Sabrena the Frugal Shopper

Sabrena Jones

On her way to the grocery store

Sabrena Jones was born in Mobile, Alabama. At the age of ten she moved to the suburbs of Michigan where she still resides. Her mother Betty and Aunt Gloria raised her and provided anything that she needed. If not for these two wonderful women she would not be the women she is today. Her aunt and mother taught her the ways of a frugalist.

Her mother cared for her and her sister without any government assistance, until her younger brother was born and during this time they would only receive WIC. Growing up her mother was always able to provide more than enough food for the family. She always cooked enough for if someone would come over and also to have leftovers. Now as an adult she says, “I am only able to provide for me and my family. I never invite anyone over for dinner because I need the food to last so I can provide for my family.” Sometimes she even finds herself with less on her plate so that everyone can eat.”

Sabrena is now married with two daughters and she finds herself having to provide for six people every day. Things get harder and harder as weeks pass and with some prices changing in a day it makes matters even more difficult. So as time go on she learns more ways to save money on food and everyday household goods.

Before she leaves the house to go shopping for anything she goes through a long process just to save money. The first thing she does is write a list of food, and household items that are needed. She even clips coupons for extra savings. Then she spends a lot of time looking through Meijer, Kroger, Walmart and ALDI sales paper, so that she can compare prices and see which stores have the best buy. She figures out which stores she will be going. It is not out of the ordinary for her to go to two or more stores in a week. Because many of the stores she shop at are close to her home she saves money on gas when going to the supermarket. She says “I save on time and money by leaving my children at home also I prevent from going away from the task at hand. She sets a dollar limit on how much she is willing to spend and stays close to that amount.

With dramatic change in prices it is more difficult to buy enough food for her family. So when she goes to the supermarket to buy items she has many choices to make because there is never a set value on items. When she had to buy apples, onions, milk and eggs she is left with a very annoying task to complete. She remembers when “apples use to be 99 cents per pound, good bread was two dollars a loft, and when milk and meat was half the prices that she are pays now. “ She says that even finding certain items at the grocery store is difficult because the shelves are never stocked. She is even forced to go without something just to buy more of another so that there will be enough.

In the grocery store Sabrena complained about how the prices for

butter and juices have went up and the dates that where on the

containers and how much of these items are on the shelf

versus other things that she need that this store did not have.

She provides for her family without no government assistance and she believe that, “going hungry is worse than not having a place to live.” The fact is the Government cannot provide for everyone so many people who need help are left to care for their family alone. The family may have an income but it is not enough to provide for everyone in their household. While it may be difficult to provide adequately for her family she is making it and doing a good job at it. She knows that it is difficult for other just like her so she helps them in any way that she can. When there is a promotion at the grocery store she donates not thinking about how she could have used that money to buy more food for her family. Rather it is donating money or even her time; she does what she can hoping and praying that things will get better for everyone in these times of misfortune.

Sabrena cooks breakfast lunch and dinner for her children

everyday. This afternoon she cooks a chicken omelet

with tomatoes green pepper scallions and onions.

Sabrena Jones is a frugalist with an edge that cannot be beat. She lives her life for her family making sure they have everything that they need. She spends her leisure time clipping coupons and looking through sales paper in fact she enjoys this more then watching television. Sabrena looks constantly for a deal and a sale which makes her frugal.

Reading response for "Our Thirst for Water"

Tom Standage takes bottled water to the extreme with his article “Our Thirst for Bottled Water,” throughout this article he takes the time to explain what is wrong with the world thinking about bottled water versus tap water. It is completely understandable that you have a personal preference about rather to drink tap water or bottled water. Take this into consideration, a country may need bottled water because there water is contaminated. Is it truly fair to drink water that can very well save someone’s life?

Bottled water and tap water is simply water the difference between them is simple one cost more than the other. When it comes to thinking about bottled water and how much of it is consumed by each nation each day, is a little bit extraordinary considering how much of it does not need to be consumed at all. It is really sad to know that other nations really do need bottled water and we only do a little to help them. I am sure that we can give away with a bottle of water to help someone else. Especially those that cant provided themselves with healthy drinking water.

Standage makes it really clear that you get the same exact nutritional value from most tap water as you do from bottled water. In other cases you can get even more nutrition from tap water. In areas where water is scarce and many people do not have enough good water to drink. They actually need bottled water to survive. The human body needs 64 ounces of water a day and many of these nations don’t have enough for everyone. But still people can not resist the urge to buy bottle water.

If bottled water would be taxed so that a portion of the money would go to those nations that need it more would be able to receive an adequate amount, but the reality is no one would approve that. Reading this article really makes you think about water in a new way. So when I walk into the store to waste money on bottled water I will remember someone needs it more then me.

