The Frugal Office

I've been working as an office manager in a Chiropractic facility for almost 20 years--a job that I absolutely love. Keeping things in order in the most chaotic of financial times is something that we office managers have to become creative with on a daily basis. The two most important things that I've learned over the years that have helped to weather the storms of ever-changing regulations that sometimes prevent profit growth-like insurance mandates, fee-schedule cuts-and so on--is to 1. keep in-house overhead usage costs down and 2. keep promoting your business any chance you get.

Obviously-keeping overhead costs from overtaking the business is essential to making a profit-which these days is a blessing! Oftentimes in a busy office-it just becomes easier to just order whatever and from wherever without really weighing out the costs. Ordering items just becomes one of the many tasks that need to get done--but if you really take a little extra time and try to utilize better spending practices--you'll see that at the end of the sales year--you may actually have a little bit more capitol to work with--and maybe you'll have some leverage to convince your boss just how affordable it now is to give you that raise...

I don't care how successful you think your practice is-you should never have the mentality of--we are fine-we don't need any more patients/clients--they know where to find us...that kind of thinking will keep you "stuck" in an average spot of your business potential. There should always be room for more people who want the services your company has to offer and will pay you for it!If you get so busy that you can't handle the rush--you can always add more support staff. Wouldn't that be the ultimate success!! I can already hear the rebuttal argument: "Have you seen the cost of traditional print ads?" True--the general ad in a newspaper or other print media is quite costly. There are other smaller-and less expensive ways to get your name out to the public and to keep name recognition. What may seem to be cheap-throwaway items like pens, magnets, notepads, etc. are actually useful tools that help your patients/clients to remember you and have your information quickly. These items are things that most people have around them on a daily basis and serve as a reminder of what services you have to offer them.

Click on the following links for useful, one-stop shopping of your practice needs and be sure to utilize the coupons for extra savings.

One of the companies I've been using for years is the National Pen Company. They have high quality promo products at very low prices. Often they offer two for one deals and introductory specials that give you a lot of product without spending too much money.Click on their "free products" link to take advantage of these excellent deals. Search their site for products that can help generate company recognition and customer satisfaction. Many of our patients tell us that they look forward to our giveaways and often hand out our promo products to their friends and family to generate in-house referrals--the best-and most lasting customers come from this type of marketing. Be sure to use the coupon code ps65zt at checkout to get free set up and 20% off on most items.



Shop here for other great deals on personalized pens and promo items with free 24 hour rush delivery on specific products.



Another great shop for promo items...



Need a unique logo for your business?? Here is a truly affordable site that helps you to create your very own logo to help make your business stand out and get noticed. They also have promotional products to help solidify your logo recognition.


$20 LogoWorks Coupon

A really "sweet" and memorable way to promote your business is to use personalized M&Ms-They make excellent gifts and are perfect to use at trade shows or fairs.


MY M&M'S For Business Gifts - Free Logo Setup - $100 Value!

For those of you who wear scrubs/uniforms-this link has deeply discounted items along with shoes and accessories to fit your daily comfort needs. Free shipping is often offered-click on the site for details.



For your office supply needs-here is a link that offers some good deals. The selection may not be as vast as some of the larger office supply vendors-but I can't say that they are a bad site. Enter code BON55 at check out to get $5.00 off your purchase of $50.00 or more.


Free Shipping on Office Supplies & Office Furniture

A really good site that offers club warehouse type savings when you increase your order sizes to case quantities is Bulk Office Supply. They do have fair and competitive prices plus a large selection of items to fulfill your office needs. There are no membership fees and you may also order items individually if a case is not something you want to order.



Here is another interesting office supply site that offers free shipping on orders of $75.00 or more and has a large inventory of items that you can use to help run your office effectively.



One of the biggest expenses I have are printer supplies-toners, drums, etc-these items are so crazy expensive and of course are things that you must have in order to have a functioning office. I have to admit that I was leery at first about buying printer/ink supplies from a vendor other than Staples/Office Depot etc--but wow-what an amazing difference in price when I found these guys--and-I can't say that I've encountered any issues. The printing quality is exactly the same at a FRACTION of the prices I was used to paying. This is definitely the site to see to get huge savings on all your ink/toner needs plus more. Click on the site to save even more with a 10% coupon and free shipping on orders of $45.00 or more.


Save $10 off all orders over $40 and receive FREE SHIPPING from Carrot Ink today!


Here is a fairly good site where you can browse for your printing needs. They offer high quality brochures that you can personalize to showcase your business services.
Look on the site for discounts and shipping promos.



Talk about incredible savings on your printing needs. If you've never been on it before-you have to click on this link for unbelievable discounts on all your business cards, labels, stamps, letterhead, cards, and so may more items. The best part is their "FREE" section where for a small handling fee-you can get many items of your own choice-customized for you-for FREE. The quality is fine and the prices can't be beat!



