By April Pearson

I am super excited about this deal! My husband and I paid off all of our credit card debt after we went to see Dave Ramsey Live. While we were at the seminar, we purchased our Financial Peace University Lifetime Membership for $99. This includes free attendance at any Financial Peace University Class for you and your spouse, The Complete Guide to Money, Financial Peace University Workbook, Audio CD Library, Envelope System, Helpful tidbits and extras (includes budgeting forms, CD-ROM and more)! 

Well, the reason I'm so excited is that today you can snag your own Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University Lifetime Membership bundle for only $69! WOW!  

I believe so strongly in his method for getting and staying out of debt. It truly works! 

Go HERE and register for Mamapedia to get this deal. Then purchase your deal available May 25-30 only!

I am so excited to share this deal with you today, as it is truly invaluable!  Today through Wednesday, you can buy tickets to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Live event for only $19 each! This event will be on October 8th from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Reliant Arena. You are allowed to buy 5 tickets for yourself and up to five as gifts. This would be a great gift for friends or family, newlyweds or newly engaged couples!

My husband and I attended this event last year, and I highly recommend everyone going - whether you are in debt to your eyeballs and considering filing for bankruptcy or you are well on your way to being debt free! It is inspiring, exciting, and will give you hope for a better financial future. 

Please make sure you use the link above to purchase your tickets, as this is 55% less than the box office price of $42!

Have you ever attended Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Live? What did you think about it? Please share your thoughts so people know what they might learn from this event!
 

I recently read an interesting article (found here) about the backlash consumers are facing because of the new TV show Extreme Couponing. While I have experienced this first-hand, I think the most important point of the article is that they point out some good do's and don'ts of couponing. If couponers will stick to these, we'll be better off in the end.

Here are some of them as listed in the article as well as a few of my own thoughts in italics:

Do Know Your Limits. Save time, energy and embarrassment at the register by playing with the rules established by retailers and manufacturers. Visit their Web sites to learn if there have been any updates or changes to their coupon policies. I have compiled a list of some retailers' coupon policies. I recommend printing these and keeping them with your coupons so that you will have the policy if issues arise.

Do Ask Friends and Neighbors to Leave Aside Papers. Some people actually subscribe to newspapers for the articles, not the coupons. It's perfectly acceptable to ask these friends and family members -- politely -- to set aside the coupons for you to pick up at a later time.

Do Start a Small Coupon Swap. Rather than stealing your neighbor's Sunday paper to benefit from the extra coupon circular, create a support system through a small, local coupon exchange. Members can meet once a week in person for 30 minutes to exchange coupons for things they actually would buy anyway. (One person's buy-one-get-one-free instant oatmeal is another person's 50-cents-off cold cereal.) Online exchanges also exist at savingsadvice.com and thriftyfun.com.

Don't Copy Coupons. Many stores mention in their coupon policies that "coupons are void if copied, scanned, transferred, purchased, sold " etc. Again, stick with the official policy. You'll still manage to save a good chunk of change -- and by skipping a long debate at the checkout, you'll also avoid unnecessary delays both for you and the shoppers waiting behind you. This restriction is printed directly on most manufacturer coupons. Please do not copy coupons - it hurts all of us in the end!

Do Ask Manufacturers to Send Coupons Directly. If you can't find manufacturers' coupons readily on their Web sites, email or call them to request coupons be sent directly to your inbox. That's what many successful couponers claim to do. It sometimes earns them freebies, as well. Don't forget that social media outlets are a great place to find high-value coupons and free product coupons!

 What are your thoughts about how Extreme Couponing has affected real-life couponers? Have you personally experienced any backlash in the stores when trying to use coupons? I would love to hear your experiences and stories!

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What do you do when an emergency expense comes up? Do you rely on your credit card or do you have a savings account that you can use?

When my husband and I decided we were going to cut up all of our credit cards, we knew this was something we had to take care of… an emergency fund. Since there would no longer be that plastic money tree to run to, we had to have a plan!

