Gails Blog

So PJ and I were walking past a shop window on the way to a shoot the other day when we looked in at the washers and driers. PJ has just bought a new house, which came with a washer and dryer she doesn’t particularly like. She was looking at an energy efficient front loader with a little lust. The set was on sale; a good price we thought. Especially when we turned around and compared it to the Big Name set that was priced higher.

Funny that. It seems it’s in our natures to assume that because it has a higher price, it’s a better product.

To prove the point, researchers from CalTech and Stanford told their guinea-pigs that they were drinking five different wines at five different prices. You know what? Those tricky psychologist lied; there were only three types of wine because two wines were offered twice: a $5 wine was described as costing $5 and $45, and a $90 bottle was described as costing $90 and $10. (There was also a $35 wine with the accurate price given.)

The guinea-pigs not only rated a wine as tasting better when they were told it was pricier, but their brain scans showed greater activity in their pleasure zones. OMG! Just being told the wine was more expensive gave the drinker greater pleasure. How awful is that?

Perfume is another good example of a product whose quality is often measured by its price. You can buy a six-ounce bottle of a lovely perfume at the drugstore for $30.00. If you want Chanel No. 5, one ounce will cost you $250.

A friend of mine told me a story that made me split with laughter. It seems her cousin was in the drugstore where he saw an expensive brand of cologne on special, two-for-one. So he bought them. He didn’t need them, but the idea that he was getting something expensive for FREE made him bite. His perception wasn’t that the colognes were half the price they had been before. No. He kept the original price as his benchmark, and registered the other bottle as FREE to justify dropping a lot of money he could ill afford to spend.

Hey, nobody likes a BOGO sale more than moi. I’m talking averaging down two pairs of shoes to $20 each here, not popping for a $300 handbag so I can get the other one for $150. I guess, it’s all a matter of perspective.

While it is sometimes true that “you get what you pay for”, if you decide to pay two or three times the price for a particular product, does that mean you expect it to be twice or three times as good? Think about it. Is that Super-de-dooper Latte really three times better than the coffee you could pick up at Timmy’s?

This is where we get into the whole idea of “value.” Dollar for dollar if the more expensive item isn’t proportionally better than the cheaper one, should you spend the extra money? Would the lower priced item suit your needs just fine?

So how’s a body supposed to counteract the More-expensive-is-better syndrome? You could do some blind testing of our own. If there are products you pay extra for because you think their higher quality makes it worthwhile, maybe it’s time to check your assumption.

You could also be better informed by reading consumer reports available in magazines or online. You could ask for friends’ opinions on the performance of less expensive alternatives they may be using.

Okay, it’s your turn: Have you ever bought a premium anything only to be disappointed? Do you have substitutes that you routinely choose over more expensive items because they are just as good? 

Most of the families I work with have a problem with impulse spending. Putting them on the Magic Jars and giving them the budget binder to write down everything they spend goes a long way to making people change their spending patterns.  If you think you might be an impulse shopper, the first step to controlling it is monitoring your urges. It’ll only take a couple of weeks of thoughtful note-taking to give you a good insight on how and why you shop.

Get yourself a small notebook, keep it handy, and every time you get an urge to shop, practical or not, write it down. Note where you were, what you wanted to buy or did buy, and how you felt. Note every time the Impulse Monkey squawks at a prize, whether it grabs you online, at a store, or when you’re flipping through a flyer. No matter how often that Impulse Monkey chatters in your ear, make a note of it.

Whether you buy the item or not, keep track of the Monkey. Many times our urges are subconscious and we can’t control our spending if we aren’t aware of it.

Once you’ve determined that you have a problem, you’ll have to take some drastic steps to get the Impulse Monkey off your back.

Avoid the mall, the discount department store, the dollar store – anywhere you can spend money. I’ve actually just started working with one fam where the Lady of the House was dropping over $150 a month in a dollar store. OMG! Just going into a store practically guarantees you’ll buy something on impulse. Find something else to do to replace your shopping habit.

