Thursday, May 21, 2009

Check out these sites for money saving ideas

www.energysavers.gov

This government website has a number of different changes you can make in your home to save money.


erideshare.com

This website helps in ride sharing.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Grocery Auctions

A bid to save on groceries
By Suzette Parmley

Inquirer Staff Writer

For Patrick Gibbons, whose job hours were recently cut, the items he stocked up on during a food auction at a Bucks County fire hall yesterday meant the difference between surviving another month and not making it.

That's how much the margin has narrowed, he said, for folks like him who are watching every dollar while in the grip of economic uncertainty.

"It's been rough," said Gibbons, 37, a fabricator for the cryogenic industry in Plumsteadville, who is losing two days' work every other week as his employer trims costs.

Grocery auctions are catching on as one way for families to make ends meet.

Gibbons' wife, Karen, 41, sat next to him tallying their items, which included a 24-roll package of toilet paper for $10; a 10-pound case of pepper bacon, also for $10; and a 2-pound bag of mozzarella sticks for $7.

"You get some real bargains here," Gibbons said as he again raised a card with his auction number on it to bid $5 on a 6-pound bag of macaroni and cheese. "You can't beat the prices," he said. In all, Gibbons spent $213, and paid in cash.

Kirk Williams, the auctioneer for Col. Kirk's Auction Gallery, which put together yesterday's auction at the Warrington Township Fire Company, said he was seeing more people like Gibbons at his events.

And "we do see people who just lost their jobs," said Williams, before starting the eight-hour auction from a microphone on a raised stage. Behind him were giant stacks of toilet paper and packaged food.

"People are acting differently because they do not have the extra money to spend," he said. "They're spending money when there is a real value or bargain, and they don't have a problem doing that."

Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the nation's unemployment rate has risen to 8.9 percent from 4.9 percent. And 5.7 million Americans have lost their jobs.

Williams held his first food auction Feb. 13 in his own gallery in Eyersgrove, Pa., where he set up 200 chairs and 300 people showed up.

He has conducted 30 grocery auctions since, mostly at fire halls and social halls in northeastern Pennsylvania, including Wilkes-Barre, New Albany, and Pennsdale.

He has an auction in Bloomsburg today. Yesterday's was the first in Bucks County, but Williams said he planned to return in September with an auction in Warwick Township.

"It has everything to do with the economy and the entertainment value," Williams said of what had kept attendance steady. People "enjoy having a day out with their families to get groceries and making new friends, and I like to say we are a bit entertaining, too."

He sells canned goods, toilet paper, candy, and all kinds of frozen foods, including popcorn chicken. Williams buys merchandise from warehouses in the Philadelphia and Reading areas that supply grocery stores and restaurants.

He said the items were typically those getting close to their sell-by dates that the warehouses could no longer sell. He gets them cheaply, then sells at steep discounts.

Another bidder, Maria Burdsall, said her 16-year-old son had Googled the information about yesterday's auction and urged her to go. "He told me I could save about 50 percent on food," she said.

Burdsall, 42, of Warrington, a single mother and a registered nurse, said she spent well over $500 every three weeks to feed her three sons and herself.

"We don't go out to eat anymore," she said, "and I look for any way I can to save money."

Among her purchases yesterday were a 4-pound bag of onion rings (the kind served at a major restaurant chain) for $7.50, a 12-jar case of peanut butter for $8, and two 10-pound boxes of beef hot dogs for $17.50.

All told, Burdsall spent $187 and paid with a personal check. "I'm thrilled," she said.

Williams, 50, put on a show for the approximately 150 people who showed up. He joked with the audience, and chided his "runners" - the staff who emptied the truck and delivered items to bidders.

Williams said there was one group he regretted not having at his auctions.

"I wish we'd see more of the people who really need it - like those with food stamps," he said. "We don't accept food stamps."

But the food auction does take credit cards, Williams said, "and people are using that, and that tells you a lot."

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Many $1 coupons to print from Kraft Foods

http://print.coupons.com/Couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=14552&nid=20&zid=bg78