It was catching on quick!

My wife started thinking that she should open up an Etsy shop, and after a few months of kicking the idea around, she finally launched her store last month, and so far it’s been great!

I’m proud to announce the launch of Moonshyne Designs!

The concept is simple: There are personalized wall art templates, announcements, invitations, and other great items that can be personalized with your information.  My wife gets everything right, makes sure it’s exactly what you want, and sends it off to you in a file format that you use to have printed at your local photo printing shop of choice.

The prices are reasonable (most items are between $10 – $15).

Here are a few great selections.

What A Difference A Day Makes!

New Baby Girl?  These wall art birth announcements are the new must-have!

What about a baptism invite?

I’d love it if you could check out the site, and hopefully you’ll find something that you or someone you know could enjoy.  I personally guarantee the quality and service is top notch!

I’m so proud of Mrs. Beagle for getting things going, and I know this site will be a smashing success!

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FYI, the roofing company that we used was Bob Schmidt Roofing in Metamora, MI. If you’re based in the Detroit area, Bob is the best way to go.  I would recommend him to anybody!

1. Builders put on cheap roofs – Our house is 14 years old and this was definitely going to be the last season for our roof. When we moved into the house in 2007, one of the valleys was already bad.  Last year, we started getting noticeable curling and deterioration, and even had shingles start blowing off during windstorms.  Bob sees this all the time, and now that I look for it, I even see the cheap roofs going on brand new construction, so things have not improved in this regard.
2. Builders save very little by doing so – I asked Bob what the difference probably was back when the roof was installed, in terms of the cost to the builder, between the cheap roof that was installed and one that would have lasted longer.  He said that the builder probably saved $200 and that a better roof would probably have lasted 5-10 years longer.  This astounded me.  But, if you think about it, $200 times however many houses a builder builds adds up, and if homeowners don’t want to pay for an upgrade, they’ll continue to get away with offering the cheapest roof possible.  It still drives me nuts to think that a roof that would have lasted longer essentially could have cost $40 per year ($200 for five extra years).
3. Color is important – After we decided to go with Bob, he spent some time working with us to select a color.  He started pointing out roofs that had bad color matches to the house, and now it’s much more obvious when you see a roof that doesn’t match a house.  We picked a color that matched our old roof, but with the architectural shingle style and some color highlights, it continues to match our house while giving it a modern look.
4. Tearing off is the only way to go – If you have one layer of shingles, you’ll get an option to add a second layer of shingles.  This is a terrible option, and if you do, you will probably only save a few hundred dollars, but will likely cut the life span of your ‘new’ roof by up to 50%.  The only circumstance in which this would make sense would be if you were planning on selling the house soon in which case you wouldn’t care about the lifespan of the roof.  Be careful, though, because knowledgeable buyers might see this is a reason to avoid buying your home, figuring you cut corners.   Which leads me to…
5. Educated customers are the best kind – I previously shared the story about a roofing company that refused my potential business, refusing to even bid on my roof, basically because I asked too many questions.  Bob was the complete opposite.  He spent time explaining everything to us, and was available throughout the life of the project with any questions.  In fact, I e-mailed, phoned, and texted him probably 50 times with various questions, and he answered every single one promptly and graciously.
6. Ventilation is key – When we narrowed our choices down, the thing that ultimately put Bob as our roofer was that he addressed attic ventilation as part of his bid.  In talking with neighbors, others had expressed concern that there were not enough vents drawing air into the attic.  Bob’s quote called this out without me even bringing it up, as his price included adding ten more vents, doubling the current capacity.  He said that this would extend the life of our roof, and also indicated that this would likely make the second floor of our house much cooler.  When he said this, my wife and I both looked at each other, as the second floor has always been an oven on any sunny day over 70 degrees.  Bob said that would be fixed, and early results (we’ve had a few days 75+ with full sun) show that Bob was right, as the second floor is much more comfortable.  I’m confident that this will carry to the summer months, and this will be huge, as we’ve run the air conditioner at a much lower temperature than I’d prefer simply to keep the second floor from baking.
7. Don’t pay for the wrong numbers – There is a company that does a lot of work in our neighborhood that is much bigger.  They have multiple crews with crew sizes over triple what Bob offers.  They did a roof down the street in half a day, where Bob took two and a half days for ours.  They were assuredly cheaper.  But, Bob pointed out a row of shingles that started on one end and tailed off about halfway across the roof, as the shingles weren’t even installed straight.  He pointed out at least ten shingles that were already missing, probably having gotten stuck in the package, yet the roofer installed them anyways.  He pointed out how the roofers damaged their siding.  He pointed out how his guys vacuum out the gutters and blow off the roof with a leaf blower, which then allows any nails to fall and get picked up by the large magnet that they sweep.  The other roofer leaves it all up there, meaning they’ll find nails over their property for weeks to come.  Buying a roof is important, he pointed out, but if you want to simply buy a number (low price, lowest time) then you’re likely focusing on the wrong number.   Even though Bob came in higher, the quality of materials and workmanship gave me a much better value than I know the people down the street received.