Summary of Academic Article

Luther Tweeten and Caial Zulouf wrote “Feeding the world” in The futurist (2000) in this they inform us that the world’s population had reached six billion; and that the world’s death and birth rates are equal. They suggest that the world has more people and not enough production to allow for an increase in population. It is explained in more of an economic stand point, in which they inform economist, business men and women that there needs to be an increase in supply so that everyone can eat. They think that if the world population continues to increase at the same rate that the supply is then there will someday be a shortage of food. Food is not just being used to feed us and animals but it is also being used to create things like biofuel. While having biofuels may seem like a good thing considering that gas, oil, and coal, causes a lot of pollution and may well be the cause of global warming. But if food production does not increase in the upcoming years we will indefinably have a food shortage. With the population increase there is more demand for food but the production has not changed. So there needs to be a drastic decrease in the population or there needs to be an increase in supply.

More and more food is being used to create biofuels. Biofuels are better for the environment; so many people think because of that biofuels will help create a better tomorrow. But then the world is left with another situation which can prove to be worse than pollution.

In David J. Tenenbaum article “Food vs. Fuel” in Environmental Health Prospective (2008) he explains that the more we use food for other things like biofuels the less we have for ourselves. The population has increased and the diversion of crops has also increase leaving us with a big problem to solve. Feeding your family maybe your number one priority but it may not be your nations. In the United States the production of biofuels has nearly tripled from what it was six years ago, while this has happened to decrease the dependency of oil from other countries. The population of America has increased each year but the production of food has not increased enough so that we can feed our family and create biofuels. They are trying to prevent their dependence for oil from other countries for oil but they are instead increasing their dependence for food. They are going about it the wrong way. Tenenbaum wrote this article to inform environmentalist, people in the oil business and economist so that they will change their perspective on how they will handle the shortage of oil and food.

Every family needs to be able to adequately provide their families with food. There is not enough food to go around and the prices just keep going up. How will we ever be able to provide food for ourselves?

Kristen Weir wrote “The Food Hike” for Current Health (2008) in which she justifies and builds this article on the basis that there is more demand for food but just not enough to feed everyone. She lets us know that we may have a shortage of food because there is less being supplied but this is not the only reason people are going hungry. Also there are more resources being needed to produce less of another food, like beef and pork and more is going to other things also. Grains are not just used to feed us, and other animals they are also used to make fuel and experiment with other things. In 2006 one fifth of the US corn was used to make ethanol, and sure this is not a bad thing but considering people do not have enough food. Why use that much of our food to make ethanol. If more farmers decide to change their farm land into produce plants for bio fuels then there will be less farmland to grow on. She writes this article for readers who are concerned that there will not be enough food to feed their family and she explains why all this is so. It is the rising price of other things that make it harder for us to eat; it also makes it harder for farmers and other corporations to supply food. She explains that when oil and gas prices go up less has to be produce to offset the cost of gas. The change in temperature around the farming lands also have began to make a greater impact on the farming.

Academic Articles Sumeries (Draft 1)

Luther Tweeten and Caial Zulouf writes “Feeding the world” from The futurist (2000) in this they inform us that the world population had reached six billion, and that the world’s death and birth rates are equal. They suggest that the world has more people and less production to allow for an increase in population. It is explained in more of an economic stand point, in which he is informing economist, business men and women that there needs to be a greater supply so that everyone can eat. They also think that if the world continues to populate at the same rate as the supply does then there will someday be a food shortage. We are not just using food to eat and feed other things but to create a better tomorrow like the creation of bio fuels. While having bio fuels and other things may seem like a good thing considering that gas, oil, and coal, causes a lot of pollution and may well be the cause of global warming. The world is then left with another situation since population has reached an all time high.

In David J. Tenenbaum article “Food vs Fuel,” from Current Health …

Kristen Weir wrote “The Food Hike” for Current Health (2008) in which she justifies and builds this article on the basis that there is more demand for food but just not enough for the growing society. She lets us know that we may have a shortage of food because less is being supplied but this is not the only reason people are going hungry. Also there are more resources being needed to produce less of another food, like beef and pork and more is going to other things also. Grains are not just used to feed us, and other animals they are also used to make fuel and experiment with other things. In 2006 one fifth of the US corn was used to make ethanol, and sure this is not a bad thing but considering people do not have enough food. Why use that much of our food to make ethanol. If more farmers decide to change their farm land into produce plants for bio fuels then there will be less farmland to grow on. She writes this article for readers who are concerned that there will not be enough food to feed their family and she explains why all this is so. It is the rising price of other things that make it harder for us to eat; it also makes it harder for farmers and other corporations to supply food. She explains that when oil and gas prices go up less has to be produce to offset the cost of gas. While gas may be a very high factor in the shortage of production it is not just that but also the weather changes that have went on. More food has been destroyed this year alone due to natural disasters then ever before.