Grocery Saving Tips

I saw an article recently about a grocery budgeting coach. This coach has a mission, which is to help families buy nutritious food while saving themselves up to $400 a month on food bills.
Obviously, some of her ideas are ones that you already use. But, maybe there will be something new for you.
Here are her ideas:

• Use coupons.
• Don’t buy fresh, cold juice – buy the 1L tetra packs.
• Buy frozen meats and vegetables (rather than fresh). She says you don’t lose any nutrient value and they’re often cheaper.
• Instead of bread, buy tortilla wraps. You can get 12 sandwiches out of one package that will cost you between $2.00-$2.50.
• Instead of buying real lemons – buy lemon juice.
• Use margarine instead of butter for baking.
  

Here are some more grocery saving tips, from myself and others: (even though we’re not grocery budget coaches!)

• Know grocery prices. Not everything advertised in the flyers are actually "deals", know what a good price is and you won't be ripped off.
• Make a grocery list of all the things you need before you head out to the grocery stores. This way, you can just quickly pick up the groceries on your list and head right out. The longer you stay in the store, the higher the chance that you'll be buying more than what you came for. Also remember to stick to your list!
• Ask for rain checks if the item is sold out. Rain checks allow you to take advantage of the sale price at a later date even after the sale has ended.
• Do not grocery shop on an empty stomach. When you're hungry, you will probably buy more and make impulse purchases because everything looks so appetizing.
  
• Always check unit prices. Don't assume that the larger sizes are a better deal. Check the unit price on the package when comparing products.
  
• Walmart will match all advertised prices. If Food Basics is having their $1 days and No frills have some items on sale, before you go to 3 or 4 stores just bring the flyers with you to Walmart and they will honour the advertised price. This will save you gas and time and you can stock up on all the items you need in one store.
• Don’t be loyal to certain brand names.
• Decide your weekly dinner menu based on what’s on sale at the store you shop at.
• Look at the flyers when they come to your house and decide which one has the most items that you need and then only shop there (okay maybe two stores total). The more stores you go to, the more you’ll spend and then the more you will buy things that you really don’t need.
• Use up what’s in your cupboard already.
• Decide how much you are spending before you go shopping and then take out cash for your grocery shopping trip. This way you are not tempted to spend more than you had planned on.
• Sometimes stores put their fresh meat on sale first thing in the morning or in the evening. You can call your usual grocery store and ask them if they do this. Usually it’s 50% off and it doesn’t expire for another day or two so I just bring it home and freeze it. In St. Catharines, I’ve gone to Metro (formerly A&P) and Zehrs and they have their meat reduced between 8:00 and 9:00am.
• Buy fruit when it’s “in season.”
  

If you have any other grocery tips, let me know!
Happy shopping!

Setting Financial Goals

Having goals for our finances helps us to measure our success and also will hopefully motivate us more with our financial planning.

For me, since I am an avid budgeter, I love setting goals because it’s something more exciting than just writing out your budget and following it.

Here is how you would go about writing your goals:

1.Make a list of five to ten goals you might have, either as an individual or as a couple.
These goals could be anything from paying off debt, buying a new lawnmower or saving for retirement. Think about short and long term goals. When you write down your goals think positively (I want to save for a vacation) rather than negatively (I wish I could stop spending so much money.)

Don’t spend time analyzing these goals at this time, just write them down.

2. Once you’ve written down these financial goals, think about and discuss what they actually mean. For each goal, ask yourself these questions:

• If you have a partner, do we both agree on this goal? If not, how can we compromise?
• When do I want to achieve this goal?
• How am I going to start working on this goal?
• Do I need help from anyone?
• What are some obstacles that need to be overcome before starting this goal?

There was a study done in 1979 of 1000 graduating Harvard students. Of these students, 84% of them had no defined goals. About 13% of the students had goals, but not in writing. These 13% of students earned twice as much on average as the students without a plan. Then there were 3% who had written goals and these students earned, on average, 10 times more than the other 97% without any written goals.

To have effective goals, use the following to help you: (SMART goals)

Specific: You might have a goal of “traveling” or maybe you want to “retire comfortably.” The question you have to ask yourself is “Where do you want to travel?” “How much will it cost you to travel?” As far as retiring comfortably, “How much money do you need by the time you retire?”

Measurable: It’s easier to achieve goals if you attach a money goal to it. That way you can keep track of how you are doing with your desired goal.