When you do go shopping, go with a list. In the grocery store, use a list. In the home-decorating store, use a list. In the mall, use a list. You’re not allowed to buy anything that isn’t on the list. No matter how good the deal is. NOTHING.  

Leave your credit cards at home and only shop with cash. If you don’t have the means to overspend, it’s amazing how much self-control you can show. If online shopping is a problem, you may have to throw your credit cards behind the fridge as an additional deterrent.

Do what my friend Natasha does and keep a long-term list too.  If you have an urge to buy something, first you have to put it on your Thirty-day List. You can buy it (if you have the money) after 30 days, assuming you still want it and something else hasn’t jumped up and captured your Impulse Monkey’s attention.

Finally, use the Grocery List technique for all your “needs.” You make a grocery list to stop you from buying everything the Impulse Money squeals at, right? Well, make a Clothing List, a Home Décor List, a Kids’ Toys List… you get my drift.

Let’s look at the clothing list in more detail to see how this would work. First, you list what you must have in your wardrobe: number of shoes, shirts, suits, jeans, jackets, scarves, belts, purses, coats. Then go through your wardrobe and take inventory of what you already have, marking it off your master Clothing List. What’s left is what you need to complete your wardrobe. That’s your Clothing List and you can’t buy anything that isn’t on that list.

Another keen trick is to make a deal with yourself that every time you buy something, you must get rid of something. This avoids falling into the trap of simplifying and then going shopping to replace everything you miss. It also makes you prioritize. If you must have that new doodad, what are you prepared to give up?

Buh-bye Impulse Monkey. Buh-bye.

As usual, I’m working with a family that’s spending a ton of money on STUFF. Most people do this unconsciously, never giving a thought to how much of their life’s energy is going into the purchase. This is a concept I learned from the book, Your Money or Your Life. (Another one of those books that changed my life. I am so grateful to Gutenberg.) I’ve put it to work personally, and I’ve put it to work with my fams, and it has a big impact

Let’s say you decide you just HAVE to have the newest cell phone that spits nickels and whistles Dixie while calculating how far you haven’t walked this week.  It runs for $379.99.

Now let’s say you have a great job. You earn $75,000 a year GROSS, which means you take home approximately $50,000 NET. That translates into a net hourly income (assuming 50 weeks and 40/hrs a week for work) of $25. Yup. You make a whopping 25 bucks an hour after taxes.

But that’s NOT your disposable income. You have to cover stuff like rent, car payments, debt repayment (for the last phone and all those dinners out), savings, and the like. Okay, let’s say your Essential Expenses – rent, food, and all the other things you MUST pay to keep body and soul together – add up to $3,300 a month. That’s breaks down to $19.80 per hour. (3300 x 12 / 50 / 40)

Are you still with me?

So your actual disposable income is your net monthly income of $25 less your Essential Expenses of $19.80, which leaves a whopping $5.20 an hour.

Now here comes the really PAINFUL part.

Take whatever you’re thinking of buying, and divide the cost by your Hourly Disposable Income (HDI) to see how much of your life’s energy you have to swap for that handy-dandy new device. In the case of that Phat Phone, you’d have to work for about 73 hours. Yup. Almost two weeks.

Hmmm.

If you really want the phone, and you have the money set aside to pay the bill right off the bat, you should buy it. But you should also do this exercise since its useful for putting things in perspective. 

If you really want the phone and you’re going to put it on credit, then you have to add in the interest you’ll pay to come up with the right number of hours of your life you’ll be swapping for it.

Want to work out your Hourly disposable income?

1. Take your net pay and divide it by the number of hours you work a year. I find dividing by 40 (for hours worked in a week) and then by 50 (for weeks worked in a year) works great. This is your Net Hourly Income.
2. Then calculate your monthly Essential Expenses. Multiply that number by 12 and divide it by 40 and then by 50.
3. Subtract your Essential Expenses hourly cost from your Net Hourly Income. You’re left with your HDI.

Now, whenever your trying to decide if a purchase is really worth it, divide your purchase price by your HDI to see how many hours you’ll have to work to pay for the item.

Of course, you’d be a maniac to do this every time you’re considering buying something. Com’on. You don’t want to be OBSESSIVE or anything. But if you even give a second’s thought to the question, “Should I?” when it comes to buying something, do this calculation. Then stick the money you would have spent in your savings account. You were going to blow it on STUFF anyway, so you can consider it SPENT. 

If you think that debit and credit card fraud is something that happens to dumb people, let me assure you some of the smartest people I know have been hit. In the town where I buy my groceries, hundreds of customers of one of the supermarkets were hit when their debit card and pin numbers were stolen.

Closer to home, Chelsea, our production manager – and a very button-down chick and as smart as a whip – went shopping one day only to find her debit card had been skimmed and she was out thousands of dollars.

Here’s what Chelsea has to say about her experience:

My debit card was “skimmed” on the weekend - meaning someone illegally scanned my card and recorded my pin and went on a shopping spree.  It took them less than 24 hours to create a fake card and less than 36 hours to rack up 15 transactions, stealing about $3,000.  This is a real problem and not just something you read in the papers.

Here are some ways I’ve researched that you can prevent this from happening to you:

• Hide your pin.  Seriously hide it.  You may feel like a dork but just do it. 
• Watch your card.  If someone swipes it twice, ask why. Chances are they’re skimming it right in front of your eyes. 
• Check your bank statements online at least once a day.  Look for cash withdraws and purchases that look unfamiliar (duh). 
• Make sure you have minimum cash withdraw limits on your accounts.  Having a higher limit means that someone can’t go in there and clear out your account in one day.  I have a limit of $500 and sure enough, the bank told me, they attempted to take out more but were unsuccessful. 
• If you have overdraft protection, someone can take money that you don’t even have. 
• Take off access to accounts from your debit card that you don’t need.  Make all of your credit card payments online and then take the access to your credit card off of your debit card.  I had mine linked and they took a $500 cash advance from my credit card.  
• Use cash wherever you can (cue Gail cheering with glee).  Even some ATMs have been rigged with skimming devices so watch out.  I almost feel like I have to go back to the old fashion days of getting cash from a teller and using cash to pay for everything.

I’m pretty sure I know what store this happened at.  It wasn’t a shifty convenience store; it was a regular retail outlet store – nothing shady so it can happen anywhere.

I’m not trying to make you lose sleep every time you swipe your card but there are things you can put in place to protect yourself just that little bit more.  I don’t want this happening to anyone else.  This situation really stinks but I hope that by reading this you can be proactive and look into how your account is set up and be more aware of this issue.

These are all great ideas from Chelsea. Pass them on. And here are a few more to keep in mind:

• Watch out for “shoulder surfers .” Shield the keypad when using debit and ATMs.
• Keep your receipts. Ask copies of incorrect charge slips.
• Compare receipts with account statements. Watch for unauthorized transactions. Shred receipts after verifying the charge on your monthly statement.
• Carry only the cards you need. Extra cards increase your risk and your hassle if your wallet is stolen.
• Pay attention to your billing cycles. A missing bill could mean a thief has taken over your credit account.

You know that old adage that says if you want to sell your house, bake cookies. It seems when a house smells wonderful - be it fresh, warm bread or hot, chocolately cookies - people are more attracted to the home.

Well guess what. It doesn’t just hold true for house sales. It seems that what whets our appetites also influences us to be more impulsive when it comes to buying other stuff. Aromas affect us on a subliminal level - which is one reason we often underestimate their power. We can recognize close to 10,000 odors. And we breathe about 30,000 times a day, so there’s lots of opportunity for those scents to hit our limbic system — an old area of the brain relating to memory and emotion - where they can be turned into motivation.

According to the Journal of Consumer Research, in one experiment, the aroma of cookies influenced tightwad women to spend more on clothing. Go figure. Now we’re going to have to walk around with clothespins on our noses to get out of the store with our budgets intact.