All in all, I was very happy with our roofing project.  It was a pain for the week or so between when the shingles were delivered and when everything finally wrapped up (on top of the three days they took to install, we had days with complete downpour that delayed the start of the job).  But, I kept things in perspective, knowing that this one week would give us a roof that we can enjoy and that will last for years decades to come.  Thanks, Bob, for a great job!

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I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that we already had our first misadventure, and it was a full month before our first scheduled trip!  Yikes.

One of the things that I found is important with the camper is to follow my checklist.  I have a checklist that I created and modified which has a step-by-step walkthrough.  It’s on two sides of a piece of paper, one side for when we ‘arrive’ at a campsite and one for when we ‘leave’.  The list applies not just at campsites, but pretty much anywhere we would arrive or leave with the camper.

Including our driveway.

The checklist is great, and my mother-in-law printed it out for us with two sides, on a piece of bright yellow paper which she then laminated.  And gave me an extra copy, which has come in handy as I’ve misplaced a copy more than once (though the missing copy has always turned up).

At the end of April, we decided to pull it out from winter storage (next to my in-laws house), and take it to our house, where I then went through de-winterizing, washing, and waxing, while my wife cleaned the interior, the dishes, bedding, and all that.  It pretty much got us ready for our first trip.

When I brought it home, I got it backed into the driveway almost flawlessly.  Last years first attempt was quite lively, with me taking at least ten tries to get it into the driveway, cars in the vicinity, all while a special needs neighbor kid was having a meltdown on a nearby front yard.  This year, backing in was much less eventful and there were no complications, except for the fact that it was raining.

I followed the list to take everything apart.  Or so I thought.

There’s one step after everything is taken apart where I list out things that go into the camper, and it’s a step to verify.  Things like the hitch, the sway bar, the weight distribution bars, and the hitch pin.

That one is pretty important.

The hitch pin works to keep the hitch attached to the car.  The hitch basically slides into the square post, then the hitch pin slides across the post, the hitch, and back out the other side, where there’s a metal clip to keep it in place.

I usually put this into the storage compartment of the camper along with everything else, and always work off the list to make sure it’s all there.

Not this time.

After having it in the driveway for a couple of days, and taking care of all the aforementioned work, it was time to hook it up, and take it a few miles down the road to the facility where we store it.

Got everything out, slid the hitch into the receiver, and went to look for the hitch pin.  It wasn’t there.  I took everything out of the storage comparment, still no dice.

I then had a sneaking suspicion that I never verified that this was put into the compartment and had left it out.

Not only did I leave it out, but I”m pretty sure I knew where I left it.  On the back bumper of the Buick, which we use to tow.  The Buick had been driven quite a bit, so it obviously was not there.  Just to make sure, I searched the entire inside of the car.  My suspicions of what probably happened were confirmed when I found the metal clip, but still no hitch pin.

Figuring that it might have fallen off when being driven, I looked around the end of our driveway and at the end of our street, figuring it would have slid off at some point.

No dice.

I verified with my wife that she hadn’t seen it (she hadn’t), then put the hitch in the car and set off to go buy a new one at a supply shop.  It was a nice evening and I was really annoyed with myself.

As I pulled down the street to leave our subdivision, my eyes locked on something all the way near the exit to our subdivision.  As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was.  The missing pin.  My theory on where it was (the bumper) and what had happened (it slid off) was 100% correct.  It just happened a couple of streets over from where I figured it would happen!

The pin is a thick round piece of metal, so it was completely intact.  I stopped, picked it up, and drove back home, very much happier than I was.  I got everything hooked up and was off, with the whole thing probably costing me no more than ten minutes of my time.  Along with a little pride.

Still, it’s a good reminder to always follow the checklist.  I guess I got cocky, which probably isn’t good especially when just starting off for the season.  I remember last year my wife asked when I would stop using the checklist, and I answered that it would be when we got rid of the camper.  I need to be a little more strict about that.  I’ve read stories on some camper forums I regularly read where people have gotten into much worse trouble by missing a step.

I definitely dodged a bullet.  Now, my hope is that this is my biggest camper misadventure of 2013.  What do you think?

Readers, are there tasks where you follow a checklist no matter what?  Have you ever had something go awry that made you realize this is a necessity?

