Window Shopper

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These days, it is not as easy as it once was to shop as if you had all day and all the money in the world. In hard times like now, it is very important to find ways to economize. Maybe the government can’t do it but we must do it or it will cost us more than we want to pay out. We must learn to save money where we can so that there are times when we might need money for an extra or two would not be out of the realm of happening. Visions of chocolate covered cookies dance in my head while I am trying to stop and get the bottle of diet supplement pills I need. It is not that easy to shop but it must be done. You can cut out a lot of unnecessary items but food is not one of them. So, you must shop smartly. Stop, look and listen is not only for the railroad crossings.

Here are a few tips for shopping in smart ways. They are all things that have been around for years. Now you find that you have to adopt them much like we did some years ago:

1) Do not shop for food when you are hungry. Bad timing all the way. You will always put more in your cart than you really wanted in the first place. That one is deadly to a budget.

2) If possible, do not bring the kids. Their wants will work your bill up much higher than you need.

3) At home, make a list of what you want to and need to buy. Build in a bit of room for extras spotted at the store. Check the sales and loss leaders for the store.

4) Do not buy something on sale simply because you see it on sale. If you don’t usually use it or plan to use it some time soon, don’t bother with it. It is not saving you money if you buy something you do not need.

5) Buy your meat on sale when possible. Shop for the best prices and get as much as you are able on sale.

6) Plan meals and then buy for those meals.

7) Use the generic store brands when possible. Now I know that some things are not the same as the brand names. However, I have found that most of the generic or store brands are exactly or comparable to the name brand items. These cost sometimes half the price of the name brand item. You are saving up to half or sometimes more by using the store brand.

8 ) Stock up on clearance and sale items. Do not buy it just because it’s there. Find things you really need and buy in bulk. If the individual price is higher than the case price, buy the case. But do not buy a case if you will only use two. You do not save money by having way more than you need. If sometime in the near future, you will use it, buy by the case.

9) When possible, buy fresh veggies and freeze them. Then, during a time when they are not available or are much higher priced, you have yours available to you at a lower cost.

Above all, there is an art to saving money but it’s relatively easy to learn. You stop buying the high priced items and start buying only what you need. Stock up. It might take a little effort to learn it but this is valuable to you and your family. And for those who do coupons, they save enormous amounts of money that way. Some people who do this much more than I do, find that they can pay for an entire load of groceries for pennies. I saw someone who did this coupon savings have a bill of over $400 and pay out actual money of less than $50. It can be done. These days, it’s easier than ever with online shopping, coupon websites that allow you to print out the coupons which you then take to the store to redeem.

You can save money shopping but it takes work. If you want to save, you will. Happy Shopping!

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With all the problems concerning the recalls from China, with the situation with gas pains at the pump, though that’s getting better, we have had to change the way we think about shopping trips. Have you had the same problem? For instance, before even though it was going to take more gas than we planned, often we would find a reason to go to the store. We forgot something essential to a meal, it was going to be storming the next day, no time since we had to work. All the excuses in the book. Heading out to the store seemed to be at least a two to three times a week event. Since the gas prices went up, since the goods and food prices went up, we simply did not have the money to be spending on frivolous trips to the store anymore. Due to that, I think we developed a different attitude which is saving us more money.

In the past, we were aware of how far away the store is but when you have a food emergency….. The reality is, there is no food emergency. You simply wanted something so you went to get it. We did that. Now, we have decided to plan when we go, what we get and what we can do without. I realize that many of you are doing that and have been but maybe you let your plan slip a bit over the years like we did. But now is a great time to get back to the basics. We have and it has changed many things. Especially now when Christmas buying season is upon us, it is so important to seek out the best deals, save as much as possible and feel better about our trips to the store.

One of the more basic ways to save money on shopping is to do it online. The resources here are amazing. You can find nearly anything you want. With the auction sites, the discount stores that are online, the only online stores that have amazing discounts because of the low overhead, the sales that you would not know about except for the research that you did, these are all good ways to save money. If you do more of your shopping online, you save that gas for a true emergency. Saving money by not using as much gas is fantastic because it will show at the pumps and the oil companies want you to keep driving.

For those who work, this is a great opportunity to pack the store trips into your time out. Perhaps you can take a few moments at lunch time to do your shopping and eat at the desk. Yes, that’s a real pain but I found that getting away from the work environment did wonders for my thinking abilities when I got back. I was more fresh to do the afternoon part of the day. Yes, it can be a difficult way to do things but it is possible. Now, if that store is on the way to work and home, easier. Stop right after work. It might mean going home a few moments later but the shopping is easier too. Or do it in the mornings when you are fresh. There are ways to save the money on driving. You will certainly be able to work your own ideas out. There are as many as there are gas pumps, I am pretty sure.

