Window Shopper

With all the prices rising faster than you can catch a paycheck, shopping is becoming a nightmare. I am willing to bet that you have the same problem. You walk into the same store you visited a few days ago. The prices on several of those “have to have” items are now higher, blowing any shot of you keeping to your budget this month. I had that same problem just a few days ago. The worst part is that those were the items that had not changed prices in many months.

The truth is that most of the rules about shopping are going out the window. Price hikes are frequent and sometimes debilitating to the budget. Regardless of what you previously knew about shopping, it is now time to click into survival mode. Most of the time your budget will be trashed until you can get a handle on all this. It worked that way with us and we were practically doing all that anyway. Those little extras have to wait or have to go bye bye.

The reality is that you have to save where you can, pinch the pennies just as hard as they can be pinched, get the best deals in the closest places to save gas. For years, we have gone 50 miles north to a store that had much better prices for the things we bought. In fact, they have a number of items we cannot get anywhere else. If we can still afford it, we will still go there. It will be a stretch. I do not intend to give that up easily. If you have such a store, calculate the cost of the gas into your budget and decide if it costs too much to do that. If so, then you will have to find a good store closer to your home. We do not have that option at this time. We are hopeful that the company will build one of their stores near us.

We have found that it is very important to limit trips anywhere. We now do all of our shopping along with doctor trips, visits to family and so on. I know that some people didn’t see the need for that before. Since we live in a rural area, everything is a long way away, several miles in fact. We stay at home a whole lot now, only venturing out when necessary. Yes, shopping is turning into a nightmare but you and I can survive if we simply do those things that will compact everything into a few trips instead of a trip at a time. That saves gas too.

First, you should know that I am in no way an expert about saving money. I simply had to learn how to do so when our income went way down and we have kids to raise. To start, my husband and I are both disabled and have an EXTREMELY SMALL income from disability. So, because we have very little to work with, we had to learn the ins and outs of saving money pretty much the hard way. But now that we do know a bit about it, I can share with you some of the things we do.

The first thing, because of huge gas prices, cut down to the bare bones all of the travel you can. In our case, we live in a rural area and all of our movement is by car. Our car is not the most economic vehicle in the world but it is what we have so we use it as sparingly as we are able. Now, I do know that those of you who have a job do have a different situation. In those cases, it would be a great idea to carpool. Yes, I know. Not your favorite idea in the world. But is going broke because of gas prices a better deal? If you cannot carpool and you have a big car or truck that is going to run you out of money before the end of the month, how about a trade in? Get a car that gives you your money’s worth in gas and comfort at the same time. Yes, that means those big man cars have to be history. Sorry guys.

On to food savings. We found a place that sells at greatly reduced prices on food. We shop there once a month, usually. Unfortunately, it’s about 50 miles from our home so it’s not as good a deal as it once was. But we will still go there as often as possible because even if we only go there once every couple of months, the savings are well worth the effort. And we also go to a store that is a little wholesale place that has awesome bargains. Most meat items are half off even now.

A few tips on purchasing food:

1) Buy what you need. Even with a sale item if it’s a perishable, some of it is going to go south before you use it all. Guaranteed.

2) Buying things for the freezer is great but buy what fits. At the beginning, I remember buying all these fab things but found out that when we got home, it did not fit the freezer. So make sure you have the room.

3) Buy loss leaders IF YOU NEED THEM!!! If the loss leader is not what you usually buy, do not bother. It will get you hooked on the item and then it will go sky high in price. I hate that.

4) Check your pantry and shelves before you go to the store. Buy those things that will help you make meals, not some speculation thing. If you do not have an idea of what it will be used for, leave it alone till you do know. Purchases of that type will take your grocery bill HIGHER AND HIGHER. While that works great for people it does not work for a bill.

5) Get the basics in bulk when you can. Things like pasta, potatoes, rice. Those things are meal stretchers. Use them liberally. This allows you to have enough so that people don’t feel cheated out of a meal or leave still hungry.

6) Have a meal plan before you leave home. Make a list of those items you have used up.

7) Any extra treats are going to cost you so be extra careful about those. Sugar is at an all time high so things made with sugar are going to be more expensive too.

