frugality

The following is a guest post from Claire at ChoysterCash.com.

I am a huge fan of tracking your spending, as I believe that the key to financial freedom lies in the record-keeping. Indeed, it wasn’t until I started writing down every single expense I made on a daily basis that I really began to make headway in terms of true financial freedom.

Over the years, though, I have realized that there is one item on your expense list that has the most power to change your spending habits for the better.

The One Expense You Shouldn’t Have Made

I never went out of my way to write down the one thing I shouldn’t have bought in any given week. Indeed, it wasn’t my intention to force-feed buyer’s remorse into my conscience. In the beginning, when I transferred my daily expenses from the small notebook I carry everywhere (I call this my “money book”) to my excel sheet on a monthly basis, I simply took note of things. Oh – that’s interesting. I completely forgot about that $29 belt I picked up at JCrew last week. Huh.

Over time, this exercise in viewing my expenses as they went from hard-bound book to excel chart changed, and I began to evaluate if each purchase I made in a month was indeed something I wanted and was happy to have bought. Did I really enjoy that $8 I spent at Starbucks, or did I just shell out the cash that because I hadn’t brought anything better to eat?

This evaluation soon deepened to the point where I could look at my expenses and immediately see what should have been cut out, or what could have been saved if I had simply planned ahead better. If I had just remembered to pack a lunch that day, I wouldn’t have needed to spend $12 at lunch on Thursday.

I am now convinced that the most important expense you make every week is the one you shouldn’t have made. It is this expense that teaches you more about spending than any other. So what are the two biggest changes you can see in your spending habits as a result of such a practice?

You Learn to Plan Better to Save more

Spending – to eat out, to go to Starbucks, to buy a magazine – can be fun and well worth it . . . if you are enjoying it. But the kind of spending I hate is when I simply have to spend because I didn’t plan. By evaluating which one expense you shouldn’t have made each week, you get better at planning so that you avoid this expense.

Now, I highlight the expense I shouldn’t have made each week. It can be a small one (was that stupid $4 magazine you bought at the airport really needed?) or a big one (the $700 you paid for new seat cushions in the car when they weren’t really “necessary”). Either way (and depending on your financial situation) it helps you see what expenses you need to think more about in the future.

You Learn to Second-Guess Purchases

By thinking more about what you might buy, you end up spending less: Is this going to end up being the one item I most regretted buying all week? If so, maybe I should at least think about it for half an hour. This kind of second-guessing helped me immensely in areas of impulse shopping – clothes, electronics, books, etc. By giving myself one more reason to stop and think, I avoided buying things I might regret later.

If there is one thing you can do this week to change the way you spend money, it’s write down the one thing you shouldn’t have spent money on. Try it – you’re bound to learn something!

Claire writes at ChoysterCash.com. See her site to sign up for a free couponing class or to take part in a $100 giveaway.

The following is a guest post from Shaina at Food for My Family.

Photo by Rick

1. Browse the weekly ads online before you go to the store
Most major retailers (and even some smaller ones) post their weekly circular online. Looking it up before you shop will give you a clear goal when you get into the store. Plus, you’ll know what deals you’re going to find in each aisle before you reach the aisle, which makes you less likely to pick up that $5.00 frozen pizza for an easy meal if you know spaghetti noodles and sauce are on sale 2/$4.00 four aisles down.

2. Combine online printable and clipped coupons with specials
If you’re reading this, the idea of combining coupons and specials is probably not a new concept for you. Here at Deal Seeking Mom, Tara is well versed in the couponing arena, and she definitely covers stores in several different markets with the help of fellow bloggers. It is highly likely that she will do some of this legwork for at least one of the major retailers in your area.

3. Make a meal plan
Start by going through your cupboards and fridge to determine what you have on hand. After you know what you have, see what you can pair with the advertised specials and coupons to make a full meal.

For example, if you have leftover chicken and mushrooms in your fridge, you might be looking for a special on pasta, creamed soup or rice to make a casserole. If casserole isn’t your cup of tea, maybe you’re searching for deals on mayo and vegetables to make chicken salad.

You’ll save money by using every last bit of the food you purchased and not letting it go to waste, and you’ll breeze right past unnecessary items you purchased before because you were just buying to fill the fridge.

4. Avoid impulse buying
By walking into the store armed with the weekly ads, coupons and a meal plan, you’ll know exactly what you need to purchase. While these things already help with impulse buying by cutting down on browsing because you know exactly what it is you’re looking for, it can also keep you clear of other impulse buys. Knowing you don’t need anything in the frozen convenience foods aisle will stop you from adding ice cream bars and Hot Pockets to your cart and, therefore, your total bill.

5. Buy in bulk whenever possible
Having a box full of single-serving crackers to stick in your child’s backpack seems convenient; however, purchasing the family size bag is usually far more economical. You’ll reduce your bill, and you’ll also be reducing waste, which is better for the environment, and being environmentally friendly just feels good.

6. Shop at multiple stores
I’m not advocating driving miles and miles to shop at both major supermarkets in your area, but if you know when and where the deals are, it can be very easy to run in for a few good deals when you’re on your way someplace else.

Additionally, shop at competing businesses located near each other. For example, I can see my major supermarket across the street when I am at Super Target. Going into both stores is as easy as parking in the middle and walking back to my car in between. I save money by getting the best price on necessary items, and I also get comfortable with the regular price items in the stores to know which store has the lower price point to determine where I’ll purchase those items on future visits.

7. Talk to the supermarket employees
Different grocery chains usually have certain days of the week and times of day when meat and other items are marked down because of set delivery days for those items. Don’t be afraid to chat up your butcher to ask when they usually price cut their meat.

