10 Quick Tips for Saving > $1,300 in the Next 12 Months.

1. Utilize the salvage food store at Hillside & Western once every 2 weeks. FYI...they only take cash or checks. Average yearly savings: a lot

2. Buy spaghetti noodles, a can of tomato sauce, and steamable corn every time you go to the store. When you have one of those "I don't want to cook, let's just go out to eat" nights, throw aforementioned spaghetti in a pot of water, boil for 10-15 minutes, drain, dump in a can of tomato sauce, steam the corn, and eat. This takes less time than loading up the kids and driving somewhere. Savings: Well, a family of 5 can eat fast food for around $30. This meal costs about $3. It feeds my family of 8. Fighting your "I'm too exhausted to cook tonight" urge with spaghetti once per week will save you over $1,000/year. That's enough $ for a shiny new IPad. Side note: Adding ground turkey, salt, and pepper to the not-so-great canned spaghetti sauce only adds $1 to the cost. Good luck eating anywhere for $4.

3. If you ignore me and go out to eat anyway, go to the Chick-fil-A on Coulter on Thursday nights. Kids eat free on Thursday nights. Also, Chick-fil-A is awesome.

4. Buy the $9/month Netflix subscription that gives you unlimited streaming. If you have a Wii, get the Netflix disk for the Wii. Con a tech-savvy friend or relative into hooking your computer up to your tv and introduce yourself to hulu. Cancel your cable or satellite. Yes, the lack of tv during football season is sad; but, I can watch most of the games I care about on Espn3.com. Yearly savings: at least $300.

5. Make sandwiches (see costs here), eat, then go to the Paramount Baptist Church Play area (free to the community) rather than eat at McDonald's. Yearly savings (if you go to McDonald's once every 2 weeks with 3 kids): at least $300.

6. When you have kids, birthdays can get out of hand financially. We utilize the Dollar store. For example, for my wife's birthday I took my oldest daughters to the Dollar Store. They got to pick out any item they wished for their mom for her birthday. This cost me $2.16 (yes, I bought her something that didn't come from the Dollar Store). They do the same for siblings' birthdays. Annual savings: no idea...but the kids seem to like it and it makes for some funny gifts.

7. Mortgage Tip 1: Look into refinancing now if your current mortgage rate is above 6%. Rates are at historic lows. Example: You have 26 years remaining on your mortgage. You still owe $150,000 and your current rate is 6.5%. Your current payment (excluding taxes and insurance) is $1,005/month. You refinance to a 15 year mortgage at today's rate of 3.75% and add your closing costs to the balance of the loan rather than paying them out of pocket. Your new monthly payment is $1,120. You just saved yourself $111,960 over the life of your loan. Not bad.

8. Mortgage Tip 2: If you rate is low, and your loan balance is 80% of your home value, call your mortgage lender to find out how to get rid of PMI. Example: You bought a $150,000 house 5 years ago and put 10% down. Your house has appreciated in value to $160,000. If you have paid down your mortgage to $128,000 or less you may be eligible to stop paying PMI. This could save you an extra $1,000/year. Caveat: most companies will require you to pay for an appraisal (usually around $300) and file paperwork to make this happen. It is still worth it. If what I just wrote was gibberish to you, email me and I'll explain it better.

9. Purchase a membership to the Don Harrington Discovery Center. $70/year for a family. We use ours a ton. Yes, I realize it costs money...but let's be honest, if you don't have somewhere to go you usually find yourself mindlessly roaming the aisles of Target. This is cheaper (on an annual basis) than Target or Walmart roaming.

10. Take your kids to the zoo on Mondays. It is free on Mondays. Yes, I realize that you can see the same diversity of wildlife on the road to Wildorado; but, hey, it is free. Again, this is cheaper than roaming around Target with your kids or going to McDonald's.

Disclaimer: Obviously, some of these ideas are Amarillo-specific. Also, you are probably aware of some or all of them. I don't care. This is not your blog. It is my blog. Feel free to leave your own money saving tips in the comments. As you might imagine I'm a big fan of cheapness wise spending.

Walmart vs. Target vs. United

I decided that I was not content to merely compare food prices at various stores (as seen here). What kind of nerd would I be, after all, if my spreadsheets didn't include toiletries? So, off to Walmart, Target, and United I went to satisfy my obsessive compulsion. Here is my random list of items selected for comparison:

Opti-Free contact lens solution 10 oz.
Extra strength Tylenol 100 count
Crest with Scope toothpaste 6.2 oz.
Charmin Ultra Strong TP 12 double rolls
Arid XX deodorant 2.7 oz.
Huggies size 4 82 count
Pantene shampoo 12.6 oz.
Clorox bleach 3 qt.
Tide liquid detergent with Downy 150 oz.
Cascade liquid dish detergent 75 oz.
Windex 32 oz.
Scrubbin' Bubbles bathroom cleaner 22 oz.
Resolve carpet cleaner 22 oz.
Gillette Mach 3 razors 15 count

If you buy every item on this list at Walmart, Target, and United here is what it would cost you:

Walmart: $122.88
Target: $123.78
United: $130.96

If you buy the generic version of every item that you can on this list, here is what it would cost you (Target carries no generic Resolve. United carries no generic Resolve or Scrubbin' Bubbles. So, I used the price from the name brand for each of these items. Also, there is no generic substitute used for Gillette Mach 3 razors at any store):

Walmart: $84.56
Target: $88.19
United: $99.15

The spreadsheet containing the detailed data can be found here: yeah a spreadsheet

Let's assume that the average American's time is worth 43 cents per minute (previously calculated here: Walmart vs. United).

