The weather around here hasn’t been that great and we haven’t been able to make the trip to do our major monthly grocery shopping. That’s when we stock up on the essentials since they are cheaper at another store. We have been running out of things, so we decided to head to a store that is closer to us.
Some things we couldn’t bring ourselves to buy. $1.30 for a can of soup versus $0.79 is a pretty big difference. We’ll do without the soup for now. Other things, like eggs and cereal, we had to buy.
This story of our trip down the cereal aisle is fairly typical. All three of us walk down it and I ask our son to see if there are any cereals on sale that he would like. We spot one of his favorite cereals (Lucky Charms) and see that it is 2/$5.00 on sale. My husband heads over to the generic Lucky Charms and I stay by the brand name so we can compare the prices and ounces. We may not use walkie talkie’s like the Economide family, but we have a pretty good system for comparing prices and we make sure our son is involved.
What wasn’t so typical is what happened before my husband reached the generic cereal section. He was stopped by someone working in the aisle and asked if he would like to buy one get one free for Kellogg’s cereals. All you have to do is say “Buy one get one free” and my right ear moves for better reception (yes, I still do the ear wiggling!).
It turns out that he is affiliated with Kellogg’s and was working in that store. Thanks to his coupons, we were able to get large boxes of cereal for $1.50/box (the coupons were combined with cereals on sale). Not too bad. He made my day right there. That wasn’t all, he spent a few minutes giving us a head’s up on some promotions coming soon.
We didn’t notice him talking to anyone else. While we were with him his attention was 100% on us even though other customers were passing us by. Maybe it was because we were obviously trying to stretch our dollars. Then I remembered something. Back when I used to work in a grocery store (which seems like ages ago now), we were encouraged to help people find the deals. Some of us workers would tell stories of how we helped people save money. Believe it or not, there were customers who were offended when we mentioned an available coupon. So we kept an eye out for the people who were looking at prices or maybe had a coupon folder - some clue that they were price shopping. It makes me smile thinking back on how we had scoped out all of the coupons around the store (even by the wines - sometimes there were coupons for produce or meat with no wine purchase required!) and how we handed those out to customers.
Maybe that is why the man decided to help us out. I made sure to thank him plenty (I probably said it three times before we walked away) and I smiled at him and saw a smile back. Yeah, I think that’s probably why he did it.
In other grocery trip related news, I found myself walking up to the coffee and sniffing it longingly even though I’ve never really been a coffee drinker. I don’t recall ever having caffeine withdrawals more than two days (I’ve quit caffeine multiple times in the past). I’m on day three and it has been the worst day yet. I was so close to getting some soda. But I held out and raided our hard candy when we got home to take the edge off of it. I sure hope today was the worst of it and man, I hope this post makes sense! My head’s still a little fuzzy 
The New York Times is doing a series called “Debt Trap - A series about the surge in consumer debt and the lenders who made it possible.” On New Year’s Day, they did an article that rings so very true to me. If you recall, my credit card debt started with a candy bar offered on college campus.
Since I started blogging, I have come to realize that whenever you get a credit card through another avenue than the credit card company itself, someone is making money from selling that card to you. The same rings true for web sites and blogs that have links to credit cards. It can be a profitable business - the one time I looked at it, some companies were paying up to $50 for every person that signed up for a card.
Thinking back to the displays at my old college, there were always college students manning the booths. I figured that student organizations were the ones behind the applications. But according to the New York Times articles, the colleges themselves can get a very lucrative deal. In some cases, it pays for the college to have a student go into debt and have a balance on their card at all times. Another scenario is that that college receives a percentage of every charge a student makes. Makes my stomach do a little flip - they sure got me!
The contract [for Michigan State University] calls for a $1 royalty to the university for every new card account that remains open for at least 90 days, $3 for every card whose holder pays an annual fee, and a payment of a half percent of the amount of all retail purchases using the cards.
