15 minutes of fame

Note: I couldn't get the pictures to paste into blogger...

SPEND MORE, SAVE LESS
Here are some money-saving tips from southside resident Rebecca Cribbs:
• Use dinner leftovers for lunches.
• Buy meat in large packages because it's cheaper by the pound. Freeze it in plastic bags with marinade, and the meat will marinate while freezing and defrosting.
• Make meals such as baked spaghetti that can be easily doubled. Freeze the extra portions.
• Shop for two weeks of groceries at a time to lessen impulse buying that breaks a budget. Figure out what your family will need over the course of two weeks, and use that to make a list. Buy only those items when you go to the store.
• Beware of items set up on special displays. Always check the store aisle where the item normally is shelved since often there will be cheaper brands of the same product nearby.

Meal maestros
March 17, 2009
As a former auditor for a certified public accountant, Rebecca Cribbs has experience managing money. Now a stay-at-home mother of four, Cribbs, 35, and her husband, David, budget all aspects of the family's finances, from food and clothing to entertainment and bills. She's the chief financial officer of her home. Nowhere is her expertise more visible than at the grocery store.

Her goal is to spend $75 or less on food each week, which she accomplishes using a combination of coupons, store sales and Internet giveaways. "To me, it's a game. I go in trying to see how much I can save," she said. The Cribbses lives on the southside. David Cribbs is a human resources supervisor for Eli Lilly Federal Credit Union. Rebecca Cribbs has her hands full at home with Caroline, 5; Jonathan, 4; Elizabeth, 22 months; and Matthew, 3 months. The couple were married in 1999 and agreed that when they had children, Rebecca would stay home. Knowing they would be limited to one paycheck, the couple started planning. They set up a budget for items such as groceries, clothing and entertainment. Rebecca Cribbs found that a prime area to scale back was in groceries. She started budgeting $300 per month for food, diapers and other baby supplies. Every week, she plans menus to determine what she needs to buy. With that as a template, she scans advertisements from Meijer, Walmart and Aldi for the best deals. She only purchases groceries that are on sale or that she has a coupon for. If she can't get a deal, it's not on her list. "I have a basic knowledge of what we eat, what we like, what we don't like," she said. "My husband says I have a database in my head."One of her favorite promotion is Meijer's 10 items for $10 sale. In addition to selling a wide range of food for $1 each, the store gives away an 11th item free. Rebecca Cribbs combines those deals with manufacturers' coupons to drive the price down more, sometimes to zero. A current Meijer deal lists a package of Quaker rice snacks for $1. With an additional $1 off coupon from Sunday's newspaper, Cribbs can get the snacks for free. The Internet is a prime source of information for her. She relies on a handful of Web sites managed by frugal mothers like her to find the best deals. From her research, both in coupon circulars and on the Internet, Cribbs knows the exact price of what she's planning to buy. That makes staying on budget easy. After her grocery trips, she goes back over her list and cost estimates as well as the receipt listing what she actually paid to analyze where more savings can be found the next time."I've always been one that doesn't like to pay full price for anything, so it's a lifestyle for me to find these deals and freebies," she said.
Every week, southside resident Rebecca Cribbs plans the meals she wants to make for her family of six. After she lists all the ingredients needed, she calculates the cost to make each meal. She compiles prices from store advertisements and knowledge of what items have cost in the past.
Here's what a recent week's worth of dinners cost the family:

Monday
Rotisserie chicken Chicken: $4.99; used for two meals
Mashed potatoes: 5 pounds, $2.50; used about 1 pound for the meal
Green beans: 25 cents, one can bought on sale
Meal total: $3.25

Tuesday
Lemon herb chicken Chicken: $3.99; 5-pound package, $1.99 per pound; used for three meals.
Lemon herb marinade: 50 cents; package of marinade, $1; used for two meals.
Rice: 50 cents, one package bought on sale
Peas: 50 cents, one package bought on sale for $1, used for two meals
Meal total: $5.49

Wednesday
Baked spaghetti Spaghetti: 33 cents, one package bought on sale
Spaghetti sauce: 90 cents, one jar bought on sale
Cheese: 75 cents; one bag of shredded mozzarella, $1.50; used for two meals
Salad: $1 for two adults, a rough estimate for one meal. Cribbs paid a total of $1.33 for a bag of prepared salad, $2 per pound for tomatoes, 50 cents for a cucumber and $1 for dressing.
Garlic bread: 90 cents, one package on sale
Peaches: 90 cents, one can on sale
Meal total: $4.78

