One Thin Dime

Top Tips to Save Money On Food

The price of food is going up, but there are lots of things you can do to keep your costs low. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep my food bill in check and at the same time eat good, healthy food. You don't have to follow all of these suggestions; some may apply to you, others may not.

• Go vegan. Meat and dairy are expensive; Legumes, grains and in season vegetables are not. The obvious bonus here is health and weight loss. When I went vegan, I lost fifteen pounds in two weeks. Your results may not be as dramatic, but I guarantee you will feel better. A great book on the subject is Diet For a New America by John Robbins. In this eye-opening book, Robbins goes into great detail about the nutritional, environmental, humanitarian and monetary benefits of giving up meat, eggs and dairy.
  

• Buy generics over name brands. They are almost always less expensive, and as I mentioned in a previous post, they are identical to the name brand.
• Keep a small notebook with you and jot down prices of things you normally buy at different stores. This way you will have a reference point when you find a good deal.
• Buy in bulk. It's almost always cheaper due to the lack of packaging and advertising involved.
• Check out stores like Big Lots for great deals on closeouts. I recently found organic canned pumpkin for fifty cents a can, so I bought a case. Libby canned pumpkin is $1.14 at  Wal-Mart, Kroger has its store brand at 80¢ and neither is organic. It will keep more or less indefinitely and I often add it to soups as a thickener. Which leads me to my next point...
• Stock up when something is on sale, especially if you have storage space. Don't overlook the storage space under the bed as a possible alternative to a traditional pantry.
• For very basic items, Aldi is the cheapest supermarket I have ever seen. It's got a cool European vibe to it, there's usually only one type of each product and all the stuff I've bought there has been perfectly fine. Aldi cuts costs by only offering store brands (no advertising,) not giving out free shopping bags (you have to bring your own or you have to buy them!) and a system of having their customers deposit a quarter for their shopping cart, much the same way you do at the airport with the Smart Cart. You deposit your quarter into the cart, which unlocks it, and you get it back when you return your cart! This ingenious method insures that no one leaves their cart in the parking lot, saving the store the man hours required for people to collect carts.  
• International grocery stores are often cheaper than mainstream stores. They also offer exotic items that would be sold as "gourmet" in a regular store. As an example, the exact same brand and size jar of tahini (sesame paste essential for making chumus) costs $3.99 at Kroger and $2.99 at K&S World Market, which is about a block away. 
• Buy ingredients rather than prepared food. Ingredients are: oatmeal, peppers, dried beans, flour, etc. Prepared foods are Dippin' Chikkin Pizza Ranch Fingers, Poppin' Mini Taco Pockets, etc. If you are in doubt, check the list of ingredients on the package. If there is more than one, it's a prepared food! Prepared food almost always costs more than the ingredients used to make it. An exception to this rule might be something like peanut butter, which usually costs less than the peanuts it would require to make the product. Prepared food usually has a lot of preservatives and artificial stuff, too, so you'll be healthier if you make your own.
• When you cook, cook a lot. I make a huge pot of soup at least once a week and it makes several lunches and light dinners. You can also freeze some of it and eat it later. Much cheaper, tastier and better for you than canned soup. 
• Eat less. Saves money and calories. Duh. 
• Use coupons. Even though most coupons are for expensive prepared foods or for name brands that cost more with the coupon than the store brand, there are still deals to be found. Check out The Coupon Mom for an internet database and couponing system that will save money as well as time figuring out the deals yourself.
• Grow a garden. We have four tomato plants this year, each of which cost about $2.00. One plant already has 21 tomatoes on it! We put in herbs last year and most of them are perennials and came back again this year. Even the basil, which is not perennial, was a savings. The plant cost $2.00; a package of fresh basil at Kroger costs about $3.99! Even if you don't have a yard, plants can grow well in containers on the patio or even on the window sill.
• Use what you have on hand. Most of us have a pantry full of pasta, or a jar of gourmet olives from that holiday gift basket that's just sitting there waiting to be used up. Use it! Be creative and see what kind of meal you can come up with using some of that stuff.