8 ) Go for the bargains and buy the generic brands. I can talk till I am blue in the face about this one since many people still do not believe it BUT most, I did say MOST, generic brands are made by a national brand maker. So, those brands will taste the same as the brand name items. There are a few that I have run up against that I did not think were as good but most are. Buy generic when you can. It saves A LOT OF MONEY!!!! Sometimes, it will cut the cost of that item by one half.

I realize that today with the prices going up and up, sometimes it might seem a lot overwhelming. It is. But you can do things to change that. These are just a few of the tips that will help you get through this time and hopefully teach people that it’s a different world out there and we have to adjust to it or lose out completely!

Happy Shopping!

Each year, people like the idea of getting a better car so they trade up. Is this a good idea? Sometimes. Sometimes it is not. When is the trade up a problem?

You want a new car. Great. You go to the dealership, shop wisely and get the car of your dreams. The payment might be a little high but you can handle it. Then, a year goes by. Maybe it’s two years. Now that dream car doesn’t look nearly as nice as the latest one so you want to trade up. You go into the dealer again, discuss trading up. The salesperson is delighted to help. You drive out with the newest car in the line. Not bad. You traded in your other car, financed the whole thing and it only added a little more onto your loan. The payment is only a little higher than it was before. You love doing this because you can have a new car to drive fairly easily each year.

What is wrong with this picture? For one thing, it is obvious that you have not yet paid off the first car. So, where does the balance go? It goes right onto the new loan making the loan much higher than the sticker price for the second car. People do this year after year. And get themselves into major debt doing it.

The problem here is that even though the person is getting a brand new car every one to two years, the balance from the previous car or cars is always right there in the deal, making the payments and the loans much, much bigger. And what happens after a few years of this? Massive debt and loans that cannot be paid back. Then comes the default on the loan, repossession. Your credit is now trashed. And all this is because you wanted a nicer ride. Come on.

Do the basic math. If the first car is not paid off and a new car is bought, the balance from the older car has to go somewhere. It goes on the new loan. Now the loan is much bigger than the new car’s worth. If you do this again, the worth of the car cannot possibly cover the security of the loan. If you default, you still have to pay off the balance of the loan. Now you are stuck in financial hell. Okay, you could give the car back. Nice but no cigar. You will still be liable for the balance of the loan you signed for. And you have nothing to drive.

So, what is the solution to the problem? You might just have to ride it out. But there is one thing that can be done but you have to decide what you want to do….have a nice ride or get out of debt. If you want to get out of debt, you can trade down. If you do that, the loan could be smaller, less in payments and even though you have a used car, your debt will be smaller and slightly easier to pay off. No, it isn’t going to fix the problem completely since you still have to pay the loan off but it might just give you a chance to pay it off instead of having massive car loan payments to make. It just might give you a little relief.

When I was young and foolish (well..young. I am possibly still foolish..LOL!), I learned how to go to the store and buy everything I needed and wanted. Of course, I was out of money by the time I left the store but what the heck! You only live once, right? After a while, I decided that if I continued to do that, we would never have a single cent past payday.

It did take some time for me to realize that the only way to save a dollar or two was to find the paper and scope out the best buys and then go after those. The stores call them loss leaders. They lure you into the store to buy the thing at a huge discount. Then they expect you to stay and buy more and more. Eventually, you will leave having bought much more than you could afford or care about. It’s a great sales tactic but awful for the low budget consumer.

My plan was to make a list and go after JUST those really great buys. That works most of the time. We actually go to four different stores to get our good deals. One of those stores is over 50 miles from the house but we buy for a solid month AND we also buy for another household. It’s a win win. I do not buy name brands unless that’s the best deal. Many, many of the unknown brands are good and sometimes better. With doing that, I have a huge savings therefore able to buy more for my family. Our cupboards are doing just fine. We are blessed!!!

The main thing here is to plan ahead, try not to shop while you are hungry. That’s a major no no! I did do that a few times. My sales slip at the checkout was WAAAAY more than I wanted to spend. Be sure to keep to the plan as much as possible. Build into your plan some surprises like, for instance, that product was this much last week but now it’s higher. Or how about that product that wasn’t available last week but is this week and you don’t want to miss that great price!

The last thing I am going to tell you is to have good, old fashioned common sense at the store. I do realize that particular quality is lacking in many people so it needs to be learned. If you do not learn it, you will always pay that higher price. Some day, you may want to know how to shop cheaply but effectively. This is the way to do it.

