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Archive for August, 2009

Saving on Saturday Night

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

I don’t usually post the deals that I come across as I shop, but I had so much fun shopping last night I had to share. I made a stop at CVS, Walgreens, and Kohl’s with my plan of attack laid out for all three stores.

My first stop was at CVS to purchase the Breathe Right strips that were on sale for $9.99. They were out of stock of the size that I needed, but I did find three stacking filing crates clearanced to $.50 each. These are like the old milk crates only not as sturdy. I walked out of CVS paying $1.63 for all three crates and a rain check for my Breathe Right strips. The crates will provide some much needed storage space.

I headed over to Kohl’s with my $10 gift card that I had received in the mail good on any purchase with a minimum of $10.00. I only recently started shopping at Kohl’s and didn’t realize what I was missing out on. They have great clearance sections, low prices, and good sales. If you sign up for their Sales Alerts you will also receive a one-time $5 coupon to use on anything in the store. I didn’t have a specific item in mind, but found some cute monogram letters for my daughters for a total of $1.83 after the sale price and my gift card.

My final stop was at Walgreens where I wanted to maximize my savings with their $5 register reward by purchasing items totaling $25. My total actually came up to more than $35 before coupons. I was able to purchase two bottles of Nature’s Source cleaners, three Glade soy candles, two protractors, four packages total of Kraft Easy Mac and Velveeta Shells and Cheese, a Conair hair brush, two boxes of Hefty Freezer bags, and two Twix candy bars for a total of $4.87. I was able to get the total that low mainly by using coupons that made the items free or very close to free.

The really great thing about the shopping trip at Walgreens is not only that my total was $4.87, but that I also walked away for a total of $8 in Register Rewards to spend on future purchases. The register rewards were from the $25 purchase (received $5 register reward), Conair Hairbrush ($2 Register Reward), Kraft macaroni in a cup ($1 Register Reward).

I used a high amount of “frees” (free coupons) for my Walgreens purchase, but these are frees that I accumulated over time and through various sources. The Nature’s Source cleaning coupons were received from BzzAgent a word-of-mouth media network, the Glade soy candle coupons were received in the regular Sunday insert coupons, the candy coupons were received from the Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act, and the Hefty coupon was received from the company for a complaint about one of their products.

Usually, when I receive a coupon for a free item I save it for a buy one get one free sale so that I am getting two items with my one coupon or I wait and combine it with a sale that helps me boost my total to qualify for a particular store promotion or to receive a coupon where a minimum purchase is required.

Posted in Brick & Mortar Deals | 1 Comment »

New Packaging: ALDI Chicken and Beef Broth

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

While this is not a new product, one of the reasons we’ve avoided buying beef and chicken broth from ALDI has been the fact it has only been available in cans. ALDI has updated their packaging to the boxes similar to Swanson’s, Rachel Ray, etc. ALDI’s stuff is good for the most part. Their broth is good to have around in the summer especially when we do not have fresh broth or stock on hand. In the fall, we tend to make our own broth because it tastes better and it is a by product of many of our other meals.

ALDI broth is just as good as Swanson’s and now that the packaging allows us to store and refrigerate between uses, we will probably not switch back. How would you use beef or chicken broth?

Rice. Use chicken broth and parsley instead of water to boil your rice next time and watch your family devour the rice.
Pasta. Boil your pasta in chicken broth, particular if making homemade pasta dishes. Dip some of the pasta and broth into your pesto dish for some chicken flavor.
Soup. A quick soup. Use your mirepoix (carrots, celery, onion) along with some garlic, salt and pepper, egg noodles, and some chicken drumsticks and you’ve got a soup better than Campbell’s.

Tags: Aldi, Beef Broth, Chicken Broth
Posted in Aldi Grocery Store | 2 Comments »

Financial Tipping Point: When Enough is Enough

Friday, August 21st, 2009

In a personal improvement book I read recently, “tipping point” is defined as the place when a person has said, “enough is enough” or “I am sick of this and a change must be made.” A good example is that my husband was talking to a friend not too long ago who had reached this point financially and decided to shut off cable, home phone, and eliminate a few other unnecessary expenses.