Save Your Receipts!

Recently I made two terrible purchases: an automatic watering system for the cats, and a pair of clearance rack shoes that I thought looked comfortable enough to wear to work.

The cat water thing was not a convenience; even though the bowl is automatically full, the water in the bowl still gets dirty. What possessed me to pay $12.99 for a plastic water bowl, I can't tell you. The shoes rubbed a blister on my heel within seconds, making the clearance price of $19.97 a moot point. I would have paid to not wear these monsters.

Normally I am not organized enough to keep my receipts, but, after looking through my wallet and on the top of my dresser, I managed to come up with the receipts for these two purchases. I cleaned out the cat bowl, which had been sitting empty on the back porch for several weeks and took a Q-Tip soaked in alcohol to the bottom of the shoes which were only slightly discolored since I had worn them for only two agonizing minutes outdoors before realizing that these were not the shoes for me.

Neither store gave me any guff about returning their merch. The pet store asked if there was a problem and I explained. The shoe store just gave me my cash. Moral of the story? Save your receipts. I intend to get a separate little zippered wallet just for receipts and keep it in my purse at all times. Periodically, I'll go through it and throw away the receipts I no longer need.

Most stores have generous return policies and will usually return your money just to keep you as a customer. With all the bargain hunting I do, I am ashamed to admit that occasionally I'll buy something, for example, a bag of rotten onions from our crappy Kroger, and just toss them out. Bringing them back to the store accomplishes three things: I get my money, I don't have to dispose of the unwanted item and the store doesn't get away with selling inferior products.

Save Money and Stress with Medical Charity

Some of us are lucky enough to have insurance, but a lot of us aren't.  Those of us who have insurance don't always have great coverage. Medical red tape is ridiculously arduous; often just getting an appointment with a doctor can take weeks, adding stress and uncertainty to an already stressful and uncertain situation.

Lately, two of my good friends have faced medical challenges, and in both cases were helped, free of charge, by organizations dedicated to helping those in need. By in need, I mean that they were in need of medical help, not necessarily "needy."

Jan had just had knee surgery and was recuperating nicely, it seemed, at her mother's apartment. She was doing fine until she took the pain killer that had been prescribed for her. She fainted, hit her head and was lying on the floor bleeding when her mother found her. Luckily, her mother knew about Hatzalah.


From their website:

"Chevra Hatzalah, a non-profit corporation, is the largest all-volunteer Ambulance Service in the United States, providing premium quality pre-hospital emergency medical treatment and transportation at no cost to all who need it, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. Chevra Hatzalah does not receive any government funding on any level – not from any Federal, State or local governmental agency – nor does it seek reimbursement from medical insurance companies. Chevra Hatzalah, which was founded in NYC in 1965, has become a model for similar Hatzalah rescue and ambulance services throughout the world.

Interestingly, Hatzalah's response time is faster than conventional ambulances.

John's father died suddenly, leaving him with no choice but to move his elderly mother in with him.  His mother's medical problems seem to have worsened in the past few months. John is now faced with making decisions and dealing with everyday problems. He's lined up some doctor's appointments, but there is a wait for them.

Like many elderly people, his mother has trouble getting around. For her, the short walk from the house to the car is a half hour ordeal, and John admitted that a wheel chair would help.

Enter Comfort Ye Ministry. Comfort Ye is a ministry devoted to helping the elderly with free wheel chairs, walkers, toilet seat extenders, adult diapers, even food and toiletries to people who need them. All of their items are donated to them.

Medical bills and related problems are one of the chief reasons people go into debt. In John's case, he has cut his work schedule dramatically in order to care for his father. When he does go to work, he has a home health worker come to the house to care for his mother, at a cost of $18 an hour. The free wheel chair is a drop in the bucket. Perhaps Medicare would have paid for it, but with unused wheel chairs on this earth, there is no good reason not to make use of the free one.

