I read an interesting blog post this morning about brand names vs. generics.  Now I have been known a time or two to purchase a generic version of a product to save a little cash in my pocket.  Alot of times, these decisions don’t matter, and the quality is near the same.

This poster was talking about Beer.  Generic Beer.  Can you imagine?  It got me thinking of which items I would put on my NEVER NO WAY NO HOW list of purchasing in generic form.

1. Paper Towels.  I’m a Bounty girl all the way.
2. Toilet Paper.  Charmin or nothing.  I’d rather go gather leaves from the backyard than use generics.  And my yard only grows pine trees…so I’d be stuck with pine cones.
3. Shampoo.  Sorry, can’t do it. My hair is one of the very few things I’m anal about.  Gotta have my expensive stuff (when it’s on sale of course).
4. Pickles.  Why are stores trying to sell pickles with their own name on them?  Don’t they know about Claussens and their obvious superiority?

That’s my short list.  Now for yours.  What do you HAVE to have in a brand name when you shop?

Penne Pasta

This recipe comes from one of my favorite sites, Cheap Eats.

The author provides a great deal of information on choosing the correct ingredients and preparing the most cost effective recipes that your family will love.  Stop by her site and take a look around.

I’ve just recently started using these bags when I go shopping.  I was sort of forced into it, as my most local grocery store converted to requiring you to purchase the plastic bags.  Part of me decided this wasn’t a good idea because who wants to spend the extra money, and the other part of me thinks it’s a great idea to just use the canvas bags anyway…to save the wasted use of plastic.

I’ve purchased bags from 4 different stores, and I’ve found my favorite.

Bottom Dollar (the old Food Lion) has nice bags, but they’re entirely too small.  Strategic design I guess…you have to purchase more of them to haul your groceries.

Harris Teeter has wonderful bags.  Very large, extremely sturdy, and they come with a nice plastic bottom to hold them flat when you’re filling up.  Nice feature.

But my favorite has to come from Target.  They’re a bit larger than Harris Teeter’s bags, but that’s not why I love them.  I love them because they fold up and fit in my purse.  And to boot, they only cost $.99 each.

Next time you’re in Target, stop and pick up a few…maybe 5 or 10.  You’re not only paying a tiny amount for the convenience, you’re also doing a little for the environment at the same time.

I saw one the other day in my area. I hadn’t heard of this company yet, so I researched a bit.  ZipCar is a service you sign up for that provides you with a carpool car, whenever you need it, for as long as you need it.  You are given a Zipcard.  You reserve your car (either online or over the phone), and when you get to the car, you simply hold your Zipcard up to the window, and it unlocks for you!  You are ready to run your errands, take your shopping trip, whatever!

The biggest bonus I see to this is no maintenance or upkeep costs on a car of your own, no insurance payments (since those are included in your membership fee) and no car payment each month.  You pay for Zipcar when you use Zipcar.  Awesome.

If it sounds like a good fit for you, give them a try.  Check out their website today.

I have 3 children.  Keeping lights and unecessary power sources turned off is a constant struggle. I read an article on The Simple Dollar recently on exactly how much you can save by simply making a run through the house and turning things off or unplugging them.  Here’s a small excerpt…

First of all, it takes two minutes to walk through the house and ensure all the lights are shut off. From the upstairs bedrooms to the laundry room on the far side of the basement, this is about right for our house.

Second, electricity costs $0.10 per kilowatt hour. This is roughly what the nationwide average is, and roughly what we use.

Third, the average bulb in our home eats 20 watts. We use mostly CFLs, so this is a rough estimate. At my parents, where they’re still using almost all incandescent bulbs despite my admonitions, it’s more like 50-60 watts on average per bulb.

Fourth, doing that walk-through causes me to turn off four light bulbs. This is just on average, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Taking those assumptions, let’s say we’re going to leave on a two hour trip. I turn off four 20 watt bulbs that would have run for two hours, so that’s a total of 160 watt hours of energy, or 0.32 kilowatt hours. The effort in that walkthrough, which takes two minutes, is 1.6 cents.

Read the rest of the article here.

There are many bills that we pay each month that are fixed. In other words, we have no control over how much they will be. An example is a mortgage or rent payment, or a car payment (see our how to reduce household expenses page for help on these and other household expenses). Thankfully there are areas such as groceries where we can save money each month. Here are some tips from our Frugal Mom Message Board for how to save money and lower your grocery bill:

1. Plan a weekly menu and build your grocery list around it. This cuts back on impulse spending and allows you to get only the items that you truly need.

2. Use the grocery store sales to plan your meals. If chicken breasts are on sale this week for $1.79/lb. you can bet that will be one of my meals!

3. Use coupons only for the items you normally buy.

4. Use coupons on sale items on double coupon day to maximize your discount.

5. Don’t go to the store hungry! You are more apt to buy something you don’t need just because it sounds so good.

6. If possible, shop alone. Kids are wonderful at adding additional things to the cart. It is much easier to say no to yourself than to say no to your children.

7. Put together a price book. A price book is a homemade book where you keep track of the items that you buy and their prices at the various stores. For example, you may make a pricebook out of a spiral notebook. The first page may be milk. Under milk you will write the various stores and the prices they have milk for. A pricebook can be a very valuable asset when shopping since it will tell you the cheapest places to buy your groceries.

8. Cook from scratch. Packaged meals are much easier and take less time, but they cost more. If you have time to cook from scratch you will save more money.

9. Don’t buy boxed cereals. You can make french toast, oatmeal, eggs and toast, pancakes, omeletes, and biscuits for a lot less!

10. Plan on having 3 non-meat meals a week. You can buy pasta, beans and eggs a lot cheaper than meat.

Author Information:  Candace Anderson http://www.frugalmom.net

I stumbled onto this website yesterday and I wanted to pass it along.  This is an archive of online and offline coupon, and coupon codes to save on pretty much everything you could possibly want to buy.

Good Job Mommy!

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