The point in our past when we reached our tipping point was when we were both working full time jobs, being paid well, but somehow still were living paycheck to paycheck. It was entirely unnecessary. We could have lived on half of what we were making (we do now!) but we weren’t even thinking about it. We didn’t have a budget (a written and purposeful financial roadmap with boundaries). I’ve thought a number of times about how making a budget changed our lives. We just had to reach the point where we had gotten sick and tired of running out of money and spending it frivolously. When we examined where the money was going, we discovered that we had many things in our lives that were not needed: cable TV, full blown home phone, eating out for lunch almost every day, eating out for dinner a lot, eating a lot of highly processed snack foods, drinking sodas, and newer cars we called “investments.” Once we eliminated these things, we realized we could afford some things that were previously out of reach: vacation to Florida financed entirely by cash, paying off a car loan two years early, paying off a student loan four years early, and even paying extra on our house payment at the time.

Have you reached your tipping point?

Tags: Tipping Point
Posted in Personal Finance | 1 Comment »

The Homemade Book Cover

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

School begins for us today and it reminds me about the beginning of last year when we were in desperate need of a book cover. I am normally stocked up on any school supply we might possibly need throughout the school year so that I don’t have to make an unexpected trip to the store. I’ve found that prior to school starting, many of the stores offer deep discounts on school supplies that are usually only offered during the weeks just before school starts.

This year I purchased a few odd things that I thought my daughters might need as the school year went by so that I wouldn’t be purchasing them at full price. I purchased book socks as well, but wanted to offer an alternative solution for either the budget conscious or those in dire need of a book cover at some odd hour of the evening, like bedtime.

While the book sock is not my original idea, I certainly remember the times when my mom would whip out a paper bag and carefully construct an efficient book sock at minimum cost. Homemade book socks are inexpensive and all of the supplies you need are probably located around your house somewhere. To start the project, you’ll need either heavy craft paper, or a brown paper bag, as well as scissors and clear packing tape. I actually have both craft paper and brown paper bags, and will demonstrate construction of a book sock using the craft paper.

First lay your book flat (opened to the middle) on a piece of craft paper that extends one inch past the edge of the book on the top and bottom and four to five inches on both the left and right side of the book.

Next, fold the paper for the top and bottom edge of the book up to the edge of the book so that it makes a crease. Remove the book from the paper and flatten the crease. Lay the book on top of the folded and creased paper. The paper at both the top and bottom of the book will now be even with the edge.

Fold in both sides of the paper into the front and back cover of the book. Having the book completely open like this allows the book to be open and closed without your cover being too tight. Make your crease on both the front and back flaps of the cover. Remove the book, and tape either the back or front cover which will create a pocket. Slide the book into the taped pocket, lay the book flat again, and tape the other pocket to the book.

The finished result, professionally constructed book cover. The book cover will be in need of some embellishments so keep markers, crayons, and stickers handy for a fun project.

While shopping at Target last night for some last minute school supplies, I noticed that next to the traditional polyester book socks, there was a package of three rolls of craft paper perfect for constructing your own homemade book cover. The cost for the package was $.99 for three book covers (30″ x 13 1/2″ each), while the price of the book sock ranged from $.69 to $.89 per cover depending on the size desired. So comparing these two items, it would seem that the homemade book covers were the better deal.

I thought that the price of the pre-packaged craft paper book covers was a little high so I walked over to the office supplies area and found a roll of craft paper that provided 75 square feet of paper for $4.29. After some quick math, it was evident that the large roll of craft paper was the better deal coming in at a about $.06 per foot while the pre-packaged paper came in at about $.33 per foot.

The great thing about the craft paper is that it serves multiple purposes. I actually purchased mine a few years ago when I needed to ship a package. The roll of paper is clearly a better investment, who knows when you might need to make a homemade book cover or two.

