They Get Paid What?

Ok so one of my favorite celeb blogs which is just rude and offensive and awesome (wwtdd.com) posted an article this morning that made me want to vomit. I cannot believe how much cash these rich asshats are making that are on The Hills! I'm sorry, but they should be charging Spencer to be on the show...he is a waste of space & a total douche bag & the fact that he is making more in a week than I am in a year makes me want to stick a rusty nail in my eye!! I think it is complete and utter bull shit that these kids from rich families are getting even more rich for hanging out? At least Lauren, Audrina, and Heidi have actual jobs unlike Spencer who does nothing & then gets paid to treat people like shizz. The whole thing makes me sick, sick I say!!

Overpaid Actors, Now There's a Surprise!

I found this article that I read funny and not the least bit shocking regarding the top 10 overpaid actors, even though there are only 9 people on the list. I don’t understand how or why Cameron Diaz is able to bank 50 million in a year when all she does is romantic comedies. Yes, I really enjoyed The Holiday but was her performance worth more than a couple million? No! According to this article she grossed that 50 mill from 2006-2007 and she did Shrek 3, the X-mas Shrek special & The Holiday…that’s it and I’m sorry but even totaling the 3 does not match up to 50 mill plus the article says that cartoons weren’t included!! You can’t tell me that she was paid $50M for The Holiday because if she was I need to get my happy ass in a movie, just one at $50M would set me for life.

I totally agree that Nicole Kidman is the most overpaid actor around because she’s so boring, strange, unattractive and not to mention a total freak based on some info I received a couple years back that I'm not going to divulge but those who know, will agree with me. She was also married to a total douche bag by the name of Tom Cruise who tied Cameron but I think was given the 2nd place spot due to his low earnings for Lion’s for Lambs. They were under $2.00 per $1 spent. You can see the actual standings below & feel free to check out the article to read more detailed information.

Personally I think it’s pretty freaking sad that Nicole Kidman is worse off having in your movie than Will Ferrell, come on, he’s purely shtick & really nothing else but he is good at it so I guess I kind of see the point. I would also like to state that Nicolas Cage is so ugly & annoying & shouldn’t be in any movies, ever, period!

The info below shows the actors in order of waste of money & the dollar amount that accompanies the name is the per dollar earning (of their films) for the year of 06-07.

Cate Blanchett $4.97

Will Ferrell $4.67

Drew Barrymore $4.38

Nicolas Cage $4.16

Jim Carrey $4.11

Jennifer Lopez $4.10

Cameron Diaz- $4

Tom Cruise $4
Nicole Kidman $1

photo's for collage taken from IMDB

$1,000

So it has been 200 days since I quit smoking and I have saved myself approximately $1,000, so what did I do with the money? Well, I'm no longer living with roommates, I have digital cable (as opposed to the basic I had for 4.5 years), I have 2 movie channels, and I went to Vegas...of course, I'm still broke as a joke as I always have been, but at least now when I'm down to a dollar and have 2 days until pay day, it's really no big deal because I don't HAVE to buy anything. Honestly, I've had $14 in my checking account since Monday & when I get paid tomorrow that $14 will still be there!

Coupons, coupons, coupons!

So yesterday I talked about how well I've been doing on my gas usage & today it was funny because a Navigator was behind me but because I wasn't accelerating fast enough he passed me in the next lane really fast & then someone was turning so he had to slam on his brakes & I said (yes out loud) now was that gallon of gas really worth it?

