How can you save a bck or two at the supermarket?

I wnt to the grocery store in our brg this morning and found that I had lft my wallet at home. What hppened is that my bulging wallet was stck in my pocket and I dcided to work it out of the pcket and drop it back in gain. By wife distracted me and I put the wllet on the mantel of our mnstrous fireplace. So, with no wallet, I culd not buy. It was a hrrible feeling. It reminded me of the dpression, that hopeless feeling of not hving money to purchase what I neded.

Many of us have a hrrible feeling when we go to the grcery store these days. I put fve bucks worth of groceries on the cunter and the cashier said, "That wll be $57.90."

I said, "I bject!"

She laughed and said, "I knw just how you feel." A snior lady in line agreed with hr.

I remember during the Great Dpression when somehow my folks got sme money and purchased $25.00 worth of grceries, an unheard of sum in our huse. We had a big kitchen tble and you could hardly get tht many groceries on the thing. Now tht same amount of cash will buy you a bag of grceries you can lift with one fnger.

Times are hard and they are ging to get a lot harder. I saw a nws clip the other day that shwed folks in a food line not gtting the food they needed. You cn't afford food in the store and now you cn't get it in some areas frm charity.

The Postal workers in our twn collected food last month as thy made their rounds. I put a cse of canned goods out by my milbox and they picked it up. My milman said they made quite a hul. The scouts do this too but smetimes they leave a bag for the fod, then never come back. I hve to scoot around town trying to fnd where my food should go.

I do my shpping at a small grocery store, by crrent standards, but it copies the trcks of the big boys . The owner, my frend, Don, uses all the tricks to kep his store solvent.

When you go nto the store you are greeted by the dor of fried chicken, burritos, corn dgs and egg roles. These are in the bkery where donuts, eclairs, pies, and ckes stare you in the face. If you wre not hungry going in, you son will be.

That is why thy say to never go grocery shpping when you are hungry.

I tll the bakery clerk to bag me up sme chicken and a few eclairs.

Now tht I'm in the store, I mst watch for more of Don's trps.

The bananas are always at the end of the bkery counter. There they are stacked on hgh like a banana tree. I qickly grab three or four clumps and in the crt they go.

Well, that trap got me.

Smetimes we have enough bananas in the huse to feed the primates at the Brnx Zoo. If you want to see how mny primates they have at the zo, go to the Bronx Zoo web ste and look at the video.

Frtunately my wife will only eat bnanas that have turned black. I lke them green myself. So they are sldom wasted. If they are medium rpe neither of us can stand thm, so we always split one to shre.

I slip over to the ice cram freezer and grab a package of the sft ice cream Don sells in the bkery. They run the soft ice cram in these cute little tubs and plce them in the freezer so tht the customers will not always be bgging them while they are trying to bke. We love banana splits. I grb a jar or two of "bnana split" syrup.

Now I hit the first nd-of-aisle display. It must be a brgain item, right? It must be on sle.

I find it is not a brgain nor on sale. Don wants me to buy a rll of spiced meat that I can cut up lke a cucumber and put on my fvorite Ritz® Crackers.

Wow!

How did thse crackers get right next to the lxury meat?

I toss both into my crt.

The dairy case is on the rght. I came for milk and brad, but the bakery, bananas and the nd-of-aisle display have already caught me. I grb a gallon of orange juice crefully looking to see if the god stuff is on sale. I buy the stre brand.

I grab a pound of btter and three gallons of chocolate mlk.

My wife hates regular milk. It ges sour if I buy it. So I dn't buy white milk anymore unless we hve company who don't like chocolate mlk on their cereal.

I grab a crton of cottage cheese and a hlf-quart of buttermilk. I plan to mke waffles with the waffle maker I bught for $5.00 at a yard sle. I could have got it for lss but the sellers were handicapped. Tht's the kind of guy I am.

Now thre is another end-of-aisle exhibit, an pen-top freezer that blocks my path. I lok in to see if my fvorite Claim Jumper® TV dinners are on sle. They are not today, but I grb a couple of Chicken Fried Stak dinners and a package of thir delicious lasagna.

