S&H Green Stamps and Green Points?

Do any of you remember S&H Green Stamps from when you were a child? I remember that everyone (including my mother) used to collect them. People got them when they made certain purchases at certain grocery stores, gas stations, and other stores. Then, they pasted them into booklets. S&H provided a catalog of items, and each item "cost" a certain number of Green Stamps. You could turn the Green Stamps in as if they were cash to obtain the item. Or, you could go to the Green Stamps store, view the item in question, and "pay" for it in Green Stamps on the spot if you wanted to. The program offered all sorts of things, including small appliances if I remember correctly.

Green Stamps. Follow this link to learn more about the old Green Stamps program.
The article says that the reason the old Green Stamps program worked is that more people were given Green Stamps than actually turned them in. Apparently, this is what retailers who offer rebates count always on, even today. They depend on there being a lot of customers who will never bother to redeem the rebates. However, in my memory, it seems to me that lots of women actually turned the Green Stamps in, and, by dong so, obtained nice little items for their home. I know that both my mother and my mother-in-law did, at any rate.

My mother-in-law is downsizing and is trying to find a home for an item she got through Green Stamps. So, I decided to Google the item to see if I could find out if the item had any value today or if anyone would want it.

To my surprise, my Google search turned up a home page for S& H Green Stamps. I had thought that Green Stamps were a thing of the past, but apparently, they're still around in the form of a Green Points program. (This Green in Green Stamps or Green Points has nothing to do with being environmentally "green".)

Guess what! The Green Points program is still taking the old Green Stamps. You can use the Green Stamps alone or you can combine them with the newer green points. I would imagine that there are some older women out there with completed Green Stamps booklets lying around in a drawer, so maybe they can get some use out of the old stamps.

The old Green Stamps had just about disappeared by the time I married, so I never got a chance to use them for myself. It seems to me, though, that the homemakers of my mother's generation found them to be a great value. I think this was because you were given the stamps for lots of purchases that you need to make anyway, such as gasoline, and because Green Stamps catalogs and stores were such a large program with lots of offerings. I remember picking out items with my mother and helping her save toward them.

I wonder how the new Green Points program stacks up. Is it a thrifty plan, too, or does it actually end up costing you money?

Until very recently, Betty Crocker used to have a points program, sort of like Green Stamps except that you got points only when you bought their products. I did collect Betty Crocker box top points at various times throughout twenty-seven years of marriage. However, with the exception of flatware which I didn't need, I never thought that the Betty Crocker bargains were that great. While you could actually "buy" an entire item using only Green Stamps, the Betty Crocker points generally gave you only a discount off of an item and you had to pay to make up the difference. It took a whole lot of box top points to get the best discount that BC offered for an item. And, the item was priced so high to begin with that the discount only bought it down to fair market value, in my opinion.

The catalog was enticing, though, because it offered some items you could only get through Betty Crocker. So, I started saving the points again. But, wouldn't you know? Betty shut down her program.

(Betty is a real woman who lives in a 1960's kitchen and who teaches real children how to cook. I have held on to her children's cookbook since I was ten years old, and it has quotes from her students and from Betty herself in it, so I know this is so. If you think otherwise, please do not disillusion me. Yes, Virginia, there is a Betty Crocker...)

Back to the Green Stamps and the Green Points: Hey all you thrifty readers out there, tell us what your findings have been. Have you used the new Green Points program? If so, what do you think of it? How do you think it compares to the old program? Do any of you have any memories of the old Green Stamps? Tell us about them.

Here's the link in case you want to check it out for yourself: Green stamps

Keep in mind, I have not tried this yet. So, I can't comment one way or the other about whether it's a good program or not. I'm depending on some of you thrifty experts to weigh in on this for us.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth

Question about Thrift: Has anyone done the math on this?....I'd love to hear from you all.

I have a homemaking book that was written in the 70's, the decade when gas prices first skyrocketed to...gasp...at least $1.00 a gallon!

"Big deal!" you say.

You have to remember that this was a huge leap from the approximately $0.39 cents that Americans generally paid right before gas prices first skyrocketed in 1973-74. And, we thought the early 1973 price of $0.39 was high compared to the $0.15 to $0.25 of just a few years prior.
In case you're too young to remember all of that, let me just say that in the U.S. in the 1960's and early 1970's, gas was plentiful and cheap. Plus, stations waged "gas wars" in which they tried to under-sell each other, and the competition drove already low prices even lower.

Back in the day, no one dreamed of pumping his or her own gas! All stations were full service. The attendant would not only fill your tank, but would wash your car windows and check your oil and windshield wiper fluid, too. And, he'd give you a little present just for making a purchase! Of course, these gas station gifts were inexpensive promotional items, a few of which were truly useful and many of which went right into the trash. However, my late mother collected a set of "Love is..." glasses from a station that offered a new one each week, and my father still has some of those glasses until this day.

I can't imagine that the cost of driving from store to store or from errand to errand was much of a consideration for the 1960's housewife. I wasn't an adult then, and, therefore, I wasn't responsible for a household budget. So, I can't say that for sure. However, the attitude of the times was, "Have wheels; gas is cheap; will travel!"

