Making Memories

What kind of memories are you making for your family? Good ones, indifferent ones, yummy ones?

Memories associated with food are some of the strongest memories that people have. The New York Times has a piece in the blog area about an article that had been written for the Wall Street Journal where a woman reminisces about her grandmother's pineapple cookies. The story is fun to read and the comments are also great.

People are talking about all kinds of foods that friends and family made. Soups, roasts, pasta dishes, salads, vegetables, desserts. Everything.

Even though it can seem time-consuming make those homemade foods for your family you'll create memories to last a lifetime.

Saving Money 2009 #4

Organizing Coupons

At you at a loss with whatyou should do with coupons once you've cut them out and have a heap on your kitchen or diningroom table.

There are many ways you can organize them.

You can orgnize them by type. You put all the coupons for the same type of thing togehter. All the coupons for clenaing products go together, all the coupons for dairy products go togethr, all the coupons for drug store type of products (hair care, deodorant, etc.) go togehter. You get the idea. I organize mine by type.

Some organize by expiration date.

Some organize by the layout of their supermarket and what they will need in each aisle.

You can buy coupon orgnizers which have pre-marked separators and some extras for you to put your own section on.

You can put them all into a plastic colored envelope so you can find them easily.

You can put each type of coupon into a zipper plastic bag of its own and then put all of them into a larger zipper type plastic bag so you've got them all together.

Saving Money In 2009 #3 -- Salvage Grocery Stores

Throughout the country there are salvage grocery stores which can save you whopping amounts on your grocery bills. The things they sell may be:

Near or past date

Dented cans

New products that didn't sell well

Manufacturers overruns

Goods from damaged boxes or pallets (the damaged goods are discarded but the box or pallet was broken or damaged)

Out-of-season items (Christmas candy in January)

Items that are popular in one part of the country but not in another

There are two sites that I have found that have lists of salvage groceries by state:

www.gnivas.com -- look in right hand column

www.andersonscountrymarket.net/directory

Some of the stores are better (and some much better) than others. Some are set up like regular supermarkets and have produce as well as lots of regular brand name goods of all kinds -- at great prices. Some are dingy and have mainly dented cans. It varies wildly from store to store. It's always smart to call ahead and check on the hours and make sure they are open.

You have to be a smart shopper and make sure that the goods you buy are in good condition and still within date. You also have to make sure that you are getting good buys. Can you do better at your grocery store with coupons and sales? If you know the prices of items you regularly buy -- and many you don't -- then you can be sure you're getting bargain. You can find things for as little as 25% or as much as 80% off the regular price.

What they have will depend on what they are able to buy so if you find something you like stock up because they may never get it again.

Saving Money in 2009 #2

When it comes to clipping coupons for grocery purchases you may not find coupons that fit your needs or wants. It can be hard to find coupons for some fresh items and other products that fit your shopping list.

Go to www.thecouponclippers.com for a list of coupons that you can order and get by mail. The coupons range from five cents to twelve cents apiece. You have to buy $3.00 worth of coupons and there are some fees but you can find coupons for things that are very difficult to find in the Sunday supplements. It is worth it for items that you use. And they have quite a few coupons for fresh items like eggs.

Or you may find a good coupon and want to get more of that coupon. There are a couple of different ways of getting more of a specific coupon and a couple of ways to get other coupons that may not be in your Sunday slick coupon supplements.

If there is a good coupon(s) in the Sunday paper you can buy extra copies of the paper.

You can also try www.coupons.com for Internet coupons. As I've writen before one of the problems here is whether or not your supermarket will take coupons printed from the Internet. Make sure they will.

Saving Money in 2009

Yest another way to save money this year is to watch for the sales at drug store chains like Walgreens and CVS. It is amazing what they sometimes have on sale. Although they will not double or triple them they do take manfacturer's coupons.

They also have a lot of rebates on things. So watch for those and take advantage of them.

Anotehr thing that CVS does is to give you money back to be spent in the store with certain purchases. Watch the circulars and watch your receipts. For isntance, you can get $20 and get back $10. It has to be spent at CVS and has an expiration date. If you can use it on other items which have the money back deal you can wind up recycling the same amount of money over and over without spending anything new.

Life Is Like A Patchwork Quilt

I used to do a lecture on finding balance or serenity in life. It never went over too well because people just weren't interested. I think they were more interested in buying a new car every year or having a large home filled to bursting with "things." Since times have changed (rather drastically) I'm hoping that people will be more receptive to some of the ideas that I talk about.

