This Week in Your Wallet: July 12, 2011
“Is the life you’re living worth the price you’re paying to live it?” That headline (and the compelling post that followed) caught my attention last week. But after the weekend, which included time spent with one friend now “visibly” cancer free after a bout with lung cancer (no, she never smoked) and the news that another passed away – suddenly – from a heart issue at 44, I keep going back to it.
In the article — which you can read here — Tony Schwartz, author of Be Excellent At Anything, essentially asks: What happens if you push yourself too hard all day, then “head home at night feeling exhausted, but continue to check email through the evening; work on the weekends; and limit yourvacations to no more than a week or two, if you vacation at all?”
Then he answers it. When we’re constantly “flooding our bodies with stress hormones” they eventually become toxic and our brains start to shut down. We lose our abilities to think clearly and think bigger. We lose our abilities to think about the long-term rather than what will settle things down in the moment. It’s not good.
In the short-term, Schwartz says what you need to help yourself deal are some strategies to take the anxiety out of what have become everyday situations. We need to take breaks when we’re working. To exercise our bodies – even if you just get up and out for a brief walk instead of the recommended 20 minutes of aerobic activity four times a week. And we need to sleep.
Longer term, I think we need a shift in perspective. I just came back from a 10-day breather. We didn’t go anywhere far flung. I made a few necessary phone calls and checked my email while I was there (for me, not checking my email and coming back to an overflowing inbox is more anxiety provoking than spending a few minutes in the morning and a few at night to dispatch with things that can’t wait.) I needed the time I spent with my husband, walking the dog, reading two books (Recommendation: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks). And all of you do as well.
I met with my accountant Monday morning upon my return. (I know, you’re thinking, what a better way to take the wind out of a vacation, but my accountant happens to be a very nice guy. Besides, we were doing planning, not taxes.) He, too, lost a close friend recently. He brought it up when he was explaining to me why he and his wife decided to splurge for tickets to the Paul McCartney concert thisFriday night. “We’re only visitors here,” he said. “And our stays are too short. You have to make every moment count.”
Onward…
On a somewhat lighter note, a number of retailers are now cracking down on the whole “extreme” couponing craze. (Consumers, too, have hit the blogosphere to weigh in on the similarities between some of these Extreme Couponers as seen on TLC and hoarders.) Here are a few of the details by store/manufacturer.
Publix – You can only use one manufacturer’s coupon and one store coupon on a single item.
Target – You can only use one Buy One Get One (BOGO) coupon per purchase.
RiteAid – You can only use one BOGO per purchase plus only four of the same coupon in total.
Proctor&Gamble – You can only use four of the same coupon per trip on their products.
That’s not to say you can’t save yourself big time using coupons. I wrote a column last week on Not-So-Extreme Couponing. For those of you who didn’t see it, here are the highlights…
- Make a list/menu plan. What you buy and eat each week should depend on your store’s sales and your coupons. A major key to saving money is flexibility. Stephanie Nelson, founder of CouponMom.com, calls it being brand flexible – meaning you might have to buy a different brand of ketchup or a new kind of cracker to chase sales and discounts.
- Take a combined approach. To maximize savings, you’re going to need the web and yourSunday circulars. To stay organized, Nelson suggests writing the date on the cover of each circular. Then search for websites like CouponMom.com and find your local store.
- Stack. This is a way of combining promotions. You take an item that is already on sale and add a coupon. “National grocery chains like Kroger or Safeway will have a promotion, so if you buy 10 participating items, you automatically get $5 off your order. That’s 50 cents off each item. Those items are also always on sale, and if you also have a coupon, you’re stacking three programs and you may actually make money,” says Nelson.
- Pay it forward. If you’re able to get an extra box of cereal your family won’t eat, or you find a promotion that’s just too good, consider donating the extra items to a local food bank. They’re struggling now and could use all the help they can get. You can find a bank in your area at feedingamerica.org.
Have a good week!!
Jean
