All Posts Tagged With: "grocery store"
Saving money by distinguishing between wants and needs
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sat, Dec 19 2009 | 0 Comments
Have you seen the Wal-Mart ads on television that say how much you can save if you buy something at Wal-Mart versus going out to get it like saving so much by making breakfast at home versus going out to buy it? There is truth to that, but you have to remember that many of us don’t end up needing to go out for breakfast and in most multi-child households, cereal is the norm.
We all have to decipher between needs and wants in order to save money at the grocery store. Deciding to buy a box of cereal or going out every morning to buy breakfast is easy to decipher between.
Then there are times when we have to try really hard to decipher between the two. The easiest way to separate the two is to make a list to take to the store. This way you can see what you need and you can sit back and look at the list and get rid of anything that you might not need or that you can tell you simply want.
Sometimes we turn wants into needs at the grocery store and we can’t fall into that budget busting habit. If you go without a grocery list and say you want cookies, then you’ll need milk to go with them (This isn’t the best example, but you can understand what I mean). When you end up turning wants into needs, you will always leave the store paying more than you ever intended.
The only person who can tell you what is a need and what is a want is ultimately up to you. You can’t expect anyone else to tell you what you need, as we all have different needs with the exception of basics like water, food and shelter.
None of this means that you have to give up the things you want to save money, just cut back.
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Tags: habit, water food, cereal
Frugal living tip 2: Coupon clipping is for everyone
Lizzie Tyner | RSS | Sun, Dec 13 2009 | 3 Comments
If you’ve ever read on the internet about my next tip, then you know that there are some out there who take it to the extreme. I want to make my tips for the everyday person.
So here’s tip number two:
Coupon clipping isn’t scary and it can be your best friend.
Alright, so this topic is kind of obvious, but I think that everyone should be reminded about this money saving tool whenever they can. I know that sometimes I can get waist deep in coupon clipping tips on the internet and just want to not use coupons at all, but then I wouldn’t be saving any money at any stores!
Using coupons does not have to be limited to the grocery store. When times get tough, a lot of restaurants and entertainment facilities start putting out and accepting coupons.
My very favorite place to get coupons is not the internet. I actually love the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Now, don’t get me wrong, before I shell out the $2 or so for the paper, I always check to see if there are coupons and if the coupons are worth the price of the paper. I typically come out not only recovering the cost of the paper, but actually saving up to $50 in groceries and other items.
My second favorite place to find coupons is online. Websites like CouponMom.com, Coupons.com, and CoolSavings.com. There are plenty of coupons available on these sites and they are updated frequently.
Here’s the thing about coupon clipping that you have to understand:
You won’t save ANY money if you start clipping and using coupons on items you don’t want or don’t need.
With that being said, just remember to always make sure that you’re clipping coupons for items you actually already use or could be substituted for an item you already use.
So now you have a stack of coupons, it looks pretty intimidating doesn’t it? Well, it doesn’t have to be. The best way to make sure those coupons get used instead of just becoming a stack of expired coupons is to organize them into the layout of the store you plan on using them. For example, I “could” use my coupons at Wal-mart, but there my favorite grocery store offers “double” coupons on some days. So, when I organize my coupons I lay them out according to where that item would be in the store and the path I would take to get to them.
I also have a small “coupon-organizer” that I can separate the coupons by aisle or type.
Coupon clipping may seem like a very small thing, but if you manage your time in the grocery store, organize your coupons, and (again) only clip the coupons for items that you will use, then coupon clipping can be one of the biggest parts of the frugal life. And you don’t have to have a doctorate to do it either…
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Tags: tip number, coupon clipping, everyday person
The demise of the check:: Stores aren’t accepting them; people aren’t writing them
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Nov 25 2009 | 0 Comments
I haven’t used a check at a grocery store in years. I have always used a credit or debit card when I’m out because it’s 1) faster and 2) more convenient. Chris and I have a collection of checks built up just so we can send off our cable, electricity, and gas bill every month but other than that, we never use checks.
There are more frustrating things that go on at the grocery store, but when you’re stuck behind someone who is writing a check it can also be quite irritating, especially if you only have a few items and you have your card ready. Of course, incidents like that have really become less frequent than a few years ago, but every now and then you will get the person who wants to write a check.
