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A Slow Cooker Thanksgiving
9 months ago
Showing posts with label News you can use. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News you can use. Show all posts
Thursday, September 30, 2010
A (small) thank you for vets!
B&Bs across the country are giving a free nights stay to Vets over Veterans Day weekend. Wanted to make sure you all saw. Please pass along!
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The mortgage crisis
We pay our mortgage every month. On time. Some months it even arrives early. We pay in full. We bought this condo when we were both employed bringing home about 30percent more than we are now. Our mortgage payment now takes up more than half of our take home pay, which everyone says is a big no-no.
We have tried for more than a year to get Wells Fargo, who I HATE, to refinance or modify our loan. Each time we get rejected for reasons that escape me. We are not asking to pay less than is owed (although we would certainly take it). All I want is to get locked into a 30 year fixed, and if that means we are paying more than we are paying now, than so be it. We can't rent this place out until we refinance, and as I have noted many times, these 800 sf are driving me bonkers!
Each time they reject us they immediately ask us to start short sale proceedings! They called at 8 pm on New Years Eve to do this and I nearly lost it. We do not want to do short sale!!! And why would they? They would lose money. Why won't they help us to pay what is owed? We want to be fair. We are not asking for special treatment.
We have excellent credit, well north of 700 for both of us on all three credit tables. But when I read articles like this, I wonder, should we just stop paying? Would that finally get their attention?
This is what gauls me the most about this crisis. People who don't pay, who are falling behind and over extended and taking advantage of the system, they are the one's who get help. But us, the honest people, get nothing. A very good friend named Pat told us that in order to get the bank to pay attention, Pat stopped paying. Eventually the bank did pay attention, the loan was modified and while Pat still owes the same amount overall, the payments have actually gone down!!
I actually hate Wells Fargo. I am sure they are not alone in their inability or lack of a desire to help. While I don't want to do anything to hurt our credit, something I have to believe will help us in the long run to keep high, I also sometimes wonder if not paying is the way to go?
We have tried for more than a year to get Wells Fargo, who I HATE, to refinance or modify our loan. Each time we get rejected for reasons that escape me. We are not asking to pay less than is owed (although we would certainly take it). All I want is to get locked into a 30 year fixed, and if that means we are paying more than we are paying now, than so be it. We can't rent this place out until we refinance, and as I have noted many times, these 800 sf are driving me bonkers!
Each time they reject us they immediately ask us to start short sale proceedings! They called at 8 pm on New Years Eve to do this and I nearly lost it. We do not want to do short sale!!! And why would they? They would lose money. Why won't they help us to pay what is owed? We want to be fair. We are not asking for special treatment.
We have excellent credit, well north of 700 for both of us on all three credit tables. But when I read articles like this, I wonder, should we just stop paying? Would that finally get their attention?
This is what gauls me the most about this crisis. People who don't pay, who are falling behind and over extended and taking advantage of the system, they are the one's who get help. But us, the honest people, get nothing. A very good friend named Pat told us that in order to get the bank to pay attention, Pat stopped paying. Eventually the bank did pay attention, the loan was modified and while Pat still owes the same amount overall, the payments have actually gone down!!
I actually hate Wells Fargo. I am sure they are not alone in their inability or lack of a desire to help. While I don't want to do anything to hurt our credit, something I have to believe will help us in the long run to keep high, I also sometimes wonder if not paying is the way to go?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Thoughts from someone (else) who has been there
It dawned on me the other day that I am approaching my one year anniversary. In some ways it feels like yesterday, and in others it feels like ages ago. When my anniversary date comes, I am certain to reflect.
But tonight stumbling across different websites I came across this article by the Recession Columnist who got canned from the Chicago Tribune. He offers some good advice and reflections on his year out.
I hope you don't find yourself out of a job, or in a challenging financial situation, but should you, he offers some good pointers.
But tonight stumbling across different websites I came across this article by the Recession Columnist who got canned from the Chicago Tribune. He offers some good advice and reflections on his year out.
I hope you don't find yourself out of a job, or in a challenging financial situation, but should you, he offers some good pointers.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Money advice on the TODAY show
Some mornings I get to watch, some I don't. This morning while my son was debating between yogart, cereal, bananas, goldfishes and waffles, I caught this segment.
It runs about 6 minutes, but some of the tips they have sound useful. Many are common sense. But it often helps to hear/read/see them again and again to reinforce the obvious.
Enjoy!
It runs about 6 minutes, but some of the tips they have sound useful. Many are common sense. But it often helps to hear/read/see them again and again to reinforce the obvious.
Enjoy!
Friday, April 16, 2010
Note of caution about online coupons
This article is a good read. I am not a "fan" of becoming Facebook fans for various companies for their promotions, and this article gives a good example as to why (for me it had more to do with cluttering up my feed, but now that I know this, all the more reason not to).
I like printable coupons. I admit I didn't share one recently because it had MY NAME on it and could not delete. Its scary the amount of info thats out there on all of us, so be careful.
-MB
Online Coupons Know a Lot About You, and They Tell
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
New York Times
April 16, 2010
For decades, shoppers have taken advantage of coupons. Now, the coupons are taking advantage of the shoppers.
A new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, is packed with information about the customer who uses it. While the coupons look standard, their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place.
And all that information follows that customer into the mall. For example, if a man walks into a Filene’s Basement to buy a suit for his wedding and shows a coupon he retrieved online, the company’s marketing agency can figure out whether he used the search terms “Hugo Boss suit” or “discount wedding clothes” to research his purchase (just don’t tell his fiancée).
Coupons from the Internet are the fastest-growing part of the coupon world — their redemption increased 263 percent to about 50 million coupons in 2009, according to the coupon-processing company Inmar. Using coupons to link Internet behavior with in-store shopping lets retailers figure out which ad slogans or online product promotions work best, how long someone waits between searching and shopping, even what offers a shopper will respond to or ignore.
The coupons can, in some cases, be tracked not just to an anonymous shopper but to an identifiable person: a retailer could know that Amy Smith printed a 15 percent-off coupon after searching for appliance discounts at Ebates.com on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and redeemed it later that afternoon at the store.
“You can really key into who they are,” said Don Batsford Jr., who works on online advertising for the tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt, whose coupons include search information. “It’s almost like being able to read their mind, because they’re confessing to the search engine what they’re looking for.”
While companies once had a slim dossier on each consumer, they now have databases packed with information. And every time a person goes shopping, visits a Web site or buys something, the database gets another entry.
“There is a feeling that anonymity in this space is kind of dead,” said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology’s information privacy programs.
