The end has sadly come...

I just can't justify the time it takes for this blog anymore with the amount of readers that I have. I have tried different strategies to "build my readership" and it simply hasn't paid off. I started this blog because it was fun and I enjoyed scouting out and finding good deals (and I also only had one child). With two children who nap at different times, my time is extremely limited and I am just not able to post as often as I would like. I don't feel it is right to be an on-again, off-again blogger while trying to recruit more readers.

I want to thank those of you that have read this blog and I hope that it may have inspired you in some small way! I also have a personal blog...if you don't already read it, e-mail me and I will send you the link. Perhaps someday I will venture back, but for now this is goodbye.

And so I am not leaving you in the dark, here are some wonderful "deal" blogs that I check daily:

Money Saving Mom--Crystal is from Wichita as well and has expanded her website tremendously in the last year. She is national, so she doesn't usually blog about deals/events exclusive to Wichita. Crystal is passionate about her faith and frugal living. She is a personal inspiration to me. She posts weekly deals for Dillons, Walgreens, Target, and sometimes Walmart. In addition to "deal posts", she has many series and special features.

Common Sense with Money--Mercedes is probably the most efficient "deal blogger". Many of the deals posted originate from her. She is responsible for the weekly Walgreens deals.

Stretching a Buck--Marcy is responsible for compiling the complete list of Target deals each week.

Thank you again for sticking with me for so long! I pray that God richly blesses each one of you...

I need your help...

Last month I shared with you that I had a goal of getting 50 followers in 2 months and as a reward treating myself to a blog makeover. Well, I am sad to say that I am not making as much progress on my goal as I had hoped. A couple of you have e-mailed me and let me know that you do read the blog. Thank you!

The Sunflower Saver is also now on Facebook! Just go here and become a fan!

Now, I ask you for a favor. Would you please link up my blog to yours, or if you don't have a blog tell other people about it??? Please, please, please? I REALLY want a blog makeover, but I am going to hold myself accountable to not getting one until I have met my goal.

That's all. I've begged enough for one day. :)

More Moolah Mondays: How to Shop Online

Do not, I repeat DO NOT shop online until you have read this post! Seriously...you could be saving WAY more money. Shopping online is an acquired skill and SHOULD NOT be taken lightly. ;)

I LOVE to shop online. With 2 little ones, I have found that it is SO much easier than dragging my kids to a million different stores to find the perfect item or gift. The vast majority of my Christmas shopping is done online. I used to limit myself to buying only from Amazon, but I now have learned some savvy tricks to save money AND get free shipping (most of the time).

Here is my step-by-step guide to shopping online.

1. First, sign-up for a cash-back program (you can read a previous article I wrote here for the full scoop). Basically, you go to their website first, then enter the store you want to shop at and they direct you to that store all the while giving you a percentage of your purchase back. There is no cost to signing up! My favorites are Ebates, Home Store Rewards and ShopAtHome. Sign up for all three if you want...it's free! Each offer different percentages for different stores. And believe me...you'll be able to find almost every store you can think of! If making a large purchase, I recommend scouting out the percentages at each site and finding the best percentage back.

2. Next, browse and shop as you normally would on your favorite sites. Once you find something you like, go to one of the cash-back sites listed above and access your store through their website. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE YOUR PERCENTAGE BACK UNLESS YOU ACCESS THE STORE THROUGH THE CASH-BACK WEBSITE. Once you have accessed the store you wish to shop at, then add items to your cart.

3. When ready for checkout, open another window in your Internet browser and go to a coupon-sharing site such as Retail Me Not or Coupon Cabin and look up the store where you are shopping to see if there are any coupon codes you can enter for additional savings. These websites also offer many "free shipping" codes.

4. Enter the coupon code when prompted and your credit card information (never use a debit card online). And voila! You have now saved yourself lots of money!

Skeptical? Well...read more for proof that this method really works! For Christmas, my mom requested that my brothers, sister, and I all go in together to buy her some additional pieces of flatware that had been lost/thrown away over the years (we have a big family). Here is how I followed the above steps to save us lots of money:

1. I signed-up for Ebates (and received $5 just for signing up).

2. I found out that Oneida offered 5% cashback by accessing their website through Ebates. I accessed the Oneida site through Ebates and added the items to my cart. My total was $158.89 for all of my items.

3. I found a coupon code from Retail Me Not for 20% off my entire order!

4. I entered the coupon code (which changed my total to $127.11). I also got free shipping for spending more than $99 on the Oneida site and I didn't have to pay tax since our state doesn't have an Oneida store.