Remember-to get these savings-you must shop directly from my site!


Nowadays-business must rely on technology to be successful. IT pro Anthony Iannone from Diplomatic Information Technologies may offer your company the innovation it needs to run efficiently and effectively:

Diplomatic Information Technologies (DIT) is a company with a vision to help diplomatic missions and agencies, non-profit organizations, and private business customers improve their efficiency and effectiveness through the use of technology and communication. Through our extensive experience with our varied clientele, we are able to custom tailor our services to the special needs of diplomatic agencies, non-profit organizations, and private businesses.

DIT can help your organization implement and productively use many different technologies, while helping you to save money by cutting down on the costs of telecommunications and maintenance. Here is just a sampling of the products and services DIT can provide to your organization:

- WWW website content, design, and Internet hosting, including domains & E-Mail

- Voice & telefacsimile over Internet (VoIP) communication systems

- PC & MAC hardware / software support, service, and sales

- LAN & WAN network design, implementation, and maintenance

- Virtual private networking with virtual and remote offices

- Wireless networking and telecommunications

- Digital security auditing, anti-SPAM technology, and hacker defense analysis

- Digital video security with long-term storage and remote web-based monitoring

- Custom application design and development

- Custom database design and development

- Document digitization, storage, and translation for the paperless office

- On-site information technology training and consulting

- 24 hour on call / emergency and disaster recovery services

DIT can solve your technological problems, large or small, simple or complicated.

Visit DIT for more details: http://www.diplomaticit.com

Frugal Shopper

Shopping and saving money is something I am a really big fan of. Ever since I was about 3 years old-I enjoyed playing with coupons...it's no wonder that as an adult my relationship with coupons has grown!

Someone actually beat me to the title of "Coupon Queen," but royalty or not-saving money while shopping is something that is an absolute must for me. Only in an emergency will I buy something that is not on sale or without a coupon. (Running out of chocolate chip cookies does qualify as an emergency!) When I go to the grocery store-they already know to get a manager ready with the "key" because of all my coupons. Just a tip-as a courtesy to the cashier and to shoppers waiting their turn on your line-if you have "free" coupons-put those products on the belt first. Then when you hand the coupons to the cashier-take those "free" ones and explain to him/her that you have a bunch of free coupons and that you placed those items first to be scanned. This will help them tremendously at the end of the order, because with most free coupons, the cashier needs to physically hand write the item's price directly on the coupon. Having those items listed at the top of the receipt will make everyone's life a lot easier. There is nothing worse than a cashier and a manager scrolling up and down a receipt trying to find an item's price while the line gets longer and stares get sharper. I once turned to an irate customer and asked her if she'd rather pay my shopping bill-no? well then I need to use them...On a more positive note; however, most people are genuinely interested to see how much I save on my shopping orders. Following is a great site that has lots of coupons-nowadays most stores accept internet coupons-but I do advise you to check that your store of choice does in fact accept them-as some still do not.



Where do you get free grocery coupons from? I get a large bulk of my coupons from the inserts in the weekend local newspapers-but I also find that subscribing to free newsletters of the companies that manufacturer your favorite products also helps with getting high dollar coupons and even free offers.

The key to working with coupons is to organize them-if you just go to the store with a fistful of crumpled up coupons in your pocket-you'll never use them as often as you should because they will prove to be a hassle. Find yourself a good coupon organizer that helps you to separate your coupons by category i.e. snacks (of course I list that one first), baby products, cleaners, and so on. Once this is done-you at least know that the next time you need something from those categories-you might use some coupons to get extra savings off. Another way to use coupons effectively before your shopping trips is to organize them by aisle if you can. For example-if you go to the same grocery store often-you likely know the general layout of the store. If aisle 1 has cereal/breakfast foods-then put those particular coupons first, Beverages the second aisle-then organize coffee coupons etc next, and so on. This helps you to drive through your aisles quicker by getting the items you need fast without having to fumble through a pile of coupons.

It also helps a lot to have a customer loyalty card to the grocery store you are shopping at because if you also have a manufacturers coupon for product that is reduced through use of a loyalty card-now you may get that product at an even lower discount. The key is to look at the store's weekly circulars to see what is on sale-find a coupon for that product-and start saving. Many circulars are even online-so you may use the web if you don't have access to a paper circular.

Still think coupons aren't worth it? With little effort-I save at least $25.00-$50.00 on each shopping trip. I shop at least once per week. That amounts to $1300-$2600 a year. There are times when I save even more than that. Trust me-it is worth it.


Talk about deals...this site is dedicated to providing their customers with huge discounts on an array of merchandise. It's so popular that USA Today has ranked it one of the top ten sites for true savings online. Check them out here and see for yourself.


