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    • Frugal Kitchen Tip: Freeze leftover juice

    May 17, 2010 by

    My boys drink milk and water but not that much juice. Weird, I know, but unless it’s “special” juice like Naked Juice or even Capri Sun, they usually opt for milk or water over, say, apple juice. That’s okay with me, but it often leaves me with a half-bottle of apple juice that’s getting old.

    I don’t know why this never occurred to me before, and maybe you already do it since CFO readers are pretty frugal and savvy. But I had to get the idea from the September 2009 issue of Parents magazine:

    If you have leftover juice, freeze it in cube trays. When you want diluted juice, just add some cubes to water.

    Brilliant!

    Filed Under: money saving tips

    Drugstore Game Padawan Update: The Important of a Price Book

    January 27, 2010 by

    If you’re just tuning in, I’m mentoring Nicole in The Drugstore Game. If you’ve always wanted to play but weren’t sure how to get started, follow along with Nicole as she becomes a Drugstore Game Master. You can read all of the posts in this series here, in reverse chronological order. Please read my Drugstore Game Primer and Common Sense with Money’s FAQ to get an overview of the Drugstore Game and definitions.

    A price book is simply a list of the price per unit of items you use regularly. For instance, my price book has an entry for trash bags, and shows that last May, I bought a box of 45 bags at Pavilions for $5.99, using a $1 off coupon during a “get a $10 catalina coupon for a future purchase when you buy $30 of qualifying products” promotion. So after the $10 catalina, which was basically a 33% off discount, the box of trash bags was $4.01. After the $1 coupon, I paid $3.01 for 45 bags, or 6.7 cents per bag.

    That price is now my target price for trash bags, and since I bought approximately twelve boxes last May, I’ve only bought trash bags since then if they cost less than 6.7 cents per bag. (Which has only happened twice.)

    I’ve previously written a more detailed explanation about price books, and reiterated their importance. But I’m not sure that I can emphasize the value of a price book enough.

    This week’s Drugstore Game Padawan planning is a good example. Nicole has expressed interest in the Fiber One and Revlon deals. The Fiber One deal is for a double pack of bars: buy a bonus pack for $6.99 and get $3 ECBs. The Revlon deal is buy $15 worth of cosmetics and get $7 ECBs.
    Both deals will cost money, because there’s no $/$$ coupon, like the $5 off $20 purchase coupon that was available for a short time last week. So then the question becomes, are the items worth the money?

    The only way to know for sure if something is a great deal is by keeping a price book.

    I know, based on past experience, that it’s possible to get Fiber One bars for $1 or less per box of 5 at the grocery store, by combining sales and coupons. The picture of the bars in the ad is fuzzy, but it looks like two boxes of 5 bars for a total “cost” of $3.99. There was a 40 cents/1 coupon in the 1/3 GM, which would bring the cost down to $3.59, or $1.80 per box.

    If Nicole wants those bars right away, and there isn’t a better sale going on right now, then she may want to spend $1.80 per box. But, knowing that a better deal may be right around the corner, she may decide to wait.

    Unfortunately, I can’t help her with the Revlon deal because I don’t know much about makeup. I have no idea if the deal is a good one or not, or if there are often better sales.

    And that’s something everyone has to deal with when they first start playing The Drugstore Game or pursuing any kind of deal regularly. It’s impossible to know if a price is low without comparing it to another price. And the only way to know more than one price is to look around.

    I created my first price book in 2001, and after I had my target prices memorized, I abandoned it. Two years ago, when prices on many items were rising, I went back to basics and started a new price book (click through to see how I minimized the work).

    It may take some time to create a price book, but you’ll save a lot of money by having one.

    Note: An anonymous commenter kindly pointed out that the Target web site has a manufacturer’s coupon for $1/1 Almay, to go with the scenario I posted yesterday. And Adrienne, who works at CVS, kindly reported that the Bonus ECB UPC code only has to be scanned once during the promo period – but get it scanned as soon as possible, because the bonus will not be applied retroactively.

    Filed Under: Drugstore Game, Drugstore Game Padawan, money saving tips

    Ways to Make & Save Money #4: Cook More & Eat In

    January 25, 2010 by

    You can read the rest of the Ways to Make & Save Money series here.

    Unless you already eat in every meal, the easiest and biggest savings in your monthly budget will probably come from food. When you eat out, you pay a huge markup for the convenience of having someone else buy, prep and cook the food for you.

    Sometimes, that’s okay. When the boys were younger and the before-dinner hour was a nightmare, we made a conscious decision to spend more on food to save our sanity. We also spent a lot of money on takeout and fast food during last year’s hospital crisis.