5. A few weeks later, a check came in the mail for $7.60 plus the $5 bonus for signing up on Ebates.

All-in-all...I saved a whopping $44.38 just for taking a few extra minutes to do my homework!!! And my mom, of course, was greatly pleased with her gift on Christmas Day! :)

Follow the steps here and I PROMISE you will save money shopping online! Happy shopping!

More Moolah Mondays: Use Coupons!

I rarely used coupons until about a year-and-a-half ago. I was of the mindset that $0.50 here or $1.00 there wouldn't really add up to much and it definitely wasn't worth my time. That all changed when I decided to leave my job of teaching first grade to stay home with our first child. Despite the fact that we saved my income for the three years I taught knowing that I would eventually stay home, we needed to watch our pennies more closely now.

That's when I started reading this blog and began implementing 2 key principles that have literally changed the way I shop and think about money. 1. Use coupons and 2. Stockpile items when they are on sale. I used to spend $100+ on groceries and household items each week (and we ate out quite often). I now spend on average $60 a week for groceries and household items (yes, that includes diapers!).

Now, I admit that using coupons does take time. In fact, I took a 2-month furlough from full-blown coupon usage after my second little guy was born. However, it gets easier and faster as you go.

Here are my main tips for using coupons.

1. Go through the weekly inserts in your local newspaper and ONLY CUT OUT THE ONES YOU KNOW YOU WILL USE in the next month. There are a million different ways to organize them. When I first started, I just had 4 envelopes "Food", "Cleaning & Household Supplies", "Personal Products" and "Diapers & Baby Supplies". This worked well until I began accumulating too many coupons. Just google, "coupon organization" and you will find lots of helpful tips!

2. Keep the coupon inserts--do not throw them away! Write the date on the front of the insert and file it somewhere. This way, if there happens to be items that are free (or better than free) with coupons, but not necessarily something you use all the time, you can snag that great deal by going directly to the coupon insert and cutting it out.

3. Plan your trips to the store. I normally go to two stores each week--Target to do my regular shopping and Walgreens because they always have free or almost-free items when combined with sales, coupons, and Register Rewards. Planning a trip to the store is much more time-consuming than it used to be. I read blog posts on the weekly deals for the stores, gather my coupons, and plan my menu for the week. I then know exactly what I need and I try my hardest to stick to my $60 budget (I'm still working on this).

4. Ask family, friends & neighbors to save their inserts for you. This will come in handy when you are trying to stockpile items that are on sale. Let's say the brand of deodorant you use is on sale for $1.00 and you have a coupon for $1.00. That makes the deodorant free! But if you have multiple coupons, you can stockpile your deodorant so that you never have to pay for deodorant by only buying it when you can get it for free!

As someone who is now spending $160 less on groceries & household goods each month than I was just 2 years ago (plus added 2 members to our family), I can tell you that $0.50 here and $1.00 there really does add up to a HUGE amount of savings...almost $2,000 a year for our family!

More Moolah Mondays: Barter with your Bills

The great thing about capitalism is that competition drives business...and we as consumers can benefit by shopping around to get the best price. You might think this is only true for the goods we buy, but did you know that you can negotiate many of the bills that are supposedly "set in stone"? You might think you are getting a great price on a service and then a couple months later, they raise their prices. I suggest comparing prices each year to ensure you are getting the absolute best deal! IT PAYS TO COMPARE PRICES--literally.

We personally have negotiated our trash service, home phone/Internet service, and any work we have done on our house. All you have to do is set up a little bit of time to do some research and make some phone calls (nap times work great for this in our house).

Trash Service

Here's what you do to get the best bang for your buck:

1. Make a list of companies you wish to call. I suggest calling at least 3-4 besides the current company you are using.

2. Call each company and tell them that you are shopping around for trash service. Tell them where you live and ask them to give you their pricing. Make sure it includes the entire price. Some companies now charge an extra fee for fuel (remember the sky-high gas prices a couple years back?), so be sure to get all the information so you are not surprised when your first bill arrives.

3. Once you have the pricing information, call your current company and ask them if they can match the lowest price. Chances are, they will because they don't want to lose your business.

4. If for some reason your current company won't match the lowest price, cancel your current service and begin a new service with the lowest-priced company.

Here are a few numbers of company's to call in the Wichita area. If you're not from Wichita, just open up the phone book or ask around for some reputable companies.

Waste Management: 888-964-9756

Waste Connections: (316) 838-6664

Lies Trash Service: (316) 522-1699

Ballinger Trash Service: (316) 943-7910

Eagle Trash Service (Andover & Rose Hill areas): (316) 796-1505

You can save as much as $10-$15 a month by shopping around for trash service alone...that doesn't seem like a ton of money but it can be $180 more in your pocket each year.

