Wisdom from The Action Wisdom In Action

On a hot pursuit for bay leaves yesterday, I noticed an aisle section of the grocery store that's ripping us off royally--the spice section! A quick look at bay leaves in the regular spice aisle had them at $23.00/oz. (yep, no typo there--Hubby can confirm), while over in the international foods aisle (where they keep so-called "gourmet" stuff--actually Mexican and Jewish stuff), bay leaves were in little packets priced at $2.76/oz. I bought all they had to refill my old bay leaf bottle at home.

Do I need to tell you that McCormick was the highway robber in this story? Simply by walking two aisles over and getting my bay leaves, I managed to save $20.24 without coupons, store discounts, or any other discount-seeking trickery. Try THAT, coupon queens!

Now I could grow my own bay leaves, but that would entail a laurel tree, which won't grow here.

Moral of the story: need spices? Look anywhere but the spice aisle--check out the ethnic/gourmet/international foods aisle, or even ethnic grocery stores. Don't be a victim of ripoff artist "Mickey C" ever again!

If Sam's Club only carried bay leaves... :(

From KAIT 8 (ABC Affiliate).

"Instead of "buy one get one free" some stores in Region eight say coupons coming in really mean "buy one steal one!" Phony coupons are being passed from person to person and store to store and the people trying to use them have no idea!

"I think it's unbelievable because everybody uses coupons now times are so hard," said shopper Joyce Ann Martin.

The counterfeit coupons include everything from food, personal hygiene products and toys! There are coupons out there that offer you a great deal but you may get no deal.

"Look for anything that says "free product" most of the time that is a fake coupon," said Zach Goza, Assistant Manager at Bill's Fresh Market.

Goza said fake coupons do come into their store.

"Mostly when we get fake coupons it comes during a big game day or a big holiday coming along," said Goza.

He said they've been cracking down on these type of coupons by training their cashiers on the signs to watch for to spot a fake.

"Any coupon at all that's over say sixty cents, which is usually the regular maximum amount for a coupon, anything that says "free product" they have to call a manager up there," said Goza.

The Coupon Information Corporation has a list on-line of the most current fake coupons that are out there! They suggest you never pay for coupons, don't use coupons that are in a PDF file, or that sound too good to be true.

"They want to try to get the best deals they can what they don't realize is there are a lot of people out there that like to ruin it for everybody else and send out these fake coupons that really are no good at all," said Goza.

There are rewards being offered for information leading the prosecution of those who are creating these fake coupons."

From Steadfast Finances. No, it wasn't me--but my parents did.

"During another weekend road trip to visit the family for Mother’s Day, I always make it a habit to drop in on Grandma and soak in a few hours worth of knowledge she’s accumulated over her near 75 years.

Gifts were exchanged, I overindulged in home cookin’, but in the end, I sat with a piece of paper scribbling notes on what it was like for her (and other family members) to live through the Great Depression.

I’m fortunate that I haven’t felt the effects of the recession, so I thought it would be interesting to get her point of view since she lived through one of the harshest periods of American history.

In the end, I wasn’t exactly surprised because I’ve heard many of these frugal living rules over and over again, but it’s finally nice to get them down on paper.

I hope you can learn as much from her wisdom as I have over the years.

1. Save a dollar for every dollar you spend. I’m a big believer in the Pay-As-You-Go rule, but if you allow more cash to go out of your door than goes under your mattress, you’re asking for trouble.

2. New doesn’t automatically mean better. New this and shiny that may get you a lot of attention and give you a feeling of importance, but new stuff usually costs more than old stuff. Slightly used, gently used, or just plain used will often to the job.

3. Be thankful for what you have. All of us have complained about eating leftovers when we didn’t want to or complained about eating the same thing three times a week, but there are quite a few people in this world that might not know where the next meal will come from. Just be thankful you have what you have … if you have it.

4. Learn how to fix/maintain what you have. Nothing can be more frustrating than having a piece of machinery, whether it be your car or your laptop, that you rely upon, paid good money for, and have to pay someone to repair it. Eliminating the need for the repairman will save you countless hours and dollars over the years.

5. Waste not, want not! If you’re discarding a substantial portion of what you bought (or made yourself), you’re essentially throwing money in the garbage can. Either cut back on what you’re making, or find ways to reuse it at a later date.

6. Make cheap food taste like a million bucks. I probably violate this suggestion most of all because I’m a wannabe chef, but during my college years, my food budget rarely exceeded $100 per month. Learning how to make good eats on the cheap will save you thousands per year if you can learn a few cooking basics.

7. Don’t pay for what you can do/make for yourself. It seems like an odd question to ask, but why would you pay someone to do something that you can do for yourself. I understand that we’re all super busy and we may not be an expert in everything that modern society pushes upon us, but thanks to the Internet (praise be Google!), you can find a DIY video for almost anything on your Honey Do List.

8. Preparation can keep you from being blown off course. Many times during your life you’ll face some type of adversity. The more prepared you are to handle it, the better off you’ll be at weathering the storm. As the old adage goes: you can’t control the wind, but you can adjust your sails!

9. Family time is fun time. I’m one of the least social members of my family, but nothing beats a classic game of Monopoly with the folks. This weekend happened to be catching up over baseball games on TV and lots of hanging out in the kitchen. Funny how positive social interactions work aren’t they?

10. Make your big purchases off season. One of my cardinal rules of shopping (which I loathe to do) is buy most of my winter clothing in April. This way, the retailers are desperate just to break even on their investment and clear the excess inventory to make way for Spring/Summer months. This works equally well when buying summer clothing in November.

11. Marry someone who complements your weak points. No this doesn’t mean someone who will say “good job” each time you do a good deed. Not that kind of compliment. In a complementary relationship, your strong suits will make up for your companion’s weaknesses and vice versa. In the end, the marriage is stronger than the two individuals!

12. Exchange time, skills or service as currency. If you know how to play the piano and your neighbors want their kid to learn to play piano, find something they have that you want.

13. Learn to preserve and store food. Even if you’re not into growing your own food, it never hurts to buy in bulk and keep it frozen for a few months.

14. Start a garden and pay yourself for growing your own food. Why pay a grocery store for food that you can grow yourself? Many people these days are under the false impression that gardening is too difficult to try and best left to the hippies and hillbillies. Hardly the case since Michelle Obama and started a victory garden on White House grounds.

15. Credit cards are the devil. If you tell my Grandma that you bought her Christmas present on credit, you better hope you got your fill of pumpkin pie prior to opening gifts. Chances are, she’ll cut you off and give you a 10 minute lecture from Proverbs. Most old school consumers won’t even think about buying something unless they pay in cash.

16. Patience is a virtue. Be patient, save your pennies, and wait until they turn to dollars. Paying cash is the only way to go. I admit, this doesn’t translate well to 2009, but if you can rely upon your debit card more than your credit card, you’re on the right path.

17. Work hard, and work often. My family wasn’t exactly the affluent type back in the day, so I’m glad to have some of that blue collar mentality rubbed off on me. I never really understood what it meant to say “I built that” or “I made that from scratch” when I was a kid, but I certainly learned what those phrases meant once I became a bit older.

