Do you agree with stores offering discounts to only card holders?

Beat The Recession Recommends:

1. Use sales flyers and shop for the best bargains. You can plan your menus around the bargains, or use your shopping list. Always use coupons.

2. Shop loss-leaders. These are the items the store loses money on but they draw customers. They are usually placed on the ends of the aisles. Again, you can plan your weekly menu around these items.

3. Shop at Wal-Mart. They will match the prices in the sales flyers and it is one stop shopping. Keep a notebook with prices of items you buy most often to help keep track of bargains and to compare prices.

4. If you shop in bulk, know prices. Just because it is bigger, doesn’t mean it is a bargain. And they don’t let you use coupons at Sams and Costco.

5. Know which stores use Rainchecks and use them for sales items. If they run out of the item during their sale, they may let you have that same item later when it is in stock.

6. I will repeat it. Use coupons, but use them effectively. Take a calculator with you if needed, but always work out if you are getting a better deal with the coupon or another brand without the coupon. Don’t use coupons just because you have them. If it is an item you don’t normally use, don’t bother with the coupon.

7. If you find refund/rebate coupons, these are also good. You can use them to get free items or free coupons.

8. Use a shopping list and stick to it. Plan a menu and take stock of what items you need. Clean out freezer and refrigerator before you shop so you will have room and see what items you have on hand. You might not need another chicken or package of hamburger.

9. Write a list on an old envelope and keep the coupons that go with it inside the envelope.

10. Don’t shop for groceries while you are hungry. You will buy more and most of it will be junk.

11. Shop with a notebook, listing clothing sizes. Carry swatches of color samples and measurements for decorating projects. This would be handy for when you come across unexpected sales or go out to yard sales.

12. When shopping for a large item such as a house or car, take Polaroid’s of your options to review at home, when you’re not under pressure.

13. When shopping for pre-bagged produce, always weigh and choose the heaviest ones. The weight marked is the minimum weight required, so always try to get the most for your money. If you are buying a head of lettuce or broccoli, for an example, for a set price, weigh to find the largest one.

14. Buy pasta sauce in cans rather than in glass jars. They weigh the same and the cans are cheaper than the glass.

15. Buy bags of frozen vegetables instead of boxes. You will get more for the money.

16. Avoid high prices for small containers of spices and herbs. Buy large containers and share with your friends.

17. Buy large turkeys when the prices are low. Ask the butcher to cut them in half for easier storage and less waste for non-holiday meals.

18. Contact manufacturers with complaints or compliments. You may be rewarded with coupons for free or discounted products.

Beat The Recession Recommends:
Need Extra Holiday Cash?

One of the familiar stories of the Depression era is homeowners who turned their home thermostats down and bundled up in coats and sweaters around the house. It’s uncomfortable to imagine going to that extreme and no one gets excited about using less of something to save money. That said, there is no faster, more straightforward way to save money so far discovered. Rather than seeing it as a painful sacrifice, make a game out of it. See how much less of everything you can use without making life unbearably worse. You might be surprised at how frugal you can be (and how much you can save) with heating, lights, and gas!
It’s no secret that buying in bulk can save you money by enabling you to take advantage of volume discounts. Unfortunately, it can also be taken too far, such that it actually costs you more money. Without careful discretion, you might wind up buying things you don’t actually need in bulk, because it’s in bulk, rationalizing that after all, you’re “saving money” on it. This completely defeats the purpose of buying in bulk, which is saving money on things you need to buy. Avoid this pitfall by only bulk buying necessities (ie, nutritious food) and not excesses (ie, 50 gallon drums of shampoo.)