Every year, someone’s family get to live in a shelter or other place because their home burns to the ground from Christmas tree lights that got too hot. Each year, decorating the home, outside and in, raises the electric bill higher than it usually is at this time of the year. Is all this necessary? Not really.

Welcome to the world of new innovations for Christmas. Ah, they aren’t that new but you might never have heard of them. They are called LED Christmas lights. These lights are going to save you money. That works right there! But that is not all, they are also going to be safe to have on all day and all evening long and not get hot.

But let’s talk statistics here. This bulb has a 50,000 hour bulb life as compared to about 2,000 hours with conventional lights. It operates on 90% less energy. The light bulb is cool to the touch when on, regardless of how long it’s been on. They are weather-proof and a one piece construction. Each string has 70 lights and uses 4 watts of power. The incredible part is that the temperature of the bulb is about 1 degree hotter than the room it’s in.

Let’s face it, the conventional lights we grew up with are no longer safe for our homes or the environment. The LED Christmas lights are safe for our environment.

What are you in the mood to save money on right now? What sparks your interest? Computers? Pet supplies? Furniture? Office supplies? Clothing? What does it take to get your interest in saving money? With the holiday season coming up fast, you will be looking for presents for the loved ones for Christmas, right? I hate to break it to you but Christmas is right around the corner. Only so many shopping days til Christmas. Get that present bought early this year!

Computers and supplies? Got it! So, I was cruising the net when I should happen to see this place that has fabulous coupon savings. All you have to do is use the promo codes and you have the savings that you really wanted on some really great things like..computers and supplies.

Ever heard of Mwave.com deals? No? You are about to because they have some absolutely fantastic savings on stuff like $30 Off a Viewsonic 22” Widescreen LCD Monitor w/1680×1050 Display. Then there is the $40 Off a Logitech Quickcam Fusion Webcam USB. This place has so much more, you need to go see it to believe it.

If you are anything like me, getting presents for the family includes a DVD or some music. Sometimes one needs something a little different than the usual thing so I looked at A&E Television coupon codes and the products and I was amazed to find a whole lot of savings there. The first thing that caught my eye was this: Up to 85% Off on new Clearance DVDs at The A&E Shop..and followed with this: Buy one Get one Free on the Modern Marvels series.

Christmas presents are going to be easy to buy this year.

From time to time, I like to put up some money saving tips that I either use myself or have gathered over a period of time that have been used by people I know or suggestions from others that sound just right. It is kind of difficult to find new material all the time so some of these might be repeats of others I have posted in the past. If they are, just use them as a review.

Tip: Do you ever take a look at the price per unit sign on the bottom of the shelf? It has some really terrific info that will help you to decide what the best buy really is. Now, most of the time the package with the most in it will be the least expensive…but not always. Check the price per oz, lb or whatever the measure unit is. If you see that the per oz or whatever is more expensive with the larger package, go for the smaller package and buy the amount you need that way.

Tip: When you eat out, why not buy a large plate of everything for every two people. That way, it can be shared and some taken home. Or at least it will cost you less to eat out. Sounds sort of miserly but most restaurants serve such large amounts, it would be better to share and save.

Tip: Serve slightly smaller amounts at the table to each person. Believe me, they will not notice it and it will help bring on a healthier family. Children do not have to eat as much as they usually do anyway. And when the food is dished out to smaller children, don’t serve them giant, adult sized portions like many folks usually do. They cannot eat it and it might make them feel like they are not accomplishing as much as the others at the table.

Tip: On grocery day, do not leave the house without checking the pantry for what you need. Take inventory. Get out a list and use it. When you go to the store, you will avoid spending way more than you planned if you stick to the list.

Tip: After going to the store or whereever, when you come home, get out the change jar and put the change in it. You will be amazed at the amount of money saved when you do this. Then, take that to the bank when the jar is full. I realize that most people do not use cash as much but you want to save, save, save and this is one way to do that. It also teaches your children to save their change too. Each person in the family can have their own jar!! Siblings need to learn to stay out of their brother’s and sister’s change jars though.

And as always, DO NOT SHOP HUNGRY. I cannot say that often enough. It is stupid to shop on an empty stomach if you are trying to save money. I do not care what it takes, eat something ahead of time or your shopping cart will be much more expensive than you wanted it to be.