None of the tracking is visible to consumers. The coupons, for companies as diverse as Ruby Tuesday and Lord & Taylor, are handled by a company called RevTrax, which displays them on the retailers’ sites or on coupon Web sites, not its own site.
Even if consumers could figure out that RevTrax was creating the coupons, it does not have a privacy policy on its site — RevTrax says that is because it handles data for the retailers and does not directly interact with consumers. RevTrax can also include retailers’ own client identification numbers (Amy Smith might be client No. 2458230), then the retailer can connect that with the actual person if it wants to, for example, to send a follow-up offer or a thank-you note.
Using coupons also lets the retailers get around Google hurdles. Google allows its search advertisers to see reports on which keywords are working well as a whole but not on how each person is responding to each slogan.
“We’ve built privacy protections into all Google services and report Web site trends only in aggregate, without identifying individual users,” Sandra Heikkinen, a spokeswoman for Google, said in an e-mail message.
The retailers, however, can get to an individual level by sending different keyword searches to different Web addresses. The distinct Web addresses are invisible to the consumer, who usually sees just a Web page with a simple address at the top of it.
So clicking on an ad for Jackson Hewitt after searching for “new 2010 deductions” would send someone to a different behind-the-scenes URL than after searching for “Jackson Hewitt 2010,” though the Web pages and addresses might look identical. This data could be coded onto a coupon.
RevTrax works as closely with image-rich display ads, with coupons also signaling what ad a person saw and on what site.
“Wherever we provide a link, whether it’s on search or banner, that thing you click can include actual keywords,” said Rob O’Neil, director of online marketing at Tag New Media, which works with Filene’s. “There’s some trickery.”
The companies argue that the coupon strategy gives them direct feedback on how well their marketing is working.
Once the shopper prints an online coupon or sends it to his cellphone and then goes to a store, the clerk scans it. The bar code information is sent to RevTrax, which, with the ad agency, analyzes it.
“We break people up into teeny little cross sections of who we think they are, and we test that out against how they respond,” said Mr. Batsford, who is a partner at 31 Media, an online marketing company.
RevTrax can identify online shoppers when they are signed in to a coupon site like Ebates or FatWallet or the retailer’s own site. It says it avoids connecting that number with real people to steer clear of privacy issues, but clients can make that match.
The retailer can also make that connection when it is offering coupons to its Facebook fans, like Filene’s Basement is doing.
“When someone joins a fan club, the user’s Facebook ID becomes visible to the merchandiser,” Mr. Treiber said. “We take that and embed it in a bar code or promotion code.”
“When the consumer redeems the offer in store, we can track it back, in this case, not to the Google search term but to the actual Facebook user ID that was signing up,” he said. Although Facebook does not signal that Amy Smith responded to a given ad, Filene’s could look up the user ID connected to the coupon and “do some more manual-type research — you could easily see your sex, your location and what you’re interested in,” Mr. Treiber said. (Mr. O’Neil said Filene’s did not do this at the moment.)
The coupon efforts are nascent, but coupon companies say that when they get more data about how people are responding, they can make different offers to different consumers.
“Over time,” Mr. Treiber said, “we’ll be able to do much better profiling around certain I.P. addresses, to say, hey, this I.P. address is showing a proclivity for printing clothing apparel coupons and is really only responding to coupons greater than 20 percent off.”
That alarms some privacy advocates.
Companies can “offer you, perhaps, less desirable products than they offer me, or offer you the same product as they offer me but at a higher price,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, which has asked the Federal Trade Commission for tighter rules on online advertising. “There really have been no rules set up for this ecosystem.”
I like printable coupons. I admit I didn't share one recently because it had MY NAME on it and could not delete. Its scary the amount of info thats out there on all of us, so be careful.
-MB
Online Coupons Know a Lot About You, and They Tell
By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD
New York Times
April 16, 2010
For decades, shoppers have taken advantage of coupons. Now, the coupons are taking advantage of the shoppers.
A new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, is packed with information about the customer who uses it. While the coupons look standard, their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place.
And all that information follows that customer into the mall. For example, if a man walks into a Filene’s Basement to buy a suit for his wedding and shows a coupon he retrieved online, the company’s marketing agency can figure out whether he used the search terms “Hugo Boss suit” or “discount wedding clothes” to research his purchase (just don’t tell his fiancée).
Coupons from the Internet are the fastest-growing part of the coupon world — their redemption increased 263 percent to about 50 million coupons in 2009, according to the coupon-processing company Inmar. Using coupons to link Internet behavior with in-store shopping lets retailers figure out which ad slogans or online product promotions work best, how long someone waits between searching and shopping, even what offers a shopper will respond to or ignore.
The coupons can, in some cases, be tracked not just to an anonymous shopper but to an identifiable person: a retailer could know that Amy Smith printed a 15 percent-off coupon after searching for appliance discounts at Ebates.com on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and redeemed it later that afternoon at the store.
“You can really key into who they are,” said Don Batsford Jr., who works on online advertising for the tax preparation company Jackson Hewitt, whose coupons include search information. “It’s almost like being able to read their mind, because they’re confessing to the search engine what they’re looking for.”
While companies once had a slim dossier on each consumer, they now have databases packed with information. And every time a person goes shopping, visits a Web site or buys something, the database gets another entry.
“There is a feeling that anonymity in this space is kind of dead,” said Chris Jay Hoofnagle, director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology’s information privacy programs.
None of the tracking is visible to consumers. The coupons, for companies as diverse as Ruby Tuesday and Lord & Taylor, are handled by a company called RevTrax, which displays them on the retailers’ sites or on coupon Web sites, not its own site.
Even if consumers could figure out that RevTrax was creating the coupons, it does not have a privacy policy on its site — RevTrax says that is because it handles data for the retailers and does not directly interact with consumers. RevTrax can also include retailers’ own client identification numbers (Amy Smith might be client No. 2458230), then the retailer can connect that with the actual person if it wants to, for example, to send a follow-up offer or a thank-you note.
Using coupons also lets the retailers get around Google hurdles. Google allows its search advertisers to see reports on which keywords are working well as a whole but not on how each person is responding to each slogan.
“We’ve built privacy protections into all Google services and report Web site trends only in aggregate, without identifying individual users,” Sandra Heikkinen, a spokeswoman for Google, said in an e-mail message.
The retailers, however, can get to an individual level by sending different keyword searches to different Web addresses. The distinct Web addresses are invisible to the consumer, who usually sees just a Web page with a simple address at the top of it.
