Finance Gets Personal

“Did that pumpkin cost twice as much as the other pumpkins?” - DavidDaddy1

Drastically cutting your monthly expenses takes sacrifice, perseverance and a small bit of insanity.

Today, we’ll begin examining the “insanity” portion of frugality with a series on the mental roadblocks you must overcome to save big bucks - i.e., The Enemies of Frugality (insert ominous music here).

The First Enemy of Frugality: Brand Loyalty.

I’ve never really thought of myself as a brand loyal person, yet I used to continually purchase the same brands at the grocery store and Target because they were “cheap enough” and I’d been satisfied with them in the past.

Take All laundry detergent, for instance. When I was in college, it was the lowest price brand that I’d actually seen others use, so I decided to try it. It worked, so I kept buying it, even though Purex was sometimes cheaper. For some reason, I thought Purex wasn’t a good brand - otherwise, why would Tide be so much more expensive? I eventually stopped even looking at the other brands, and purchased All exclusively for years.

In fact, I did this for many things: shampoo, deodorant, clothes… I would even buy the $16 razor replacement cartridges because they were the same brand as the razor I once bought on sale!

Needless to say, my brand loyalty was slowly costing me money.

Was it worth it? No, it usually was not.

The “cheap” Suave shampoo I used? It’s not nearly as nice as the Herbal Essences shampoo I often get for free after sales and coupons. And that Venus razor? Well, now I’ve got one of each kind of razor: Venus Breeze, Bic Soleil, Schick Intuitions, etc. I just buy whichever replacement cartridges I can get for free or next to free! (Or, sometimes I just buy another starter razor kit if it ends up being cheaper per razor!)

After trying so many different brands, I’ve learned that my brand loyalty was often misguided. And rarely worth the extra cost.

But if you just buy generics, none of this brand loyalty stuff applies, right?

I used to think the same way. In one of my early posts, Snowflaking: 100 Ways to Come Up With More Money for Your Debt Snowball, I wrote that you should only clip coupons for items you already use. My reasoning was that you should only buy it if you were already going to buy it anyway, and to buy generics for everything else. Well, I was most certainly WRONG!

Couponing and drug store shopping has opened my eyes to a lot of things: primarily, that I can get many name-brand items for much less than the price of generics, as long as I’m willing to sacrifice brand loyalty.

Which is not to say that I don’t still remain fairly loyal to a few brands. Coke, Puma and Banana Republic, for example. But my list has shrunk considerably, and my decision to stick with those brands is now a conscious choice instead of one made out of habit or convenience.

Likewise, I also have a list of brands I refuse to use - but my requirement is that I’ve tried them recently. For example, last week I added Mitchum antiperspirant to that list after sweating through work the first day I tried it - I wouldn’t buy that again even if it was free!

So the next time you go shopping, take note of which brands you are loyal to, and why. How much money could you save by “sacrificing” some of your loyalty?

(This post was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by Greener Pastures.)

Photo Credit: True Brand Loyalty by unertlkm, used under Creative Commons licensing.

Money Saving Mom, one of my favorite bloggers, is offering an amazing deal on ebooks TODAY ONLY. I would normally highly recommend her Supermarket Savings 101 eCourse for $17.97, but today you can get that and her other 14 ebooks and downloadables for a total of $5.97 for everything! Check it out here: Click Here! Update: Although the $5.97 deal is now over, you can still purchase everything for $8.97 on Thursday, or $11.97 on Friday.

I have learned so many things that I never thought were possible from Money Saving Mom, and I’m now getting many household and grocery items for free or next to free (um, in case you haven’t noticed from my blog…). I’m really excited to take advantage of this deal for myself too, since some of the books cover things like growing your own groceries, inexpensive meal ideas and cutting your grocery bill in half.

I realize there’s a stereotype out there about coupon-using bargain-hunters all being stay-at-home moms or little old ladies, but as a 28-year-old who works full-time, I promise you it actually is worth your time!