OK now to the saving on food (it's a long story, I apologize). Obviously there are certain tips that are common sense but I'm gonna list some of them for you anyway:

• Don't eat out so much, cooking at home is usually cheaper
  
• Shop at stores like Save A Lot or Aldi
• Buy generic
• Grow your own food, granted it might be tough raising a cow in an apartment but it will save you bundles!
• Eat your leftovers
• Buy from bulk stores like Costco or Sam's Club
• Don't shop while you are hungry

I buy some things generic, I buy some things from stores like Aldi, I grow my own herbs but don't have anywhere to grow veggies, I eat my leftovers, and I do shop at Costco but those are just a few ways that I save money and honestly those aren't the tactics I use to save cash most of the time. I am finding the best way to save the money is a bit time consuming but once you get it down to a science you can really clip along. The first thing I do is grab a Sunday paper & grab the coupon section out of the paper and start going through all of the coupons in it & clipping anything of interest. We also have a coupon club at work & the bag of coupons gets passed around once a month for everyone to go through so I add those to my stack of coupons I clipped myself. I am going to purchase a coupon organizer book that will make it much easier to keep track of what I have which will in the end also save me time & money because I can just take it with me to the store, but I digress. Once all the coupons have been clipped & put in order (I do by exp date) it is now time to check out the store papers which I get delivered to my apartment building on Mondays.

I then sit down with my grocery list which is always hanging on my fridge so I can add needed items to it as the weeks go on and I obviously do a once over to make sure I didn't miss anything before I finalize the list. Having a list when you go shopping is a must, not only so you don't forget stuff but so you don't buy crap that you don't need, stick to your list. So like I said I sit down with my list, and my grocery store papers, and my coupons & I begin combing the papers (this can also be done online but I prefer the papers) and seeing which stores have what on sale & I then see if they are on the list & I circle stuff in the papers that match up. At this point I start dividing my list into usually 3 lists Kroger, Meijer, CVS (for the assorted toiletries & what nots) so once I've got my lists separated I then start going through my coupons & if there is something I want & I see that a coupon is about to expire I take the coupon with me to all the stores so it gets its own pile. I then start setting aside the other coupons for the individual stores, like if I see that Kroger has cheese 3 for $5 and I happen to have a dollar off coupon for that cheese then of course I'm gonna put that coupon in the Kroger pile & put the cheese on the list if it isn't already & I just got my cheese 3 for $4 & if I'm lucky it's double coupon day!! Regardless I probably technically saved about 4 bucks on that cheese from its original shelf price.

A side note, I never know when it is double coupon day, Farmer Jack always did it the same day of the week every week & some places do it like a happy hour but there is one tiny old school grocery store by me that always does double coupons so I do occasionally go there but their selection is limited, I assume it would be the same in your area as well but I'm going to look into double coupon days to save even more.

Now I have my 3 piles, 3 lists & I'm going to 3 stores & for me it's totally feasible, the Meijer is 4 miles away (next to Costco should I need a stop there) and I pass the Kroger on my way back home from Meijer so I just hit them up at once. As far as CVS goes I pass one on my way home from work & usually stop there then so I'm not wasting any extra gas. I generally go shopping on a weekend night because the stores are empty & when the stores are busy you get stopped in front of things that you wouldn't normally look at & then you buy crap you don't need. At night you get in, you hit all the aisles & you are out the door in no time.

Once I arrive at the store I get out my list & my coupons for the list as well as my other pile of coupons; stuff that I might want to get if it's on sale because my coupon is about to expire but I don't really NEED it. I hit up all the aisles & when I'm making my lists I will put a little c next to the items I have coupons for so I can make sure I buy the right size or modification of the product. At times I find that even with my coupon the Kroger/Meijer brand of some stuff is still cheaper, like my disinfectant spray or freezer bags. There are a lot of things however that I won't buy generic like ketchup or pancake syrup. Every time I go grocery shopping I take any cans/bottles I have back & I usually take them to Kroger because I buy their Big K pops which are actually really good & way cheaper than name brand. This usually gets me at least 2 bucks off my groceries & every penny counts but then I scan my Kroger card & poof, I saved another $4, and then I hand over my coupons & the next thing you know, my bill just went from $39.33 to $27.11. At Meijer I generally find that their prices on most stuff is lower than other stores anyway which is why I usually start there & the last time I was in my bill was $101.12 but after my coupons it was $74.27 & then I made my stop at CVS & saved $30.24 (the cashier actually said "dang girl, I aint never seen savings like that") for a grand total savings of $71.31 & I got groceries for 2 weeks, a new electric toothbrush, a celeb rag mag, and even a couple things I really didn't need. So as you can see, it can be time consuming & obviously if you live in a big city doing this would probably be a huge hassle & not worth it but living in your basic city in America there is a grocery store & a drug store on every corner & if you have the time you might as well save some money with it. I also suggest taking most anyone up on a dinner offer, a free meal is a free meal!