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So, I’m taking a slightly different spin.  I’m reporting on how busy I am, but with a positive angle.  Everything that I’m busy with is actually working toward something positive, so in all honesty, there are no complaints!

Here’s a list of the good things that have been keeping me busy:

• Work project #1 – The place where I work made a big acquisition a few years back.  Bringing their IT into the fold of our IT was something I wanted to get involved with as early as 2009.  However, the decision was made to let the IT support stay with the old company for a few years.  Finally, they decided to make the transition, and it’s a year-long program that I lobbied hard to be a part of.  I got assigned as the project manager to move their shared files from the old company’s network to our network.  With about 2,000 users, there was quite a big file.  The transition took place over the last three weeks, and while there were some bumps, it was a great success!
• Work project #2 – Along with the file transition, I was also assigned as the project manager to move all the computers and laptops to our company’s support.  Every desktop will either be replaced or re-installed with Windows 7 (they had XP), as well as all of our applications. There are over 2,100 desktops, so this will be a big project. We just had our first three desktops migrate over last week as part of our ‘early adopters’ program.  While three desktops doesn’t seem like a lot, it’s noteworthy because so much of the planning is up front, so the fact that they went in and users love the new setup was great.  This week, we begin the process of moving the rest, a process that will take approximately 7 months!
• New roof – We had the new roof wrapped up late last month. It was a fantastic experience (or at least as fantastic as can be given how messy of a job it is).  It took three days, and the weather was no help (rain delayed the start by several day), but it looks fantastic.
• Camper is de-winterized and ready to go – We had our camper stored at my in-laws, and we pulled it out, got everything de-wintereized and tested.  I washed and waxed it, and my wife washed all the bedding, dishes, and the entire inside.  Our first trip on the schedule in next month, but we will probably see if we can get a weekend trip in sometime this month, and it’s good to know it’s ready to go!
• Stripping and painting the desk – I last power washed and painted the deck in 2009.  I did give it a quick coat in 2011, but it was time to give it some attention.  I spent an afternoon power washing, then had to wait a week as it rained a couple of times, but I’ve been busy getting it painted.  It will be so nice to have it clean, fresh, and also be able to put our table, grill, and the kids toys out there!
• T-Ball – Little Boy Beagle is in a t-ball league, and I volunteered to be a coach.  It’s only an hour a week, but man, running around with 10 three and four year olds wears you out!  It’s fun and I hope that it establishes some good bonding between him and I, as well as sets a good foundation for him to participate in group sports.
• Garage – With spring comes the old practice of tearing apart everything out of the garage.  Since we haven’t been able to put the patio furniture out yet, the furniture is spread around, but I still wanted to get the mower out, so I could change the oil, as well as the edger (which also needed a new blade this year!), so it’s been a whirlwind in the garage.  Not to mention that all this works around the kids growing stash of outdoor toys.

All of this has made me fall asleep on the couch more than a few times over the past few weeks.  It’s been exhausting, but when I look at the list, it all relates to positive things.  All the outdoor activity means that summer is coming.  The roof project means that we have done a major home improvement project that looks fantastic.  The work projects have been busy but they’ve been considered very successful.

So, while I’m busy, I have no complaints!

Readers, has your spring kicked into overdrive yet? 

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It occurred to me that I should add some other tasks.  These tasks might have nothing to do with the house or cleaning or clutter or anything those lines.  These tasks would simply relate back to one thing:

Happiness.

Sometimes, I find that I get so focused in taking care of things on the list that I don’t take time to do some simple things, which are probably more important.  Too often, it’s so easy to get caught up in making sure things are clean and organized that I might overlook some of these simple things:

Petting My Cats

My wife doesn’t get this one because she’s not really a cat person, and both of our cats were mine before we got married, and are pretty much my cats alone.  They both love to lay on my lap and simply purr.  They’ll usually sniff out when I’m sitting down for something like watching TV or making a phone call, but it’d be nice to give them some dedicated time, especially since they are both old (one just turned 17 and the other will be 13 in July) so who knows how long they have left.

Play With My Kids

It’s awesome that kids love to play so much, and so awesome that sometimes you forget how wonderful it is to play with them.  My three year old (soon to be four in just 3 weeks!) will sometimes ask me specifically to play with him, and if I’m in the middle of something or planning on doing something, it’s easy to tell him that I’m busy or that I can try later, but I’ve been trying to catch myself and give the time.  The last thing I ever want is for my kids to hear the song ‘Cats In the Cradle’ later in life and think, ‘That’s my dad.’.

