From www.shoppingcarteconomist.com

May is typically a month I look forward to because it means fresh fish right out of the ocean. Fish is one of the healthiest animal protein sources, and one many Americans just don’t get enough of in their diet.  Price is always the biggest factor for most shoppers as it relates to consumption. If fish is expensive, people will pass on it and look for cheaper protein sources.

However, Alaska fish are starting to run. May marks the beginning of King Salmon and halibut seasons. That means that there will be fresh goods heading to a store near you. It also means that previously caught salmon from last year’s season will be on sale. But, those sales aren’t going to last very long. If your family is a big consumer of fish, this might be the week to fill your freezer. Here’s why….

With the oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf seafood market is at a stand-
still. The US government imposed a 10-day ban on fishing in the Gulf as they assess what kind of risk, both current and long-term, the oil spill will have on the health of not just fish and wildlife, but on those who consume Gulf coast harvests of fish, shrimp, and oysters.  According to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Gulf Coast fishing economy harvests about one-billion pounds of seafood a year.  A 10-day ban on fishing is essentially 27-million pounds of fish that are going to be out of circulation. It’s not clear that the ban will be lifted after 10 days.  So for every day Louisiana fishermen’s boats are out of the water, an average of 2.7M pounds of fish will not make it to US grocery stores.

As existing inventories get used up and supplies are depleted, it will likely put pressure on other regions like the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, as well as imports from Thailand and China, to fill the shortages.

It’s early into a catastrophe like this, and the oil spill drama is still unfolding. Scientists and fishermen alike can’t predict how the region and the fishing economy are going to be affected. It won’t be until they come out with some clear damage assessments that we’ll begin to see “shortage” reports on the news. So, in advance of what might be a likely outcome, my suggestion if you’re a big fish-eating family would be to bank some now in your freezer.

What to buy? Look for deals on sockeye salmon. Whole salmon is always a better deal than fillets. Buy the whole fish and have them cut/wrap the fish for free instead of buying the higher-priced, pre-cut fillets. Avoid farm-raised Atlantic salmon, even though it might be a bit cheaper. Wild is better for the fish runs, and better for you.

It’s also a perfect week to shop for seafood, because with Mother’s Day right around the corner, many chain stores advertise fresh seafood for “surf & turf” dinner promotions. That means there are fish, scallops, lobster tails, and shrimp on sale that were planned and ordered well before the oil spill in the Gulf.

It’s clear how one incident like a single oil spill can have far-reaching implications for those of us who might otherwise feel no connection to such an event.  Sadly, in this instance, an oil spill thousands of miles from many of our homes isn’t just going to affect the environment, or the livelihoods of those who fish the Gulf Coast, but the consumers. In this economy, many people are already struggling to put food on the table.  If the price of seafood likely climbs as a result of this disaster, a healthy protein source for many families will soon be out-of-reach.

Tags: Fish, Food Prices, grocery store prices, Gulf Coast, Oil Spill, protein, recession, Seafood, shopping cart economist
Posted in Articles, Grocery Shopping | No Comments »

Yesterday, members from this site and other online couponing communities were featured in a front-page article of the Wall Street Journal entitled “Hard Times Turns Coupon Clipping into the Newest Extreme Sport”.

Instantly, people on Twitter were tweeting about it, and bloggers were likening people with stockpiles to hoarders.  Sadly, the article and the subsequent video that went with it, went for the “extreme” shock value of what stockpiling is all about.  The video commentary that went with the story was quite offensive – calling extreme couponers “crazy and insane”. It wasn’t what I’d expected when I was interviewed for the story.  My personal take on stockpiling is about the economic value of having a pantry.  That wasn’t evident anywhere in the story.

So, I’m going to give you the other side of the story.  The one the Wall Street Journal missed out on, and the side that makes the point that stockpiling, extreme couponing, whatever you’d like to call it, is purely about economics.

Stockpile theory is a very simple premise…

First, make a list of the most important food items in your diet. Also make a list of non-perishable household items your family uses on a regular basis.  If you have pets, include items for their care as well.

Then look at the average weekly consumption of any given item.  How much cereal do you eat in a week?  How many times do you cook pasta, feed the dog, wash your hair, brush your teeth?

