Weekend Wind-Down: Everyday Purchases

It’s finally Friday! I hope you have had a good week and are ready to have a wonderful weekend! I hope it is relaxing for all of you.

Without any more ado, here is the Weekend Wind-Down, Everyday Purchases edition! Each one of these links takes you to one of articles that I found to be the most interesting or helpful to fit with this week’s theme! If you get the chance, please go visit them and enjoy someone else’s writing!

• 1. Weakonomics – The Weakonomist has put a great, fresh perspective on the concept of saving money by cutting down on drinks, like coffee. Not everyone has an undeniable addiction. Some people may only buy something from them once a month. How much does coffee cost people like that? Read this and find out, from a witty, opinionated writer.

• 2. Pets Best – The start of this entry is extraordinarily disheartening for pet owners. 80% of new pets in shelters and pounds were given up because of job loss or other economic reasons. The article has 8 ways to cut back costs of pet care. They are well thought out, and although one of them deals in coupons, which is not my personal goal, they are all worth reading.

• 3. Adobe – This blog entry by Scene7 highlights the part of brand loyalty in the realm that I never touched – the internet. He explains how much easier it for consumers not to have brand loyalty while shopping online. It’s a different perspective (since it is told from the perspective of someone inside a corporation) and really interesting to read.

• 4. 24/7 Mom - Did you know that mosquito bites will stop itching after you put a small dab of toothpaste on the bite? Trisha @ 24/7 Moms does. She also has creative ways to use salt, newspaper, dryer sheets, and random other things that can be lying around the house. You know the 3 R’s. No, not Reading, Riting, and Rithmetic (although as a future teacher those are important), but Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

Come back tomorrow to see some great craft ideas made from material that I 100% guarantee is in every single person’s home! Have a wonderful weekend!

Fido, Cleo, and Nemo: Licking the Wallet

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the most wonderful pain-in-the-butt of my life.  This is my dog, Cadi Girl.  She is a lab and Rhodesian Ridgeback mix.  She was found on the side of the road 11 years ago by a veterinary technician.  A friend of the family worked at the animal hospital where she and her brothers and sisters were taken.

My parents took me into the pet hospital to take a look at the “free puppies.”  I saw this little bundle of fur hiding in the back of the kennel (who could easily fit into my shoe at the time) and as they say, the rest is history.

Since I was only 11 at the time, my parents let me have the Beatles mentality and believe that “All You Need is Love” to take care of a pet.  Oh, and I had to walk her and feed her.  I didn’t know at the time, but Cadi had Parvo, a disease that kills over half the puppies that it infects.  My parents had to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars on surgery to save her.

Besides for that extraordinarily large expense, Cadi costs quite a bit of money for being so cute.  I looked at a table recently that tabulated the costs of keep a single cat and dog for a year.  $1200 per dog and $900 per cat.

In this recent economy, Humane Societies and pounds have reported many more animals being dropped off because of their owners being unable to afford them.  If you have a pet like I do, I cannot even imagine how devastating that would be.  So, in the hopes that giving up a beloved pet can be prevented, here are some ideas on saving.

Talk to your vet and find out if there is any discount programs and buy generic medication if possible.  Groom your animal yourself and look online for any deals that could be floating around.  Here is a list of another 21 ideas for saving on pet care.

Finally, how about making some pet toys yourself?  No Crafty Skills required.

• - For Cats: 
• 1. Safety pin some yarn to an old glove!  
• 2. Cut up an old paper towel roll into tiny strips and throw them in the air.

• - For Dogs: 
• 1. Poke some holes in an old milk carton and put some treats or kibble inside (your dog will bat it around for hours if he doesn’t demolish the bottle first).  
• 2. Line up old soda or water bottles and encourage your dog to knock them over like a bowling ball.  Give him a treat when he does!  Eventually fill them with pebbles or sand to make it harder.  Puppy Bowling!
  

I know throughout this post, I’ve mentioned several ways to cut back on pet care… but always remember that the unconditional love given to you by a pet is a reward all its own.

I Could See Trees Wilting as I Walked By...

Have you ever been able to go to one of the nicer restaurants?  I'm talking about the ones with the nice, white linen tablecloths and napkins that come decorated with a wooden ring around them.  The table might even have some nice, clear wine goblets at the table, next to water goblets and 8 sets of silverware.

What was it about the restaurant that made it special?  For me, I can definitely say it's not all that silverware - I find it intimidating.  Also, the glasses normally get taken away because I don't use them all.  The cloth napkins give the table a sense of elegance and sophistication.  It's also slightly relaxing.

