I was just reading a post on a forum that I frequent about a home made Salsa Recipe. It looked real tasty and I got to thinking just how much money we spend on commercial salso every year. Every time we get groceries we are buying a bottle of salsa that we enjoy with chips or various chicken recipes and nachos. How much money can we save by buying are own fresh ingredients and making our own? I would imagine the savings would be pretty good. The same would be for things like home remedies and do it yourself products you can make. I realize there are certain things that you would have to buy like top rated acne pills or cough medicines but there are so many other things that we pay top dollar for that you can probably get away with by making it at home. Remember the internet is your friend, think of things you are buying often and search it out and see if you can make it yourself at home.

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The other day a local hot tub company sent out a flyer to drum up some business from all of the people they have in their computer. I was one of them. The one thing they were offering was a  pair of hot tub steps at a decent prices and we really need them as we have almost killed ourselves getting out a few times. So we ordered them and I just put them together the other day

The bottom line, I could have saved myself a pile of money grabbing some plans or even a picture of one and building them from scratch. If you have the right tools at home why send out for somebody else to do your work for you. Why pay more when you don't have to and you get the satisfaction of completing something on your own. You have to search out prices of things and see if there is a real savings or not but things like bookshelves, speakershelves, cabinets and workbenches you can probably get enough information to do on your own. That is, if you aren't looking for anything special or fancy. Then you will  have to send out. And if you do, research your prices, warrenties and shipping charges and try to save money.

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I just flipped through about 400 tv commercials this morning and a large number of them were for things like techincal institutions or schools and thing like truck driving school and retraining programs. I got me to thinking that there are a lot of people out there that don't have the skills or education to get themselves out of debt or to get a head in life. At some point if you are always behind because you have a dead end job or you have no where to go in your current company you should seriously think about upgrading your skills. Besides what I mentioned above there are always nigh school courses, online and snail mail courses you can do in your spare time or even seek out apprenticeship opportunities or something of the sort.

Yesterday at a social  event I ran into an old friend I hadn't seen in 10 years at least. He was doing small jobs that didn't pay much and could barely afford rent. Now he has a really good government job and is doing well. I asked him what happened to turn things around. He basically said he was tired of being poor so he went back to school to get a good business edcuation and things went from there. Point made, if you are stuck then unstick yourself.

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Is it me or are car insurance costs really on the rise. I am going to be adding a new driver over the next year or so and I can't believe how much it is going to cost. One great thing about the internet is that it is really easy to fin a car insurance online quote. You don't have to sit on the phone all day talking to customer service people or you don't have to drive all the way to an insurance company and set up a meeting. You can just go to the old internet and start doing some digging on prices and get real time quotes. It's never been easier to find exactly what you are looking for, research price and various policies and then make an informed decsion. Remember, insurance is something you are always going to be paying so you might as well research it out before buying.

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Believe it or not I am pushing 40 and still get huge breakouts of acne. I also have a teenager in the house who gets break out every now and again. It's awful in terms of both searching for a good acne treatment and then finding one that isn't hard on the old pocket book at the same time. I was just thinking today how much time I have spent driving to the pharmacy and then searching around and buying some expensive item that I have no idea if it works or not. Imagine if I had put that much effort into something like learning how to be more efficient with my money or how to make better investments. It's crazy how we go to great lengths for small things but don't do enough for the big things that make a difference.

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It doesn’t matter if you are reading the paper or watching the news there is always a story about drug and alcohol addiction affecting a family or community. Many of us may know somebody that has battled with drug and alcohol addiction and have had to use the services of a drug treatment center. When we think about the drain on resources on the economy or on familys and friends we think of this kind of drug use and the subsequent drug treatment that follows. But there is another type of drug use that is causing economic distress for families and friends. The use prescription drugs. We fail to forget about the high cost of our prescription drugs and using other alternatives such as generic brands. Using prescription drugs can be a very large expense for some people. The alternative to cut down on costs would be the use of generic brands. It's not secret that you can save a great deal of money going with generic brands. I am reminded of a trip to my doctor when I was a student and he asked if I had a drug plan because he was going to give me the choice of the brand name or the cheaper generic drug.

There is a great deal of information available regarding the use of generic drugs. While it is true that many people are lured to their use because of the potential amount of money savings you should proceed with caution. Before going to a lower costing generic drug please discuss it thoroughly with your doctor. They are the ones that going to know how safe they are and how they may interact with other drugs. Making the use of generic drugs a part of your overall plan is a wise thing but make sure you approach and plan it using your brain.

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I meant to share this story with you earlier in case you missed it. Shoppers are starting to notice a that cereal boxes and the amount of cereal inside are shrinking along with most food packages in the grocery store. As manufacturers cope with the rising cost of raw ingredients and fuel, downsizing their package sizes is one increasingly popular way to pass along a price increase without drawing too much attention. They are also rising the prices a bit at a time as well. The article says that Kellogg has slimmed down it's cereal boxes by about 2.4 ounces on average. "But Kellogg isn't the only company downsizing, or charging the same price for a package that contains less food. Consumers are discovering more air in their bag of chips, fewer sheets of paper towels on the roll, thinner garbage bags and even smaller squares of toilet paper."

It's an interesting read and it seems everyone is doing it. Shrinking the size of the product without shrinking the price. It really is a hidden increase. Give it a read.

Maybe it's time to start thinking about bulk food buying?

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So I have a few friends that are hunters and already they are talking about their upcoming holidays and hunting trips. I wonder how many of them prepare by buying their gear and some of the supplies before the season starts. I have talked about buying pool supplies and outdoor supplies out of season and the same would hold true for all of you hunters out there. It doesn't matter if you are looking for something along the lines of Nikon rifle scopes, camping gear or any of your miscellaneous gear. Start searching for deals now and try to save some money instead of just walking in and buying your gear with no planning. Trust me, you can and will save some money by planning your hunting trip and doing a little digging on the prices.

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I blogged awhile back about how the summer might be a good time to get online and buy your text books before the school rush starts. Yesterday I was rummaging through the basement looking for an old back pack when I cam across three boxes of old books that I had acquired in my university days. They are just sitting in my basement collectiong dust. I am not reading them and I won't be reading them any time soon. So why not trade them in and grab a little cash? I am in a  small town and there are several used book stores and a store that specializes in trading and selling used text books. Next week when I get a chance I am going to take them in. Even a little money is better than just having them sit on a shelf in a box.

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When it comes to your money do you have a game plan? Have you thought about where you are and where you want to be in say six months, a year or at the time of retirement? As a younger man I never had a game plan to speak of. I just put my savings into a general account and that was it. There are so many options out there to take into consideration. It could be futures trading, rrsp's, term deposits or even investing in real estate. Over the past few years I have sat down my banker and with a financial advisor and come up with my game plan for retirement and clearing my current debt. Let me give you one tip, if you are in debt or not in debt I would suggest you meeting with your banker or advisor and come up with a plan. I wish I could have done this 15 years ago. I would have been out of debt and much farther ahead today.

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