The Fine Art of Saving Money

Recently I had a new "Grown-up Moment". I am now the proud OWNER of my very own car, having paid off my car loan this month. It was very exciting to get the title in the mail and at the same time a little strange to realize that I am really a grown person. I suppose that most people would be saying "Sure lady. At 30 you should be well aware that you are a grown person!" but some how I still find myself amazed that I am. At any rate, not having to make a car payment has certainly allowed a little extra freedom in the budget this month, but never the less we are still being conscious of our spending and tucked away some savings too. In our on-going effort to save versus spend, we have been exploring new options for grocery shopping. As much as I hate shopping, we do occasionally get really good deals using sales and coupons...even if it means going to nearly all of the grocery stores in town. The new first choice for grocery shopping on canned and frozen goods is a place called Grocery Outlet. It is a very strange place to shop. The stock changes every few days, and just because you got something there before doesn't mean you will ever see it there again, but the deals are unbeatable. For example frozen edamame (whole soybeans) can be close to $5 at some stores, at the Grocery Outlet they were $1.27 a bag. The deals there allow us to get items that we maybe would not normally get, simply because the cost versus need ratio was so off at other stores....like frozen curly fries. A purely luxury item in our house, not something that we NEED at other stores, but when the large bag at Grocery Outlet is only $2.25 it is hard to pass up for a treat. Last night we had chicken on the grill and freezer veggies and I decided to break out the curly fries. Why not? I thought. We deserve a little treat, right. I pre-heated the oven, prepared the baking pan and got the fries out of the freezer. I opened the bag and began to pour out some fries...and I quickly learned why they were so inexpensive. The "curly fries" were really curly fry fragments, the little pieces that fall to the bottom of the expensive bags were what filled my bag. I had a good laugh, filled the tray and cooked them up. And while they were certainly not glamorous, they tasted just fine...and it was kind of fun to eat them with a fork!