Really, when you think about it, writing a check at stores like Wal-Mart have become a moot point. After all, when you write a check, even if you fill the whole thing out and waste everyone’s time, the store runs the check like a debit card. It is electronic now and this way the stores are protecting themselves somewhat from check fraud.
I get annoyed when I see someone pull out a check book at the very end of their grocery store trip. Once everything is rung up and it’s time to pay is NOT the time to look for your checkbook in your gigantic purse; if you’re going to go ahead and pay with a check, perhaps you should have it ready before the entire order is finished. It’s not a surprise that you have to pay at the end. /end rant
I wish stores would ban checks for a number of reasons. I know that there are a few arguments in favor of check writing, like it is easier to keep up with your bank balance when you write a check. However, even that argument is somewhat flawed because you may record a deposit in your check book, but now banks are depositing checks whenever they want to and not necessarily in the order that you actually put them in the bank.
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Tags: grocery store, depositing checks, debit card
Clean your house and save money at the same time
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sat, Nov 14 2009 | 3 Comments
Whenever I go to the store to pick up a few things to clean the house, I have noticed that there are more and more new kinds of cleaners and dusters; just basically a lot of things that I have never needed in the past to get my house clean.
I think that it’s important to show everyone that they don’t need Swiffers or Shamwows to clean their homes.
So here are a few tips to save you some money on the cleaning aisle and in your house when it comes time to clean up:
1) Paper towels can be a waste. While I think it is important to ALWAYS use a clean cloth to clean up in the kitchen, it isn’t necessary to have three rolls of paper towels to clean. Reusable towels are a good alternative to paper towels. You can clean up with them and throw them in the wash with your towels. This will also help reduce some waste that comes from your house.
2) Lysol or any other concentrated antibacterial cleaner is your best friend when it comes time to clean the kitchen. Before I discovered this tip, I can’t tell you how many bottles of pre-bottled Lysol or Formula 409 I went through cleaning up around the house (especially in the kitchen). One day while I was getting ready to mop the floor, I discovered that you can also use Lysol to clean counters. So, I put the recommended amount in a spray bottle and fill the rest of the bottle up with water. One bottle of concentrated cleaner can last our house 3 months (and that’s also using it to clean the floors).
3) Swiffer dusters are nice, but a wet cloth can do the same job. If you have a lot of knick knacks in your house and have to walk around and dust them every single week, then maybe a Swiffer duster will save you some time, but if you don’t, a wet cloth could be the cheap alternative that you are looking for.
4) Plastic bags from the grocery stores can be a good alternative to buying trash bags. Okay, unless you have completely started using reusable shopping bags, then I’m sure somewhere around your house you have some of those plastic shopping bags. I keep all of mine and use them as trash bags. This keeps us from having to buy trash bags. While you’re probably thinking that they are just too small to be used as trash bags in the kitchen trash, think about it this way: How often have you walked past your kitchen trash that you probably should have taken out yesterday? When you use smaller bags, you have to take the trash out more often and therefore, there’s less stink to deal with.
Now these tips might not be fore you or you can pick and choose which ones sound like something that you may give a try.
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Tags: yesterday, swiffer dusters, swiffer duster
Coca Cola posts a profit surge for the 3rd quarter
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Wed, Oct 28 2009 | 0 Comments
If you have gone to the grocery store recently and wanted to pick up a few Cokes you may have noticed the prices of Coca Cola products are outrageous. This is one of my reasons why I stopped drinking soda, but this is also why Coca Cola has posted a profit growth of 15% for the third quarter.
The Atlanta based company reported a net income of $247 million and earnings equaling out to 50 centers per share. This is up from the third quarter 2008, when the company posted a net income of $214 million and an earnings of 44 cents per share.
Of course the company is going to be posting higher profits this year, the cost of a 12 pack of any Coke product has jumped from $3 to $4.50 at my local Wal-Mart. This week you can find them on sale at Walgreens for 4 12 packs for $10, that is the cheapest I have seen Coke products for in months. Even in the 24 pack cases that are sold at Wal-Mart, they have been around $7 for a while.
This was one of my reasons why I should definitely stop drinking sodas; it was getting to be a very expensive habit and since it is the only thing that I had to have to avoid negative side effects (those awful caffeine withdrawal headaches that would happen after I decided to not have a Diet Coke before noon), I decided it would have to stop.
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Tags: grocery store, wal mart, coke products