Call A Friend

Ten years ago, I was single, as were most of my friends, and many of us were located geographically close, so we saw each other all the time.  Even if we didn’t, the fact that most of us were living the bachelor life meant that phone calls were pretty frequent.  We stayed in touch all the time.  Fast forward ten years, and most of us are married, have kids, have a house, and have taken on more in our career.  We’d all be considered pretty successful, but we’ve all noticeably drifted apart.  We cherish the times that we do spend together, and when I do get together with a friend, the inevitable conclusion is reached that ‘We really need to spend more time together, this is great’ only to promptly go back to our lives and have time pass.

Spend Time With A Loved One

Do I spend enough time with my wife?  With my parents?  With people that, though you haven’t drifted part, that you know are so important that you don’t want to take the time you spend for granted or make it routine.  Maybe turning this into a date night, or a dinner with one set of our parents, or my wife’s sister, would be a good thing.

Time For Myself

I grew up an only child, and on top of that I was more the loner type when I grew up.  As such, I got used to spending time alone, and I actually find myself still needing that from time to time.  Having a few hours of alone time resets me and actually makes my interactions with my loved ones better.  It’s easy to scratch that off the list, but I think in the end, it’s important enough to track.

Give Thanks

If you read between the lines from everything I’ve said, it’s pretty easy to see that I’ve got a lot to be thankful.   I have a wonderful wife, kids, parents, family, and friends.  I have a house that has a lot of great things.  It’s easy to get so caught up in what you have to do that you forget to stop and take time to realize how good you have it, and thank God for providing so well.

Now, it’d be nice to think that these things come automatically, and while I like to think that I have the personality to do all of these things without having to be reminded, I figure that a reminder never hurts.

Readers, how do you remember to keep a balance of how you spend your time, making sure to spend time with the things that are really important?

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Bank of America seems to take the brunt of bloggers ire, but it seems like many banks catch the rancor.  The complaints seem to boil down to a few common themes:

• High fees
• Poor customer service
• Complaints about banks having taken bailout money

If you’ve complained about banks or get fired up about banks, I have bad news for you: You’re wasting your time.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m normally a big advocate for complaining when you aren’t getting good service or good value for your money, so it might seem like my advice is being overly dismissive or favoring the banks, but I assure you it’s not.  What it is simple truth.

Here are a few things that the average (or even the above average) person needs to realize about the banks, and I’ll start with the bottom bullet out of the items above and then move to more general terms:

• The bailout is old news – While it might anger people that banks took bailout money from the government (and if you read the comments of just about any article written about the banking industry in Seeking Alpha, it certainly is), the fact is that the banks have moved on.  While you might be aghast to this day about the audacity of the banks having taken this money, I guarantee that there is not one single meeting being called, one single resource being dedicated, or any amount of money spent at the banks to deal with this issue.  Why? Because it’s in the past.  The banks took the money, most paid it back, and they’ve moved on.  Any and all resources are being dedicated to things that the bank is doing today or plans on doing tomorrow.  They probably cared a lot about the bailouts from 2008 through 2010, but they no longer care, and they never will again.
• The banks don’t care if you like them – Many people harken to the old days where you had bankers that, if things are to be believed, acted like George Bailey in ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ where he cared about each person he did business with, and not only cared about them, but made personal sacrifices to ensure that his customers could depend on the bank.  Folks, this doesn’t exist any more.  To expect that is silly.  These are corporations and they are responsible to deliver profits.  Banks get a lot of ire, but the fact is, that any publicly traded company is driven by the same responsibility.  Banks appear more greedy because they deal directly with money, but it’s true of any industry.
• Most customers do not make banks money – You’ve heard of the 80-20 rule, and in many businesses, there is a variation of this where 80% of the profit is derived from 20% of the customers.  I think this is even more skewed in banking.  The simple truth is that your checking account with an average balance of $1,000 is not adding much to the bottom line, so when they raise your fees, and you threaten to leave, this does not present a problem for the bank.
• They know it’s harder to leave – Say you’re one of the people that does start looking around and decide that you’re going to leave, banks know that it’s harder to do so than ever.  Before, you could just throw away your checkbook, walk into a bank, and walk out with your money in hand.  Now, you have to change your direct deposit.  If you pay bills from your bank, you have to change all those over.  It’s a harrowing process and banks know that most people don’t want to do it and won’t do it if given a choice.
• They know it won’t matter – So you’ve decided you’re so mad that you’re going to leave the bank, and you do.  You change your direct deposit, update your bill pay, switch over your bank cards, the whole nine yards.  You sit back, triumphantly having shown the bank that you’re not going to be stuck with their latest fee or have to carry their new required balance.  Want to know how long that’s going to last?  Probably as long as it takes to go to the mailbox and get the notification from your new bank, the one that tells you that they’re implementing the same fees or something similar that will result in the same thing.   Even credit unions, once considered the safe haven from fees, have implemented more stringent requirements that result in many of the same fees, balance requirements or otherwise.