Any college student will tell you that aside from tuition, required textbooks can be beyond expensive. There actually is a site that allows students to rent textbooks and even sell old textbooks back to them. Another plus is that for every book rented-they will plant a tree-so you are saving money and helping the environment as well. As someone who writes, I do see that there is room for argument with this type of site from an author's perspective; however, in some situations the expense of books causes many students to go to class without the proper materials resulting in poor grades and worse yet-- adds to some students eventually dropping out of college, because they simply cannot afford to buy them. In these cases-a site like this is truly beneficial--and in the ideal scenario--once these students graduate-they will hopefully retain their love for learning, earn more money in their careers, and will purchase books for their own libraries giving authors' their rightful due. As a college instructor-I've heard rave reviews from actual students who love this site.


Save 10% on all Textbook Rentals! (For a limited time)

I absolute LOVE this site! Not only does Kodak help me to be a frugal shopper-but it also helps me to save time-and these days-who really has any??? It's funny-I actually have accumulated so many points on Pampers.com Rewards to grow program-(a site where you enter in codes from diapers/wipes etc. so that you may redeem them for a list of rewards) that I could have actually gotten my Holiday Photo Cards for free on another site. When I tried to use it-I didn't like the layout possibilities or the ways in which I could edit my project-so I decided to get back to Kodak-because even if I have to pay for them-the time it saved me to upload my pictures in lightning fast mode, the different layouts, and the editing they have--is worth it.
You can order prints of all sizes at reasonable prices-get photo gifts, photo books, cards, and more-click on the gallery and also use the coupon codes:
Current Promotions at KODAK Gallery



You or someone you know expecting a baby? Click on this site to get info on how you can score some really useful freebies on the internet. When I was pregnant, I signed in and got all kinds of stuff from formula, diaper samples, free magazine subscriptions, and lots more.



People often ask me if there are any ways to make some quick and easy money on the internet-of course there are a lot of get rich quick schemes out there-so you really have to utilize common sense when looking for such opportunities--but one way you can make some extra pocket money and also get a lot of free products is by joining online survey groups that pay you to take surveys and to test products from brand named companies. There are literally thousands of survey companies out there so it's hard to determine which are truly worth your effort or not. I always steer clear of any survey groups that need me to complete an offer in order to get a free product or to earn cash. Also, I never join any company that requires me to pay a fee to join.

There are several survey groups that are actually quite good that I personally use myself. One of my top groups is Synovate. How it works is you sign up-and then e-mail invites are sent to you to take surveys. Once you complete a survey-you earn points that accumulate in your account-which they track for you. Once you reach at least 5,000 points (which is easy as most surveys are worth 500 points and up) you can cash out for a $5.00 check-the more points you earn-the more cash you are eligible to receive. Even if you don't qualify for a survey-you will get 50 points just for trying. That doesn't sound like a whole lot of money--and it certainly isn't-but surveys generally take about 10-15 minutes to complete-and this site moves fast! What's even better is that after you complete a survey-you will be entered into a drawing for cash prizes that range from $10.00--$1,000--and people really do win-I've only been a winner of $10.00 a few times--but hey-it's extra cash!!

What is really the best part of Synovate is their product testing. From being on the panel-I've gotten premium bottles of shampoo, conditioner, paper towels, huge bags of dog food, cologne, household cleaners, hair color, make-up, cheese (yes-they delivered it in fridge packaging), and so much more-all from high-end, name-branded manufacturers...I can't tell you the names-but you will see for yourself once you sign in. All you need to do is respond to a follow-up survey or two after you've had time to test the product-which again takes only a matter of minutes-and you get to earn extra points towards your cash account-plus you get to keep the products. Only on a rare occasion does the manufacturer want the unfinished product back. If that happens-all shipping charges are paid for in advance by the manufacturer. There is never any cost to be on their panel-and honestly-when you add up all the free products you get plus the several checks you will get-it really becomes worth the little bit of time it takes to complete very easy surveys. Get started today-you'll love it!!



Another survey group that I have been a member of for over 10 years is the My Survey group. They offer a decent rewards program for completing surveys that are easily redeemed for cash. It takes only 1,000 points to get $10.00 sent to you. Many of the surveys come with product testing opportunities where you get to keep high quality, name-branded products in exchange for completing a brief survey about the product. They also have sweepstakes opportunities-I've never won anything-but I have cashed out a whole bunch of checks and have gotten lots of great free products. This is a reliable site-and I highly recommend joining in!

Earn rewards for taking surveys & influence new products. Entry to win $10,000 just for registering at MySurvey.com. Learn more https://www.mysurvey.com/index.cfm?action=Main.join&r=6851381

Remember-to get these savings-you must shop directly from my site!