5 Simple Steps to Save on Groceries

Did you know that the average family of four spends $718 a month on groceries? That’s $8,600 per year. If you’re looking for some ways to help you save at the register, check out these money-saving tips from Terri Gault, founder of the GroceryGame.com

Baloney and the economy

I came across this article on Yahoo! News via The Motley Fool this morning that I have to share. I’m not going to waste anytime, so here you go.

I busted our budget

Where I work, they provide a deli for employees to use during lunch hours. Prior to June, the deli was run through a partnership with a local high school that would give students some work experience. Because of that setup, the deli wasn’t always the most pleasant place, but it was convenient. There were days that weren’t so convenient however. Like, short days, snow days, and school holidays. On those days the deli was closed.

Do we really use envelopes?

This question was posed on the LLNOE forums by KEDkrafty. The simple answer, yes. From my experience teaching Financial Peace University over the last two and half years, folks are a bit reluctant using the envelope system for one reason or another. Many have issues carrying cash for the fear of being mugged. I’ve even come across folks who just plain don’t like cash because it’s dirty. To many, it’s more convenient to use plastic, either debit/check card or credit card. Whatever the reason may be, there’s always some apprehension toward envelopes.

We bought a car

We’ve been having some car problems over the last few months. First, our brakes were going out, so we got those fixed. Then, an oil leak was getting worse and worse, so we took the car in to get that fixed. It was at that time that we were told they couldn’t fix the oil leak. “Quite frankly,” the mechanic said, “it wouldn’t be worth it. The engine is going out, and you either need to get a new engine or replace the car. I’d recommend the latter.” The only problem, we thought, was that we didn’t have enough money for that.

Both sides of the story .. holiday spending in 2007

A CNN Money article today portrayed yet another ‘failing economy’ story that I believe to be one-sided. Although the statistics in the story are accurate, they are misrepresented and biased. How so? Well, I seem to expect the media to give the whole story less and less. Depending on which sites you frequent to get your daily news, you’re not getting a true representation of reality. Some sites happen to be more negative than others, and it’s getting annoying. I just want the truth, not that particular site’s take on it.

Saving money on simple holiday gift bags

I created beautiful holiday gift bags for 20 people for only $50. That works out to about $2.50 per person. I was able to do that by putting the gift bags together myself with homemade goodies.

One more reason why I dislike Best Buy

I stopped at Best Buy over the weekend to grab my husband’s Christmas gift. He’s been wanting an iHome for his iPod mini. From what I had seen at various stores, the one he wanted would only run me about $89.99. No problem, or so I thought.

Ruth’s Chris, dinner for two

Our anniversary is this week. Unfortunately, it falls in the middle of the week. So, we decided to celebrate this past Saturday by enjoying a nice dinner in Clayton, MO’s Ruth’s Chris Steak House. My husband loves steak (I haven’t met many men that don’t) and had been looking forward to that day for a couple of weeks. We planned on hitting some outlet malls on the way there and finish off the day with a nice dinner.

6 creative money saving tips

Six simple tips to cut costs in your day-to-day life: