1. Check out the day-old shelf: Most grocery stores have a day-old shelf or rack where you can find day-old bread at a deeply discounted price. If you don’t know where yours is located, ask the bakery counter. Day-old bread is perfect for making your own bread crumbs or French toast.
2. Take advantage of buy one, get one deals: Don’t need two loaves of bread? Buy one and freeze one for later!
3. Get creative: Is your bread at home about to expire? Crumble it into burgers or meatloaf. You’ll use less meat without skipping out on flavor, which means you’ll save some money in the end!
4. Make your own snacks: Instead of buying expensive bags of chips, make your own at home using corn or flour tortillas. Crisp up the tortillas in the oven (or toaster oven) and sprinkle with sea salt or garlic powder.

Trading Up Downtown Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who entered this week’s giveaway! Here’s you winner: 75!

Congrats, Daria! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with you full name and mailing address to claim your prize.

I recently received a fancy bottle of expensive truffle oil for Christmas, so I put it in my oil mister to help me use less of it so it lasts longer. Instead of pouring the truffle oil, I light spritz it on my meals/food.

Trading Up Downtown Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who entered this week’s giveaway! Here’s your winner: 20!

Congrats, Lindsay! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize.

Here are three tips for saving money on your last-minute holiday shopping!

1. Shop at a mall or plaza. There isn’t much time to shop for everyone on your list, so instead of driving all over town, head to your local mall or a shopping plaza with tons of stores. This way, you can buy lots of gifts in a short amount of time, and if you want to do some price comparisons, you don’t have far to go if you find a similar item at a cheaper price.
2. Pay cash. One of the best ways to avoid overspending is to leave your credit cards at home. You can’t spend what you don’t have! Once you withdraw cash at the start of your gift-shopping trip, you’ll need to stick to your budget to make sure you buy presents for everyone on your list. If you feel uneasy about carrying a lot of cash, try using a prepaid debit card, which are available from most banks.
3. Purchase gift cards. When all else fails, gift cards are the way to go. The person who you are buying for can pick out whatever they want and you get to determine how much you want to spend, so you won’t go over-budget.

What’s are your tips for saving money on last-minute gifts?

Trading Up Downtown Giveaway

Congrats! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize.

While decorating this year, we realized that it doesn’t need to cost a lot of money to beautify your house with the sights and sounds of the season, which doesn’t include pine cones that $0.69!

Instead of spending money on decorations, my husband and I (and our dog) went out in the woods and gathered a variety of greens and pine cones of different sizes to decorate our fireplace mantel as well as other parts of our house.

Our nature-made decorations cost us nothing and made our home look beautiful and ready for the holiday season!

What’s your favorite way to save money on holiday decorations?

Trading Up Downtown Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who entered last week’s giveaway! Here’s your winner: 36!

Congrats, Athena! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize!

A long time ago, my mom taught that fresh produce is good as new with a swift cut of the knife– just cut off the bad part! In fact, my mom and I only make her famous Apple Crisp with B Grade apples. I mean, we’re just going to cut them up, right? Might as well discard the bad parts and save a few bucks on the process!

Another one of my favorite reduced produce tricks is to buy a bunch of bruised bananas and freeze them for smoothies and Banana Soft Serve.

Buying (and using!) reduced produce is just one way that I save money in the produce department. Here are three more ways that I save:

• Pick another pepper: If a recipe calls for red, yellow, or orange peppers, I often substitute these varieties for green peppers as they are often the cheapest option in the produce department. Bell peppers taste pretty similar to me, so I swap them out to save money.
• Plan your menu around sales: Before going to the grocery store, I check out in-store sales on produce and then plan my meals around those items, which always saves me money.
• Buy in bulk. If an in-season veggie or fruit is on sale, I often buy it in bulk and use the extras in various recipes. I hate to see food go to waste, so doing this encourages me to use it up, which helps me get more nutrients in my diet.

What are you favorite ways for saving money on produce?

Here are some helpful guidelines from AllYou.com to help keep items as delicious and fresh as they were on the day you bought them.

Keep your pantry items…

• Bottled salad dressing (unopened): 1 year
• Bread: 5-7 days
• Canned goods: 1 year
• Cereal (unopened): 1 year
• Jams, jellies, honey, syrup (unopened): 1 year
• Peanut butter: 6 months
• Pasta: 2 years
• White rice: 1 year

Keep your frozen food…

• Beef steaks: 6-12 months
• Bread: Up to 1 year
• Butter: 6-9 months
• Fish: 2-6 months
• Ground meat: 3-4 months
• Lunch meat: 1-2 months
• Produce: Up to 1 year
• Whole poultry: 1 year

Two of the tips that immediately jumped out at me were related to cell phones and cell phone bills. My husband and I spend a fortune on our cell phone bill each month. We also have a bunch of old cell phone laying around the house collecting dust, so these two tips were super useful to me, and I just wanted to share them with you!

