“Budget Babe” Robyn Moreno Shares Family-Friendly Tips for Saving and Earning More
Survey shows consumers want to cut costs at dinner table and bring home more ‘bacon’

Kalamazoo, MI January 15, 2009 Press Release— — Amid an economic downturn with increased unemployment, rising food prices and housing foreclosures, the nation’s consumers are focused on the bottom line – their own wallets.  In a recent survey (1) conducted by The Pampered Chef, 88 percent of Americans living in the Midwest said they’re making changes to help save money and relieve financial burdens for their families.  Two of the primary changes consumers say they’re considering are how they can feed their family for less and how they can bring in supplemental income.  With this in mind, The Pampered Chef has partnered with self-proclaimed “budget babe” Robyn Moreno, author of the newly-released book “Practically Posh: The Smart Girls Guide to a Glam Life,” to offer expert insights and tips on how to lead a budget-friendly lifestyle.  “We’re all feeling the pinch of the challenging economy,” said Moreno.  “But consumers don’t have to panic, I’ve got simple tips to shrink spending, starting with the dinner table, and also have smart recommendations for earning more income.  “Mealtime Solutions for $2 Per Person

Getting started can be a cinch.  A Pampered Chef business requires little investment – for just $155 a new Consultant kit includes a selection of high-quality products and business materials valued at more than $500.  Consultants also receive training to help them succeed, including interactive Web courses, videos, national and local sales meetings and other materials.

“Anyone can do direct selling,” says Moreno.  “Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom, a college kid, a former executive or have a full-time career, it’s an easy, fun way to boost your budget.”

To learn more about The Pampered Chef, shop a collection of essential kitchen tools, or for information on becoming a Consultant, please call Cheryl Lynn Miller, Independent Senior Consultant for The Pampered Chef, at (269) 547-8571 or e-mail clynnmiller@sbcglobal.net.
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About The Pampered Chef®
The Pampered Chef, founded in 1980 by Doris K. Christopher and now part of the Berkshire Hathaway family of businesses, is the premier direct seller of high quality kitchen tools.  At in-home cooking demonstrations, called Cooking Shows, guests see products and recipes in action, learn quick and easy food preparation techniques and receive tips on how to entertain with style and ease – transforming the simple to the spectacular.  For more information call 1-800-266-5562 or visit http://www.pamperedchef.com.  The Pampered Chef is a registered trademark.

1 Omnibus survey of 1,000 consumers, ages 18 and over, conducted by independent research firm Wakefield in Oct. 2008
2 Prices are estimated and vary regionally

I don’t know about you but I love getting a great deal.  After church on Sunday, I come home and go through all the circulars to see what is on sale and where I can get the best price.  Between the coupons I clip and purchasing sale items I generally knock $40 – $50 a week off my grocery bill!!  Now some people might be shaking your head in disbelief while others might be laughing thinking me an amateur to your money saving savviness.  I will admit there is still room to improve in my saving quest and would love to learn more from the “pros” out there. 

Recently I was talking with a friend about clipping coupons and was surprised when they said the reason they don’t clip coupons was because stores don’t double them any more.  After letting what they said sink in for a minute I asked so if you have coupons that would save you $10 off your bill you won’t use them because you can’t save $20?  They couldn’t answer.  That same $10 savings every week would add up to $520 in saving by the end of the year — Hello?? Who wouldn’t love to have that kind of extra cash come Christmas shopping time!! 

In the next few posts, we’ll talk about ways to turn that $10 a week savings off your groceries into $20, $30, even $40 off your grocery bills each and every week.  If you are willing to take the time & do a little homework before you head out to the stores you can save a lot of money.  I would love to hear your money saving ideas as well – please leave your comments and lets see how much we can save.

The average U.S. household spends 13% of its budget on food, but savvy supermarket shoppers can save hundreds of dollars a month. Here are secrets from a couple of champs as reported by MSN Money article – Take a big bite out of grocery bills By MP Dunleavey.

Editor’s note: Join columnist MP Dunleavey and a group of women as they seek to strip away the myths around money, liberate themselves from debt and find financial sanity. Follow the ongoing quest of the Women in Red every other Wednesday in Dunleavey’s column on MSN Money.

When I was a kid, my mother would sit in front of the television with a dinner tray in front of her, and she’d methodically go through all the supermarket fliers, clipping coupons and writing her grocery list in her meticulous, fine print.

I thought she was nuts.

Under Paragraph 967P of the Geneva Conventions governing the relations between youngsters and their parents, I found my mother’s behavior strange and embarrassing, and I wanted no part of it. Ever.

Then a few decades passed, and I became a mom myself. Until recently I’ve been willing to make many lifestyle adjustments in the name of financial sanity, but cutting back our grocery bill wasn’t one of them. Spending about $400 a month for two adults and a baby seemed just about right.

Then I started reading the Grocery Challenge thread on the trend-setting, ground-breaking, take-no-prisoners Women in Red message board and learned that a single mother of two had cut her bill from $700 a month to about $260.

Was there sorcery involved? Enron-scale accounting fraud? Was Mom right all along? I had to find out.

You are what you eat

Because food is an essential, it sometimes goes unchallenged as a spending category in many people’s budgets.

You might groan inwardly when you see the total mounting at the grocery checkout counter, but for most hardworking, time-pressed people, it seems easier to cut back in other areas first: clothes shopping, cable services, vacations and other extras. After all, you have to eat.

But people may not realize that food is a substantial financial outlay for most Americans: about 13% of the average household’s annual expenditures, according to a 2005 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That includes about 7.5% spent on groceries at home and the rest on eating out.

Economists are quick to point out that because of numerous federal subsidies, Americans typically spend a smaller portion of their income on groceries than, say, most Europeans do.

But as I learned from the food mavens on the Grocery Challenge thread, living in the land of cheap grub is not a reason to become complacent. No, no! As these savvy shoppers will tell you: If you think you got a certain item for a great price, rest assured there’s a way to get it even cheaper — or maybe even for free.

The ugly myths of coupon clipping

Do you have to become a wild-eyed coupon clipper to slash your grocery bill, stuffing your car with stacks of supermarket fliers and driving checkout clerks bonkers with your wallet of wadded 50-cent-off vouchers?

Will your diet start to revolve around Hamburger Helper, dented cans of beans and stale coffeecake?

Not at all. In fact, people who choose to be frugal about food aren’t necessarily in financial straits — nor do they sacrifice their quality of life or their quality of meals.

“About a year ago I looked at our $700-a-month grocery bill, and I was horrified,” says Sue McDermed, a mother of two who lives in Southern California. “It was our third-largest bill, and I thought: I can do better than this.”

She challenged herself to cut her family’s food expenditures, she says, as part of a bigger financial rethinking of her own goals and priorities. Yet she doesn’t compromise on quality, usually buying as much by way of organic and natural groceries as she can.

Sharon Lustro, 51, could teach Warren Buffett a thing or two about buying low. She typically spends about $30 a week on groceries, she says, often leaving a store having paid no more than a dollar or two for a cartload of goods.

Lustro, whose household income is about $125,000, also does it more for the principle of the thing and because she prefers to invest her money in traveling and her children’s education.

“I’ve seen so many people go into debt so needlessly,” she says. “I knew one family that earned about $200,000 a year, and they had to declare bankruptcy. It’s your day-to-day habits that get you into trouble — what you eat for lunch, what you buy for dinner.”

Lustro, who works part time, says she spends less than two hours a week organizing and shopping — and her children will graduate from a top-notch college with no student-loan debt.

To clip or not to clip

McDermed and Lustro use different shopping strategies. As someone who used to work in grocery retailing, McDermed knows a handful of insider tips and tricks that help her to spend less. “Coupons don’t play as important a role for me,” she says.

On the other hand, Lustro is a devotee of the CouponMom Web site, a sort of miracle site that tells you which items are discounted at which stores in your geographical area.

