Archive results for “April 2011f 2011”
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Ok, ok, you KNEW I was going to bring up the new TLC show ‘Extreme Couponing’ eventually.
If you’ve seen the show, you know it’s about men and women who spend a good portion of their lives clipping coupons and purchasing crap… *cough*… I mean, purchasing ‘stuff’ and ‘saving huge amounts of money’ while doing it.
I was excited to watch the show somehow thinking it would be informative and help me in my own shopping endeavors.
The only thing the show ‘informed’ me was that these people are nuts and I’ve got a pretty good handle on my sanity comparatively.
This week, I watched the episode with Missy, who spends 35 hours per week couponing. According to her, she saved $60,000 in one year. Um… I DON’T SPEND $60,000 ON GROCERIES IN ONE YEAR!! I spend about 5% of that. Theoretically, I saved $57,000 by not buying junk I didn’t need… and I don’t have to stockpile. Plus, let’s not forget to mention that I spend 40 hours per week working and made real money – not fake ‘saved’ money. The math doesn’t add up for these couponers.
In the episode, she purchased 54 bottles of laundry detergent. She also purchased hundreds of bags of cat treats…and she doesn’t own a cat. Who needs 54 bottles of detergent?!? Or 93 bags of croutons? Or cat treats without a cat? Unless that detergent can double as salad dressing and the cat treats as a weird form of bacon bits, I see a disconnect here.
Admittedly, I keep around 5 containers of shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, and hair gel at any given time. I wait for a three or four dollar coupon, combine it with a sale, and buy a couple at a time. I never pay for these items. But do I keep a collection of several thousand bottles in my organized garage that I couldn’t use in 15 lifetimes? Not even close.
Let’s just call ‘Extreme Couponing’ what is really is…
Organized hoarding.
Over the last week, our local news channels have been covering the grocery workers threat to strike. I’m not going to jump into whether or not I agree with the strikes – or unions at all for that matter – but I do want to talk about appropriate times to strike.
The last time this grocery union went on strike was in October 2003. No, I didn’t look up that fact, I remember it… CLEARLY.
If you type ‘southern california october 2003’ in Google, you won’t see anything about a grocery strike, you’ll see page after page about the horrific Cedar Fire that killed 15 people and destroyed over 2,200 homes.
In the middle of that October night, I got out of bed to see why there was a bright orange glow shining from my window and stared dumbfounded at the flames ripping up the mountainside. A short while later, the fire chief drove up the driveway and told us we had to leave – NOW.
We grabbed what we could, put the dogs in the car, and left.
We drove around for a while, stayed at friend’s homes… until they were evacuated too, and eventually ended up in a Ralph’s parking lot. Now, call me crazy, but the first thought that crossed my mind wasn’t, “Well, these folks are on strike. Maybe I should drive to Trader Joe’s.” Weirdly enough, it was more, “I’m thirsty, the dogs are thirsty, it’s hot, I’m going to get water and ice.”
I loaded the goods into my 4-Runner, gave the dogs a chance to walk around, and decided to drive to yet another friend’s house who hadn’t been evacuated. As I tried to leave the parking lot, the strikers (wearing masks to protect themselves from the huge chunks of ash falling from the orange sky) blocked the driveway to the street. I threw my arms up in frustration and one of the strikers faced me, flipped me the bird, and screamed obscenities as if somehow, I were the most vile human being in the world for shopping at a union grocery store.
That was the day the Southern California grocery store workers lost any hope of support from me then or ever.
Here we are, nearly eight years later, and I will be shopping at Ralphs – and ONLY Ralphs during the strike. If this union didn’t care about the community in its time of need, I simply can’t find the obligation or desire to care about them.
The moral of this story?
If you feel the need to strike for more money, benefits, etc., be cognizant of what is going on in your community – otherwise, you could lose any chance of support.
And trust me… people will remember for a very long time.
I pulled yet another no-no and took money out of our grocery budget a few times this pay period. I hate digging into the emergency fund every time something comes up and I’ve discovered occasional grocery budget pilfering episodes work out OK.
This month, I accidentally took a little more than I should have and noticed a mere $30 to cover more than a week. I spent an hour digging through the pantry and refrigerator and worked to pair what we had with recipes. I stopped by the grocery store to purchase some fresh fruit, veggies, and dairy items and spent $27. Proud of my achievement, I spread the recipe cards for my husband and told him he could choose what he wanted for dinner.
‘I’m leaning toward the Tilapia with fresh tomatoes topped with feta or the turkey burgers and grilled asparagus but I’m up for anything you choose’ I said a little smugly.
He stared at each then said, ‘Actually, I’ve been thinking about a Stouffer’s frozen chicken dinner thingie. Can we just do that instead?’
I stared at him in silence.
A minute ticked by.
