Keeping Track of Grocery Sales

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Dee

Tracking grocery sales is an important task. Now I know some of you are thinking “I don’t have time for this” but keep in mind, this small task will save you thousands of dollars and actually requires very little effort on your part. Once it becomes habit, it is a 5 minute a week job. Not doing this, is financially irresponsible, especially when you have debt that is preventing you from leading the life you deserve.

You can track sales any way you like, I personally prefer to use recipe cards that I keep in a recipe box that I keep handy. Using alphabetical dividers saves time, so they are worth the small cost. So this is how I personally track sale items. When an item we actually purchase goes on sale at a store I normally shop at I make out a card for that item. Lets use Peanut Butter for example. So the top of my card will say Peanut Butter. On the next line I put the date, followed by the brand, then the name of the store and finally the price. Don’t waste your time on brands you don’t like to use or stores you rarely shop at. I file the card away and when Peanut Butter goes on sale again, I pull out the card and add a new line with the new sale information.

Doing this provides you with a lot of valuable information. Over time it will allow you to estimate how often the item goes on sale. I can then determine how much of a product I have to buy to last us until the next sale. The goal is to buy enough to last until the next sale without over buying and running the risk of the items expiring. You don’t save money when you buy too much and the items spoil or expire before you can use them. Tracking also allows you to see when an item is a very good bargain and well worth buying more than you need to get you through to the next sale on certain items. So if an item like toilet tissue goes on sale for an amazing price, you can stock up as much as possible since toilet paper does not expire.

Think about how much money you would save if you rarely bought any grocery items unless they were on sale? Use the savings to pay off credit card debt and that cuts down on credit card interest charges. Why pay full price if you don’t have to?

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Legion Dinners Can Save Money

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Dee

Many service organizations have luncheons or dinners that have special pricing that is generally far below what you can find at a normal restaurant. Looking at my most recent community flyer shows our local Legion Hall and Knights of Columbus hall having all-you-can-eat Pasta Knights, all-you-can-eat Fish Fry’s and hamburger nights. Many times the cost is less than $10 per person. Current offerings in my area is $8.00 for all-you-can-eat Pasta (2 varieties) that include salad and rolls. Not only do you get great food at a price that doesn’t break your budget, but organizations such as these are devoted to providing assistance to local charities and local individuals in need. It just can’t get better than that! Don’t forget to check out local sportsman’s clubs, military clubs etc. as they often offer the same sort of menus at discount prices to pay the clubs expenses.

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Cut Up, Don’t Cancel Credit Cards

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Dee

A lot of people who have credit card debt dream of the day when a credit card is paid off.  The first thing they want to do is cancel the card so they don’t max out the card again.  This however is not always the best thing for you to do.

As a simple example say you have 10 credit cards with a total credit limit of $10,000 and all of them were maxed.  You are then considered maxed out, owing 100% of your total credit card limit, which is not good.

Say you then pay off a credit card with a $1000 limit.  You now appear to owe only 90% of a 10,000 credit limit.  If you cancel the card, you are back up to owning 100% of your credit limit.

So when you first pay off that card, consider cutting it up rather than cancelling it.  Keep paying off your cards and cutting them up if needed once paid off.  Once you get your balance down to a more reasonable percentage, say 50%, then cancel only one card, until you are back down to owing only 50% again, before cancelling another card.

It is better to owe 90% ($9,000) of a $10,000 credit limit than it is to owe 100% of a $9,000 dollar credit limit.  Appearing maxed out is the last thing you want.  Snowball credit card payments and get those cards paid off one at a time.

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Service Warranties

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Dee

It seems every store is offering service warranties on almost everything they sell and a lot of people are taking them.  It is said that Best Buy now earns more profit from selling service warranties than they do from actually selling things.

At one point, if you took out a 3 year service warranty and the product died the day after the manufacturer warranty expired, the store would replace the item and you would still have almost 2 years left on the service warranty.  They have since changed that.  Once they replace the product, the warranty is considered fulfilled, so if something happens to the new one, you are on your own warranty wise.

If you buy service warranties for the security of knowing the product will be replaced if it dies within the extended warranty period keep in mind the following.

1.  If a product is going to have issues, it will most likely have them during the first year, which is covered by the manufacturers warranty.

2.  Some manufactures will replace or fix their products after the warranty has expired for free or a very minimal amount.

I used to buy all of the extended warranties from Best Buy etc. but I don’t anymore.  What I do instead is purchase the item and find out how much the extended warranty is.  I then take the money I saved by not buying the warranty and keep in a separate savings account set up specifically to cover repairs that would have been covered.  What this means, is that I fund my own service warranties.

