All Posts Tagged With: "grocery stores"
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: formula 409, grocery stores, Money
Time Saving or Money Saving
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Sun, Sep 20 2009 | 1 Comment
Sometimes we all have to make the decision as to what is more important: Our time or our money. A lot of times these two don’t exactly go hand-in-hand. As a matter of fact, the examples I will give will only talk about choosing one or the other.
Saving money has gotten extremely important to those who have lost their jobs or who have suffered through a reduction in income since the beginning of the recession. One of the best examples I can give as to a trade off between time and money is supper time in most households.
Cooking supper at home will typically save you money in opposition to going out to eat, however going and picking something up will always be more of a time saver. Say you’re on your way home from work and you call your local [insert restaurant name here] and pick it up; you’re going to spend more money than if you would have cooked all the food at home, but you now just get to pick up the food and take it home to your hungry, waiting family. After they finish eating, the garbage gets recycled or thrown away and there isn’t any mess to clean up (or if there is, it is usually minimal if your kids didn’t get into a huge food fight or something during dinner time).
Time and money also come into play when you’re thinking about things such as thrifty shopping. Many shoppers who are out there shopping to save money will visit many different stores and spend a lot of time clipping coupons just to save money. Time conscious shoppers are more willing to shop at the same store for everything, or just venture to a couple of grocery stores.
For anyone the answer will likely be different. Some will feel as though their time is more valuable than the savings they will get from shopping at different stores and spending time clipping coupons while others will feel as though their money is more valuable than the time they spend doing all the things that save them money.
As for me, I find myself in the middle (as I imagine most would). I won’t go out of my way to save $1 on groceries, but I will shop at different stores if it means I can use my favorite coupons. I also try not to go out to eat too often, not for the cost but simply for the nutritional value or lack there of. I really enjoy saving money, but I also value my time.
What do you do? Are you a time saver or a money saver? Or do you fall somewhere in the middle?
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Tags: households, saving money, recession
Hit those Labor Day Sales and know what you’re looking for!
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Thu, Sep 03 2009 | 0 Comments
Fall is almost here! Labor Day less than a week away and it’s time to stock up on some of those Summer essentials so next year you won’t have to buy them at a premium. Now is the time to start looking for the deals you can get.
Here are a few deals that you may be able to dig up by month starting this month!
September:
- Holiday airfare. If you’re planning on traveling for the holidays you can’t forget how close they really are and that you should buy ahead of time to get the best deal. You should remember that flying on Wednesdays is typically cheaper and Sundays are the more expensive. Also, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year, so keep that in mind as well when you’re booking your travel.
- Health Insurance. Fall begins open enrollment for some health plans so now is the time to decide if you want to switch plans or go to a different provider.
- New Cars. September starts the season where car dealers are trying to get rid of “last year’s models.” You will likely not only have plenty of selection this year, but will also find a good price as the dealers try to clear out the models for next years’ models.
- Appliances. For the same reasons that car dealerships give better deals on cars at the end of the year, appliance stores do too. The retailers are trying to make room for the newer and more expensive models so they’ll likely be willing to give discounts on the outgoing models.
October:
- Grills. It’s the end of grilling season and demand has fallen, so retailers are looking for that floorspace to go to something that will likely make them a bit more money during the down season.
November:
- Candy. Yep, go to the store and stock up on all that clearance Halloween candy if you want. You’ll usually find it 50% off on November 1st and sometimes a lot of it will make it to 75% off by the end of the first week of November.
- Baking ingredients. A lot of times grocery stores start putting baking ingredients on sale so that everyone will buy it when they’re figuring out the best Christmas cookie recipe. Stock up on sugar, flour, chocolate and butter (chocolate and butter freeze well).
All Season:
- Travel. Traveling to places across the world are usually less expensive throughout the fall. This includes trips to resorts and cruises.
Related posts:What are retailers discounting right now?
Tags: halloween candy, new cars, open enrollment
Frugal Living Tip 3: Cleaning on a dime
Lizzie Tyner | RSS | Sat, May 30 2009 | 6 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.
Related posts:Clean your house and save money at the same time
Frugal living tip 2: Coupon clipping is for everyone
Tags: spray bottle, swiffer duster, formula 409
Peanut butter sales are down following salmonella outbreak
Jennifer McClelland | RSS | Mon, Feb 09 2009 | 0 CommentsObviously some consumers didn’t get the memo about the salmonella outbreak only effecting commercial peanut butter and peanut paste, not jars of peanut butter sold in grocery stores because sales of peanut butter are down 25%.
One of the problems is the tv news scaring people into believing that all peanut butter is bad. A local news program will say during a promo for the 10 o’clock news that peanut butter is killing people and then the viewer won’t tune in at 10 to see what’s wrong, only that peanut butter is bad.
I feel bad for brands like Peter Pan, it was pulled off the shelf for over 6 months because of a salmonella outbreak a couple of years ago, and now sales are slumping again because of the newest outbreak and the consumer’s lack of awareness regarding the recalls.
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The Peanut scare last year has not hindered peanut sales this year
Tags: salmonella outbreak, news program, peanut butter