‘Or we could do tilapia. That sounds g-g-g-good’ he stuttered.
I didn’t think I had but, yes, I have perfected the look of death.
The crummy Stouffers frozen dinner is still tucked safely in the back of the freezer… where it belongs.
Through careful Craigslist shopping, my husband and I have been able to purchase almost all the items we need to furnish the baby’s room. I went out to the garage, saw the neat stack of used furniture, and broke into tears. Rather than see brand new furniture boxes with happy baby photos on the front as I had always imagined, I saw “someone else’s stuff.”
I felt like I had failed all my picket fence dreams.
Several of my friends are having babies and they share their stories of shopping for furniture at pricey stores and picking out themes. Meanwhile, my ‘theme’ is – buy study wood furniture that matches… sort of. Don’t get me wrong, it will look great and I’ll spend 90% less than my friends, but I couldn’t help but feel a little ashamed that I spend my weekends at garage sales and traipsing through people’s homes asking for deals.
Yesterday morning, the head of HR stopped to chat. He and his wife are expecting their third… and ‘very, very, unexpectedly, accidental’ child. They have to start over on purchasing baby goods and he mentioned the ‘killer deal’ he got on a crib from Craigslist.
I choked on my caffeine-free tea. ‘What?!?’ I gasped, trying to take a breath.
Keep in mind, this guy makes well over 100K a year.
“Yeah, it’s great. Why should I take the hit on retail? Let some other sucker pay it” he said with a huge grin. He saw the shock register on my face, grabbed my arm, and said, “Oh my gosh Rebekah. Please don’t tell me you bought something new right? It’s such a rip off!” he said.
“No. The room is furnished thanks to Craigslist and garage sales” I said.
“Thank goodness! I knew you were smarter than that” and he continued to chat away.
Do you even know what a relief it was to hear that – especially from someone who can afford nice things? I was flying high finally thinking I hadn’t failed, I’d simply been smart about my finances… for once.
All the furniture is paid for with cash. I guess I do have a theme…
Financial Responsibility.
My husband grinds his teeth in his sleep. If you’ve ever had the ‘joy’ of sharing a bed with a grinder, you know the noise can keep you up just as easily as snoring.
We purchased a $5 mouth guard from Walmart… which worked for about 2 days before it fell apart.
We purchased a custom mouth guard from the dentist at a whopping $350… which works a little, but still keeps me awake since it the sound he makes while wearing it resembles a dog chewing an annoying squeaky toy.
Since my husband is an aggressive teeth grinder, his mouth guard needs replacement every six months. I’m not looking forward to squeezing another $700 annually out of my budget.
I was watching Dr. Oz while getting ready for work a few mornings ago and he was discussing the dangers of teeth grinding and cheap solutions to fix it.
All he had to do was say ‘cheap’ and he had my attention. Since a few of my family members and friends are also teeth grinders, I figured maybe some of you might save a few bucks with his tips.
http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/1-habit-destroying-your-health
One of the tips is to relax your jaw by using a wine cork to stretch the muscles. Jazzed about the idea of preventing painful head and tooth aches, my husband carries a wine cork everywhere now.
This is what I found in the shower this morning…
I may have trouble convincing folks he doesn’t have a drinking problem when there are wine corks on the patio set, on his bedside table, near the television, in his truck, in his office, and in the shower. But hey, it has helped a little so I’ll just have to deal with the questions about my husband’s apparent ‘alcoholism’.
My husband and I were invited to bring our garage sale items over to my sister-in-law’s parent’s home for a neighborhood garage sale. No need to hang our own signs or advertise? Heck yes!
We arrived at 7:15 and sold a good portion of the items by 9:30 – mostly because my husband will sell you just about anything for a dollar.
I was getting a bit agitated at my husband’s negotiating skills (he’ll agree to any price as long as he doesn’t have to cart it back home) and was considering saying something but decided to keep my mouth shut and trust his judgment.
We arrived at my sister-in-law’s parent’s home with a full sized truck bed and back seat full of items. We left with over $120 and a small container of leftover items for Goodwill donation. Perhaps my husband knows what he’s doing after all.
After dropping the items at Goodwill, we recycled several huge boxes of plastic and aluminum bottles we’ve been collecting and nabbed another $98.
My husband can now do cartwheels in his empty garage (trust me, he did) and we netted over $200 for less than 4 hours of work.
Well there went all the fun stories.
My husband called today to inform me that his is now a ‘follower’ of my blog.
His schedule at work prevented him from reading my blog and he is never on the internet at home so I have always had free rein to talk about him – respectfully of course.
Ever since I wrote the baby name blog, he suddenly has an interest in what you all have to say – especially in ‘all those awesome folks who agreed that Cash is a good name’.
Crud. Now I have to filter myself.
It is a sad, sad day in history.
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My Debt
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