One concept I have like is the idea that our lives are like a patchwork quilt. Some kind of finished center with the ends still forming and yet to be finished. What kind of pattern are we pieceing together for ourselves? Does it change over time? Is it harmonious or does it have a lot of clashing elements? Is is sewn together with strength and measured workmanship or are there pieces or areas missing and is the sewing weak and haphazard? What kind of materials have we used? Are they natural materials or synthetics? Are they rugged or lightweight? Do they go well together? Are the pieces solid colors or do they have patterns in themselves? Have we emroidered or sewn something over a piece?

We can spend time thinking about these things and what we want the pattern of our life to mean to ourselves and others.

Negative Language

Watch how you speak about and to yourself. Do you routinely say to yourself, "That was stupid" or I'm stupid" or other negative remarks? Don't call yourself, stupid or foolish or dumb or anything else like that. It has an affect on you and how you think about yourself.

Over the next week watch your language and what you say to yourself and about yourself. Do you refer to yourself negatively or positively or somewhere in-between? Do you routinely give yourself negative messages? You may be surprised once you start concentrating on how you speak to yourself.

If you are using negative language it is time to change. If you make a mistake (everyone does) that's it. Don't make a big deal of it. Just ackowledge it to yourself and move on. This process of change can take a long time. It can take work but it pays off in the long run.

Coupons

Coupons are becoming more and more a topic of interest. I see more questions and articles about coupons than I ever have before.

Back on July 1, 2008 I wrote about coupons in a post about saving money on food. This will have some new points and a few of the previous ones.

1. Why is a $.75 coupon better than a $1 coupon? Because when stores double or triple coupons they will not do it on coupons over $.99. So your $1 coupon is never worth more than $1. While your $.75 coupon can be worth as much $2.25.

2. Check store circulars every week. The circulars are in the stores themselves, in the Sunday papers, thrown onto your lawn in plastic bags, or sometimes available online. See what is on sale and plan your menu for the week around the sale items.

3. Save your coupons for the time the store has a sale on the item. You can get items for very little if they are on sale, you have a coupon and if the coupon is also being doubled or tripled.

4. Check the inserts in the Sunday paper for coupons. You can also get some coupons online. Not all stores take online coupons.

5. If there are a lot of good coupons it can be worth it to buy an extra Sunday paper.

6. I highlight the expiration date of my coupons so it is easier for me to see when they expire.

7. Check for more coupons in women's magazines, store circulars, inside packaged products and in special store promotional pieces that have coupons.

Surviving Turbulent Times

Get the feeling these days that everything is collapsing around you. The economy especially, but maybe everything else too. War, downward spiraling housing prices, experts predicting inflation or deflation or both, climate change that could wipe us all out, proliferation of nuclear weapons. What comes next, the sun exploding?



It's actually part of the human condition to live in turbulent times. It's happened throughout most of human history but it is tough to cope with. There are some things to remember that can help and I'll be posting about them periodically. There are some good constants in life even though it seems now it seems like nothing but a stream of bad news.



In the meantime remember that we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Use Your Calendar More

There are a number of ways to thinka bout time management. You want ot make the best use of your time and you want to see where your time is going. Are you spending time on things that are meaningful or worthwhile such as family, work, hobbies, etc. Or are you spending a lot, or even a small amount, of time on things that don't bring any pleasure or worth to your life.

One thing I have told clients to do is to use their clandar to keep track of how they spend their time. Either every fifteen minutes or every half hour not e what you have been doing. Working on a report, in a meeting, watching television, surfing the Internet, food shopping or whatever it is.

When you look at this at the end of the week it will give you a much beter idea of what you are actually doing. How much time are you spending watching TV or surfing the Internet, or doing housework or spending time in meetings. When you see what you are actually doing in can be a great help in figuring out how your time can be spent in ways that make your life better.

10 Ways to Save Money In 2009

1. Use Coupons.


2. Use the library, it's free.

3. Learn to tell the difference between want and need.

4. Pay off credit card balances so you're no longer paying high interest rates.

5. Stop buying fast food.

6. Stop buying processed foods.

7. Don't buy new clothes or shoes unless they are an absolute necessity.

8. Keep track of your expenses. Write down what you spend every day so you see where your money goes.

9. Cut your utility bill. Turn off the lights when the are not needed. Use energy saving light bulbs. Turn down your thermostat in winter and turn it up in summer.

10. Learn how to cook and make cheaper and more nutritious meals at home.