So why in the world would you ever use paper towels and napkins at home?  Home is a place to relax.  You deserve something a little more elegant at home.  Also, do you even have enough space to store all those paper products that you buy?  how much do you spend on one-time-only disposable products?

Think about the businesses out there where the public is allowed in.  Think about the casinos, restaurants, bowling centers, schools, gas stations, movie theaters, stores, etc.  Can you picture yourself there?  Ok, now go to the bathrooms.  Do they have paper towels for you to wash your hands?  Or are they the push button (or automatic for fancier places) electric hand dryers?  Most likely, there are electric hand dryers.  Most businesses would have you think it was because they are trying to be green.  What they don't tell you is that it costs $.0015 per dry with the electric dryer and $.03 per dry with paper towels.  It's all economical.

That same concept works at home.  Granted, none of us are going to rewire our bathrooms to install an electric hand dryer, but paper products like those just aren't efficient.  Take this example comparison, using Wal-Mart as the retailer for both the paper and cloth versions.  An 8-pack of dish towels is less than $5.  An 8-pack of Great Value brand paper towels is $2.86.  For less than the cost of 2 8-pack paper towels, you can have towels that can be reused as many times as necessary.

When I was doing all this research, there were a surprising number of people that were arguing against regular towels as being less expensive in the long run.  Laundry fees for those who have to use a laundromat was the biggest argument.  They said it could cost over $4.00 a whack just to wash those towels.

I say this: don't you wash bath towels anyway?  Just throw the other towels in with them.  Heck, maybe you don't do a separate towel load and just throw them in with like colors.  It's not like you have to wash them everyday or after one use, like clothes.  The towels aren't very big.  They can fit in your normal loads.  Trust me.

Finally, there was an article that reported that cotton towels do not save the environment and are actually worse than paper towels.  Cotton towels emit more greenhouse gasses during production and use more water than their paper counterparts.  If you're very concerned with that as a Green-minded person, the solution is simple.  Use linen instead of cotton.  The clean-up is just slightly more complicated, but they don't cost much more.

Alright, I know that with pets, picnics, certain messes, and those friends you would never trust with something as nice as cloth, there are just times you have to use paper napkins and paper towels.  Toilet paper is also something that I would not recommend switching to cloth.  So, I'm definitely not saying you should skip buying them altogether - that just isn't practical.  Just buy them sparingly.

You will save money.  If you absolutely need paper napkins and can't seem to fork out the money for them, you can do what I do.  Keep the extras from your fast-food run.  They always either give you too many or too few.  Even though they might not match, they still do their duty.  There are also ways to reuse and reduce the products you already have!  It just might take a little thinking.

Americans are Habitually Thirsty: It's Science

Yes, just like my title says, Americans tend to be slightly dehydrated most of their lives.  Whether it's because of our busy schedules or something else, I have no idea.  One thing is for certain, though, it is definitely not because there is no access to beverages.  From gas stations that seeel ridiculously large drinks for $.49 to fast food chains to smaller coffee shops, there are places to drink everywhere.

However, the most popular drinks are some of the most overpaid for.  Check out numbers 2 and 3.  That's right.  Bottled Water and Coffee.  We may not be able to completely kick the habit, but there are definitely some good reasons to think twice before making that purchase.  Could there be an alternative to this?

Soda

I just looked in the online version of the local grocery store ads.  A 24 pack of soda is on sale for $6.88.  However, if you look at the print, when the petty color pictures are not distracting you, it says you have to make at least another $10 purchase before that price goes into effect.  Is it worth it?

For this particular price, I would be hard pressed to say no.  It's $.28 a can.  But what happens when there isn't a phenomenal sale like this and the 12 packs are $4.88 a piece on a good day?  $.40 a can.  It may not sound like much, but how many sodas do you drink a day?  If it's more than one, how many of them come from the grocery store?  What about vending machines, where cans are $.90 a piece and bottles can be $1.50 or more?

Coffee

I'm one of the lucky ones.  I don't really like the taste of coffee.  However, I know most people do and most people need/want to drink it to get moving in the morning.  My roommates are like that.  One must have coffee or she cannot function and the other cannot get moving without a cup of tea.  It's totally fine... until you start doing the math.

Let's start with the home brewed coffee.  There was a study done by Yahoo! Financial a couple years ago that listed the Top Ten Money Drains.  Guess what was #1... coffee.  And their numbers were for home brewed.  Some cups, depending on which you buy, can run around $1.30 a piece.  There are 5 workdays in a week for most.  What is that a year?  $440.  One woman kept track of her specialty coffee purchases for a year.  Her total: $987.

