Dating Tips From The Income Master

A price chart will allow you to open up the Sunday grocery store ad and see if that special on a brick of cream cheese for $2 is really a bargain. When you check your price chart, you will find that you’ve been able to find the same size and brand of cheese for $1.79 before, so it might be worth waiting to buy. Of course, if you are completely out of the cheese and need it that week, sure go ahead and buy them, but if you were just purchasing them to stock up on sale items (the topic of another article) then it is worth waiting.

The first step in creating a price chart is to go through your refrigerator and pantry and catalog the “must haves” – the items you use at least once a month. Some staples in my pantry and refrigerator include onions, garlic, bananas, tomatoes, milk, cheese, orange juice, coffee beans, bread, olive oil, boneless, skinless chicken breasts and breakfast cereal.

After I compile a list of food items, I start recording the best prices I’ve found on the items, being sure to determine costs by size and packaging, as well. For instance, I know that I can find 6 oz cans of tomato paste, a staple in my Italian cooking, for $.25 apiece if I wait for a sale. That is about $.07 less than buying the cans in bulk at my local warehouse store. Because I almost always have the paste on hand so there is never an “emergency” situation, it is a better bargain for me to wait for a sale at my local market and bulk up then. However, nine times out of 10, it is a better deal to stock up on toilet paper at the warehouse store, where I can find a sturdy, good quality roll of 425 sheets for $.41 apiece. Keeping a price chart also allows you to quickly distinguish when a sale is really a sale.

I’ve found the simplest way to create a chart is on the computer and print it out. That way, my price chart ends up being a typed piece of paper that easily folds up and remains in my wallet where I can reference it at any time. In addition, having it on the computer means updates are simple. So the next time, you see a “big” sale on your favorite ice cream, you can quickly reference your price chart and determine that yes, it is worth hopping in the car and stockpiling a pint or two.

One old-fashioned solution to avoid spending your hard-earned dollar on accumulating excess stuff you only use once a year is to learn to borrow and loan items. Its something we don’t really do anymore in this fast-paced, keep-to-yourself society. It harkens back to the old cliché about borrowing a cup of sugar from the neighbor. There is nothing wrong with asking to borrow a ladder once a year from your brother so you can pluck all those pesky leaves out of your gutters in the fall. Is it really worth the cost of buying and storing the ladder when it gets maybe five hours of use each year? I say no.

There is a psychological cost to owning too much stuff, as well. The more stuff you have the harder you have to work to keep it. The extreme of this is buying a giant house and expensive boat and then working 75 to 80 hours a week to pay for the slip in the harbor, the property taxes, the maid, the furniture to fill the massive space, and so on. When you are over-extended in this way, you have no time (or energy) to enjoy the house or boat.

On the whole, having less stuff is also conducive to clearer thinking. Have you ever noticed how simply cleaning your desk or office or living room promotes a feeling of calm and sense of clarity? Too much stuff is like static on the TV — you can’t really see the true picture in life. In the past two years, I have both borrowed and loaned maternity clothes. During my first pregnancy, during the summer in California, I only had to buy a handful of maternity clothes because most were loaned to me by a friend. After my second pregnancy, in Minnesota during the winter, I bought many winter and warmer items and have now passed them on to a sister-in-law who is pregnant.

Like the example above, sometimes it isn’t a clear-cut exchange. Maybe we won’t ever need something from that person who borrowed our cordless drill, but possibly they will loan someone else something someday. And sometimes the favor is returned in a different form. For instance, we’ve borrowed a ladder from a neighbor, and every time it snows, my husband takes his garage-sale bought snowblower and plows that neighbor’s sidewalk and driveway. Although I’m sure my husband would have done it anyway, it’s still an example how we each create a community when we reach out to others.

And by taking that step and knocking on a neighbor’s door, we also have a very good chance of striking up a new friendship, which is worth more than anything you can buy.