Whatever cost-cutting method you use, both of these shopping mavens emphasize the following:

• Like any other diversion, the grocery game should be fun.
• By cutting back on your food expenses, you should not only save money but time.
• With the time and the money you save, your life will become less stressful.
• You will not lose your mind and end up camping out at your local Piggly Wiggly to be the first in line to nab that 2-for-1 grapefruit special.

Here are their secrets:

• Get to know sales cycles. McDermed says stores reduce their products according to a 12-week cycle, give or take. Let’s say your spaghetti sauce is normally $2.19 a jar; on sale it’s $1.99. That’s the phantom sale price, says McDermed, so hang in there while the price drops to two for $3. But don’t buy until it hit the rock-bottom price of, say, 10 for $10 or BOGO — buy one, get one free. That’s when you buy.
• Know your rock-bottom price. McDermed recommends keeping a price notebook for a while so that you get to know the rock-bottom prices for most items. That way you’re less likely to get sucked in by phantom sale prices because you know a steeper discount is around the corner.
• Spot the loss leaders. Those are the staggering deals — Tropicana orange juice for a nickel — that lure unsuspecting customers into stores, who then buy lots of other things they don’t need. “If you see an unbelievable deal, scoop it up!” says McDermed. Just don’t buy anything else.
• Shop off-list. Your mom told you to stick to a list in order to save, but Lustro disagrees. When she saw ground turkey on sale for $1 a package (a loss leader), she happened to have a $1 coupon for the same brand — and got it for nothing. She may not have turkey meatballs for a month, but when she does, it’ll be a free meal.

• It’s OK to pay nothing. Lustro is the queen of ruthless coupon deployment — going for doubles, triples and home runs — but she says it pays to know the rules of each store. Some won’t double the coupon if it exceeds the face value of the item. Asking is the best way to save. If you have a $1 coupon for Suave shampoo, which is $1.99, and it’s double coupon day, yes, you can get it for free.
• Become a coupon collector. You don’t have to depend on fliers (which Lustro organizes by date in a hanging file that she keeps in her car). Often supermarkets place coupons right next to discounted items. Lustro advises keeping the coupons, even if you don’t need the items right then. She asks friends to send her coupons they don’t use.
• Don’t play silly supermarket games. If an item is on sale, six for $3, don’t assume you have to buy all six, says McDermed. You can buy just one for the sale price of 50 cents.
• Stand your financial ground. Many Grocery Challenge shoppers note that hostile checkout people sometimes try to sabotage their savings efforts. The only solution is to talk to a manager — and be willing to wait in line for the checkout people who cheer you on when your bill comes to zero (and many do).

I know. This strategy sounds too simple to deliver big savings, but the gals who are committed to the Grocery Challenge say the results are real. A reader in Texas notes that they don’t get as many great grocery deals as other states, but nonetheless she has been able to cut her grocery budget from a range of $100 to $150 a week for two adults and four kids to less than $80 a week, just by signing up for the weekly paper. “We’ve since made our money back with all the coupon savings,” she says.

Published March 7, 2007

You should also check out the message board Women in Red Hosted by MP Dunleavey.  If you liked this post also check out Bargain Shopping = Free Money

Webster’s dictionary defines a bargain as an “advantageous purchase”.  Anyone who does even a little bargain shopping knows that you can save hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars each year just by searching for a bargain or two.  It should go without saying that the only true bargain is one that you would have been buying anyways.  Buying that new TV just because it is on sale (no matter how great the deal) isn’t really saving any money in the long run – unless you plan on reselling it on eBay.  So with that in mind here are some tips on bargain shopping:

 1.  Sign up for the rewards programs with the places you shop at the most.  You can not only get great rebates, but you will also be made aware of upcoming sales.  With the price of gas today be sure to see if your local gas station also offers a rewards program.  If you live in the Midwest, Speedway www.speedway.com offers 20 points per $1 spent.  You can earn an extra 1000 points by purchasing a $50 gift card – go inside purchase the gift card then go out & use the card at the pump and earn an additional 1000 points (20 points per $1 spent.)  When you reach 8,750 points you can redeem them for a $0.50 per gallon discount on one fill up – up to 25 gallons of gas (that’s a saving of $12.50) or wait until you have 17,500 and redeem your points for a $25 gift card and use that for FREE GAS!  Save your coupons (which you will also receive by being a rewards member) and use those with the sales to get the best bargains around – check the coupons to be sure that they are not excluded from sales.