Then there’s the case of the shampoo that went from last place on general performance to “easier to rinse out, foamed better and left the hair more glossy,” when only the fragrance had been changed.

In another experiment, the fragrance of sweet citrus was pumped into the mall’s air for a week in amounts so small that shoppers couldn’t tell the scent was there. But the shopkeepers could tell when they watched their sales jump by $55-90 per customer, even though the experiment was done in a traditionally slow sales period and stores were instructed not to offer special promotions.

But it’s not just smell that grabs us by our purse-strings. It seems that our exposure to visual influences on our appetite reduces our ability to defer our gratification. In one experiment participants played the role of magazine photo-editors, choosing among either appetite stimulating pictures of food or non-appetite stimulating pictures of nature. All the participants were then asked to participate in a lottery that would either pay them less money sooner or more money later.

Those exposed to the food photos were 20% more likely to choose the lottery with the chance of a smaller, more immediate payoff than those who were exposed to the photos of nature. It seems, with appetites at attention, we cannot wait to be satiated.

Even our ears can be used against us. Did you know that music in a major chord make people buy more than music in a minor chord? Uh-huh. Some obsessive marketer actually measured this, and now when you’re listening to all that music as you shop, you can be sure it’s been designed to engage your buying impulses.

Sigmund Freud suggested that we are motivated by conscious and unconscious forces. The next time you’re bopping down the aisle and you slow down to examine a new product or attractive item, keep in mind you’re marching to some marketer’s drummer. Yup. Certain beats of music will slow shoppers down, making them dawdle in front of goods on display. Combine that with the right visual stimulation and a scent that moves your to feel relaxed and open to new ideas and you don’t stand a chance of getting out the door without blowing your budget.

In some areas the country the housing market is still sizzling because of low interest rates and a sense that “everyone else is buying a house, I have to have a house too”. Some buyers throw caution to the wind in a desperate attempt to wedge themselves into the ranks of “home-owner.”

No matter how anxious you are to own your own home, don’t rush into the transaction. In tight markets like the one we’ve experienced in many parts of the country recently, buyers feel pressured to make an immediate offer. But if you haven’t taken the time to become familiar with the local market, you won’t know if you’re getting good value for your money - and it’s a lot of money.

Look at plenty of homes before you make your first offer. And don’t get so caught up in your “wish list” that you dismiss homes that meet most of your criteria. Your real estate agent should be able to guide you when it comes to prioritizing your list so you don’t end up tossing out an option that has good potential.

Sometimes in the heat of the exchange, sellers or real estate professionals suggest that a buyer put in an offer to purchase which is free of conditions, including foregoing the “financing condition.” Don’t do it. No matter how much you want that property. No matter how sure you are that everything will be fine. Don’t do it.

While you may not remember it in the heat of the buying frenzy, pre-approvals come with the proviso that they are financing approvals in principal only; they can still be revoked by the lender if they are perceived to be a bad decision - if your circumstances change, or if the house appraisal is lower than the purchase price. And that’s why the “conditional on financing” clause is important.

Two other clauses every offer should contain are the “conditional on sale of existing home clause” and the “conditional on inspection” clause. The first eliminates the likelihood that you’ll end up desperate to find a buyer for your house because you’re having to carry two mortgages since your old house hasn’t sold yet. With some markets entering a slower period, houses may take longer to sell, and if you have to carry two mortgages for three or four months, you’ll be motivated to accept less than your house may be worth. The second means you won’t end up with a house that is likely to fall down around your ears because in your desperation to buy THAT house, you ignored the potential problems inspections are designed to ferret out.

Be careful not to overextend yourself when it comes to choosing a price range for the home you’re seeking. It’s easy for the home-buying process to suck you in. Just add another $20,000 to your price range and your neighbourhood options become so much wider. Another $20,000 and you’ll be looking at houses with finished basements, renovated kitchens, or landscaped yards. But if at the end of the day you’ve added so much to your price range that you’re house poor, you’ll end up forgoing annual vacations, entertainment and the other good things in life. Or you’ll start using your line of credit to make ends meet. Dumb! Stay balanced and focused on what you can afford.

