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17 ways to shrink your daily expenses 3

Part 3.

12-Clip coupons.

Even some of the discount, bulk stores accept coupons, so make sure you take advantage of all the Sunday coupons and neighborhood flyers. Pay attention to stores’ double-coupon days and save twice as much.  Even better, use a coupon when items are on sale.

Try to file your coupons alphabetically in a small coupon clipper file to save time and effort. Also try not to get tempted by new items that you would not normally buy.

 

13-Buy in bulk.

If a non-perishable item is on sale, consider buying several.

But make sure you also check the unit price on some items.  Just beeause it is a larger size, does not always mean it is a savings.  You might do better with waiting til the smaller items are on sale.

 

14-Check the store circulars.

This is where stores list their weekly specials. Read carefully, though, because stores sometimes intersperse regularly-priced items with sale merchandise. Know your prices on your list, so you can see if it is a real deal, or just a lure.

 

15. Do the work yourself,”avoid store-prepared food.

Sure, it saves time to have everything cut up for you, but the time it takes you to prepare a salad or put together a side dish can definitely save you money over buying prepared items from the store. Plus, the food you prepare yourself is usually fresher and tastier anyway.

 

16. Join a food club or shop at a warehouse store.

Often the savings can more than cover the cost of the membership. If you are buying in bulk, share the large quantities out with friends and family.

 

17. Always double-check your receipt before you leave the store. Sometimes, items get miscounted, rung up twice, or charged in full even if they’re listed on sale. Or, it is easy to miss a coupon.  If there is an error, it’s easier to go to customer service and get a refund if you haven’t left the premises with your bags.

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17 ways to shrink your daily expenses 2

Part 2.

6-Always  make a grocery list before heading out.

Do this before you go into the store and then do your best to stick to it. You’d be surprised by how much you buy on impulse.

Having one master list of all your most important items listed in the order in which they appear in the store and then copying and circling what you need  will help keep your expenditure down, and alos stop you from straying into aisle full of unnecessary and often expensive temptations.

 

7-Eat food that’s in season.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but in these days of world markets and produce shipped from such faraway places as Costa Rica, buying in-season is more important than ever. Apples, pears, even strawberries are all much cheaper when they are in season.

If you have a large quantity, share it out with friends and family, or preserve it.

If you still want to buy produce that’s out of season, consider frozen fruits and veggies,”sometimes they’re more reasonably priced.

 

8-Shop at local markets or farm trucks.

Because they don’t have to deal with shipping costs, chances are you’ll find better prices on produce,”and fresher food!  If you buy in bulk, share it out with friends and family,or preserve it.

 

9-Avoid last-minute stops at mini-markets.

While these places are convenient, the prices for most items there are also higher than at larger stores.

 

10-Buy store brands.

Store brands can often save you 30 to 40% over name brands. And often, they are produced by the same factory anyway.

 

11-Don’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry.

Everything looks good then, and your budget goes completely out the window.

 

Continued in Part 3.

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17 ways to shrink your daily expenses 1

Part 1.

In these challenging economic times, everyone is looking for even more ways to cut back financially.  Here are some ideas to help you pinch your pennies until they scream.

 

1-Be your own barista.

Going to your favorite coffee shop is an expensive detour on your way to work, with a lot of calories as well in most cases.  So why not brew the coffee yourself? Many popular coffee shops sell their house blends in bulk at their coffee bars and in local supermarkets. Find the brand you like, get some low-fat cream or whipped cream and flavored syrups, powedered cinnamon and nutmeg, if you really can’t live without these treats, and enjoy home made hot drinks for pennies compared to the $6 cups down the street!

 

2-Use a water filter.

For just a few dollars, you can buy a reusable filtered-water pitcher, or even choose a more elaborate filtered water system. These are investments that will pay for themselves when weighed against the cost of continually buying (and lugging home!) bottled water.

Also, now that we know about the dangers of BPA in plastic bottles, you will be glad to avoid drinking out of bottles from now on.

 

3-Watch sodas.

Sodas cost money, especially when purchased at convenience stores or in vending machines. Consider switching to water, or buy your soft drinks from the grocery or discount store. You can also get a soda system to make your own carbonated drinks for pennies compared to what it would cost, and save calories too.

 

4-Limit your alcohol.

We don’t even want to think about how much local hang out places charge for a beer or wine these days, let alone hard liquor. If you enjoy a drink or two, why not take turns hosting at your friends’ houses. Shop at factory outlet stores and look for bargains in unlikely places, like drug store chains.

Better still, try to cut back on drinking,”and put the money you save in a coffee can for something else, like a vacation or staycation for a treat for you and the whole family/your friends.

Even if you don’t quit totally, cutting back on your drinking is good for your budget, and your diet!

 

5-Stop smoking cigarettes.

