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Posted
Jul 02 2009, 10:15 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
A friend of mine pours leftover coffee into ice-cube trays. The caffeinated cubes make first-rate iced coffee because they chill the beverage without diluting it.
That got me thinking about other ways to use ice cube trays -- and no, Jell-O shots don't count.
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Posted
Jul 01 2009, 09:05 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Grocery stockers, unless they're slackers, live by the FIFO rule -- first in, first out. What does that mean to you?
When new inventory comes in and it's time to refill the grocery displays, the new product is placed in the back. Thus, the grocery store has less waste because most people grab the item that's closest to them. (Smart shoppers sometimes dig a little deeper.)
Why not apply FIFO at home and do as the professionals do? It's a good way to save money on groceries, says Charlie at Pay Less for Food.
Here's how this works:
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Posted
Jun 25 2009, 08:56 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
One tactic I mention regularly for saving money on food purchases is to watch the grocery store fliers for sales, then plan your meals (and shopping lists) around those sales. This tactic really works. I've saved quite a bit doing this over the years.
However, things aren't quite that simple. You can't always trust the store flier.
Over the last several months, I've been keeping track of prices on several key items that we buy all the time: garbage bags, fresh spinach, toilet paper, grapes, Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers, etc.
I know what the typical price is on these items. I even have a small price list that has the usual prices for them.
A few weeks ago, when I took a long look at the fliers from my grocery stores of choice, I happened to notice that some of the big sales listed in the flier weren't a sale at all. The price was exactly the same as what I usually pay.
What gives? I did some research -- calling and e-mailing a few people I know in the grocery business -- and I came up with a few interesting facts about grocery store fliers.
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Posted
Jun 24 2009, 06:40 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Myscha Theriault at partner blog Wise Bread.
Whether you're looking for budgeting tips to accommodate restaurant dining on business trips, searching for affordable ways to grab lunch on bargain-shopping days, or trying to incorporate some occasional cheap dates as you balance affordable romance with family responsibilities, figuring out how to save money at restaurants can range from an occasional need to a huge priority. I'll discuss how and why next.
For some, eating out at restaurants is barely on the radar. It's something we do for special occasions or while traveling for holidays. For others who have to drive long distances for work and shopping, or live in a city where lugging more than a power bar and bottle of water in the morning with their briefcase is a challenge, things get more complicated when it comes to cutting back on the number of times they eat out per week.
Add in unpredictable work schedules, constant last-minute business travel, or multiple trips for medical appointments, and things get even tougher.
Whatever your situation, there are strategies for keeping things reasonably under control financially.
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Posted
Jun 22 2009, 05:46 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
Kris and I recently bought another side of beef. Well, to be more accurate, we purchased one third of a cow. Every year, we go in with several other families to split an animal. This year, our portion of the purchase comprised:
- 46 pounds of lean hamburger (in 24 packs).
- About 36 pounds of roasts (in 10 packs).
- 31¼ pounds of steak (in 20 packs).
We also received 2¼ pounds of beef tongue that we're giving to the guys at the box factory. José and Jesus tell me that lengua is delicious, but I'm not willing to prepare it myself. (If they want to make something for me, I'll eat it.)
We received a total of just over 115½ pounds of beef for $425, which is $3.68 per pound. (In December 2006, we paid $300 for 83 pounds of beef, which works out to $3.61 per pound. In November 2007, we paid $277 for 81 pounds of beef, or $3.42 per pound.)
The problem is, Kris and I can't eat this much beef. We love it (sorry, vegetarians), and we think we're getting a great deal at this price, but we're not willing to prepare beef more than once a week. This year, we recruited help. We found two other families to split our share. They each gave us $100, and we gave them one-quarter of our load.
This still leaves us with a lot of meat. Fortunately, we have a 20-year-old upright freezer, which we picked up for free from one of Kris' co-workers. This freezer is a godsend. We use it to store our beef, and plenty of other food besides. But whenever I mention the freezer, I get comments asking me how cost-effective it really is. That's a great question. I finally found time to answer it.
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Posted
Jun 19 2009, 09:08 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Want to save a bunch on groceries? Make this the official "Clean Out the Cupboards and Freezer Month." Smart Spending message board reader "mdwilson" does it each June and it pays off big-time.
Not only does she save at least a couple of hundred bucks, she gets rid of the mystery meat.
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Posted
Jun 19 2009, 08:21 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Kris at Cheap Healthy Good.
When it comes to eating healthier and saving money on food, we've established time and time again that few strategies are more effective than cooking at home. Making meals in your own kitchen gives you total control over nutrition, flavor, ingredient quality, and expenditures, among other things. Plus, making a mess with flour is fun.
Still, for many, home cooking is nigh inconceivable. Maybe you work 80 hours a week, and can't find 20 minutes to make a sandwich. Maybe you live in New York's East Village, where your apartment galley doubles as your bathroom and your bedroom. Maybe you never learned to cook, and are afraid of blowing $10 on a chicken, then charring it beyond recognition.
Fortunately, we here at the CHG laboratory (translation: my bathroom) have the answer.
First, we isolated a handful factors that most affect people's ability to fire up their own stoves. They are: time, space (in the capacity sense, not the extraterrestrial sense), inexperience, fear of failure, and The Damn Dishes. More than anything else, these five elements drive the average folk to takeout, restaurants, and pilfering fruit from sweet old ladies.
Then, drawing from extensive research and our own experiences, we brainstormed tips and tricks to combat these hindrances. Without further ado, here's everything.
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Posted
Jun 12 2009, 09:59 AM
by
Joan Melcher
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If you’ve gotten sticker shock when you’ve contemplated buying organic food products, help is on the way. Stonyfield Farm is offering coupons on many popular organic products in a venture similar to the Kraft Foods promotion that had the Web buzzing last month
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Posted
Jun 04 2009, 05:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
One common trap with buying in bulk is the fact that with some products, the higher-volume version often has a higher cost per unit than the smaller version. For example, I recently compared two cans of tuna on the shelf at my local grocery store. The same brand (Starkist) had a 5-ounce can for $1.29 and a 12-ounce can for $3.19. Per ounce, the smaller can cost 25.8 cents per ounce, while the larger can cost 26.5 cents per ounce, making the smaller can the better deal.
This stuck in my head, so I went home and did some research on these price differences.
This feature is called "quantity surcharge," and it's been prevalent at the supermarket and department store since at least the 1970s. Recently, while browsing through the Journal of Consumer Affairs (seriously -- I live not too far from an academic library, and JoCA has lots of interesting material that serves as great food for thought), I came across an older article called "Measurement of Incidents of Quantity Surcharge Among Selected Grocery Products." The article identified 10 specific products where quantity surcharges often occur.
So, without further ado, here are 10 products to study carefully before buying in bulk. I went to the store and tried to find them myself. My notes on what I found follow each item.
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Posted
Jun 03 2009, 04:40 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Canned tuna is a staple in many frugal households, but how many tuna fish sandwiches can one person eat? (See below.)
So we were immediately intrigued by a post at The Kitchn offering 10 recipes for this otherwise bland fish. But, first, we should address several issues about tuna and health.
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