18. At the end of the day, think how to make tomorrow a little better. This phrase is fairly common, but it’s been sitting on my grandfather’s antique desk for as long as I can remember. Probably longer than I’ve been alive. But to me, it’s a testament to how both of grandparents lived their lives. Over time, little improvements add up a lot quicker than you think.

19. Envy is still a sin. Even though I’m the blaspheming evolutionist of the family, it doesn’t mean I don’t pay attention to sound advice. Believe it or not, the Bible has really good tips on debt avoidance and the “debt is slavery” principle.

20. Speak convincingly and be a leader. We all know a hierarchy exists in most families, and if that happens to be you, don’t be afraid to voice your opinion. Even if you hurt a few feelings here and there, they’re family and they’ll eventually forgive you."

From the L.A. Times.

"...a growing number of top nutritional scientists blame excessive carbohydrates — not fat — for America's ills. They say cutting carbohydrates is the key to reversing obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and hypertension."

...

"Fat is not the problem," says Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "If Americans could eliminate sugary beverages, potatoes, white bread, pasta, white rice and sugary snacks, we would wipe out almost all the problems we have with weight and diabetes and other metabolic diseases."

It's a confusing message. For years we've been fed the line that eating fat would make us fat and lead to chronic illnesses. "Dietary fat used to be public enemy No. 1," says Dr. Edward Saltzman, associate professor of nutrition and medicine at Tufts University. "Now a growing and convincing body of science is pointing the finger at carbs, especially those containing refined flour and sugar."

Americans, on average, eat 250 to 300 grams of carbs a day, accounting for about 55% of their caloric intake. The most conservative recommendations say they should eat half that amount. Consumption of carbohydrates has increased over the years with the help of a 30-year-old, government-mandated message to cut fat."

So why does the Food Guide Pyramid tell us to eat 6-11 servings a day of carbs in the form of whole grains? They break down into sugar just like simple carbs, only slower! I believe that 1-2 servings/day of whole grains would suffice, but I'm no doctor.

"To understand what's behind the upheaval takes some basic understanding of food and metabolism.

All carbohydrates (a category including sugars) convert to sugar in the blood, and the more refined the carbs are, the quicker the conversion goes. When you eat a glazed doughnut or a serving of mashed potatoes, it turns into blood sugar very quickly. To manage the blood sugar, the pancreas produces insulin, which moves sugar into cells, where it's stored as fuel in the form of glycogen.

If you have a perfectly healthy metabolism, the system works beautifully, says Dr. Stephen Phinney, a nutritional biochemist and an emeritus professor of UC Davis who has studied carbohydrates for 30 years. "However, over time, as our bodies get tired of processing high loads of carbs, which evolution didn't prepare us for … how the body responds to insulin can change," he says.

When cells become more resistant to those insulin instructions, the pancreas needs to make more insulin to push the same amount of glucose into cells. As people become insulin resistant, carbs become a bigger challenge for the body. When the pancreas gets exhausted and can't produce enough insulin to keep up with the glucose in the blood, diabetes develops.

The first sign of insulin resistance is a condition called metabolic syndrome — a red flag that diabetes, and possibly heart disease, is just around the corner. People are said to have the syndrome when they have three or more of the following: high blood triglycerides (more than 150 mg); high blood pressure (over 135/85); central obesity (a waist circumference in men of more than 40 inches and in women, more than 35 inches); low HDL cholesterol (under 40 in men, under 50 in women); or elevated fasting glucose.

About one-fourth of adults has three or more of these symptoms."

...

"The take-home message from this study and others like it is that — contrary to what many expect — dietary fat intake is not directly related to blood fat. Rather, the amount of carbohydrates in the diet appears to be a potent contributor.

"The good news," adds Willett, "is that based on what we know, almost everyone can avoid Type 2 diabetes. Avoiding unhealthy carbohydrates is an important part of that solution." For those who are newly diagnosed, he adds, a low-carb diet can take the load off the pancreas before it gets too damaged and improve the condition — reducing or averting the need for insulin or other diabetes meds."

...

""Carbohydrates are a metabolic bully," Phinney says. "They cut in front of fat as a fuel source and insist on being burned first. What isn't burned gets stored as fat, and doesn't come out of storage as long as carbs are available. And in the average American diet, they always are."

Here's how Phinney explains it: When you cut carbs, your body first uses available glycogen as fuel. When that's gone, the body turns to fat and the pancreas gets a break. Blood sugar stabilizes, insulin levels drop, fat burns. That's why the diet works for diabetics and for weight loss.

When the body switches to burning fat instead of glycogen, it goes into a process called nutritional ketosis. If a person eats 50 or fewer grams of carbs, his body will go there, Phinney says. (Nutritional ketosis isn't to be confused with ketoacidosis, a dangerous condition that can occur in diabetics.)

Beyond the fat-burning effects of ketosis, people lose weight on low-carb diets because fat and protein increase satisfaction and reduce appetite. On the flip side, simple carbs cause an insulin surge, which triggers a blood sugar drop, which makes you hungry again."

But when you counteract this with a high-protein diet, like the first stages of the Atkins diet, you put your kidneys at risk.

"Though the movement to cap carbs is growing, not all nutritional scientists have fully embraced it. Dr. Ronald Krauss, senior scientist at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute and founder and past chair of the American Heart Assn.'s Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism, says that while he fundamentally agrees with those advocating fewer dietary carbs, he doesn't like to demonize one food group.

That said, he adds, those who eat too many calories tend to overconsume carbohydrates, particularly refined carbohydrates and sugars. "It can be extremely valuable to limit carbohydrate intake and substitute protein and fat. I am glad to see so many people in the medical community getting on board. But in general I don't recommend extreme dietary measures for promoting health."

...

"As nutrition scientists try to find the ideal for the future, others look to history and evolution for answers. One way to put our diet in perspective is to imagine the face of a clock with 24 hours on it. Each hour represents 100,000 years that humans have been on the Earth.

On this clock, the advent of agriculture and refined grains would have appeared at about 11:54 p.m. (23 hours and 54 minutes into the day). Before that, humans were hunters and gatherers, eating animals and plants off the land. Agriculture allowed for the mass production of crops such as wheat and corn, and refineries transformed whole grains into refined flour and created processed sugar."

My answer to all this health advice topsy-turvy. I'm already battling diabetes, heart disease, and obesity in the family, and have already been to the best doctor around for this stuff: a nutritionist. Doctors receive only 8 hours of nutritional classroom study, and it's quickly forgotten in the race to specialize--otherwise, there's no money to be made for paying back exorbitant student loans. You want the TRUE nutritional dirt on what you should eat? Go see a nutritionist, even if you have to pay out of pocket for it. My health care reform page is a collection of what I learned while at the nutritionist office, so I tried to save you some time and money, and I just might end up saving your life in the process.

UPDATE: an article about sugar and cancer. Also, a cookbook from 1976 mentions the low use of sugar because it causes heart disease.

From CNN Opinion.

