50 Ways to Leave you Richer — Part IV
November 19th, 2005 | by mbhunter |
iz Pulliam Weston posts an article on 50 Ways to Trim your Budget. The points in this series of posts will be taken from her list in this article.
This installment will address food costs. I hope you enjoy this series!
23) Bring lunches and snacks to work.
Buying snacks at work involves paying a huge markup. I went around with a gentleman who was selling a small vending machine route, and he revealed that his markup was about 100% above the price at a wholesale club. This is one time that you pay dearly for convenience.
24) Cook once, eat twice: Double whatever you’re making and freeze the excess for a later meal.
Just be sure that you don’t forget about the saved portion! Tossing it out is tough.
25) Make at least one or two meatless meals each week.
The idea here is that meat is expensive, and there are non-meat ways to get the protein you need. Additionally, you don’t get all of the cholesterol and fat that you do with some meats, so by some measures it’s healthier, too.
26) Avoid over-packaged, over-processed and highly advertised foods. The closer a food is to its natural state, the less it tends to cost.
Packaging costs. Cartoon characters cost. Storage on the shelf costs. One exception: once the movie has been released and there’s no longer a need for advertising the movie, the Shrek version of M&Ms shows up at discount grocery stores, as do Star Wars Pez dispensers, etc.
27) Buy fruits and vegetables in season.
Large supply means lower prices, and it’s fresh.
28) Cruise through your fridge daily to use items before they go bad.
This is related to #24 above. A corollary to this is to buy only what you know you’ll go through before it spoils. The 10-lb bag of carrots is cheaper per pound than the 5-lb bag, but if you only get through 6 lbs before they rot, the carrots ended up being more expensive than if you had bought only 5 lbs or even three 2-lb bags.
29) Give up a vice (smoking, drinking, soda, salty snack foods).
Even better than bringing your own snacks to work is giving them up if they’re really not that good for you. One time my grandfather measured out how much sugar was in a single can of regular Coke. It’s almost a tenth of a pound; a 12-pack has a pound of sugar in it. She didn’t believe it, but the food scale wasn’t lying. So if you need motivation to kick a soda habit, that may do it.
30) Use the weekly grocery store circulars to see what’s on sale and plan meals accordingly.
We’re going to be having sweet potatoes for a while — 29 cents a pound!
That’s it for this installment! