In the past, I’ve discussed the art of clipping coupons as well as the huge advantages of a grocery list. Lately, I’ve found that combining the two together can net a very nice financial edge – and it only takes me about ten minutes a week.

I schedule my primary shopping trip on Saturday mornings. The reason for this is that local grocery stores are usually offering a ton of samples at about ten or eleven in the morning on Saturday, so I can usually get most of Saturday’s lunch for free when I make multiple stops (and I usually do).

I also save coupon sections from the Sunday newspaper. I just pull them out when I’m reading the paper and set them aside for later use. If you don’t get a Sunday paper, check at a local convenience store on Monday morning and they’ll usually let you scavenge one for ads – something I’ve done in the past.

On Friday evening, I finish my grocery list. I make sure that everything I’m going to buy at the store is on it – all of my food items, toiletries, and so forth. I usually check a few of the essentials when doing this.

Then, I sit down with the saved coupons and clip everything that matches. Since I usually buy the brand that Consumer Reports recommends in bulk, I just look for coupons of those specific brands unless I spot an exceptional deal (like a recent $3 off on Luvs diapers, which made a small bag of them less than a nickel a diaper). Everything else, I toss. This usually nets me only a couple coupons.

I also do some online searching for coupons. I’ll check the coupon page at my local grocery store’s site, as well as a few general coupon sites, but I never print a coupon that doesn’t match up with my list.

I paperclip the coupons to my list and then go shopping on Saturday morning. In the store, I stick to my list and I still look for in-store bargains that beat the coupons, though these are rare. Sticking to the list ensures that I buy very few unnecessary things at the store. If I end up with any unused coupons, I save them for future weeks.

This process, both the individual pieces and in combination, has cut about 40% off of my weekly grocery / household / toiletry bill and I barely notice the difference.

I was surprised recently to find out that several regular readers of The Simple Dollar were completely unaware of Froogle, Google’s comparative shopping search engine. It’s such a powerful tool for finding good and reputable deals that I wrote up a brief tour of the site, including a clear example, so that you can see how powerful this free tool really is.

First thing, pop open a new window with Froogle in it. This way, you can use Froogle yourself while following along with my example. You’ll immediately notice that the homepage of Froogle is clean, open, and very similar to the front page of Google itself. You’re immediately drawn to the search blank, so type in a product you’re interested in. For this example, I’m doing some video game shopping for my nephew, so type in Madden NFL 07 Playstation 2 in the search field.

You’ll immediately see a results page with a ton of options along the top; we’ll get back to these in a minute. The first thing to look at is the extensive listing of matching items that fills up the main part of the page. Right above this, in the upper right on the green bar, is an option for different sorting mechanisms for the results. By default, they’re sorted by relevance, but I often quickly switch this to “sort by price: low to high.” Give it a try.

Quickly, I realize that there is a flood of results here, so I add some criteria using the abundance of options along the top section. I don’t want to pay more than $40 for it, so I choose the “Under $40″ option, which quickly eliminates some results. I also click on “4 Stars and Up” so that I know that I’m buying from a reputable individual. With just a few clicks, I’ve pared the results down to just four matches, where I can see that I can get the game for as low as $37. From here, I can click on the item itself or just jot down the cost that I can get it at using Froogle and use it when shopping elsewhere. I saw it on the shelf recently at Target for $44.99, and it’s also available at Amazon.com for $39.99. Is the reliability and trustworthiness of Amazon worth the extra $3, especially if the shipping is free? Thirty seconds with Froogle brought this money-saving option to my attention.

Froogle is also a good way to find retailers for niche items. For example, I discovered a wonderful site with great customer response and prices on fragrances (Fragrance Shop, for those interested) and I’ll often take my business there if purchasing a new cologne or a bottle of perfume for my wife.

In short, it’s a highly valuable free tool for saving a good deal of money on the internet. I would estimate that Froogle has saved me $50 in the past year alone, and at least $20 this Christmas season so far.

Yesterday, I described my financial meltdown, when I reached a point where there was more money going out each month than coming in with no real hope for redemption without a change from within. Then, thanks to some inspiration, I made that change.

The first thing I did was I laid out every single expense I had each month and asked myself what I could do to reduce them. I piled all of my credit card bills together in one place, my student loan bills together in one place, and so on. I then called each of the credit card numbers and simply told them that I am going to transfer all of my balances to one card and would they like my business? The first couple pulled my credit report and didn’t comply, but the third one did. I then proceeded to consolidate my student loans into one loan, and set up an automatic payment plan. With these two moves, I eliminated about 75% of the interest I was paying each month.