Cutting down on restaurant meals means eating more meals at a home, but if you have to buy all your food ready-made, you still wont be saving as much as you could be. That’s why many Depression survivors kept backyard gardens to grow fresh fruits and vegetables. While there is still the cost of seeds and maintenance (ie, water costs), this is far cheaper than buying from stores and ensures that food costs are kept to the absolute minimum

A tragic fact of the Depression is how many people suffered by staying in stagnant areas when they could have (perhaps at a high cost) moved somewhere more prosperous. Don’t make that mistake today! Many of those who came out of the Depression financially intact had the prescience to see that the job outlook at home would only get worse and the courage to move somewhere else. If you have the opportunity to do the same, take advantage of it.

It wasn’t called the Great Depression for nothing, but the gloom and doom we associate with it overshadows the fact that not everyone was hurting. Amidst all the mass suffering and despair, a small minority of people actually managed to thrive by diversifying and developing multiple income streams. You can do the same! Whether it’s investing (Warren Buffet says to be greedy when everyone else is fearful), starting a business, or picking up a second job, anything you can do to spread your risk across more than one thing will make you safer and more secure.

A hallmark of Depression-era spending habits was spending less to entertain yourself. Rather than spending gobs of money on extravagant nights out on the town, people found joy in life’s simpler and less expensive pursuits – exercise, reading, or enjoying the great outdoors. While you may not be ready to cut all entertainment expenses out of your budget, you can at least buy your thrills wisely. Fly during non-peak times of the year, see matinee showings of movies, and split entertainment costs with friends in a group.
BEAT THE RECESSION RECOMMENDS:
Win a Free Year of Child Care when you Register with Care.com!

What if you can’t find a trick for the specific thing you’re shopping for? Does that mean you can’t get a good deal? Of course it doesn’t! There are many ways to make sure you get a good deal on any time of purchase. Today, I’ve put together a few of my favorite “generic” tips to help you get the most out of every shopping venture.

Be patient. Impulsive shopping is the enemy of getting a good deal. I can’t count how many times I’ve been shopping the clearance racks of a store and fallen in love with something that wasn’t on sale. Did I cave and pay full price for it? No, I waited until it was on sale later and bought it.

Shop around. Prices vary a lot from store to store. You might see a sweater at a department store like Macy’s $50. On the other hand, you might see the same sweater at a discount store like TJ Maxx for $30. It’s always worth your time to check out a few other stores to see if you’re getting the best deal you could. The only cost will be a little of your time.

Negotiate. Don’t assume that the price you see on the sign at the store is necessarily the price you have to pay. The seller might accept competitor coupons. You might be able to purchase a floor model for a reduced price. I’ve even gotten local stores to match internet pricing a time, or too. Just explain to the salesperson that you need a little better price and see if there’s anything he can do to help him.

Consider buying used. There is almost nothing that can’t be purchased in a re-sale environment. You can buy clothes at a thrift store or on eBay. You can buy furniture or a car through Craig’s list. Odds are that if you can find a slightly used version of the item you’re shopping for you will also find a better price for your item.

Beat The Recession Recommends
The New Noggin!

Mary is on the Amtrak Acela train. She goes to the cafe car and buys the cheese & cracker plate and some wine, for a total of $8.50. She gets 4 pieces of cheese, and 4 packages of crackers. 2 of the packs of crackers have 3 crackers each, and the other 2 packs have 2 crackers each.

Questions:

1) Into how many pieces must Mary cut the cheese in order to have an equal amount for each cracker?*
2) Can you think of a good joke to make about “cutting the cheese?”
3) How much wine did Mary get? It must have been cheap. Should she go get a couple more?

Actually, I suppose those aren’t appropriately multiple choice. But to get back to broader personal finance concerns, I think it’s very important not to be innumerate. You don’t have to know calculus or trigonometry to manage your finances. All you really need is the ability to do basic arithmetic, and at least some understanding of a few other general math concepts.

