We’ve all been there, bored at home on a Sunday with nothing to do. Where do we end up? Most often shopping, or at the mall, going to dinner or the bar. Spending money on things we really don’t need.

Here are a few ideas’ to keep you occupied free or very little.

Read: I love to read and suggest it to anyone writhing in boredom. I’m not talking about trips to Barns & Noble or Borders. No orders from Amazon…although Amazon.com is a great place to find used books at a discount and I often take advantage of the wish list option to keep a running list of the books I’d like to read.

Used bookstores like Bookman’s or Goodwill are the best place to find cheap books. You can usually find recent new releases that people have already gone through as well as unusual finds that you may have never considered while shopping a traditional bookstore. There are also used book exchanges online that allow members to swap books at very low cost. You could always trade or borrow from friends; everyone I know has a couple of books sitting around collecting dust.

Exercise: We all need to do it and the biggest excuse not to is “not enough time”. So why not check this off your list when you’re bored at home? Many simple exercises don’t cost a penny. Go for a run, do some push ups or sit ups.

Comb sites like craigslist.com or visit the local Good Will to find cheap workout equipment. Many apartment complexes also have workout rooms available to residents at no additional cost. If it’s already part of your rent, take advantage!

Garden: Save money on your grocery bill and entertain yourself. Gardening doesn’t require much space. Find pots from garage sales or on craigslist.com and great an indoor potted garden or use any available space in your yard.

Surf the Net: The internet is where I spend most of my time and it can be a great place to blow a few hours. Surf forums, read articles, look for helpful information, watch movies, listen to the radio, there is a plethora of things to do in cyber space.

Movies at Home: Just like cheap books, you can rent cheap movies. RedBox is a great place to find rentals for just $1 each. You can also find movies at your local thrift store and Netflix is a great place to get a range of new releases for very little cash. Invite friends over and have each of them bring an item for a movie night.

Play: Remember when we were kids, playing outside was the most entertaining thing you could ever do. Go for walks or runs outside, play in the snow if you live in an area where it snows, or play in the rain.

Color in coloring books from the thrift or $.99 store, print your own coloring pages online or draw your own scenes and color those. Make play dough from salt, flour, and water.

These are great activities to do with your kids if you have them, but nothing says you can’t do these things as an adult either. Get creative; it’ll be good for your state of mind to act a little silly!

Ways to Entertain Yourself at Home to Keep from Spending is a post from: Dough Defender

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According to the NY Times many retailers are adding coupons to their promotional campaigns in an effort to increase sales during these lean economic times. I thought the art of couponing was worth looking into.

Where to Find Coupons

Online: Tons of websites are popping up all over the net with free coupons. Coupons online are printable, they can be sent to you via email or linked to your PDA or cell phone. They can even be linked to your grocery membership cards for instant savings at the checkout counter.

Newspapers: Newspapers are the traditional portal for coupons. The Sunday paper in particular is a veritable jackpot of coupons. If you see good stuff in your Sunday paper think about picking up more then one copy of that paper. If you can save $10 in coupons, it may be worth it to spend $2 on another paper.

Coupons are different in different areas as well. Think about picking up papers as you’re traveling to find coupons for different items or different brands.

Magazines: Magazines are another traditional place to find coupons. Women’s magazines such as RedBook, Good Housekeeping, and Women’s Day often have coupons hiding within their pages.

Stores: Many grocery stores now use the coupon systems from SmartSource. You can often find their coupon dispensers’ right next to the item the coupon is for in the grocery isles. How convenient!

Don’t forget to check the back of your receipt! Most grocery stores print coupons for all kinds of cool stuff on the backs of their receipts and some print additional coupons along side the receipts!

Products: Manufacturers coupons are often placed right on the product itself. Check the inside of packaging prior to tossing it in the garbage. You can find coupons printed on the insides of boxes or in plain view. Manufacturers have also been known to print coupons and include them inside the products. Coupons wrapped in plastic often fall out of the bag of cat food when I’m feeding my boys.

Coupon Groups: Another new phenomenon is that of coupon groups or coupon trains. Groups of people are getting together on the internet or in person to gather and trade coupons. No one uses every product so send your friends on a hunt for coupons for things you use and they don’t, in turn find coupons they can use that you won’t. Now that’s friendship!

Get Organized

The easiest way to fail at coupon clipping is to be unorganized. If you’re clipping like crazy and not keeping your coupons organized you’ll never get to use them when you need them!

Get a container to organize your coupons, recipe boxes with dividers works perfectly. Divide the sections by product categories that work best for you, household, health and beauty, snacks, canned foods, meats, etc.

Make sure to go through your coupons regularly and purge everything that has expired. Nothing is worse then thinking you have scored a great deal and then at the check out you find that your coupon has expired.

Maximize Your Savings

Double Coupons: Some stores will double your coupons! Check here to find stores in your area that will double your coupons. That means that a coupons saving you $.50 now saves you $1.00!

Doubling coupons is great, but I hear some stores will even triple coupons from time to time. Ask around to see if any of the stores in your area will triple those bad boys for some serious savings.

Stack Coupons: This is where the real savings are, did you know that you could stack coupons and use multiples? You can use a store coupon and a manufacturer’s coupon together. Better yet, you can use both on top of a sale and look out for those rebates. You could even use both on a double coupon day on a sale item!

Get it Free: I think this one is more of s sneaky loophole in the coupon system, but it works great. Use a buy-one-get-one coupon with a buy-one-get-one sale and you actually end up getting both items free!

Combine with a Price Book: This is a great way to save all year long using coupons. Use a price book to track the sales cycles in your area and the best prices on the products, you use. Then look for coupons that will save on top of the lowest prices in your price book.

The Power of Couponing: How to Use Coupons is a post from: Dough Defender

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