Groceries are a large part of the variable expenses in your budget, particularly if you have a family with children. That means you have a lot of leeway when it comes to saving money by making a few changes in your
grocery shopping habits.
Make a Plan
Saving money with groceries, as with anything, means taking the time to put a plan into action. The beauty of that is that once you design a plan, you only need to tweak it here and there to keep it working for you.
No doubt you've been taught to make a grocery list, but that takes time, doesn't it? It's up there with flossing your teeth daily and checking the air in your tires every time you get in your car. You mean to do it, but, well...it takes time. And let's face it, we're all busy. And perhaps a little on the lazy side.
To read the rest of this article, go to Associated Content.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Printable Online Coupon Sites, Volume 2
Find Which Sites Fit Your Needs and Which Are Scams
This article is the second in a series on printable online coupons, as well as pros and cons for these particular sites. The first article is Frugal Facts: A Review of Printable Online Grocery Sites, Volume 1; You Can Save Money IF You Pay Attention to the Fine Print.
You’ll find printable coupons from a number of sources: Grocery stores, Department Stores, General sites and manufacturer sites. This article continues the review of some online sites dedicated to providing printable grocery coupons from a number of manufacturers.
GroceryCoupons, www.grocerycoupons.com. This is the second site (out of five I’ve reviewed) that bills itself as the leading coupon site on the Web. That should be a tip off that you should view any online site with a degree of skepticism.
That said, this site is searchable and lists “the current inventory of the hand-clipped coupons we cut from newspapers across the country and send to you by postal mail. It is updated daily. Not shown here are the thousands of printable coupons and restaurant coupons available in the members area.”
Printable Online Coupon Sites, Volume 1
This article is a resource piece to show you where to find printable online coupons, as well as pros and cons for that particular site. This article does not speak to the pros and cons of using coupons for grocery
shopping overall. It also will not speak to how to use coupons successfully.
The why/why not of using coupons to grocery shop as well as how to use coupons for maximum benefit will be covered in other Frugal Facts columns. Please check out my Contributor page to find money-savings articles, including several on creating and using a budget.
Part of saving money on groceries involves using coupons. You'll find printable coupons from a number of sources: Grocery stores, Department Stores, General sites and manufacturer sites. This article will review those general sites that are not related to specific stores or manufacturers.
CouponMom
Stephanie Nelson is the Coupon Mom featured on Oprah and The Today Show, among others, for her money saving ways. Her site is especially useful in that in addition to printable coupons for grocery items you'll use, she adds links to other printable coupon sites.
To see the entire article, go to Associated Content.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
How to Get Your Expenses in Hand, Part II, Trimming Your Budget
This is the second part of a series on budgeting. The first, Frugal Facts: Get Your Expenses in Hand (Part I), steps you through the process of categorizing expenses. Now you’ll rework that budget, cut out unnecessary spending and save money for things you really want.
After you’ve made an expenses spreadsheet, it’s time to look at income. Be realistic. When in doubt, err on the low side. If you list gross income, compensate by adding an expense category marked “Taxes.” Even if you get bonuses and gifts throughout the year, you can’t count on them, so don’t list them. Think of them as financing a special category or something you are saving towards (car, furniture, vacation).
Your Income should equal your Expenses, but it rarely does. To see that discrepancy in print should emphasize why you are always scurrying around to make ends meet.
To see the full article, go to Associated Content.
After you’ve made an expenses spreadsheet, it’s time to look at income. Be realistic. When in doubt, err on the low side. If you list gross income, compensate by adding an expense category marked “Taxes.” Even if you get bonuses and gifts throughout the year, you can’t count on them, so don’t list them. Think of them as financing a special category or something you are saving towards (car, furniture, vacation).
Your Income should equal your Expenses, but it rarely does. To see that discrepancy in print should emphasize why you are always scurrying around to make ends meet.
To see the full article, go to Associated Content.
