A few days ago, Trent Lott of the Simple dollar wrote about grocery store flyers and sales. I liked the article a lot. I never knew that manufacturers pay for placement of their products in the flyers. I have often wondered why they decided to print something as a sale when the every day price was the same as the "sale" price. Now I know.
Today, a friend of mine at work, stopped by my desk at work as I was perusing the Pathmark grocery store flyer. They no longer have Pathmark in the Baltimore area and she was excited to see that it still was a surviving grocery store chain. She told me that she liked to shop there because they had such great deals. I have to agree with her. I usually shop at 2-3 stores each week to pick up their loss leaders and cheap items (I won't say sale priced items since I learned not everything is a sale!). Lately, I have just been shopping at one of the two Pathmarks in Newark, DE. I also shop at a warehouse club every 2 weeks and, in summer, I buy fresh fruits and vegetables at a farm stand. I highly recommend the Pathmark. In general, they have very good prices on their sale items.
This has given me the idea of doing several posts on how I grocery shop. Whenever I give my Frugal Living presentation, many people are shocked at how little I spend on groceries every month. I have 2 teen aged girls and 1 teen aged boy plus my husband and myself to shop for. I spend an average of $575-600 a month on food for all of us. The USDA has a wonderful chart on how much people spend on food. Click on the latest month available and add up how much your family eats per week. Then find your plan - thrifty, low-cost, moderate cost or liberal. According to the chart, if we ate on the thrifty plan, we should be spending $733.20. Our food costs come in at least $133.20 under the USDA least expensive plan. How do I do this? Stay tuned and find out how!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Welcome New Castle Countians
Last night I spoke to a small group of people at the Newark branch of the New Castle County Library System. I enjoyed my evening with the group. Welcome to my blog and I hope you become a follower and sign up to get notices when the blog is updated.
If anyone has any questions or would like more information on something that I spoke about last night, just email me. At the bottom of this entry is a way to comment and a way to send me email.
If anyone has any questions or would like more information on something that I spoke about last night, just email me. At the bottom of this entry is a way to comment and a way to send me email.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Repurposing Furniture
When my husband and I thought about how we would set up the house we just moved into, we found that we had very little storage. There is an “attic” that can be used as a bedroom and one of our teen agers is using that huge space as a bedroom. The lack of storage was a big problem since we had an empty basement that we put many boxes in at our last house.
The first thing I did was impress everyone with the lack of storage. Then I forced my husband to go through his books and papers in the basement and get rid of as much as he can (He is a pack rat!). My daughters and I got rid of most of the toys. Then I thought about where to store things.
One of our problems is that my husband and I were going from our own closets to one that we had to share. Luckily it is a good size. We always left all of our clothes hanging in the closet no matter what the season. With just one closet we couldn’t do that. Where to store the overflow?
Here is what I did:
We have a white cabinet that has 4 shelves and I used it to store the good china in. In the new house I have huge amounts of cabinet space in the pantry. I put the good china in the cabinets in the pantry. Then, I took the cabinet and placed it in our bedroom and filled it with all of our sweaters. This made space in the large tubs that we have for winter storage. We placed the hanging, winter clothes into the tubs. Problem solved. A dish cabinet is moved to another part of the house and repurposed to be a cabinet to house sweaters.
I also repurposed a toy box. This box held my teen agers’ toys when they were small. In our last home, it held board games that we still play. Now, it sits at the foot of our bed holding winter blankets. It even looks like it matches the white, china/sweater cabinet!
Think about other ways to use furniture and extend the usefulness. In the long run, this will save you money. I didn’t run out and buy plastic blanket storage bins or a beautiful, cedar chest. I used what I had and got creative.
The first thing I did was impress everyone with the lack of storage. Then I forced my husband to go through his books and papers in the basement and get rid of as much as he can (He is a pack rat!). My daughters and I got rid of most of the toys. Then I thought about where to store things.
One of our problems is that my husband and I were going from our own closets to one that we had to share. Luckily it is a good size. We always left all of our clothes hanging in the closet no matter what the season. With just one closet we couldn’t do that. Where to store the overflow?
Here is what I did:
We have a white cabinet that has 4 shelves and I used it to store the good china in. In the new house I have huge amounts of cabinet space in the pantry. I put the good china in the cabinets in the pantry. Then, I took the cabinet and placed it in our bedroom and filled it with all of our sweaters. This made space in the large tubs that we have for winter storage. We placed the hanging, winter clothes into the tubs. Problem solved. A dish cabinet is moved to another part of the house and repurposed to be a cabinet to house sweaters.
I also repurposed a toy box. This box held my teen agers’ toys when they were small. In our last home, it held board games that we still play. Now, it sits at the foot of our bed holding winter blankets. It even looks like it matches the white, china/sweater cabinet!
Think about other ways to use furniture and extend the usefulness. In the long run, this will save you money. I didn’t run out and buy plastic blanket storage bins or a beautiful, cedar chest. I used what I had and got creative.
Goodwill had a $5 a bag sale!