Jan has not worked for weeks, but is lucky to have a benevolent boss who pays her nonetheless. She does, however, have a large co-pay for her surgery, and not having to pay a thousand dollars for an ambulance ride will make a difference.

I firmly believe in free health care for all of us. The two charities I have mentioned are managing to provide care without the huge bills to the consumer. They are somehow doing this without bankrupting themselves; by accepting donations and, I'm guessing, keeping costs low. These charities are examples of what could be done in America on a larger scale. Hopefully soon.

By the way, both of the aforementioned charities operate by accepting donations, although none is required. Please give generously to any charity that you feel strongly about, whether it's a monetary donation, goods, or volunteering.

Generics vs. Name Brands

I was talking to a guy at work the other day about grocery shopping and using coupons. He said he had used coupons for the first time the other night and saved $30. I asked him if he had compared the price of the items after the coupons to the price of the store brand and he said that he just could not bring himself to buy the store brand. Another co-worker chimed in, agreeing with him. When pressed as to why, she said it made her feel poor to buy generic food.  The guy said he felt he would be getting a poor quality product if bought generics. 

Poor? The only thing poor here is the argument. First of all, why does spending more money, thus having less money make people feel poor? It's about self-esteem and  feelings of deprivation, which is unfortunate. I can attest to the fact that money in the bank is a great self esteem builder, more so than eating designer green beans.
 
Del Monte green beans are about 70¢ a can. Kroger green beans are about 40¢.  Why anyone would pay the 30 extra cents is beyond me, especially when you learn that not only do generic green beans taste very similar to name brand green beans, in many cases they are name brand green beans. Yes, it's true. Often, manufacturers sell their product to a grocery chain, labeling it with the store's own label. It is exactly the same product.

Large chains like Kroger have their own food manufacturing plants, but I can tell you that they strive to duplicate the leading brand. I know this because I have actually conducted taste tests with my Co-Habitant. He was convinced that Hellman's mayo was the only way to go, and I insisted that the Kroger brand was very similar, if not exactly the same. He balked, so I showed him the list of ingredients on both jars. Same thing in both cases. We bought a jar of the generic, and conveniently had some Hellman's left from before. We tasted them both and they both tasted like the preservative rich, artificial cholesterol spreads that they actually are. Mmmmm.

The next hurdle was soda. He wanted to buy Diet Sprite at $1.29 a two liter and I thought the Kroger Big K Diet Lemon Lime at 60¢ was a much better idea. I couldn't convince him, so we bought both. I conducted a blind taste test for him with both products and told him that if he picked out the Sprite we would buy that in the future. They tasted exactly the same, but of course he picked the Sprite by chance, so I lied and told him that was the Big K. I know this makes me a terrible person, but he admitted that they tasted exactly the same and was just guessing. We now buy generics any time we can.

We have since given up soda altogether. It's bad for you. We now drink iced tea, herbal or otherwise, and are healthier and richer for it. We have actually switched to Vegenaise, which is ridiculously expensive, but vegan, preservative free and absolutely delicious, which is good for my self-esteem and  my heart.

Save Money by Paying Bills Online

If you haven't already, it's time to set up a checking account with online bill payment. There are several advantages to using this type of account rather than an old fashioned checking account; the most obvious is cost.

Online checking accounts generally carry no fees. There are some that do, but it's simple to find one that does not. Some national banks that offer them are Bank of America and Wachovia. My credit union offers this service, as well.

Because you will not be writing checks on an online account, there is no need to pay for costly checks. I know, I know... you liked your custom Dilbert checks, but do you really think they put a smile on the face of the Accounts Receivable person at the electric company? Really?

An online checking account works like this: you set up your payees by entering their name, address and phone number and your account number. Your bank saves these payees and each month you pay your bills by signing on to your banks website and telling them how much money to send to each payee. Large companies like the electric company or Visa are paid electronically. Small companies, like your landlord, are issued a check by the bank and it is mailed by the bank. With stamps now costing 42 cents each, this is a substantial yearly savings. Assuming seven regular payees per month (in my case: water, electricity, cable, health insurance, cell phone, gas and mortgage) this is a savings of $35.28 a year, plus whatever envelopes cost.