If you know that meat is generally marked down at the beginning of the 3:00 pm shift on Wednesdays, you may want to consider making Wednesday your grocery shopping day, or you may work stopping by on your way home from work or during after school activities to grab half-price meals for the week or to fill up your freezer.

Shaina is a busy mother of four. In addition to working full time from home as a transcriptionist, she finds time to prepare meals for her family and talk about it at Food for My Family.

Mandi of OrganizingYourWay.net guest blogs today.

Photo by Bruce Turner

Whether you’re grocery shopping on a strict budget or simply trying to stretch your budget as far as it will go, chances are you know exactly which deals you need to take advantage of and what is and isn’t in your budget each week when you head to the store. A key part of making deal shopping work for you – without stress and frustration – is to have an organized shopping list so that you can still shop quickly without having to backtrack along the way to pick up items you’ve forgotten.

The easiest way to do this is to simply write your list in the order of the store aisles so that you can go down your list item by item. I’ve been writing my shopping lists this way for several years and have gotten so used to thinking this way that I’m now able to write my list by aisle without a second thought (which makes going to a different grocery store “fun”!), but I didn’t start out doing that way.

When I first started writing aisle-by-aisle grocery lists, a friend and I drove to our local store and wrote down the aisle headers in order. I then created a master shopping list that we could both each use to write our lists , and it worked perfectly! (And it’s especially helpful to write a list this way when sending your husband to the store for you because he knows if he’s missed something before he gets to the end of the list.)

I’ve linked to two shopping list templates for you to use, and here are 3 tips for getting the most out of them:

1. Go to each of your regular grocery stores (and it’s not a bad idea to include CVS, Walgreens and/or Rite Aid if you regularly shop at them as well) to create an aisle-by-aisle “map”. HINT: Before you start writing down aisle descriptions, stop by the customer service desk and ask if they have a layout you could have. Many stores do! If they don’t and you need to write your own, be as brief as possible. For example, instead of “Cake, Spices, Muffin Mixes, Pancakes” (all of which might be on the sign hanging over the aisle), simply write “Baking.” Generalize as much as possible to save time and save space on your list – “Dairy,” “Meat,” “Frozen,” “Soups/Mixes.”

2. Create a key for yourself so that you can mark the items you absolutely need to get that week (because the sale is too good to miss or your coupons expire) as well as size restrictions and brand names.

3. Print out several copies of each blank list so they’re ready to use when you start compiling your shopping lists, coupons and deal scenarios. Use the smaller half sheets if you want to write each store’s list separately, or use some of the cells on the larger sheet for your smaller stops instead of creating a separate sheet for each store. HINT: If you’re looking for a “greener” solution, try inserting your lists into protective sheet covers and using a fine tip dry erase marker to write your list each week. You can simply wipe it clean after each use (but be careful it doesn’t get wiped away while you still need it! )

Downloads:

• Full page shopping list
• Half-page shopping list

Do you have a system in place to organize your shopping lists? If you’ve shopped with and without an organized shopping list, what are the biggest differences you’ve noticed?

Mandi Ehman is a wife and momma to three little girls (4, 2.5 and 1 years old). OrganizingYourWay.net was born from her belief that getting organized only lasts if you do it your way – to fit your needs, your preferences and your lifestyle.

The following is a guest post from Frances at Frugal Fairhope.

photo credit: visulogik

I don’t know about you, but I get access to hundreds of printable coupons every day. I use to print almost all of them. Then I found out I was tossing more coupons than I used.

The debate in my mind is if you don’t print now who is to say it will be available to print later when the deal comes up? When it comes to printing it is a personal time management choice. How much time do you really have to print twice, pull them off the printer, cut, and file? Not to mention if you have problems printing, like I do most of the time.

First, let step back and take a look at what you are trying to accomplish. We have three general strategies in my household about grocery shopping:

1) We only buy what we need or will use.
2) We only buy what we can give away for a good cause.
3) We only buy what we can get for absolutely free (no RRs or ECBs).

By using these strategies it helps me avoid the shopper’s fever and buying too much. Just because dog food is on sale for $0.10, do I really need to stock up on dog food when we don’t have a dog? Yes, I could give it to the Humane Society, but wouldn’t my time and money be better spent by volunteering to walk a dog a couple times a month, donating used towels, sheets, or blankets, or even writing them a check for a donation? I know this example is a little extreme, but think about it. We have all done it.

I am committed to our family using everything we buy for the stockpile or on sale. Throwing away a grocery stockpile item is not only wasteful, but that item that cost time, money, and storage room was not a successful deal. It was not a bargain, and we avoid this at all costs.

Another debate that I have is the last strategy. Do I waste my precious time printing or clipping a coupon that I may never need as a freebie?

For printed coupons, I only print items that fit in the first strategy. I take the risk and hope that the coupon will be around when I need it. If not, it was not meant to be. Such is life.

Still following the first two guidelines, I do however save most if not all the Sunday coupons. How do I organize them? I don’t clip it, I save the page and store it in my Only in Case of Free (OCF) file, or if I have to clip the coupon (already have the page cut into pieces), I place it in a small index box that I keep with my other coupons. These OCF coupons are filed by company name (for example Glade goes under “G”, Suave lotion would be filed under “S”). We wouldn’t have a use for scented products or lotions in our house but if it was a true freebie, we can sell it on eBay or give it away in a gift bag at Christmas.

Deal Seeking Mom here: What’s your print and clip strategy? Do you print coupons immediately or wait until a deal comes up? Personally, if it’s a good coupon on an item we use, I’ll print it right away to avoid missing out on a future opportunity.

For more information on coupons and deals, check out FrugalFairhope.com.