Being realistic about how much you can really afford is particularly import during periods of low interest rates like we’ve experienced most recently. Tempted by manageable mortgage payments, buyers often push the envelope on house price. Later, when interest rates rise - what goes down must eventually go up - they find their cash flow strapped, sometimes to the point where they must sell their homes because they can no longer afford to keep up with the mortgage payments. (This is exactly what happened in the sub-prime fiasco in the U.S.)

And don’t forget about your closing costs. From the home inspection to property tax adjustment, from the appraisal fee to the deed transfer tax, every little thing costs. One rule of thumb is to estimate between 1.5 and 2.5% of the value of the home for closing costs to finish off the transaction.

Buying a home is a complex process. Don’t rush into it and don’t rush through it. You’ll likely have to live with your decision for a long, long time. Talk to some friends and family who have bought recently and try to get a feel for the process. Pay attention to the details. And ask lots of questions. The more you know, the better a home-buyer you’ll be.

Lots of people shop emotionally instead of with their heads, buying stuff they don’t need because they’ve had a bad day, had a great day, or been with someone who is very convincing - be it a salesman, a best friend, or a wife/husband with a itch to acquire.

So, have you ever bought something you just couldn’t live without and afterwards find yourself scratching your head and wondering, what the hell was I thinking? Then you’ve experienced something called “buyer’s remorse.”

Want to avoid that horrible sinking feeling, the guilt, the wish-I-could-take-it-back sense of waste? Here’s what you should do.

1. Make a list, and never buy anything that’s not on your list. If you see something you really, really want, add it to your list.

2. Once you’ve added it to your list, go home and sleep on it. If you want it tomorrow, go to step three.

3. Do some research before you buy. Buyer’s remorse often climbs on our backs when we find out we’ve paid too much for something. Make sure you know how much the item you’re buying is really worth.

4. Get a second opinion. Take your sister, your best friend, your mom or dad with you, and ask if they think it’s worth the price.

5. If there’s any financing involved, figure out what the item will end up costing you once you’ve paid the financing charge. If you don’t do this step, you’re deluding yourself and you deserve to feel like a dope.

6. Ask yourself, “Do I need it or do I just want it?” If it’s a need, put it on your list in a position of priority. If it is simply a want, it goes at the bottom of your list. Take care of your “needs” before you start scratching your “want” itches.

7. Ask yourself, “What else could I do with the money I’m spending on this item?” Are you working towards a goal that would be served well by this money? Is there another priority that should take precedence? Put your money where it will do you the most good.

Answer me this: You’re standing in the bookstore holding a copy of a book you’ve been dying to read when the woman next to you says, “I saw it just down the street for $18.” Would you head off to the store that’s 15 minutes away to save $7?

I would. Yup, the walk would be good for me, and I just can’t pass up a good book.

Everyone has stuff they can’t pass up. For some it’s that fine cup of coffee. For others, a great handbag. Some guys love browsing the aisles of Crappy Tire, looking for the perfect tool that will make that job at home worth doing.

But how many of the things you buy come as a complete surprise to you? You don’t set off to buy a new set of glasses, but there you are standing in the store, paying for them. Sure, they’re great looking glasses, and you can always come up with a good reason or three why you need them, but they’re an impulse purchase.

Could it be that you can’t stay focused on what you DO want? You want to be debt free, want to save money for a home, want to have a big, fat emergency fund, or want to have a baby, but that’s such a far-off goal. It may be wonderful to be debt free, but giving up your day-to-day indulgences just doesn’t feel like it’s worth it. After all, it’s going to take months, even years, to get out of debt, and who wants to spend all that time denying all those small pleasures?

