Well, I want to put you onto a GREAT site that focuses on the pick-your-own movement.

http://www.pickyourown.org/index.htm

This site has a search feature that allows you to find PYO farms in specific states and then provides great tutorials on canning, freezing and preserving your harvest.  There is information on canning supplies, too.

I’ve used this site before but never realized there was a great search feature.  Just today, I’ve discovered several farms within 30 minutes that have PYO vegetable picking.  I won’t be able to grow enough tomatoes this year for our needs and PYO is a great resource.  I just never realized we had PYO vegetable farms in this area!

We decided to go shopping.

Talk about eye-opening and shocking!!!  We got four estimates from reputable companies.  Of the four, two of them came in considerably less.  The other two didn’t write the camper insurance the same way and it wouldn’t have been a savings for us.  But, of the other two, we ended up going with the insurance company my husband works for.  Previously, they wrote auto insurance in a different way so that we just couldn’t afford it but that has changed.

Just to demonstrate the savings:  Our previous auto insurance was costing us $720 every six months or $1,440/year.  The new insurance rate will only be $433 every six months or $866/ year.  That’s a savings  of $574 every year!!!  That’s no small chunk of change!

I brought this up with the forum members here and was surprised to learn that this happens a lot.  Insurance companies get you on board and then continue to raise rates regardless of your age, cars, and driving record.  You’re almost forced to shop around every few years to insure you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

When was the last time you reviewed what you’re paying for insurance, cell-phone contracts, cable, internet and telephone suppliers?  It certainly pays to review this stuff!

See, there it is again. Spend-demon just wrote the camera comment.

New year, new me. I love New Years for that reason. Well, for several reasons, but that’s one of them. So I came up with a plan for the money in 2010 – with my husband’s full blessing. I later found out just how full the blessing was. Anyway, what is this grand plan you ask (or don’t ask)? We’re going to try our best to live just on my husband’s take home pay. What we see after taxes in a very high tax state. What we see after maxing out the 401K – and putting additional money in it, because we’re that old. What we see after everything’s taken out. And then we’re going to bank my entire take home pay. And to do this, a hiatus from recreational shopping is a must. Really thinking through the purchases – we have to do that. Especially after the past few months.

Hey, I could use “I’m staying out of stores” to explain my long absence from the shopping blog. Hmmm…

The first challenge to this new, umm, challenge happened a couple of days ago. And I failed the challenge. Or I would have, had it not been for my husband talking me down.

As I may have mentioned a time or several, we live in Wisconsin. Where it snows. Lately, it snows an awful lot in winter. A number of years ago, we decided that we were getting kind of old for shoveling, and bought a snowblower. A small snowblower, because we really don’t have a long driveway, or a huge walkway. And it’s held up pretty good. But our old driveway (we had a new one poured last year) really did a number to the paddles on the snowblower. These days, I need to take a shovel and go over and clean up what the snowblower left behind. It’s still a good bit better than not having a snowblower. But some of our neighbors have really nice snowblowers. Big snowblowers. With headlights. (Don’t ask why I’m so obsessed by headlights on snowblowers, because I don’t know – but I am.) We finally got a decent sized snowfall last week (by that I mean more than the 2 inches at a time we were getting.) And of course, I was outside again, shoveling up the bits left behind. When into my brain pops this thought: We need a new snowblower! The following conversation – or something close to it – takes place:

Me: Do you think the hardware stores still have snowblowers?
Husband: Why?
Me: Well, we can get a new one. A big one. With headlights!
Husband: The one we have is perfectly fine. I’ll replace the paddles after snow season is over.
(My comment for clarification: That would be …June. We’ve had snow in May. More than once.)
Me: But it’s…old. And small. We’ll need a bigger one when we move up north.
Husband: Then we’ll buy one up north.
Me: But wouldn’t it be cool to have a BIG snowblower? With headlights!
(There I go again – what IS it with me and headlights?)
Husband: I thought we were going to try and live off only my salary.
Me: But I have money in other accounts in the bank that we can use.
Husband: Sue, you really aren’t grasping the concept of living off MY SALARY ONLY, are you?

And he’s right. He’s SO right. I really do need to work on this. I mean, the living-on-one-income was my idea in the first place.

I’ve always said that I don’t like to shop. I guess it’s time to walk the walk. Oh, yeah, I’ll still be blogging about shopping. Maybe other things, too. But hopefully, I won’t be blogging about buying a honkin’ snowblower (with headlights).

How are the prices in your neighborhood?