How to Make a Better Budget, an Overview
The trick to budgeting your money better is to be brutally honest in regard to what you spend. People play mind games with themselves and underestimate expenses. That never works, of course, and charges get put on credit cards. At credit card interest rates of 20 percent interest a year, debt begets more debt.
Beyond that, budgeting your money becomes a matter of developing habits. First, however, you have to get that realistic view of what you are spending right now. You can’t fix it, if you don’t know what it is. It’s like putting a band aid on a gushing head wound.
The initial steps take time, but to budget your money better, you have to put the time in during the planning stage. Then as time goes on, you tweak the budget. Ultimately, you’ll be making your money work for you.
Throw all of your bills into a file folder for a month. I keep a file folder for each category of budget, and that’s the ultimate goal since save for a few expenses, your monthly bills will fluctuate depending on the season. Over time, it becomes a habit.
Put it in writing. A spreadsheet works best. You can see weekly, monthly and yearly expenditures. To see that you spend $2,000 on fast food lunches and a morning coffee is sobering when it appears in black and white.
Once you have an idea as to what you are really spending on items, you can make changes to save money and create a budget that works for your family. For example, you find that you’re spending $200 a month on gas and electric. You’ve always run the air conditioning and heat as you’ve wanted because you could. You’ve been making ends meet by putting the smaller charges on credit cards or relying on bonuses and holiday gifts. You think your gas and electric bill is good because you have been able to pay it all along.
No so. You are paying for it elsewhere. The worst part is a few minor changes can bring that all into check. If you add a timer, insulate, allow your energy supplier to institute a peak hour program, you’ll save money without feeling a thing. That’s a budget that works.
Part of budgeting your money better is to include all of the items you spend money on in the budget. In addition to creating a realistic budget, it gives you a chance to see in black and white the ways you waste money. You will find items in that file folder of receipts that make you feel uneasy. Perhaps you’ll find that you eat fast food 5 days a week when you have food at home that would cost you half as much. Get that realistic view and you can make changes. Keep the rose-colored glasses on, and you’ll always have a budget that doesn’t work.
After you list all of the categories and items you spend money on in a month. Be brutal. Go category by category, and ask yourself what changes you can make to make your budget work. If you have a dog, do you pay to have it bathed, get its nails clipped and the like? With pets, there are many items you can do for yourself. Brush your dog’s teeth and you will avoid vet bills later on. Get a 20 pound bag of food once a month instead of those 5 pound bags each week during your grocery shopping trip. They seem like little things, but they add up and take the weight off of your budget.
Household items are another major draw on your budget. Buy your cleaning products, paper products and laundry detergent in bulk when it’s on sale.
Look at food that’s in season, and consider a farmer’s market. You’ll not only save money, but the quality will be better. Use coupons on items you use. NEVER use a coupon on an item just because it’s a good deal. Unless you use it, it’s not a good deal in the long run.
Look at the price per unit, not the total cost of the item. While it’s generally cheaper to buy the larger sizes, it’s not always true. Check the weekly circulars from the stores. If it’s a particularly good sale on an item you use, stock up. Bulk stores are good, but if you life alone, the items will go bad, so you actually lose money. Again, it’s all about being realistic about your lifestyle. It may be a good deal, but it may NOT be a good deal for you.
Follow this pattern through each category on your budget list. Make sure you have a category of miscellaneous items. Things happen. If you haven’t budgeted for it, you’re natural instinct will be to go to the credit card. We’ve already discussed the pitfalls of this move.
To make a better budget for your particular needs, review the items every four months or so. Your needs to today may not be the needs you have tomorrow. The more that spreadsheet is handy, the better the odds you will end up with a budget that works for you, instead of against you.
Watch Your Spending to Boost Your Savings
Every cent you DON’T spend is money you have to spend another day. More than that, because you save the money you don’t spend at the convenience store, fast food joint, etc., you can SAVE money, compound it and have even more to buy something you really want later on.