The next thing I did was I set up a loose monthly budget that I re-evaluated and tightened at the end of each month. I had so little idea of where my money was actually going that I didn’t actually save anything for the first two months – I just made large debt payments with my money. Once I realized where all that money was going, I was prepared to make even bigger changes in my financial life.

Once I understood my budget both in and out, I put strong caps on all of my frivolous spending. I allowed myself to spend a bit on entertainment, but I strongly budgeted it. I also began to cut down on frivolous spending even on things like groceries, where I taught myself how to shop in a much more frivolous fashion using tools like coupons and shopping lists.

The biggest step was making clear short term goals for myself. I clearly stated that I wanted my credit card debt gone and I wanted a two month emergency fund and I developed a week-by-week plan for getting that done. As I met the goal for each week, I began to develop a sense of pride as I watched my debt disappear much quicker than I would have ever thought possible.

The icing on the cake was I began to build up some savings so that disasters wouldn’t derail me. I opened up a high-interest savings account and set up an automatic deduction plan so that the money would simply move automatically into savings; all I had to do was mark it in my budget and savings would just happen. Soon, I was seeing the joy of compound interest and the peace of having an emergency fund.

Each of these financial moves helped to get me on track to righting the numbers, but how did I right my soul? Tomorrow, I’ll conclude this series by discussing the real lessons the road to financial armageddon taught me.

Want to jump quickly to the other Road to Financial Armageddon posts? Here’s an index to help you out.

#1: The Earliest Mistakes
#2: Early Profits … Lost
#3: Cash & College
#4: The First Taste of Real Money
#5: Love & Marriage
#6: The Yuppie Years
#7: Here Comes Baby
#8: Meltdown
#9: The Road to Recovery
#10: What I Learned

If you’re reading this, you likely have ready access to a computer with an internet connection. Most people are aware of a few ways that a personal computer can save them money, but there really are a plethora of simple, ethical ways that anyone can use a computer to make a few dollars. Here is a list of 14 ways your computer can put money in your pocket that anyone can do without ripping anyone off. Many of these ideas may have occurred to you, but I’m sure there are at least a few here that are new to you. Hopefully, something on this list will spur you on to try something new and perhaps have a little bit of extra pocket money. Please note that I am only mentioning fully legal methods for such services in this article, and I’m usually directing people towards easy-to-use services if there are a multitude of options. For example, I am aware that there are a lot of programs for playing back audio on your computer and I am aware of the ease of obtaining pirated music and video.

1. Switch your phone to VoIP. VoIP refers to the use of your home computer’s broadband connection as a telephone service. There are different programs that have various features and benefits, but they are almost universally less expensive than traditional land lines and cellular phones. Two of the most popular options are Skype (free to other Skype users, but fees for calls to non-Skype phones) and Vonage (flat monthly rate for unlimited calls in the United States and very cheap per minute internationally).

2. Utilize online-only savings accounts. In the past few years, a number of branchless, online-only, FDIC insured banks have cropped up that provide astoundingly high interest rates on a normal no minimum balance savings account. These rates tend to be eight or nine times as high as typical banks (which offer a 0.5% rate of return on average). Two of the most popular include ING Direct (currently offering 4.4% APY and very easy to sign up) and HSBC Direct (currently offering 5.05% APY). This means that investing $100 in an ING Savings account would return $4.40 in a year, or $5.05 at HSBC Direct, versus $0.50 at your typical bank. Plus, you can fully manage your account on your computer, transferring money to and from your checking account as you wish.

3. Combine your entertainment needs. A modern personal computer can replace your stereo, your television, and your video game consoles. You can move all of your music on CD to your computer using programs such as iTunes, then use your computer speakers to play back music when you want it. If you have a large monitor and a TV tuner card, you can use your monitor as a television by playing your television feed through your computer. You can also sign up for services such as GameTap to utilize your home computer as a video game console.

4. Keep an eye on your finances. I use online banking and credit card accounts to keep a daily tab on what’s in my accounts and what I’m spending my money on. This way, I know what I can afford to spend and what I can’t. Many banks and virtually all major credit card providers allow online account access, which gives you very easy control over your money. Beyond that, there are a number of excellent packages out there that enable you to manage your finances as a whole and do your own taxes, though they can be complex to set up. I use Microsoft Money, which can be downloaded for a 90 day free trial.