When you find the average weekly consumption for your list of items, multiply that amount by 52 weeks in a year.  That’s the amount of “inventory” your family should reasonably consume during the entire year. However, one should also consider the value of non-perishable items.  If the sale price is right, or the item is free, then it’s not unreasonable to stock up on more than a year’s supply of light bulbs, toilet paper, toothbrushes, or shampoo.

Then, look at the shelf life of a given item.  In the Wall Street Journal article, I was quoted as buying “50 jars of peanut butter” and some people commenting thought that was excessive.  However, peanut butter has an 18-month shelf life and I use one jar per week.  So a 50-jar purchase made all in the same week at the lowest seasonal price is not unreasonable. In fact, the savings on that one item was over $150 for the course of the entire year.  If my family’s consumption is one jar per week, rather than making 50 trips to the store to pay full price each visit, one trip to the store to buy what I need at rock bottom prices is much more economical.

Some items don’t have that kind of shelf life, and subsequently, they run on shorter cycles.  Steep discounts on oatmeal and granola bars happen twice a year, and the sales tie in quite nicely with the 6-month shelf lives on those products.  So understanding the simple principle of “First In, First Out” is helpful for maintaining a stockpile of perishable goods.

Foods that are still within the expiration but have a chance of not being consumed should get donated to a local agency that accepts food donations. The great thing is, you can do so and get a charitable tax deduction for the donation.  For some, the value of the tax deduction of the donated goods offsets the cash outlay for the goods purchased for personal consumption, making the cost of grocery shopping either a break even proposition, or a profitable experience.

In the peanut butter example, that $150 I saved can now go towards stockpiling some other items for future use. Stockpiling isn’t about over-consumption – we consume our pantry items at a regular rate of consumption. My family rarely consumes more than one jar of peanut butter a week.  Just because it’s there doesn’t mean my children are gorging themselves on peanut butter.

I liken the savings in my household to the retained earnings of a business. Stockpile savings is like profit after business activities. It’s net after-tax dollars that can be either taken as a draw for fun things (like family vacations and piano lessons for the kiddos) or it can be reinvested into the personal finances of your family – ie, fully funding a 401K, paying down debt, buying a first home, going back to school – things that create economic value and build wealth for your family.

A good business manager is rewarded for cutting costs, managing inventories effectively, and creating wealth for the company.  We don’t call him crazy or insane.  Instead, he’s given more stock options, raises, and promotions.  Those of us who fall into the “extreme couponing” category are doing precisely the same thing except the wealth is being created for our personal financial gain.  If I put $10,000 into a 401K account, I’d be doing better than most Americans.  But if I could put $10,000 in the 401K, and then shaved $10,000 off of my planned purchasing, the dollars I saved couponing could actually do more for me than the money I’ve saved in the 401K because it’s cash dollars I can spend right now and use for other investment vehicles.

Are there people out there that are clinical hoarders?  Absolutely!  We’ve seen from shows like A&E’s “Hoarders” that an estimated three million Americans suffer from hoarding.  Interestingly though, you never see people in those shows clipping coupons as a means of feeding the obsession with accumulation as it relates to the disease.

Could there be people who coupon who do have a hoarding illness?  I’m sure there are.  But the people you find at sites like this, using social media tools to save thousands of dollars a year – the obsession isn’t in the accumulation of stuff, rather, it’s in the security of having finances and an inventory of goods that will get them through hard times. For some, the economic gain of stockpiling is what’s kept them ahead of the recession.

Interestingly, Hotcouponworld has a disproportionate amount of members and site visitors that are in high-income earning household compared to other sites on the net.  The bulk of our members are either working towards or have achieved some level of post-secondary education.  That tells me that many “extreme couponers” do so because they have a grasp on what it takes to achieve wealth, and for those who have amassed some level of security, why pay full price and deplete those resources faster than necessary?

Once upon a time in American history, having a supply of food on hand was considered to be a sign of wealth, security, and prosperity.  Today, one-tenth of the country is on foodstamps and food insecurity is a sign of the times. People who have used modern day marketing tactics to their advantage to accumulate a stockpile are doing better than the average American.  It makes you wonder if our ancestors didn’t have the right of it that the material things in life that mattered most were the ones that covered basic needs.

