Team Jeff & Sue: HACKED!

Well, not really. I decided to hijack the blog this week because, believe it or not, some of their “money-consciousness” has rubbed off on the rest of the family! This is Kaitie, Jeff and Sue’s daughter, dropping by to tell you about my weekend.

Let’s start off by saying my husband and I have saved exactly $443.50 just this weekend. Now, of course, we had to spend some money to save, but without our coupons and gift cards, we probably would have never even gone out this weekend. Neither of us had to work our part-time jobs this weekend (when does that happen?!), so we decided to run some errands. It started Friday night: we went to Noodles & Company to get dinner because we had a $15 gift card – score! Then we went to Bath & Body Works to get our holiday haul of candles for buy-one-get-one free, plus $10 off a purchase of $30 or more, plus a free item up to a $13.50 value. From there, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a set of desperately needed new sheets which were on sale for $20 off. We paid using a $20 gift card.

After a beautiful night of sleeping on money-well-spent-sheets, Saturday morning we continued our money saving adventure. We headed to Fleet Farm to get some (also desperately needed) Carhartt’s for my husband. Three pairs of pants with a $10 off $75 or more purchase coupon, plus we paid with a $50 gift card from last Christmas. We continued our “day-date” at a local brewing company to use our beer book. In this book (also a Christmas present) are offers from breweries all over the state: buy-one-get-one offers, percentage off retail offers and growler fill coupons when you get the book signed! The book tells the stories of how the breweries came to be, what’s on the menu and the best pours. Our coupon was for half-off two growler fills, plus we had two beer passport book. On our way back, we stopped at REI because we had a gift card. We walked around the store and found some awesome fold up chairs. We used our full $160 gift card and I also got a free pair of shorts! Once we got to the checkout counter, we noticed we can use our REI rewards to get 20% off one item this weekend. Yes, please!

We then made last minute dinner plans with some friends at a pizza place. We were able to get a discount with our City Tins, which has cute gift card coasters for local restaurants. These tins are $30 and really get us to try new places. Perfect as stocking stuffers! We paid with a coaster from our City Tin and a $30 gift card. We paid nothing, leaving with our bellies and wallets still full. Because I still had my amazing beer book in tow, we made our way to another local brewery and used our buy-one-get-one offer. Some say gift cards are too impersonal, but they really are something amazing! We can take the time to shop around and find something we really want.

Coming soon: Kaitie and David take on Home Depot for an amazing dishwasher purchase. Did you know you can get a $700 dishwasher for $450? Oh yeah, and we have a gift card!

A personal note from Jeff & Sue:

A big “thank you” to our daughter for sharing her experience. We are so proud to know that what we have learned through Summit Credit Union’s Project Money is not only benefiting us, but it has rubbed off on our family and friends. This certainly is the take-away from Project Money. All of our followers are able to pick up hints, recommendations and budgeting tips provided by us, and use them in their own lives. Knowing we are helping others is truly awesome!