Frugal Dad

In my family, over the years, I’ve become known by many names (Besides Dad’s Taxi).

• Cheap Dad
• Frugal Dad
• “That was then, this is now dad”
• Coupon Boy
• Coupon Dad

Well I have to admit that what I like best to be called is Frugal Dad. My brother shared with me an article he read in Kiplinger’s and I just had to share it with my friends and vast legions of followers. Ok.. that’s an exaggeration.

When you read the 7 habits of highly frugal people, you may see yourself in parts of the article. Or you may not see yourself in any of the individuals described.

The best part of getting mail for me is getting:

• Val-Pak – Local coupons. Especially love the food coupons, and the Midas Oil change coupons.
• Money Mailer – Similar to Val-Pak, but more on household services, yet truly worth it
• Community Coupons – These are like little books you can carry in your car. To me this is a bonanza of savings in almost every category for my local pleasure. I get these quarterly and I pore over these coupons and I try not to go out for dinner without using one of these coupons
• Entertainment Book – Now I admit, I’m a junkie for entertainment coupons, but I just don’t use it enough to save money. I buy it every year and it just becomes an ornament. Yet this is the mother load for savings in your area

So next time someone calls you frugal.. Say “Yes I am, and proud of it”. You will probably have more money and less debt than the person calling you frugal.

 

Black Friday Tips

Every year, Black Friday seems to come earlier.. Well this year is no exception. Yet to make things more interesting, here’s something that can be considered TIPS for shopping:

Full disclosure: I got most of these tips from reading The Simple Dollar, one of my most favorite blogs on the Web.

• Black Friday deals are not really the best the day after Thanksgiving.. Best deals start on Thanksgiving day (The new norm for stores opening early on Turkey Day!), or weeks before Black Friday.. Amazon, Target, Walmart, Kohls is a key example of this
  • So when should you start shopping? USA Today says that Early November is when you should look for deals! So Black Friday now has so many pre-sales that, you don’t even have to wait till Black Friday to get the best deals!
  • Did you know Staples starts their Black Friday sales in Mid November (November 16th!)???

Did you know that for the past few days, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, have pretty much melted together? Oh don’t get me wrong.. You can still get great deals on Cyber Monday, but.. buyer beware.. if you buy stuff on Cyber Monday, your delivery times WILL NOT be guaranteed!

Bottom line friends.. Deals can be had all year round. I’ve seen deals that will beat Black Friday deals starting in October.. That’s how fierce the competition is.

In my frugal mind, each month can be considered to be Black Friday.. as each month will find you the best deals as noted by Consumer Reports table that I excerpted below:

When to Buy	What to Buy
January	Bedding/linens, Toys, Exercise equipment, TVs, Winter clothing
February	Humidifiers, Indoor furniture, Exercise equipment
March	Digital cameras, Humidifiers, Small consumer electronics, TVs, Winter sports gear
April	Computers, Digital cameras, Lawn mowers, Spring clothing
May	Athletic apparel/shoes, Camping/outdoor gear, Carpeting, Cordless phones, Lawn mowers, Mattresses, Small consumer electronics
June	Camcorders, Carpeting, Computers, Indoor furniture, Pots, pans, and dishware, Small consumer electronics, Summer sports gear, Swimwear
July	Camcorders, Indoor furniture, Outdoor furniture, Swimwear
August	Air conditioners, Backpacks, Dehumidifiers, Outdoor furniture, Snow blowers
September	Bikes, Digital cameras, Gas grills, Lawn mowers, Shrubs, trees, and perennials, Small consumer electronics, Snow blowers
October	Bikes, Computers, Digital cameras, Gas grills, Lawn mowers, Winter coats
November	Baby products, Bikes Camcorders, Gas grills, GPS navigators, Toys, TVs
December	Bikes, Camcorders, Gas grills, GPS navigators, Home appliances (large and small), Small consumer electronics, Toys, TVs

Personally, Dad doesn’t even bother going out on Black Friday to get his deals.. I just watch my emails and use my iPhone with my Black Friday Apps to send me alerts on deals that allow me to beat the crowds!

How about using price trackers? Below are some that I checked out and found to be worth the click.