Happy Shopping!!!

I constantly am looking for and finding ways to cut down on the money I have to spend at the grocery store especially since I live in an area of little resources. Our big store is Wally World. They have some good deals but they are not what they used to be, unfortunately. In fact, we have found them to be higher than many stores so we end up traveling some 50 miles to a discount grocery store that we visit once a month. The deals are greater there.

And we have a local Mom and Pop wholesale place too. But, not everyone has that so there have to be some ways to save money for them too. So, here are some more tips for saving money:

Tip: Instead of buying a couple of bags of frozen fries or hash browns, try buying the bags of potatoes and making home fries. It is actually cheaper.

Tip: If you like granola bars, try making your own bran muffins instead of spending for the bars that cost so much individually.

Tip: Did you notice that cereal prices are through the moon? Have you noticed also that there are bags of cereal, some almost the same type that are in boxes? Those are cheaper due to not having the box and the advertising.

Tip: Buying the boxes and bags of rice and noodle flavored mixes costs quite a bit. You can buy the bulk rice or noodles and flavor them yourself. Think Garlic and Herb!!! Butter noodles.

Tip: Kids love those pre-packaged lunch meat and cheese packs but they are very expensive. Try buying the lunch meat and the cheese in bulk and package it yourself. Get creative! The cheese and the meat will freeze when you buy more than you need right now. Look for the sales!!

Tip: For those who love popcorn (waves her hand high!), we tend to buy the convenience stuff that goes in the microwave, right? We do that too. But, if you want to save money, buy the bulk bags of popcorn and flavor those yourself too! It’s really easy. Pick your spices and put them on.

That’s all for now from the Window Shopper. Happy Shopping!!

I have given a number of tips on saving money at the store but sometimes they get lost in the shuffle and sometimes new folks come along so I thought I would give a few more tips, some will be repeats I’m sure since I don’t always keep track of what I have already given. Frankly, most of this is simple common sense. But I do know that new moms and newly married folks are not up on all the ways to save a dollar. They probably never had to before this. So, here are some pointers on how to save a few dollars each time you head out to buy things:

Tip: Make your list at home. Be sure to construct those meals in your mind or on paper for each day of the week. Now, I have to say that I don’t usually do this anymore but I have had years of experience in making the lists before this. So….

Tip: Make your lists according to the sales items. I construct my meals based on what I have on hand. It works beautifully now but not for a long time. You have to know what you are planning to eat for the week most of the time.

Tip: I suggest that you do not use credit cards for grocery purchases. If you go beyond the month, you will be paying interest on groceries you no longer have. When you do that, all the money you wanted to save goes out in interest payments. In addition, if you use a card, it is harder to imagine your money going out of your pocket.

Tip: Check the sale paper to see what bargains are available. Buy the reduced priced items. Stock up on the non-perishables.

Tip: Some say that you should never buy more than you need at the meat counter. I say, if it’s a great price, buy all you can, take it home and cram the freezer. Do NOT make the mistake of buying more than your freezer can handle though.

Tip: Be sure to check out the markdowns. Those can be really great prices as loss leaders. A lot of times, those will be on the endcaps. Always watch the endcaps BUT sometimes they put regularly priced items there too. So, be sure of what the regular price is before you buy.

Tip: I have caught one discount store that raises their prices of an item for a week or two and then advertise them at reduced prices but drop it back to the original price. Watch for that trick. You can be fooled into buying more because of that.

More money saving tips are coming in the near future. Thank you for visiting and Happy Shopping!!

In the outer reaches of the universe, otherwise known as where I live, they do not have such things as an outlet store. Frankly, I hate that. For some time, I found that outlet stores were great for clothing that actually fit me for affordable prices. On a trip through Tennessee one time, my friend and I searched for the outlet stores for wholesale clothing because we simply wanted to shop and get a bargain in the process. I love to shop when I can save money and those places help you do just that.

We went from store to store looking for that one really good bargain. It took a while because not all outlets are cheap. Some have what they laughingly call sales but it really isn’t that much of a savings. You must choose wisely! (I sound like that guy in an Indiana Jones movie, don’t I) When I found the bargain I wanted, it was a fantastic day! We did a little happy dance. People stared but we did not care. When you are out to buy a bargain in wholesale clothing, you really need to choose carefully.