So clicking on an ad for Jackson Hewitt after searching for “new 2010 deductions” would send someone to a different behind-the-scenes URL than after searching for “Jackson Hewitt 2010,” though the Web pages and addresses might look identical. This data could be coded onto a coupon.
RevTrax works as closely with image-rich display ads, with coupons also signaling what ad a person saw and on what site.
“Wherever we provide a link, whether it’s on search or banner, that thing you click can include actual keywords,” said Rob O’Neil, director of online marketing at Tag New Media, which works with Filene’s. “There’s some trickery.”
The companies argue that the coupon strategy gives them direct feedback on how well their marketing is working.
Once the shopper prints an online coupon or sends it to his cellphone and then goes to a store, the clerk scans it. The bar code information is sent to RevTrax, which, with the ad agency, analyzes it.
“We break people up into teeny little cross sections of who we think they are, and we test that out against how they respond,” said Mr. Batsford, who is a partner at 31 Media, an online marketing company.
RevTrax can identify online shoppers when they are signed in to a coupon site like Ebates or FatWallet or the retailer’s own site. It says it avoids connecting that number with real people to steer clear of privacy issues, but clients can make that match.
The retailer can also make that connection when it is offering coupons to its Facebook fans, like Filene’s Basement is doing.
“When someone joins a fan club, the user’s Facebook ID becomes visible to the merchandiser,” Mr. Treiber said. “We take that and embed it in a bar code or promotion code.”
“When the consumer redeems the offer in store, we can track it back, in this case, not to the Google search term but to the actual Facebook user ID that was signing up,” he said. Although Facebook does not signal that Amy Smith responded to a given ad, Filene’s could look up the user ID connected to the coupon and “do some more manual-type research — you could easily see your sex, your location and what you’re interested in,” Mr. Treiber said. (Mr. O’Neil said Filene’s did not do this at the moment.)
The coupon efforts are nascent, but coupon companies say that when they get more data about how people are responding, they can make different offers to different consumers.
“Over time,” Mr. Treiber said, “we’ll be able to do much better profiling around certain I.P. addresses, to say, hey, this I.P. address is showing a proclivity for printing clothing apparel coupons and is really only responding to coupons greater than 20 percent off.”
That alarms some privacy advocates.
Companies can “offer you, perhaps, less desirable products than they offer me, or offer you the same product as they offer me but at a higher price,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, which has asked the Federal Trade Commission for tighter rules on online advertising. “There really have been no rules set up for this ecosystem.”
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Don't pay sticker price
All weekend long there have been radio ads hyping this article. It will be next week before I can actually read the whole thing, but I wanted to post anyway. My gut tells me there are some useful tips here.
Sorry I have been so MIA lately. I am slammed. I hope this insanity ends soon. I miss my updates.
Hope you enjoyed the snow, if you got it.
Sorry I have been so MIA lately. I am slammed. I hope this insanity ends soon. I miss my updates.
Hope you enjoyed the snow, if you got it.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Cutting the cord...
We pay about $85/month for our cable AND Internet. I threatened to leave Comcast last year and raised holy hell. They bribed me with lots of free stuff, such as a DVR, so it wasn't worth us to leave. Besides, we need the Internet, and I refuse REFUSE to go back to Verizon Internet ever again.
But...if you are thinking of going cable-free, which will certainly help you save some money, here is an interesting article. Full disclosure it features a Blue Patch reader and a former colleague of mine too boot.
Enjoy!
But...if you are thinking of going cable-free, which will certainly help you save some money, here is an interesting article. Full disclosure it features a Blue Patch reader and a former colleague of mine too boot.
Enjoy!
Monday, January 4, 2010
A money diet
As you know by now I am a fan of Michelle Singeltary from the Washington Post. This excerpt from her new book was in The Post yesterday. Its a good read and I plan to implement some of it later this month. Will keep you posted on those results, but wanted to share for your saving benefit/planning as well.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saying goodbye to a year that in some ways wasn't
Depending on how tomorrow goes, this could very well be my last post of 2009.
I just checked our savings account statements. On Dec. 31, 2008, we had "x" in the bank. This was nearly a month after my husband's layoff. Today, despite everything we have been through, and including the purchase of a new car, and major home repair work, our savings account balance is "x+$1,279." Not bad. The high water mark was on May 30 (two weeks after my layoff) when we had "x+11,714."
We started the year with zero credit card debt. Until yesterday this was the case as well. But the holidays and other expenses (weddings, flights, other unplanned repairs) added up. We could easily pay the Discover off, but I decided the peace of mind I have from seeing a balance that would pay for a real emergency, should one arise, was worth the $30 I would pay (yes, I called to find out exactly how much it would be) to carry the balance. Not happy about it, but you do what you have to. I don't expect to carry it long.
Many of the things we did this year seem like common sense to me. We do not eat out that much, and our gifts to one another for birthdays or holidays have centered more around thought than extravagance or price. I have grown to love my crockpot, and making spaghetti sauce is a favorite. Freecyle has become one of my favorite things to do (both in the giving and getting departments).
This will sound odd, but in many ways I am glad we experienced what we did. It has certainly taught me to appreciate our many blessings (and that's exactly what they are) far more than I think I did before. We have a beautiful son and our health. No matter how much I complain about our 800 sf of love, at the end of the day, we have a roof over our heads and a perfect night for me really is sitting on the couch watching tv or playing a game with my husband. I am even content for him to play his mindless video games (which I will never understand) if I can read a book or the newspaper. I look at many people who have much more of material value and wonder if they are truly as content?
Looking forward to 2010, we are going to have to do some serious soul-searching and planning as to what we want (now that the needs are taken care of). I want to get our savings back up. While we have about a three-month emergency fund in place, I would like to make this six. I would also like to have money for a down payment (one day!) for a larger home. A girl can dream. Regardless of whether we buy or rent, I hope and pray Santa visits us in a larger place than we are in now. Our living room looks like Santa's toybag EXPLODED everywhere, and up until this morning when the trash went out, our kitchen was overflowing with boxes.
I would like my husband to be able to contribute more to his 401k. While his new job pays a fair amount more than my last job did, we are actually making less because his health insurance benefits are atrocious compared to what I received. I had known my old benefits were good, I had no idea they were that good!
We would like at some point for our son to be a big brother. I don't dare look into what the cost of raising a child is according to the experts. But in this same vein we need to begin working on his college 529, something that took a back seat in May.
As many of you know I like to read the newspaper, old habits die hard what can I say. I'll admit reading this article in Sunday's Wash Post Business section (which has become one of my favorite sections -- even if I don't get to read until Tuesday night), made me jealous. These kids have no idea how lucky they are, I can only dream to have the savings they do. And we will be paying off my student loans until our son starts college -- no that is not an exaggeration.