Name Brand: If it takes you, Mr. Average American, more than 2 minutes and 5 seconds longer to buy these items (including drive time) at Walmart than it would at Target, Target would be cheaper (factoring in the cost of your time). The break even number is higher for United: you would have to spend more than 18 minutes and 47 seconds longer at Walmart than United to justify shopping at United for these items.

Generic: If it takes you more than 8 minutes and 26 seconds longer to buy these items (including drive time) at Walmart than it would at Target, Target would be cheaper (factoring in the cost of your time). The break even number is again higher for United: you would have to spend more than 33 minutes and 56 seconds longer at Walmart than United to justify shopping at United for these items.

Other overgeneralized observations: Young trendy people shop at Target. Old distinguished people shop at United. Hooligans, hippies, and people like me shop at Walmart. I think that 90% of Walmart shoppers give the other 10% of us a bad name.

So, there you have it. I hope that you find this life-changing information useful.

Remembering Kaci Ronne

On Saturday a dear friend of ours went to be with Jesus. Today we will be attending her "celebration of life" along with many others who have been blessed by her time on earth. Please keep the Ronne and Reid families in your prayers. Follow their story here: http://theronnes.blogspot.com.

In loving memory...

We have more than a few wonderful memories of Kaci Ronne; but, there is one story that comes to mind that best describes who Kaci was to us.

When Ryan and Kaci were doing God's work in Albania, Careese (my wife) and Kaci would periodically talk via Skype. One day Kaci sensed that my wife (who was 8 months pregnant at the time with our youngest child) was having a particularly rough day. Kaci had a gift for deeply empathizing with people. She exemplified the old Bible verse "Bear ye one another's burdens". Kaci told my wife not to cook that night because she was going to take care of it. Anyone who knew Kaci knows that arguing against her benevolence would have been futile. Papa Johns pizza showed up on our doorstep for dinner that night...ordered from Albania. Several more times throughout the next few months we received messages that dinner was "taken care of". Whether it was Jason's Deli or pizza or something else, the Ronnes timing was always perfect--their little food blessings always arrived at the height of our exhaustion and were a blessed reminder that someone was thinking of and praying for us. On one hand we felt like we were a part of a modern day miracle--Jesus feeds the 5,000 reshaped into Jesus feeds the Wood family of 8 via the Ronnes from the opposite side of Earth. On the other hand...how to put it?...

...well...those of you who have done so know that it is incredibly humbling to have the opportunity to support missionaries abroad. The realization that we were being supported by missionaries who lived abroad was even more humbling.

That was Kaci. Nevermind that they were living in a third world country. The Ronnes somehow found a way to be Jesus to us. To us, that is the legacy that she left: a shining example of Christ in this crazy world--an example that modern Christianity could learn a thing or two from.

It has been our great privilege to watch the Ronne family, including Kaci's wonderful parents John and Deena, be Jesus to so many. Each of their faith, service, selflessness, and realness has been and will continue to be an absolute inspiration to us. Our hope and prayer is that everyone who knows this beautiful family will now prayerfully focus on being Jesus to them. May God shine his face upon them and give them peace.

-Josh & Careese Wood

Our Sunday in Chronological Pictures Minus Us

A. Make a lunch B. Take said lunch to work C. Profit

Generally speaking, one of the best places to save money in your budget is on food expenses. Have you ever wondered how much money you would save if you took a sandwich with you to work instead of grabbing fast food? I didn't think so; but, I don't care. Here's the answer:

Let's say you spend an average of $7 per work day on lunch. Not bad. That equals $1,750 per year on lunch (250 work days per year X $7 per lunch).

Below are the current costs of various sandwiches. "Generic" is Great Value brand (Walmart) and "Name Brand" represents the following brands: Mrs. Baird's (100% Whole Wheat bread), Peter Pan (peanut butter), Smucker's (jelly), Burleson's (honey), French's (mustard), Sargento (cheese), Kraft (mayonaise), and Sara Lee (turkey). How did I determine the quantity of each item on a sandwich? I may or may not have utilized my office postal scale during an extended lunch break. Don't judge me. Obviously these values aren't exact-because prices change...and because some of you people put way more lard mayo on your sandwich than you should. This will, however, give you a decent idea of the percentage cost differences for these various sandwiches.