The other bonus to paying your bills online is ease. First of all, you have an automatic record of when and how much you paid each bill. There is also none of that writing out the check, putting it in an envelope with a stamp and then leaving it on the kitchen counter for a week, thus incurring late fees. (Annual savings of much more than $35.28!)

And then there's the environment. For the most part, these payments are paperless and don't require transportation in a postal van, which uses precious gasoline. Annual savings: priceless.

The Cheapest Eye Glasses You'll Ever Buy

It used to be expensive to wear glasses, but not anymore! Glasses are now available online for much less than they cost at Glassmasters or whatever mall eyeglass emporium you used to shop. My latest pair of glasses came from Zenni Optical, an online glasses store where the glasses cost anywhere from $8 to $19, plus shipping, which is $4.95. So, get this, my glasses cost $12.95, total, not including the $50 eye exam from Costco.

You will need your prescription, including your "pupillary distance," or PD. This is the measurement between your eyes, which is possible to measure yourself. Your eye doctor is required by law to give you a copy of your prescription if you request it, without a purchase. My advice is to do some research in your area to find an inexpensive eye exam, and then order away. Your glasses will arrive in the mail after about two weeks. The only downside to the whole process is the two week wait; if you need your glasses that day, it's not an option, so order a spare pair before you need them. Incidentally, shipping is $4.95 whether you order one or a hundred pairs of glasses, not that ordering a hundred pairs of glasses would be frugal, but you get my point.

Glassy Eyes is a great little blog devoted to online eyeglasses. There you will find links to several of the major online glasses manufacturers with reviews of each site and even forums where people discuss their new glasses! Zenni is the only site I have tried; it's not so coincidentally the cheapest of all. I have had good luck with all of the glasses I have purchased, five pairs for a grand total of $52.97. At these prices it's easy to have several pairs of glasses to suit your moods, whether you want serious glasses for the job interview, cool glasses for the blind date, or goofy prescription sunglasses just for riding around in the dune-buggy with the rest of the Banana Splits.

10 Things You Should Never Buy

Everyone buys things on impulse and most people spend too much money on things that they don't need. Here's a list of ten things on which we don't need to spend our hard earned money.

1. Bottled water. Expensive, bad for you and the environment, bottled water may go down in history as one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated upon the consumer. Our landfills are filled with the bottles that take thousands of years to break down, the plastic from the bottles leeches into the water, most of which is tap water anyway.
2. Books. There, I said it. Books. Virtually any book is available at virtually any library in this country through The Inter Library Loan Program.  Library cards are free!
3. Pets. Buying a purebred cat or dog is unconscionable given the number of loveable mutts that fill our shelters and streets.
4. Paper napkins. Buy some cloth napkins, instead, dude. Throw them in the wash whenever you do laundry. For maximum environmental and monetary savings, buy them at an estate sale or thrift store.
5. Reusable shopping bags.  See earlier post.
6. An electric knife. Perfectly useless, so no need to buy. Also, in everyone's lifetime they will eventually receive an electric knife as a gift, so if you're really tempted to buy one, just wait.
7. Newspapers. Read them online instead.
8. Warranties. Generally not worth the money. If you're really concerned, take the money you would have spent on the warranty and put it in the bank. If your item breaks, use this fund to either repair or replace the item.
9. Anything marked "As Seen On TV." If you don't believe me, ask anyone who has ever bought anything they saw on an infomercial. If you still don't believe me, go to the thrift store and witness the growing mound of Ab Rollers, Food Dehydrators and Aero Gardens.
10. Window Cleaner. Invest in a micro fiber glass cleaning cloth instead. Scotch Brite makes a good one that works using only hot water. It costs about $3.99 and is machine washable.