But then I read this article, also from Sunday Biz section, and I saw a lot of us in the couples they profiled. We have shopped around and I did threaten to leave Comcast if they didn't reduce our rates. They did. And our rate is now cheaper. Next up on the chopping block in the new year, car insurance and cell phone plans. I'll keep you posted.
My sister-in-law said me to once they did not get worried about us (too much, that is) last summer because we did not seem worried or upset. I really did have faith, and I still do. Whatever is meant to happen, as long as I have my husband, my son and our health, we will be ok.
I am human though, I don't understand paying $200 to watch a football for teams you don't care about. And I will never get the need to have the newest shoes, makeup or purses (Vera Bradley and Clinique make nothing off of me). But as 2009 chugs on out into the history books, I know now more then ever that we as a family unit are richer in many of the ways that matter most: our strong family and friends, and each other. For that, I am and always will be eternally grateful!
Happy 2010! See you on the flip side...
I just checked our savings account statements. On Dec. 31, 2008, we had "x" in the bank. This was nearly a month after my husband's layoff. Today, despite everything we have been through, and including the purchase of a new car, and major home repair work, our savings account balance is "x+$1,279." Not bad. The high water mark was on May 30 (two weeks after my layoff) when we had "x+11,714."
We started the year with zero credit card debt. Until yesterday this was the case as well. But the holidays and other expenses (weddings, flights, other unplanned repairs) added up. We could easily pay the Discover off, but I decided the peace of mind I have from seeing a balance that would pay for a real emergency, should one arise, was worth the $30 I would pay (yes, I called to find out exactly how much it would be) to carry the balance. Not happy about it, but you do what you have to. I don't expect to carry it long.
Many of the things we did this year seem like common sense to me. We do not eat out that much, and our gifts to one another for birthdays or holidays have centered more around thought than extravagance or price. I have grown to love my crockpot, and making spaghetti sauce is a favorite. Freecyle has become one of my favorite things to do (both in the giving and getting departments).
This will sound odd, but in many ways I am glad we experienced what we did. It has certainly taught me to appreciate our many blessings (and that's exactly what they are) far more than I think I did before. We have a beautiful son and our health. No matter how much I complain about our 800 sf of love, at the end of the day, we have a roof over our heads and a perfect night for me really is sitting on the couch watching tv or playing a game with my husband. I am even content for him to play his mindless video games (which I will never understand) if I can read a book or the newspaper. I look at many people who have much more of material value and wonder if they are truly as content?
Looking forward to 2010, we are going to have to do some serious soul-searching and planning as to what we want (now that the needs are taken care of). I want to get our savings back up. While we have about a three-month emergency fund in place, I would like to make this six. I would also like to have money for a down payment (one day!) for a larger home. A girl can dream. Regardless of whether we buy or rent, I hope and pray Santa visits us in a larger place than we are in now. Our living room looks like Santa's toybag EXPLODED everywhere, and up until this morning when the trash went out, our kitchen was overflowing with boxes.
I would like my husband to be able to contribute more to his 401k. While his new job pays a fair amount more than my last job did, we are actually making less because his health insurance benefits are atrocious compared to what I received. I had known my old benefits were good, I had no idea they were that good!
We would like at some point for our son to be a big brother. I don't dare look into what the cost of raising a child is according to the experts. But in this same vein we need to begin working on his college 529, something that took a back seat in May.
As many of you know I like to read the newspaper, old habits die hard what can I say. I'll admit reading this article in Sunday's Wash Post Business section (which has become one of my favorite sections -- even if I don't get to read until Tuesday night), made me jealous. These kids have no idea how lucky they are, I can only dream to have the savings they do. And we will be paying off my student loans until our son starts college -- no that is not an exaggeration.
But then I read this article, also from Sunday Biz section, and I saw a lot of us in the couples they profiled. We have shopped around and I did threaten to leave Comcast if they didn't reduce our rates. They did. And our rate is now cheaper. Next up on the chopping block in the new year, car insurance and cell phone plans. I'll keep you posted.
My sister-in-law said me to once they did not get worried about us (too much, that is) last summer because we did not seem worried or upset. I really did have faith, and I still do. Whatever is meant to happen, as long as I have my husband, my son and our health, we will be ok.
I am human though, I don't understand paying $200 to watch a football for teams you don't care about. And I will never get the need to have the newest shoes, makeup or purses (Vera Bradley and Clinique make nothing off of me). But as 2009 chugs on out into the history books, I know now more then ever that we as a family unit are richer in many of the ways that matter most: our strong family and friends, and each other. For that, I am and always will be eternally grateful!
Happy 2010! See you on the flip side...
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
More prep work for 2010
I caught the tail end of this segment on the Today show this morning. I have often thought about doing this, and I think now that I have seen it and am writing about it here, I WILL!
I have found that in the areas where I have been able to sucessfully organize things, right now that's the kitchen, I have be grateful and consistent. While I do balance my checkbook and religiously review online statements, every little bit helps.
I have found that in the areas where I have been able to sucessfully organize things, right now that's the kitchen, I have be grateful and consistent. While I do balance my checkbook and religiously review online statements, every little bit helps.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Coupons on the rise in 2009..and my new fav store
I know, file that under, "tell me something I don't already know." But this article was in the Baltimore Sun today and I thought appropriate.
I have found in the last three days some retailers have different takes on coupons that are not physically present at the time of purchase. The Old Navy store refused to offer my 30% coupon on Friday, despite having the code, because they said they need it "for their records." We are headed to visit the inlaws today, and need to get oil changed before the 9 hour journey. Our dealership Landmark Honda, has a promotion online and I called in advance. They said they would honor it, despite the fact we are unable to print out coupon.
Moral: Call and ask in advance, and you are likely to have better luck with smaller independent shops who want your business as opposed to big box chains.
Speaking of Big Box chains, I am adding REI to my list of favorite stores for customer service. They are top notch! As the "light dusting" we experienced this weekend was approaching on Friday, I went to five stores seeking toddler boots for our 18 mo son. I knew REI would be nauseatingly expensive, but I had no choice. Sure enough, when I got there, the boots were $40 and they WERE THE LAST PAIR! I didn't have The Monkey with me, so had to guess.
When I asked about their return policy, fearing they would say once you take them out of the store, tough cookies, the sales associate told me they had a 100% guarantee.
"Let him run around in the snow, if they don't fit or he hates them, you can return them," he said.