As I spent some of yesterday responding to commentary on different blogs posts about the article, one thing struck me.  One commentator posted that he “prayed the economy would get back to “normal” because of all the extreme couponing happening out there”.  My comment back was that for those of us who have been doing this, we’ve been at it long before the economy tanked.  For many of our members, having a stockpile is what has kept them in their homes and ahead of their friends and neighbors as they lost jobs and had houses foreclosed upon.  But, believe me, we too wish the economy would get back to normal.  The there might just be a little more elbow room at the grocery store!

A more interesting article from the Wall Street Journal would have been one that portrayed the economic security of having a 3-month, 6-month, or even 12-month pantry on hand, how it’s keeping people secure, how it’s putting food into the community food system, and how smart shoppers are using it as a low-finance, wealth creation tactic to stay ahead of the recession.

Tags: coupon communities, Coupons, Extreme Couponing, recession, Stockpiling, Wall Street Journal
Posted in Articles, Finance, Hotcouponworld in the Media, Stockpiling | 13 Comments »

In this recession, I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many times I’ve heard the following bad advice coming from the mainstream media:

* Cut out internet and cable
* Cancel your cellular service
* Sell your car and get a bus pass
* Cancel your newspaper subscription
* Buy generics

I could go on forever with a list a mile long of all the great “advice” I hear coming from reporters and bloggers that have likely never tried practicing what they preach. And don’t get me started on the personal finance “gurus” out there that talk about tightening their belt by cutting back on “luxuries”….like the internet.

I have yet to understand why these helpful “tips” keep getting circulated across the web, splashed across the newspaper, and blasted on the nightly news. These tips aren’t practical for most people, let alone those who are trying to better their finances.

Let’s start with the “cut out the internet” myth – the biggest one of all in my book. If you’re like a large percentage of the country, you’re either:

A. Unemployed
B. Actively seeking better employment
C. Trying to stay ahead of the game in order to hang onto your job, or
D. Researching new opportunities in self-employment or higher education

If more than 20% of HR professionals are now actively using tools like LinkedIn and Facebook to find and reference new hires, cutting the internet out of your budget is going to severely limit your ability to find and maintain employment. And please, don’t tell me that going to the library to use the free public internet is a suitable alternative. The reality is, when a prospective employer sends you an email or would like you to zip over a resume, you better be able to respond quickly. The free public option internet isn’t going to be good enough to get that done. And particularly if all the new savers who’ve cut the internet out of their budgets are standing in line waiting to use it.

Canceling your cell phone service is also a poor budget saver. I can remember a time in the not to distant past (ok, last year) when all I wanted was for my phone to ring. It didn’t need a data plan, and I certainly didn’t need to send emails from it. Boy was I wrong. Since I got hooked up with my Google phone, I’m much more productive and I get work accomplished in the most unusual places.

But, you don’t need to worry about being productive when you can ride the bus to get to the free internet in the library because you sold your car and canceled the phone. In fact, there might still be a pay phone in the lobby of the library you can use. For most Americans, mass transit is a luxury left to those in larger cities. And even then, with three kids, I’d never trust that I could get to them fast enough on a BART, MAX, MARTHA, or any other cutesy-named mass transit system. Nor would I feel confident if I was in the midst of a job search that I could get enough searching done hoofing it on foot.

More than for just employment reasons, this advice also fails consumers. Skip the newspaper and buy generics means that shoppers are missing access to sales ads, coupons, and deals. If you have to cut back the paper, at least keep the Sunday paper for the coupon inserts. And use that internet service to ferret out deals and savings online. Think about the internet as a tool to help you control the controllable costs in your life. That’s where the real savings is. Savings don’t lie in killing productivity and connectivity tools like the internet, your phone, and even your car. Real savings comes from getting a grip on consumable spending, and finding better deals on toilet paper, dog food, diapers, and milk. If you can learn to manage those costs, that’s where your savings can compound much quicker than the $40 a month you’ll recoup by having no phone.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that in today’s tech world, you NEED to have consistent access to the tools that keep you connected…to employment opportunities, to savings opportunities, and networking opportunities. I might not have felt that way once, but the landscape is significantly different than it was even just a few short years ago.

If you need to make cuts to keep your budget solvent, try using a coupon for a box of cereal, or shopping in the peak of a sales cycle for the best prices on everyday items. Connectivity tools are no longer a luxury. Keeping these necessities in your budget can ensure you never miss an opportunity to move your finances forward and better your life.

