Weatherization on your home pays now even more..

photo from Planet Thoughts,blog,where I found this link on the stimulus info.
thanks to Obama's stimulus plan that credits owners' smart choices and home,energy-saving improvements. Read more

Save Big Money when you shop NOW!

Stephanie Nelson, founder of CouponMom.com, says it's possible to fight the rising cost of groceries without sacrificing your favorite foods. Try her simple coupon saving strategies the next time you go to the grocery store:
Plan your meals and shopping lists around featured sale items.

Use your store's weekly sales ad flier to plan your menus for the week. Then, write your shopping list around the items and brands that are on sale.
Taking a few minutes to make a detailed plan will save you the time of making unplanned trips to the store during the week—which can ruin your budget.
Planning ahead also helps you avoid impulse shopping during your trip.
Know how your stores' savings programs work.

Do they have "buy one, get one free" deals?
Do they double coupons?
Do they offer a store discount cards that gives you automatic discounts?
Do they have special store coupons?
Once you know your stores' rules, you can combine them to pay the lowest possible prices for your items, such as using two coupons with a "buy one, get one free" deal. Combining strategies can result in free items.
Use grocery coupons, ideally when the item is on sale.

Buy the Sunday newspaper—75 percent of grocery coupons come from the newspaper. Buy two to three copies per week to save dramatically.
Go online—grocery stores often have their best deals and printable coupons on their websites.
Many stores offer electronic coupons that go directly on your store discount card.
Stock up on common items when they hit their lowest price.

Don't buy a year's supply, just enough to last until the next sale (two to three weeks).
Boneless chicken is on sale every other week at Stephanie's grocery store, so she buys two weeks of boneless chicken every other week to store in her freezer. This habit saves her family of four $325 a year on this one item.
Be flexible about brands and stores.

Buy the brand that's on sale with a coupon, or get the store brand if it's less expensive.
Shop at the store with the best prices for your items that week.

Not easy being politically correct

these days as many companies out there own several companies that you don't even know you are patronizing. I learned this years ago in school when I heard some major corporations did some creepy things in third world countries while taking over the regions when thy opened their businesses there.

Is Walmart good for America or not? They provide alot of jobs and some do well working for them but I think they are the exception not the rule as many have low income dead end jobs with no benefits. They cater to people who have spouses or are retired and working with social security who have their own health insurance.

A client of mine is charging me over twice as much as the health store charges for soap retail and she supposedly gave me a wholesale rate as I sold my product to her before to her store with no sales tax also at wholesale rate. She claims that she supports fair trade. Since it is the same exact soap i think it makes no difference what she is doing as compared to the health store as it comes from the same place.

I plan to go back and return soap instead and save my money. I bought some other things from her on her terms so she should be ok with it. She charged me tax which noone does as I am a wholesaler and have a tax id.

What do you thin? Would you pay more if you knew the product was supporting people getting a fair wage as opposed to being made in China by children in a sweat shop for a dollar a day if they are lucky?

Can we afford to make these wise choices today in this economy?