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I am not a very meticulous person and it reflects on the way I keep (Do I really?) a track of my grocery bills. The very thought of spending hours and hours in keeping notes of each and every grocery item purchased from stores gives me a headache. I am not an overspender and buy things that I need (things that are necessity) but of late I have realized that I can save some extra money if I start paying a little more attention towards reducing the grocery expenses. I have started adhering to these simple tips to cut down my expenses on grocery and its working. So, I thought of sharing them with you all.

• Make fewer trips to store: I have cut down my trips to the grocery store. My trips have been reduced to once or twice a month. The fewer times I visit the store, the less opportunities I will have for impulse buying. Shoppers making a ‘quick trip’ to grocery stores end up spending 54 percent more than they intended.

• Every weekend plan for the coming week’s meals and snacks: On Saturdays I sit down and make a plan of the menus that will be cooked for the next week. I also plan for the snacks. Planning ahead restricts me from buying unwanted stuffs and also gives me an idea about the quantity of the items I need to buy.

• Try generic grocery products: Most of the people rush to grocery stores and grab the name brand. They simply overlook the generic products. I was also a bit apprehensive about using generic items at first, so I compared the ingredients in the generic and the national brand items. To my surprise in most cases, the ingredients present in the generic and the brand items were same. So, buying generic items do not imply that you are compromising on quality. Everything from breakfast cereals to canned goods and prescription drugs is available under a generic or store brand label. And by purchasing them you can actually save from a few cents to a couple of dollars per item.

• Stock up the necessity items if they are put on sale: Items like soaps, tissue papers and toiletries can be stocked up. Buying them in bulk will be cheaper. Instead of rushing to stores and wasting gas, you can easily use the items from your stock anytime when you need a new supply for your own use.

• Use coupons: I usually clip out the coupons that I intend to use in a week from the Sunday paper. I usually buy items that I regularly use with coupons- it does save money.

budget,grocery bills,budgeting tips,reduce grocery bills

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“I am on my way to establish credit so how many inquiries should I make? I have also heard that too many inquiries can lower down my score. Is it correct?” - This is a common question that most of the people trying to build up credit face. This post is an attempt to help them.

Inquiries negatively affect your score but the extent to which it affects actually depends on the overall profile of the credit report that’s being scored. For instance, an inquiry is going to matter more on somebody who has a short credit history without a lot of accounts.

Consider a college student who has only a student loan included in his credit report. Now, if he gets a few inquiries, then that’s going to affect his score more negatively than someone else who has got a long credit history.

The worst thing to do while establishing credit is getting a secured account and then putting across your credit applications to all of the big banks and the national department stores. By doing so, you start generating hard inquiries that in turn lower down your score. As lenders consider too many hard credit checks as an indication that you’re facing some kind of financial hardship and are desperately looking for credit to help you out

Technorati Tags: credit report, credit inquiry, hard pull, credit score, establish credit

A few days back, I saw an email in my inbox. Below is the snippet of the e-mail.

Dear Friend,

I am interested in building and operating a very viable business as a means of investment abroad. I do not know too well on how this is done in your country, so I will need you to help me in this regard. My preference is any good profit yielding business and I would appreciate any viable ideas you could come up with. I will also need you to help me look for properties like homes and lands for sale as I am proposing to invest the sum of Twenty Million United States Dollars($20,000,000.00 USD) for this. I do not know if you can and will be of help to me.I will brief you on my personality; my name is Ali Mustapha Kamaradin, a Morrocan business man based in Nigeria. I am a retired Business man, I was formally into private Shipping Business. I am 52 years of age, married with a wife and 4 lovely kids.

I didnot continue with my Shipping business because it wasn’t producing profitable income. The Nigerian Authority are not cooperating with me because I am a foreigner. My need for this business proposition and to acquire these properties is very urgent as I am planning to move out of this country with my family down to your country. I want you to also aid me in finding a good home where my family and I will live in. (Mini Estate)Please I expect your good and prompt reply so that we can proceed swiftly. I will need your phone and fax numbers for easier communication with you incase I am unable to access my emails.

Email: alimustapha_kama@yahoo.no

Best Regards,
Mustapha Kamaradin.

Tel : +234 802 291 7664

Such emails are scams run by con artists. Remember, do not give out your personal info to anybody whom you do not know.

Technorati Tags: email scam, phishing, scam