Tags: coupon shopping, internet, job hunting, recession
Posted in Articles, Finance | 9 Comments »

My husband got deployed, and truthfully, with three kids, a house, a job, and more, cooking is the furthest thing from my mind.  So,  I have to fess up that we’ve been eating out way more than we should.  But being the coupon shopper that I am, I make sure that everywhere we eat, we get a deal.

With my newly-found knowledge of lots of dining out, here are the four best pieces of advice I have for getting the best restaurant deals.

1. Gift Card Deals

Scope out restaurants that are offering special incentives to buy gift cards.  I went to Claim Jumper restaurant with the kids, my mother inlaw, and her nephew for a special occasion.  Claim Jumper was offering a $5 bonus gift card for every $25 gift card you bought.  I went right to the hostess, bought $100 giftcard, and she gave me $20 free dollars good for a later visit.  We promptly used the $100 gift card on the dinner we were going to buy anyway.  Now however,  I have $20 free dollars to use again on another visit.

2. Inhouse promotions

A few years back, my husband and I each signed up for a rewards card for McCormick and Schmicks.  For $25, you got to sign up for the club.  However, they mailed you out a $25 gift certificate, so in reality, it didn’t cost anything to join.  Since we each got our own accounts, we listed each other as spouses.  M&S sends each of us a free dinner on our birthday valued at $40, just for being a member.  That’s two accounts, four meals, for $160 in free meals.  You then accumulate points on everything you spend.  They have a great happy hour with $1.95 appetizers, so many times we eat off the bar menu.  And for every 500 points you accumulate, you earn a $50 gift card.  The points are calculated before coupons and discounts.  So you can see where this is going.  Now, we go to Costco and buy $100 in giftcards to use for $79.99.  So we save an additional 20% off our meals.  It equals lots of cheap dinners at a really nice seafood restaurant.  They then had an inhouse promo to sign up for their newsletter and get a free $10 gift cert.  The savings just keep coming.

3. Costo gift cards

Costco in many areas offer discounted giftcards to local restaurants, typically at a savings of 20% off.  But, since gift cards are essentially cash, unlike combining two coupons, you can combine a gift card and a coupon.  So if you get $100 of giftcards for $79.99, and then the restaurant has a coupon available, you’re increasing your savings.  One of my local restaurants offers a giftcard at Costco, but they also have a Buy One Get One free coupon they offer.  By combining the gift card and the coupon, I’m getting one meal free and the other at 20% off – so the savings is about 70% off.

4. Entertainment Book Coupons

I always buy at least three Entertaiment Books each year, mainly for the grocery store coupons, but the restaurant coupons sweeten the pot.  Going back to my McCormick and Schmick example, they offer a $20 off coupon in the Entertainment Book. By combining that with the Costo giftcards and the M&S rewards card, we can have a really nice dinner for about $20 (gratuity not included). The restaurant coupons in there really do save you money.

5. Restaurant.com

Lastly, Restaurant.com can be a tremendous savings.  They discount gift certificates to local area restaurants across the country.  The certificates aren’t completely free – there is usually some sort of stipulation around them, like “Spend $35 and get $25 off” and you bought the certificate for $4, so you really wound up spending $14, but it’s still more than 50% off.  And during the course of the month, they discount them all the way down to 80% off.

Now if I had a secret for how to not put on the pounds while eating out, I’d be a genius!  But in all seriousness, even in a bad economy, you can still treat your spouse or family to a night out at an affordable price. Just remember, always tip your server at the full price of the meal.  Happy servers means restaurant owners will continue to offer great deals!

So enjoy your savings and a night off from washing the dishes!

Tags: Costco, Coupons, Dining, Dining Out, entertainment book, food coupons, gift cards, recession, restaurant, Restaurant.com
Posted in Articles, Frugal Living | 4 Comments »

It’s the sign of our times – stores are going out of business left and right.  This week, retail sales figures were posted for the country, and not surprisingly, they were worse than anticipated.  No store category is being spared.  Home electronics, hardware, clothing, sporting goods, and even grocery stores are shuttering their doors and liquidating their inventory.  While it’s sad, and you don’t wish for a store you love to go bankrupt, it’s also a prime time for you to step in and find things your family can use at a price well below full retail.