You can feel the pleasure of the coffee as the warmth moves through your mouth and down your throat. You can smell the pleasure of the next sip. And when you throw out the cup, the memory of having spent the $3.45 is gone.

So how do you make your goal feel satisfying when you’re skipping all that coffee, not buying that purse, forgoing the walk around the tool department, to make it a reality? How do you pass up dinner with friends, a movie with the kids or that fabulous cruise you’ve been dying to go on with your honey?

Here’s what I suggest parents do with their children when they’re trying to keep the kids focused on a goal they are saving for:

Cut out a picture of whatever your child wants to acquire and paste it on a page with the price beside it.

Find out how much your child wants to save each week, and divide that into the price of the item. So if item costs $20 and your child plans to save 50¢ a week, that would be a total of 40 weeks.

Draw 40 small boxes on the page with the picture on it.

Each week, as your child sets aside the 50¢ she’s saving, she gets to check off one of her boxes.

Charity drives use a version of this when they draw what looks like a big thermometer and then fill in the amount they’ve raised toward their total goal, raising the mercury each time they get another contribution. You can do the same thing with your goals.

Here’s another question about saving money. Let’s say there’s a new computer you’ve been saving to buy. You’ve done your research and you can get exactly what you want for $789. The man beside you turns to you and says, “That exact computer is on sale down the street for $782.” Would you take the 15-minute walk to save $7?

If you said “yes” to my first example of the book that was $25, down to $18, but said “no” to the computer alternative, my next question is “why?”

After all, $7 is $7, whether it represents a 28% savings or a less-than-1% savings, it’s still seven bucks and gets you $7 closer to your goal, whatever that may be.

Maybe it isn’t that you just can’t commit to saving, paying down your debt, or whatever else you wish you could do. Maybe it’s that you’re focusing on the wrong thing. Like the shopping example, if you’re focusing on the percentage you’re saving, you lose track of the value of the dollars themselves. It’s all very nice to save 50%, but a buck is a buck, whichever way you cut it.

And getting $1, $10, $100, $1,000, $10,000 closer to your goal has to be as satisfying as buying another cup of coffee, purse or tool. It just requires having the right perspective.

If you’re a shopper, you’re being manipulated. Sucker!

Shoe salesmen, car salesmen, and furniture salesmen start out by showing you the most expensive version of whatever it is you’re looking for, showing you the best deal they have, and then showing you the one they actually want you to buy. And you know what? You buy the one they want you to buy.

Airlines, department stores and hotel use the similar ploy by posting “full” prices, deep discount prices, and the prices they’re banking on you choosing.

Marketers know that consumers shrink from buying either the highest- or lowest-priced stuff. They default to the price in the middle. This is called the “compromise effect”; it’s a major predictor of how we buy and companies rely on it to increase sales of their most profitable items.

But that’s not the only way you’re being manipulated. Retailers who offer gift cards know that not all the gift cards will be redeemed. There’s a thing called the “break rate”, and that calculates how many of the cards will go unredeemed. The higher the break rate, the more of your money goes into their pockets without them having to give you a thing, except a pretty piece of plastic. Hmmm.

So why would we get a perfectly good gift card and then let it sit in a drawer for years, instead of exchanging it for something we need or want?

Apparently it’s because we didn’t have to work our butts to the bone to get it.

It has been estimated that out of $97 billion in gift cards purchased, $7.8 billion will end up unredeemed for 2007. Hey, man, that’s pure profit for the retail sector.

As if that’s not enough, when we do go into stores to redeem our cards, we usually end up spending more than the amount on the card. And we spend indiscriminately. Gift card shoppers are less likely to be fussy about the price they’re paying, says a study by the J.C. Williams Group, which found that 40% of shoppers using a retailer’s card bought items at full price, compared to only 16% of shoppers using other payment methods.

Want a good idea for fund-raising for your local school? Ask people to donate unused gift cards, and then have someone go out and shop with the cards and hold a sale at school. Turn plastic, and dumb shopping habits, into something positive. Oh, and when you’re out shopping up a storm with all those gift cards, remember that if you’re defaulting to the mid-priced item, you’re just another victim of the Compromise Effect.