So, is it hopeless?  Are we just supposed to bend over and take it?

No, I would never agree with that.  I don’t think you just roll over and take it, but you can do a few things:

• Understand your requirements – Many people pay fees because they don’t know they don’t have to.  If your bank starts charging you $8 per month, you might be able to waive that by increasing your balance by a few hundred dollars a month or by implementing direct deposit.  Before just accepting, first make sure you understand.
• Rely less on banks – The bank where we do most of our banking is primarily a pass-through.  The money gets deposited, bills get paid, and the rest (less enough of a cushion to keep the minimum balance requirement intact) goes elsewhere.  We don’t have a savings account there.  We don’t invest there.  We don’t have our health savings account there.  What he have is basic.
• Focus your customer service time elsewhere – As I indicated above, unless your name is Mark Cuban (and if Mark Cuban is reading this blog, well how awesome would that be) than the bank really doesn’t care if you complain.  While it might make sense to write on their Facebook wall or Twitter page or something like that, you might realize that your time would be better spent trying to get improved customer service elsewhere.  At a place where, if you left as a customer, it could impact their bottom line.

I don’t think we should take poor customer service from banks, but I think we would be wise to understand the limitations that we have as customers, and how we can best approach the issues that we have to do what we can to mitigate the things that make us see red.

What do you think?  Is it a better use of time to complain about banks or should we minimize the impact and be more pro-active to work around the issues we have, understanding that banks don’t have motivation to make customers ‘happy’?

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1. Why do people insist on sharing any details about their juice cleanse? It’s gross.  Stop it.  I don’t care if you skip over the disgusting parts, it’s still disgusting.  If I owned a juice company, I would specifically put a note on each bottle of juice asking people to please not use my juice as part of any cleanse.  Because, you know, it’s gross.
2. Why do people buy homes and then let the home or yard fall into disrepair?  I’m not saying every home and yard has to look immaculate, but for people who just neglect them, I don’t get it.  It’s not like we haven’t been doing this home buying thing for decades now.  You should sort of know what to expect.
3. Why can little kids can magically pick up on any bad word?  Even if you say it in a regular tone of voice surrounded by fifty other words that you want them to learn, but they don’t, they will instantly pick out any naughty or swear word and being using it.  In context.
4. Why do we think it’s OK to treat each so poorly when we’re behind the wheel of a car?  People think nothing of zooming around other cars or cutting other cars off.  Read that sentence again and it becomes clear why people rationalize it.  Because they see themselves as cutting off another car or going around another car or getting angry at another car.  People forget that there are other human beings driving those cars, and in most cases, people wouldn’t dream of treating another person that way in a face to face situation.
5. Why has executive and management pay gone up (in terms of real buying power) but everybody else has pretty much stayed the same over the last 20-30 years?  Is management the only group doing a better job than other workers?  And, are they?
6. How come companies could afford to offer things like pensions and full health benefits but now cry poverty and cut anything to do with those benefits without giving it a second thought?  Oh, wait, I guess that’s the executives doing such a good job, right?
7. Why do people care so passionately about the political beliefs of other people?  Honestly, as long as you don’t try to push your beliefs on me, I really don’t care what you believe.  But, how many people now instantly dislike someone when they find out a particular affiliation or belief?  Too, too many.
8. Why do computers know to ask if you’re sure you want to do the things you are absolutely sure of, but to give you no such consideration when you click something by mistake?
9. Why do we think that it’s only today’s politicians that don’t worry about what the decisions they make down the road will cost ‘our grandchildren’?  Let’s face it, most of the infrastructure we have was put into place under politicians who are long out of office or dead, and while they approved the funding, they didn’t look ahead and plan for what do with it once it started falling apart.  So, this has been going on for a lot longer than many people think.
10. Why does every Michael’s or Joann’s store have leaky ceilings?  I remember my grandma dragging me around to crafts stores as a kid, and every ceiling was covered with water stained tiles.  Now, every so often, my wife drags me to one of the stores, and the ceiling is the same.  Other stores in the same shopping centers are fine, but leaky ceilings in craft stores?  Every single time.

Thoughts?

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After buying some items, either once or regularly, I thought it would be interesting to review how the items stacked up against the same items we would buy in a more traditional grocery store.