Thursday
Tortellini soup Soup meat (leftover rotisserie chicken): $2.50 Tortellini: $1; other ingredients on hand
Bread: About $1 for a loaf
Meal total: $4.50

Friday
Lemon pepper pork loin Pork loin: $1.69 (1 pound from 4-pound cut)
Marinade: 25 cents
Rice: 50 cents
Vegetables: 50 cents
Meal total: $2.94

Saturday
Poppy seed chicken Chicken: $1.99 Cream of chicken soup: 49 cents Sour cream: 80 cents
Broccoli: 75 cents
Gelatin: 44 cents
Meal total: $4.47

Sunday
Leftovers

Total A week of dinners: $25.43

March 18, 2009
Rebecca Cribbs studied two containers of applesauce on the shelves. One was made by Mott's, the name-brand producer with a national reputation. The other was the Target store brand.The ingredients were the same. The sizes were the same. Only the prices were different. Major grocery retailers such as Target, Walmart and Kroger offer store products that match nearly everything the name brands do. Choosing between the two comes down to the best deal. Cribbs, a mother of four, was doing her shopping Thursday and came to an unusual conclusion.

With a $1-off coupon, Cribbs lowered the $1.64 price for the Mott's brand to only 64 cents.The Target brand cost $1.25. Cribbs' choice was simple. "If it's on sale and I have a coupon, I buy the name-brand product, since it usually works out to be cheaper," she said. The southside resident has found no considerable differences in taste or overall quality between store and name brands. For area shoppers like Cribbs, cheaper is always better. Cherie Lowe of Greenwood doesn't even think about brands when she goes shopping. Almost universally, store brands are cheaper, so that's what she buys. Her exception is laundry detergent. Since her husband, Brian, has allergies that can be agitated by certain brands, Lowe buys only Tide. Everything else is left up to a free-market system."If something is on sale, I'll buy it," she said. "Otherwise, the brand doesn't matter. "The ingredients used in similar generic and name-brand products are often the same. Walmart's Great Value brand of peanut butter, for example, is ingredient by ingredient the same as a jar of Jif. Nutritionally, the products are copies of each other. Since all food items have easy-to-read labels, shoppers can compare to ensure what they're buying meets their nutritional standards. Centrum, for example, is a name many people associate with multivitamins. But Kroger, Meijer and Walmart all have private-label versions of vitamins with the same nutritional values as the more expensive name brand. But finding the best price isn't always easy. Different sizes and packages can make prices deceiving. The solution is on the price tags themselves. Most stores break down costs on a per-ounce basis, letting shoppers compare products on equal levels. Greenwood resident Lisa Franklin tends to make her grocery-buying decisions on a case-by-case basis. Since store brands are cheaper, she leans that way. But her husband, Chris, and children Carter, 8, and Eli, 6, don't always like the taste of generic food, so she will pay a little more for a brand of cookies or cereal that everyone will eat. Plus, like Cribbs, her coupon-based shopping system caters to name brands. "Ideally, you can find something on sale and have a coupon. Since the store brands don't always have a coupon to use with them, it makes more economic sense to go with a name brand," Franklin said.

Southside resident Rebecca Cribbs uses a spreadsheet to keep track of what is in her chest freezer. She frequently buys meat in bulk, cooks and dices it and then refreezes it to use later in recipes for her family of six.

