Put Your Grocery Bill on a Diet
Expert Shares Secrets for Bringing Home More for Less

This year, our holiday feasts will cost more than ever, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Food prices jumped a whopping 4 to 5 percent in 2011 and are expected to continue climbing next year.

But you can have your fruitcake and eat it, too, without breaking the bank, says Toni House, author of Savvy Shopping: How to Reduce Your Weekly Grocery Bill to $85 Per Week – or Less!

 A mom with executive-level experience in accounting and the restaurant industry, House pared the monthly grocery bill for her family of four to $250. And nobody complained.

“It takes savvy shopping,” she says. “Worried about going broke serving big holiday meals? Forget it. You can save on the Christmas trimmings and trim the 2012 household budget with planning, patience and grocery shopping ‘guardrails’ to keep your cart in line.”

House offers these tips:

• Be patient – wait for good deals. Save pricier purchases for double coupon days, and with the holidays coming up, save now so you can splurge a bit on the holiday meal. The more you rush, the less you save.

• Be detail-oriented. There is a lot of fine print involved in being a savvy shopper, from expiration dates to special offers to asterisks. Know exactly when a coupon expires, how much it’s for, how much more it will be worth on double coupon days and whether or not it’s worth the price in the first place.

• Plan ahead. Plan a menu for at least three meals in advance; combined with leftovers; that should give you five days or more of meals, depending on the meal. This puts you in control of your shopping list; and not the other way around. Instead of always playing catch-up, replacing what you’ve run out of, you buy only when it’s on the menu. Same goes for cereal, yogurt, bananas, fresh herbs and spices, etc.

• Instead of making expensive foods (meat) the centerpiece of each meal, design menus that use the most expensive foods less often. For instance, from now on at least twice a week, try using meat as more of a filler than a main dish. Instead of making spaghetti with meat balls, or sausage, or chicken breasts, make spaghetti with a meat sauce of ground turkey, ground sausage or ground chicken breakfast sausage.

• At the grocery store, buy ONLY what you can eat. That means no paper plates, toilet paper, plastic cups, Army men, toothbrushes, jar candles, greeting cards. Grocery store prices for non-food items are higher than you’ll pay almost anywhere else, so make a hard-and-fast rule and stick to it.

• Do use coupons, but only for products you actually need. Let’s say you just bought twice as many hot dog buns as you needed last week and now you’ve run across a two-for-one coupon for… more hot dog buns? Do you really have room in your freezer for all those buns?

House’s $85-a-week budget does require tossing out some pricey products your family may have grown accustomed to (brand-name cereals, pre-packaged snack cakes) and changing the way you plan meals. But there are plenty of delicious, often healthier, and less expensive substitutes.

“You are the leader of your family unit, not just at home but at the grocery store,” House says. “Your new quest to become a savvy shopper might meet with some…resistance… at first. Take the bull by the horns and lead the family in the right direction."

Toni House has a bachelor’s in accounting and a master’s in business administration and was most recently the senior consultant and owner of an accounting firm. How to Reduce Your Grocery Bill is her second “Savvy Shopping” book. Her first was "Save Your Money, Save Your Family." Find her money-saving blog tips at www.saveyourmoneysaveyourfamily.com.

Cash Loans: Know Your Options
by Andrew Scherer

For far too many people, this past handful of years has been tough. Even people who have not missed a day's work have increasingly found themselves short on money between paydays, and in need of a fast short term loan. Now if this sounds at all familiar, what are your choices and how do they compare with one another in terms of pros and cons?

Recent reports have shown that more folks than ever before are visiting their local pawnbroker for a loan, and they span all income brackets. It's fast, easy, and you don't have to be qualified. This of course means that your credit isn't even taken into account, but don't forget one thing. That one thing is that you will have to hand over something of value for them to hold.

Be ready to not come away with all the money that you need with this option. This is because the bad economy has left most brokers holding far more merchandise than they would like. Also keep in mind that they're only going to give you but a fraction of what your property is worth and if you don't show up on time to pay back the loan, it will be gone forever.

Then you always have the option of approaching a friend or a relative for a small personal loan. It's been going on for time eternal but even so it does have its fair share of pitfalls. For instance if you should find yourself unable to pay it back promptly you can have family or friend problems, along with your financial troubles. Then don't forget that you will owe them a favor in return.

