Naptime Blog

Growing up, there were five children living in our house on a permanent/ semi-permanent basis. That’s a lot of mouths to feed. It was my twin sister and I and my Moms best friends three sons. It used to make me crazy that my mom would shop at our local grocery store and bring home the generic versions of Doritos and peanut butter and cookies. I remember being envious when I saw those pretty red bags of cheesy chip goodness at my friends’ houses. At our house, there were cabinets of white bags, cans and boxes with red writing. Generic, for as far as the eye could see. I’m sure we had name brand products as well, but I know for a fact that the majority of the food us kids ate came in an ugly white package with red writing.

Finally, I get it.

Although I’ve not always made the best financial decisions in life, I’ve never been much of a shopper. The older I’ve gotten, the more fiscally responsible I’ve gotten as well. And now that Tristan in the picture, I find that I am even more of a penny pincher. As much as I hate to admit it, it’s possible that I might even border on being a little cheap. But, for the sake of my ego, let’s just say that I’m frugal.

Some of my favorite money saving tactics include:

• Reading unit prices on EVERYTHING. I’ve come to learn that bigger isn’t always cheaper. Sometimes the bigger packages actually cost more per unit. Isn’t that nice of the manufacturers of these products? “Family size” is more expensive… trickery, pure trickery.
• Coupons and lots of them. And, not always using them because I have them, but using them because they are really worth it.
• Unless it’s a staple item, I only buy sale items at the grocery store. Therefore, we have a pantry stocked with ten cans of corn, five boxes of rice, four cans of soup…. and on and on it goes. If I buy things when they’re on sale, I won’t ever have to pay full price for anything unless absolutely necessary.
• When it comes to parties, gift giving and all that good stuff, I try to be proactive. For example, I am always on the look-out for sale items that could be used as party favors, party supplies and gifts for friends’ kids’ birthday parties.
• I also scour the after Valentine’s sales, Easter sales, etc. for non-holiday looking favor items. Then, I store them for later.
• Generic. Sorry, but it’s true. I’ve become my mother. I buy generic. Of course, I won’t give in when it comes to some items. Triscuits? Can’t be replicated. Frosted Mini Wheats? Only the real deal. Coffee? You’ve got to be kidding me if you think I’m doing that in the generic form. Some generics just can’t hold their own. But, for things like pasta, green beans, macaroni and cheese and frozen waffles, it really doesn’t matter much, especially to the girls. Oddly and disturbingly, the boxes are white. With blue writing. It’s just eerie.

-Chrystal

This entry was posted on Friday, March 19th, 2010 at 6:12 am and is filed under Chrystal, Store Brand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.