Wisdom on Wealth Newsletter

WOW! Newsletter #265, 01/04/06 - You and Your Money

All About You and Your Money

• Have You Checked Yours? Fewer than half of Americans have take advantage of their right to get a free credit report, says one study. Of those, only 21% paid a minimual fee to get their credit score.
• Did You Receive Yours? The IRS is looking for more than 84,000 taxpayers whose refund checks could not be delivered in 2005. Average amount: $871! Click on "Where's My Refund?" at www.irs.gov.
• Going Somewhere? Need to coordinate the plans of up to four scattered travelers heading to a common destination? Try the new "Meet Me In" feature at Site59.com.
• Is This Your Size? Later this year, Japanese carmakers will invade the U.S. with super-small cars. Nissan will introduce the Versa, Honda will launch the Fit, and Toyota will unveil the Yaris. Prices to start around $12,000.
• Given Up Your Travel Agent? Online bookings for a variety of services hit $68 billion in 2005 and will make up one-third of travel spending by 2010.
• Buying a Used Car? The massive hurricanes in 2005 damaged more than 600,000 vehicles - some of which may be in used-car lots near you. Avoid a lemon that may have been in the drink by checking www.carfax.com/flood. (Adapted from Kiplingers, Jan 2005)

"To stay ahead, always have your next idea waiting in the wings."
~Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School

Taking a Close Look at Grocery Bills

In our effort to help you save more in 2006 -- and thus have more to invest -- we'll take a look at those expenses that are inevitable and a much bigger part of our budgets than in earlier generations. If we look at food, shelter and transportation, one of the easiest places to waste less is what we pay for our groceries. According to Jean Chatzky in Money magazine, Americans are wasting more money, food and time than ever by not planning our meals as our mother's generation did. We spend more on food each year (an average of $5,340) than on anything else besides our house and car. We research those two purchases exhaustively before buying because we know that the bigger the line item, the greater the opportunity to save. Then why can't we spend 10 minutes on a grocery list?

"Americans have forgotten how to food-shop," says Phil Lempert of SupermarketGuru.com which tracks the industry. "When we don't plan, we buy the wrong things, which cause us to spend more money and more time." Today households toss out on average 14% of the food they buy, about double what we threw out 20 years ago. Compare this with our parents' and grandparents' generations, when time was spent each week planning menus so that every last item bought was used.

Food purveyors have been happy to oblige our craving for foods that are fast but that also have a homemade feel, preying on lack of time and our seemingly endless grocery budget by concocting pricey ready-to-eat foods. "More shelf space is dedicated to prepared food these days," says Michael Sansolo of the Food Marketing Institute. "Soup comes in a grab-and-go cup. It wasn't long ago we didn't even have juice boxes." Some new products are lifesavers; others are rip-offs. All are part of a changing grocery landscape that includes everything from pre-diced onions to grocery lists you can keep online. To shop smart, you have to decide which alleged improvements are worth the convenience. Here are some good tips to help you save on groceries:

• Use what you have. "There are literally 150 pasta dishes that most people could make with stuff they have in their house right now," says Mark Bittman, whose New York Times column The Minimalist and book The Best Recipes in the World are aimed at today's frenzied shopper. Industry tracker Lempert suggests a weekly use-what-you-have night. Involve your kids. And save big bucks by not ordering out!
• Make lists. Half of us don't make shopping lists. That's why we buy bags of food but have nothing for dinner. Before you shop, plan your next three dinners, Chatzky suggests, trying to pick ingredients that overlap for meal to meal.
• Be picky. The premium on shortcut foods marinated chicken breasts, cut vegetables, washed lettuce is enormous, so compare prices of the prepared version and the normal version, then ask yourself if the time saved is worth the money.
• Shop online. New Yorkers Jodie and Lawrence Smoler used to spend $250 a week at the grocery store. Once every few weeks they'd fill a hefty bag with everything they hadn't eaten vegetables on the wrong side of ripe, cold cuts past their prime and throw it out. Then they discovered Peapod, the online grocer in their area. Jodi's first time shopping on the site took about an hour as she searched for her staples. But now every week she starts with that same list, adds a few necessities and is done in 10 minutes, for around $90 including delivery! Taking the time to plan not only saves her time and money; is convenience without paying a premium!

Next week, we'll look at ways to save money on heating and other household expenses.

On a sad note, our dear friend Jim Hacker passed away earlier this week after a year-long fight with acute leukemia. I wrote about him this past fall, and those issues a family has to face when a loved one has a life-threatening illness, issues none of us wants to face nor plan for. He and his wife Beverly faced them all with good planning and grace and courage. We shall miss him so very, very much.

"How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world! If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss."
~Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)in a letter, 25 February 1842

"A man dies as often as he loses his friends." ~Anonymous, in Francis Bacon's (1561-1626) "Ornamenta Rationalia"

"My friends are my estate."
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)