Don’t even go there on the loooong list of reasons why you should quit. If you haven’t, at least cut back, and look to buying them online at a discount. Never pay full price in supermarkets or convenience stores. If you are quitting, once again, put the saved cash aside in a coffee can for an emergency fund or special treat to look forward to, and see how fast it all starts adding up.

 

Continued in Part 2.

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Obama and the sex education in schools debate

Everyone is getting het up at the idea of age appropriate sex education for younger children in order to protect children from ‘sexual predators’,. I hate to say this, but the lion’s share of children who are abused suffer at the hands of people whom they know and should be able to trust=90% of children under 12 who are raped know their attacker, according to Child Help.

 

3 million cases of child abused in all its forms are reported each year, out of  a total US population of approx 400 million people, and they say that they believe abuse is underreported and might actually be as much as 3x greater, or 9 million cases. About 9% of all cases relate to sexual abuse as of the 2006 statistics.

 

When I was living in the UK and Ireland, in conjunction with the police, doing outreach in schools and communities, I taught ‘stranger danger’ to a variety of younger children, which focused on inappropriate requests and touching.

 

It is only by a child developing a sense of self and personal likes and dislikes that they can stand up to an adult who might try to take advantage of them. Asking for ‘respect for one’s space, and listening to their instincts if they feel something is ‘wrong’ does not need to be sexually explicit.

 

It also included not just strangers, but other people in their lives that they  might have felt uncomfortable around.

 

The parents were taught along with the children to help reinforce the message.

 

In the UK, there are less than 35,000 abuse cases reported, out of a total population of approx 60 million. In terms of sexual abuse, versus neglect or physical abuse such as hitting, there are only about 2,000 sexual abuse cases reported.

 

So clearly there are some serious problems in the US that need to be addressed.

 

It is more important to protect the children, than the sensibilities of squeamish adults.  It is certainly not a subject that anyone should be trying to make political capital out of.

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Coverage of Palin 2

I am a lifelong Democrat, but the continuous attacks on Palin ever since she was named John McCain’s running mate have really appalled me.

No matter what Palin does or does not do, she clearly can’t win with the carping media.

If people don’t support her point of view, she is described as ‘writing them off’.

But if she continued being nice to them, even if they didn’t support her, they would call her a hypocrite.

Or is it just possible that they wanted ‘favors’ once she was in power and she refused.

Or that once you are in power, things and your life DO change, whether you want them to or not. And some people can’t or aren’t willing to accept that. Few of us have the same set of friends now as we did at 5, 10, 15, 20 years old.

It is like Obama. He first said disowning Wright would be like disowning his WHITE grandmother.

Then he rejected Wright, and all the headlines said, “look who just threw Granny under the bus.”

Only in BO’s case, he had tried to defend him a looooong time.

He threw him under the bus when he said what many, many people had been thinking–that Obama would do or say anything to get elected, that a lot of what he had said was NOT true at all, but merely political expediency.

All of the Palin headlines are fluff, gossip, trying to dig up scandal. Who are ‘they’-in other words, who are her friends, advisors, as opposed to these people who claim to ‘know’ her. All the fake emails and blog gossip circulating, well, the people who wrote the fiction even admitted they had done it, and yet people still persist in believing in banned books and Trig is her grand-child.

It is all fluff, distraction from the real issues that are facing this country, and the democrats look like they are lining us up for more of the same trash talk.

There are 30 Obama ‘fact finders’ in Alaska–you think they are going to turn around and say, thanks for the expense account, but sorry, there is nothing to report?

Of course not. Like they said on Meet the Press a couple of weeks ago, with the hints they are dropping about ‘a big surprise in October’, well, if they can’t come up with something, I am sure they will invent it. It is all a question of timing. And damage control. NOT the issues at this point.

This election is really going to stop any average person from ever aspiring to public office. Who wants to go through the microscopic scrutiny of every thing you’ve ever said or done, and what ‘it all means’.

The election was Obama’s to lose; at this point, the polls are not looking good. The more they attack her, the more sympathy she gets.

Maybe if they backed off the feeding frenzy, things would settled down. Instead, they are throwing chum on the water, most of it rotten.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158738

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/13/AR2008091302596.html?hpid=topnews

And now with the Wall St crisis, it looks like just what it was, all fluff, distracting from the real issues. The important issues facing us all, like how to get through this crisis the best way we can, without partisan dog fighting.

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Recession, or Depression?

Some have been arguing since March that we are in a recession. A recession is 2 straight quarters in a row of rising unemployment, prices, and several other factors.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/03/15/recession_is_here_economist_declares/

In which case, this is now actually a depression, more than 2 fiscal quarters of recession, and also because the stock market and banks have been failing since January of this year, which was the first of the government interventions.

Don’t be fooled by the ‘rally’ toward the end of the week-the market is still down 3,000 points since March, that is, 25% of its value.

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