One very enjoyable stop when we’re in Vermont is Goodies Snack Bar in Addison, VT. For a buck we can get a freakin’ huge creemee (that’s Vermont for soft-serve ice cream). One time I made the mistake of getting a medium hard-pack ice cream cone. The thing had well over a pint of ice cream … Read more
A colleague and his wife are extreme couponers. She spends the equivalent of nearly a full workday a week following through with sales, coupon clipping, stacking, turning in CVS Bonus Bucks, etc. They can get an entire bag of things for next to nothing, and sometimes they even walk away with money in their pocket. … Read more
When we were home-shopping a few years ago, one of the selling points of the subdivision we chose eventually was that it was going to be located close to a future Walmart store. This might not be for everybody, but we like the convenience of being so close to Walmart. They’re giving the other grocery … Read more
I give grocery stores a lot of credit. They do seem to come up with new and exciting ways to get you to spend more money while giving you the impressing that you’re saving money. As I was going through my receipts to enter things in Quicken to track our spending, I ran across what … Read more
My wife and I had dental appointments this afternoon, and spent a bit of time afterwards doing some grocery shopping at Wegmans as long as we were in town. (Combining errands is one of the good ways to save money on gas.) We both love our food, so watching how much we eat out and … Read more
Improving one’s personal finances takes some changes. The easiest ones to make are the ones that don’t seem like sacrifice, or aren’t too big a sacrifice. In our efforts to build up our savings again, we’ll try changing our milk habits. Switching from lactose-free milk in the carton to powdered milk may be a change … Read more
Food is usually a substantial part of a household’s budget. Fortunately, there’s also lots of opportunity for saving money on food. The big budget-killer is usually dining out, so reducing the eating out to a minimum is low-hanging fruit. Beyond that, it’s a matter of spending time to get good deals on food and preparing … Read more