First, let’s talk about liquidator tactics.  Once a store’s inventory has been handed over to a liquidator, the 3rd party company comes in and retags the merchandise, marking it up to its highest retail price.  From there,  they mark the items down. So a camping tent that retailed for $125.00, at the “clearance price” of 20% off, is still going to be $100.00.  That’s not a deal when other stores have similar tents on sale for $79.00.   If the item you’re interested in isn’t a commonly available item like a tent, and there’s not much inventory left, 20% off retail might be a good deal. Because of the media attention given to stores going out of business, most people will tend to flood the store when the sale starts and the best inventory will move quickly.  The general public will be happy at 20% savings and think they got a deal.

Within a few weeks, the inventory starts moving into new percent-off brackets.  30%-50% is where you’ll start seeing better prices, but you’ll still need to be careful that the price your paying is better than someone else’s best sales price.  Inventory will stay in this price bracket the longest because of the consumer perception about the value.  If there’s an item you’re interested in, shop around at competitors’ stores and check if it’s truly the best price before you buy.

In this savings bracket, the 50% off items are going to be things that are out of season or harder to sell items. A sporting goods store going out of business in May will have the winter items at the 50% off mark because no one is thinking about skiing in May.  But commonly used items like footballs or running shoes will be at the 30% off and be slower to move to the steepest brackets.

The liquidators will then move into the 60%-70% bracket, signaling that the store’s last day of business will be within a few weeks.  That’s the time to really start digging through the inventory.  Look for things you can use, or that might even have a resell value on Ebay or Craigslist.

The store will finish off with 70%-80% off most merchandise, and a few things that are “junk” items are going to be at 90% off.  Ninety-percent off makes for a great sign marketing – you know, the guy on the side of the road twirling an “everything must go sign” on a street corner.  But most of the 90% off stuff isn’t worth looking through more than once.

Now that you understand the tactics a liquidator uses to mark down inventory, here’s XXX tips for getting the most out of a liquidation sale.

1. If the store has more than one location be sure to check out each store. The inventory at each store will be different based on what they had left in stock before the liquidation sale started.

2. Make a list of the items you’re interested in at each store you visit.  Write down the price it’s at, and then go home and compare the pricing online.  Amazon.com is a good barometer on most items, and most stores have at least one online competitor you can price check against.  If the best price for that tent onsale in another store is $79, you know you’ll need that tent to be at the 50% off bracket during the liquidation sale before you should buy it.

3. If it’s an item you really need and you don’t think it will make it to the next price bracket, buy it at the one it’s at now.

4. If there’s a good amount of inventory and you find an item you want to stockpile, buy one or two at the current discount, and then as it falls further, buy more at the better percent-off bracket to increase your savings.  For example, you buy a pair of jeans at the 50% off rate, but they still have them when they are 70% off, by picking up the extra pair, it’s like getting both of them for 60% off.

5. Shop through each price bracket of the sale.  Liquidators will not only mark things down, they’ll consolidate inventory from multiple stores, and even bring in inventory from previous liquidation sales from other merchants in hopes of selling it while they have an audience of shoppers to look at the additional items.  And because stores will pull more out of the back storage, you don’t know what you’ll find the next time you come through.

6. If you’re shopping for kids, size up and buy multiples.  At a recent liquidation sale, I found Columbia Sportswear fleeces for $12.50 – regularly $32.50.  I bought a size that would fit the kids now, and then bought the next three sizes for later.

7. Don’t buy what you don’t need.  Just because it looks like a good deal, if you’re not going to use it, then it’s no deal at all.

8. Lastly, buyer beware.  The policy of every liquidator is “All Sales Final“.  Make sure that the things you’re buying are in good shape, that shoes are the same size and you have a left & right foot, and that all the parts and pieces are there.  I have no problems opening up a box in the store before I buy it. If I buy a tent, get it home and it’s missing a pole, it’s on me.  There’s no returning it.  You’ll also want to be sure that warranties on anything you’re buying are still in full effect.  This is especially important with electronics.

Liquidation sales are bittersweet.  It’s sad to see a 57-year old store leave your community, but don’t feel bad about making their loss into your advantage. The opportunity to save is huge and shouldn’t be overlooked.

Tags: bankruptcy sale, Clearance, clearance sales, fire sale, going out of business, liquidation sale, percent-off, recession
Posted in Articles, Frugal Living | No Comments »