Saving Money with Wholesale Clubs

The best way to stretch your grocery dollar is to use a membership, costing roughly $35 per year to your local wholesale club.  By purchasing items you frequently purchase in bulk, you save money over time. This means you can plan your meals around what you have on hand, making your weekly grocery store trips much less hassle.

So, how do you use these wholesale clubs to your advantage?  Not all the deals you find at your local club store are money savers, so you should pay close attention to unit prices and compare them to places you usually shop for items in smaller quantities.  For instance, toilet paper comes out about the same per roll, so I usually skip buying that item in bulk, simply because I really do not have anywhere to store the extra stock.  The trash bags, on the other hand, only cost me about $1 per month, because I buy a box of 300 for $12.00, and I never run risk of running out without knowing it.

The best way to shop at a wholesale club is to purchase your meat and canned vegetables.  Sometimes, you can get great deals on rice, pasta, and other side dish items too, so you can stock up on those when prudent, and have a stock up of dinners available.  Using a wholesale club is often the best way of shopping for your Once A Month Cooking, too.  If you walk into a wholesale club with $100, you will get enough meat and side items for close to, (and maybe even more than) if you are savvy enough, a month’s worth of dinners, and a few other items to use as breakfast and lunch.

For instance, I usually purchase boneless, skinless chicken and ground beef for $1.98 or less per pound, in 7-10 pound packages.  At my local club, you can get a pork roast cut for you, so I purchase a roast and get around 26 pork chops, (5-8 pounds) for about $1.75 per pound.  With this, I feed a family of three (and the occasional fourth guest) no more than one pound per night.  I never spend more than $60 for an entire month’s worth of meat.  With the remaining $40, I purchased $20 worth of sides, (vegetables, pre-packaged rice or pastas with seasonings, stove top, etc.) and the remaining $20 of my budget goes to bulk purchase of oatmeal, cereal, and burritos (or something of that sort) for breakfasts and lunches.  Averaging $25 a week, I have nearly everything I need for the month.  I spend another $25 each week at the discount grocery stores to get my milk, bread, and other items.  At $50 per week, I have beaten the suggested guideline of $1 per person per meal by $13/week, and I end up with that as money in the bank.

If this does not convince you, try it yourself, and I bet you will save money.  The bigger your family the more you will save by buying in bulk.  The annual membership fee will pay for itself in no time!

Speed Cleaning

The kids are playing, you are busy working and all of the sudden you get a phone call.  An important, yet unexpected visitor is on the other line, wanting to stop by for a quick meeting, within the next hour.  A breeze, right?  Wrong.  After looking behind you, you see that the children have successfully destroyed in a half hour (or less) all the hard work cleaning that took you two hours.  Now what?  It would be an embarrassment to open the door to that guest.  The clock is ticking.  What do you do?  Where do you start?  First, relax.  Then, follow these quick tips, and I am sure the house will be presentable by the time your doorbell rings.

 

Bribe the children with a reward, or whatever it takes to keep them in their room while you clean.  Having them out of your way already cuts your time.  Then, take five minutes to gather all the scattered items from the living room and kitchen.  Throw them in a basket, toss the basket in your bedroom, and close the door.

 

If you have dirty dishes in the sink, quickly load the dishwasher.  If you do not have a dishwasher, or it is full of clean dishes, gather the dirty ones and stash them in the oven.  I know it sounds awful, but it will work until the company leaves; and it is a quick fix in a pinch.  If you are bold enough, you can try to wash them quickly.  This should take you another five minutes.

 

Next, wipe down the countertops, stovetop, the sink, and dining room table and chairs down.  Sweep the floor.  Kitchen is clean.  Now you can move back to the living room with a quick sweep of the floor, or run of the vacuum with some carpet fresh.  This should take no more than ten minutes, so move quickly.  It will be a good workout.  Once that has done, your main living areas are presentable, but what if the company has to use the bathroom? 

 

Tidy up the bathroom by picking up any clothes and towels that may be on the floor, and put them in a hamper.  Now, all you have to do is close the shower curtain, hang a towel on the rack, quickly run the toilet brush through the bowl, and wipe the sink clean.  Sweep the floor if it noticeably needs it, otherwise, you are finished.

 

Voila!  While you may be tired from the fact pace movement and the rush of beating the doorbell, you have successfully brought the house back to a presentable state.  It may not, okay, it definitely will not pass the white glove test (especially if you had to hide the dirty dishes) but it will certainly suffice until after the company leaves.  You can deal with the basket of random clutter and the dishes later.  But for now, rest easy that your house will be clean to the eye of the guest, and they will never know what a mess you just cleaned up in roughly 30 minutes.  

Coupons

In a quest to save money, many shoppers use coupons. The question is, do these coupons really save you money? Are they worth the time you put into them finding them, clipping them, and remembering to use them at the store?

While the answer may have been yes before, I believe the answer is no. Many grocery stores have their own savings programs that require the shopper to have a membership card to take advantage of the savings they offer. These savings are advertised weekly, and each item is flagged on the shelf. This means that even if you were not aware when you came in the store, you now can see that an item is on sale, and many times opt for that one over all others. These sales sometimes make the generic items more expensive, and as long as you are not meticulous, you will save money somewhere. Because of these in store membership savings, many stores have changed their policies on accepting and redeeming coupons. For instance, a local store used to double all coupons up to 50 cents regardless of the amount of the total purchase. Upon instatement of their internal savings program, they mandate that only three coupons are redeemable per $10 of purchased merchandise. It seems to me that using the savings from the membership would be much easier than keeping track of all that!

