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As you might know, I’m a fan of The Simple Dollar, a personal finance blog written by Iowa everyman Trent Hamm. It has a great assortment of articles related to frugality, cooking, shopping and deciding what’s important in life.

I recently became a “friend” of The Simple Dollar, which basically means I’ve signed up to be on a special email list to occasionally help out Trent with small tasks. Here’s what Trent has to say about it on his blog:

Here’s how it works. “Friends of The Simple Dollar” is an email list that I’ve set up privately - I won’t share a single email address with anyone else. Roughly once a month or so (or maybe a bit more often when I release a book or something similar), I’ll send out an email to everyone who has signed up for that list asking for help on something small - filling out a survey, helping me a bit with book promotion, or sharing something of interest. It shouldn’t take someone more than five minutes or so to do the little things I might ask. On occasion, I might send out something special to the list to show my appreciation for your help, too.

So, if you’re willing to give up five or ten minutes once a month to help out The Simple Dollar with such simple things, please sign up to be a “Friend of The Simple Dollar”.

He’s already made good on his promise to show his appreciation (even though I haven’t done anything yet!): Today I received a free copy of Trent’s downloadable PDF “31 Days to Fix Your Finances” that he has for sale on The Simple Dollar. He’s asked all his Friends to pass along this 58-page “book,” so I wanted to share this with you.

What I love about this piece is that it isn’t just about money — it’s about focusing on your values and creating a financial plan that supports and strengthens those principles and goals. It’s a good read for anyone at any stage of figuring out their personal finances, whether you’re just starting to realize that your money is a mess or you’re moving into the future with a strong financial plan in place.

Please download the book and let me know what you think in the comments! I’d love to compare notes.

Enjoy!

My coupon organizer broke this week (actually, it broke a few weeks ago but I cobbled it back together), so I picked up another one — with polka dots! That meant I got to start fresh and set up the new one. I took the opportunity to review my grocery receipts from the last three months. Wow! I am so impressed with myself.

Since March 25, I have gone shopping at Pick ‘n Save 15 times, pretty much once a week every week. In those 15 weeks, I have saved a total of $842! That’s an average of $56/week in savings or $224/month.

Where else can you realize those kinds of savings each and every week? I know that watching less TV doesn’t mean my cable bill is lower. Driving less doesn’t mean that my car payment decreases. Changing my Internet habits doesn’t lower my bill, either. But changing my grocery shopping habits has dramatically changed my bottom line.

I lost my job — and more than half of our income — at the end of January. I am grateful that saving money like this has made it possible for me to stay home with our kids and generally live the same lifestyle we did when I was working full-time.

It’s been almost a year since I started budgeting more strictly for groceries and using the online Pick ‘n Save flier to plan my Wednesday trips. My method is rock-solid. I rarely overspend or mismanage our food budget, yet I’ve significantly increased our organic dairy and produce intake. I am really proud of how my family, and especially my three little girls, eat.

So it came with some shock that my last two shopping trips have been significantly over budget. My last trip was $200 — way more than I normally spend in a week. What is going on?

The party factor

I reviewed my lists, and I found that my last two trips contained a lot of items I don’t usually buy:

• Chips and dips (I curse the genius behind potato chips and french onion dip)
• Snacks and treats (yum for s’mores)
• Soda (mostly Coke products)
• Produce (especially berries and melons)

The reason I’m spending more is simply because we have a packed social calendar of summer parties, and I usually bring something to share with the group. Helping out the host and joining in on the fun is something I really enjoy. Plus, I love a sandwich with chips and soda in the summer. It’s my summer downfall.

I’m also hosting my own party next week, and I’ve been stocking up on essentials. Technically, some of that overage in my grocery budget could be picked up by my entertainment budget, since the food is being used for parties and such, but I’ll just chalk it up to summer fun and get back on track later.

The produce bill has been higher lately, too, just because there is so much in season right now. My kids love fruit, so I’ve been buying much more than usual.

I didn’t expect to spend more this summer, but I’m enjoying our time so much that I don’t mind. I know it’s temporary, and we can handle the higher bills for now.

What about you: Do you spend more on groceries in the summer? Or are the winter holidays the time to splurge at the store?

My friend Jenn recently did a fantastic cost comparison of Aldi vs. Piggly Wiggly. I have wanted to do this for a long time, a head-to-head comparison of grocery stores, but I haven’t had the time or motivation. So a big thanks to Jenn for putting this together! It’s fascinating stuff.

First off I have to say, I can be a pretty picky grocery shopper, especially when it comes to meats/deli/fruits/veggies/dairy, so don’t let my findings make you think I’m a low-quality shopper

I was interested in checking out Aldi this week after hearing their strawberries were 50 cents per container (large sized containers, not the pints).

I ended up finding quite a bit more than just strawberries. At first I was skeptical but hey, I’m all for saving some cash! I bought the following: rice cakes, rising crust pizza, stuffing, bacon, paper towel, cantelope, sink sponges, taco seasoning mix, apples, taco shells, gum, eggs, cookies, canned beans, strawberries, carrots, paper plates, plastic cups, potatoes, ravioli, noodles and spag sauce. And, some of those items were doubled/tripled — for example I bought 4 containers of strawberries, (2) 3-packs of gum, 2-packs of carrots and so on.

This morning I had to run to The Pig to get some other items that Aldi didn’t have (yes, annoying, but worth it), and I ended up comparing the prices of each item I bought at Aldi.

The difference: Piggly Wiggly $68.94 vs. Aldi $40.05

[McKenna's note: According to my calculations, that's a savings of nearly 42%!]

That’s with me even pricing some of The Pig items with their generic products. Imagine if I would have gone totally name brand with everything!

So even though that store has a ‘cheap’ reputation, I don’t care… I’m gonna keep getting certain things there. I’ll put my saved money in a vacation fund!  Oh yes, their cantolopes and pineapples are on sale for $1.99.

Congrats on such a fantastic deal, Jenn!

Has anyone else starting shopping at Aldi lately? What do you think?