5. Sell your hobby. Whatever your hobby is, you can probably find a place to sell the products of that hobby. eBay is a great place to get started, though there may be better places for your specific hobby. Here’s an example: a friend of mine likes to fold simple origami pieces while doing other things, such as watching television; it’s a nervous tic for her. So she started folding lots of paper cranes. She was aware that a thousand paper cranes are often given as a gift among the Japanese, so she decided to start selling thousand crane lots on eBay. Thanks to her computer, she can sit at her rural home, watch television in the evening, and sell the numerous cranes she makes with her own hands.

6. Write about your random thoughts and interests. It is incredibly easy to get a simple blog at Blogger and put a Google AdSense bar on the side of it; Blogger walks you through the process very gently. With this, you can write anonymous random thoughts on whatever you want: your personal life, your favorite television show, whatever. You can just channel some of your own thoughts into a written form and post them. Not only does it provide an outlet for you to express yourself, it also enables you to improve your writing skill over time as painlessly as possible and you can earn a few dollars from the AdSense bar.

7. Do some comparison shopping. There are a multitude of places to shop online, and there are often many places selling the same item. For example, just for books alone, I used to check amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a few others. It’s easy to find a better price for an item than you might find in your own town. Even better, people are beginning to create software tools to make comparison shopping even easier. My favorite is Book Burro: when you view a book on a site like amazon.com using FireFox, it will pop up a little window immediately informing you of the cost of that book at various other online sites, helping you to quickly find the lowest price.

8. Throw out your reference texts. With an internet-accessible computer, there’s little need for such reference texts as a dictionary or a thesaurus or an encyclopedia. Wikipedia is a suitable replacement for an encyclopedia for general usage. Dictionary.com provides the same usage as a dictionary, and thesaurus.com is a functional thesaurus. In the modern world, there’s little need to invest in such reference texts.

9. Find a better credit card. We’ve all signed up for some pretty terrible credit card deals in the past, but the internet enables you to find a credit card offer that matches your needs much better. You can easily return 2% of your spending to yourself if you can locate a strong credit card offer. Even better, you can easily find balance transfer offers that will eliminate the interest you’re paying on a card. Obviously, a credit card is a tool that you need to be careful with, but I use one for my primary spending (groceries, etc.), keep the balance paid each month, and they literally pay me to use it. I would have never found this offer without the internet.

10. Use a computer as your cooking aid. Many people eat out because of the hassle of preparing food at home. It might not be tasty, you think, or you might mess it up. Plus, many people don’t want to invest in cookbooks or other methods of teaching themselves how to cook. Wikipedia offers extensive explanations of culinary techniques, even if you’re scared of boiling water. Plus, there are countless recipes available on the internet for dishes of all levels of complexity: RecipeZaar, for example, has thousands of recipes for beginning cooks. Not only will you learn a new skill, but you’ll quickly see how much cheaper it is to cook at home, a process aided by your computer.

11. Make your own calendars and other documents. Many people buy wall calendars for their home when a few printed pages will suffice. “But I don’t have a program that will make a calendar!” you say. Open Office is a free software suite that includes a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, and much more; even more important, it includes templates for making calendars, newsletters, and so forth. We use an old wall calendar for its pretty pictures and just tape printed pages over each month.

12. Save money when you travel. I am consistently surprised at the number of people who still choose to pay high prices by booking flights directly from the airline or through a travel agent when there are numerous easy tools online that will save you tons of money on your travel costs. Priceline, Travelocity, and Expedia all are amazingly easy to search and find the cheapest prices from your location to your destination and back – and they can sometimes save hundreds of dollars on your travel over calling a travel agent or directly calling an airline.

13. Print coupons before you shop. The internet provides unbelievably good access to coupons that you can use at your local grocery store, and a little bit of effort can transform coupons directly into cash. I check sites such as coupons.com before each shopping trip, checking to see if there are any manufacturer coupons available for items I’m going to buy, then just take them to the store with me and convert them to cash at the register.

14. Learn marketable skills. Your computer can teach you a lot, too. When I first purchased my computer, I was an atrocious touch typer, but I utilized sites like Learn2Type and TyperShark to teach myself how to type 80 words per minute. Want to know the intricacies of Word and Excel to better market yourself for a job? Microsoft offers extensive training on how to perform those tasks. You can also learn how to create web pages from scratch. Each of these skills will give you a leg up in the workplace.

The computer can be a very valuable tool – you just have to know how to use it.

