With all the talk about the run up in food prices, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on keeping your food bill down these days. I’m a firm believer that complaining about increasing prices will get you nowhere and do nothing to change the situation. Instead, you need to focus on things that you have control over and ways that you can change your situation. Here are a few of them:

1. Change What You Buy. There’s no law that says you have to continue buying the same things that you’ve always bought in the past. Prices haven’t gone up on everything these days. If dairy products have gone up, just purchase less of them and choose cheaper alternatives. If it’s the packaged foods that have gone up, make your own “hamburger helper”. It’s just ground beef, noodles, and seasonings anyway, a far cry from rocket science. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to return to some of the basics either. Rice is still cheap, as are beans. And take a look at the fruits and vegetables that are in season instead of buying just your favorite all year round.

2. Change How You Shop. If you’re one of those people that plans what you want to make during the week and then goes and buys the needed items, maybe you should change your approach. Instead, browse the grocery store circulars and find the loss leaders and other things that are on sale. When these items are cheap, stock up on them. Your meal choices then come from what you have on hand. It’s actually quite simple, but if you’re not used to doing things this way, it can take some getting used to. For example, I have an unofficial rule that I only buy meat (such as steaks, chicken, pork chops) that is $2 a pound and under. I buy what’s on special and that’s what we eat. Pretty simple.

3. Change The Quantity You Buy. There are two parts to this one. First of all, I’m sure most of us could stand to eat a little less. And eating less means you don’t have to buy as much. Secondly, many items can be purchased cheaper in bulk. Use your head with this one though; don’t buy pounds and pounds of perishable items that you’re going to end up throwing away. But you can buy pasta, rice, beans, can goods, etc. in large quantities and they’ll last a long time. You can even buy huge bottles of olive oil for much cheaper than the smaller ones and then just refill the little one. These are just some examples, but you get the idea.

The point here is to think about things that you can do to keep your food expenses in line instead of just complaining about rising food prices. I’m sure I’ve missed many other ideas, so feel free to share yours in the comments.

Businesses are always looking for new prospects to market their products and services to. And business mailing lists are nothing new these days, but SalesProspects.com is a company that provides customized and targeted mailing lists based on your criteria. Check out the link to learn more about them and see if they’d work for you.

As of Tuesday night, Barack Obama is the presumptive nominee for the Democratic party. And the actual Presidential race can now begin between him and John McCain. Whatever your political views may be, you can be sure that their respective economic agendas will be at the forefront of this race. And as a primer for what is sure to come, this article from CNN Money gives an overview of both candidates’ views on various aspects of the economy.

It’s an interesting read at the very least to get informed about both of their views. And we should take the time to understand what their views are on specific issues. It shouldn’t be enough to vote for someone based on their campaign slogan, “Change we can believe in”, since change just means something different, not necessarily better. Likewise, another recent campaign slogan is “Leadership we can believe in”, yet the direction that leadership takes needs to be something you actually want. The point is to get informed to make a good decision, instead of just a bandwagon one.

Apparently the credit bureau Experian has filed a lawsuit against the identity protection company lifelock. Experian is arguing that third parties shouldn’t be allowed to place fraud alerts on behalf of consumers which is exactly what lifelock does. And it’s easy to understand why Experian wouldn’t like this since it has to cost them money to place the alert and to monitor it.

Experian also makes their money by selling people’s information for pre-approved offers and such. When lifelock opts it’s customers out of this type of junk mail, it limits the credit bureau’s ability to sell the information.

It’s up to every consumer to decide if lifelock’s services are worth the $10 per month charge, since you can set your own fraud alerts and everything yourself for free, but if someone wants to use these services for peace of mind, I see no problem with it. I also don’t like the fact that the credit bureaus sell my information to make a profit so it should be up to us as consumers whether we want to authorize a third party to do these things for us.

By now the economic stimulus rebate checks are old news, and many if not most people have already gotten theirs. I, on the other hand, have been waiting for our check to arrive in the mail. For the 2007 tax year we actually owed money instead of getting a refund so we weren’t going to get the rebate via direct deposit, and we have to wait on a paper check.

According to the IRS’s schedule, which is based on social security numbers, we are supposed to get our check by June 6th. Well, today we finally got something in the mail from the IRS that had Stimulus written on the back flap. I was excited to finally be able to cash the check and put it to use, but to my surprise, what I got from the IRS still wasn’t a check.

It was simply another correspondence saying that we’re entitled to $1200 and that we should get the check by June 6th. I don’t understand why they took the time and spent the money to send me this on June 2nd. They should have just sent the check. So we’ll continue to wait for our stimulus check to arrive and hope that it eventually gets here.

No matter what your financial situation is, you could at some point find yourself needing a Cash Advance or other short term financing. Maybe your refrigerator goes out suddenly or there’s a family medical emergency that you’re unprepared for. If you find yourself in this situation, then you can always look to Payday Loans in order to take care of a short financing need.

While these types of loans are available, it’s important to use them responsibly and only for very short term needs. You’ll want to explore all of your available financing options, but these can be used if need be.

“How do you find the money to invest in the stock market and various other things?”

This question, or many variations of it, is something that I get asked every once and a while. It’s no secret that I love to invest, and it’s probably why I get the question. But as you can probably guess by the question, it’s usually asked by people who don’t think that they are able to invest or who think that you can only invest if you’ve already got a certain amount of money.

So let me shed some light on how I and anyone can find the money to invest in whatever they’d like to. Most people get paid on some sort of regular schedule, be it weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. With this type of income it can be difficult to find a lump sum with which to invest, and many people will therefore just put it off, telling themselves that they’ll invest when they have the money.

If this is the attitude that you’re taking though, it’ll probably be a very long time before you start investing, if you ever do. If you want something to happen, you’re going to have to make it happen.

First of all, you need to realize that there are many types of investments that don’t require a large lump sum to get started. Many online brokerage accounts can be opened for less than a thousand dollars. I happen to use Scottrade for my Roth IRA and the account can be started for just $500. After that, you can make deposits of whatever amount you’d like.

Now, even though you can start investing in things that don’t take a lot of money to get started, it doesn’t mean that you should shy away from other types of investments that may take a larger amount to get into. In order to invest a lump sum, you’re going to need to accumulate a lump sum. It’s that simple. Just set up another savings account either with your bank or online, and begin adding to it with every paycheck or other income that you receive. At first it’s just a savings account, but it’s from this account that you’ll eventually be able to pull from to make those larger investments.

No matter what you’re financial situation is, it’s possible for you to invest. You obviously won’t be able to do everything at once, but as you begin to accumulate, more and more opportunities will begin to present themselves. So instead of wondering how other people are able to invest and you’re not, start making the small changes and taking the little steps forward that will allow you to invest as well.