Derran Reebel's thoughts on being thrifty in Ohio

Good morning from the cold, damp, snowy region of Ohio! I, Derran Reebel, have just a few comments to share today about being thrifty with your money. Every day is like a game to me when it comes to buying and saving and debt. If you can't look at it like this, it might as well overpower you rather than guide you. Understanding this "game" of economics is rather simple:

Buy low, use/sell high.

It's the basic concept used in the stock market and it's what you can use in your every day life! Master this art and you'll be well on your way to living way within your means and/or living even better than you imagined!

Today we'll take a brief look at Buy Low.

Buy low. (Ok, let's apply this reasoning to one of the things that is going up in price lately: Food.)

1. When you visit the grocery store, ALWAYS shop by the ounce and NOT by the listed price. While many of you probably like to visit Sams or Costco, that MIGHT not always be saving you money. I'll explain in a little bit. Shopping by the ounce is the ONLY way to go. If a brand name item containing 20 ounces of product says 20% more free and is selling for $5.00 but it's generic/store brand counterpart is only selling for $4.00 with 18 ounces, here is the breakdown: The $5 item works out to be $0.25 cents per ounce and the generic is $0.22 per ounce. While that's only a difference of 3 cents, you might also realize that it's also a savings of $1...and every bit of money saved is good! Do this on 10 to 20 items from your grocery list and the savings pile up!
   
   
2. The only time you would NOT follow this line of thinking has to do with the secondary way of shopping: Nutritional Content. Shopping by nutritional content means that if the Name brand for $1 more has more protein or less calories, etc. per serving, that you might go ahead and buy the Name brand on to get more VALUE for your spend. This really depends on your dietary needs and/or goals for weightlifting, etc.
   
   
3. Some additional ways to decrease your cost per ounce: A. Using coupons. Buying the larger size item (usually cost per ounce, or CPO, is less) B. Shopping Bulk Food Warehouses. The only time you wouldn't want to do this is if you are on a tight budget. Usually these stores have you buy more upfront to get the better CPO but in order to save that extra little bit of money, you might jeopardize other areas of your budget. C. Shopping around or looking at your Sunday ads in the newspaper. If you're like me, you live within a couple miles of 3 to 4 stores who typically and aggressively mark down key items each week to lure you in. Even with high gas prices, a trip one mile down the road to save a couple bucks won't cost you much in gas. If you've got the time...do the crime and go save some money! LOL

In my next post, we'll delve deeper into this and take a look at Use/Sell High. Stay tuned for more great thoughts from Ohioan, Derran Reebel!

Egg consumption....

Well as always this time of year everyone is back to the grindstone working out and exercising off their new year's resolutions to lose weight.

On the nutrition point, does anyone know much about egg consumption safety? I have found 2 very convincing articles that claim the cholesterol in eggs is actually nothing to worry about provided you are exercising and eating right elsewise.

Perhaps it depends on the region in which you live? I live in Ohio so I wonder if locale plays into it at all?

-Derran Reebel