Or if you own a home you can always just head on down to your local bank and take out a loan against the equity in it. Now this is also where you will see the lowest interest rates too, as well as the longest time to pay it all off. Do keep in mind though that you will need to have your home appraised first, and also that it easier to foreclose on a home that has more than one loan taken out on it.

So this brings us to your fourth loan option and that's to go online to get a cash advance from a payday lender. Now the nice thing about these loans is that you don't need any collateral or credit check, and you don't have to leave your home to do it. If you have a job than chance is you qualify and can have up to $1,500 deposited in your account in as little time as 24 hours.


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Mothers: Powerful Financial Role Models

What exactly should be in your wallet?

by Alex von Tobel

1. Your main credit card—only.

2. $25 to $50 in cash.

3. A.T.M./debit card.

4. Driver’s license.

5. Insurance card for both health and auto insurance.

6. Transportation card, such as an unlimited rail pass.

7. Reward cards for stores you visit frequently (grocery, drug store, etc.).

8. Gift cards.

9. Membership cards (such as to your gym).

10. Airline cards.

What Not To Include: Don’t walk around with personal information like your PIN, account numbers, or Social Security card. The only identifying info in there should be your name and the best way to reach you if your wallet is found.

You should have two credit cards to your name, but keep only one in your wallet. In your wallet, keep the main one that you do all your spending on; keep your emergency credit card hidden away in a desk drawer at home so that you won’t be stranded if your wallet gets lost or stolen. For the same reason, always make copies of your cards! They’ll come in handy if one of those cards disappears. Also, if your main card is an American Express, make sure that your debit card is Visa or MasterCard so that your plastic will be accepted wherever you go. If you have more than two credit cards, cancel only one each year (it hurts your credit score to cancel too many at once).

Cash: We aim to carry around $25 to $50 at all times. Although any loss of cash is a blow, the goal is to keep little enough that we won’t, say, have trouble paying rent if we lose our wallet, but enough to split a restaurant bill with friends (there are always groans when too many people insist on paying via credit card).

A.T.M./Debit Card: You should always have access to your checking account, just in case you’re in a bind and need extra cash on the go.

Personal Identification: For most people, this will take the form of a driver’s license. Stores have the right to ask for an ID when you use a credit card, so you need to have one ready to show them.

Insurance Card: Always. You’ll need your health insurance on hand for any medical services, and your auto insurance card in case you get into a fender bender.

Transportation Card: If you use public transportation to commute to work, keep an unlimited transportation card in your wallet, which often saves a lot of money over buying individual rides. In Boston, it’s a CharlieCard. In New York, MetroCard. In D.C., SmarTrip. If you drive to work every day, this includes your AAA card, which you should have with you at all times if you’re a member.

Discount Club Cards: This includes your CVS card, Regal card, promotional tenth-coffee-free cards, and anything else that fits the bill. There’s nothing worse than stopping by a store and realizing that you’ve left your gift card at home.

Membership Cards: This includes things that have already been paid for, like a gym membership card.

Airline Cards: This is optional, but recommended—Alexa carries around her airline cards so that she never forgets to use her frequent flyer number whenever she travels. If you’re an iPhone user and don’t want to stuff your wallet with a million cards, consider an iPhone app.

Alexa von Tobel is founder and CEO of LearnVest.com

Take a peek into Alexa's Wallet - See Alexa's New Video

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The “It’s A Habit!” Company, Inc. (IAHC) is a socially conscious corporation located in Los Angeles, California that is dedicated to teaching financial literacy and other empowering life skills and habits in a strategic manner (ie. both entertaining and educational) to youths of all ages, with a focus on young children and their families. To achieve this objective, IAHC has spent the last five years developing and testing a children’s character (Sammy Rabbit), messages, products and services. 

MISSION: Globally provide children, families and organizations with strategic tools (ie. educational and entertaining) that encourage the multiplication of good habits, especially saving money.

Objective: The objective of IAHC efforts is to make the American dream accessible to kids no matter who they are, where they come from, or what language they and their parents speak at home.

Slogan: Changing Lives One Habit and Dime at a Time!

It's a Habit Sammy Rabbit Website
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