Why? Here’s a few very practical reasons:

* Getting change: can you look at the change you’ve just been given and be sure you got the right amount even if it’s not spelled out on your receipt?
* Prices: what if the little “unit cost” sticker is missing from the supermarket shelf? Can you tell which size of a product gives you the best value for your money?
* Discounts: do you know how much an item is really going to cost you if it’s 30% off, plus an additional 10% off the already-reduced price?
* Interest: can you figure out how much more you’ll earn a year if you move your money to a different savings account with a higher interest rate?
* Medians and averages: if you’ve got 9 people who make $10,000 a year and 1 person who makes $10,000,000 a year, the average income of that group is $1,009,000. But the median is only $10,000. That is an important difference to remember when reading any kind of economic statistic.

Some of these may seem like silly little things, and you may think it’s still not that important to be able to do some basic math in your head. You may use a calculator for everything, or an Excel spreadsheet. And these are wonderful tools which I highly recommend using! But tools are only as good as their users: it’s very easy to make mistakes using a calculator, and especially Excel. Your own sense of what an answer should be can sometimes help you catch an error that may be buried in a formula in a spreadsheet.

You may say “but I’m just not comfortable doing math in my head. I don’t have that kind of brain.” That is perfectly understandable. I personally can’t do it all that well, and have always been jealous of people who are better at mental math. But sometimes it’s not about calculating an exact number in your head, it’s just knowing the range the answer should fall in.
I remember being shocked, at one of my earlier jobs, when I had to show a spreadsheet to a high-ranking financial guy. I forget exactly what issue we were trying to resolve, but I said something about how if we changed a certain percentage in one place, another number would be about 30% higher. He stopped, said “uh, um,” a couple times, tapped a few numbers into a calculator and then said, “yeah, you’re right.” I just found it so bizarre that this guy had risen to a very senior level of managing a company’s finances without being able to get his head around what was a pretty straightforward bit of mathematical estimation.

How can you improve your numeracy? Here’s a few ideas:

* Practice: challenge yourself to do little bits of math in your head, while balancing your checkbook or when paying for things in stores.
* Check out sites like math.com for quizzes and tutorials.
* Consider using books like a GED test prep guide, Everyday Math for Dummies, All the Math You’ll Ever Need, or Secrets of Mental Math, for tips and tricks and explanations of solutions to math problems.
* There may be adult education classes in your community that are targeted towards practical math. They may even be free.
* More practice: even if you’re comfortable with basic math, it never hurts to keep exercising that part of your brain and learning new skills. Instead of using online calculators to figure out your mortgage payments or retirement plans, build your own spreadsheets and play around with them.

Remember, you don’t have to actually take the SATs anymore. Think about learning math as just one more nifty little way to improve your financial life. Pretty soon, you may even think math is fun!

*As for Mary’s problem, the answer is 5: there are 10 crackers, so each of the 4 cheeses has to be cut into 5 equal pieces to make 20 little nuggets of cheese which can then go 2 each on the crackers. I think a proper explanation would have something to do with least common multiples.

But good luck actually trying to divide those little cheeses evenly into fifths! I think Mary usually simplifies matters by ditching two of the yucky Wheatsworth crackers, which crumble too easily, and anyway, she’s still on Atkins. Have a great tip? Send it to me at tips@beattherecession.com.

Beat The Recession Recommends

Mystery Shopper
Sign up to be a mystery shopper in your area and you’ll be able to dine at a number of local restaurants. You pay up front for the meal, and then submit for reimbursement once you’ve submitted a review. It’s a free meal out – can’t beat that! Just remember to follow the instructions for the assignment or you may end up not being reimbursed fully.

Forage
Although not necessarily applicable to city-dwellers, a great option for those who live in more rural locales is to learn how to identify edible foods in the wild. You should do your research well, as some plants are harmful to eat.

Coupons
Keep your eyes open for coupons that offer you 100% discounts on specific products. Follow specific blogs that track these types of offers daily or weekly for the best deals.

Request Freebies
Sign up for every promotional offer you can find – cereal, snack bars, etc. Spending an hour or so online may pay for itself – in food!

Barter
Do you have a special skill that is useful to others? Try exchanging some labor for food and your special skill may turn into your next meal!

