Archive for October, 2008
I was thinking today back to when Howard Stern first went to Sirius and just how much money Arte Lange was spending on the vending machines. Although we don't have them at work we have items we can buy in the lunch room. Besides being totally the worst unhealthy foods you can buy constantly spending money everyday at a vending machine isn't good for the old wallet.
If you want to save some money you have to stop throwing your money into them. The markup is pretty amazing on the food inside. The owners are buying wholesale and then selling to you. Either start bringing your own healthy snacks with your to work or go to a Costco and buy your snacks there. Either way you are going to save money. A box of chocolate bars from a club or wholesaler is going to be a whole lot cheaper then the $2 an item you are paying now.
Really, if you want to save then just stop buying at them all together. Your wallet and body will thank you at the end of the month.
Posted in 
Tags: 
Looks like a little bit of good news on the gas front. Prices have been continually falling over the past few weeks. According to CNN, they have dropped below $3 for the first time since January.
"The average price of unleaded regular fell to $2.95 a gallon, down 3.7 cents, according to the Daily Fuel Gauge Report issued by motorist group AAA. Prices have fallen more than 30 cents a gallon in the last week and 90 cents, or 23%, in the last 32 days. The current national average is $1.16, or 28%, off the record high price of $4.11 that AAA reported July 17"
At the very least we should all have a little extra in our wallets as we head into the Christmas season. Hopefully gas prices will continue to drop off.
Our family recently became Costco shoppers, something we should have done a very long time ago. Since starting the Save Money Blog I have been more aware of our shopping habits. Besides staying away from the more expensive grocery stores we are now bulk buyers. I recently blogged about putting some shelves up in a closet, well they are no filled and I am looking at clearing some storage space away downstairs.
I cannot believe how much you can save by buying large bulk items like paper towels, toliet paper, cases of soup and other canned items. For the most part these are items that have a longer shelf life on them and they are things we are going to use. So by spending a little more on a case of soup we won't have to buy it again for a long time. The savings are evident.
There is a cooking item I buy. At any grocery store it is about $3.00 a can. I just bought a three pack of bulk cans for $5.00. I save a ton and now I won't to buy the item again for a long time. It's a no brainer.
I will say that buyer beware, just because you are shopping at a club store or a Costco doesn't always mean you are getting the cheapest price. You still have to look through those flyers and check other places for sales.
If you work in an office or anywhere that has a lunchroom really then you have probably have seen those monthly items for sale. They include flashlights, photos albums and of course recipe books. My other half was going to buy one for over $20 the other day before I caught her. I asked her if she have ever heard of the internet before? She was looking for a recipe for sweet potato casserole, she's hooked.
So my suggestion to her was, save your twenty bucks and go online and use your printer to build your own recipe book. You can even write them down in a journal if you want to save paper and ink. Why buy a recipe book when you can make your own and even have fun doing it. They come with so many unappealing and useless recipes and you are paying for something you never going to use. So build your own and then you can get what you want and go looking for the foods that you want. And, if you are writing or printing them off you can always add your own spins on them without ruining a book.
There are also many forums and chat boards dedicated to cooking and recipes. Save your book money and spend it on something you need.
I am pretty much like many of you. We have one closet in our house that is a complete write off. It is completely filled with shopping bags (we use green ones now), one shelf full of cans and cleaning materials, brooms and god only knows what else. Every time we open the door it's a nightmare trying to find things. So my other half wants some proper shelves built so we can get it organized.
What are my options? Heading off to a lumber or hardware store and buying some pieces of wood to build the shelves more than likely. But first I go down to the basement and start looking for any left over material and there I find it. An old piece of tv furniture that we replaced a few months back. The shelving from it once cut make perfect shelves and I have some left over 2×4 pieces under my work bench to use as brackets.
So I have my shelves and they didn't cost me a penny. I recycled some old pieces of wood left over from an old piece of furniture and from an old project. If you want to save some money don't throw out things like wood or building material that you might be able to use down the road. The same goes with anything that you think you might be able to turn into something else.
I am still amazed how many online deals you can find on items that people are going out and paying top dollar for at stores. Some of my cheapest penny pinching friends will travel to a store paying for gas and wasting their day and paying full price for their goods. When I ask why don't you get it off of ebay or the web they are simply too lazy to learn how to use it. I don't think they understand the type of savings to be had. Why would anyone pay top dollar for something like golf clubs, electronics, iPods, video games accessories or even meds and diet pills such as Ephedrasil Hardcore. I think if you threw the money at them they would realize what they can save. I just bought a nice mp3 player for a fraction of what it would have cost me at any other box store and that included shipping and taxes.
If you want to save some coin then start to shop online.