Attainable: This means that you know your goals can be reached.

Realistic: Your goals may be attainable, but are they realistic? For instance, becoming a millionaire is attainable, but if you are working from nothing, becoming one next week isn’t realistic.

Time-specific: Set a specific date for each of your goals. This could be one month, one year or even a day.

3.Next, you need to develop a plan. Keep in mind what you learned about SMART goals when writing in this next part. You need to decide exactly how you are going to reach your goals. For example, if you goal is to buy a home next year, your objectives might be to improve your credit scores and to save $7000 for a down payment.

Or if your goal was to start a savings account for your kid’s college education, your objective might be to find $100 a month in your budget and open up an account where they automatically withdraw this amount.

So – go to it. Write a plan.

Practically, I would make a table with there headings - Goal, Objectives and Key Dates.
For example, in my short term goal table it would look like this:
Goal: buy a new lawnmower
Objective: Save $35 a month
Key Date: Purchase a lawnmower in April 2010 (I would have $245.00)

Obviously your goals will change because you will go through different stages of life and also because you will reach some of your goals and want to set new ones.

The main thing is to have something tangible to work towards.

Have Fun!

Luxuries

Is anyone else feeling like we spend too much money on things we don’t even need?
We have to renew our cell phones soon and this has caused me to look at how much we’ve been spending on our current cell phone plan. Have you ever added up how much you spend on your cell phone plan in a year? How about TV? Internet? When added up yearly, it’s a big number.
For us, all three of those combined equal $1620 a year.
These are all luxuries that I know I didn’t grow up with. Somehow these have all become normal expenses now. How did that happen? Isn’t technology supposed to make our lives easier?
Why does it seem to make it more complicated and expensive?
I have friends who choose not to have cell phones and some who choose to use “rabbit ears.” (at least before the new regulations.)
But, for the most part, we just see these as expenses that are fixed on our budget sheet.
My suggestion isn’t that we cancel all these items but rather that we take a look at those bills and see if we need every option that we are paying for. Do we need all 3 million channels or can we get by with 1 million? Do we need the fastest internet connection possible, or can we stand to wait for a couple of seconds?
Do we need all those minutes and texting on our cell phones? We might use them currently, but do we actually need them?
Do you know what I got my first cell phone for? Emergencies.
That’s a joke- I don’t think most of my calls and texts have been about an emergency. Can we scale back on the options on our phones? Seriously, do we need to have caller ID? What happens if we don’t know who’s calling us? (I believe this is how most of us lived most of our lives – when the phone rang, we had no clue who it would be on the other end.) How about call waiting? Can someone not just leave a message and we’ll call them back, if we happen to be on the other line?
Is anyone else tired of paying for all these items that have become commonplace in our society?
I know I am guilty of paying for a lot of luxuries I certainly don’t need.
I think we’ve lost sight on what we “need” and what we “want.”

Not A Good Deal!

Do you have any friends who are suckers for a good deal?
We are all guilty of bragging about our good deals from time to time. I know I definitely am. I have bought a skirt for $1.99 before. But, I’ve only worn it once in my whole life. I’ve gotten the kids their number 3 and 4 bathing suit for only $5 when all they needed was one (okay maybe two) bathing suits.
Guess what? I didn’t need that skirt and I didn’t need those extra bathing suits. We are such suckers.
A good deal really only counts if it was for something we actually needed (notice I said needed not wanted), it happened to be a good price and we could actually afford it. If we added up all the items we have bought but didn’t need, and used that money towards something crazy like savings, giving to charity or buying something we really did need, now that would be a good deal!
What about people who put their “good deals” on their credit cards? If you are paying interest for your purchase, it is definitely not a good deal.
So, let’s stop it. Let’s stop looking for good deals, unless we really need something and it happens to be a good price and let’s stop bragging about our good deals on the things we didn’t even need in the first place.
I am the biggest sucker for a good deal, but unless it’s something I actually need, I’m going to stop buying things, just because it’s a good price.
If you don’t have the money for something or you don’t need something and you buy it anyways, then (say it with me now) it is definitely NOT A GOOD DEAL!

How much are you really making at your job?