[Via NYTimes.com]
So…some colleges are not only allowing the credit card booths on campuses - they are encouraging them! They get a lot of money by doing so. The colleges mentioned in the article say that the revenue is important and sometimes used for scholarships. It doesn’t make much sense to me. And selling student information so credit card companies can market to them? Ugh. I get those alumni credit card offers. I guess my alma mater got a deal as well to sell my information.
I don’t mind colleges making money. But it seems like there could be a better way than targeting young adults with credit card offers. It’s like raiding the young adult cradle.
If interested, here is the link to the entire Debt Trap series at the New York Times.
I mentioned earlier that my husband and I were giving up soft drinks (caffeine). We’ve both done it in the past, but never at the same time. We drank the remaining bottles in our house and as of yesterday we have both been caffeine-free.
I’ve been keeping withdrawal headaches at bay thanks to some Tylenol. But I am soooo tired and am finding it hard to focus on anything. I was zapped of practically all energy today. If I could have, I would have slept all day. I’m not necessarily craving soft drinks, but I can tell that something isn’t right with my body. Tomorrow will probably be more of the same and then Monday I should start to get my energy back. At least that is what has happened in the past.
We both feel good about the change. We’ve been making a few lately, and some affect our finances. If I wasn’t so “out of it” I’d share those right now but they will have to wait. We’re bringing back a few good habits we had, but somehow slipped out of.
A reader sent me a tip about an AOL story. They list 7 companies that are hiring people right now. The best part? You can work from home. No commute and no fancy clothes. That’s one of the ways that I save money 
While there are some companies on the list I am familiar with (Alpine Access, Sylvan Online and Working Solutions), there are some that I have not heard about yet. With any work at home company, really check it out to make sure it is valid. And never pay a fee unless you are really sure you will receive results. A great place to go to ask others about companies is the WAHM Forums.
Thanks Beverly for the tip!
It’s that time of year for some New Year’s resolutions. I can’t seem to get past one…pay off the last bit of our credit card debt. So, that will be our single financial goal for 2009. Anything above and beyond that will be icing on the cake.
We have another resolution that will affect our cash flow. Both my husband and I will be giving up the soft drinks once our current supply is out. We will save money by doing that, but we may use the savings there to go towards healthier food. I’m still looking into that, though.
As I mentioned earlier, I am excited for 2009. I am hopeful that it will be a great year for us.
Happy New Year everyone!
With a minute to spare, I posted our financial goals for 2008 right before the switch to 2008. So…how did we do?
For our credit card debt, we wanted to pay off at least $10,000 more. That would put us in a good position to meet our goal date of May 2009. How much did we pay? $10,965. We exceeded our goal.
For our savings, we wanted to beef it up to $2,500 (although I noted it would be nice to get it to $5,000). I won’t have our final amount until interest is added in, but we have over $3,700 in our savings so we met that goal as well.
I have a feeling it will be down to the wire again this year to post our 2009 financial goals. The only thing I can think about is getting our credit card debt finally paid off. We are so close now…I can taste it!
To say goodbye to 2008, I really wanted to hit our debt hard. Thanks to some things lining up properly, we were able to pay enough towards our debt to get under the $6K mark. Our credit card debt now stands at $5,999. I’m pleased. Very pleased.
I haven’t talked about our budding business recently because for a while there, things went stagnant. I have been busy dealing with family issues (related to a medical issue) so I wasn’t doing my part. I’m not the best at multi-tasking. I prefer to focus on one thing and the business wasn’t the most important thing the past few months. Family comes first. Now that I have my bearings with the family issue, I can get back to the business.
I have very high hopes for 2009. I’m actually very excited for the new year. I think it’s our year to really shine. We should have our credit card debt paid off and if all goes well we may have our highest annual income yet in 2009. Yep, I’m excited!
About This Site
Credit Card Debt
- Starting = $37,614
- Paid Off = $31,615
- Current = $5,999
- $25 ING Savings Bonus
Savings Account
- Current = $3,750