Now on to Starbuck's.  Some of their drinks are upwards of $5 a piece.  Sure, they may be absolutely delicious.  But do you have $5 a day to spend on a drink?  That's more than some people can pay for lunch.  A woman did the math and she found that even at $3 a cup, once a weekday, you're looking at around $800 - $1000 a year in take-out coffee.  She even compared the price of coffee to cigarettes!  Do you really need a tall?  Even downsizing to a short will be better on your purse-strings...

Bottled Water

Now, finally, we reach the matter of complete convenience.  Not caffeine or taste.  Water in a plastic bottle.  This was my complete downfall until the beginning of this school year.  I would drink a case of water at least once every two weeks.  Sometimes more, depending on what I had going on.  I don't drink soda at all, and like I said before, I don't like coffee.  So, I became addicted to bottled water...

When I started thinking about making a switch to either tap water or buying a filter, it wasn't a matter of money.  I've started to go Green.  I found pictures like the one I posted above and knew I was definitely part of the problem.  The money I've saved since then has been a benefit, not an aim.  However, if it is an aim, here is what you're looking for.

When I was doing my research, this was a surprisingly popular topic.  I had over 4,000,000 Google hits.  What I found was a lot worse than I originally thought.  Depending on the brand of bottled water you prefer, some of them cost 10,000x more than tap water.  Let's go by the gallon:

Tap Water = $.0002
Filtered Water = $.20 - $.80
Bottled Water = $.89 - $8.26

I understand the concerns that can go with the convenience factor.  Some people feel/some studies have shows than tap water in certain areas of the United States is not the safest to drink.  You can look up the stats for your area on the EPA Safe Water website.  If you're worried about that, you can still go with option #2 - filtered water.  I did.  This is what I bought for $15, including filter:

Filters last 2 months for an average family.  Now, I'm going to stick with that, since I drink a lot of water, but if you're not like me, you might even be able to make it last longer.  Replacements are also about $10 - $15.  I had a friend help me pick one (he uses one that mounts onto his faucet), but if you don't have that luxury, here is a site that compares 10 different kinds of filtration devices for you.  It's a table, so it's really easy and quick to read.  You could even print it off and take it to the store with you, if you want.

PS - Plastic Bottles also use quite a bit of oil to make - annually it's at least enough to fuel 100,000 cars.

Wal-Mart May Sell For Less, But Do You Buy For Less?

Take a trip with me.  We're walking into Wal-Mart or wherever you do your normal day to day shopping, like Target or the grocery store.  We've been chanting in the car the entire ride about what we needed to buy.  We say that the toothpaste is low; we're almost out of soda; Roommate X used the last paper towel.  We know exactly what we're going to go in and get.  It's going to be a quick stop.

So we're walking in and skip grabbing a cart because we're not going to be in here that long.  We go straight to the personal care section to grab our toothpaste.  Then we remember we're almost out of razors.  We continue this way for a couple minutes - we get something on our mental list and remember something else.  I'll go back and get the cart so you can stay here, it's no big deal.

A little while later, we are at the check-out.  After we have to wait a while, because there are never enough registers open when it is not the holidays, we reach the counter and cascades of purchases flow out of our arms onto the rolling conveyer.  Finally, the cashier starts ringing.  We get more and more anxious as the total climbs higher and higher... we walk out completely depressed and $83 poorer.

If that's not your style, I will bet you that you fit into this second scenario.  We may only spend $20 each time we go shopping like this, but we go every 3 or 4 days.  I found this website where a man, for some unknown reason, kept all his WalMart receipts for almost 7 entire years!  He went to the store every couple days.  After looking at some of his totals, I panic to add them up for a month.  Frightening.

 

The point is, guys, that most people spend spend way too much on what they consider everyday purchases.  These are the things that you need to keep on living and don't really have the option to skip.  For me, it's shampoo.  If I skip one day, my hair turns into a greasy, oily mess.  I always have to have it on hand.

Plus, this is not just a problem that those Just Starting Out face... everyone does.  My mom even has an ongoing joke about it.  She says that if she spends less than $100 at WalMart, the buzzers at the front of the store will go off when she tries to leave to make her go back and buy more.  "Luckily," she's never had to worry about this fear.  She always reaches her quota.

Because of all this, I am making those everyday purchases this first official weekly theme!  There are tips, tricks, ideas, and hidden insight I've found that helps out.  But I don't know everything... if you have a better idea than mine or want to add something to them, please let me know!  I want to keep finding new ways to save money on these things.

So next time we're out making these purchases, let's chant something new.  Instead of repeating our list over and over, let's say:

Must Save Money.

Must Save Money.

Must Save Money.

Must Save Money.

PS - I belong to the second scenario.  I don't spend much at one time, but it seems like I am always going to Target or WalMart.