Well, at least a bit of good news, money-wise

After spending almost $30 yesterday, I still got home with no milk! I was looking over my receipt and found that I had been overcharged for 3 lemons. They are regularly 2/$1 but were on special for .37 ea. I bought 3 and found that I was charged full price. When I went back to get my milk this morning, I talked to the girl at the service desk. She refunded me the full price I paid for 3 lemons, $1.62 including tax. That was unexpected. I also received a $1.98 rebate today. So, if you add those together, I was only out of pocket .91 for my milk. I flipped when I saw how much the milk cost; $4.51 including tax for a 1/2 gallon of Lactaid. Our food tax is set to reduce by another 0.25 the first of the year, so, in my city, it will be 7.5%. There is a base state tax, then, local areas can put another amount on top of that. It's capped, I'm not sure the amount, but, I know that one city has 10.25% on non-food compared to 9.25% here. As I understand it, at some point in the far future, we will not be paying sales tax on food at all. If they are only reducing it a quarter of a percent each year, I may not live long enough to see it! For those of you in states with no sales tax at all, I must tell you that we do not have a state income tax nor an ad valorem tax on vehicles. I personally think that our property tax here in Chattanooga is a modest amount. I'm not sure what the rate is and the kicker is, if you live within the city limits, you pay both city and county taxes. A lot of people through the years have chosen to live in the unincorporated areas of the county to avoid the city tax. Problem is, the city keeps annexing more and more of the unincorporated areas. Add to that the gas those folks have to burn to get to work or shopping, I think being in-town and paying city and county tax is a good trade-off.

I suspect that many of you, being frugal shoppers, may never check out the produce section where pre-cut fruits and veggies are packaged. The cost is frightfully high for letting someone else do the peeling and chopping for you. I have found on several occasions, though, that a 3 lb. bowl of mixed fruit is marked down to .99 when it is about to expire. I have purchased these on several occasions and I've never been disappointed with the quality. So, the next time you are in the produce department, check it out. You may find a great bargain. The cut raw veggies, if marked down, can be a great way to have the ingredients for a stew or stir-fry for singles or couples and not have a lot of veggie left over to go bad before you get a chance to use the rest of it. I have always haunted the meat department for marked down meat cuts; I have only recently found the jewels of the produce department.