Part of me wonders why the stores need to tag on the minimum purchase at all.  Part of me goes out of the way to NOT shop at the store that demands a minimum purchase in order to obtain my turkey.  I realize that offering a turkey at .47 a pound is probably a loss for the store but I also think they make it up in regular purchases made around this time of year. In addition, with so many families struggling with rising costs, being able to purchase the turkey without dr

If an online site has that little box for a promotional code, you’re almost guaranteed to find that code somewhere on the internet.  Open a new window and type in the company’s name and the words ‘promotional code’ or ‘online coupon code’ and you’ll find dozens of sites offering up various codes for you to try. Sometimes the codes have expired and the shopping site will tell you such.  Don’t hesitate to find another code and enter it.  The worse case scenario is that you’ll get that little box popping up saying the code you entered has expired.  No harm will come to you (a fear I once had LOL!)

In this case, I couldn’t find an active code and then found a message board stating that you could sign up for this fencing site’s newsletter and they would send you an instant 10% promotional code just for signing up!  The 15 or so minutes of searching saved me just about $25 on my first order.  That equates to an hourly rate of $100/hour!  NOTHING TO LAUGH AT!

This brings up another money-saving strategy.  If you frequent an online store that offers up a newsletter then sign up for it.  Many online stores offer promotional shopping codes only to their online newsletter customers.  They’ll also send you out special offers like discounted products and clearance items.

The UCONN Surplus store is a catch all for anything surplus or used but still serviceable that the university clears about.  It’s only open one day a month right now and it’s cash only.  My husband and I went there last month and couldn’t believe what we found!

• used stainless steel and aluminum cookware and warming trays
• used computers and computer equipment
• used sports gear (clothing and some equipment)
• floor washing and waxing machine
• brand new toilets (thank goodness those were new )
• brand new cups and plates from the conference center
• used gym equipment like weight lifting equipment and step-machines
• church pews (not sure how these were surplus but there were at least 12 to snag)
• dorm-style headboard/bookcases
• desks-big, small, wooden and metal
• microscopes
• 30 plus copies of some book on criticizing poetry for only $1 each (evidently it wasn’t too popular to criticize poetry)

There was so much  there!  We also managed to find two sets of cherry wood wall-mounted coat racks with silver hooks.  We had priced something similar at the hardware store for about $35 each ($70 for both)  At the surplus store we got them for only $10 each!  That was a savings of $50!  They are now on the wall on the landing handling raincoats and such for the boys.  Somehow I think they look better, probably because they only cost $20 instead of $70!

Our haul included steak knives for our camper.  $1 each.  We found tall, slim UCONN gym pants for my middle son who is ridiculously tall and slim.  $10.  Oh and yes, I DID find those stainless steel lasagna pans.  I had priced pans online for anywhere from $36 to $138!  I wasn’t even sure if all of them were stainless steel, which I do need to handle the heat of maple sugaring.  I managed to get 2 pans there for only $10!  $5 each.

In the end, I began to wonder if all major universities have such surplus centers.  I know that some states offer up surplus stores.  It might be worth your time and a few minutes online to search out such surplus stores in your state.  I know I’ve already marked the calendar for net month’s open day.  I’m hoping for a few more pans and part of me is still wondering what I could possibly do with surplus church pews.

Shop one store and one store only.  Make a list – well, it doesn’t have to be a long list.  10 items are enough.  Don’t organize by item types, placement in the store, etc.  Coupons are more trouble than they’re worth.  Don’t bother reading the store ads – what does it matter if something is on sale if I don’t need it at that exact moment in time? 

I could go on and on with her unwritten “rules” but I think you get the point.

I remember when I was in my late teens, coming home from college and going grocery shopping with her.  I had been on my own long enough to have begun to develop my own shopping habits.  And I could not believe that it took her over two hours to grocery shop for three people – at one store.  Now, this was in my pre-frugal days, so I don’t know that I really noticed the financial implications of her shopping.  At the time, the fact that she could spend over two hours aimlessly wandering the aisles amazed me.

Fast forward to the present.  Last year, my mom gave up her drivers license.  And I am now taking her grocery shopping again.  On our first shopping trip, it became obvious that Mom had not gotten any quicker.  No, we could now add another hour to the excursion.  Really.  Almost THREE HOURS in the grocery store.  It’s not that she slowed down with age – she moves fast.  Really fast.  But it wasn’t the time spent in the store that bothered me most.

Frugality is part of my life.  It quickly became apparent that I did not inherit the frugal gene from my mom.  I was stunned at the amount of money she spent.  For ONE person.  I decided to seize the opportunity to try and change her ways.  I knew this would not happen overnight.  And I knew that I would need to take it one step at a time.