• Recycle old cell phones on yournew.com and get cash back– recycling two cell phones earns you an average of $65. List your model, answer a few quick questions, and enter your email address, mailing address, and choice of payment. The website even provides a shipping label.
• Slash cell phone bills in minutes on cellbills.com, which examines phone usage and then recommends the most cost-effective plan.

Trading Up Downtown Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who entered this week’s peanut butter giveaway! Here’s your winner: 48!

Here’s how I outsmart those high prices with these simple suggestions from AllYou.com!

• BEEF: Beef can be costly, but that doesn’t mean you need to take burgers off the menu. You can stretch ground beef with fillers such as beans and vegetables. Reserve steak for special occasions.
• PORK: Instead of using pork as a meal’s main event, add bits of ham or bacon to soups, stews and egg dishes to give them oomph. Or put your slow cooker to work on a pork shoulder or another tasty, inexpensive cut.
• FATS & OILS: Use just a little oil in a nonstick pan to brown meat and vegetables, then toss in a splash of broth to keep food from sticking. Buying a mister to spray your cooking oil also can help you cut down on waste.
• DAIRY: Add just a sprinkling of a bolder cheese, like sharp Cheddar, instead of piling on a milder variety. Shred your own to save a lot. Milk is one of the least costly ways to get your dairy servings, so drink up!

How do you make pricey items last longer?

• Grocery Shopping 101 (5-part series)
• How I Manage Our Finances
• Weird Ways I Save Money
• My Love Obsession with Group Buys
• How I Had Fun in College & Didn’t Go Broke
• How to Dress Professionally on the Cheap

And here are a few more ways that I get creative with my spending!

Citi Cash Back Card

Ok, let me start off by saying that I am not encouraging anyone to go out and apply for a new credit card. I’m just telling you what works for me. I only spend what I know I can afford and pay off my credit card in full every month.

With that said, my Citi Cash Back Card pays me to use it. For everything I charge on it, I earn cash back. Not points, but cold, hard cash. So, every few months (based on my spending), I get a check in the mail for $50 for just using my credit card. To me, it’s like free money. I’m going to spend the money anyway, it just goes on my credit card first before I pay it off, and my credit card rewards me for it.

Ebates

Ebates is awesome!!! It’s my favorite tool for online shopping. You can find thousands of coupons, promo codes, and discounts on their site, but, better yet, you get cash back savings with online rebates.

Last week, for example, I went on a mini online shopping spree. I bought a couple of books from Barnes & Noble, some Invigorating Night Gel from Sephora, and a pair of Rainbow Flip Flops from J.Crew. Holy shopping bug!

I logged into Ebates and just clicked through to those websites and placed my order as usual, which earned me 4-6% back on my purchases. It wasn’t a ton of money back this time, but in the past, I’ve purchased a computer through TigerDirect and plane tickets through Expedia, which definitely adds us. Again, Ebates pays straight up crash by check or PayPal, so you don’t have to deal with redeeming points and all that jazz.

CVS Green Bag Tag

I don’t know about you, but I shop at CVS a lot. There are two locations super close to my house, so anytime I run out of something, I go there to buy it. I already use the CVS ExtraCare card to save, but the Green Bag Tag is also a great money-saver since I always have a reusable bag with me or I just carry out my purchases. (I hate using plastic bags.)

For every 4th visit to CVS, you get $1 extra buck for using your Green Bag Tag. I shop at CVS a ton and bring a bag with me every time, so it’s easy for me to rack up those dollars. Even more incentive: CVS will donate 5 cents to World Wildlife Fund for every Green Bag Tag sold until the end of this month.

What are your creative ways to spend money?

Isn’t he a handsome devil?

To celebrate my fur-baby’s second birthday, I went to Petco to buy him a couple of stuffed toys and some treats. I thought about having a small doggie party for him, but I figured that the $18 that I spent at the pet store was plenty enough to spend on a dog’s birthday! I’m not totally crazy!

Parties need to be fun, but they don’t need to be expensive. Here are five money-saving tips for a birthday party (or any reason you can find to throw one):

1. Make cupcakes instead of a cake to avoid the cost of buying paper plates and plastic forks.
2. Keep it simple with foods that are naturally colorful and flavorful. You know, the ones that score high on the NuVal scale! Fresh fruit and veggies with dip always look pretty on display at a party.
3. Make your own beverages, such as lemonade and punch instead of buying it.
4. Play games or host a scavenger hunt instead of buying toys or gifts for every attendee to take home with them.
5. If guest offer to bring something to the party, take them up on their offer. Most of the time, people want to bring something!