Tip -- Thinking like a business

All right, so we all know that 100 million dollar bonuses are not handed out to CEO's because they hand out free DVD players the day after Thanksgiving. Any reasonable person can step back and realize the gimmick. So you save $30 on one item to then make it up 10 fold on other items. The bait and switch technic of being a low cost leader. Come on, we are smarter than that - are we not? Ever walk a kid through a store, once they are there they awaken to 1000 wants...are we any different? Yes, we carry the credit card.

So here's a simple tip. Don't run from the store but change your attitude towards the store. For example, with groceries almost every store has a low cost leader strategy to get you in. So find the one that works best for you and go after it - but walk right out of the store once you have seized the low cost items.

Here's an example. Albertsons. On the surface a good shopper knows that their prices are higher than many other stores. Yet look a bit deeper (this weeks deals). The preferred card offers the first break. The second break comes from the weekly coupon on total purchase amount ($5 off on $50). The third and BEST price break is the 10 for 10. That's right. Every week there is publication in the Sunday paper or that comes in the mail promoting 10 for 10 items. So here's how it works.

By shopping the low cost only, $110 worth of groceries cost us $53. Let's say for instance that the average family saves $30 a week by shopping low cost leads...that is $1,560 a year just on your weekly grocery budget! Now include the eating out reduction and the amount of savings is even bigger. Best yet, by taking a small amount of time to plan your life, the fruit of community and order will emerge as part of something we do every single day - Eat!

I am not endorsing Albertsons, simply using it as one illustration. Evaluating multiple stores is key as strategies can updated several times a year by these stores. Do you have any examples of how you are saving money?

FOOD on PURPOSE!

The Power of Order

Have you ever awakened to chaos? You don't know quite when it happened but you lost your edge of control? For our family it happened somewhere in the midst of moving to an urban area, having our second and third child, moving across country twice and starting churches. Now like you we all can look back and in hindsight think, why wasn't I thinking?

The Good News is that where there is pain there is opportunity to grow. For Kel and me we tackled the issue head on! Our natural talent has allowed us to survive our detail deficiency. I am far from and accountant and on a recent test scored in the bottom 30% in the areas of details. So before you think you must be a detail freak or an accountant there is good news...know one said you have to micro manage your life to bring order and better yet we all must run the first mile before we run the second. So here were the areas that we have addressed to begin:

Self Evaluation
Communication
Planning
Time Management
Money Management
Food Management
Discipline (personal and children)

We are far from being "how to authors" but we are fellow citizens of this realm of life. We pray that what follows might inspire you and invite you to comment on ideas for the journey. We are now a year into pursuing order and beginning to see the fruit of peace bearing in our family. Winter is gone, spring is arriving. The best of all is that we are not re emerging as "who" we were but as who we are "becoming".