that easy, But the sooner you look at it, and the sooner you can rest in reality and not anticipation or anxiety. The better you will feel. If you two are avoiding your bills or facing your bills head on, or you are a bill your name is Bill, or you know a bill. You know the drill. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. Leave us your bill, We'll pick it up. We may not pay for it, but we'll

pick it up. We'll look at it, we'll listen to it. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill. And now it's time for all right. So this question from Goldie a time when cub hunting helped you in a way you didn't expect, and you were very quick with this answer, Jill. So I don't use coupon is very often. The way that I engage with coupons is usually when I'm in line at a store and I think, huh, I wonder if there's a coupon for this, and I'll quickly look

it up. Same at this merchant. Same. I think you'll all recognize this. Joe Anne Fabrics. You guys, they never let us down there. You You should never ever pay full price for anything at Joanne Fabrics. If you are, you're doing it wrong. And if you shop at Joanne Fabrics, you already know you know the drill. Nothing is ever full price. Literally, by the time you get in line, you get in line, by the time you get to

the counter, you can find a keep on up. I don't even think you gotta download the app and you just like the internet is just like here, here, here, here's a bar code for what you want. So here's everything you want. Yeah, I think I had bought We were buying fabric for the Frugal Friends party are when we were celebrating for you years and two million down loans and or deal with I Heart and YadA YadA. We just wanted to have a party and we were

trying to turn our garage into extra seating. And so I had found inexpensive white fabric that I am keeping. I'm not just like willy nilly with my purchases. I still have it so I can continue for years to come converting my garage into a party space. You know, that wasn't the only time that's going to happen. And the fabric was already inexpensive, But then I got this like fifty percent off coupon, literally sliced the amount I

paid in half. I mean, I got that fabric to cover my entire garage for less than I could have bought used curtains at the thrift store. I mean again, shopping secondhand is still always a great idea, but also cutting costs for a party was of high importance to me too, and we looked in our defense, we looked I did that second hand from Yeah, there were not a lot of curve. I had chopped for like a few months and had gone to five different drift stores and could not find it. So that's when I then

went to Joanne got their Cuban last minute. She had a girl that was unexpected and a pleasant surprise. What about you, Jen? So I actually I had to text Travis and be like, I have no idea because I'm not a big Cuban user either, which is why I love Josh, because I don't have to think about the cupons. And he reminded me of when we got married. We got and I've talked about this before. There are some things you do to save money that aren't the most ethical.

I don't share them all, but this is what I did share. I registered for like things for my wedding that we're twenty dollars, even though I didn't want those things, but I knew that was the price range people would be willing to spend on me. They didn't love me enough to spend like a hundred or three hundred, but they did love me that I know, but you didn't go to my wedding. So I registered for all these things, was absolutely right on the amount people were willing to spend.

And then I returned all of them and got the big hundred three sets and things that I really wanted and really needed. And it was when I returned all of these things and got so much in gift cards, and when I bought these bigger sets, they gave me more discounts and coupons, and then I had the bed Bath and Beyond off cupon for everything. Oh they always have that, so bed Bath and Beyond always has off and so not only so I had the cupons, I

had extra money from from these returns. And then they were giving me like hundred dollar gift cards because I had bought like something special that had a special like by this set and give you a gift card, and which I didn't even know that was the pot and pants set I wanted so I bought. So we spent a good two years spending all that money, so I still got everything I wanted, still had money left over.

For sure made money on that deal. And a lot of it came down to whenever we went to make a purchase, there was always twenty percent off, so we were always like, oh my gosh, we still can't spend all of his bed Bath and Beyond money. That's amazing. It was. We were buying Christmas gifts there for two Christmases. Yeah, I mean, you just hacked it. That just sounds like wedding advice to me. Part of it was purposeful, but I really thought that the amount that I got back

would equate exactly to the amount I would spend. And there was just all this stuff like bed Bath and Beyond just kept giving us money, and I was like, you should not do this. I mean, maybe my moral compass is misaligned, but I don't truly see a problem with that. You're keeping all of the money there like it. It would be a different story if, yeah, you were somehow taking money or returning it to maybe a different

store to get more money back, but you're not. You're keeping it all within bed Bath and beyond you knew you were going to take the things back, but or if you had used the item and then returned it, but just having brand new items that you decided you don't want returning them, keeping the money within the store. Yeah, the only unethical part is like accepting gifts I know I'm going to return. I did the same thing for my baby shower because like, nobody's going to get me,

you know, like a hundred fifty stroller. But they all want to get you some much I wanted. They're not putting cash into a pot for you to get a stroller or car seat. Yeah, they want to wrap something or put something in a bag, which we should also be getting away from cash. Is king? Stop it not even thank you all for listening. We die Grass. Many of you know we have a private community where we

do monthly money challenges. We love just having fun and gamifying things, and we also offer accountability groups because we love community and learning from one another, and we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win. This comes from Corey and they shared, Hey, all, I wanted to share because I have been focused on paying down my student loans. Originally, when I started this process. I took the higher of the two lower balanced loans, and my goal was to pay it off in a year.

