grocery shopping

I made a visit to the grocery store this afternoon. Perhaps because it's off season here in Jackson, I seemed to know someone in every isle. I happened upon a couple having a discussion about the cost of a name brand item and a store bought item. When they spotted me, I was asked " do you know if there's any difference between this store brand item and the name brand item, other than cost?"

It's been a few years since I taught Supermarket Strategies, a class I use to love to teach. I recalled several occassions I've had the opportuntiy to tour food processing plants in my travels and have seen first hand the same product being put into different containers with various company names. Sugar is sugar, salt is salt regardless of the label on the container. I was particularly amazed to observe that the Tobassco Sauce we all love is manufactured at Avery Island in Louisianna and the same company puts the same sauce into bottles for just about every country in the world under just about as many labels.

I thought our blog readers might enjoy seeing what the Consumer Reports found the difference between name brands and generics to be... here's the link.
http://www.chathamjournal.com/weekly/living/food/consumer-reports-store-brands-vs-big-name-brands-90915.shtml

The saying a penny saved is a penny earned is a fact which can add up to dollars if consumers are mindful of which product they select from the shelves at the grocery store

Kids and School Shopping: Hit the books, NOT your wallets!

With the lazy days of long over in most of Wyoming and the flurry of fall activities filling our calendars, we may notice a change in the stress level of parents and students across the state. Often, high-cost school supplies, activity fees, clothes, and other must-haves for kids can add a major stressor to family life.

To help the keep spending within limits and teach important life lessons for the school year and beyond, here are some strategies to help your students hit the books, but not your wallets, this school year.

1. Get the kids involved in planning when they have “wants” or “needs” on the shopping list. Have your technology-savvy kids search on-line for best prices, map the routes between stores for your next shopping excursion, and create a budget spreadsheet to track their spending.

2. Share the budgeted amount you can afford for the semester or school year on clothes, supplies, and extra-curricular events, and enlist their help in choosing how the money should be spent. Your kids will likely have to make some hard choices and a few things may fall by the wayside, but the valuable lessons they learn will be much more important in the long-term.

3. Also give them an opportunity to develop creative solutions to their budget shortfalls like selling outgrown but usable clothing, furnishings, or toys at a consignment store or on-line at eBay or Craigslist.

4. Long after the school-year is underway, stores often offer deep discounts on supplies and clothing to make room for merchandise for the fast-approaching holiday season. You can capitalize on some mid-semester school shopping with deep discounts. By then, your kids have a better idea of what they want after seeing the popular trends during the initial weeks or months of the school year.

The hopeful result:

Parents will spend less, and kids will better understand the reasoning when you say "yes" or "no” to their purchases. You will give them practice shopping for bargains, prioritizing their wants, planning ahead, and sticking to a budget ... and those are some important lessons that will live long after their school days are through.

Make Use of Tax-Credit House Repairs

Thinking about making some home improvements? Don’t let federal stimulus money go to waste! Until December 31, 2010, homeowners can take advantage of a national tax credit of 30 percent of the cost, up to $1,500, on a variety of energy-saving products. Insulation, windows and doors, roofing, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems, tankless water heaters and alternative energy programs, such as solar panels and wind turbines, are covered.

Improvements made in 2009 will be claimed on your 2009 taxes (filed by April 15, 2010) — use IRS Tax Form 5695 (2009 version) — it will be available late 2009 or early 2010. Some improvements are eligible until 2016. The www.energystar.gov has more information. But I'd recommend talking with your tax professional for details on what specific improvements may qualify and the information you'll need to keep (the receipt is an obvious thing, but other information is needed too). As the energystar website makes clear, not all energystar rated products are eligible for the credit.

Finally remember that a tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in your taxes -- pure money.

Save money - buy spices & herbs in bulk!

One of the things I always shake my head at in the grocery store is the pre-packaged herbs and spices. Not long ago I found a retailer in my area that offers herbs and spices in bulk containers -- I measure out exactly how much I need, the cashier weighs it, and I save dollars per ounce. What an epiphany it was!

Buying in bulk provides a tremendous cost savings and typically fresher products. Bulk herbs and spices are not everywhere in our state, but I'm sure there are numerous online vendors.

Apart from the lower cost (b/c we're not paying for packaging, large processing facilities or national marketing), bulk is also less wasteful -- I usually only need a small quantity of each product; if I had a whole jar it would likely lose its flavor and I'd have to throw it out.

And now that I buy bulk, I have a reason to reuse the nice little glass jars from my previous pre-packaged buying mistakes (rather than have them stored at the landfill -- I heard today that Cheyenne has a mountain of glass that they're waiting for someone to recycle).

Happy bulk shopping!

Understanding Your Credit Score

As I was thumbing through a copy of Readers Digest the other day I came across a great article explaining how your credit score is computed and what your score means to you. Check it out at Readers Digest online and let me know what you think or if you have any questions that I can answer.

Julie

Access to Credit Card Information

I'm just returning from a trip having experienced a travelers nightmare. I was standing in the check out line of a busy store and realized that my credit card was gone. Immediately my mind raced through "when did I last use the card" and "where did I put it". I stood in that line and proceeded to thumb through my wallet fighting a sense of panic and dread. Fortunately I had enough cash to cover the transaction. So I proceded to my car to empty the wallet (twice) before I continued the routine of checking every pocket of my travel purse.....the card was gone.

I teach money management and have completed my lesson "What's in your wallet"....a lesson which approaches the topic of identity theft and the reality of how difficult it is to recreate what we have in our wallets and purses from memory. I had a list of my card numbers and the companies phone numbers in a file one thousand miles away, locked in a file cabinent that noone was going to be able to get into. EEgaad, so much for being prepared.

Fighting back the panic I decided to retrace my steps of the previous evening. I had a receipt from the last purchase I had made and couldn't imagine why I'd have a receipt and no credit card. Fortunatley, an honest waitress realized that I had left the card with the signed receipt and she had put the card in the managers office. I drove through rush hour traffic in a strange town to retrieve that card as quickly a possible. And thanked God for honest people all the way back to the restaurant.

The lesson learned which I offer to you today. It is a wonderful thing to keep back up records secure at home. But we need to think about the possiblity of being one thousand miles away and having noone at home to access the locked file.

I've come up with these thoughts to help in case this incident happens again.

a. Keep a small card with the telephone number(s) for the credit card companies in my wallet or purse. This would have made solving my situation easier in this incident but wouldn't help had my entire purse or wallet been lost.

b. Keep a list of credit card contact numbers readily filed in my desk at work.

There's probably other options available. The point is to think about what your options might me to protect yourself should your card be left behind or taken from you.

AG IN UNCERTAIN TIMES - helping producers and others meet the challenge…

The AG IN UNCERTAIN TIMES site provides current information to farmers, ranchers and educators about the challenges in today’s agricultural economy. Their current webinar series, "Operating in the face of uncertain markets", is filled with useful information and advice on getting ahead in today’s commodity, niche, specialty crop, and alternative markets. The September series begins September 9 at 9AM Pacific. (10AM Mountain, 11 AM Central, and 12 noon Eastern).

For more information on their current series as well as accessing previous webinars go to www.farmmanagement.org/aginuncertaintimes/.