According to the Stats Man, the average family spends $9,630 a year - which works out to about $800 a month - on food. While food prices have remained stable in Canada, around the world food costs are reaching new heights.

There are tons of sites devoted to being frugal, saving money on food, and clipping coupons. Here are some of the things I do that I find really help our family keep our grocery budget in line.

I shop in ethnic markets; I’m partial to Little Korea - everything from curry to coconut milk, baby corn to mushrooms. I find fresh vegis and fruit are also a lot cheaper than in traditional supermarkets and while I can no longer take advantage of ethnic markets on a weekly basis, I do use them to stock up on my staples. Never mind what it does in terms of broadening out our menu options at home.

I shop at farmer’s markets, in season. The biggest surprise I got when I moved to “the country” is that there are very few farmers’ markets out here. Most of the farming effort goes into beef, sheep, pigs and milk production, so even the corn isn’t human-grade; it’s used to make winter feed for the critters. However, come summer, there is an abundance of certain types of things, and I use the opportunity to build up my stores.

Alex loooooves my pasta sauce. It’s simple, really. I oven-roast tomatoes, garlic and roasted peppers, mush it all up, and as I add it to my freezer containers, I put in a handful of fresh basil. It is so good. I do this three or four times during the summer, freezing a dozen containers at a time, and all winter long we have the taste of summer just waiting to be defrosted.

While buying fruits and vegetables from farmers means I’m cutting out the middleman, which saves money, the best part is that I’m supporting my community and buying locally.

I buy in bulk. Yup. No small rolls of toilet paper, kitchen paper or tissues for me. No little bottles of laundry soap. I’ve saved as much as 50% buy buying in bulk on sale. I have the space to stash tons of extra stuff and bring it out when I need it, so if space is at a premium for you, you’ll have to weigh the benefit of balancing your coffee table above tins of tuna, or get creative on storage (think under the bed, at the back of the closet, in the garage). Sometimes it makes sense to join up with a couple other people and share items you can buy in bulk at wholesale prices.

Except for pre-roasted chickens, which I consider a deal, I don’t buy pre-made meals. I can’t stand the lack of value. Yah, I know, it’s easy, but you get so little food for what you pay. I just can’t do it. So I bulk cook at home and freeze. Today Ken and I made a stew first thing. When it’s ready, we’ll take the first two servings out and freeze them. Then we’ll enjoy the rest of the stew this week, for dinner tonight and then for lunches. The extra servings will come in handy on a day when we’ve just run out of time.

I don’t take the kids when I go shopping. Every time I take the kids with me, I end up spending $30 more. It’s not that they’re buying candy or chips; it’s their susceptibility to packaging and new ideas. And, to be honest, when they show me what they want, I’m usually intrigued enough to want to give it a try. So up goes my bill.

I always shop with a grocery list. We keep a running list at home. When we open the last, I buy a replacement for the cupboard (unless it’s on sale, in which case I buy 6). The list not only keeps me on track, it stops me from impulse shopping based on fabulous merchandising on the part of the supermarkets.

I shop in a less-expensive store. I actually really like my discount supermarket, so this is no test. I pick up whatever I can’t get there at my full price store, but do 80% of my shopping in the less-expensive store. The other day, the store owners - Lori & Mike - set up a grocery basket of typical buys they had comparison shopped at the other store and showed that the basket cost $50 less in their store. Smart!

I recently got myself a PC credit card - switching from my Airmiles credit card, which I found offered less benefits of late - so I can build up grocery points.

I don’t buy anything in convenience stores. Why would you pay $1.50 for a bottle of water you can buy (and freeze at home so it stays cold all day) at the supermarket for 10¢? If milk is cheaper at the convenience store, okay. But nothing else is, so don’t even go into the store.

Okay, it’s your turn. What tips and tricks do you use to save money on food?