Many of us nowadays fall into the category of robbing Peter to pay Paul. We put things on credit cards to do the things we want to do NOW. And that’s where it all starts to go wrong. You spend $10 on something on a credit card on just one item, and we all know you are spending $10 on many items in a month. Then you are charged 20 percent for the privilege of having the item now. Is it worth it? Most people don’t connect the dots. That’s a lot of money you could be saving just by putting off spending small bits.
If you put off that purchase and save that money, you not only SAVE the amount of the purchase, but you save on interest that is charged on the borrowed money AND you save interest you earn on money you put in the bank or into another investment. It’s a snowball effect.
Oprah Winfrey, voted time and time again as the most influential woman in America, has rules on how she spends her money, particularly regarding credit cards. A lightbulb should be going off in your head right now. This is a woman who can walk into any store and buy anything she wants, and yet she has rules on how she spends money on credit. Given her financial state, she’s a good role model to follow. Her caveat regarding credit cards is to never charge a meal on a credit card. The idea is that by the time the bill comes around, you have nothing to show for it. You use it, and it’s gone, but you’re left with a bill you’ll be charged 20 percent interest on. Conversely, she says, if you have to pull out cold, hard cash to pay for food, you will be very mindful of the amount of that burger. Eliminate that, and you eliminate the finance charge, so you’ll have money to save.
Money is all about either/or propositions. If you buy “x,” you can’t afford “y” a month from now. If you saved those initial months (didn’t buy a coffee from the drive in each morning, didn’t get the candy bar from the convenience store to get you through the afternoon, etc.), you’d have enough to buy a CD at the end of the month. Keep that trend going, and maybe in a year you can buy the TV you’ve been wanting but always seemed beyond your grasp.
Don’t cut it out all at once because you’ll never stick to it for the same reasons people don’t stick to diets. People don’t like to feel deprived. You work hard for your money all week, so you feel like you should be able to reward yourself. And you should. So, cut out small things at a time. You’ll be taken aback by the fact that after a while you don’t miss it.
Now look at your lifestyle. You will be amazed at the amount of money you are paying for things you don’t use. Perhaps you have a cell phone package that includes unlimited texting when you only use it for emergency phone calls. You may have added the text package while your kids were growing up and just never got away to modifying it when they moved away. Evaluate everything, and treat it like found money.
Keep a separate spot to save that money initially. It’s not really enough to invest yet, and keeping it on hand will give you a visual of what you can do by giving up just a little. Maybe the prospect of being able to save enough to buy a cruise is enough to get you to quit smoking. It’s a win/win situation.
About once a month, but it in the bank, but put it in a place that’s not so easy to get to. As more time goes on, you can start investing it in places beyond the neighborhood bank. All of a sudden that morning cup of coffee has turned into a share of stock. That share splits and you have to. The money you save is working for you, saving even more money.
With money the adage: out of site, out of mind is paramount. The more you keep YOU away from your money, the more you will save for another day.
Many of us nowadays fall into the category of robbing Peter to pay Paul. We put things on credit cards to do the things we want to do NOW. And that’s where it all starts to go wrong. You spend $10 on something on a credit card on just one item, and we all know you are spending $10 on many items in a month. Then you are charged 20 percent for the privilege of having the item now. Is it worth it? Most people don’t connect the dots. That’s a lot of money you could be saving just by putting off spending small bits.
If you put off that purchase and save that money, you not only SAVE the amount of the purchase, but you save on interest that is charged on the borrowed money AND you save interest you earn on money you put in the bank or into another investment. It’s a snowball effect.
Oprah Winfrey, voted time and time again as the most influential woman in America, has rules on how she spends her money, particularly regarding credit cards. A lightbulb should be going off in your head right now. This is a woman who can walk into any store and buy anything she wants, and yet she has rules on how she spends money on credit. Given her financial state, she’s a good role model to follow. Her caveat regarding credit cards is to never charge a meal on a credit card. The idea is that by the time the bill comes around, you have nothing to show for it. You use it, and it’s gone, but you’re left with a bill you’ll be charged 20 percent interest on. Conversely, she says, if you have to pull out cold, hard cash to pay for food, you will be very mindful of the amount of that burger. Eliminate that, and you eliminate the finance charge, so you’ll have money to save.
