I have an armoire that holds my TV from JCP, it has tin panels so that it looks like a pie safe. It is very heavy and looks pretty good, for the (sale) price I paid for it. The back of the piece is a flimsy piece of wood that needs to be re-nailed. If you are willing to assemble it yourself, and don't need heirloom quality furniture, I think you'll be satisfied with their quality. BTW we bought an end table from Target, from their Woolrich collection, had to assemble it ourselves. What a beautiful piece of furniture! It has wrought iron legs, and is very sturdy, extremely good quality for the price. I do prefer quality wood pieces that will last a lifetime, if I can find them, afford them, and they suit the space. But sometimes you have to balance that with other concerns.

We're eating out a lot less and also doing a lot less home delivery meals. I'm closely watching prices in the grocery store and staying away from a lot of the "I want" stuff. I've done away with expensive laundry detergant in favor of Mule Train and Oxyclean which, not only costs less, but is much better for the environment. Also did away with fabric sheets and bought some dryer balls. And I hang dry a lot of our items. Eliminating a lot of other cleaners as well in favor of baking soda and vinegar. Making less trips in the car and combining errands when we are out. Doing a lot more comparison shopping to get the best deal. Planted some tomatoes today -- much cheaper than buying in the store, and plan to grow some herbs this year too. Once I finish up the last of my swifter pads (which I'll start washing now!) plan to go to homemade pads. Catching "wasted" water whenever possible when heating it up. Using CFLs in nearly every light in the house. When milk is on sale, buying two gallons and freezing one. Doing a "staycation" this year instead of traveling. Didn't renew any of my magazines -- can read most it on the Internet. One nice side effect of us all trying to be more frugal, is that many of these changes are helping to reduce our carbon footprint and THAT'S a good thing...

1. Always check the store-of-choice for their coupon policy. Some won't take out-of-date coupons, some will. Some stores will take competitors' coupons. Double or triple coupons - at what amount. If they are out of the item you want, get a rain check. Be sure to check your coupons before the 15th of the month - some of them are out-of-date mid-month, not the last of the month. 2. Track price cycles. Many items go on sale at regular intervals and try to align your coupons to go along with those sales. For instance, condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, etc.) are on sale just before grilling holidays (Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day) - that's when you need to stock-up on those items. Before school starts specials - Kleenex/Puffs, peanut butter, etc. Pre-Thanksgiving/Christmas - baking items. I get our Dillons store weekly flyer on-line and I can download coupons to my Shopper's Card, plus they send me coupons. These also tend to be foods I regularly purchase. I quit taking the local newspaper (Sunday ONLY when the ads and flyers come out) because the amount of savings from the coupons I was clipping wasn't enough to pay for the newspaper. 3. I keep a Price Book which includes prices for items at the stores I normally shop so I'll know if something is actually at the best price. Butter at Aldi is always less expensive than Kroger brand on sale, or name brand with a coupon. But if you don't know what those prices are, you'll waste money. I also keep my inventory of food in storage in my Price Book. When I add something to storage I'll mark it with a slash - /. And when I take something out of storage I'll finish the slash - X. If I need to track the use-by dates (peanut butter, for example), I'll mark the item going into storage with the use-by date - 1/12. When I take it out of storage I'll "X" it out. Wasted food is the most expensive food we purchase, so an inventory is important for tracking what you have and what you need. 4. Be sure to stack savings. You can sometimes use a store coupon as well as one from a manufacturer on the same item, and if you are really good, you can sometimes find a rebate. And take advantage of it all when the item is a loss leader or on sale. I keep all my coupons in my Price Book and take them to the store with me because not all sale items are advertised. I've found food items in the clearance area that I've had a coupon for. 5. Unless the coupon stipulates that you can't use a coupon on a trial size of an item, you can often get items free by doing this. 6. Do your math... Know which size will be the best buy based on unit price. Sometimes it's the smallest size, not the biggest that's the best bargain. The first and best way to save on your food is to set a budgeted amount of money for purchases and stick to it. My food budget is for food only - I have another amount for non-food items. It's unusual for me to purchase anything at full price. Because I have home food storage and I "shop" at home for menu planning by rotating food in and out of storage, I can wait until I find the item on sale before adding it to storage. Some things I may only purchase once a year, at stock-up prices, but will buy enough to last a year. I actually don't use very many coupons because I don't purchase convenience foods and highly processed foods, which seems to be the bulk of what coupons are for. On my stringent food budget ($125/month for two adults) I keep to whole foods and nutrient-dense foods and make my own "convenience" foods from pantry ingredients. I mill my own flour from whole grains/seeds/beans so I keep those in storage, and make all our breads and baked goods. I make our cereals for pennies. Even with a coupon commercial cereal products are a huge rip-off. About 75-80% of my food purchases goes into storage and I have 6-12-months worth of pantry foods (things I use for everyday food preparation) and 3-years worth of the "Seven Survival Foods" in storage (grains, legumes, seeds for sprouting, salt, fat -coconut oil for me-, sweetener/s and powdered milk). Meat purchases are kept to $2/pound or less, OR no more than $10 total per week for meat. And be sure to check those unit prices on cans of tuna that we all think is such a bargain. If you buy a can of tuna for $1.29 - that's costing you $4.13 per pound. You'd just as well buy steak. I have also eliminated many store-purchased items. I use tomato powder and pantry ingredients, instead of buying tomato sauce, tomato paste, tomato juice, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce. I make all those tomato-based foods with tomato powder. Add to that dehydrated and frozen home-grown tomatoes, and that's about all the tomato products I need to have on hand. I use powdered milk products I order on-line by-the-bucket - which costs much less than buying milk in the store. I buy grains/seeds/beans in bulk amounts - all from my $125/month food budget. So if your goal is to not spend any more money than is necessary for your food and non-food store-purchased items, your approach to couponing may be somewhat different than becoming the "Coupon Queen", but the same "rules" for getting the most from coupons still applies. -Grainlady

