Shopping Local- Part 2, The Pledge

Independently owned businesses offer some great features that you will cannot find in box stores or online. They offer a one-on-one shopping experience, high quality goods, American made, Hard to find items and more. Supporting your local businesses ensures that your money is going back into your local economy to better your city or town.

The city I live in started participating in The 3/50 project, which can also be found in many other cities. The basic idea is to spend $50 across 3 independently owned businesses each month. For every $100 spent in independently owned businesses, $68 returns to the local economy through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays local and when you spend online nothing comes home.

I decided to take a break from looking over my coupons and sale fliers and took my daughter for a walk through our local downtown. My goal was to see what my downtown offered for goods and services and to see how I could save money by shopping local, here is what I found:

1. It was so nice to be able to walk from one store to another, get some fresh air, and have a lot of different items in each store that I know I wouldn't find at Walmart or the like.
2. I met the owners of each business. They were all very friendly and willing to help me in anyway they could. The customer service just goes above and beyond anything I have experienced in big box stores. Every employee had extensive knowledge on the products they sold.
3. The products were high quality, well made, and most were made in America.
4. EVERY store was having a sale! These businesses understand that the economy is not in the greatest place and they want to help their customers in anyway they can.
5. All of them offered mailing lists either snail mail or e-mail. Sign up for all of them, they will send you a notice when they are having sales.

With the holidays here most of these stores will be offering sales. For one example in my downtown area I visited a children's clothing store, Lakins, all of the clothing was American made, the fabrics were high quality, the detail work was just beautiful, and there were sections of 20%, 50%, and 75% off! You can get some of the most gorgeous dresses and suits for the holidays around $30, that is an awesome deal! If there is a store near you that has some items you want to purchase but are out of your price range ask an employee if there are any sales coming up and let them know that you are interested in buying items but they are out of your price range. They will usually be understanding and want to get your businesses so they can let you know when the sale is and you can go back!


I have decided to make a pledge to shop downtown first for the rest of my holiday shopping before heading to any big box stores. I would love to see you make this pledge too! If you are willing to shop independently owned businesses first before heading to a big box store please leave a comment below and let everyone know that you will do your part to save the independent businesses!

For more information on the 3/50 Project you can visit the links below:

http://www.the350project.net
https://www.facebook.com/The350Project

Gardner Square Two Inc. has a list of participating stores in the area for my local readers:
http://gardnersquaretwo.com/members/member-list/

I hope that we can all try and remember the local businesses. If we keep forgetting about them, they wont be there anymore.

Happy Couponing! : )

Coupon 101: BJ's Coupons

I have heard people who swear by BJ's prices, that they are getting a better deal. I have always been skeptical so I really only used my membership for gas, random items here and there, or if I was having a get together and needed a lot of food. I was recently looking over my new coupon book that came in and thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could use these high value coupons to buy items at retail stores that were smaller quantities and less in price?"

So I started calling around to the stores near me and I asked if they would accept BJ's coupons? The answer I got was, as long as they carry the item listed it should be no problem. I called around just in my city I found that Walmart and Price Chopper took the BJ's coupons. If you have different stores in your area give them a call and see if they will accept them. 

SO! I started looking through my coupons to find ones that said something along the lines of "$3.00 off any Arm &  Hammer Liquid Detergent." Where it does not specify a certain size that the bottle would have to be I will be able to use it on a smaller bottle but pay nothing or close to nothing for it. 

I usually buy a big ol' bucket of Arm & Hammer powder detergent at BJ's. I use a BJ's coupon for $4.00 off and always get it for $15. The bucket says it will do 220 loads. There is a coupon out right now in the BJ's Journal that says, "$3.00 off any Arm &  Hammer Liquid Detergent." You can buy a small bottle at Walmart that does 32 loads for $3.97, with my coupon that is $0.97!! So I did some math and figured out that if I bought 7 of these bottles at $0.97 ea I would get 224 loads for $6.79! That is a savings of $8.21!! 

After I figured this out I got rather excited and started really pawing through my coupons to see what else I could get for free. I ended up going last night and here is what I got:

I gave the Cetaphil to a friend.

Softsoap Hand Soap:       $1.47
Cetaphil Bar of Soap:       $3.47
Oral-B Toothbrush:          $1.50

All Detergent (32 loads):  $4.97
Total:                               $11.41

Q for Hand soap:           -$1.50
Q for Cetaphil:               -$3.50
Q for toothbrush:           -$2.00
Q for detergent:             -$4.00
_____________________________
Total After Q (coupons):   $0.44 (w/tax)!!!!!

If you are looking for extra coupons there are a couple of different way to get them; Go to BJ's and ask for extras. I think they only hand out one at a time but if you are able to make a couple of trips you could get multiple books. Ask your friends and family if they would not be using certain coupons and start swapping. You can buy the books on Ebay, I have read in a lot of different forums that people feel they are getting a better deal by buying them online rather than paying for the membership. The membership is $50 a year so if you just got it for the coupons it would be $4.16 per book and you have the perks of being able to go in the store and get more books instead of buying more. Also you can use the membership to buy gas or other items in the store.

I am so excited to keep seeing what good deals I can get!! Let me know what deals you score!

Happy Couponing! : )