Economic Stimulus Check Bonus Gift Cards

A number of companies are offering gift cards with 10 percent bonuses if purchased with an economic stimulus rebate check. For example, at Kroger, you will be able to cash in your $300 stimulus check for a $330 gift card, which is an instant 10% rate of return. Not bad, considering the best savings rate I can get on that amount is around 3%. And I would wait a year to get that 3%.

The gift cards will be offered in $300 increments. It's not a bad deal if you shop at Kroger often enough to make the $300 investment in their fine company. It doesn't take long to spend $300 on groceries, as we all know, so this seems like easy money.

If groceries aren't your bag, other companies are also offering deals. So far, Home Depot, Staples, Lands End, Sears and K-Mart have announced similar programs.

Unfortunately, I filed online and elected to have my rebate check deposited directly into my account. I have emailed Kroger and asked what their policy was  in that situation, but haven't gotten a response.

I'm guessing there will be other deals like this in the coming weeks. Let me know if you hear of any more.

Eco-Friendly Shopping Bags

Isn't it ironic? Wal-Mart is now selling eco-friendly reusable shopping bags.  So is every other store. You've probably seen them by now; shopping bags made out of a questionable recycled material complete with the logo of the megalomart in question on sale for only 99 cents!

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm anti-environment or anti-shopping bag, but I really don't like the way things are going here. First of all, stores that used to give you bags are now charging you for bags. These bags have to be made somewhere and resources have to be used to make said bags. That's not especially environmentally friendly, considering that there are enough tote bags in the world already, and everyone has at least 150 of the plastic grocery sacks that are still given away for free.

What I do like, however, is that many stores give you a 5 or 10 cent discount per bag for bringing your own bag. And, guess what? It doesn't have to have that store's logo on it. You can use your Target reusable bag at Kroger or your Publix bag at Sav-A-Lot. Wanna see some mad hippies? Use your Wal-Mart bag at Whole Foods. But better yet, don't buy these bags. You already have bags. If you don't; ask one of your friends for a bag. Preface your request with, "Would you like to help the environment?" You will not be denied. If your friend can't spare a bag, go to your nearest Salvation Army and you will find a variety of cloth canvas tote bags, just waiting to be recycled by you!

If for some reason you still cannot find a bag, email me and I will mail you one. 

The Walgreens Game

It seems that every day a new Walgreens, CVS or Rite-Aid opens across the street from another Walgreens, CVS or Rite-Aid. Although I hate to admit it, I do shop at these stores; mostly Walgreens. It's the closest; it's open 24 hours and they stock everything from Tampax to eggs to batteries.

What I have discovered is that Walgreens gives  stuff away...for free! Really! I can't believe it either, but every month Walgreens publishes a little booklet of free after rebate stuff, and for the most part, they're useful items. I love America!

Basically, what you have to do is buy the item(s), send in your receipt with a rebate form, carefully following directions, of course, and Walgreens mails you either a check or a Walgreens gift card with the amount that you spent. If you opt for the gift card, they will add 10%, essentially covering sales tax.

This month's free items include: Aquafresh toothpaste, a Colgate toothbrush, Soyjoy energy bar, Just for Men hair color, Tums, a Jane make-up brush, Wal-Zyr and Walitin, which are Walgreens' versions of Zyrtec and Claritin.

I bought everything except the Tums and the men's haircolor. I wouldn't use the items, so I don't want them, even for free. This month I noticed that I could enter the receipt online and get my gift card recharged electronically, so I did.

I haven't bought toothpaste in years. It seems that every month Walgreens is giving away a different brand of (NEW!) super-whitening, plaque-fighting, breath-freshening toothpaste. But, I am not brand loyal and will use whatever new kind they want to give me.

Yes, I realize this is Walgreen's way of getting me into the store to buy other stuff. Yes, I sometimes buy other stuff that I might not have, had I not gone in to get the free stuff. Yes, I have forgotten to mail my receipt in and not gotten the rebate. Yes, I realize that we are lucky to live in a wealthy country that gives stuff away. Yes, I donate the extra boxes of toothpaste to the homeless shelter in my city. And, yes, I know that maybe we aren't such a wealthy country after all.