I'm not a big coupon user, mostly because they are more often than not for things we just don't need or use.... like highly processed convenience food, puffed and extruded cereal products that are more air than food, expensive namebrand laundry detergent/softener, etc. The ones I do use are for TP, toothpaste, and occasionally there will be frozen whole fruit, Tyson chicken or other meat products, 100% frozen concentrate juices, etc., and I try to use coupons along with a sale on that item to maximize savings. That means you plan ahead, and you buy ahead. Tyson chicken was buy one package, get one free this week, I just happen to have a coupon and saved an additional $1. We have 3 stores where I can get groceries, Dillons (4 of them) - which have double coupons everyday, but only up to 50 cents, Wal-Mart - face value, and Aldi - no coupons. I don't believe the "Coupon Queen" actually save money over all - but that it's more like a disease - or an addiction - similar to gambling. I believe they spend much more time, energy, and gas to get freebies, collect coupons, print coupons off the Internet, than I would using my simple system based on being frugal and reducing waste and expense to begin with. I'd like to see their complete expenses for food and non-food items for a year and compare bottom-lines. How much is wasted in storage; how much is tossed because it's out-of-date, spoiled, or unused; and how much is empty calories and void of nutrition; how much is really not needed at all? Here's how I save money. 1. Have a set amount for food PERIOD (mine is $50 per week for 2 adults). You'll always save if you don't spend more than your budgeted amount with or without coupons, and keep your budget as low as possible. Use food dollars for food only. Budget another amount for non-food items. You'll soon see how much money is wasted on non-food items. 2. Purchase whole foods for better nutrition and learn to cook from scratch. Avoid buying junk food, snack items, and soft drinks. Snacks are whole foods like popcorn, peanuts, almonds, pecans, homemade granola, homemade yogurt or kefir, fruit and vegetables. I have been getting 25# of wheat at Wal-Mart for $5, which is close to the same amount as ONE high-priced loaf of bread. I can make 90 1-pound loaves of whole wheat bread from a bushel (60#) of wheat. I make all our breads for around 25-50 cents a loaf - as well as all our other baked goods. 3. If something comes in a bag, box, or can, you pay for the packaging and processing, not just the food inside. Always keep track of unit pricing. I've found the smaller container of peanut butter is often cheaper when it's on sale than the larger one, when you figure unit price - per ounce price. The price of frozen orange juice concentrate (add 3 cans of water) is much cheaper than ready-to-use in the refrigerator case (approximately twice as much), and the highest price is individual juice boxes. You don't need a coupon to save there, just make better choices when considering unit pricing. 4. Make your own "convenience foods". I make a wholegrain version of Bisquick, wholegrain pancake mix, "instant" refried beans from milled pinto beans, pudding mix from a powdered milk product, and occasionally I'll make up some "Gifts-in-a-Jar" mixes to keep in the pantry as convenience foods. 5. Plan meals/menus based on loss leaders from the meat and produce department from the grocery store. Plan meals so you don't waste food. If you have a head of leaf lettuce, how many meals do you plan on using it? Or do you randomly forage for food for a meal and the head of lettuce dies of loneliness in the crisper drawer? Wasted food, wasted money. 6. Laundry and cleaning supplies. I've made homemade laundry soap for many years for approximately 8 cents a load. I use inexpensive white vinegar (from Sam's Club) in the rinse instead of expensive and toxic softener. I can find Borax (part of the homemade laundry soap recipe) on sale, and I'll stock up on it for later use. I clean the bathroom sink/counter with 1/2 water and 1/2 alcohol solution in a spritz bottle and a microfiber towel. The kitchen counters are sanitized with 1 qt. water and 1 t. bleach. Toilets are cleaned with Borax, then a spritz of alcohol/water. Floors mopped with vinegar/water. 7. Shampoo - I purchase a gallon of shampoo from a beauty supply outlet (for hair dressers and barbers) - usually on sale. I mix it with water and have enough shampoo for years. No coupons, but a fraction of the price. No other hair care products necessary. 8. Bath soap - a 14 oz. bar of ZOTE laundry soap costs 70 cents at Big Lots. I can use it to make homemade laundry detergent for pennies, or I can slice the bar into 3/4-inch slices and use it for body soap in the bath/shower. If I want liquid soap, I can make it with a bar of bath soap (or the slivers of soap that get tossed into the trash) and water. I guess the difference between me and the "Coupon Queen" is I'm frugal in order to save money. I only use what's necessary to get the job done, not what's available with a coupon. I'm not impressed and influenced by commercial products and unnecessary items. I've seen a "Coupon Queen" in action. She brings a truck load of food and non-food items to the neighbor's garage sale twice a year. She sells them for pennies on the dollar so that she can feed the habit all over again. You know she has to spend something getting this hoard of goods. -Grainlady