Posted in Book Cover | No Comments »

Maximize Savings and Convenience With Your Freezer

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Although I’ve written about freezing foods in the past, I feel it’s necessary to bring it up again with the cool season approaching. Freezing has the potential to save on your budget, but you always have to be on the lookout for what is available. Shopping the sales, using coupons, and preparing home cooked meals nets us tremendous savings, but figuring out what to do with the these items once we return home is where we will see the savings.

We all have in our mind or in our price book our ideal maximum price we would like to pay for an item. Once the item finally goes on sale and it’s at just the right price we pounce on it like a wild animal searching out its prey.

The key to using your freezer is to chop up vegetables for particular dishes or vegetables you know you use on a regular basis or that will enable you to make a variety of meals. Find these items on sale and then get to work with your cutting board, a good sharp knife, and of course high quality freezer bags.

Red onions. Diced red onions are a great base for marinara sauce, tasty in omelets or quiches, and good for sauteeing to use in just about any dish.
White onions. Diced white onions are a great starter for any meal and having these frozen enables you to quick-start most meals without the standard prep work. Put some butter or olive oil in a pan, grab your bag of pre-diced onions and you are on your way. Throw some of these in a crockpot with some salt, pepper, beans, and water and 8 hours later you’ve got something to eat.
Mirepoix. Diced celery, carrots, and onions will be a good starter for any soup, stew, gumbo, or even an Italian dish. Having this in bags will start meals in minutes.
Parsley. I chop parsley, both curly and flat leaf, and freeze it on a regular basis because we can just grab it and we’ve got an immediate tasty garnish.
Turnips and Parsnips. We’re now getting into a different area. These are strong root vegetables that our family just started eating occasionally in the past few years after seeing a number of cooks use them on the Food Network. It’s hard to find these on sale in our area.
Green and Red Peppers. We chop these up for use in rice dishes, omelets, Italian sauces, chili, and the list goes on and on.

Using your eagle eye to find these items on sale and then taking initiative to dice, chop, and bag them will not only save you money, but it will also give you a big variety of vegetables to use to start quick meals. For most people, the main hurdle to cooking is that they just don’t feel like it when they come home from work. On my husband’s nights to cook, sometimes he just looks in the freezer and gets an idea. I do the same. The season is coming up for comfort foods and all of these vegetables are good starter kits.

Tags: Comfort Food, Freezing Vegetables, Mirepoix
Posted in Freezer Ideas | 4 Comments »

Important Things to Know About Credit Reports

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

After some research in reading the sites for Experian, MyFICO, TransUnion, and Equifax, I have found that the following tips are useful in understanding credit reports and the FICO score:

Avoid moving around debt. Pay it off.
If you are trying to build credit, do not open a rash of accounts. This strategy can backfire and actually lower your credit score. Too many open accounts of a particular type (i.e. fuel revolving accounts) can actually lower a credit score. Having too many accounts in a short period of time can also lower your average account age. Low account age will lower your score.
Delinquent accounts that go to collections are not removed from your credit report after they are paid. Accounts in collection stay on your report for 7 years after they are closed.
A closed account does not mean it is removed from your credit report. Closed accounts still show up on the credit report.
Missed payments decrease your score (I know, obvious)
Closing a revolving (credit card) account reduces the amount of credit you have available to you. This can increase the percentage of credit you’re using. An increase in this percentage of credit being used can lower your score.
Some “counseling” services can recommend actions that will actually damage your credit. For example, taking the advice to allow an account to go into collections by paying partial amounts could result in negative factors. Find out all the angles before using a counseling service that sounds too good to be true.
Chapter 7 and 13 Bankruptcy status on a credit report are treated similarly and will stay on the report for the same amount of time.