I am loving my new blogroll member, Money Saving Mom!

Every week, she shares the best deals from drugstores and grocery stores (even regional ones!) as well as tips and other freebie/deal finds. What I really like about her site is that she tells you exactly where to find the coupons you need, with links to Internet coupons, to shop frugally.

I’m learning so much from her site and the comments/links on her posts. Here are some recent deals I’ve done within the past week or so:


Total Cost: Under $15; Stores: CVS, Wal-Mart, Hy-Vee


Total Cost: Under $1; Store: CVS

You should definitely check it out!

Back in February, I wrote about dumping my high-priced hair salon.

Well, the problem with not going to a fancy place is that you no longer have hair “appointments,” so until tonight, I hadn’t gotten a haircut in about 14 weeks. Yikes!

I finally went to Snip ‘N Clip and got my hair cut for $14 plus tip. That’s about $20 less than before, and I think it looks pretty good! The bangs are a little shorter than last time, but it’s actually kind of cute. I won’t really know how it looks ’til tomorrow though because my hair is so frizzy right now from all this rain.

Yearly savings: $140.

Photo Credit: Day 9 I 10 April 2008 I Snip snip by Shereen M, used under Creative Commons licensing

Before our Rock Band party this weekend, we were down to our last two rolls of toilet paper. My husband went out to get some and came back with (cue angel choir:) Cottonelle Ultra!

I used to buy that kind all the time until we got intense about trying to get out of debt. And boy, did I forget what I was missing! It’s going to be hard to go back to the cheapo Charmin version I usually get.

But, it’s not like Charmin doesn’t do the job. In fact, my “cheap” brand is probably someone else’s “expensive” brand. I just think it’s amazing how quickly you can get used to not having something you once thought was essential.

Take caller ID. I once thought this was a must-have, but I cancelled it years ago and have barely noticed.

And while I love having cable TV, I’m sure that even a DVR-crazy person such as myself would get over it. I mean, three years ago (when I didn’t have cable), my boss asked what TV shows I watch, and the only thing I could come up with was, “Well, I’ve seen Desperate Housewives a couple times, and that new show with the doctors looks like it might be good.”

What “essentials” do you have that need to be re-evaluated? Are you spending more on your cell phone than you’re saving for emergencies? Is your Whole Foods bill bigger than the extra payment you’re sending the credit card company?

When I get my hair cut, it comes to $31 and I tip $6. I usually get it cut every seven weeks or so. Now, this might not seem like much to some of you, but I live in the midwest where haircuts are relatively cheap.

I used to go to Snip ‘N Clip, but then I started going to Beauty Brands. I accidentally got placed with a “Master” stylist instead of the mid-range one I requested (they charge based on the hair stylist’s experience), but I kept going. Then, my hair stylist switched salons, and I followed her.

Now, I’m really not a “hair person,” and I don’t have anything fancy done. In fact, I probably wear my hair in a ponytail about 50% of the time. I’m currently growing it out to donate it to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Program (http://www.beautifullengths.com/), so my need for an expensive haircut is even further diminished.

I was talking to a friend about this recently, and she confided that she visits Fantastic Sam’s and is very happy with them. I’d been thinking about leaving my hair stylist for a while, but have been a wuss about it.

Then, the opportunity presented itself. My hair stylist is moving! (Not that I’m happy about that, but it gives me an out to switch to a less expensive place.) Of course, she told me she was leaving and scheduled an appointment for me with another person at the salon in nearly the same breath. So, I was scheduled for another expensive appointment, which my previous hair stylist would be in the salon for (she was too booked to see me another time herself before she left).

Well, the replacement stylist had to cancel, and I told the appointment setter that I didn’t wish to reschedule because I’m going to look for a less expensive salon now that my former hair stylist is moving, but that if it doesn’t work out, I’d be back. Free at last!