*With it being fruit & veggie month in the U.S. I recommend keeping your eyes open for roadside stands or other local growers and farmers markets because you can save a ton there as well & make a lot of delicious foods from the fresh produce.

Save on Gas!!

Ok people, so I’ve been pretty damn proud of myself as of late because I’ve been saving so much money! Since living alone I now have more crap to buy, which in turn means more money to spend. Then to my dismay the cost of gas went up causing the cost of food to go up & I now have even more money to spend & I had just worked my new budget after moving. So anyway, I obviously had to rearrange my budget to accommodate all of these cost increases, which led me to coupon clipping & saving gas. There really isn’t much that you can do to save gas when you aren’t willing to walk or ride a bike or buy a hybrid but you can stretch your tank a bit. I am now running about 14-16 days on 1 tank of gas as opposed to the 10 days I was running before. Now in any given week I drive a minimum of 110 miles which includes my 5 trips to and 4 from work and my weekly trip to & from Dearborn for family dinner. Back when I first moved (and gas was about $3 a gal) I would throw 20 bucks in my tank every Sunday & that would just about get me through the week although if I wanted to do anything on the weekend I would be pushing it.

I say the first trick is filling up your tank rather than just chucking some gas in there every few days (why I’m not sure but trust me), now I filled up my tank the other day & it cost me like 40 bucks which is insane (I drive a Focus by the way) but if I can make that 40 bucks last 2 weeks then it is no different than me throwing in a 20 every week other than the fact that my gas is costing me a dollar more per gallon. Ok, enough about my mileage, here is how I make my gas stretch.
Constantly slamming on the gas & the brakes eats up a ton of gas & you probably don’t even realize it. I now accelerate slowly, there is no reason to slam on the gas at every green light nor is there any reason to slam on your brakes at every red light, pay attention & just take your foot off of the gas to slow down & then brake once you get closer to the light. We all have been stuck behind the ass rider who is constantly braking because they don’t want to hit the person in front of them, keep a slight distance behind them just in case & pay more attention to the car in front of them & if you see them brake then you might want to, otherwise just ignore the constant braking because that fool is wasting tons of gas, oh, don’t tail people either or you will be that ass rider wasting gas.
Go the speed limit instead of 10 over on the freeway especially if it’s a longer trip, this could save you gallons because obviously the faster you go the more gas you are using so why speed & get a ticket on top of all of that gas you are wasting?
Remove any items from your car that you don’t really need especially if they are heavy because it really does make a difference especially if your car is used to just toting you around.
Keep your tires filled as much as they are supposed to be filled (this info can be found in your owner’s manual or often behind your fuel door) and I would suggest checking them every few weeks & keeping up on it.
Change your air filter if it needs it (every 6 mos to a year), if you aren’t sure if it needs a new one just pull out the old one & if it looks all dirty then replace it, they are cheap & very easy to replace, again, see your owner’s manual or ask someone who can show you how to change it out. Keep up on scheduled maintenances, get your oil changed & your oil place should be able to tell you what other services you should get done & how often. I know some of these places will try to cram services down your throat but I find that Valvoline Instant Oil Change will make suggestions but they have never asked if I wanted additional services other that what I requested when pulling in.
If you are picking someone up or just have to wait for some other reason, turn your car off, why waste the gas just sitting there. Do your best to try less congested routes to work; this avoids all the stop & go of a clustered freeway. Keeping your windows closed can help cut down on gas usage but when it is super hot I think having the window open is cheaper than running the A/C.
That’s about all of the gas saving techniques I have put into play as of late so go ahead & try some of them out for yourself & see how much gas you save!! Stick around; tomorrow I’ll be posting tips on saving money on food.