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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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