LovnLife4NSR’s Mind

With the cost of gas and everything else rising my wife and I have noticed that people are starting to eat less healthy food and more processed food. Processed food is way more cheaper and a lot of people are struggling because of all the price inceases. Does anyone here in bodyspace seem to be struggling with the price increases? We struggle with our bills, but we’ll cut costs elsewhere to help eat and live a healthier lifestyle. We don’t want our kids eating crappy food. Obesity is already one of the major leading causes of death in America. Now it’s only getting tougher to fight with everything rising in costs. So, my wife and I are constantly researching on how to save money and reduce costs. I thought I would share some ways we have helped save money and adjust to rising prices.

My wife read this article that suggested you make a list of the items you needed and when you receive your Sunday & Wednseday saving ads you shop at the store(s) that have those items on sale. It may not be the same name brand you always buy, but it is the product/food that you need. My wife has been doing this for a couple of months now and she said that are bill went down from $300.00 to $210.00 (on average). We haven’t reduced our shopping list. We just go and purchase the product thats on sale. Thats a pretty big jump in cost reduction. We only buy things that are on sale. IF we have to go to two stores get all the items we need then we do it. You have to stick with the sales prices. Oh-yeah, use coupons. On avrage, my wife cuts cost between $10.00-$15.00 each time she uses coupons along with the sale prices. Hey that helps put 2 to 3 gallons more in your tank!

As for gas costs, we tried to find the less expensive places. For us, thats Safeway and Costco gas. We also make A LOT less trips to run errands. We usually only do errands on days we work. Thats helped a little. The nice thing with shopping at Safeway we usually get some discount off our next gas purchase. Another little bonus. I have also read articles about how gas stations are willing to give discounts off their gas prices if you pay in gas. Another article I read is that it’s best to buy gas in the morning because your tank isn’t hot and gas expands when it is hot. When gas is cold it’s more dense and you get more bang for your buck when you buy gas.

Electricity costs are on the rise as well. I think P.G. & E. will increase their costs by 14% over the next 6 to 8 months. Yikes. As if my $200.00 wasn’t enough. So, some things that might help: Unplug electric items when your not using them. Coffe pots, phone chargers, computers, ect. Even if these items aren’t running they still pull a small charge if they are plugeed in. That adss up. Air dry clothes. Thats right, get all old-school country style with airring out your clothes. Do your gym clothes really need to be fluff dried and smell all spring-like? Most electric companies offer tips on how to reduce your bill and offer rewards for cutting back on your bill. Either check out their websites or give your provider a call.

One way my wife and I are trying to save money and finds ways to adjust to rising costs is by not being stuck buying things we can make ourselves. What I mean is we grow most of our produce. We have six chickens (hey, go easy labeling us hillbillies now) and they produce 5-6 eggs a day. We don’t have to buy eggs or egg beaters and those are becoming pretty costly products. We just got the idea this year to raise our own produce. So, we are a little behind. Starting this fall, we plan on preparing to do a full blown produce garden for next year. Even with all the start-up costs and maintenance we have reduced our overall costs by 50%. After seeing how much we have saved my wife wants to raise livestock. We talked to a friend of ours and they said they save up to 50% off their costs by having a rancher raise their meat for them. Now raising organic meat is another story. Thats costly. We learned the hard way on that one.

So, here are some of the ways that have helped us a lot. We would love feed back or even more ideas that could help us. For those who took time out of their lives to read my blog….THANK YOU. Have a good one.

I just purchased the P90X training program. Has anyone heard of this or used it? If so, give me some feed back please. I know some people who have used it and they like it. They became pretty ripped and in real good shape from it. I’m excited to do it because I need to do cardio, but I’m not a big fan of running. And this comes from a guy who used to be a track and cross country runner. Go figure.