• CamelCamelCamel – Amazon Exclusive
• Slick Deals – My favorite as it gets me a deal across so many stores that offer in-store pickup and my favorite —> Free Shipping!
• Price Zombie – This site put’s browser Add-on’s compatible with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox
• BFAds – All major retailers as soon as they are leaked or published.

What I’ve learned over the past few years… It’s not when you buy, but how and the amount of effort it take to get the bargain. The last time I got up early in the morning as I painfully remember from my personal experience from a few years ago.. when my car’s battery died in the cold as I was amongst thousand’s of shoppers lined up at Best Buy waiting to get in at 5AM on Black Friday.. I said after that experience.. I’ve never stepped away from my keyboard to get the best deals!

If you have any Tips for shopping for Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals, I welcome your insights, after all, a good deal is what makes bargain hunting even more fun!

 

 

Redbox – Text for Deals

Here’s a deal for the Redbox fans, you can get weekly/monthly free movies as well as half price rentals via codes sent to your smartphone. A quick moving deal that will expire this week!

If you use Redbox for your DVD movies:

 

• From your SmartPhone text “DEALS” to 727272.

 

• You will get a confirmation back with coupon and deals from Redbox

 

Don’t forget to download the REDFLIX app for your iPhone to get more Promo codes you can use!

CouponGreat-Coupons

Another nice site for coupons: Coupon Great

What I liked about this site is the clean layout and it’s ability to aggregate the discounts retail and on-line. You can also get printable deals! You will find the link also on the sidebar under Coupons. Enjoy..

Dad

Deal Sites for NYC Restaurants

As you know two things that Dad loves is a bargain and he loves food. I was reading the daily email from Clark Howard and came across some sites I wanted to share with you.

I’ve used Restaurant.com to get some amazing discounts but you have to check out these sites which offer you discounts in NY, Dallas and some selective markets.

These sites are pretty new and were discussed on Clark Howard’s site:

•  DailyGobble.com – Only in New York and San Francisco at this moment.  Restaurants block off discounts based on specific times of day or days of the week when they need the foot traffic into their restaurants. I especially loved the discounts for Indian Food in NYC. Gives me a reason to go to NYC soon!

• ScoutMob.com – Available in  a dozen or so cities and coming soon to more! What I liked about this site was the simplicity where you don’t pay up front like Groupon and other sites require you to. You only get the savings when you take advantage of one of the offers. I also liked the map based navigation of the cities that the offers are available in.

Of course doing the above does not preclude me from my obsession with using my local Entertainment Book for local food coupons!

Groupon – Great Way to save some Money

I recently joined the site Groupon to see how I could get some coupons. I’ve been accused many times of being frugal to the point of being obsessed with saving money.. I really don’t have a problem with that. Do you?

Another really nice site is Gotta Deal, where you can find a clean site where you can get daily deals.. Check it out!

thedealmap-Local deals and coupons using Google maps

I’ve added thedealmap to my side links for coupons. I found this site yesterday when I was reading Clark Howard’s column.

What I liked about this site, it visually tells you where the deals are for the city/state/zip you key in.

This site will grow in popularity. Check it out for yourself

DealMap – Deals by zipcode

As many people know, Dad’s taxi  is always looking for a good deal and or a freebie.. Today I came across a site when I was reading my weekly email from Clark Howard that I really liked.

DealMap uses Google maps to put put pins on a map for deals in various categories for the zip code you key in. Once you key in your zip code, you will see a listing of deals in the area with pins on the deals.

Personally, I loved DealMap’s unique concept for finding deals in my local area! Next stop, Groupon (daily deals by city)

I’ve added both sites to my link section of my blog.. Hope you enjoy.

Side Links Updated/Revised

Updated on 11/20/2009

One of the comments I saw had the No Brainer deals site.. Let me know what you think.. Site looks good. Seems pretty clean.. check it out.

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I keep coming across new sites that interest me. I decided that I’ll be posting the links on my side listings under their respective categories.

My favorite links are coupons and Steals and Deals. Let me know if you want me to add any of your favorites.

Coupon Clipping by Zip Code

Every week I get these coupon mailings to my home and I utilize these to save some money. Two of my favorite ones are valpak and coupon clipper.

Both of these have a website where you can register and search for coupons by zip code. ValPak is nationwide whereas coupon clipper is NJ based.

Both sites allow you to print out coupons.. so take a look and clip away!