This was a tremendous load of my shoulders. Prior to the emergency black shoes I needed for the wedding last month, I can't tell you the last time I spent $40 on an item of clothing (including shoes) for me. I was willing to pay for them, IF THEY WORKED, but was sick that they would be too small, too big, or just downright uncomfortable and we would be on the hook.
Fast forward: We get a blizzard, and shoes are too small for The Monkey. He was miserable in them. I returned them yesterday to REI and they did not blink an eye. Boots returned. Money back. All is good in the world.
REI has made me a shopper for life, so thanks!
I have found in the last three days some retailers have different takes on coupons that are not physically present at the time of purchase. The Old Navy store refused to offer my 30% coupon on Friday, despite having the code, because they said they need it "for their records." We are headed to visit the inlaws today, and need to get oil changed before the 9 hour journey. Our dealership Landmark Honda, has a promotion online and I called in advance. They said they would honor it, despite the fact we are unable to print out coupon.
Moral: Call and ask in advance, and you are likely to have better luck with smaller independent shops who want your business as opposed to big box chains.
Speaking of Big Box chains, I am adding REI to my list of favorite stores for customer service. They are top notch! As the "light dusting" we experienced this weekend was approaching on Friday, I went to five stores seeking toddler boots for our 18 mo son. I knew REI would be nauseatingly expensive, but I had no choice. Sure enough, when I got there, the boots were $40 and they WERE THE LAST PAIR! I didn't have The Monkey with me, so had to guess.
When I asked about their return policy, fearing they would say once you take them out of the store, tough cookies, the sales associate told me they had a 100% guarantee.
"Let him run around in the snow, if they don't fit or he hates them, you can return them," he said.
This was a tremendous load of my shoulders. Prior to the emergency black shoes I needed for the wedding last month, I can't tell you the last time I spent $40 on an item of clothing (including shoes) for me. I was willing to pay for them, IF THEY WORKED, but was sick that they would be too small, too big, or just downright uncomfortable and we would be on the hook.
Fast forward: We get a blizzard, and shoes are too small for The Monkey. He was miserable in them. I returned them yesterday to REI and they did not blink an eye. Boots returned. Money back. All is good in the world.
REI has made me a shopper for life, so thanks!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Freezer advice
I meant to post this last week when it first came out. But thats life with a toddler!
I love freezing food and saving it for later, especially if I get a good deal on meats and fish, or I make a large batch of pasta sauce. What better way to save money than to save cheap food!
The FOOD section of the Washington Post last week was filled with loads of useful information on how to save, freeze, how long to freeze, what to (and not to) freeze. I have attached it here. I have saved the entire section, and for you non-locals, the pull out PDF graphic is defintely worth a print, you can store with your favorite recipes.
Enjoy!
I love freezing food and saving it for later, especially if I get a good deal on meats and fish, or I make a large batch of pasta sauce. What better way to save money than to save cheap food!
The FOOD section of the Washington Post last week was filled with loads of useful information on how to save, freeze, how long to freeze, what to (and not to) freeze. I have attached it here. I have saved the entire section, and for you non-locals, the pull out PDF graphic is defintely worth a print, you can store with your favorite recipes.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Price war between Wal-Mart and Amazon
Have seen anecdotal evidence of this this week as I compared prices online. I need to be better about looking at Wal-Mart's website. We don't have one here (I know shocker) so I never think to look at them.
An interesting article about their battles is here
An interesting article about their battles is here
Today holiday spending tips
The show had some good ideas from viewers this morning. The areas I completely agree with:
1) Set a budget, say $250 (random number, make sure it suits your family needs)
2) With the budget above, outline. Meaning, delegate $40 for mom, $40 for Dad, $25 for brother, $30 for best friend, etc. Now take this outline with you shopping. If you find a sweater that you love for mom that costs $45, than someone on the list has to lose $5 from their allotment. The show went so far as to say bring this money in cash with you and actually take the money from dad's envelope and put into Mom's before buying.
There were a few areas I disagreed with, but its too late now in the year to debate them or use them, so look for those in January.
Click here to watch the video, its about 5 minutes.
1) Set a budget, say $250 (random number, make sure it suits your family needs)
2) With the budget above, outline. Meaning, delegate $40 for mom, $40 for Dad, $25 for brother, $30 for best friend, etc. Now take this outline with you shopping. If you find a sweater that you love for mom that costs $45, than someone on the list has to lose $5 from their allotment. The show went so far as to say bring this money in cash with you and actually take the money from dad's envelope and put into Mom's before buying.
There were a few areas I disagreed with, but its too late now in the year to debate them or use them, so look for those in January.
Click here to watch the video, its about 5 minutes.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Cooking and cleaning....
Cooking Light is one of my favorite (if not my very favorite) magazines. My MIL 'Marie' gives it to me every year and it's the best gift because it gets used often, is very much appreciated and never ever goes out of style.
So when I saw on one of the blogs I follow (they are on the right side of the homepage of this blog) that Cooking Light was now $5 for a FULL YEAR I had to repost and find out more. Sure enough, Amazon is running the deal. Click the above link for more details.
I can honestly say that even if I didn't get this as a gift, it would remain, no matter what our financial straights the one magazine we kept. I get so many ideas from it, and just love sitting on the couch and sifting through the recipes. And they are timeless. My husband knows not to dare pitch the 2000 issue with post-it notes plastered on the inside from my days at 1616.
Happy Eating!!!
As for cleaning, my anger at Shoppers has subsided. One silver lining is the fact they double-bag all their plastic bags. This came in handy this week since bag our son's diapers in them before placing in trash can.
In addition to double bagging we put left over dryer sheets in the trash can too, so the smell is completely eliminated. Even if you don't have diaper issues, the left over dryer sheets would also work well in a linen closet and in clothes drawers.
So when I saw on one of the blogs I follow (they are on the right side of the homepage of this blog) that Cooking Light was now $5 for a FULL YEAR I had to repost and find out more. Sure enough, Amazon is running the deal. Click the above link for more details.
I can honestly say that even if I didn't get this as a gift, it would remain, no matter what our financial straights the one magazine we kept. I get so many ideas from it, and just love sitting on the couch and sifting through the recipes. And they are timeless. My husband knows not to dare pitch the 2000 issue with post-it notes plastered on the inside from my days at 1616.
Happy Eating!!!
As for cleaning, my anger at Shoppers has subsided. One silver lining is the fact they double-bag all their plastic bags. This came in handy this week since bag our son's diapers in them before placing in trash can.
In addition to double bagging we put left over dryer sheets in the trash can too, so the smell is completely eliminated. Even if you don't have diaper issues, the left over dryer sheets would also work well in a linen closet and in clothes drawers.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Reader reports...