Here are a few comparisons, with as much information as I can remember:

• Pineapple – The first week we went to Aldi, we bought a pineapple for $1.49.  The normal price is $3.00, with sale prices available around $2.50, so this was a big discount.  I even posted about it on Facebook, and someone sarcastically replied that the pineapple must have been grown in Kansas (they do not grow pineapple in Kansas, to the best of my knowledge).  The pineapple was fine and we’ve bought it at other times.  Buy at Aldi?  Absolutely!
• Broccoli – Produce can be found very cheap at Aldi, and one of our favorite veggies, broccoli, is often a good price.  They don’t sell it as a full head of broccoli.  Instead, it’s cut (I think in half) and put in a package.  I’m guessing that this makes it easier for shipping, but it seems you end up with the same amount.  The quality was fine, though we did notice a few more brown spots on the tips than we usually see, and our three year old son refuses to eat those pieces.  Buy at Aldi?  Sure, but give it a good look!
• Milk – A gallon of milk can be a fantastic find at Aldi.  Sometimes it is cheaper elsewhere, but sometimes Aldi has the best prices, often by 15-20%.  We go through a lot of milk, so this can add up.  The milk tastes exactly the same, and the rumor is that it comes from one of the better dairy companies here in Michigan, but they just put a different label on it. Buy at Aldi?  Absolutely.
• Canned tomatoes – My wife makes a mean spinach lasagna (a recipie made famous from my mother-in-law), and she adds a few cans of tomatoes.  Each batch usually comes out slightly different.  The version she made with the canned tomatoes from Aldi came out a little more soupy than usual.  It still tasted fine, but we wondered if the tomatoes held a little more water.  Buy at Aldi?  I would buy a can or two and see how you like it.
• Box mac-and-cheese – I’m still a kid at heart in that I enjoy box mac-and-cheese.  I actually prefer the ‘special flavor’ versions in the same size box, notably Three Cheese and Spirals.  Still, we found a box of the regular variety and decided to give it a shot.  It definitely had a different taste than Kraft or even the store brands.  It wasn’t bad, it was just different.  They have an Aldi version of the specialty types that I still might try, but for the regular brand: Buy at Aldi?  I probably would not buy this again.
• Yogurt – I like the flavored yogurt cups.  I usually get the low-calorie version of Yoplait or the Meijer brand equivalent.  I don’t like Dannon, Kroger, or WalMart, which are the other three varieties I’ve tried.   Aldi has their version for 39 cents a cup.  The cheapest I see Yoplait is 50 cents (it’s usually 70) and the cheapest for Meijer is 40 cents (it’s usually 50).  So, it’s definitely a good deal.  I bought some and when I tried it, I loved it. The yogurt, to me, tasted better than either the Yoplait or Meijer.  Two caveats: One, they don’t have as many flavors.  Two, they have the low-calorie type and they also have a regular type.  The distinction for Yoplait is unmistakeable, the regular cups are pink and the low-cal cups are blue.  With Aldi, I’ve mistakenly grabbed the wrong type more than a few times.  They just don’t stand out from one another enough in a way that’s perfectly obvious, plus they are often intermixed.  Buy at Aldi?  Yes, but give your cups a second look to make sure you picked out the variety you were looking for. 
• Gum – I normally hate the impulse buy section near the register of most grocery stores.  Aldi has it as well.  They just have more reasonable prices.  I bought a pack of gum, or rather a package that has six 10-piece packages of gum.  The pieces are the rectangles that you get with Eclipse or others, where you usually have to push them out through a piece of foil.  Aldi packages them in groups of 10 in packaging that looks like the typical stick gum.  They’re not individually wrapped, so once you open the package, you probably don’t want to carry it around in your pocket.  It’s fine for sitting on my desk at work.  And, it tastes very minty, as it should.  Buy at Aldi?  Yes, but not if you want to carry it in your pocket, otherwise it will probably get loose and/or get dirty since they’re not individually wrapped.
• Tortilla chips and potato chips – We have bought both at Aldi for a pretty cheap price per bag.  In both cases, we served them at various family gatherings.  They tasted fine to me and everybody seemed to enjoy them.  Buy at Aldi?  Certainly!
• Half and half – I usually buy a pint for $1.10 – $1.50.  Aldi has a quart for $1.49.  I figured even if I didn’t use it all, it would be a good value.  It tastes fine in my coffee, and so far, I’ve not had any go bad.  It’s definitely a cost savings.  Buy at Aldi? It’s the only place I buy it now!
• Bread – They have a few different types.  My wife loves whole grain bread, and says that the Aldi brand is great, and it’s a great price.  I don’t like real heavy bread, but prefer a more regular loaf of whole wheat.  It’s not a bad value and it tastes fine.  My only complaint is that two of the loaves we’ve bought so far have had slices that have big holes in them, presumably from air during the rising process.  I’m not used to this, and it can be troublesome when making PB&J or egg salad sandwiches.  Buy at Aldi?  Whole grain, yes.  Wheat bread, a yes for now, but if the holes persist, I may turn this to a no, at least for my variety.

