Generics

I remember a shopping trip with my husband when we were first together in my snooty single days. I did not think much about how much I spent and things had to have a "brand" name to be worthwhile. We were in the canned vegetable aisle and Bruce reached for the store brand tomatoes. I said "we don't do generics!" Now as the economy has crashed down around all of our ears, I find myself looking at any way to save money. Generics will do (in most cases) just fine! (Bruce is laughing at me right now and remembering what a brand snob I was)
Look in your pantry and you will find mostly brands you learned to love as a kid. French's mustard, McCormick spices, Heinz ketchup, Hunt's tomatoes, and Campbell soup are of few of our favorites. Hot dogs are Ball Park, butter is Land o' Lakes, mayo is Hellman's. Now I stand in the grocery aisles and wonder whether mustard from Jewel will taste just as good. There are certain foods I won't give up for taste. We aren't that hard up yet! But, still, what difference does it make in spaghetti sauce if the tomatoes are Hunt's or generic. Garlic powder is garlic powder whether Costco or McCormick.
My new project is to save money for our little tribe is to record how much I save buying generics and put that amount in our vacation savings account. How sweet it will be to go on vacation, pay cash and not remember that the sugar came from Jewel and not Domino's!

Debt Diet

I have off for awhile because we have been very busy with work but also with my latest obsession-the economy and reducing our debt. I am news junkie anyway but I don't know too many people that enjoy watching the Fed Chairman testify at a hearing looking for any sign of economic recovery!

We have been on a debt diet made easier by the changes that this economy has brought on. I wrote in an earlier post about magazines being too family oriented and the positive outcome of that was that I could easily dump subscriptions to save money. We dumped the Chicago Tribune because it had gotten so thin it was hardly worth the effort. You can read it online for free! I found that we were not using our cell phone minutes so I could reduce our cell phone plan. With gas prices down and airfares up , we are going to drive on vacation this year. All of these things are made quite easier with no kids. The dogs will cost a fortune to board but our long term goal is now to move back to Atlanta and buy an RV so the dogs will travel with us.

I just bought a vacuum sealer so I could take the ridiculous huge meat portions from Costco and freeze them. I have been making my own spaghetti sauce and planted tomatoes and strawberries for fresh stuff this summer. I have also adopted a concept called "snow flaking" when comes to our debt. We sold our boat and I received a small inheritance this year so we were able to reduce lots of debt this year. With snow flaking, you pay any extra funds you receive to your debt each week. I refund alot, apply for class action money and coupon like crazy and I snowflake all that money into our debt. My goal is to retire by 7/11/11 on my 5th anniversary with PetSmart. I will be fully vested in my 401K and hope that I can talk the Hubby into it!!

Our debt diet is all made easier without children at home. No college, no weddings, no gifts to buy. Some of the hurdles with society being children oriented are working in our favor during this tough economic time!