Save $100.00 A Month With A Grocery JournalWritten by Barbara Carr Phillips
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Save a dozen blank pages after price pages to use for menus. When your grocery store circulars are distributed each week, sit down with your journal and create week's menu around meat that is on sale. This will make cooking very easy. For example, if chicken is on sale, serve baked chicken on Monday. Toss leftovers in a casserole dish with a can of cream soup on Tuesday. Marinade a few a few pieces of chicken on Wednesday, then grill and slice them to serve over salad greens. Use leftover grilled chicken to throw over pasta smothered with your favorite sauce on Thursday. The menus will become easier to create over time. After you create four or five weekly menus, you can simply alternate them. Use all pages remaining after menu pages for grocery lists. Date each list. Determine best deals for breakfast, lunch and dinner by checking sale items in your grocer's weekly circular against your price book and your coupons. When you find coupons for items, paperclip them to your grocery list page. Stick to your notebook grocery list when you are shopping. Don't be tempted to buy other specials at your grocery store. Grocers know how to influence consumers to buy on impulse. That's why fresh baked goods are often displayed in front of store. Remember, you don't have to create your journal in one day. Simply leave six to ten blank pages in front of your journal for your price pages, and start creating your weekly menus on next dozen pages. Take your notebook with you every time you do your shopping for one month and price pages will create themselves. If you have grade school children who shop with you, they might stay busy helping you look for prices instead of begging you for newest, sugar frosted breakfast cereal. You can also save your grocery receipts and fill in your price pages while you are watching television. Saving time and money is a cinch with a grocery journal!
Barbara Carr Phillips, journal instructor, believes dreams come true when you learn to journal your way to success. Visit http://journalworkshops.net to order your one-on-one journaling session or to sign up for her free e-zine.
| | College Savings Reward Plans - Making Them Work for YouWritten by Tim Paul
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Use credit card as an intermediary payment vehicle for large purchases. For example, if you borrow to make home improvements, pay contractors and suppliers first with rewards card and then pay credit card with your home equity loan. This will earn you additional points. However, it is very important that you pay your statement balance in full each month. Rewards earned at 1% or 2% will quickly dissipate if you are paying 10% to 13% interest on even a small balance. For rewards to accumulate effectively, it is essential that you use your reward credit card as simply a substitute for cash payment and not as a source of additional credit. Use Free Upromise and BabyMint Savings Clubs - Chances are that you frequent some of grocery and drugstores included in Upromise network and that you already buy products offering Upromise rewards. Since participation costs you nothing, there is no reason not to participate and earn additional rewards. Sign-up for "loyalty cards" offered by grocery stores and drug stores you use. Register these cards on Upromise and then use them every time you shop. The amount you earn will depend on your family's product preferences. As an example, Coke products earn Upromise rewards while Pepsi products do not. Resist becoming too loyal to brands just because of Upromise rewards. If either Coke or Pepsi can satisfy your palette, and Pepsi is on sale, it may be better buy despite lure of Coke's Upromise rewards.The BabyMint merchant network is not as extensive as Upromise. Still, program is free and there may be significant opportunities (especially for on-line shopping) to enhance your rebates. There are other college savings club programs available in addition to Upromise and BabyMint. However, for most part these are "copycats" and appear to not offer any distinct advantages over original Upromise or BabyMint plans. One exception is the edexpress plan which does provide generally higher rebate percentages than other savings club programs. The trade-off is that edexpress has a $24.95 annual membership fee. It's a worth taking a look at edexpress to determine if your family's spending habits are such that additional earned rewards will offset annual fee. Recruit Other Family Members and Friends - Following strategy outlined here, you can earn significant college rewards on your own. But building a network of family and friends willing to direct rewards to your child's college savings account can greatly accelerate your college savings program. According to Finaid.org, 60% of grandparents say that they would contribute to a section 529 college savings plan if asked, especially since they know money will be spent on child's education.Ideally, grandparents and others will use a college rewards credit card and direct reward earnings to your college savings account. However, with large number of other credit card reward programs available, you may not feel comfortable asking them to give up frequent flier miles to put additional cash in your child's account. On other hand, registering family and friends grocery/drugstore loyalty cards through Upromise will cost them nothing. Typically, card user will get in-store discounts for buying select items. Behind scenes, Upromise rebates accrue, but there are no alternative uses for these rewards. Often, use of loyalty cards also generates rewards for churches or charitable organizations designated by cardholder. This should be pointed out as encouragement to use cards. Following this strategy a savvy, disciplined family can reap sizable rewards from college reward loyalty programs with relatively little effort. As an example, my middle-income family has generated slightly over $1,000 in rewards in last twelve months. Certainly you cannot expect to pay for a full college education with loyalty rewards alone, but savvy users can build a sizable nest egg to help ease burden of college costs.
Tim Paul has more than 25 years executive financial management experience. His current areas of focus are developing strategies to maximize the benefits of HELOC loans and free college savings programs. His websites are HELOC Loans - Tips for Savvy Users and 529 Plan Rewards - Helping Parents Maximize College Savings
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