"Not long ago, I was very kindly invited to Buckingham Palace, as a member of Britain's food industry. Hundreds of very smart foodies turned up, having showered, shaved and left behind their stoves, whisks and knives.

It is a funny thing seeing many of your contemporaries in suits and dresses when you're used to seeing them in their whites and aprons. I spent most of the evening introducing myself or just observing the many groups of people that mingle at occasions like these.

One group caught my eye for most of the evening. It was made up of gentlemen all dressed in military uniform -- rather splendid military uniforms, obviously designed for just such a royal occasion. It was not the uniforms or even the rows of medals on their chests, but the fact that military members were there at all.

What would the military be doing at a food gig at Buckingham Palace? Well, the answer stopped me short, so short that I have been unable to think of much else since that rather uneventful night -- uneventful except for the firm handshake of Her Majesty the Queen.

The answer in its simplest form was that the uniforms were the catering corps, a corps that has catered all over the world for British soldiers on every battlefield ever since men needed to fight and eat at the same time.

The answer in its most shocking form was that these were the men who would be in control of the food in Britain should we face shortages. Shortages? Yes, shortages, of oil, water and their means of distribution. Shortages of flour, milk and eggs. Shortages of meat, fruit and vegetables.

In fact, should this country suffer from any number of potential problems with our oil-dependent food chain, our very lives could be in the hands of the small group of men standing in a corner in Buckingham Palace. All of Britain's superstar chefs had turned out for this event, but none was more important than the gentlemen who stood watching the rest of us, as we rather arrogantly walked around the room as if food would always be available to perform tricks with, to swear at and make jokes with. Well, food security is a serious issue and I better find out as much as I can about it.

In Britain the big supermarkets dominate our food chain. British supermarkets are some of the best in the world at controlling, manipulating and delivering cheap food. Controlling food and its distribution takes a huge amount of money and energy, but because the British food producer could not keep up with the supermarkets' demands for ever-lower prices, the supermarkets have moved to buying globally.

They turned to the products provided by cheap labor in northern and southern Africa, South America and Asia. But in shifting from Britain to the world, our supermarkets managed to destabilize Britain's food infrastructure. The supermarkets have left behind farmers, milk producers and fishermen. They all have knowledge they should be passing down, but there is no new blood wanting to pick up the rake, the fishing net or the gate latch at 4 a.m.

There is no money in food production in Britain: The supermarkets have taken the potential for a decent living away. The cost to produce milk is higher than the supermarkets are willing to pay. The cost of meat is too high, and the cost of fish is too high.

But the supermarkets reply that they are only trying to "give the customers what they want," so they must go abroad. In this statement is the manipulation. We as customers are led to believe that the low costs we pay are borne by the supermarkets. Well, think again.

It is the producers in this country who are paid such low prices by the supermarkets for their produce that they are going out of business by the hundreds every year, and with it goes their knowledge. The supermarkets are not delivering cheap food, it is the farmers and producers of Britain, and now the world -- and at a cost to the environment too. Increased yield means increased use of fertilizers, pesticides and antibiotics in animals.

About 30% of fresh food is thrown away in supermarkets every day, although they will deny it. British households are throwing an estimated 30% of their food away too. Where are we going with this over-producing, over-consuming super-cheap food system? We are going global with a huge reliance on oil.

But when the oil stops flowing, and our systems fail, no safety procedures are in place to help us. No localized food networks, and no agricultural schools developing our next wave of farmers -- this in a country where the average age for a farmer is 64.

It feels to me as if we are becoming so overly reliant on our supermarket system, that when it breaks down, all we can turn to is military intervention.

Surely we should be striving to teach and educate people how to feed themselves. How to grow food and distribute it locally. How to barter for food items that can bring the essential vitamins and minerals for healthy life.

Be mindful of what supermarkets are doing and demand to see their business practices. Stop throwing away food. Compost as much as you can, eat as locally and as seasonally as you can. Share knowledge and information.

We are stronger as a group than an individual. Think in a cooperative and communal way, set up local food hubs and create growing communities. I have tried to create that type of idea in The People's Supermarket, and hope that it grows in popularity."

What do you think is happening here, or headed this way?

From Accredited Online Colleges. Question: why restrict it to only college students?

"Like many college students, you’re probably on a pretty tight budget. Sometimes that might mean that by the end of the month, you don’t have too much cash lying around to buy groceries with. Luckily, you can put your college education to work and use your smarts, and a little elbow grease to finagle a free meal. Here are 50 fun, sneaky and sometimes downright desperate ways to get free food while you’re a college student."

Too many to list--please see original article link above.

From the Huffington Post.

"If you had a vegetable, do you know if it came from a farm near your house or perhaps did it travel hundreds, even thousands of miles to make it into your grocery store? If you had chicken, do you know if it grazed outdoors or was locked up? If your food came from a box, did you read the label first and if so, did you understand all the ingredients? The fact is most of us either don't know or don't want to know where our food comes from. To many of us, food is something that can be found in a box, thrown in the microwave and consumed in front of the TV."

...

"Celebrated author Michael Pollan once said that if food came from a plant, eat it and if it was made in a plant, do not. Although humorous, this phrase sums up the current state of our food industry. Pollan's advice actually has widespread implications and examines the very question: What is food? A strong argument could be made that even though processed foods may begin as whole food, it is altered in such a way that the end result does not even resemble food.

Advances in science have allowed the food industry to evolve -- making food easier and cheaper to grow and with more desirable characteristics in terms of shelf life and freshness. These advances sometimes cost you as well. Consider the average cracker on the market today. It has on average eight or more ingredients, several of which are additives for taste, color or shelf life. Additionally, the cracker is most likely made with refined non-whole grains and will cause a rapid rise in blood sugar and insulin followed by a rapid fall. This rise and fall may cause you to be hungry again soon and overall less satisfied. It also may contribute to inflammation if foods such as the cracker are typical in your diet.

Finally, that cracker may be loaded with saturated fats, trans fats (hydrogenated oils) and a whopping amount of sodium. All of these put you at risk for heart disease, stroke and hypertension. Think about it, that's just your cracker -- what else are you eating throughout the day that has numerous ingredients, many of which you don't have a clue even what they are?"

A good rule of thumb: if you can't pronounce the ingredients, stay away from the item. Another good rule: foods without labels (such as fresh meat and veggies) are more nutritious than those with labels--consider them WARNING LABELS.

"Food processing generally includes the basic preparation of foods, the alteration of a food product into another form (as in making preserves from fruit), and preservation and packaging techniques.

White bread is made by taking a fabulous piece of wheat and stripping it of the bran and the germ; two components responsible for providing fiber and B vitamins. What's left is the endosperm. In this example, food (wheat) has been stripped to make something else (white bread).

The loaf of white bread and box of crackers are just two examples of many where food has been processed to the point where it does not even resemble the original form. Other than boxed or bagged whole grain pasta, rice or bread, try to get all your foods from sources that are minimally processed or better yet, have undergone no processing at all. In other words, try and consume whole foods as much as possible.