Buddy up to Gardeners
Know any gardeners that have a surplus of fruits, grains or vegetables? Ask them if they have leftovers – and you may end up with some free and delicious ingredients for dinner.

Free Meals
Keep your eyes peeled for local events that offer food – such as church functions, grand openings, meetings, receptions, etc. You’ll be able to eat for free and you may meet some new people to share frugal tips with!

Grocery Leftovers
Large grocery stores often toss food that doesn’t look appealing enough to sell but is otherwise completely edible. If you aren’t too picky about what your food looks like, try hitting up your local grocery chains and finding a great deal!

Whether you prefer shopping online or in the stores depends a lot on what you are shopping for, your time frame needing the item and if requires your hands-on approach. More often than not we online shoppers may be paying for the convenience of shopping online.

A growing trend over the last few years has been merchants using online coupons in order will entice shoppers to the website hinting that their order will be less expensive than at the actual store. Some of the most popular codes, “Free shipping” and “25% off” may look like a big savings, but beware of the fine print and the requirements with these savings, if it is a code for 25% off a $150 order, than we really aren’t saving that much with that coupon.

How does shopping online at a local store website differ from the physical stores, in regards to price?

It’s simple really. Online stores usually ship from a main warehouse, no faceless mannequins’, storefront costs, mall leasing or even the teenaged employees who bounce around to the very loud music through the expensive sound system in the brick and mortar stores. This saves them money because a warehouse doesn’t require the overhead costs, can store more products and ship regularly usually at a discount with an agreement through the shipping companies.

Additionally, prices are influenced by logistics. Have you even noticed why prices are more expensive on a store’s website, and they are less expensive in the physical store? This is especially true with clearance items and end-of-season merchandise. Department stores receive new seasonal merchandise ahead of time which needs to be on display as soon as possible. The turn over requirement for stores is a seasonal and ongoing issue, with merchandise that is current or from a previous season needs to be sold quickly and at a deep discount within the stores due to storage issues. Warehouses, on the other hand, have a great amount of space, so merchandise has the ability to be stored for a greater amount of time. This is why online discount coupons or clearance sales may not always get you the best deal.

So when to shop in the physical store?

Weekend in-store shopping also offers additional discounts on clearance items by allowing shoppers to take as much as an additional 50-75% the current clearance price.

When to shop online?

If regular, in-season merchandise or merchandise that is a store staple year-round, online shopping will probably save a shopper the most money. By using an online coupon, the shopper can save more by purchasing from the store’s website as opposed to shopping at the store’s physical site.

In the end, we are back at the beginning. If you are shopping for convenience and the joy of shopping in the comfort of your home, than online shopping with discount codes is a great option. When shoppers base their purchases on price alone, than researching the weekend sales, browsing the clearance racks in the stores are the most cost effective option for you. It all depends on type of item(s) needed, cost of the item, and whether or not the item is seasonal or not. With proper research and comparison shopping, and weekend flexibility, shoppers’ dollars can go further; be it online or in-store.

With just a little legwork, you can purchase many common household items for pennies on the dollar, if not entirely free. The trick is discount layering; using manufacturer’s coupons combined with individual store rewards and coupons deals.

Begin shopping frugally in your Sunday and Wednesday newspapers. Valuable tools are the coupon books and advertisements found inside. Match up the manufacturer’s coupons with the sales and rebate offers at your local grocery and drug stores.

By far, Walgreens has the easiest and most comprehensive rebate program, so it’s is a great store to get your feet wet! As you are going through the weekly advertisements, you will notice in the ad that there might be a mention of “Register Rewards” or a “Free with Rebate” deal.

“Register Rewards” are instant refunds that print at the register when you buy an item or a certain mix of items. For the rebates, you can stop in the store or view the rebate catalog online to save yourself a trip and get one so you can plan your purchases ahead of time.

With the ad and rebate catalog in front of you, see if any coupons match up to the deals and rebates.