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Home Phone/Internet Service

A few months back, we had been debating whether to cancel our land line, since we get most of our calls on our cell phones. I would still prefer to have a land line, simply because it makes me feel safer to have a home phone (which my husband thinks is crazy). I was somewhat on the fence about the whole situation, so I decided to make a few calls. I called the competition and found out that our current service was actually cheaper than what they could offer. I decided to then call our company just to see if they could give us a better deal. If they could, great; and if they couldn't, I was resigned to just cancel our home phone service. We get the most basic home phone with absolutely no frills (no caller id, call waiting, anything). There wasn't a whole lot they could do to lower the price of that service since we were already the lowest price, but they did offer to give us 3 months of our high-speed Internet service free just for staying with the company--a savings of $75! Like I said...it pays to just ask!

Don't lie and say you want to cancel your service if you really don't, but make a case for yourself by perhaps telling them how many years you have been with the company, etc. Ask for a lower price or for an incentive. The worst thing that will happen is that they will say, "no."

Here are two numbers of home phone and Internet providers--I believe both of these companies are nationwide. Make sure you are comparing apples-to-apples by asking lots of questions. If you are looking for a most basic service, tell the company. If you want certain features, share those with the person you are speaking with. If your current company has the lowest price, you can still get a better deal by just asking!

AT&T: 1-800-ATT-2020

Cox Communications: 866-719-2029

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Follow a similar procedure for other bills. If you hire someone for any services in your home (lawn care, home-improvement projects, etc), make sure you ALWAYS get at least 3 estimates before making your selection. Don't always go with a company just because they are the cheapest...do your homework and make sure they are professionals. If you have a specific company in mind and they aren't the cheapest, ask if they'll match the cheaper price or at least discount their price.

That's it! You're armed with the tools to barter those bills! Happy savings!

Dr. Seuss Activity #2: Green Eggs and Ham

I had never read Caleb any Dr. Seuss books (besides Dr. Seuss' ABC's) and he was absolutely enthralled yesterday after I dug all of my books out. He sat through the entire reading of The Cat in the Hat and then wanted to read it again...and that is a long book!

Today we read Green Eggs & Ham. We, of course, had to make green eggs and ham as well...except we didn't have any ham so we just sprinkled some bacon bits on the egg. Here they are; don't they look delicious? ;)

All you need are eggs (cooked however you want them), green food coloring, and ham (or bacon bits if you don't have ham...it's from the same animal, right?).

Here are some more activities to go along with the book:

• Use old magazines and some safety scissors and let your child cut out pictures of food. Make a chart with 2 columns "Food I Like" and "Food I Don't Like." Have your little one glue the pictures on the corresponding column.
  
• Make a list of foods that are green
  
• Talk to your child about rhyming words. Sing this song (to the tune of "The Muffin Man"): "Oh, do you know two rhyming words, two rhyming words, two rhyming words? Oh, do you know two rhyming words? They sound a lot alike. 'Cat' and 'hat' are two rhyming words, two rhyming words, two rhyming words. 'Cat' and 'hat' are two rhyming words. They sound a lot alike."
  

Interesting Fact about Dr. Seuss #2: Despite his ability to capture the hearts of children around the world through his rhyming stories, Dr. Seuss never had children of his own. In fact, his wife said that he was slightly afraid of them!

Dr. Seuss Activity #1: The Foot Book

Despite the fact that I am no longer in the classroom, I decided I still wanted to celebrate "Read Across America" with our little family. For the remainder of the week, I will post an activity centered around a Dr. Seuss book that even toddlers and young children can enjoy. If your toddler is anything like mine, they will love the rhyme and repitition in many of Dr. Seuss' books. I realize this isn't a typical post you would find on this blog, but it fits into the "family fun" part! The Foot Book is one of my favorites...especially for young children!

Activities to do after reading The Foot Book:

• Trace the feet of each person in your family. Then have your child line them up in order from biggest to smallest and vice-versa.
• Put each person's shoes in a pile and encourage your child to "race" to find each match and line them up.
• Make a pattern with your shoes

Have fun!

Interesting Fact about Dr. Seuss #1: "Dr. Seuss" wasn't his real name...his name was Theodor Geisel. Seuss was his mother's maiden name and he began using it as a pseudonym. He wasn't a real doctor...much to the dismay of his father. As a joke, he added the "Dr." to his pen name and it stuck!