Yesterday, I went to the “sidewalk sale” that the Elkton Goodwill was having. It was actually a parking lot sale! They had huge bins of clothes and we got to plow through them in a quest for items of interest. There must have been 20 bins! When we got there, we bought a re-usable bag for $5. Then we got to fill the bag with whatever we wanted. I took my daughter and her boyfriend and, together, we filled 2 bags. I think Goodwill had too many items to display in the store and this helped out customers and the store. I saw one lady open the trunk of her SUV and she had 6 or 7 bags in there!
I haven’t been writing much due to our move. I have been very busy. If I hadn’t been moving, I would have put out a short article telling readers about the sale. However, my daughter told me I should add Twitter to my FLTAYG information sites. I could have easily Twittered the information. Sometime this summer, expect a Twitter site!
I haven’t been writing much due to our move. I have been very busy. If I hadn’t been moving, I would have put out a short article telling readers about the sale. However, my daughter told me I should add Twitter to my FLTAYG information sites. I could have easily Twittered the information. Sometime this summer, expect a Twitter site!
Friday, June 5, 2009
Two Fun Festivals This Weekend
Saturday, June 6th, is Newark Night! This is when the town of Newark celebrates the students leaving for the summer. Food, crafters, vendors, politicians and 20,000+ people are out on Main St. from 5 pm - 9:30 pm. Join the fun!
Rising Sun's Sun Fest is also June 6th, from 9 am - 5:00 pm. Vendors, crafters, music and food.
It is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow and I intend to go to Newark Night with my sister who is visiting. During the day, I will be helping my husband and teenagers move to our new house.
Rising Sun's Sun Fest is also June 6th, from 9 am - 5:00 pm. Vendors, crafters, music and food.
It is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow and I intend to go to Newark Night with my sister who is visiting. During the day, I will be helping my husband and teenagers move to our new house.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Welcome CCBC Employees
Today I gave my frugal living presentation to my fellow employees of CCBC. They were a fine group of people and got a lot from the presentation. I hope they will become blog followers. I just wanted to say welcome and thank you for attending.
One thing that I learned from a participant was that if you are shopping online, you can get a coupon code for any store by going to google and typing in the name of the store and coupon code after it. (Ex: toys r us coupon code). I tried it out and it works. Some of the codes may not work when you check out but this participant said many of them did. Sounds worthwhile to try!
One thing that I learned from a participant was that if you are shopping online, you can get a coupon code for any store by going to google and typing in the name of the store and coupon code after it. (Ex: toys r us coupon code). I tried it out and it works. Some of the codes may not work when you check out but this participant said many of them did. Sounds worthwhile to try!
Monday, June 1, 2009
Purchasing Propane
We will be moving into our new house on June 13th and, in preparation for this, I have been switching utilities into our name, etc. We need to get a propane tank installed too since we need the gas for cooking and baking. I have learned a lot about propane sales in the last week because I have called around to price the sale and installation of a tank with propane. The only thing the companies agree on is how much we will need (about 50 gallons a year).
Company A told me that there is no installation fee for a 50 gallon tank with propane in it. But there is a $50 a year tank rental fee and the propane, itself, is $3.89 a gallon. There is a $4 delivery fee. I asked how much it is to purchase a tank and was told it is around $400. I wanted to purchase a tank instead of renting one because the price of propane is less than half of what it is if you rent a tank. Plus you pay a rental fee for the tank. At this price, the tank would pay for itself in 4 years. Since we intend to stay in the house for many years, purchasing a tank is a good idea.
Company B told me that it is $4.44 9/10 a gallon with their tank. If I had my own tank the price is $1.71 (see what I mean?). To purchase a 50 gallon tank, with installation, runs about $450.
Company C said that a 100 gallon tank is $63 to rent, with propane being $4.34 a gallon and there is a $59.95 installation fee. I didn’t ask how much it is to buy a tank. They seemed way too high.
I also found out that most people, who only use it for cooking, don’t buy their own tanks. We decided it is better to buy our own tank. An initial outlay of money will save us much more over time. A true, frugal mind set. We are going to go with Company A.
Company A told me that there is no installation fee for a 50 gallon tank with propane in it. But there is a $50 a year tank rental fee and the propane, itself, is $3.89 a gallon. There is a $4 delivery fee. I asked how much it is to purchase a tank and was told it is around $400. I wanted to purchase a tank instead of renting one because the price of propane is less than half of what it is if you rent a tank. Plus you pay a rental fee for the tank. At this price, the tank would pay for itself in 4 years. Since we intend to stay in the house for many years, purchasing a tank is a good idea.
Company B told me that it is $4.44 9/10 a gallon with their tank. If I had my own tank the price is $1.71 (see what I mean?). To purchase a 50 gallon tank, with installation, runs about $450.
Company C said that a 100 gallon tank is $63 to rent, with propane being $4.34 a gallon and there is a $59.95 installation fee. I didn’t ask how much it is to buy a tank. They seemed way too high.
I also found out that most people, who only use it for cooking, don’t buy their own tanks. We decided it is better to buy our own tank. An initial outlay of money will save us much more over time. A true, frugal mind set. We are going to go with Company A.
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