So, for the most part, buying things at Aldi seems to work out just fine in terms of quality and taste, though you have to assess each item for yourself.  We’ll definitely continue to go there regularly to fulfill at least a portion of our shopping needs.

We’ve bought a lot of other things but those are the ones that pop into my head.  We haven’t bought much out of the frozen food section.  Maybe someday.  We also haven’t bought anything like margarine, butter, or sour cream (my wife will only buy Daisy, which doesn’t have a long ingredient list).  Any thoughts on those or other items? 

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The goal was to raise $5,000 toward the school.  This helps keep the costs relatively low, as well as the fact that it’s a co-op, so they have less staff being that the parents participate.

The auction consisted of two different elements, one was buying tickets, and then putting them in buckets corresponding to certain prize draws.  Some of the items included:

• A package of Disney DVDs, games, figurines, and other assorted goods
• A basket of wine, liquor, and other assorted ‘adult’ goodies
• Gift cards to Target, Kroger, or other big stores
• Gift cards to local restaurants
• A box of Twinkies

So, you can see that the prizes were far ranging.  All were in great fun.

The second item was a silent auction.  Here, about 75 items, all donated by local businesses or friends of the school, were available where you could write your name next to a line on a sheet of paper.  The person who got the highest bid won.  In many cases, the ‘value’ of the item was listed, as it would be the value of the item if it were sold at regular price.

Many items sold at or near their value.  Some sold way below.  We actually got a four-pack of tickets to a Detroit Pistons game, and two activity centers for children for $25, where this probably would have cost over $100.

Again, the items here were all over the map in terms of pricing.  The two highest ‘valued’ items were the ones that caught my eye.

1. A bundle consisting of a brand new Wii U, a controller, a game, and some other accessories
2. A four pack of park hopper tickets to Disney World.

Both had assigned values right around $500.  And both caught my eye, not because I wanted them, but because I thought that they could be valuable.

I even whipped out my smartphone to look and see what these types of items were selling for on eBay.  The Wii U pack was selling for around $400 on eBay.  It ended up selling for $410, so it was around the correct value.

The Disney tickets were selling for around $100 per ticket.  The ‘retail value’ was $124 per ticket, so anything less than $400 was a potential opportunity.

I mentioned it to my wife, and she was aghast.  She didn’t think that it was right to make money off of a charity auction.  I pointed out that the school didn’t pay for the items, and that if I bid for them, they would actually get more money, since I would be bidding higher than the person who had won them.

Really, would the school care what the use of the tickets was or were they interested in the proceeds of those tickets?  I guess there might be some element of both.

My wife ended up looking at the name on the list, and noting that the person with the highest bid (who ended up winning) was actually planning on using them for their family.  She prohibited me from writing my name, and kept a watchful eye.

Since the names of the winners (but not the final bid) were announced, I realized later that this could have reflected poorly on us.  If other members saw that we had purchased them, but then found out we never used them, they could have figured out that we flipped the tickets.  Since my wife didn’t think much of the practice, it’s certainly possible that others might not have as well.

In the end, it was an idea that I merely considered, but when my wife said no, I didn’t fight back at all.  Given the fact that it was for our son’s preschool and that it could have reflected poorly on our family, I’m glad I didn’t.

However, it brings to mind if this is an opportunity elsewhere.  After all, this was an event that was technically open to the public.  What if Joe Blow off the street had come in and done exactly what I had considered.  Joe would have had no affiliation to the school and therefore would never have been judged by other members.  Would he have been doing anything wrong if he had come in, outbid those who had placed bids, and gotten the tickets?  Technically, no, not at all.

So, maybe those charity auctions you see, maybe there’s an opportunity or two there.  Or does it still make it unscrupulous even if you aren’t affiliated with the actual organization throwing the charity?

Just curious what your thoughts were.  Is this crossing the line into being a vulture or completely within bounds?

And for the record, the package of tickets was listed at $270 moments before the auction closed, so they definitely went for below market price.

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• Gas prices have gone up quite a bit
• Food prices have gone up a lot (or they shrink the packages, which means you have to buy more, so the end result is you pay more)
• Health insurance premiums have skyrocketed
• Our mortgage was re-financed.  Even though we are putting over $500 more in principle away each month for a modest $150 increase in the payment, it’s still a cash flow issue.

As a result, we’ve tightened in many areas.  Just a few areas we’ve reduced expenses over the past few years or tried to offset in some way:

• We’ve updated our insurance plan to include an umbrella policy, which actually increased our total coverage while reducing our costs about 15%.  We also increased our deductible amounts for both home and auto.
• We combined cell phone plans with my in-laws for a family plan, cutting costs for both households.  Later, I dropped off the plan altogether when my work offered to provide a phone.
• We’ve called every year to get our cable company to continue to give us a discounted rate.
• We use a Costco American Express credit card for all gas purchases.  This gives us 3% cash back for gasoline purchases.  Considering that price hikes of 5% in a single day are all too common these days, this extra couple of percent barely makes a dent, but every little bit helps.