We immediately began saving for our emergency fund. To start, that fund needed to be $1,000. This is just about enough to take care of any foreseeable needs. When we are debt free (except the house), we will stock up this fund to be at least six months of our living expenses (not six months of salary, but expenses). This will be a great cushion if anything happens like job loss, illness, injury, etc. Ideally, I’d like to have at least one year’s worth of expenses saved up.

This is a recommendation we learned about through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace program. In his program, the emergency fund is Baby Step One and helps you not have to rely on credit when an emergency arises during your debt pay down.

I can vouch for this step, as we just had an emergency repair that was needed on our vehicle. The expense was right around $1,000 (ugh) but I am SO glad we had it! We did not have to run to a credit card to get us through! What a feeling of freedom it was to not have to add debt to our lives in order to take care of car repairs. Now, we will have to replenish the emergency fund before we pay additional payments towards any other debt (all we have left are student loans, yea!), but that’s okay. At least we can feel confident in the fact that we didn’t have to borrow any more money. Yippee!

Do you have an emergency fund? Does this sound like something that would benefit your family?

Check out this article from Dave Ramsey on How To Build An Emergency Fund Fast!

There are a lot of ways to save money on things you buy, but here are my favorite places to save without even having to use coupons. Of course, some of these places offer even better deals when paired with coupons, but my hope is that I can help you start saving on everyday purchases without having to use coupons. I have linked to websites directly so that you can find them easily. You can bookmark them as well for easy access later!

Amazon.com– Amazon has Gold Box Deals where they slash prices for a limited time on certain items, but is also great for movies, kitchen appliances,  photography equipment,  some groceries, and diapers! Plus, if you’re a mom or student, you can join their Prime program which gets you free 2-day shipping on most items!

Walmart  – I like their price matching policy because it makes shopping more convenient for me. I can use all of my grocery store flyers to find the deals I like and Walmart will match the competitor’s ad (same brand/size). Also, their coupon policy was rewritten recently making it very coupon-friendly.  Target  is also offering a low-price guarantee, and will match prices and even refund the difference to you if you find a lower price within 7 days of your purchase. Exclusions apply.

Ebates.com  – If you’re shopping online, you can shop through this site to get cash back on your purchases. I’ve received a couple of checks from them. Every little bit helps.

Clearance sections – Find the clearance section(s) of the stores you frequent. You will often find great deals here on discontinued, dented, or out-of-season merchandise. But don’t be fooled by a red sticker! It doesn’t guarantee a great deal. I’ve seen stores mark things down by a few cents and call it clearance… don’t fall for it!

Facebook – There are great coupons issued through Facebook. Companies are utilizing this social media outlet to distribute high-value coupons and give-aways. Some companies are also using Twitter to distribute sales and discount information.

Daily Deal sites – These have become very popular recently. Sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and The Houston Chronicle Daily Deals offers deals for entertainment, restaurants, and spas for at least 50% off. For kids clothes, shoes and toys I love Zulily and Totsy. For the Home, Men’s and Women’s Fashion – nomorerack, Rue La La and One Kings Lane have some great deals. For high-end, name brand items check out Beyond the Rack.

Swag Bucks – Earn points for internet searches. The phrase you always here today is “Google it”, but I use Swag Bucks instead of Google so I can earn points. I use these points to get Amazon.com gift certificates! I mentioned Amazon earlier, so it’s like a good deal on top of a good deal!

 What are your favorite places to find deals? Please share them here so we can all benefit!

Perhaps the best way to learn to save money is to be aware of the ways we waste money.

I found this article on Yahoo! a little while ago and found it to be pretty accurate. So today, instead of sharing a money-saving tip with you, I'm going to ask you to please read this article and see how you might be wasting your money. If you decide to change just one of these bad habits, you will probably realize savings without really trying. Easy enough, right?

Here it is: 25 Ways To Waste Your Money

Note: I will disagree with one point - buying generic over brand name at least in groceries, but that will be a topic for another day. Until I show you how to save on brand names, stick with generics.... for now.

Remember to check out my daily blog about money-saving deals at Deals That Make Cents.