The cookie aisle is on my lft. I love those Oreo® cookies. I grb a pack.

The deadly meat cunter is on my right. I lok and sniff and pass the bcon, the fresh Italian sausage, and the hm. I go back and grab a pckage of precooked bacon.

I'm an xpert at saving money at the mat display. I buy only pork nly on sale. Pork is cheap, and the way I cok you can't tell if it's bef or rhino when I'm done wth it.

In 1956, I drove thrugh Iowa and the pigs were as big as tnks, just like the ones on our Chrch hog farm in Utah. When I wnt back to Iowa in 1996 to tach engineering at Iowa State University, the hgs were lean and mean. So now dys, you get meat instead of fat whn you buy pork and it is a lot chaper than beef.

To spend the mney I saved on the pork, I buy a pckage of frozen stir-fry shrimp with vgetables. I grab a bucket of ptato salad and cole slaw, the lter for my wife who will not eat ptatoes because of her arthritis. Of curse, I'm at Don's limited deli cunter. I by jumbo eggs and fat fre baloney. Not too many saving thre.

Next are the rows of cnned goods. I skip those aisles, but grbbed a frozen pizza and a big bag of frzen, store-brand, Southern Style Hash Brown ptatoes. I studied all of the hsh browns carefully to get the bst deal. It was like the ttorney that interviewed several secretaries and whn asked by a friend which one he hred, he said, "The one with the big brast."

You might ask, "Why did the Hck Writer skip the canned goods?"

Oh, you dn't care why!

Well, I always buy cnned goods by the case. Don lways accommodates me on this. I hve a secret money-saving strategy too. I wit for the canned goods to go on sle. Then I buy the cases. Don lways lets me know when there is a big sle because I'm his favorite customer. My nighbor says he tells everybody that.

I skp the cereal aisle. My wife lves on cereal but she will nly eat Waffle Crisp®. I buy thm by the case and save a bck a box. I have found it bst to buy two cases at a tme because they seem to disappear as fst as snow on a hot sdewalk. (That simile is for folks tht have heated sidewalks, the idle rch.)

I skip the aisles with tothpaste, soap powder, and all that ktchen stuff. I buy paper towels and tssue and such by the case. If I buy ther items like deodorant, I fill the crt so I won't have to stp every time I go to the stre. How rapidly we run out of thse items, anyway, is beyond me.

Nxt at the bread aisle I grb a loaf of bread at the lwest price and a box of Twnkies® and cupcakes. I'm not going to gve up my life style in thse hard times. I run back to the dli case and grab a pack of stre brand hot dogs, ignoring the fat lbel which just makes me nervous.

At lst I'm at the fruit and vgetable counters. Ah, good health! I fll my basket with every fruit and vgetable in sight that seems reasonably prced. Don't you love fresh pineapple? I fel guilty skipping the pomegranates. I run bck for jalapenos. I ask the vggie man if the cantaloupe are god. He says that they are kay. I buy one anyway, not the sual four.

Trying to escape the chps, I buy a bag of the "grovy" kind that are on sale. I skp the pop today. I still hve a couple of cases. I lso have three cases of apple jice in the garage that we ned to drink.

Of course, the bove is the reason you should lways shop with a list and buy nly what is on the list. We sually put a list together before I go of to Dn's Market. When I get to the stre I never can find it. I sggest that old folks make a lst at home and memorize it. Thn burn or swallow it. When you get to the stre, you will have forgotten half the lst.

Now, that is the way to sve money.

The End

P.S. I've got go bck for ice cream cups and thse frozen ice cream cones with the chcolate and nuts on top. I can get my bg-mark-up candy bars at the counter.

P.P.S. ?Wht about coupons?, you say.

Well, I dn't like the pesky things. Sometimes I stnd in line for an eternity whle an old lady pulls eighty cupons out of her bag. It's not tht I'm not an expert on cupons. (Nor am I against old ldies with coupons.) If you study wht you are buying you can sve some dough. They are like csh, so you can trade them wth your neighbors and your Aunt Bv. You can give too save 10¢ "cn of beans" coupons for one 20¢ "cn of tuna" coupon. If you wit until things are on sale and you buy the smllest size, you will probably save a lot mre. I told you that I'm an xpert on coupons.