Whole" foods are foods that have not been processed or altered prior to "packaging" and may include meat, poultry, fish, fruits, vegetables, legumes, seeds and nuts. Meat, poultry and fish that are considered "whole" are those that were provided natural feed (grass as opposed to corn for a cow), provided amble space and humane living conditions, and void of antibiotics, hormones or coloring. Plant-based foods are the most easily identifiable whole foods available for consumption. For example, I like having a handful of walnuts every day. This whole food provides a great source of ALA omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and phosphorus. In addition, walnuts provide four grams of protein and two grams of fiber per serving. These benefits are produced in nature, by the plant -- not in a plant."

...

"...the aisles in the grocery store are filled with confusing health claims, often making the food label a foreign language. First, foods that do not have a label are usually the healthiest. Your local produce section would top this list with all of its cancer fighting phytochemicals. None of the items here will have a label. The more ingredients a food has, the higher the chances that it has been processed."

...

"I ask them to avoid food that lists any of the following among the first five ingredients:

* Saturated fats (on labels most would be displayed as plant based saturated fats such as palm or cottonseed oils).

* Trans fat (anything containing partially hydrogenated oils).

* Simple sugars and syrups such as high fructose corn syrup, cane juice, honey, etc.

* Simple carbohydrates.

* If sodium is above 600 mg per serving, put it down (you should limit your sodium consumption to 1500mg to 2300mg daily).

* If the ingredient label contains several words you can't pronounce, it means it's full of food additives and most likely not good for you.

The grocery store can be a confusing place filled with front of package claims meant to disguise foods high in fat and sugar as "healthy." Following these simple tips may help you on your way toward being a more savvy food shopper."

You may also use my plan for using food to regain and maintain health--it has lower sodium and sugar than the plan mentioned above.

From Bankrate.com. Done in gallery format--you have to go there to see them.

From CNN Money. Yes, this is an article about grocery brand mergers and acquisitions. Why does this concern you? Two reasons: now you know why all the fuss is being made with coupons, and the slow whittling away of choice is happening, as I described here (last 2 paragraphs).

"With improved access to credit and mountains of capital ready to deploy, private-equity and strategic buyers are hot to snap up food companies. Thanks to their stable cash flows, food firms are generally safe bets, especially for highly leveraged private-equity deals where debt repayment is a priority.

There is one complicating factor, however: brands are fading, and the biggest consumer food companies are built on brands. So while there has been buzz about possible buyouts of, for example, Sara Lee (SLE), ConAgra (CAG), and J.M. Smucker (SJM), there has been no reported movement toward a deal for any of them.

Even before the recession, private-label (or store brand) products were ascending, taking market share away from branded products. The downturn has only made things better for private labels and worse for many brands as consumers have sought out cheaper fare.

In many cases, those consumers have discovered that private-label products are just as good as the branded ones, or at least close enough. For that reason, some analysts believe that private labels -- which according to the research firm Packaged Facts now make up nearly a fifth of the grocery market, up from just 14% in 2005 -- will continue to eat away at certain brands even after the economy picks up. Once viewed as commodities, private-label products are developing a "brand" of their own. They represent an $87 billion market, Packaged Facts says.

This raises several questions for both strategic and private-equity investors. Should would-be acquirers wait to see how the recovery might affect sales of private-label products? Which brands are most vulnerable to the rise of private labels? Not all brands are the same – many will remain strong for years to come."

And to make matters worse, who do you think owns a majority of the organic labels out there? Yup--the Big Food brands, like Kraft, Heinz, Dole, Del Monte, etc.

Now you begin to understand the method behind the Coupon Queens' madness--they are paid by the big brands to entice you into buying big brands by using coupons in hyper-fashion. Generics and lower price-per-unit foods have won out, and the big brands are flailing around trying to survive, even though they're the makers of the generics.

When a company gets sold to private equity firms, the company is usually a step away from bankruptcy, and private equity is the only thing to save it from default. Witness Burger King, Hardees, Kmart, and Sears--all fell by the wayside, only to be saved by private equity firms. If they don't make a profit for the private equity firms, they get spun back out into bankruptcy, or get merged with another private equity holding, or just dissolved altogether. Rarely do firms get sold back into public domains and return to the stock market.

"Just look at Bumble Bee, the once-venerable tuna brand that has lost its luster over the years. Last month, Centre Partners Management, the tuna company's private-equity owner, sold Bumble Bee to Lion Capital, another PE shop. The price was a reported $980 million, or only about 7.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. That's well below the valuation of 9 to 11 times earnings that food companies are commanding on average.

In one sense, Centre Partners did well – it got a 250% return on its investment. But Centre could have gotten a better return elsewhere. And just compare this deal to the last time Centre bought and sold Bumble Bee. It purchased the company from ConAgra in 2003 and sold of the last of its stake in 2005. That series of deals netted Centre an 850% return. But the brand has faded since then, and so has the valuation.

Consumers tend to be more brand-loyal to bigger names. And grocers, overwhelmed by the variety of products on their shelves, are more likely to trade out mid-tier brands for their own brands than to stop stocking the best-known products.

Those crowded shelves also have implications on the deal front. Expect more consolidation among makers of private-label products. For retailers, buying products from dozens of private-label suppliers is highly inefficient and costly. Buying from just a handful allows grocers to get the full benefit of making thin-margin private-label products available."

...

"Consolidation is also happening in private-equity deals. Fieldbrook Foods recently agreed to be acquired by Arbor Investments, which specializes in food and beverage companies. Terms weren't disclosed, but Fieldbrook is the largest supplier of private-label ice cream east of the Mississippi. It got that way by spending the past decade snapping up other companies.

Meanwhile, private equity and strategic buyers are wondering what to do with brands that are being hurt by the rise of private labels. In October, shares of Sara Lee spiked after reports that private-equity firms including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Apollo Global Management, perhaps smelling blood in the water, were eyeing the struggling company. But there has been no reported movement on a deal (and Sara Lee says it no longer wants to sell). The stock has continued to rise.

Last month, Sara Lee sold its North American bakery unit to Mexico's increasingly gargantuan Grupo Bimbo for a bargain-basement price of $959 million (it was reportedly hoping for something more like $1.5 billion), signaling that it no longer wanted to compete with private-label bakers.

Bimbo, which has snapped up brands such as Entenmann's and Thomas' English Muffins, is on a mission to get most of its sales from the United States. Through acquisitions, it's getting close.

Whether or not Sara Lee is bought out in whole, such spinoffs of particular units might become a trend if wholesale deals can't be struck. Analysts have said that companies like Sara Lee and ConAgra might not be attractive, but some of their parts surely are."

...

"Brands that are strong today might, like Bumble Bee, start fading tomorrow. On the other hand, the recovery might send shoppers flocking back to their favorite brands, making some private-label deals less valuable. It will likely be a few years before we know who is making the smartest bets in the grocery store."

Now you see the reason for all the coupon hype--the brands are trying to save themselves any way they can. All the coupon tricks in the world aren't going to get me to buy their overpriced stuff--what happens when the coupons go away, as well as the product choice? It's coming in the form of street markets just like Europe.

These companies HAVE to give away their food to compete with price-per-unit. Those coupons are an indicator of how much you're overpaying for the product. In-store sales are a magnifyer of that overpayment. Put them together, and you get a food company freebie because they can't sell it for a reasonable price--it isn't worth it! They're admitting they can't compete.

Witness all those little KFC/Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combo stores--those are also a private equity conglomeration called Yum Brands. Each brand separately can't compete, but put the three together, and POW! Yum Brands is on the stock market, which means public domain, but each individual INSIDE Yum Brands is a private entity. In other words, they had to put three brands together to make a decent company. The same goes for Sears and Kmart--separately, they each suck on ice, but cobbled together, into Sears Holdings, they do better. I have the feeling that eventually the Kmart name will disappear, leaving only the Sears name in the future.

This is what you can expect to happen with grocery stores and grocery brands. Your choice of stores will dwindle, as will your choice of brands, so you may as well ditch the loyalty before it's taken away from you. Expect to see Kroger-Meier-ShopRite stores, or some mash-up of whatever's in your area in the next decade.

From my copy of the 2011 Farmer's Almanac.

Beef .17/lb.

Eggs .32/dozen

Bacon .25/lb.

Pork .18/lb.

Butter .34/lb.

Milk .34/gallon

My we've come a long way!

From GoErie. One of the Coupon Queens is here to help you out. :{

"Wouldn't it be easier if someone just told you what to buy and when? What if you could print a list of every product that's cycling low in price at your store, and that list also told you which coupons will cut those prices even more?

These lists exist. They're among the best tools couponers have to cut their grocery bills dramatically without spending a lot of time cutting and sorting little pieces of paper. Grocery list "matchup" websites take the hard work out of couponing. They follow sales cycles for stores around the country and each week they present a list of everything on sale at your store of choice, typically 100 to 200 items. Shoppers simply click the "on sale" products they wish to buy, print the list and use the site's matchup information to locate inserts in their stash where they can clip the corresponding coupons."

...

"First, they show shoppers the best time to buy. If the dish detergent is priced at $1.89 but goes on sale as low as 99 cents a bottle, it's smarter to wait and buy it when it's priced almost half off. Even without a coupon, you could buy two bottles during this sale for only slightly more than one bottle costs when it's not on sale. Add a $1 coupon and the detergent is free.

The trail mix priced at $2.19 for a 6-ounce bag is not an item I'd buy regularly. I consider that a high price. When it's on sale for nearly a dollar less, though, it's a better buy. With a $1 coupon, the price drops and it's an item I'm interested in taking home.

Now, imagine a list like this that spans every category in the store. You click only the items you intend to buy, print the list, then use the site's coupon insert references to sort through your files to clip coupons that correspond to your list.

You know you're buying what you need at the right time and at their lowest prices, because the matchup sites do the hard work, tracking sales and matching coupons."

...

"On my website, supercouponing.com, I maintain an updated list of grocery list matchup sites featuring stores around the country. Click the "Getting Started" link to view them."

The Grocery Game does something similar, and here's why you don't need either the Grocery Game or the Drugstore Game. All of these games get you to buy crap foods/sundries you really don't need, and could find better prices on just by learning to read a shelf label correctly. Practicing a little self-control when it comes to marketing susceptibility doesn't hurt, either.

Both these women are cashing in on your inability to read shelf labels and do your own matching and organization. If you can't read a sales flyer, and match it up to your own coupons, I feel sorry for you.

From the BBC. Starts Monday at 9 (UK time), and is a cooking show about making meals on war rations. I don't know if it'll ever make it here, but if you can get British broadcasting, watch it.

A video here. Some recipes here.

From MSNBC.

"There's no shortage of discount coupon codes on the web, but alas, they don't always work.

For example, the Twitterverse and an array of deal websites were all abuzz yesterday and today with a free-movie offer at Blockbuster kiosks. An array of coupon codes were circulating, but I decided to go straight to the company website to make sure I got one that was valid.

I signed up at BlockbusterExpress.com, had to fill out some personal information, then got an e-mail with my code. I also wrote down one code that was provided on several sites including FabulousDailyDeals.com and SimplyFreeGadgets.com, and then headed to the local Blockbuster kiosk the website said was the closest to my house.

Unfortunately, the system rejected both codes.

So, I drove a few miles to save $1 on a one-night rental and came home empty handed.

A Blockbuster spokeswoman said: "I’m not familiar with coupons for free kiosk rentals. Because the kiosks are licensed by NCR, I’ll need to talk to them, too, to learn what’s going on."

It took a while, but NCR finally got back to me with some information on the problem but it's not going to make those of you hoping to snag a free flick tonight happy. "We are in the process of resolving those issues and they will be fixed by Monday," said Jeff Dudash, an NCR spokesman. "We are also reaching out to those cusotmers who received that code."

I sent an e-mail to FabulousDailyDeals blogger Veronika Clark and shared my story with her and she wrote:

"I used the code yesterday and was able to get a FREE movie, I was just on my way to return it. That did happen to me once before though."

Lesson learned: cyber coupons are like gambling.

If you're feeling lucky, here are the codes I used: G419A and XU14A."

From Herald News. She sounds like my kind of woman!

"I love the idea of coupons. They simply allow for money to be saved — a top priority in my book.

But try as I might, I can’t get them into certain aspects of my shopping, like the grocery store, where I hate feeling forced to buy things that I don’t really want just to save 40 or 50 cents.

As with any good love-hate relationship, those elusive saved dollars and cents entice me every so often.

Here are some thoughts about coupons for other overstretched, time-challenged frugal folks like me.

Choose your battles: For me, this means giving up on grocery coupons, but it might be something different for you.

While I feel guilty watching other gals shovel them into the cashier’s hands as their totals plummet, I have no need for the goods in their carts. And the work it takes to look, clip and sort them each week? I’ve decided this battle is not for me.

Research before buying: Before buying anything out of the ordinary — and I’m talking about everything from clothes to window treatments — do an online search for coupons at the retailers where you’ll be shopping.

For instance, a quick coupon search for Oreck vacuum cleaners results in discount codes for 10, 15 and 20 percent off online.

While not all codes actually work, I’ve found that they are most often successful. Making this search a pre-purchase habit will save big money in the long run.

Become a VIP: Get yourself registered if you want the best deals from common retailers. Bed, Bath and Beyond sends non-expiring coupons to registered shoppers frequently. Old Navy and its affiliates e-mail them weekly, and even daily around high volume shopping times. Smith + Noble does the same. Make life easier by establishing a free e-mail account at Hotmail or Gmail to collect these offers without clogging your regular inbox. And most importantly, remember to check this account often."

She may be a slave to marketing, she isn't one in the grocery store--where it counts!

From RR Star. Why wait 'til next year? Do these NOW!

"WAYS TO SAVE

Set a per-pound price limit for food purchases

Yeager used to swear by a $1 per-pound limit, but rising food prices — he lives in high-cost-of-living metropolitan Washington, D.C. — have driven his bottom line up to $1.19. Consider the cost of living in your community and your own frugal tolerance before picking a number, but pick one. You’ll find it’s a good strategy for paring down your weekly grocery bills.

To make it work, you need to be a creative cook and base your household’s menu on sales and store specials. For instance, this week you might be able to get mangos for $1 per pound, but next week, when they’re twice the price, you will have to choose another fruit that is on sale or in season.

“You’ll find it tends to steer you toward a healthier diet,” Yeager said.

Give up the cell phone

We’ve convinced ourselves that cell phones are necessities, but Yeager begs to differ.

“I would simply encourage people to consider what life might be like without a cell phone,” he says. “I have a successful career, I travel, I do all sorts of things and I have never had a problem living without a cell phone. So why does an unemployed teenager need one?”

If giving up your cell phone permanently seems like too much to commit to, you might consider agreeing to a one-year trial separation just to see how it goes. Add up how much you save during that time.

Green your clean

Yeager cleans most of his house with homemade cleaner concocted of baking soda and vinegar.

Most household cleaners marketed for cleaning one specific surface or room are a waste of money, he says.

“Is kitchen tile really that much different than bathroom tile?” he asks.

Plus, a baking soda and vinegar solution is easier on the environment than many heavy chemical cleansers.

Wear your clothes out

Yeager advocates washing clothes only in cold water to save energy and extend the life of the garments. Also, line dry your laundry instead of using the dryer, which also uses energy and damages fabric over time.

Yeager suggests buying classic, rather than trendy, clothes and wearing them until they wear out, not just as long as they’re the height of fashion.

Shift gears

If you’re in the market for a new or used car, shop for a standard-transmission model. They use less fuel — sometimes getting 2 or 3 miles per gallon more than their automatic counterparts.

And because driving a stick shift is a dying art, you can usually bargain a better price if you know how to drive a manual transmission vehicle.

Park your car expenses

Consider becoming a one-car family. “We’ve gone car crazy,” Yeager says. “The average family has 2.5 cars now. If you can consider giving up one car, it’s a huge savings.”

Yeager and his wife share one vehicle. It requires some coordination, he says, but it’s worth it in the saved gas money, repair costs, license plate fees and insurance. On the rare occasions when they absolutely need a second car, Yeager rents one.

“Yes, it’s an expense,” he says. “But it still is far less than the cost of owning and maintaining two vehicles."

Yeah, I could pick them apart and show you REAL ways to save, but I think you get the drift. I will say that mangoes at $1.00/lb. are too much even for me--they're IMPORTED, and I can eat domestic fruit (in season) for much less. Some nice Red Delicious apples are cheaper, and are in season right now...and more nutritious too.

From the Dollar Stretcher.

" 1. Don't buy food you do not like. I find a lot of vegetables and fruits in their original package. Why? Because obviously a lot of people try to eat healthy and then buy food they don't like/eat. Stop that! It is a waste of money. If you don't like apples and carrots, you will not eat them, so do not buy them.

2. Stop buying sweets/cakes/cookies. It is a totally waste of money to throw sweets/cake/cookies away because you decide to stay healthy or slim down. Don't buy them in the first place. If you do anyway, at least give them away (kids, work, friends).

3. Not liking a present does not mean throwing it away is a good option. Either sell it on eBay or wherever, give it to someone else or keep it and give it away as present (don't forget to write down who gave it to you, so you don't return it to the giver). Furthermore, tell the person who gave it to you that you did not like it or tell them what you like next time around. During Christmas season, I find presents still wrapped in the wastebasket. I am always happy about them, but they were not meant for me to be happy!

4. Christmas waste is most interesting. You not only find presents, but also you find tons of food and even more cookies and sweets, given by loving relatives. If you don't feel like eating them, why not bring them to work or freeze them. Someone spend a lot of money, time and love to make them! The same goes for chocolate Easter bunnies. The chocolate can be used for something else (cookies, cakes, etc.) or just give it to a kid/mother that you know.

5. Don't take hotel give-aways or samples if you won't use them. Why do people take shampoo, soap, sewing-kits, etc. from hotels and then throw them away unused? Give them to friends, family, or homeless shelters. Someone will enjoy them. The same is true for all samples.

6. Someone can always benefit from useable clothing. I understand that it is easier to throw clothes away, but why not give them to shelters, churches or other non-profit organizations when still useable or sell them on Internet. If it is new and you find out you do not like it, just bring it back to the store to get your money back instead of keeping it and then throwing it away with its tag still on it. I'll have towels and pillowcases till the end of my days (and they all had still tags on them) and I am not even 30!

7. Throwing away coins doesn't add up. I am aware that coins are somehow annoying, but do you have to throw them away? How about collecting them in a jar or give them to charity? Even if it is foreign money, some charities don't mind that at all.

8. Don't throw away half-empty bottles of cosmetics, shampoo and lotion. I find half-empty bottles all the time. You can always put the bottles upside down to get more lotion, shampoo, etc. out of it or cut them in half. You can really save a lot of money this way (and help the environment).

9. Children's toys can always find a new home. Except when broken, these should not end in the dumpster.

10. Old magazines shouldn't be thrown out. Maybe someone at work or a friend would like to read the newer/latest issue of a magazine? How about using them to wrap gifts (some ads are nicer than wrapping paper)?

11. Wrapping-paper can usually be used more than once. Ever considered that? And how about using newspapers or magazines instead?

12. Plants should be given away, not thrown away. When not dead, why not give them to someone that either likes plants or has a garden to put them in. My mother has a whole orchid collection by now and she did not buy one of them."

Regarding #11--my mother saved wrapping paper and bows every year, and we reused those things until there was nothing left of them. Then one year, my older sister got one of those bow making contraptions, and then saving ribbon became the name of the game. Saving boxes was ALWAYS part of the game.

Something I learned from apartment complex dumpster diving: residents sure are wasteful! I could've completely furnished (plus food) half the apartments there with the stuff these people threw out. A complete daycare center could've been outfitted with the kiddy stuff tossed out (but managed to save most of it, and washed it up and donated it to the thrift store). Whatever I could get into my car got washed up and donated, if it wasn't something I kept for myself.

Ask me when the last time was that I actually paid for a washcloth or a rug. I either found them in the dumpster, or they got left behind in the laundry room. As far as towels go, I haven't had to pay for a bath towel in 20 years--they keep finding me in the trash.

From GoErie.com--this is from the self-titled Coupon Queen Jill Cataldo (one of many), and says it can be used WITHOUT coupons.

"The 12-week pricing cycle is a key component in cutting your grocery bill, with or without coupons. Remember, everything you buy at your local grocery store fluctuates in price.

Approximately every 12 weeks, each item in the store, everything from a box of cereal to a bottle of juice will hit both a high point and a low point within that time period.

When you shop the cycles, you're buying when products' prices are at their lowest points in the cycle. Then you can move in with your coupons to cut those lowest prices even more. This is how attentive coupon shoppers are able to realize big, significant savings."

Remember what I've said in the past about retailers learning from their discounting mistakes. This cycle surely won't last when enough people get on board.

"Let me give you an example. A name-brand 8-ounce bag of shredded mozzarella cheese might range in price from a high of $3.29 to a low of $1.99. Even without any coupons, if I buy the cheese when it's cycling low in price at $1.99, I'll save $1.30 per bag of cheese.

Any coupons I have for the cheese will further reduce its price. In order to save the most money, I must time my coupon usage to the sales. During this cheese sale, I had a $5 coupon for the purchase of 5 bagged cheeses of this brand.

By using that great coupon during this sale, I took home five bags of cheese for $4.95, or 99 cents each."

Ah--now we know: it relies on BRAND NAME items! The trick here is that manufacturers are trying to move brand-name items faster than their generic counterparts, which we all know save us money without even trying. Meanwhile, the brand-name stuff sits and rots on the shelves.

"What if I chose to use that coupon during a different week, when the cheese was not on sale? I still could have used my $5-off-five coupon to buy five bags of cheese, but at $3.29 a bag, I'd still have paid $11.45 -- even after the coupon.

By aligning the coupon with a better sale, I paid less than half the non-sale price. Shredded cheese freezes well, so if a good sale comes around I'm never afraid to buy more than I might need at the moment."

But if she chose to buy generic cheese, she still could've saved money. Cheese is cheese, right?

"Now, consider the big picture. If you watch sales and only purchase the items you need when the prices are all cycling low, using coupons to reduce already-good prices even more, you dramatically slash prices on everything you purchase.

But there are no coupons for buying 50-lb. bangs of something, or whole cases of something--for that, I get a per-pound or case lot discount that adds up to the same or more than the value of that coupon. Best of all, I get my discount wherever the item is in the discount cycle (top or bottom). Sure, she only got 5 bags of cheese for her discount price, but I buy 10-lb. blocks, cut it up and freeze it myself, for about the same price per pound as she got her "discounted" cheese bags. She has only 5 little bags in her freezer--I have 10 lbs., or many little bags!

Sure, she may end up getting a 2-lb. bag of rice for free after many coupon/store sale shenangians, but for that same couple of bucks off, I got 50 lbs. worth--that's 25X more rice for the same discount (presumably $2 or more per pound--whatever the original bag of rice was worth). I can get this discount any time without having to line up coupons with sales schedules.

If I ate white rice, I could get an even bigger discount just by shopping in an Asian or Indian market. They sell 25- and 50-lb. bags of white rice for pennies per pound!

If I went directly to the dairy or an Ag college for my cheese instead of buying those cute little bags in the store, god knows what I could save per pound--probably tons.

Buying the products we need when prices take a big dip and also buying enough to last until the next time the price cycles low again, we can save a great deal of money.

It's not always easy to do this on your own. Every product and category in the store operates on its own cycle, independent of the others'. This week, frozen vegetables might be cycling low, while cereal is priced at the highest point in the cycle. Next week, pasta sauce may be low.

Years ago, dedicated coupon shoppers would track these price cycles manually. They'd take a little notebook to the store each week to record the prices of products."

This suggests several things: that she's a marketing slave; that the "low cycle" would be more or less announced by the LOSS LEADER page of every grocery store flyer (so no real need to keep track of the in a book--she's making this more complicated than it needs to be); that she does most of her shopping in regular grocery stores (when better deals can be found from other sources); she only buys brand-name items (when the brands are the very people who make the generics); and she has never read the Tightwad Gazette, where the author suggests making a price book, but then getting to memorize your spending limits per ounce or per pound on certain categories, thus not tying you down to brands or types.

Hubby asked a real good question: "What happens when these "coupon queens" run out of coupons?" I don't know--maybe then they'll resort to buying like REAL frugalites buy. Coupon queens, Tightwad Kings, or other self-titled "masters of savings" are only scratching the surface with their tactics, and they get all the press for it. As I discover better, more meaningful ways to stretch dollars (as well as time, energy, and space--does this make me some sort of physicist?), I put them here. This is all the press I need. I don't need to broadcast in the mainstream media for attention--if you like my marketing-free ideas, you'll keep coming back.

My question: What happens when the Europeanization of America is finally here, and food is sold in street markets by the kilo (loose measure--you bring your own containers)--where will the coupon queens and tightwad kings be THEN? Will they still be plying their trade in regular (expensive) supermarkets, or will they finally succumb to the fact that simple price-per-unit comparison is the best way to go, day in and day out?

Will they even know how to buy food in kilos, and how much a kilo is? I warned my readers about this years ago. Too bad many of these self-titled savings warriors have probably never even set foot outside this country (except maybe on a heavily-discounted cruise ship)--they haven't seen post-war/post-economic bubble life close up like I have. Just wait until they get a taste of life without brand names, coupons, flyers, rebates, or rainchecks, and no other real ways to open themselves up to the ravages of marketing!

Here's a sample of what we're likely to be in for in the future.

Going back through old posts, I came across this in my No-label Diet Diary:

"I have come to believe that the label on the front of foods is just as dangerous as the one on the back, because it serves as a lure for shoppers. The best and healthiest foods come without a label—especially on the back. Some are lucky enough not to have one on the front, either. Shopping for and living with these foods, as well as their effects, has revealed a way to health, happiness (spatial, temporal, and financial), and the way back to nature—where it all began. I found a way out from under the commercialism and marketing deluge, and an excellent way to stretch my (mostly organic) food dollar with ease. No more price books, coupons, rebates, or other trickery to deceive me (and hopefully you too) into buying low-quality, high-label food again—now I see too clearly to ever go back."

You can bet the Coupon Queens and Tightwad Kings all buy food that looks like an ad-festooned race car compared to mine. Less marketing, less packaging, less shipping, and less manufacturing to begin with are what keep my prices down--instead of paying attention to discount cycles, I pay attention to the seasons.

From WCSH-6, Portland, Maine. I have the feeling I might have this one beat before even reading the article...

"Shoppers took to the grocery aisles Wednesday night with a goal, they had to come up with a meal for four under ten dollars.

The program Cooking Matters to Maine put on the event, The program teaches low income families how to eat healthy on a budget. The program is split up into six classes, meeting once a week. Typical classes take place in a classroom type atmosphere where local nutritionists and volunteer chefs teach everything from how to cook healthy meals, to reading grocery labels."

...

"Later the participants had an hour to choose their meals, once approved from their instructors they were given ten dollar Hannaford gift cards to purchase their groceries."

More information about the classes here. It doesn't surprise me that ConAgra Foods sponsored the event--I bet the participants even got extra credit for using ConAgra products in their meal menus.

Oh well...at least it's a start in food education--something that's sorely needed in this country. I'd like to throw them a REAL challenge: feeding that same family of 4 on the same $10 budget FOR A WEEK instead of just a meal. Nowadays you can order a large pizza for $10 and have it delivered--so much for rummaging through a grocery store!

There are segments of the population that still find cheap, nutritious food unattainable for various reasons. These reasons can range from transportation to and from the food source to simply applying ineffective shopping skills. The population gamut runs from the unemployed high school dropout to some possessing a PhD.

The common denominator: the cupboards are bare, and the refrigerator’s empty.

I don’t know whether to chalk it up to poor shopping skills, poor food choices, under-education and under-employment, breeding beyond means, or a combination of all these things. Whatever the reasons, it’s a sad state to find one’s self in among one of the richest nations on earth.

Maybe it’s really a lack of reckoning with certain truths about the world we now live in. So much has changed, and so many can’t seem to keep up. For example:

Employment—businesses are in a constant scramble for profits, and will stop at almost nothing to preserve profit margins. Offshoring and outsourcing weren’t even in our vocabulary ten years ago, and now are tossed about every day in casual conversation. Since labor is the largest recurring cost for employers, they will find a way to do without labor or find cheaper sources. This means we must “recession-proof” our job skills through careful career choices and near-constant educational updates to stay current, useful, and in demand. We also have to stay current in the ways we FIND a job, and not fall victim to relying on methods that are no longer used.

Another priority we must fulfill is contribution to the boss’s bottom line. If you are a cost (liability) to him/her and not an asset, you won’t be employed long. Regular accomplishments that help bolster the bottom line at work (through sales increases, new customers/markets, cost-cutting, etc.) will help to ensure continued employability and can be used as bargaining chips for negotiating pay raises and bonuses. Those same accomplishments can also be applied to the resume’ for future employment and pay negotiations.

Choose a career that can’t be outsourced, sent offshore, or have software written to replace your presence. Achieve the maximum degree in it that will pay for itself, and this will require some research on your part (some Master’s and PhD’s don’t earn any more than a regular Bachelor’s, and turn out to be a waste of time and money). Fit the boss’s needs in with your regular job duties, and continue to job hunt while you’re already employed. Employers gain most of their new employees by poaching from other firms, so don’t be afraid to put your resume’ out or enlist the help of a headhunter (for discretion). The fact that you’re still employed means you are in demand, and demand attracts demand.

Spending—some people have a tendency to “reward” themselves for such hard work with short-lived and expensive trinkets. The want takes precedence over the need or even the consideration of options. The idea of having “something to show for all the hard work” is a fallacy that many people still seem to share.

Finding ways to save, even if it’s just a small amount, is imperative in today’s world. It’s also a tax benefit.

Shopping skills—as we all (or nearly all) know, judicious shelf label reading, coupon use, store selection, and product selection have maximum dollar savings. Too much focus is placed on the product price, and agencies that deal with food stamps ought to hold shopping and nutrition classes. It seems like so many people who use these programs don’t know how to shop correctly, and it’s no wonder—the schools no longer teach Home Economics like they did when Mom and Grandma went to school, nor is it explained at home. This “generational deficit” has led to buying salad in bags, vegetables in cans, and junk non-foods for lunchboxes. Familiar convenience items are now sought out at food banks and pantries, and they’re not going to be there.

Grandma had less money than we do now, so how did she get by? She had a garden and an oven, and she used them. As much as we may despise it, we need to get back into domesticity: cook from scratch, garden, learn portion control, and cost-per-unit shopping.

Breeding beyond our means—there just is no tactful way to say this, and I apologize to you readers. Choosing to have kids is a romantic reflex response to marriage, according to Dr. Phil. As we know, not all kids are planned, and we can’t send them back to where they came from. We can control their creation, however, with the myriad methods of birth control available.

Having children before getting a sufficient education to sustain employment is one big mistake lots of people make. The cart frequently gets put before the horse, and we hear, “it’ll all work out in the end,”—but mostly it doesn’t. This can lead to abuse, neglect, abandonment, and having to rely on agencies and organizations for mere subsistence rations of food with negligible nutrition. We cannot always rely on the support of a devoted spouse to carry us through, and he/she may have their own set of problems with staying employed, saving, shopping, etc.

The number of children can also be a detriment if sufficient income isn’t present or cannot be had to support all those bodies—it’s just like creating more bills that have no hope of being paid. This isn’t fair to the children at all. They didn’t ask to suffer.

There are benefits and consequences to both having kids while young and waiting awhile. One of the benefits of waiting is maturity of the brain—our frontal lobes aren’t fully mature until we’re 25, and this part of the brain is responsible for things like risk assessment and quick decision making. If we wait until the income is right, the marital and mental units are stable, and a savings/spending program is under control, we stand a much better chance for family success. We are also less likely to fall to levels where reliance on food stamps and food pantries become the norm for our households.

Kids are not a requirement of marriage or any other sort of relationship, and it’s perfectly okay if you don’t have any at all. Sometimes we can end up waiting until it’s biologically too late for conditions to be just right, and so far, about 30% of the “breeding age” population has. All the more reason to make education, career selection, savings, and shopping skills a priority on your life while you’re young. If you don’t make it and lose to the biological clock, don’t sweat it—you have plenty of company.

Individual personal responsibility has got to kick in at some point. Food banks, pantries, and agency programs cannot be expected to pick up the slack for what amounts to poor prevention planning. Articles and advocates cry out for increased access to more nutritious food through these “emergency” outlets, but there’s the rub—these outlets are not meant for providing first-line sustenance. Furthermore, these outlets are subject to regulations, donations and budgets, and seasonal/supplier availability. They are just not meant as a first-line defense for under-employment, bad shopping/spending skills, and over-breeding. Here is where nutrition and need collide, and it’s preventable.

From the U.K. Money Saving Blog. This correlates directly with my Meat Manifesto.

"Going vegetarian can save you a lot of money on your grocery shopping if you choose in-season local vegetables. However, there are a lot of people who don’t want to eat vegetarian food all of the time. And there are people who have favorite dishes that include meat as a main ingredient. So how do you keep your meal costs down when you’re a meat eater?"

1. Eat the whole animal (article advocates eating bony chicken parts--I disagree, because once you strip the meat off those bones, you find you actually paid whole carcass prices for very little usable meat. No matter how hard you try, you can't eat bones or empty space from hollow cavities--this is called a FALSE ECONOMY)

2. Choose cheaper cuts of meat

3. Replace meat with beans (or eggs, or nuts, or quinoa) in recipes (rethink your protein sources)

4. Make meat the side dish of your meal (or part of it, such as chicken salad, which allows you to use less meat)

5. Skip meat dishes when dining out (or dining in--have a designated "veggie night" or two a week)

6. Buy meat in bulk (or buy it from an agricultural college)

7. Purchase your meat at the end of the day

8. Barter for your meat

9. Mix hamburger with cheaper stuff to make it stretch further (like TVP, eggs, bread crumbs, finely chopped beans, etc.)

10. Learn to cut meat yourself (this requires learning which knives are worth keeping around, and how to care for them)

11. Get to know a hunter (and offer him/her ammo or some other useful goods/services in exchange for meat)

12. Look for post-holiday meat sales

13. Buy meat that is close to its expiration date

14. Use discount codes and look for sales (if any exist--rare in the U.S. without a further purchase, like 1 lb. of hamburger for a gallon milk purchase)

15. Always eat your leftovers (and learn to eliminate waste)

Remember: you don't always have to COOK to get proteins--you can BAKE them too.