    But most of the time, it’s best for your wallet and your health to eat in. It’s just not that easy to do – and especially, to maintain.

    The two keys to eating in consistently are menu planning and cooking ahead.

    Even if you never shopped a sale and didn’t use coupons, your bank account would be better off if you planned your meals and had a few extra meals in the freezer. Add in sales and coupons, and you can save a ton of money. I’ve discussed saving money and other benefits of menu planning here.

    I wrote a beginner’s guide to menu planning that’s a few years old but still applies. I’ve been planning my menus weekly, because my attempt at planning monthly menus hasn’t gone well.

    I do have some things I keep in mind as I plan my menu:

    Variety. We get sick of eating the same foods pretty quickly, so variety is key. I’m very lucky that my husband is quite tolerant of experiments, and very understanding when they don’t come out great. I have a huge stack of recipes to try, and that helps keep the meals fresh and interesting.

    Time requirements. I am very careful to plan meals that don’t take a lot of time or that can be done mostly ahead of time. I try to get dinner on the table within an hour of walking in the door after I get home from work, and that hour includes changing my clothes, checking my personal email, and so on.

    Use what I have. I’m trying to make the switch to buying only sale items, plus perishables, each week, and basing my meals on what I’ve already got on hand. Some bloggers who do this extremely well are A Thrifty Mom and Money Saving Mom.

    Make extra. Even as I use up what’s on hand, I try to fill up the space in my freezer with ready-to-go meals, like baked pasta and meatloaf. Being able to pull a couple of meals out of the freezer each week makes my meal planning that much easier.

    Leftovers. On weeknights, I try to plan for leftovers so that we can brown bag our lunches. If you figure lunch costs at least $5 per meal, the savings really add up!

    Filed Under: cooking, money saving tips, Ways to Make and Save Money Series

    Start Thinking About After-Christmas Sales Now

    December 24, 2009 by

    I love checking out any kind of sale, but after-Christmas sales have a special place in my heart because you can do some serious stocking up. I’ve found that you can get some amazing deals on wrapping paraphernalia, like paper, ribbons, tissue, and gift bags. I buy some of these items when they get marked down to 90% off at Target, usually during the first week of January. I’ll pick up one or two holiday-themed rolls, but I also grab a roll or two of paper that’s not obviously for the holidays to use year-round. In fact, after Christmas is the only time of year that I buy wrapping items. It’s also a good time to buy holiday-themed decorations for the next year, if there’s something you really like that’s not marked with the year.

    Other items will be more hit and miss, but with a little luck, you can scoop up good deals on toys and gift sets. I like to buy things that will make good birthday gifts throughout the year. I’m curious to see if retailers will be desperate enough to go for steep markdowns, or if they had ordered so little before the holidays that there isn’t anything left to mark down after Christmas. (Obviously, I hope not!)

    After Christmas is also the time to start looking for clearance sales on clothing. Baby Cheapskate has a list of dates for when children’s clothing stores will start their markdowns.

    Filed Under: money saving tips, shopping deals

    It Pays To Re-Evaluate Your Services

    November 9, 2009 by

    I didn’t set out to reduce my monthly landline and DSL bill by $20 per month, but that’s exactly what happened when I called AT&T recently. I’d had a momentary lapse (or at least, that’s what we’re going to call it) that caused me to forget to pay the bill online before the due date. I remembered a couple of days later and immediately paid the bill, but a day or two after that, I received a statement showing a past due amount and a late fee.

    Since I’d never paid the bill late before, I knew I had an excellent chance of getting the late fee waived. And indeed, the customer service representative I spoke to looked our account over and agreed to waive the fee without hesitation.

    Then she asked if I had a few minutes to review my bill and services. I agreed, and she suggested a couple of changes that would result in a lower monthly bill and a $20 Visa gift card. The changes involved giving up two services we never used, but which had been included in the bundle I’d signed up for two years ago. That had been the best deal at the time, but the phone company had since changed their bundles, and the new bundle is definitely a better deal for us.

    I just got our statement from the phone company, and it’s $25 lower than our previous bill. I don’t know yet if that will be the new monthly amount, or if it’s a little lower than normal because of some credits resulting from the change in service.

    I also periodically review our insurance coverage with our agent, and while that hasn’t really resulted in any savings on the premium (since our deductibles are quite high to begin with), we’ve tweaked our coverage over the years to ensure that we have the right coverage. For instance, for an additional $10 per year, we added extra rental coverage that came in handy when our car was in the shop for over a month after we were rear-ended last year. I estimate that ending up saving us $150 to $200.

    So although this is the busiest time of year for many of us, don’t forget to make some time to review your services – it just might save you enough to buy some nice holiday gifts.

    Filed Under: money saving tips
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