Reminisce 2008 - Looking forward to 2009

Mercedes at Common Sense with Money has a post remembering 2008 and her favorite bargains of the year.

Now, I have used coupons in the past but in August I stumbled across a blog that changed my life - literally. It was Keeping the Kingdom First, where I took her mission to heart and learned to Honor God with my finances. Learned how to put my coupon planner together. I discovered through Alyssa's Blog other frugal blogs that led me to even more blogs:
Mercedes @ Common Sense With Money
Tara @ Deal Seeking Mom
Michelle @ Leaving Excess
Beeb @ Super Coupon Girl
Michelle @ Saving Some Green
Carrie @ Money Saving Methods
Erin @ JANE 4Girls $800 Annual Budget
Rita @ My Precious Pennies
And many many more.....

dedicated to creative ways to reduce spending. I was a sponge, I soaked up everything these blogs had to give and wanted more! I learned what Stockpiling was and began to stock my own pantry. My friends were asking me - how did you find this?, you paid what? - I began to think that a blog might just be fun....soooooo..... I took the plunge and created my own Blog (THANK YOU FOR READING) and began to find deals, steals, and more to post on how we save money - in addition to insight into our lives here at Raging Bear Ranch.

We do not have children at home (Grown) but we do have 8 horses (Zeke, Kit, Pete, Banks, Cody, Charlie, Moonie - a.k.a. Diva, James Thunder/JT) and 5 (Thor, Maestro, Nikita, Wyatt, Duke) dogs which to James and I are our children. This requires us to be able to Pinch pennies, use coupons, and find other ways to Save money to be able to not only take care of ourselves but our kids as well.

There are several "deals" that are favorites but here are a few that stand out for me:

The Robitussin $3.00 off Coupon and the $10.00 register reward from Walgreens.

The Keebler Cookies with the $1.00 off coupon and the $5.00 Target Gift Card back.

The Glade Catalina Deal during the Double Coupon Days at K-Mart (got $40.00 in Catalinas!)

The Purina Dog Chow $4.00 off coupon and the $5.00 Target Gift Card back. (I was able to get 4 bags of dog food)

The Meaty Bone Buy a Chew-lotta & get a box of Meaty Bones for free - Got 4 of these! Spent 2.28 for two med Chew-lotta bones and got a box of Meaty bone dog biscuits for free - per transaction!! Our dogs are stockpiled for sometime. This one is still going on - check out my previous posts to find the coupon!

The best one of all was and still is (as long as I can keep getting the $1.00 off coupons) happening - the Green Giant Steamers for $1.00 at Walmart and getting the for FREE (RBR's favorite four letter word)! I bought 20 more $1.00 off coupons off Ebay for $2.58 - YES, I buy/Trade off the internet if it is worth it - I do quite a bit of research before buying or trading.

Saving $55.00 off 8 Bags of Purina Horse Feed - WOO HOO!!!! Those coupons are few and far between so WE LOVE FEED COUPONS!

I could keep listing because each time I save money via coupons, register rewards, Extra Care Bucks, Sales, commissions from affiliates (not much but every lil' bit counts!) or Rebates is my favorite at that time.

I look forward to 2009, I will be posting goals, starting a budget (for the first time - I KNOW), and making myself more accountable because I will have all of you reading this blog so I have to be honest! I will be following all of my favorite blogs and hoping to add to my blog lists.

Thank you for reading and if you are a new reader - Welcome to Raging Bear Ranch Tightwad & Proud!