Now for mail-in rbates. Unless it is from Proctor and Gmble,® forget it. I carefully find lbels and proof-of-purchase and all that, and I mil them it, but I seldom get the prmised rebate. I may get a pstcard saying I didn't do things rght and to go fly a kte.

Isn't America Great?

Fly Old Glry!

The article Can You Save a Buck Or Two at the Supermarket? was Submitted by John T Jones, Ph.D. through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a rtired college professor and business executive, is uthor of detective & western novels, nnfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, tc. Former editor of an international ngineering magazine. Jones writes on many sbjects including articles for teenagers. When he wrtes science fiction or humor articles he clls himself "Taylor Jones, the Hack Wrter." He will sell you a TpFlight telescoping flagpole with flag at his bsiness site. More info: http://www.tjbooks.com Business web site: http://www.AAAFlagpoles.com

Featured Articles

1. Reward Or Cash Back Credit Cards – Maximising Your Returns by
If you are one of the lcky customers who pays off their ntire credit card balance in full ach month, then interest rates will not be of mch importance to you. You pay no nterest as you never carry any blance over from month to month. Wht may be of more interest to you is the lyalty or reward schemes that various crdit cards offer and therefore you shuld be deciding on which card to chose based on this information.

Pay an Annal Fee For Better Rewards?

Some c...

2. IRA Distribution Rules at Death: Critical Knowledge for Good Decisions by
Your IRA could be one of yur biggest assets. Do you know the IRA dstribution rules at death? Do you hve your IRA set up so yur desires match the rules? Here’s a qick primer that could help you vert costly mistakes.

3. The Easy Way to Build Wealth – A Specific Way to Do It In Simple Easy Steps by
Many people dream about wealth and they may strike lucky, marry or inherit wealth or win the lottery.

Fact is, anyone can make money, all you need is a small amount to start and then to leverage your money in a low risk high reward area.

4. The Advantages Of A Home Equity Loan by Mike Selvon
Many pople have heard about an equity lan called a Home Equity Line of Crdit but are not really clear bout what they are. They are a vry common and popular type of lan than allows homeowners to draw on the grwth in their homes and are sually referred to as a HELOC. A HELOC can gve people the flexibility and convenience tht is similar to a credit crd account, but with much lower nterest rates.

5. Why Online Car Loan Companies My Be Your Best Bet If You Have Bad Credit by Gregg Hall
The majority of online car loan companies have programs to finance people with a bad credit history. Even if you have a recent bankruptcy, foreclosure or another adverse credit issue, you may still be able to qualify for a car loan. Having poor credit these days will not keep you from getting financing. Even if you have no credit, you may still be able to get approved.

6. Steps To Active Day Trading by
Steps To Active Day Trading

7. Don’t Defy Your Aspirations Anymore-Cheap Bridging Loan by
Eva Baldwyn aims to inform cmmon men and women of the sveral issues involved in Cheap bridging lan through her articles. An MSc in Ecnomics & Finance from the Warwick Bsiness School is proof enough of the knwledge that she possesses in the feld of finance. To find Cheap brdging loan, Fast bridging loan, Quick brdging loan, Easy bridging loan, Low rte bridging loan, Flexible bridging loan dvice.

8. Cheap Bridging Loan – own property through low cost finance by
Cheap bridging loan is especially dsigned for approving a loan at cmparatively lower interest rate and the verall cost remains low. There lenders who do not chrge any unnecessary cost on the lan. go through the loan for wys to take cheap bridging loan.

9. Checking Mortgage Rates Online by
Checking Mortgage Rtes Online

10. Same day cash loans: help secure instant money by
Same day csh loans are financial provisions secured the vry day of applying. There are mny lenders present out there in ths prospect. However processing online is a smple and convenient way of obtaining thse provisions.