First up, from my college friend JL.
This AP story contains a lot of useful advice! I always follow a list and also write down on a piece of paper what coupons I have so I don't waste time flipping through flimpsy pieces of paper in the meal aisle wondering if I have to buy 2 or 3 Hamburger Helpers to get the 75 cents off.
Second, reader MTS (we went to hs together, she'll always be MT, just like I am likely always to be MS) sent this comment in:
I used coupons at the grocery store for the
first time in my life. I went on shopathome.com printed the coupons and
saved $14. Not bad for the first time, but I want to be one of those crazy
people that can get $150 in groceries for $50 or less!
I had never heard of shopathome.com before her email. But I checked it out, and not bad! Our printer is not hooked up so I didn't get the chance to use the coupons before I went out last night. I think someone at Shoppers had gone there though since I saw (and used, thanks anonymous donor) a printed coupon in the stock aisle.
I look forward to using that site, so thanks MTS!!!
This AP story contains a lot of useful advice! I always follow a list and also write down on a piece of paper what coupons I have so I don't waste time flipping through flimpsy pieces of paper in the meal aisle wondering if I have to buy 2 or 3 Hamburger Helpers to get the 75 cents off.
Second, reader MTS (we went to hs together, she'll always be MT, just like I am likely always to be MS) sent this comment in:
I used coupons at the grocery store for the
first time in my life. I went on shopathome.com printed the coupons and
saved $14. Not bad for the first time, but I want to be one of those crazy
people that can get $150 in groceries for $50 or less!
I had never heard of shopathome.com before her email. But I checked it out, and not bad! Our printer is not hooked up so I didn't get the chance to use the coupons before I went out last night. I think someone at Shoppers had gone there though since I saw (and used, thanks anonymous donor) a printed coupon in the stock aisle.
I look forward to using that site, so thanks MTS!!!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Frugality, yesterday's news?
Happy Monday! Hope you all had a nice weekend. Here in NoVa we were pretty much drowned rats.
Short post tonight.
First, saw this article today in Washington Post. Ironically I was just talking about this very issue with a girlfriend yesterday. I sincerely hope this is not the case.
On Saturday I had a rare trip to Target where I was not rushing around and did not have my son with me. Unfortunately it was 9:30 at night and not only was I exhausted from a long day of cabin fever inside our 800 sf of love with a sick hubby and a rambunctious monkey, the store was just about to close at 10, so I didn't have that much time. What I noticed though really surprised me.
For example, Yoplait yogurt is regularly .52, this is significantly cheaper than all the grocery stores I have shopped in. Some will have this as a sale price, but not a regular price.
Target brand tomatoes, the ones I would use make pasta, are less than $1!
There were others too, but I can't remember. There were also much more expensive items as well.
Bottom line, I have decided I need to plan a trip to Target sans son and not up against a time clock, so that I can really examine their prices more closely. I might have to make it one of my must stops.
Following up on last week's Magruder post, I did receive my coupon today for $1 gallon of milk. Also in the same post, I talked about reusing my green peppers from a Chinese delivery order for pasta sauce and Shepard's pie. The verdict: can't tell the difference. I washed off all the kung pao sauce and both items turned out great.
Finally, I off tomorrow to visit my old roommates for a few days. They are doing super loud construction here and not only can my son not nap, but I can't think. I will have sporadic Internet access. I am going to try to post while away, but if not, that's the reason.
Short post tonight.
First, saw this article today in Washington Post. Ironically I was just talking about this very issue with a girlfriend yesterday. I sincerely hope this is not the case.
On Saturday I had a rare trip to Target where I was not rushing around and did not have my son with me. Unfortunately it was 9:30 at night and not only was I exhausted from a long day of cabin fever inside our 800 sf of love with a sick hubby and a rambunctious monkey, the store was just about to close at 10, so I didn't have that much time. What I noticed though really surprised me.
For example, Yoplait yogurt is regularly .52, this is significantly cheaper than all the grocery stores I have shopped in. Some will have this as a sale price, but not a regular price.
Target brand tomatoes, the ones I would use make pasta, are less than $1!
There were others too, but I can't remember. There were also much more expensive items as well.
Bottom line, I have decided I need to plan a trip to Target sans son and not up against a time clock, so that I can really examine their prices more closely. I might have to make it one of my must stops.
Following up on last week's Magruder post, I did receive my coupon today for $1 gallon of milk. Also in the same post, I talked about reusing my green peppers from a Chinese delivery order for pasta sauce and Shepard's pie. The verdict: can't tell the difference. I washed off all the kung pao sauce and both items turned out great.
Finally, I off tomorrow to visit my old roommates for a few days. They are doing super loud construction here and not only can my son not nap, but I can't think. I will have sporadic Internet access. I am going to try to post while away, but if not, that's the reason.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Thrifty is the new black....and its 'selling' like hotcakes!
This article comes courtesy of the husband of one our readers. He sent the whole thing, so I decided I would just cut and paste here. Enjoy!
NEW YORK (AP) - There has never been a better time to be a consumer. America is on sale.
The Great Recession has caused massive job losses and hardship for millions, but it has also fostered a shoppers' paradise. Anyone who still has the means to spend can find unheard of deals.
Prices on everything from clothes to coffee to cat food are dropping, some faster than they have in half a century. Items rarely discounted - like Tiffany engagements rings - are now. The two biggest purchases most people make - homes and new cars - are selling at steep price reductions.
"This is the new normal," says Donald Keprta, president of Dominick's, a supermarket chain in the Midwest, which just cut prices by as much as 30 percent on thousands of items. "We aren't going back."
Consumers like Karen Wilmes, a mother of two in Hopkinton, R.I., relish the steals. During a recent trip to Shaw's Supermarkets, she bought a basketful of goods, including Eggo waffles, Kleenex tissues and Betty Crocker cake mix. The retail price: $63.89. Wilmes paid $7.31 by buying items on sale and using coupons.
"The deals out there are unbelievable," says Wilmes, 36, who writes the Frugal Rhode Island Mama blog, which tracks local and national bargains. "We can put the money I save toward something else."
And she's doing just that, but only when she can find another deal. Wilmes and her husband recently bought a Samsung television from Best Buy's Web site for $1,299, about $300 less than she found at other stores. She also got free delivery and another $13 back from ebates.com, which receives commissions from online retailers for directing customers their way.
What's happening now has been building for years. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. introduced "every-day low prices" many years ago. Amazon.com redefined the idea of bargain prices during the late 1990s when it helped introduce online shopping. After the 2001 recession, automakers introduced zero-percent financing to boost sales. McDonald's "Dollar Meals" made fast food even cheaper.