Supermarkets are designed to mess with your mind. I believe firmly that they are designed by a room full of middle management folks, sitting in an office somewhere with their coffee and suits, chuckling over the tricks they’re pulling on the populace. Stores are often organized so that the most commonly purchased items are on the far side of the store from the entrance, so that you’ll have to walk past lots of frivolous items to find the things you’re looking for. As “good” consumers, we often find ourselves buying several things we don’t need as we walk past them.

The trick to visiting a supermarket and avoiding these impulse buys is to avoid them as best you can, and the best tool for this is to make a shopping list before you go and stick to that list. With a list of items you need and a desire to only get items on your list, it becomes much easier to cut down on those impulse buys.

For me, the worst impulse buy was a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It’s a delicious, insidious little snack at a convenient price point that I would always pass by on my way to get milk or something else that I actually needed. Unsurprisingly, before I went with a list in hand and a goal in mind, a pint or two would always find their way into my cart. Now, if I get a strong desire for Ben & Jerry’s, I add a pint to the list, but most of the time I don’t splurge on it. Not only has it cut some pounds from my belly, it’s also saved me several dollars per store visit.

If you want to invest a little time, I’d recommend making a document that allows you to make sub-lists in general categories based on your store’s layout. For me, that means a “dairy” section, a “frozen foods” section, a “meat” section, and so forth. I use a Word template and print a new one off to hang on the refrigerator each week. This makes it even easier to stick to a list, because you do less searching for each item and thus are exposed less to frivolous items.

Here are five quick ways to build an efficient grocery list that will save you some serious money at the grocery store.

1. Cut your visits down to once or twice a week. I usually do one main visit per week (on Saturdays) and one smaller visit (usually on my way home from work on Tuesdays). This reduces the opportunities to buy frivolous things.

2. Start off each new list with the things you get every visit. For me, that means skim milk, orange juice, and yogurt – I don’t visit the store without picking up these three things.

3. Add things to your list as you discover you’re getting low on them. A good way to do this is by keeping a pad and a pen actually attached to the refrigerator so that it is central to places where you might find stuff.

4. Before you go, consider what you’ll probably eat at home in the next week. You don’t need to sketch out every meal, but have ideas for several meals before you go and make sure you have the ingredients for all of those, plus any additional foods you might want.

5. Check your coupon envelope. If you use a solid, non-intense coupon strategy, you’ll probably save some money for the shopping trip by hitting the coupon envelope before you go and updating your list to match.

The real key, though, is to stick to your list once you’re in the store. It feels like a real accomplishment the first time you see a smaller bill at the checkout and you look through your sacks and don’t see anything silly.

I used to think that clipping coupons was a giant waste of time. “Coupons encourage you to buy extra junk that you don’t need,” I thought to myself whenever I saw a batch of coupons from the newspaper.

Then I had a baby, and I discovered the true value of coupons. Hint: if you buy diapers, baby food, and formula over and over again, coupons for diapers, baby food, and formula are as good as cash. It didn’t take long for this to spread out over our other purchases and now we have a nice hefty envelope full of coupons that we take on grocery ones with us (another tip: keep an envelope somewhere handy to keep coupons in so that if you see a useful one, you can just toss it in the envelope and look at it the next time you go shopping).

Here’s five quick ways to find coupons without burning a bunch of time hunting for them:

1. Pick up a copy of the Sunday edition of a major newspaper. There’s usually a few included sections of solid coupons. Clipping the useful ones takes just a couple of minutes.

2. Visit the website of your preferred grocery store chain before you visit. Many of them have coupon sections. I usually shop at Hy-Vee, which has a great coupon section.

3. If there’s something you buy a lot of, Google for it and add the word “coupon.” You’ll usually find something in the first few links. Around here, we buy a lot of Gerber baby food and Pampers diapers, so Googling for “Pampers coupons” or “Gerber coupons” usually points you to coupons or an easy method of getting them (like filling out a form or something).

4. Print multiple copies of any coupons that really wow you. We like to make frozen prepared meals about once a week, because we’re often stretched for time as it is and they are extremely easy to prepare. So when we found a $3 off coupon for Bertolli frozen dinners (which are quite good and very easy!), we printed a bunch of them and take one with us during each store visit.

5. Keep an eye out for double or triple coupon days at local grocery stores. There are a couple grocery stores nearby that have regular double coupon days; you can find out when they are by checking this list and then seeing if any of their chains (or subsidiary chains) are near you, then ringing the store to ask when they do them. Here, two different stores have double coupon days on different weekdays, so I often plan my shopping around these. I often get stuff for free (or very close to it) with double coupons – just yesterday, in fact, I got twelve containers of Yoplait yogurt (a popular item around my house) for four cents apiece.