For example: Recently Walgreens had Revlon cosmetics as a free-with-rebate deal, but there was also a manufacturer’s coupon for a Revlon product that was in the paper recently. So not only was the item free, you also made a dollar or two on the coupon. But that’s not the best part. When you submit your rebate, Walgreens offers you the choice of receiving your purchase price back in a check or in a Walgreens gift card (essentially store credit). If you choose the gift card option, they give you a 10% bonus. By taking advantage of this too, they covered your sales tax and then some.

Rite Aid’s rebate program is similar to Walgreens, but it’s a lot more complicated. There are only certain days you can purchase products to receive the full rebate amount. You must read the rebate catalog carefully, since it’s really easy to make an error.

But they do accept manufacturer’s coupons like Walgreens, and they offer the 10% bonus as well. The key to discount layering is to read the fine print, and realize that not everything is a great deal!

CVS also has good deals on occasion, but their free products are refunded in the form of “Extra Care Bucks” that expire within a few weeks of issue. These are similar to Walgreens’ “Register Rewards.” It’s nice that you don’t have to wait for the gift card to arrive in the mail, but if you miss the expiration date, the money you originally spent is lost forever.

We here at www.Beattherecession.com will be continuing this in a series of articles, for coupon clippers everywhere! Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to be informed of new articles and helpful tips and tricks for you to Beat The Recession.

Contrary to what some may think, decorating a house does not have to cost as much as buying one. There are many creative ways to decorate your house without breaking the bank. Below are some great tips for decorating on a budget.

Dress Your Windows for Less

Save big on window treatments for your home. Don’t go to those custom blind shops for window treatments. Shop at discount stores such as Target for reasonably priced curtains and blinds. Custom-made curtains are certainly a nice luxury, but they really aren’t necessary or always worth the high price tag.
Another option for window treatments is to shop clearance bins at your favorite department store. At the end of the season, you can find highly discounted curtains that you would have had to pay full price for just a month earlier. It definitely pays to wait. The person who originally said “patience is a virtue” was brilliant.

Identify What’s Most Important in Each Room

Decide what your most important item is for each room and spend the majority of your budget there. If you have a regular television lineup every night of the week, you’ll definitely want to splurge on a comfortable couch and chairs.
The bed frame and mattress and box spring are definitely the most important items in your bedroom. You could always get by without an extra chest of drawers, but you definitely need a sturdy bed since you can’t get by without sleeping!
Find the one thing that makes the room and focus on that. Then everything else can fall into place after.

Eliminate Optional Items

Limit your purchase of “optional” furniture items if you’re on a tight budget. It’s nice to have an attractive bench in your entryway to hold your shoes and coats, but it’s not as essential as a kitchen table. When money is tight, put off buying optional pieces of furniture.
Let us know how your furniture shopping goes. We’d love to hear your own money-saving tips for decorating on a budget.

Buy Electronics Now
Hold off on clothing. The hottest electronic items sell out and manufacturers just can’t make enough to get back on the shelves before the holidays. But if you’re looking to buy clothing, wait. It will continue to be marked down the closer we get to the holidays, and you don’t have to worry about it selling out. In general, industry experts say retailers are going to make markdowns earlier than last season because they hope to get shoppers buying before they get hit with their first big winter heating bill.

Use Comparison Shopping Engines
Before you place an order, use a price comparison website like bizrate.com, pricegrabber.com or shopping.com to make sure you’re getting the best deal. Please see Monday’s Beat The Recession for a detailed analysis of Comparison shopping engines.

Look for Coupon Codes
Look for coupons for the sites you use. Sites such as currentcodes.com, retailmenot.com or one of the many other sites dedicated to finding and posting coupon codes. You may just find a deal – free shipping, free merchandise, a percent off your order – to sweeten the pot. I once saved 15% off a computer by doing this.

Shop in your Pajamas
Just to say you did.
If you know of ways to save money – please email them to us at Tips@BeatTheRecession.com