But until the Great Recession came along, consumers hadn't seen anything yet.
Last fall's financial meltdown triggered a plunge in stock prices and home values and wiped out 11 percent - $6.6 trillion - of household wealth in six months. It also put an end to easy credit, which had fueled the consumption that powered the economy for most of the decade.
Those who still have jobs don't want to spend as they once did. There is a new societal pressure to be careful and smart when buying almost anything. From Chicago's Miracle Mile to malls around Orange County, Calif., it was once a status symbol to trot around with armloads of shopping bags with designer names on them. Now, it's considered ostentatious.
Traditionally, manufacturers and retailers lowered prices to clear inventory. Today, they're cutting prices because consumers are demanding it. If it lasts, the ramifications will be wide-ranging.
"There's almost a new morality to spending," Liz Claiborne Inc. CEO Bill McComb told an investor conference last month.
The bargains being offered at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., make it seem the day after Christmas. But it's only a weekday in September. The deals start at 25 percent off and keep getting better. Neiman Marcus, Forever 21, Ann Taylor, Macy's, Gap - across the retailing spectrum there are promotions.
Retail sales remain sluggish, and more than half of the people surveyed recently by America's Research Group and UBS said they are shopping less. But when they do shop, most go to stores with lower prices or wait for sales before returning to their favorite retailer, according to the survey.
Dave Ratner sees this price chase first hand. His four-store chain in western Massachusetts, Dave's Soda & Pet City, has never been so focused on promotions and low prices. During the past year, customers stopped buying $50 bags of premium dog food and "special" $10 pet treats. Pet-related Halloween merchandise usually sells well, but he isn't stocking any this year because he doesn't think people will buy it. Instead, he's offering big discounts on cheaper brands of pet food.
"It's killing my profit margins, but if you don't offer specials and lots of promotions, you aren't operating in the current world," he says.
Great buys are not exclusive to retailing. The government's Cash for Clunkers program is over, but more than half of car buyers still get a cash rebate, according to J.D. Power & Associates.
Hotel rooms cost travelers nearly 20 percent less, on average, than last year, the biggest decline since Smith Travel Research began collecting data in 1987.
Home prices have dropped 30 percent, on average, from the peak in 2006. In some markets, they're down more than 50 percent. Homes in parts of Detroit are cheaper than a new car.
Overall, prices are tumbling at the fastest rate in decades. The government's Consumer Price Index, which measures the average price of goods and services purchased by households, has fallen 1.5 percent over the last 12 months. The reading for July showed a 2.1 percent annual decline, the biggest since 1950.
The largest decline has been in energy prices, but other areas have fallen, too. Among them: food, appliances, furniture, jewelry, sporting goods, audio and visual equipment and apartment rents.
People like Bruce Halkin, 64, an advertising executive in Aventura, Fla., are benefiting. He will soon close on a three-bedroom home in nearby Boca Raton on a golf course. He's paying $335,000, 8 percent below the $365,000 asking price. The sellers bought the home for $410,000 in 2006 and spent $75,000 on renovations.
Halkin's deal-chasing doesn't stop there. On a recent trip to Macy's, he picked up two pairs of Ralph Lauren Polo shorts, a Polo shirt and a hat for $50. At full price, the bill would have topped $200.
"I've learned to buy when I see deals not necessarily when I need anything," he says. "Thankfully, the bargains keep coming."
Those with goods and services to sell hope that the discounting bolsters sales, which would help get the economy chugging along again. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy.
But ever-lower prices have risks, too. The more shoppers expect prices to fall, the less they shop until prices drop. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that forces companies to keep cutting. That reduces profits, making it less likely companies will hire workers or raise wages. Economists say the worst scenario would be a deflationary spiral, which Japan has been stuck in for the last two decades.
"The Japanese government has been trying to stimulate the economy there since the 1990s," says Gary Shilling, who runs an economic consulting firm in Springfield, N.J., and has written two books on deflation.
The U.S. economy is not near such an extreme. But what's emerging is the realization that pricing is being redefined.
Dominick's supermarkets announced in late August that prices on a range of items in its 81 stores would fall by as much as a third. Included in the cuts were both private-label goods and national brands, such as Coffee Mate creamers, Bumble Bee tuna and Tombstone frozen pizza.
Profit margins at grocery stores typically are just 2 percent. Dominick's hopes the low prices will attract customers, who will also buy enough full-priced items to make up the difference.
Other companies are assessing pricing as never before. Procter & Gamble long dismissed the idea of cutting prices for its stable of well-known brands, including Tide detergent and Gillette razors.
In September, the world's largest consumer products maker relented. It announced price cuts across 10 percent of its global line and plans to increase its promotions emphasizing value.
Others are learning that aggressive price cutting can move merchandise. Sony cut prices on its PlayStation 3 video game console by $100 to about $300 in August, and sales shot up 300 percent during the following three weeks.
Dick's Sporting Goods sold boxes of a dozen Nike One golf balls for $42.99 at the start of the year. The balls are used by Tiger Woods and other professional golfers, but sales were lackluster. Now, Dick's offers two boxes for $59.
Demand has soared.
NEW YORK (AP) - There has never been a better time to be a consumer. America is on sale.
The Great Recession has caused massive job losses and hardship for millions, but it has also fostered a shoppers' paradise. Anyone who still has the means to spend can find unheard of deals.
Prices on everything from clothes to coffee to cat food are dropping, some faster than they have in half a century. Items rarely discounted - like Tiffany engagements rings - are now. The two biggest purchases most people make - homes and new cars - are selling at steep price reductions.
"This is the new normal," says Donald Keprta, president of Dominick's, a supermarket chain in the Midwest, which just cut prices by as much as 30 percent on thousands of items. "We aren't going back."
Consumers like Karen Wilmes, a mother of two in Hopkinton, R.I., relish the steals. During a recent trip to Shaw's Supermarkets, she bought a basketful of goods, including Eggo waffles, Kleenex tissues and Betty Crocker cake mix. The retail price: $63.89. Wilmes paid $7.31 by buying items on sale and using coupons.
"The deals out there are unbelievable," says Wilmes, 36, who writes the Frugal Rhode Island Mama blog, which tracks local and national bargains. "We can put the money I save toward something else."
And she's doing just that, but only when she can find another deal. Wilmes and her husband recently bought a Samsung television from Best Buy's Web site for $1,299, about $300 less than she found at other stores. She also got free delivery and another $13 back from ebates.com, which receives commissions from online retailers for directing customers their way.