How much can you pack into a single trip out to the store? If you have not tried it, you will be amazed at how much you can cram into one trip out. For instance, the other day we had to go to three stores, the doctor, the pharmacy. And while we were out, we also were both working on videos that my husband and I were making for a contest. We packed all that into one trip. To really appreciate just what a long day it could be, you will have to understand that most things are not right next to each other. This trip includes many, many miles of travel, no matter which thing you are doing. I did not keep track of the mileage but we were gone a good share of the day with our errands. You know, one of the benefits of all that, as long as you do not go to the fast food places, is that you might get to lose weight with all the activity. I am counting on it!

So, even though prices for gas are falling right now, we save money by conserving how much we do in a single day. Having done that, unless there is some type of unexpected occurrence, we will be able to stay at home for many days. That saves a lot of gas. My husband and I have already noticed a difference in our gas money extending farther than before…for both reasons. The price is lower but we are doing less driving too. Frankly, I believe that the best way to get the big oil companies to sit up and take notice is to hit them where it hurts them most, in the wallet. They have done their best to hit us there. You know the old saying…payback is a b***h? I agree. It is. And it’s their turn.

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In the process of looking for a camcorder, we noticed that it is very important to find out if the item is good for just television or it will also hook up to a computer. That’s really important to us. Some folks will want theirs to simply be available to see the latest family vacation but in our case, the camcorder is needed for uploading videos online. We like to put ours on a couple of places that have video capabilities. My husband found out about this distinction at a camera counter when he asked a few questions.

You will want to know, then, if it works on both or just the television. How much charge does the battery hold? How long will it record before it runs down? How much memory does the camera have? How long will it record before it is full? Unlike regular cameras that have a certain video function, camcorders record for a lot longer. Ours works for 90 minutes before it needs to have the content downloaded. In addition, we purchased a 4 gig. memory card. This was recommended.

If you have experience in videos, it’s likely that you know these things already. We have no experience. This is all new to us. We did notice one glaring thing about recording videos. You will need to have something that steadies your hand since the slightest movement of your hand will show up on the video looking like the earth is shaking. For that, we spent a bit more money and bought a tripod that is going to save our recordings for certain. Buying a tripod is well worth the few dollars if you are serious about doing good videos.

These are just a few things to look for. Do your research!!! Don’t just run out and buy the first thing you see. For us, that would have cost us almost $50 more than we paid. Also, sometimes it’s a blessing when one company or store does not have the item you’re looking for. A well known, worldwide discount store did not have what we wanted. I searched online. My husband searched as well. We found what we wanted only to see that it was not available just yet. Out of stock. Seemed discouraging at first. Then, we found the identical item for about $20 cheaper at another well known online store and a bonus too, free shipping!!! All in all, we saved almost $70 just by doing the research, knowing what we wanted and then watching the prices to get the best all around price and free shipping.ey

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Ever have a month or two when nothing is going right and the money just isn’t there for all the groceries you need? Then, just as you think that everything will be all right, some bright soul decides to invite the boss or a couple of friends home for dinner. Or possibly, you have something like we did. Our niece’s boyfriend needed a place to stay until they got married but the marriage wasn’t going to happen for a couple of months. And right around the same time, some bills came in unexpectedly so that our resources had been drained dramatically. But the thing is, you still have to feed that person, regardless of whatever else is happening.

The question then is…how do we stretch the meals to include the extra person but not make it look that way? Have I got a few pointers for you.

1) For stews and soups–just add the big stretchers like diced potatoes, veggies (extra can or two or if fresh, just add what you have on hand), creamed corn is good, dried beans. You can also add things like spaghetti, other pastas.

2) Meatloaf—easy one. Just add more bread crumbs, crackers, rolled oats or rice. We add the rolled oats now. It used to be crushed crackers.

3) Chili–like the stews, you can add things like pasta, spaghetti, a can or two of diced tomatoes, rice.

4) Noodles and Ramen–adding spices, veggies, any leftover chicken, ham, burger, turkey is great.

5) Salads–for the leafies, add diced meat, leftovers, canned tomatoes (drained..reserve the liquid for another meal), hardboiled eggs, diced cooked potatoes.

6) Eggs–they are so versatile that you can add so many different things. Scramble and add veggies, diced chicken, diced spam, diced turkey, diced ham, cheese, green pepper, pepperoni, olives, make an omelet. Be creative.

These things will stretch that meal without anyone being the wiser. And the family will love it!

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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