IS IT CHEAPER?Conventional wisdom says that buying food in bulk is cheaper than purchasing it in smaller sizes. But is that really the case? Sam's Club, a retail wholesaler, and Walmart are owned by the same company. Look­ing at their prices this week on different items, we found buying food or toiletries in bulk is consistently cheaper. Del Monte French cut green beans• 101 ounces, $3.06; cost per ounce, 3 cents • 14.5 ounces, 96 cents; cost per ounce, 6.6 centsRed Gold diced tomatoes• Eight 14.5-ounce cans, $5.66; cost per ounce, 4.9 cents• One 14.5-ounce can, 87 cents; cost per ounce, 6 cents Domino granulated sugar• 25 pounds, $12.48; cost per pound, 49.9 cents• 5 pounds, $3.12; cost per pound, 62.4 cents Red delicious apples• 8 pounds, $7.42; cost per pound, 92.8 cents• 1 pound, $1; cost per pound, $1 Kraft mayonnaise• 128 ounces, $7.84; cost per ounce, 6.1 cents• 16 ounces, $2.50; cost per ounce, 15.6 cents Huggies Snug & Dry diapers Step 1-2• 264 count, $35.49; cost per diaper, 13.4 cents• 96 count, $19.87; cost per diaper, 20.7 cents Crest whitening plus Scope• Four 8-ounce tubes, $10.87; cost per ounce, 34 cents• One 8-ounce tube, $3.92; cost per ounce, 49 cents Charmin extra soft• 36 rolls, $18.03; cost per roll, 50.1 cents• 12 rolls, $7; cost per roll, 58.1 cents Ragu traditional spaghetti sauce• Three 45-ounce jars, $8.16; cost per ounce, 6 cents• One 26-ounce jar, $1.62; cost per ounce, 6.2 cents Kraft macaroni and cheese• 12 7.25-ounce boxes, $7.28; cost per ounce, 8.4 cents• One 7.25-ounce box, 74 cents; cost per ounce, 10.2 cents

Bulking up the bank account
March 20, 2009
Judging by the food in her house, Rebecca Cribbs could open a grocery store. The southside resident has a stand-alone freezer full of meat, spices and cheese. The shelves of her pantry are lined with can after can of vegetables, and she has an overflowing supply of diapers. Buying in bulk has become a cornerstone of Cribbs' cost-savings lifestyle. She keeps her eyes open for the best deals on everything from meat to cheese to toilet paper and stocks up when she comes across a good price.

According to local food wholesalers, an increasing number of people are trying to save money by buying large amounts of groceries at one time. Sam's Club, a wholesaler owned by Walmart Corp., reported $3.5 billion in sales during February, said spokesman John Simley. That's up more than $100 million from February 2008. The company, whose southside location is at Main Street and Emerson Avenue, brought in $46.9 billion in 2008, more than $2.5 billion more than the previous year, Simley said. Gordon Food Services is a wholesaler, similar to Sam's Club. Though the service caters to businesses and large organizations, the company also operates GFS Marketplace chains, where individuals can buy bulk foods. The company, whose southside store is on U.S. 31 south of Smith Valley Road, has seen an increase in bulk buying, though it would not reveal sales information, according to spokeswoman Suzette Murchison. Shoppers at Sam's Club pay a $40 annual fee, whereas Gordon Food Services doesn't charge for membership.That incintive, plus time saved with fewer trips to the grocery store, are responsible for an added interest in Gordon Food's bulk products, Murchison said. "People are finding that, even if the sizes are a little bit larger, that shopping a lot less often is definitely worth the time and initial costs," she said. Cribbs and her husband, David, have four children - Caroline, 5; Jonathan, 4; Elizabeth, 22 months, and Matthew, 3 months. They've set aside space in their home to store the extras she's bought, from perishable food to diapers and toothbrushes. The Cribbses purchased their chest freezer the day they brought Caroline home from the hospital. Their neighbors down the street were selling the appliance for $40, and the family jumped at a cheap way to store frozen food. The 23.1-cubic-foot freezer is about 6 feet long and 2 feet wide. There is just enough room in their garage for the appliance and their two cars. Cribbs keep the freezer only half full for the time being. "If it continues working, though, we'll eventually have to use it at full capacity when we have four teenagers," she added. Chicken is the most readily frozen food in Cribbs' household. Since she uses it in many of the family's dinners, she'll buy two 10-pound bags of frozen chicken breasts from Sam's Club at $1.99 for a pound, a $40 purchase. By cooking, dicing and refreezing the chicken, she has a ready-to-make supply whenever she needs it. She does the same thing with hamburger. For $25 at Sam's Club, Cribbs can buy a 10-pound roll of ground beef. When she gets home, she chills the meat for a few hours to firm it up, then slices it into hamburger patties to freeze individually. "Meat's a big-ticket item for us," she said. "A lot of people prefer fresh meat, but that's something we just can't afford." The lifestyle doesn't end with frozen food, though. Cribbs has a pantry in her basement, where she put up shelves to hold dry goods. The extra space lets her load up on items she uses every day, such as diapers, if she comes across a great deal. "Stockpiling is huge. If something is on sale, like a canned good for 25 cents a can, I'll buy a lot and just keep it," she said.