What's happening now has been building for years. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. introduced "every-day low prices" many years ago. Amazon.com redefined the idea of bargain prices during the late 1990s when it helped introduce online shopping. After the 2001 recession, automakers introduced zero-percent financing to boost sales. McDonald's "Dollar Meals" made fast food even cheaper.
But until the Great Recession came along, consumers hadn't seen anything yet.
Last fall's financial meltdown triggered a plunge in stock prices and home values and wiped out 11 percent - $6.6 trillion - of household wealth in six months. It also put an end to easy credit, which had fueled the consumption that powered the economy for most of the decade.
Those who still have jobs don't want to spend as they once did. There is a new societal pressure to be careful and smart when buying almost anything. From Chicago's Miracle Mile to malls around Orange County, Calif., it was once a status symbol to trot around with armloads of shopping bags with designer names on them. Now, it's considered ostentatious.
Traditionally, manufacturers and retailers lowered prices to clear inventory. Today, they're cutting prices because consumers are demanding it. If it lasts, the ramifications will be wide-ranging.
"There's almost a new morality to spending," Liz Claiborne Inc. CEO Bill McComb told an investor conference last month.
The bargains being offered at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, N.J., make it seem the day after Christmas. But it's only a weekday in September. The deals start at 25 percent off and keep getting better. Neiman Marcus, Forever 21, Ann Taylor, Macy's, Gap - across the retailing spectrum there are promotions.
Retail sales remain sluggish, and more than half of the people surveyed recently by America's Research Group and UBS said they are shopping less. But when they do shop, most go to stores with lower prices or wait for sales before returning to their favorite retailer, according to the survey.
Dave Ratner sees this price chase first hand. His four-store chain in western Massachusetts, Dave's Soda & Pet City, has never been so focused on promotions and low prices. During the past year, customers stopped buying $50 bags of premium dog food and "special" $10 pet treats. Pet-related Halloween merchandise usually sells well, but he isn't stocking any this year because he doesn't think people will buy it. Instead, he's offering big discounts on cheaper brands of pet food.
"It's killing my profit margins, but if you don't offer specials and lots of promotions, you aren't operating in the current world," he says.
Great buys are not exclusive to retailing. The government's Cash for Clunkers program is over, but more than half of car buyers still get a cash rebate, according to J.D. Power & Associates.
Hotel rooms cost travelers nearly 20 percent less, on average, than last year, the biggest decline since Smith Travel Research began collecting data in 1987.
Home prices have dropped 30 percent, on average, from the peak in 2006. In some markets, they're down more than 50 percent. Homes in parts of Detroit are cheaper than a new car.
Overall, prices are tumbling at the fastest rate in decades. The government's Consumer Price Index, which measures the average price of goods and services purchased by households, has fallen 1.5 percent over the last 12 months. The reading for July showed a 2.1 percent annual decline, the biggest since 1950.
The largest decline has been in energy prices, but other areas have fallen, too. Among them: food, appliances, furniture, jewelry, sporting goods, audio and visual equipment and apartment rents.
People like Bruce Halkin, 64, an advertising executive in Aventura, Fla., are benefiting. He will soon close on a three-bedroom home in nearby Boca Raton on a golf course. He's paying $335,000, 8 percent below the $365,000 asking price. The sellers bought the home for $410,000 in 2006 and spent $75,000 on renovations.
Halkin's deal-chasing doesn't stop there. On a recent trip to Macy's, he picked up two pairs of Ralph Lauren Polo shorts, a Polo shirt and a hat for $50. At full price, the bill would have topped $200.
"I've learned to buy when I see deals not necessarily when I need anything," he says. "Thankfully, the bargains keep coming."
Those with goods and services to sell hope that the discounting bolsters sales, which would help get the economy chugging along again. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the economy.
But ever-lower prices have risks, too. The more shoppers expect prices to fall, the less they shop until prices drop. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that forces companies to keep cutting. That reduces profits, making it less likely companies will hire workers or raise wages. Economists say the worst scenario would be a deflationary spiral, which Japan has been stuck in for the last two decades.
"The Japanese government has been trying to stimulate the economy there since the 1990s," says Gary Shilling, who runs an economic consulting firm in Springfield, N.J., and has written two books on deflation.
The U.S. economy is not near such an extreme. But what's emerging is the realization that pricing is being redefined.
Dominick's supermarkets announced in late August that prices on a range of items in its 81 stores would fall by as much as a third. Included in the cuts were both private-label goods and national brands, such as Coffee Mate creamers, Bumble Bee tuna and Tombstone frozen pizza.
Profit margins at grocery stores typically are just 2 percent. Dominick's hopes the low prices will attract customers, who will also buy enough full-priced items to make up the difference.
Other companies are assessing pricing as never before. Procter & Gamble long dismissed the idea of cutting prices for its stable of well-known brands, including Tide detergent and Gillette razors.
In September, the world's largest consumer products maker relented. It announced price cuts across 10 percent of its global line and plans to increase its promotions emphasizing value.
Others are learning that aggressive price cutting can move merchandise. Sony cut prices on its PlayStation 3 video game console by $100 to about $300 in August, and sales shot up 300 percent during the following three weeks.
Dick's Sporting Goods sold boxes of a dozen Nike One golf balls for $42.99 at the start of the year. The balls are used by Tiger Woods and other professional golfers, but sales were lackluster. Now, Dick's offers two boxes for $59.
Demand has soared.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Credit card debt
Michelle Singletary has a regular blog/column in the Washington Post. While I am not saying anyone should subscribe to the newsletter she talks about, her column Sunday has some useful tips on paying down credit card debt that I thought some of my readers might appreciate.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Good Housekeeping: Bargain Shopping Tips
Earlier this month I wrote about how I cancelled magazines, including Good Housekeeping. Luckily, I had already pre-paid until November, so I have one more coming to me. I have always liked GH, ever since I was a kid and my mom would get it. Depending on our finances, I might resubscribe in the new year.
One of the reasons I have enjoyed this magazine is that it is always filled with money saving tips. Like this article in the October issue (which I got to read tonight when both my boys went to bed early and I had a rare quiet house while I was still functional). This blog has written a lot about grocery shopping, but the GH article talks about broader shopping tips, and I will definitely take them to heart.
One of the reasons I have enjoyed this magazine is that it is always filled with money saving tips. Like this article in the October issue (which I got to read tonight when both my boys went to bed early and I had a rare quiet house while I was still functional). This blog has written a lot about grocery shopping, but the GH article talks about broader shopping tips, and I will definitely take them to heart.
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