In January I heard about Jeff Yeager’s book, “The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches.” I bought – and enjoyed – the book. One of the things he suggested was shopping for some foods at the local dollar store.
This morning, Jeff was again on the Today Show, shopping at the dollar store in a segment about how to save money. This time I got inspired to take action. What else would the woman who invented the word, inspirACTion do?
My goal was to research how much, if any, money I could save at the dollar store. My local dollar store is less than one tenth of a mile from the turn off to the local supermarket chain, so there was no additional expenditure of gas money to get there and very little time expenditure.
Here, to save you the time of doing your own research are the results.
Dollar Store Shaw’s Supermarket
270 cup Folger’s Coffee $7.50 $8.49
1 lb. pckg Elbow Macaroni 0.85 1.19
14 oz. jar Mr. Peanut Peanuts 2.50 2.50
29 oz. can Fruit Cocktail 1.15 2.29
15 oz. can Hormel Chili 1.50 2.00
48 oz. bottle Sunny D Juice 1.00 2.39*
50 oz. Tide he Laundry Detergent 7.75 13.49
Lg. Campbell’s Chunky Soup 1.90 2.00
10 oz. box SunMaid Raisins 1.20 3.69
20 oz. Post Raisin Bran Cereal 2.65 3.19
2 lb. Long Grain Rice 1.00 2.00
10 oz. Kraft Mayonnaise 1.30 2.29
25 Green Tea bags 1.00 2.99
_________ _________
$29.80 $48.51
I was astounded at the difference in the cost – of virtually the same items.
(* I couldn’t find Sunny D brand at Shaw’s so compared an equivalent Juicy Juice brand)!
I made my first trip to the dollar store earlier this month to get some potting soil. I was in the midst of planting seeds so went to the closest store. There I found another great bargain. I bought seed packets for twenty cents a piece.
Similar packets at a well-known discount store cost me $1.50 per packet. The seeds have germinated exceptionally well – and were a great bargain!
Now I’m inspired to stop at the dollar store on my way to the supermarket. If there are items on my list available there, I’ll save some money!
My next research project: I’ve been tracking all my expenses since the first of January. I know exactly how much money I’ve spent on groceries this year.
I’m going to spend the next 3 months of the year implementing some changes in my grocery shopping habits. I will look first in the dollar store to see if I can find what I want there. I’m going to research a couple of coupon websites and start using coupons.
At the end of June, I’ll be able to calculate how much money I’ve saved. My commitment to you – and to me – is to put the money in a savings account and to report my results to you during early July.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Healing the Physical/Spiritual Split
A friend recently commented about Deepak Chopra: "He's too much into the money." It's a coment I've heard about him before. He's also someone whose insights and writings have been very helpful as I've struggled to rework and realign my beliefs about wealth. The messages of my childhood environment were that it was much more noble and spiritual to be poor than rich. In those messages, it was made very clear that wealthy folks were very likely not "good" folks.
This morning I spent some time re-reading Joe Vitale's book, The Key. Joe said: "You are a physical being, but your essence is spiritual. Everything you want is a symbol -- an apparently concrete reality that is actually made up of energy. That energy is spirit. The material and the spiritual are two sides of the same coin. Wanting something material is the first step to awakening to the spirit within it, and you, and all things."
My friend's comment echoes loudly the beliefs instilled within me a long time ago. I hear those beliefs echoed in many places. I know that those childhood beliefs choked off the flow of spirit within me. It has taken me a long time to re-connect to the integrity of physical/spiritual unity.
As a nurse I "got" the disparity of the mind/body split fairly early in my career. I remember saying, "Wait! Mind and body do not split apart like Legos." Now I know that body and spirit aren't split apart either. They just seem that way to us because we've been taught to see them that way.
What if we refused to see ourselves as split? What if we shifted our self-perceptions to be conscious of ourselves as embodied spirits -- spiritual beings occupying, but not limited to, our bodies? What if we off-loaded some/many/all of the self-limiting beliefs that result from seeing ourselves as separate from spirit? From Spirit? What if we recognized (re-cognized) our essential wholeness? And allowed ouselves to be healthy and whole?
This morning I spent some time re-reading Joe Vitale's book, The Key. Joe said: "You are a physical being, but your essence is spiritual. Everything you want is a symbol -- an apparently concrete reality that is actually made up of energy. That energy is spirit. The material and the spiritual are two sides of the same coin. Wanting something material is the first step to awakening to the spirit within it, and you, and all things."
My friend's comment echoes loudly the beliefs instilled within me a long time ago. I hear those beliefs echoed in many places. I know that those childhood beliefs choked off the flow of spirit within me. It has taken me a long time to re-connect to the integrity of physical/spiritual unity.
As a nurse I "got" the disparity of the mind/body split fairly early in my career. I remember saying, "Wait! Mind and body do not split apart like Legos." Now I know that body and spirit aren't split apart either. They just seem that way to us because we've been taught to see them that way.
What if we refused to see ourselves as split? What if we shifted our self-perceptions to be conscious of ourselves as embodied spirits -- spiritual beings occupying, but not limited to, our bodies? What if we off-loaded some/many/all of the self-limiting beliefs that result from seeing ourselves as separate from spirit? From Spirit? What if we recognized (re-cognized) our essential wholeness? And allowed ouselves to be healthy and whole?
Thursday, March 6, 2008
As Maine Goes, So Goes the Nation
Besides the elections, the most important news story of the moment is the ECONOMY. The news is not good as we are deluged with stories of a bouncing stock market, skyrocketing foreclosures, and recession angst.
Speaking earlier this week at a workshp for unemployed professionals, I found myself remembering a phrase from my grade school Maine history course -- "As Maine goes, so goes the nation." I challenged the group to think about what we in Maine could do if we decided to lead the nation -- why not the world? -- into an era of unprecedented prosperity. I've thought about that quite a bit in the intervening hours.
What if we decided to skip a recession and create unprecedented propserity? Wouldn't that be fun?
One of the participants in the workshop commented that Maine has the highest percentage of small business folks in the nation. I had heard that per capita we have the highest number of writers and publishers. What a marvelous resource for creating prosperity!
What do we also have? A long-standing history (i.e., memory) of being on the lower end of the US economic scale, a long-standing belief in the honor of being poor and "making do," and a governmental infrastructure not supportive of small business.
I believe that we've also bought into a belief in our limitation. What if we decided to believe in our unlimited potential and possibilities
What a wonderful thought: the idea of maine becoming the model for booming prosperity. What fun. For those of you who are old enough to have expereinced Kennedy's challenge for us to put a man on the moon in the sixties, this is a parallel situation.
At the time that Kennedy created the challenge, we did not have the technology, the money, or the man power. We had/created the committment and that made all the difference. What if we created the comittment to be the birthplace of a new, expanded version of FUNancial Freedom?
In another writing (http://authorandgrowrich.com/blog/first-contestant-in-the-authorandgrowrichcom-trump-the-donald-contest, I have proposed Heifer International as a model of "we-sponsible wealth." Unlike in the sixties, we DO have the human power, we do have the technology, and we do have the money. All we have to do is to create the belief and the committment!
As Maine goes...
Speaking earlier this week at a workshp for unemployed professionals, I found myself remembering a phrase from my grade school Maine history course -- "As Maine goes, so goes the nation." I challenged the group to think about what we in Maine could do if we decided to lead the nation -- why not the world? -- into an era of unprecedented prosperity. I've thought about that quite a bit in the intervening hours.
What if we decided to skip a recession and create unprecedented propserity? Wouldn't that be fun?
One of the participants in the workshop commented that Maine has the highest percentage of small business folks in the nation. I had heard that per capita we have the highest number of writers and publishers. What a marvelous resource for creating prosperity!
What do we also have? A long-standing history (i.e., memory) of being on the lower end of the US economic scale, a long-standing belief in the honor of being poor and "making do," and a governmental infrastructure not supportive of small business.
I believe that we've also bought into a belief in our limitation. What if we decided to believe in our unlimited potential and possibilities
What a wonderful thought: the idea of maine becoming the model for booming prosperity. What fun. For those of you who are old enough to have expereinced Kennedy's challenge for us to put a man on the moon in the sixties, this is a parallel situation.
At the time that Kennedy created the challenge, we did not have the technology, the money, or the man power. We had/created the committment and that made all the difference. What if we created the comittment to be the birthplace of a new, expanded version of FUNancial Freedom?
In another writing (http://authorandgrowrich.com/blog/first-contestant-in-the-authorandgrowrichcom-trump-the-donald-contest, I have proposed Heifer International as a model of "we-sponsible wealth." Unlike in the sixties, we DO have the human power, we do have the technology, and we do have the money. All we have to do is to create the belief and the committment!
As Maine goes...
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