Tags: FICO Score
Posted in Personal Finance | No Comments »

Coupons: Organizing Your Coupons

Monday, August 17th, 2009

No matter what system you have in place, organizing your coupons is necessary to maximize your savings. When I started out couponing I couponed off and on for years. My coupons were kept in an envelope because I only kept a few each week out of my Sunday paper. Coupons didn’t seem to make a huge difference in my savings during a shopping trip for many reasons which included:

I was brand loyal, unwilling to try a new brand because I was unsure of the quality and how it would perform
Coupons for the products that I purchased were sporadic and only came out in the paper every three to four months.
I only purchased one Sunday newspaper every week which gave me one coupon to use for the entire three or four months.
Because I normally only had one coupon I couldn’t wait for a sale and get the best price with the combination of the sale and the coupon

Once I determined that I needed more than one coupon for a particular product to make a difference in my savings I started asking relatives for their coupons which netted me about three more copies of the Sunday paper each week. This was great, now I had multiples of coupons that I used. I quickly discovered that I was having a hard time keeping up with these coupons and forgetting what I had. I purchased a little coupon organizer about the size of a wallet with six or seven separate compartments which helped for about two months. As I added more and more coupons to my little organizer it became apparent that the little organizer wasn’t working.

Next I decided to leave the coupons in their original inserts and just cut out what I needed as I shopped. This proved to be a terrible mistake for me. I spent a lot of time checking a database to determine what insert the coupon was in, locating the insert, and then cutting the coupon out. In using this system I found myself missing a lot of coupons that I could have used while grocery shopping.

In addition to obtaining more inserts for the coupons each week, I also branched out and started keeping more coupons for products that I didn’t normally purchase, and began trying new brands. Keeping more coupons resulted in one big chaotic mess.

I moved my coupons to an old Huggies baby wipes container and divided the sections of my coupons with index cards turned on their side. This actually worked for more than a year. The baby wipes container would have probably still worked, but I wanted to upgrade my system. I waited for more than a year before I purchased a zippered binder and baseball card sleeves which is my current system. Looking back, I think I waited for this length of time because I wanted to be certain that it would be a system that I would stick with since switching to the baseball card sleeves for my coupons was a big investment.

I went through several systems before arriving at one that I felt comfortable with. Every persons needs are different which will cause your coupon organization system to be different. What works for one person may not work for another. When starting a new coupon system, organizing the coupons and the system actually takes a few hours to start and then takes routine maintenance each week. The routine maintenance is easy once the system is in place; clip coupons, put these into the binder, and throw away the expired coupons.

Posted in Coupons | No Comments »

Product Review: Beaumont Coffee (ALDI brand)

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

While walking through ALDI last night on one of our standard payday shopping trips, my husband convinced me to try ALDI’s brand of coffee. He noticed several brands of ALDI coffee, all packaged in attractive mylar bags. I decided it wasn’t much of a risk and couldn’t be any worse than the Folger’s I already buy. This is the Beaumont 100% Arabica House Blend Premium Blend Coffee. They also market a knock off of the Dunkin Donuts coffee blend. I’m guessing these all come from the same coffee growers. My husband drinks black coffee only a few times a week and generally keeps a fairly pricey brand around like Starbucks or Java Dave’s. He usually grinds the beans fresh in a DeLonghi coffee grinder, so he turns his nose up at pre-ground coffee like Folger’s. He made a cup of the Beaumont brand using his French Press and felt like the Beaumont was average coffee and not of the quality that Starbucks or Java Dave’s sells. He felt like the only thing preventing it from making a good French Press cup of coffee was the fact that it comes pre-ground in a fine grind which doesn’t work well with a French press. He also felt like it was not quite roasted as long as more expensive coffee. His opinion was that it is generally average coffee and compares well with a cup you might get from a convenience store. This being said, he would not use this type of coffee because he is not a daily drinker. He views coffee as an occasional treat and wants a high quality coffee since he drinks it black.