Another reason coupon promotions do not offer the savings people think they will get, is because you only save money by using a coupon on a product you always purchase. For instance, if the coupon is for savings on a product like toilet paper or aluminum foil, you may save some money, and it may be worth it. However, if the coupon is for a name brand product that you do not usually buy, or for a product you generally opt for the generic version of, you are not saving yourself anything, but rather costing yourself. If you use the coupon to save money on a product you would not normally buy at all, how is that saving yourself anything? The only time I would consider this handy is when you have promised your children a special treat.

In addition, coupons are becoming more notorious for requiring the purchase of multiple items before you get the savings. So, if you cannot save the item and use the bulk later (as in a save 55 cents on two boxes of cereal coupon) then it is not worth it.

So my advice to use is to toss all those coupons out the door, unless you find them on items you frequently purchase, and if they are frequently on sale through your local store’s incentive program, then that is even better for you. Ultimately, though, in my experience at least, the better way to save money is through planning your meals around what you already have on hand and what is on sale.

MyZip.net

If you are like me, you are constantly looking for more ways to make money online without getting scammed. If you’re interested in making money for blogging, check this out.

Cruising on some message boards a few weeks back, I found an opportunity to become a paid blogger with no experience.  This is excellent for me, as I would love to get my foot into that door, but have not been able to do so yet with the lack of a well-established blog.

Anyway, the opportunity is for myzip.net.  To be a myzip.net blogger, you must visit this website and apply.  You should hear something back within a few days, and be ready to get started.

The concept behind the program is that one person in each zip code will blog about their local area, and it will be posted on a .net page with their zip code.  For example, my work can be seen at 28806.net. It is a bit demanding at five posts per week for only $50 a month, but it is still in trial stages.  Weekly, they send out a survey to get feedback from bloggers so they can see what kind of payment regimen to implement later when this goes full blast.  The good news is the blogs do not have to be long, so it really does not take much time, and it is a guaranteed amount every month, paid via Paypal.  There is not a set length of the blogs, but they do say to keep them short, bite sized, so as not overwhelm the readers with text.  They are processing January payments soon, so I have yet to see how that goes, but well, I hope.

I am glad I got in on it early, as I can grow and roll with the changes the program may instate in the future.  The program started in Seattle and surrounding areas, and it is my understanding that many zip codes are still open.  If you are accepted as a blogger, there are quite a few guidelines to follow and lots of tips and topic ideas to start with.  The page they set up for the zip code you are writing for has restaurant reviews and stuff like that, and you are encouraged to write about the things that display on the page with your blog.

I am enjoying it so far and I think you will too!  Take the survey and wait to see what they say, and be sure to let me know if you were accepted.  They just announced $25.00 for referrals, so let them know that 28806.net sent you!  I received my first payment from them today via PayPal, so I know they are legit.  Happy writing!

Meatless Meals

Many people are under the impression that meat must be a major part of your dinner. Even if you are not strictly vegetarian, this does not always have to be the case. It is a well-known fact that Americans eat more meat than we should, so, save yourself some time, money, and eat a hearty meatless meal.

A great meal to make when you are trying to conserve the meat you do have, or when you do not have any at all, is Red Beans and Rice. The simplest way to do this is to buy the prepackaged Red Beans and Rice by Zatarains. Just boil some water, throw it in, let it simmer and viola. It can be generally be found for under $2.00 a box, so it’s a quick, cheap, meatless meal fix. If you cannot pass up the meat, add the sausage as directed on the box, but this meal is very filling without the meat. Sprinkle some cheese on the top, and you are good to go.

If you are looking for something a little better than a prepackaged meal, try this veggie pasta with cheese dish. Grab some pasta (whole wheat if you are feeling like going all out on the healthy meal), fresh or frozen broccoli, baby carrots, and a few other veggies of your choosing. Cook the pasta and veggies, and toss in some grated parmesan cheese. Even better, make a cheese sauce with your favorite cheese (cheddar or mozzarella works great) by melting some cheese with a bit of milk or cream. Season with garlic, butter, salt and better and pour over the veggies and pasta. Mix well and serve. If you catch the veggies on sale and buy cheap pasta, the whole meal costs about $6.00 and can feed a family quite well. When you are feeling carnivorous, this works great as a side dish for a meal with meat, or with chunks of chicken mixed in like those prepackaged skillet meals.

Usually for breakfast, omelets can also make a great meatless meal for dinner. Throw in cheese and veggies and you have the perfect solution for a meatless dinner. Serve with bread on the side, or make the omelets into sandwiches for a more filling option. For about $6.00, counting 18 eggs, 2 cups shredded cheese, and a bag of frozen broccoli, once again you have a cheap, quick meal fix. If you’re not crazy about the omlete idea, try a quiche. Just grab a pie crust, mix the eggs, cheese and veggies, pour it in and bake it.

Going meatless a night or two a week will not only save you money and meal preparation time, but it can also make you a healthier family. So go ahead and try it! For more suggestions, use your handy search engine!