The first thing I wanted to tackle was the time spent in the store.  I cannot tell you how many times we went back to the same aisles, again and again.  And each time, Mom found more things to put in her cart.  After we got home, we talked about organizing grocery lists.  Mom decided to give it a try.  The next week, we were back down to the 2 hour shopping excursion I remember from my childhood.  It was an improvement.  She did not spend quite as much money this time, possibly because she did not make as many repeat trips down the same aisles.  First step in the transformation – done.

Now, I mentioned that Mom spent less money on this trip than she had on the previous one.  But I knew she could be spending a lot less.  It was time to move to the intermediate level – COUPONS!  My mom has always given me her coupon supplements.  Sometimes there is a coupon cut out, but usually, they are totally intact.  I keep a small folder of coupons in my purse, and on this next shopping trip, I gave her several for items she was buying.  She seemed pleased that she saved $3.75 that week. 

She hadn’t seen anything yet.

Quite often, I get coupons in the mail for $5 off $50 or more at the chain of grocery stores Mom prefers.  I rarely spend that much at one time at ANY store, so I started giving her those coupons – on top of ones for the products she uses.  She really liked this!  Soon, it seemed that she was paying more attention to coupons.  It started slowly.  The first time she mentioned coupons, it was “oh, I had a coupon cut out for that.  But I left it at home.”  Like I said, it started slowly.  But before long, she was bringing her own coupons.  The last time we went shopping, she had a fist full of coupons.  And when we went to Walgreens after grocery shopping, she went through her purse first to find the coupon and the register reward she knew she had.  I was so proud of her.  It goes without saying that she spends less money on food than she used to.

Stay tuned.  In the near future, I will attempt to take her to the advanced level:  checking the sales flyers and shopping the sales – at more than one store!

And it was exciting initially.  I remember my friend and I, on one such weekend, chuckling over the fact that the entire trunk of her car was filled with our purchases.  Did we need most of it?  No, but it sure was fun at the time.

At the time.  Those are key words.  Because a day or two later, or maybe a week or two later, the thrill was gone from most of the purchases.  And on more than one occasion, buyer’s remorse set in.  WHY did I buy that?  What WAS I thinking?  I probably wasn’t.  Thinking, that is.

Over the course of the years, I decided to get my spending in check.  Let’s face it, I have too much STUFF.  You know you have too much stuff when you donate a few bags of stuff to Goodwill, throw out several bags, and have no extra room to show for it.  I mean, what’s up with that?  Does stuff expand when you remove other stuff, to fill in the blank spaces?

So what I decided to do was to institute a wait policy.  Not for groceries or necessities; if I did that, I’d spend too much of my time – to say nothing of gasoline – going back and forth to grocery stores.  No, this is for other things that are not of a necessary nature, but are optional.  Or they may become necessitites, but at the moment, they are not.  The waiting period varies, but it is at least several days, and is more often measured in weeks.

Case in point – my husband managed to break the big food processor last month.  It had been a yardsale purchase over 10 years ago, and I paid all of $2 for it.  It was old when I bought it, and ancient when it died.  We do consider a food processor a necessity – it really helps speed up food prepartion during canning season.  I mean, we did all the chopping for salsa by hand one year (before it occured to us that this would be a good use for the food processor.)  We do a LOT of canning, and we really appreciate our food processors.  We have a mini food processor, but that just isn’t the greatest for big batches – and has serious limitations to the size and type of cutting and shredding it can do.

Fortunately, the food processor died in March.  Certainly not canning season, not around these parts.  So my husband and I went out looking for a new one.  LOOKING.  We were not going to rush out and buy.  If you have the luxury being able to wait to make a purchase, you can save a lot of money.  No, this was just a fact finding mission, to see what was out there, and what the price range was for what we wanted.  Because of how much we’ve come to use the food processor, we decided that we wanted a brand new one this time, so we could get the options we want.

Oooh, baby, food processors have changed over the past 30-some years.  And they can be expensive.  We saw some cheapy ones, but had serious doubts and reservations about them.  Predictably, a food processor with the features we wanted would run us anywhere from $150 to $200.  We decided which models would fit the bill, then sat back to wait. 

And wait.  The next few weeks, nothing we wanted went on sale.  Then, I saw a Kohl’s flyer that had one of the models we were considering on sale for $99.  AND…this was during one of those promotions where you get either 15%, 20% or 30% off all purchases with either the catalog mailed to Kohl’s credit card holders, or scratch-offs given at the register.  I said to my husband “If I get a 30% off on my catalog, we’re buying it.”  Woohoo, that’s exactly what happened.  So we ended up getting our new food processor for $69 and change.  Less than half of what we would have paid if we rushed out and bought a new food processor the day the old one died.