The amount in the savings account continues to grow and offers me the security of knowing if my products need repairs the money is there.  To date only one product I purchased has needed replacement.  It was however covered by the one year manufacturers warranty.  I am now at the point where I have more money in the account than I feel we need to cover any repairs or replacement costs.  So from now on, when we purchase something the warranty money will go into our vacation account.  If we ever use some of the money set aside for a repair then we will go back to depositing money into the warranty account until the amount we used in repairs is replaced.

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Snowballing

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Dee

Snowballing is a term used to describe a method to pay off debts.  So this is how you do it.  Take a spreadsheet (I prefer computer spreadsheets like Excel or Open Office) and write down the names of all of your creditors.  Enter the balance you owe to each, and the interest rate you are paying.  If you are like many people, you don’t have a clue how much you are paying most creditors in interest.

Now highlight the the creditor that is charging you the highest interest rate.  If it ends up where you have two or more creditors that all have the same high interest rate, choose the one you owe the least too.  This creditor will be the one you are going to snowball.  Snowball just means hitting that card with payments, all of these payments snowball and you end up paying off the card.

From now on, you will pay only the minimum payments on all other cards.  For instance, if you have a card that has a minimum payment of $74 a month and you pay $80 per month, you will no longer do that.  You will only pay them the $74 and take the other $6 you normally put on the card to the card you have chosen to snowball.

My payments for various creditors are due at different times of the month.  So when a payment is due as in the example above, I go to online banking, pay $74 to the one creditor and then transfer $6 to the highest interest one.  Also if I am paying my utility bill and it is 99.01 I will put the 99cents towards the creditor I am paying off.

All of these small sums of money hitting the same card, saves you the maximum in interest payments.  Once you pay off that card, you move down to the card with the next highest interest rate.

While it is best in the long run to choose the creditor with the highest interest rate, I do make exceptions on occasion.  For example, if I have a creditor with a very small balance, I will often snowball that creditor just to eliminate a monthly payment.  That way, without that monthly payment due I will have more money to put towards the high interest rate creditor and if we lose income sources, there is one less bill that needs to be paid each month.

So imagine that snowball rolling down your mountain of debt, as it goes down, it builds up steam and before you know it, the snowball has carried you to the bottom.  Keep it up and your debts will disappear.

Posted in Credit Cards, Money Management, Planning | Leave a comment

What Temperature is Right For You?

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Dee

One very easy way to save money on your utility bills is of course to get a programmable thermostat.  They pay for themselves quickly and if you don’t have one, it should make it a priority to get one.

The recommended temperature to set your thermostat for heating during the hours you are awake and at home is 68°F.  That temperature is only a guideline and you need to figure out what works best for your family.  Our suggestion is to lower your *at home* temperature by 1°F every three days.  This allows your body to adjust to the new temperature.  Once you reach the point where the temperature is too chilly for you to be comfortable, then raise it back up 1°F to the temperature you found acceptable.  For some the final temperature might be 70°F and for others it might be 66°F.  You want to save money, not make life miserable.  Also, don’t forget it is OK to wear a sweater.  Do the same for the night time temperatures.  We find we actually like it very chilly during the night and use blankets to give us warmth.  We set our night time temperature to start about an hour before bedtime and we raise it up a little bit for the couple of hours people are awake getting ready for the day, then lower it again for the day when no one is home.  About 1/2 hour prior to people arriving home, it goes up to the *at home* temperature.  Weekends are just two temperature settings, *at home* and nighttime.

Air conditioning works in reverse, we raise the temperature until we reach the point of discomfort.

Posted in Cutting Expenses, Utilitiy Bills | Leave a comment

Pass the Potatoes

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Dee

Diet staplesFoods such as potatoes, pasta, rice and bread have an unfair reputation lately.  People avoid them, feeling that they are high in calories and lead to obesity.  Oddly enough, since we have avoided these staples, the rates of obesity have risen dramatically and so has the cost of food.

These cheaper foods have a place on our menu and using them does not make you fat, over eating makes you fat.  Years ago in tough economic times, with one working parent and a lot of children to feed the quantity of meat each person got was limited.  You filled up on bread, potatoes and vegetables.

You will find a noticeable difference in your grocery bill if you serve bread and potatoes, pasta or rice for dinner every night.  Just make sure to avoid using prepared potatoes such as premade mashed potatoes, or the microwavable boiled potatoes.  It will take you less than 5 minutes to peel the quantity of potatoes found in those convenience packs so why over pay?  Laziness is always a budget killer.  Also, don’t believe these staples are boring, because there are so many great recipes out there, things will never get boring.

Posted in Cutting Expenses, Groceries | Leave a comment