Money is all about either/or propositions. If you buy “x,” you can’t afford “y” a month from now. If you saved those initial months (didn’t buy a coffee from the drive in each morning, didn’t get the candy bar from the convenience store to get you through the afternoon, etc.), you’d have enough to buy a CD at the end of the month. Keep that trend going, and maybe in a year you can buy the TV you’ve been wanting but always seemed beyond your grasp.
Don’t cut it out all at once because you’ll never stick to it for the same reasons people don’t stick to diets. People don’t like to feel deprived. You work hard for your money all week, so you feel like you should be able to reward yourself. And you should. So, cut out small things at a time. You’ll be taken aback by the fact that after a while you don’t miss it.
Now look at your lifestyle. You will be amazed at the amount of money you are paying for things you don’t use. Perhaps you have a cell phone package that includes unlimited texting when you only use it for emergency phone calls. You may have added the text package while your kids were growing up and just never got away to modifying it when they moved away. Evaluate everything, and treat it like found money.
Keep a separate spot to save that money initially. It’s not really enough to invest yet, and keeping it on hand will give you a visual of what you can do by giving up just a little. Maybe the prospect of being able to save enough to buy a cruise is enough to get you to quit smoking. It’s a win/win situation.
About once a month, but it in the bank, but put it in a place that’s not so easy to get to. As more time goes on, you can start investing it in places beyond the neighborhood bank. All of a sudden that morning cup of coffee has turned into a share of stock. That share splits and you have to. The money you save is working for you, saving even more money.
With money the adage: out of site, out of mind is paramount. The more you keep YOU away from your money, the more you will save for another day.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Free & Cheap Things to Do with Children in Raleigh, North Carolina
It doesn't take a lot of money, sometimes it takes no money, to keep a child entertained in Raleigh, North Carolina. If you're like the rest of the struggling parents in America, you look for ways to occupy the children
in a meaningful way, yet keep a watchful eye on the pocketbook so you can spend your money or more frivolous things like groceries. Well, in Raleigh, you won't have to make the choice between a day out with the children and dinner.
The key is to think like a child. Adults make life way too complicated. Remember snow angels, forts, lemonade stands and making a scrapbook out of dried up leaves? If you do, perhaps you're not entirely lost. Maybe connecting with some of these no- or low-cost activities in Raleigh will respark your own inner child. Repeat the mantra: children want to explore EVERYTHING.
Here are some things to see and do with children in the Raleigh, North Carolina area that are free for the taking. Mix these sites with normal, everyday activities. You'll be amazed to learn that children will be just as impressed with those small things much the way you were before grown-up life intervened.
Along the way, it will be up to you to make the journey equally as entertaining. Add in games of I Spy, License Plate Bingo and the like to make the drive nicer. If you tap into that inner child of yours, you won't be lost for activities.
To read the entire article, go to Associated Content.
in a meaningful way, yet keep a watchful eye on the pocketbook so you can spend your money or more frivolous things like groceries. Well, in Raleigh, you won't have to make the choice between a day out with the children and dinner.
The key is to think like a child. Adults make life way too complicated. Remember snow angels, forts, lemonade stands and making a scrapbook out of dried up leaves? If you do, perhaps you're not entirely lost. Maybe connecting with some of these no- or low-cost activities in Raleigh will respark your own inner child. Repeat the mantra: children want to explore EVERYTHING.
Here are some things to see and do with children in the Raleigh, North Carolina area that are free for the taking. Mix these sites with normal, everyday activities. You'll be amazed to learn that children will be just as impressed with those small things much the way you were before grown-up life intervened.
Along the way, it will be up to you to make the journey equally as entertaining. Add in games of I Spy, License Plate Bingo and the like to make the drive nicer. If you tap into that inner child of yours, you won't be lost for activities.
To read the entire article, go to Associated Content.
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