Foolproof, Risk-Free Way To Make A Lot Of Extra Money

One night in early January this year, I had to run into town to fetch a small carload of groceries. I was enjoying my winter - my work is seasonal and I'm laid off from late November until March 1st every year. I love this time off, because during the summer I have no shortage of 60 and even 70 hour workweeks. Heck, this summer past I had a couple 80 hour workweeks.

It's OK. I'm good at what I do and given the choice I'll choose to make more money. How else is a $9 an hour restaurant cook supposed to get ahead? Not to mention scraping some extra money together. I'm an investing bookworm, and it takes money to make money. I'll be writing about that in future hubs. If you're interested in stocks, I have a lot to say.

Anyway, as I was finishing up at the register, the checker asked me, "Do you need a calendar?"

I said "No, I already have one."

She got one out to show it to me anyway.

"Look, they only cost a dollar and on the first page there's all these coupons for a dollar off Best Choice products."

Many of the stores around here carry products from Associated Wholesale Grocers as one of the cheaper "store brands" they offer under the "Best Choice" or "Always Save" label.

I wasn't in a hurry. So I looked. On the front page of each of these promotional calendars that Best Choice was putting out, there were ten $1-off coupons for Best Choice items.

The coupons in each calendar were all the same. Five of them were for a dollar off any Best Choice item over $1. The other five were item-specific, and for things we didn't use much. I bought one and went home.

Awhile after I carried the groceries in, I got to thinking. We often buy Best Choice or Always Save products to save money, and they're usually every bit as good as the name brands. Cereal, flour, peanut butter, soda, jelly, sugar, margarine, vegetables (frozen or canned), canned soups, canned fruits, ketchup, mustard, bread, prepackaged frozen goods...just about any prepackaged food you can think of. Even dog and cat food.

Each of those calendars had at least 5 coupons I could easily make use of and of the other five $1-off coupons, I was pretty sure I could manage to use at least one of those. I walked into the kitchen and started rummaging through our cabinets. Best Choice. More Best Choice. I opened the fridge. Best choice. Best Choice was everywhere! I knocked something over and reached for - what else? - a Best Choice paper towel or two to wipe up the mess. Those Best Choice paper towels cost $1.19. With one of those coupons, the next roll would cost $0.19.

Later, in the bathroom, it dawned on me that we always bought Best Choice toilet paper. So I sat down in front of the computer, where I spend virtually all my time, and thought about it while I was eating some Best Choice chili with Best Choice crackers in it. The chili cost $1.69 a can. With one of those coupons, it would have cost sixty nine cents.

Hmmm. Back into the kitchen.

"Hon, where did that calendar go?" Grin.

"Why?"

"I just wanna look at it."

The coupons were good through the end of August. August!!

You don't get many things handed to you that way, folks. If you don't make much money and it occurs to you that someone is selling you $5 bills for a dollar, you shouldn't need much time to think about it..

For every one of those calendars I bought for one dollar, I could most likely keep 6 dollars in my pocket later. Because there was also that dollar off coupon for that 3 pound boneless skinless frozen chicken...

I decided I could eat a lot more chicken.

The next day: "Where are you going?"

"Back to the store."

"We don't need anything."

"They're selling dollars for under twenty cents. I'm gonna buy some more."

"You're going to embarrass me. I'm not going back in there."

"You always make me go anyway."

It took forever to clean up the mess. Nobody said I could only buy one. I bought eighty of these calendars, in all, I spent $80.00.

By the time I was done cutting coupons, my fingers were so sore from the scissors. I think I almost had scissor-blisters!

We made fudge the next day. The Best Choice evaporated milk was twenty five cents a can. The Best Choice semi-sweet chocolate chips cost $1.39 a bag.

Robin loves to feed the birds. The Best Choice suet only cost 19 cents.

I spent $80. I saved all my grocery receipts through August. That eighty dollars made grocery shopping amazing most of the summer. I saved almost $600. I did manage to use some of the coupons I didn't think I would, and also gave a couple hundred dollars' worth away that I had no use for.

It's almost the beginning of another year, folks. Keep your eyes open. Perhaps you'll spot a promotional calendar or some such deal put out by the company that provides the "store brand" to one of your local stores!

Heck, at a dollar a calendar, they were paying me to take them off their hands!

I made over seven times my money. That's a heck of a return.