There's no doubt that since the 1970's, the cost of gasoline has been a factor in working out how to be frugal. After the initial gas crisis in 73-74, gas prices dropped back down to around $0.50. They bounced up again to around a dollar, and they stayed in the $1.00 to $1.50 range until not that long ago. As we all know, prices have seriously spiked again. We all experienced another round of sticker shock when prices exceeded $3.00 a gallon.

I don't know how to compare the two big 1970's gas crises to the ones we've experienced in the 2,000's. Of course, every dollar that you spent at the pump back then was worth comparatively more than a dollar is worth today. A dollar was also a higher percentage of an average salary. However, some figures do indicate that today's high gas prices, when adjusted for inflation, have an even greater impact on our pocketbooks than the earlier price hikes did.

Anyhow, I personally married and set up housekeeping in 1980 -- before some of you dear readers were even born. The 1970's-based advice in my homemaking book pretty much still applied to my situation.

Here's a scenario that this book presented: You normally shop at Store A, which generally has your area's best prices for groceries, toiletries, and other staples. However, you also watch the weekly fliers from other stores. One week, Store B offers an item -- let's say a ham -- at an incredible price. (I'm assuming this amazing sale on hams would be one of Store B's loss leaders.) Otherwise, your overall grocery ticket at Store A would still be lower than your total ticket at Store B. Is it worth your while to do the bulk of your week's shopping at Store A and drive to Store B in order to buy the ham, too?

The author's conclusion was that -- given the price of gas at the time -- that it was not worth your time and money to drive to Store B to purchase only one item -- no matter how much you might save on that item. The author's rule of thumb was that a trip to Store B would be cost-effective only if Store B offered at least five items at considerable savings to you. These would need to be five items that you planned to buy -- not five things that you put in your shopping cart simply because they were on sale.

Now, I personally find that there are other factors to consider: Would you pass store B on your route to some other errand this week? If you're going to pass it anyway, why not pop in for the incredible ham? Do you have a freezer? Then, why not pick up five hams, provided that the store hasn't set a limit on the number each customer can buy?

On the other hand, if you are pressed for time and you also have four tired and hungry children with you, it might not be worth your while to stop -- even if your travels take you right in front of store B.

Another thing to consider: Do you run a home business or work from home? Do you practice thrift and frugality so that you can afford to stay home -- in which case being frugal is, in a sense, your home business? In scenario #1, you might figure that your time is worth more than the savings of stopping to buy the incredible ham at store B. In scenario #2, you might conclude that stopping at store B is a fantastic use of your time. There is a time to save time over money, and there is a time to save money over time -- not that these two commodities are always mutually exclusive.

In the past, I've seldom driven to a store just to buy one sale item. I'm talking about smaller items here. When it comes to big-ticket items -- such as furniture or appliances -- that's another matter entirely. If my hubby and I are looking at big savings, we can spend more gas money to drive some distance and still come out ahead.

Re groceries and such, I usually look at how I do on average in one store when compared to shopping in another store. I generally patronize the store that offers the most consistently reasonable prices and leave it at that. Let's say, for example, that store A charges more for bananas and bread than store B does, but it generally charges less for peanut butter, milk, and chicken. At store A, my total grocery bill is consistently less than when I shop at Store B. In that case, I will generally patronize Store A, even though store B might have a few particular items that are better deals.

However, I do sometimes alternate where I shop in order to take advantage of each store's best deals. For example, I might load up at Sam's once or twice a month, buying only those things at Sam's that definitely save me money.

And, my week's schedule often takes me hither, thither, and yon, so I have many occasions to pass stores other than where I usually shop. Once in a while, it may be either more timely or more cost-effective for me to stop by another store on my way home from a jaunt to some place across town.

Now that Wal-Mart no longer carries sewing supplies and our local Hancock's has closed :(, I have to drive about twenty minutes or so to get to a fabric store. Now, I enjoy a particular fabric store, and I've always done some of my fabric shopping there. Usually, I have a coupon that I can use at my favorite store. But, I'm wondering if the price of gas eats into my coupon savings. I have other reasons to travel to that area of town, so I try to visit that fabric store when I already have a reason to be there. It doesn't always work out that way, though.

Also, I love trips to the Dollar Store, where I find little gifts, inexpensive cards and wrapping materials, the awesome Awesome Brand cleaner, and useful little items to put in care packages for my adult children. But, if I burn up two bucks driving to the Dollar Store, would I be better off buying items of a little nicer quality and just a little higher price in a store closer to my home? Hmm...

While I basically have the concept in mind that a trip to a store equals the price of an item plus gas plus car maintenance plus time, I have never figured out an exact system for measuring all of those things. I don't even know if the "five items on sale" figure is as reliable a rule of thumb in 2007 as it was in 1980.

What do y'all think? How do you factor in your gas expenses and your time when it comes to visiting various stores to find bargains? Do you think this is important? Or, no? If you do think it's important, how much does this weigh in your daily decisions.

I'd love to see your comments.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth