Ramblings-n-Writings

Archive for January, 2008

Hey all! I know it isn’t quite Friday yet, but I wanted to post my CVS trip. I’m hoping that eventually I’ll convince some of you to try your hand at CVS-ing too.

Here’s what I bought -
Palmolive Ultra Dish Liquid 13 oz
Hershey’s Miniatures 9.2 oz bag
Hershey’s Kisses 9.2 oz bag
Colgate Toothbrush
Aleve 1 bottle, 24 caplets
Excedrin Back and Body 1 bottle, 24 caplets
Visine Tears for Contacts 1/2 oz
4 Hershey’s candy bars
2 bags Twizzlers 17.6 oz each

I’m thinking that the toothbrush will come in handy after eating all of the candy.

But here’s the big question…. What did all of that cost? $4.18

Yep, you read that right – $4.18!!! That’s what I paid out of pocket. Plus I have $10 ECB (CVS’ reward for buying certain products) to use on my next trip. Initially, without CVS coupons, my previous ECBs and manufacturer’s coupons, my bill was approx. $32. For those of you who still believe the Wal-Mart ‘lowest price guaranteed’ phrase, I challenge you to try and buy the above list for the same price or less!

I thought I would share two blogs that I frequently read. Both are written by Christian women and offer great ideas for your home and budget!

Money Saving Mom – Check out Crystal’s site for great ideas for ways to live frugally, as well as the latest deals at the grocery store or pharmacy. Don’t be overwhelmed by her deals – try to understand one at a time and pretty soon, you’ll be saving loads of money. Also, be sure to read the comments on how others saved money. And yes, the deals do work. Personally, we have saved hundreds of dollars in the past 4 months by shopping how Crystal teaches. Our income is extremely limited so this site has been a tremendous blessing to us allowing us to buy namebrand products and get out of the Wal-Mart mode. (Stay tuned for a post about why I no longer like Wal-Mart.) This is also a great website if you are “young” and trying to figure out how to shop within a budget.

Dovey’s Deliberations – Dovey’s blog is new but is filled with information about homeschooling, rearing young children, menu ideas and life in general with young children. A recent blog post focused on homeschooling and resources for those researching the idea of homeschool. (P.S. – Dovey is an old friend that I haven’t seen since our days working as operators at the Bob Jones Univ. switchboard.)

Have you heard about the class action lawsuit settlement that entitles everyone who purchased a diamond in the past 10 years to a portion of the settlement? My mom heard the end of the story on the news and called me so I could research it for her.

The diamond could be a loose diamond or as part of jewelry – rings, necklaces, bracelets, watches, etc. My understanding is that DeBeers diamond company had a monopoly on sales, forced prices to go up and made all of us pay too much for our diamonds.

Read more here….

Sometimes I’m asked what it is like to live in such a rural area. The best response I can think of, which is technically not a response, is it is different.

Growing up, I lived in the “country,” meaning outside of a town or city, no sidewalks, long driveway, woods. We had to drive to and from the bus stop every day (mainly because our Christian school didn’t have a contract with our local public school district). I still remember the first time one of my best friends came to spend the night – from her responses and comments, you would have thought we took her to Siberia!

Realize that in no way were we in a remote area. Philadelphia was 35 miles away, King of Prussia (the largest mall on the east coast) was less than a half hour drive. We had our choices of grocery stores, libraries, restaurants. If one store didn’t have an item, go to the next. Many in the area earn six-figure incomes. Miss the gas station? There’s 3 or 4 more in the next couple of miles.

Now, I really think my friend would go into shock at where I live. This is definitely remote. The closest town (grocery store, library, hospital, doctors etc.) is 25 miles away. The closest gas station is 10 miles away. I’m sure there are more remote places, but I don’t know that I could handle more remoteness! So, what is it like?

In some ways our cost of living is cheaper than the average place in the U.S. Property taxes here are low; electric is fairly cheap. Land is slightly over $1,000/acre. But other items, like gasoline, tend to run higher, supposedly because of the ‘transport’ costs.

Economically, our state is in poverty. A significant percentage of the people receive federal and/or state aid of some sort – Social Security, food stamps, WIC, CHIPS, etc. Most of the aid is deserving although some do take advantage of the system. Either way, given the “economic” condition of our state, one would think that our prices would be equal to or less than those in metropolitan areas. Well, on our holiday trip back to the “country,” I made a few interesting discoveries.

• An 18 lb. bag of generic cat food is a minimum of $1.75 per bag more here. Name brands in PA were cheaper than generic here.
• A 20 lb. container of Tidy Cat cat litter was $6.93 in PA; here the same container was $9.85.
• Dog food is also more expensive here.
• 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke average $1.25 in our area; the average price in PA was less than $1 with some sales as low as 75 cents/bottle.
• Cabbage was 39 cents per head; here it is considerably more.
• Frozen pizza (can’t remember the brand) was $3.99 regular price in PA; our price is $5.99 with occasional sales of $3.99.
• Snyder’s of Hanover Pretzel Pieces were on sale for $1.67/bag; our best sale price has been 2 for $4.

While this isn’t specifically price related, our coupon inserts in the Sunday paper often have less coupons than other areas of the country. Instead of the coupon, we get an advertisement for the product (not sure how that entices me to buy the product – give me the coupon!!!). While I initially thought I was simply missing a coupon that I knew existed, a fellow blogger who lives in a different area of the state confirmed my suspicion that indeed we were being cheated out of coupons.

My conclusion is that someone is making a hefty profit somewhere! Personally, I can understand price differences, but $3 differences? Isn’t that a little excessive?

More later about living in the real “country”…..