Every time there is an opportunity to save some money, it seems that it’s further and further since the last opportunity, and that it usually yields less savings.  In all likelihood this likely means that we’ve done a pretty good job at identifying potential cost savings.  You’re usually going to get the greater returns up front as you hit the ‘low hanging fruit’.

Even so, it’s always fun when you find a new opportunity and we recently did.  I’d always heard that Aldi is a great place to shop and save, but we never took advantage of shopping there.  There are two stores, both about 8 miles away, so it’s not like it was just around the corner.  I’d been in one a few times, but pretty much just walked around, looked around, left, and promptly forgot all about it.

Still, I’d heard enough about it and I guess I read one too many blog posts talking about what a great store it is, so I mentioned it to my wife and we decided to check it out.  And, it was well worth it.

Here are some of the things I learned about Aldi:

• It is a very no-frills store.  Things are stacked up in bulk, similar to Costco.  This means they rarely run out of anything, and I’m guessing means that they minimize the need to have people on the payroll to stock items throughout the day.
• Their prices on produce are often unbeatable.  My wife does all the shopping for our fruits and vegetables, whereas I would likely not recognize a good deal from a bad deal (at least not as quickly as she can).  She looked through the ad and was amazed at some of the prices.  In many cases, you can get fresh produce for 20-50% less than what you pay at the supermarket.  We’ve bought a variety of different things, including pineapples, oranges, avocados, peppers, and likely other products, and my wife has not complained about the quality of anything.
• Milk prices are great.  Their milk is a full 70 cents a gallon cheaper than what we pay, and come to find out that the supplier is a company that you typically pay even higher prices for.  In fact, my wife saw the truck pulling away from the store on one trip.  Both kids drink milk, and both my wife and I drink it every day, so this is a big cost savings for our family.
• Yogurt prices are great, and it tastes awesome.  I get the store brand yogurt which generally runs anywhere from 40-60 cents per cup.  Aldi has theirs available for 39 cents, meaning I’m saving no matter what.  I bought a couple just to see what it was like, and it tastes better than even the national brands.
• It requires slight tweaks to our budget system.  Groceries are one item that we typically put on our credit card, but Aldi doesn’t take credit cards (another way to minimize costs), so we lose the 1% cash back that we’d otherwise get and we have to front the money instead of floating it a couple of weeks until the credit card is paid.  Minor issues, but still a tweak for a guy like me who has perfected his budget system and is therefore resistant to change.
• Bagging is do it yourself. They have one person who runs the register, and he/she will simply take the items and place them back in your cart.  Then, you go over to a counter set in the front of the store and you bag it yourself.  That keeps the line moving even more so than you trying to bag it right at the register.  You also want to bring your own bags otherwise they charge you for them.
• Bring a quarter for your shopping basket.  What’s the one common thing about every grocery store parking lot?  Well, there actually two.  One is that there are cart corrals which annoy you because you think it’s an empty spot until you drive up to it, and second is that there is always a handful of workers out there collecting the baskets and taking them back to the store.  Not so at Aldi, because you have to insert a quarter into the shopping cart to use it (the quarter ‘frees it’ from the other carts it’s attached to).  When you’re done shopping, just push the cart back and once it clicks in place with the other carts, you get your quarter back.  You never see carts all over the lot at Aldi, because even if someone doesn’t want to walk back up and put the cart back, you can bet that there are enterprising customers who would be happy to collect stray carts, and return them to the store to get the quarter(s)
• They don’t take coupons.  Most brands are not recognized brand names anyways, so there usually aren’t coupons that you could even apply (and I’m thinking that’s why all the brand names are unfamiliar), but even for  the brand name stuff that they do take, you can’t take coupons.  It cuts down on their administrative overhead.

All in all, we are big fans of Aldi.  The distance makes it so that we generally seem to go about every other week, which so far works just fine for us.  And, it shows that there are always opportunities for savings even when you think you’ve done just about everything.  Because, even though we try to meal plan, we clip coupons, we stock up on items, we stack coupons with sale prices, and other tricks to save money at the grocery store, there is still money to be saved on our food bill.

So, even though it’s harder to come by savings (because the fruit isn’t as low hanging), another thing I realized is that it still feels good to come across and take advantage of a savings opportunity.  That part, it never gets old!

Readers, do you shop at Aldi?  What other savings opportunities have you recently found even if you had thought you’d squeezed all the blood out of the savings turnip?

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