It's grocery day and McFrugal is on a tear...

He just went through the Ulysses of coupons and was very upset when I announced that I needed furniture polish. Apparently, he was not expecting any last minute deviations from the master plan.

I think this is a pretty good likeness, but McFrugal did not appreciate my artistic ability this morning:

McFrugal has never supported my love for art, and I do not understand why. One would think any type of activity in which one can find "pay what you can" night would be right up his alley. He's a puzzle, that McFrugal.

McFrugal has been self absorbed this week...

Due to certain circumstances outside of my control, McFrugal has stayed off the warpath this week leaving me free to do as I please. It's been a nice respite; however, I started to look at the Direct TV situation as he was shoving Comcast brochures in my face daily (even though he was distracted and his heart really wasn't in it). I came around to his way of thinking and called Comcast. After listening to their offers, I decided to call Direct TV to see if they had anything comparable to offer an existing customer.

I explained to them that in this economy, new customers appear to be getting all of the really good offers leaving existing clients to question the pros and cons of customer loyalty. Ruth at Direct TV agreed with me and began to look over my account.

Over the course of ten minutes, she added a premium channel for free, gave me a free year of DVR service and somehow lopped $50/month off my bill. Sounds great, right?

At this time, the McFrugals are under contract and I would have to pay $20/month on the time remaining on the contract in order to terminate our service with them. I would also have to find out when I was going to have the time to watch the 27 Tivoed back episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles that I haven't gotten to yet, but that's really not the point (though Chris O'Donnell has aged nicely and I find the show to be quite decent really). I decided, at this point, to ride out the remainder of my contract at the discounted rate.

I should have been happy for the discount, but I found myself getting really irate at a company that truly has that much discretionary room in my billing. Ruth said that existing customers were really in a good place because they could call and she could give discounts, but she couldn't do it if no one called her.

How inflated was my bill? And why didn't I call a year ago?

All of this frugality made McFrugal really happy, but made me completely furious because I inferred from my conversation with Ruth that loyal customers get screwed until they complain about it. I'm pretty sure that I don't want to do business with a company like that.

Meanwhile, I'm going to watch a buttload of NCIS: Los Angeles in order to expedite the eradication of Direct TV from McFrugalshire.

The moral of this story is that if you are a loyal customer to any company, question them and find out what that company's competition is doing because there are deals to be had, people.

Oh, and if you're calling Direct TV? Ask for Ruth. Her logic is flawed and the savings might just make you mad, but she's got STARZ for free.

Porn for Cheapskates...

Years ago I would have used a computer for its correct purpose- ogling young nubile hotties in various states of undress and morally bankrupt situations, but in today's economy I have seen the true power of the Internet....its ability as a group mind to give out cool advice and experiential tricks for those willing to listen (unlike one Wife I know). The modern day oracle that is the Internet can give great tricks for surviving, as well as saving in the current economic climate.

So as things have gotten worse, one McFrugal (as the Wife likes to call me), has finally decided to take a real interest in just where all the money is going each month. The first thing I decided to start with was the grocery bill. From what most saving gurus have to say about the subject this is really one area that is often left until late in the budgetary equation because it is often difficult to see really large rewards when dealing with the important need that is eating...and tell the wife I'm not talking about that gnawing need to fill the closet with some of the one and done items she gets ...because gasp...it was on sale so it must be a necessity (yellow shoes anyone...I think you have worn them what...once!). The cool thing about the grocery game is that, like losing weight, you see immediate results which tends to keep you juiced about the whole I'm saving money idea.

In the past my attitude was to buy the store brand it is always cheap so I must be winning right!? Wrong. The key is to coupon these people to death and, like hunting, you have to know how your opponent thinks. As our fore bearers understood, all food is seasonal (a fact modern man in his comfy global cocoon has lost sight of). Grocery chains and, more importantly, the major food producing corporations have not forgotten this important standard. Everything revolves around the old idea of supply and demand. The key is to learn to demand or, more correctly, to purchase in the off season. You want barbecue sauce? Buy it when grilling season is coming to a close and double your fun by using coupons on already marked down items. Of course Wife probably does not want a pantry of 59 bottles of barbecue sauce come December as there will be nowhere for Christmas candy (bought at full price mind you...not this year lady, the cheap are taking a stand!), but you get the idea.

If not, you should check out the site http://www.southernsavers.com/ where Jenny can walk anyone to the light of clearer, cheaper thinking when it comes to paying for groceries. Oh and Wife? Make sure to let everyone know the Christmas cards they will get were all bought after Christmas on markdown...and they still relate the thoughts of the season, and remind our friends if they need barbecue sauce in January I should have plenty...you really need to clean out that pantry by the way.

McFrugal just left for the Kroger...

and he took this with him...apparently he raided my car, his car, and the sofa prior to leaving.

Sadly, his cashier at the store will probably put out a hit on him.

McFrugal is Krogering.

So little McFrugal had to go twosies about thirty minutes ago, but Wife was having a chat with big little McFrugal at the time. I was forced to enlist McFrugal's help with little McFrugal. McFrugal took approximately five seconds out of his online coupon search/database/cheapskate website review to hand little McFrugal some wipes.

After I wrapped up my chat (read: lecture/brilliant teaching moment) with big little McFrugal, I assumed that all was well with LM's BM; however, I was very much mistaken. Apparently five seconds was not quite enough attention paid to LM and she ran out of wipes. After she entered the kitchen bare assed asking for help, Wife had to put the hammer down.

Wife is getting ready to rip up this week's Kroger ad and perhaps perform a tad of coupon sabotage. Be prepared for McFrugal's fabulous coupon tips coming soon, but don't count on any specifics because his reference materials are about to meet an untimely end...not unlike little McFrugal's aforementioned wipes.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone...may your luck be only of the good variety.

and unto us, a blog is born...

It's not like we don't have anything better to do; however, McFrugal thinks that he has great money saving ideas to share with the world. Wife prefers that he share his ideas with the world and stops sharing the ideas in the house.

In layman's terms, it's a win win.

Perhaps if McFrugal shares his ideas with all of you, he will be so tired of the subject by the time he sees me after work, he won't notice the "sales call" I made at Macy's earlier in the day. Even better, assuming I didn't make a "sales call," he won't feel the need to show me the banged up bottle of ketchup that he found for 47 cents at the poisoned food store.

Stay tuned - McFrugal's on the warpath today about DirectTV and something about Hulu and hooking up the computer to the televsion set so that we don't have to pay for cable. It sounded like white noise when he was telling me about it, so I missed a lot of the details as I was on Zappos at the time. I try to keep busy.