Since I drink my coffee with milk and Splenda and made using an electric coffee maker paper filter, to be honest, I could not tell a bit of difference between ALDI’s Beaumont coffee brand and my standard Folger’s brand. If I had a blind taste test, I would not be able to tell the difference. This bag of coffee cost $2.99 for a 12 oz. bag and was not cheaper than Folger’s if you consider the unit price. In fact, I purchase a 33.9 oz. can of Folgers for $6.00 with a $0.25 coupon that is found in our Sunday paper, which is a bit cheaper than the Beaumont brand. This leads me to talk about this fact – ALDI shopping can be like shopping at any other store. You MUST be aware of certain products that are more expensive than name brands. Every store has a product that they will use as a loss leader (cheap deal) and a soaker (a product priced higher than average). No store can survive pricing all products on the cheap. Be aware when shopping in any store.

Posted in Aldi Grocery Store, Product Review | 4 Comments »

Get Crafty With The Kids

Friday, August 14th, 2009

I am always surprised by the number of stores that offer projects and crafts for kids free of charge. I understand that the intent for offering these free projects is that the adult that brings them will likely make a purchase while there. I am certain that these establishments aren’t losing any money by offering the projects, even if you don’t end up purchasing anything that day.

While all of these stores aren’t located in every state, there are still plenty of places to visit on a Saturday morning.

Lakeshore Learning Store offers free crafts for kids ages 3 and up every Saturday from 11:00 – 3:00pm in all of their stores. Check their site for a store near you.
Michaels (The Arts & Crafts Store) offers a free craft class monthly. The class is designed for ages 5-12. Times and dates change monthly, check their site for more information on the activity offered, along with times, and dates.
The Home Depot offers a free Kids Workshop on the first Saturday of every month. The workshop is designed for kids ranging in age from 5-12 and the workshop is offered from 9:00 – 12:00pm.
The Lego Store offers the Monthly Mini Model Build at participating stores. The event is open to children ages 6 – 14. Learn how to build a Lego Mini Model and take your project home with you. Check The Lego site for participating times and locations.

My kids are always looking for something new and different to do. Although I am not extremely creative, I can usually come up with something fun for them to do to pass the time. What I like about the free projects and classes that are offered is that these are stores that we normally shop at already.

Posted in Brick & Mortar Deals | No Comments »

Getting Back To Gardening

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Yesterday I was finally able to see the fruits of my tomato plant. I received a tomato plant in the middle of May when I participated in a landscaping workshop held at The Home Depot. The tomato plant lasted about two months. I’m not sure what I did to it, but it died a slow death until I finally put it out of its misery in our compost pile.

My husband felt sorry for me and at my attempt at gardening and purchased another tomato plant around the middle of July. The plant started blooming last week and yesterday I was able to see two little tomatoes that were smaller than the size of a pea. I was excited to finally see something happening besides the big fat tomato worm that I found munching on the tomato leaves.

As I looked over the other plants and herbs that we have in our garden it reminded me of simpler times. I can remember visiting a friends grandmother around the age of ten who owned a good size garden in the city. During the summer we could always find her sitting in the kitchen picking the ends off the green beans to prepare them for canning. Today we have such busy lives that it seems that we don’t have the time to garden and “put up” the fruits of our labor.

It is so neat to walk into our backyard and see all the peppers, herbs, and soon to be growing tomatoes. It encourages me to continue our garden and expand it even further. The great thing about gardening is that it doesn’t take up much room, and can even be incorporated into your current flower beds if you have room.

We have a small raised bed in our backyard that for the most part seems to be in the best part of the yard since the plants are growing like crazy. We also have some container gardening plants, but the side of the yard seems so bare and the perfect place for more raised bed gardening. When deciding what to plant, I think about the vegetables that are the most expensive to purchase. A couple of our favorites are asparagus and parsnips. We love both of these because of the sweet flavor they produce after being roasted in the oven simply by adding salt, pepper, and olive oil.

While it would be nice to walk out in my backyard and pick garlic, parsley, or cilantro I can normally find these items on sale or at a reasonable price at my grocery store. I think that my focus should be on growing plants that yield higher priced produce instead. Right now I’ll enjoy the herbs and peppers that are growing, but I’ll start laying the groundwork for the new additions to our garden for next year.

Posted in My Garden | No Comments »