I started focusing on that loan, but when there were talks about rates increasing, I pivoted to my only loan that has a variable interest rate. When I joined this group, which was June of two, my rate was two point six two percent and my balance was four thousand, seven hundred eighty eight dollars. As of today, my balance is two thousand, one d seventy six dollars and my rate is five point three percent. I am so glad I made the change to my plan because who knows how

high that is going to climb. I should have paid it off by April at the latest. I pay on average towards the loan an additional Thursday in the month. That ends up being six twenty for that month. Small efforts become big results. Holy smokes, Corey. You just made a good decision and you paid off half of that

loan knowing that the interests could climb. Well done. I'm proud of you, Corey for like taking a critical look at what's going on in your life and what's going on in the larger environment and making a decision, and I'm even happier that that decision worked in your favor, Like, I'm just proud of you for making your own decision and I'm so happy that yes, you predicted right. You're not an expert on the economy, you just kind of sol where things were going. And yeah, so great job, Corey.

Thanks everyone for listening. If you want to check out this monthly Allunge community had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club and you can see what challenge we have coming up next and jump in on it. Yes, and if you are interested in all the links that we mentioned today, again, if you're on our email list, they're coming to your inbox now ish see if I. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirian Jen. I was watching a show last night and it was kind of

highlighting cultural differences, particularly when it comes to food. And this one person was asked to go shopping for Thanksgiving items and he was not from the States, and the woman who asked him to go shopping for Thanksgiving meal gave him coupons, is like, be sure that you use these coupons, and he's like, so, I show pictures of the food and it makes the food less money. I spend less money on the food if I show pictures of the food. What a dreams Just like yeah, that

is how coop works. What a dream Just pronto pictures, just so show pictures. Americans are so weird. We are so weird. I have to tell you this story. It cannot wait until the next episode. So I was on Facebook Marketplace last week and shopping for furniture for our rental and I am getting this coffee table, you know how like people won't send them. They won't send their address until you're like all on the way, which is smart. So I'm on my way to this place to get

this coffee table and I'm like, what's the address? And they give me the address and I'm like no, no, So I pull up and I was like, surely this can't be right. I pull up. This is a house where I met Travis. My friend used to own it. I lived there for like the several months before we got married, Like my engagement slash birthday party was there. Like I literally this is the house where I met Travis Jen That's amazing. So it was owned by my friend.

That's how I was at the house, Like I know my you know this guy for years and he rented it out to people and that's how I met Travis. Travis rented it from my friend, a room from my friend. So my friend sold it three years ago because he moved to North Carolina, and so this person at the house bought it and they are selling it again. So they're selling all their stuff. My gosh, even weirder. I'm already freaked out. Like I pull up to the house and I'm like, no, no, this is so weird. I

opened the door. No, I think he opened it for me. I think I'm walking up and he this dude opens the door and he's like, don't I know you? And I was like, no, you do not know me. I do not know you, but I used to live here. That's so funny. It isn't that bizarre? So no reason that he should know me. And we tried to figure it out, and there's like, no reason he should know me, Like I don't know him, but I mean, you're a popular podcaster. My face is everywhere. So that happened. Wow,

last week. I dare anybody to have a weirder Facebook market, not weirder, but like more like coincidental. Did you. I take it you told him that you used to live there, had an engagement party there. Yeah. He's like, what's your husband's name? And I was like Travis. He's like, oh, I don't know. I was like, well, my friend Jordan used to own it. And he's like, oh yeah, I still get his mail. Oh that's funny. Yeah. Wow, wow, wow, So you got the coffee table. Did you get anything else?

I got the coffee table. Know, it was just bizarre, like standing inside of the house. Yeah, the only thing that had changed is the back splash in the kitchen. Going back to a significant place in a place you used to live to purchase purniture for your new place. Yeah. So that's why more people should do Facebook Marketplace, because you might get to go back to a place where you used to live and have a lot of fun,

be weirded out, and be weirded out. Oh my gosh, like every first memory the drafts, and I have even memories before I met Travis, because I would hang out at that house before I even knew him. Wow, that's crazy, how fun? Well done. I can't wait to see that coffee table. It's a good one.