A good Monday morning to ya!

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

I’m going to answer a few questions for Monday Q&A, but first, two things:

In case you missed it, I announced the winner of the Kindle from Tyndale. It was really fun to pore through all the entries and to see what you all are reading.

I just ordered my first free book from Tyndale Rewards…I decided to go with the Master Leaders one, and I’ll let you all know what I think of it when I’m finished reading it.

Tyndale didn’t ask me to point this out again, but if you sign up through the links I’ve shared, you’ll get 25 free points to start out with. And there are lots of options is the 65 point range, so 25 points is a lovely head start.

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Thank you for all of your input in my Axe dilemma. I updated that post to say that I watched the ads myself and that made my decision pretty easy. Though some of them were funny, I thought some of the ones I viewed objectified women, and that especially bothers me because the intended audience is young men, who of all people should certainly not be getting encouragement to view women as objects to be used.

I’m not trying to say that Axe’s advertising is the most pressing issue our world is facing (or that it is the only thing in our culture that objectifies women!), but it was enough to make me feel uncomfortable, and I think there are ways to creatively market this kind of product in funny, but more appropriate ways (for instance, the Mustafa Old Spice commercials).

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I was wondering if you’ve ever made a meal that you or your family just absolutely hated. The rule in my house is if I make something and my husband hates it, I will never make it again. But we do have to finish what we have. However, there have been 3 meals that we just couldn’t bare to eat and have thrown away. Have you ever thrown meals away, and if so, how do you avoid feeling guilty about it?

Stephanie

This does occasionally happen, and when it does, I don’t usually feel guilty about it. If you’re trying new recipes, you’re going to hit a dud every now and again, or you may have a fine recipe on your hands, but you just don’t happen to like that dish.

I think this kind of food waste is way more excusable than the sort that happens because we buy too much food or we don’t keep an eye on what’s in the fridge or we don’t make ourselves eat leftovers of dishes that we DO like.

The former is way more of an occasional problem, whereas the latter issues are daily, weekly issues, and so they concern me far more.

And I firmly believe that what you do every day matters way more than what you do once in a while.

I really enjoy reading your blog. I love how you inspire others to be content to live within ones means. I am trying to follow the mentality of “make do or do without” in my day to day life.

I was hoping you could address the subject of how you personally use or do not use discount programs. How do you use coupons? All the time? Rarely? What about store loyalty programs, those little cards that every store hands out. Do you use discounts like Groupon or other online discount sites, like fatwallet.com? How about sites like swagbuck or Ibotta?

Thank you,

Anna

Thank you so much for the encouragement! I am always so delighted to hear that my blog inspires contentment.

So, about discount programs…I don’t have a hard and fast rule about them, and I take them on a case by case basis.

The one principle I try to follow, though, is that a discount isn’t the be-all, end-all, and a discount isn’t a good reason to buy something I don’t need or can’t afford.

Discounts kind of fall into categories, so I’ll just try to run through them that way.

Coupons

In the days of doubled $1 coupons (and in my pre-Aldi days), I used to use them far more frequently. I got lots of free toiletries that way, and I got some free/nearly free food as well. However, the coupon deals are a little harder to get now, and we’ve also slowly moved to a diet with fewer and fewer processed foods, so many of the available coupons don’t fit with my current shopping list.

Also, because I can get awesome prices at Aldi with no coupons, it makes sense to shop there and to not spend time clipping coupons.

I’m not anti-coupon per se, though…I do use them occasionally when a really good one comes around (I mostly use them for toiletries.)

Related: the strategies I use to I save money on groceries without using coupons.

Club Cards

I do sign up for grocery store discount cards, because they’re free and because you kind of have to if you want the sale prices. It’s sort of annoying, but I’m not annoyed enough to give up sale prices. (Although I do end up doing the bulk of my shopping at Aldi, which offers low prices with no discount cards!)

I also have a few other discount cards, like my Panera Bread loyalty card. I generally just sign up for this sort of thing if it’s a place I frequent often.

Daily Deal Sites

Groupon and Living Social are the two that I follow. I know there are more, but I can only handle these two, and I am not subscribed to all of the feeds they offer (travel, family, home, etc.).

I just get the basic emails delivered and every day, I quickly scroll through them. If there’s nothing that I would already be buying or giving as a gift, I delete the email.

I mainly buy photo book and restaurant daily deals…I want to keep up with our family photos, so that’s worth the money to me. As far as the restaurants go, Mr. FG and I have a budget category for date nights, and the deals help us to squeeze more mileage out of that budget.

Cash Back Sites

These give you cash back when you do online shopping, and even though it’s a small amount, I figure it’s better than nothing! I only ever use this for purchases that are budgeted for…a little bit of cash back is not justification for buying something I don’t need or don’t have the money for.

Because I’m not a big spender (!), I tend to use this type of discount most at Christmas time, when I’m spending more than I usually do.

(We do save all year for Christmas expenses, though, so I’m not overspending.)

The main cashback site I use is Ebates. However, I’ve just heard about a new one (Top Cash Back) which appears to offer higher cash-back percentages, so I’m going to give that one a shot going forward.

Cash Earning Sites

I’ve used a fair number of these over the years (there were a lot when the internet first started to gain steam!).

My Points was my mainstay for a lot of years, but the only one I currently use is Swagbucks, which I like because they offer Amazon gift cards as redemption options.

You’re not going to fund your retirement with sites like these, but if you have a few extra minutes, it can be a fun way to earn a little bit extra. How valuable these are will depend on where you fall on the time/money continuum.

I hope that’s helpful. Please know that this is just what I personally do, and I’m not putting out a blanket recommendation that you do exactly what I do. The perfect cocktail of discount programs will probably look a little different for each person (for example, if you don’t have an Aldi, you’ll probably use more coupons than I do.)

What’s important, though, is to remember that discounts can easily lead to overspending, so use them just on purchases that already fit into your budget.

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Readers, as always, feel free to add your advice in the comments!

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Joshua’s 365 post: Frosted Over

Some links in this post are referral links.