Generic White PB & J: 18.39 cents
Generic Wheat PB & J: 19.78 cents
Name Brand Wheat PB & J: 35.44 cents
Generic White PB & H: 25.59 cents
Generic Wheat PB & H: 26.98 cents
Name Brand Wheat PB & H: 41.14 cents
Generic White Turkey, Cheese, & Mustard: 53 cents
Generic Wheat Turkey, Cheese, & Mustard: 54.39 cents
Name Brand Wheat Turkey, Cheese, & Mustard: 89.66 cents
Generic White Turkey, Cheese, & Mayo: 53.22 cents
Generic Wheat Turkey, Cheese, & Mayo: 54.60 cents
Name Brand Wheat Turkey, Cheese, & Mayo: 90.08 cents
Generic White Turkey, Cheese, Mayo, Lettuce, & Tomato: 61.94 cents
Generic Wheat Turkey, Cheese, Mayo, Lettuce, & Tomato: 63.32 cents
Name Brand Wheat Turkey, Cheese, Mayo, Lettuce, & Tomato: $1.0755

So...let's say that, rather than grabbing fast food, you eat a healthy (albeit odd) lunch consisting of 3 generic PB & Js each work day. Your savings over one year would be $1,612.07. Let's also say that you decide to be healthy and add an apple a day to your lunch. Your savings is still huge...still over $100/month...money that you could more wisely spend on the wife or kids or debt or a new iPhone 4.

Where's the Beef?

So, I did a couple of blog posts comparing various food prices at Walmart, Sam's, and United. (here: http://joshwoodtx.blogspot.com/2010/07/sams-vs-walmart.html and here: http://joshwoodtx.blogspot.com/2010/06/walmart-vs-united-supermarkets.html) I got a lot of feedback. A LOT OF FEEDBACK. I was surprised, mainly because I figured this blog thing would end up functioning more like a "notes to self" page. Anyhow, a ton of people asked me why I didn't include meat. The answer: I didn't need to buy any that particular day. Well people, here are some meat comparisons for you:



The prices are in cents per ounce or, in the case of hot dogs, cents per hot dog. Important things to note: Sam's Club stuff is better quality...name brands rather than generic. Everything else is generic. Also, United happened to be having a sale on ground beef. By the way, the nerd in me was very disgruntled that I was not more thorough in my meat selection. Don't be surprised if you see another, more thorough, comparison on here in the future.

Things to note: United has a section of "thrift" meat that is at or past expiration date. This stuff is a great bargain, that is if you don't end up in the ER with stomach eruptions (don't worry, I'm sure the meat is safe...and I don't think stomach eruptions are a real thing). Also, WTAMU has a feed lot from which they sell beef. Sometimes they have great prices. Keep up with their prices here: http://www.wtamu.edu/academics/meat-laboratory.aspx. I've also heard that the quality of their stuff is great.

Summary: Overall it seems that there is no clear winner in the meat department. It depends more upon a.) which store is having a sale and b.) what particular item you need.

In other news...I am beginning to become a bit of a grocerian conspiracy theorist. It seems that sometimes, rather than having consistent profit margins on all items in a category, stores have a low profit margin on most items in a group whilst gouging you on a partnering product. For example, low prices on bread, turkey, and mustard--high price on sliced cheese. Low price on ground beef--high price on chicken. It would make sense, I suppose. The stores know that you aren't going to drive all the way across town to buy your $1 cheaper chicken elsewhere. Hmmm....On second thought, let's not worry about this....this might just be the most boring conspiracy theory ever concocted.

The Discipline Question

First off, I'll brag a little: our kids are awesome so we (more notably my stay-at-home-mom wife) must be doing something right. However, I know that I could be better at this whole parenting thing; so, I am constantly praying about/seeking ways to improve. One area I'm focusing on right now is discipline. A couple questions for all you other parents out there:

A) Is there any rhyme or reason to your discipline style? If so, I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Read on and give me some feedback. Keep in mind that my kids range from 1-6 years old.

B) If you don't discipline, would you please? Your kids transform fast food play areas from a place of joy (albeit disturbingly pro-bacterial) into a place of danger for all well-behaved kids who are afraid of the wrath that would befall them should they stoop to your kid's level and bite, steal, cuss, hit, or pee on someone. Rant/horrendous run-on sentence over. Seriously though-if Junior bites my toddler, a polite "Now Junior, we talked about how 9-year-olds don't bite. Will you stop if I get you some ice cream?" will someday evolve into: "Now Junior, I thought we talked about not wanting to bail you out of prison again." Ok, now rant over.

Anyhow, in my effort to rule my household with an iron fist I've decided that my discipline style could use a little more organization. We've always believed that the more consistent and predictable the consequence, the more effective the consequence. My wife happens to be gifted at remembering which consequence fits which "crime". I, however, am not and need a reminder of some sort. I'm attempting to put together some sort of "board of doom" (no, I won't call it that...ok, I might) that lists offenses and corresponding punishments. This project made me curious. Have any of you done something like this? If so, what offenses do you list and what are the corresponding punishments? Off the top of my head, I'm thinking it would be something like:

Disobey - lose a privilege
Lie - head thump
Intentionally injure someone (bite, hit, etc.) - spanking
Talk back - lose a privilege
Intentional rudeness (steal, insult, etc.) - lose a toy
Yell - time out

What do you guys do and/or use? Also, what is the best parenting advice that you have received?

Alternatively, I created this in the event that you guys don't provide me with any useful feedback: