deals, steals, and free meals (part 1)

I am often told "you always find the deals" or "how do you do ____ for so little money?" I thought I would share a few of my hot spots, tips and rules for saving.

For years I have been living on plastic and now I have made it my goal to be 100% debt free and have a years pay in savings as well as life insurance and college savings accounts by 2020. I call my mission 20/20 vision! So far we are doing well. In four months we paid 10,000 in debts, lived well, and I am still unemployed. (It makes me sick to think what I could have done / and where my full time pay went.)

When I started mission 20/20 there were a few things I had to come to terms with. 1. I am not "to good" to go anywhere. 2. Not everything in my house has to be top of the line brand new. 3. Wear it out or use it up before you toss it out. 4. Everything has a value, stop giving everything away and start selling them. 5. If you can't buy it with cash you don't NEED it.

Next I had to do some research.
1. I joined sunshine rewards, a website that pays you for shopping, taking survey's and playing games. I HIGHLY suggest you join too http://www.sunshinerewards.com/signup.php?r=1535 This wesite saved us 300.00 on airfare alone on our last Disney trip. Plus I love being able to shop online and know I am getting the best deal and then get paid for it on top of all of that!
2. On facebook I joined the group "Pocket Your Dollars" Carrie lives in the twin cites and is committed to saving even more money then me. Randomly during the day Pocket Your Dollars shows up in my news feed with a great offer. There is also a website for pocket your dollars but I prefer it in small doses on facebook.
3. I now get the newspaper on Sunday's for the coupons. The press offered me Wednesday,Thursday, Friday,and Sunday for 13.00 for 52 weeks.
4. I joined the "live like no one else" forum. This is a group people in debt digging their way out just like me.
5. I check the thrift stores before I go shopping.  

I will break this down even more in my next few blogs, but for now I need to go to bed so I can get up and go to work in the morning... another piece of my 20/20 plan.