I’ve been reading this book lately, called “Your Money or Your Life.” The basic premise of the book is that you can have both – your money and your life. He talks about people “making a dying” rather than “making a living.” If we were all going to work to make a living, wouldn’t we come home more energized?
The part of the book that stood out for me, especially as it pertains to budgeting, was a part where he talks about figuring out what you are actually making an hour. This was helpful for me as I was offered a job this week and I was trying to decide whether or not to take it. He said to decide what you make hourly, after taxes and then subtract any expenses that you incur because of the job. This might be daycare, clothes (or uniform), phone, gas, car (would you drive a different one if you weren’t working there?) and put a figure on all those expenses. Then figure out what your actual hourly wage is.
For example:
Salary $45 000 (based on a 40 hour work week)
After taxes/deductions:
$31 500 Hourly: $16.40
Expenses because of this particular job:
Daycare:$200 a month Hourly:$1.25
Gas to get to and from work: $200 a month Hourly: $1.25
Clothes for work: $100 a month Hourly: $0.63
Phone (have to have a blackberry because of work): $65 a month Hourly: $0.41
Lunches once a week at work , Tim Horton’s every morning: $20 a week Hourly:$0.50
Take out once a week: $30 a week Hourly:$0.75

After expenses, my hourly would be: Hourly:$11.61

So, in this example, I would be making $11.61 an hour after the expenses I incur because I’m working.
I’m not saying it’s bad or good to make $11.61 an hour (specifically for this case). I’m just saying sometimes it’s worth knowing how much you’re actually making.
This helps you when you’re figuring out if you are going to change jobs but it also helps you when you are planning on buying things. For example, if you want a new pair of shoes and they are $50. You might be thinking,” I make good money, I’m going to buy those shoes.” Now, you would think – I have to work 5 hours for those shoes, do I really need them?

Obviously there is way more to working than the money we make at our job – it has to be fulfilling. Often people choose a job for the satisfaction of the job and sacrifice being compensated well financially for it. I hope this just gives you something to think about for this week.
It definitely helped me figure out whether I was going to take that job offered to me or not.

Ways to Save

Let's get practical today.
Here are some ways that people save money monthly:
(I'm not saying I do all of these things - this is a combination of what people have told me they do as well as some of my own stuff)

Bills:
-switch to no fee banking (PC financial does this, I'm not sure who else does). They have no monthly fees and you can use any CIBC bank or PC kiosk for deposits and withdrawals.

-switch your phone to talk broadband (primus and vonage have this). This is a phone that is connected through your internet. It doesn't have as good of reception but the price is good - only $20 a month including call waiting, call display and call answer.

-shop around for insurance

-reduce your cell phone bill

-reduce your cable bill (do you really need all those channels?) We actually called star choice and completely shut ours off for the month of August this year. Not only are we saving some money, the kids are actually playing outside!

Food:
-stop buying pre-packaged foods (make more of your own)

-plan your weekly menu based on the sales at the grocery store where you shop.

-make home-made salsa when tomatoes are in season (this is just an example, you can also grill and chop green peppers when they're in season and then freeze to use in casseroles. Another idea is slicing peaches when they're in season and freezing them for smoothies or desserts to use in the winter. The possibilities are endless!)



Work:
-make coffee at home and bring it to work rather than stopping by at Tim Horton's

-pack a lunch for work instead of eating out all the time

-carpool

Entertainment:
-meet friends for dessert or drinks in a restaurant instead of dinner


Other:
-get books from the library instead of buying them (you can request the ones you want online and they will have them waiting for you behind the desk so you don't have to look for them all over the library)

These are just a few ideas. If you have some of your own, let's hear them!

Happy Budgeting

Thanks to everyone who did the grocery spending poll. It seems like most people who read my posts are pretty budget-savvy. The average Canadian family spends $668.00 (statistics Canada) per month on groceries and restaurant meals.
I don’t think living on a budget means that you’re constantly trying to save money around every corner. To me, it just means living within your means and having a plan for your money.
It doesn’t matter if someone spends $1000 a month on groceries or $400 a month. The person who spends $400 a month isn’t necessarily better at being on a budget – it’s the person who has decided on an amount and sticks to it.
I was on vacation this past week and talked to some people on the beach about their budget (not your typical vacation topic!) This one couple seemed to have a lot of money (expensive cars, ate out all the time, expensive boat toys) but they said every year they go in debt over their vacation. They said it always took the enjoyment out of the vacation, having to worry about how to pay for it afterwards.
This past year, someone got them on a budget and now they have their accommodations paid for before they get there and they bring along cash for their spending money. They said it is amazing to have a plan for your money. They still have all the nice things they had before, but they are much happier people.