2.  Know the best times to shop for certain items.  Every thing has a peak season – even cars and houses – and by shopping AFTER the peak season you can usually get the best bargains and save the most money.  For example, shop for summer clothes after June or July, shop for winter clothes after Christmas, and shop for cars after the New Year.  You can use this same model for selling your items to make extra cash.  By selling your gently used items on www.eBay.com as you will make the most on your sales by posting summer clothes around April & May, your winter items in November & December and selling gently used toys to the Christmas shoppers from the end of October thru early to mid December.

3.  Use the internet – it can be the bargain shopper’s best friend.  This is the easiest and least expensive way of researching products and even stores.  You don’t have to drive around comparing prices – you can just surf around instead.  If you’re shopping for electronics www.circuitcity.com has a wonderful site to help you do your research.  Then when you’re ready to make your purchase you can save money on shipping and time waiting in line by ordering your purchase online but selecting to pick up your purchase at the store.

4.  The internet is also a great place to find coupons.   I use www.coupon.com – they send me emails letting me know when there are new coupons available.  Clipping coupons for items you regularly use and then finding a grocery store that will double them can easily save you around 30% of your grocery bill each time that you shop.  My husband used to think I was crazy clipping coupons until he saw the total due dropping as they scanned our coupons; now he asks if we have any coupons before he goes to the store.  Your local Sunday paper is also a great source of coupons plus you will get all the store ads detailing their sales for the week.

6.  Two words – Crock Pot – if you don’t have one get one.  Having a crock pot will not only save you time but it can also save you money. For example for less then $10 you can make a 6 quart crock pot of tomato sauce with meat (1 lb of hamburger) that would equal approximately 18 good sized servings.  I start my sauce around 10am, set my crock pot on low & forget about it till around 5:30 when I go in to make my noodles.  I add the ingredients so my family doesn’t get all the extra sodium in the prepared jar sauces and I have plenty left over to freeze for meals later in the month.  Just about anything you can make in your oven you can make in a crock pot – including meat loaf!!  As I said earlier if you don’t have a Crock Pot – Get One!  www.crock-pot.com has a great site for all things crock pots from recipes to Hints & Tips.  I own two crock pots, a 4 quart & a 6 quart.  I highly recommend the electronic versions compared to the manual models as when they reach the desired cooking time they can automatically switch to “warm” mode.      

7.  Buying in bulk is another great bargain shopper’s tip.  If you have the room to store up items, then purchase non-perishables when they are on sale (and hopefully you have a coupon).  Your local warehouse club has some great deals on bulk items but you will need to really know the prices of the items you’re buying – just because they have the item doesn’t mean it’s the best price (remember you can’t use coupons at warehouse clubs.)  Their prices generally beat the grocery stores non sale prices but if you check out the ads & clip your coupons you can get a good many of your daily items for less. 

8.  If you’re buying in bulk you need a FoodSaver.  I used to put up my meat in freezer bags and store them in the stand up freezer but if it wasn’t eaten in just a couple months it would be so covered in frost that you couldn’t tell what it was.  I’m not a big fan of mystery meat especially when it looks more like a snow ball then meat.  After seeing an ad for FoodSaver I checked out their website and ordered my own – Love It!!  I have had mine for over 2 years now & my only regret is not buying it sooner – it literally eliminated my freezer burn problem.  I found a package of hamburger that somehow was shifted to the back of my freezer (I date everything so we always eat the oldest food first.)  This package of hamburger was about a year old & looked as good as the hamburger I had just frozen a couple days before.  I use my FoodSaver to even seal up bags of chips and my brown sugar (it no longer turns into a brick on me.)

Learning to bargain shop is a great way to not only shave money off your budget but also allow you to spend FREE Money along the way.  Then you can se the savings you find to plan a great family getaway (you can even take your Disney Vacation on a budget) or to splurge on that item you have wanted for so long.