So waiting saved us a lot of money on that purchase.  Now, there are always exceptions to waiting paying off, mainly if you see something you truly need at a phenomenal price and you know it probably won’t be there if you wait and come back.  Strangely enough, this happened to us on the same trip as the food processor purchase.  We noticed an 80% off clearance area, and there were thermal shirts in both my size and my husband’s size.  We live in Wisconsin.  We spend a lot of time outside year round.  We also keep the house cool in winter.  Thermal shirts are a very good thing.  These were originally $20 each, and were now $4.  And remember, I had the 30% off coupon.  $2.80 for brand new thermal shirts is about as good as it’s gonna get.  No waiting on this purchase.  Those four thermal shirts were scooped up along with the food processor.

So it does happen that sometimes it’s best not to wait, but I’ve found that to be the exception to the rule.  For the most part, waiting before purchasing has saved us a LOT of money.
 

It hit home for me when I was doing another of my dish soap challenges.  For those who don’t know what I mean by this – two years ago, I took a bottle of dish soap and challenged myself to see how long I could make it last.  (In case you’re really curious, twice as long as a bottle normally lasted.)  A few months ago, I decided to repeat the challenge, because I seemed to be going through an awful lot of dish soap in a short amount of time.  Part of that can be attributed to my husband using it as hand soap, but I was still using too much. 

Strangely enough, the cost of a bottle of dish soap was the same, when on sale, as the sale price had been two years ago.  Initially, I thought “wow, that’s great!”  I looked up my past challenge to refresh my memory, and noticed that the challenge  was to see how long I could make a 12.6 ounce bottle last.  I looked at the brand new bottle in my hand.  For the first time, I noticed that it said something about “new size”.  It was a new size, allright – 10.3 ounces.  As I went through my stockpile of bottles of dish soap, I noticed some of them were 11 ounces.  I completely missed that downsize!  And I probably would have gone on missing the size change of the current one, had it not been for my little challenge.  Yes, sometimes a house does have to fall on me for me to notice things.

Aluminum foil is another shrinking product.  The 50 sq. foot roll is now 45 square feet.  Surprisingly, I did notice that one.  The paper plates I buy, those went from 100 count to 80 count to the current 72 count.  As with other items, they continue to go “on sale” for the same price they used to.  That could be good, however – really, why am I using so many paper plates? 

All this inspires me to really start paying attention.  I think I’ll be surprised at just how many products have shrunk.  But on a positive note, this should make me question whether a sale is really a sale.   And that may be a very good thing.

My husband and I have 8 children.  The oldest two are married and off on their own.  If THEY told me they were going to be frugal because “Everyone is doing it” I’d say TERRIFIC!  And if they asked me for advice about the best areas to be frugal in, I’d have a bunch of suggestions.    (and actually, these kids are already doing a great job with their finances, I’ve been impressed)

1. Be aware of what your expenses and spending ARE.  Take a few minutes and make a list of all bills and spending you expect for a month.  Total that list and subtract it from your NET pay.  Decide what you will do with any left over pay… if you don’t choose what to do with it, it disappears like a thief in the night.
2. Eat at home. (your own home lol )  Designate the times you feel eating out might be justified, such as a birthday or other special occasion.  When you DO eat out it will feel much more gratifying.  Make a list of meals you can fix quick when you’re tired after work.  Keep ingredients for those meals on hand.  This will reduce the temptation to pick up take-out. (or you could live & work in the country and then it’s just a pain to drive to town to buy dinner in the same amount of time it would have taken to fix it yourself lol ) Set an amount of money for grocery spending and make it work.  ALWAYS grocery shop with a list.  Always.
3. Give each other an allowance if you have any money left at the end of the bills.  Even $5 a month of “play” money for each of you will help curb reckless spending when money is tight.  You don’t have to be accountable to anyone as to what you spend your allowance on.

There are plenty of other ways to start being frugal but you don’t want to overwhelm yourself right at the start.  Once you get these 3 areas down, THEN you can move on to other important areas like finding frugal friends or joining frugal websites such as www.frugal-families.com where you can find great ideas and support for a frugal lifestyle!

With this recession and a tough economy, one HUGE positive I see coming is that people are becoming aware of their finances.  They are controlling wants and taking care of needs first.  They are learning to live frugally and finding it very satisfying!

Okay kids…. go ahead…  even IF Everyone is Doing it.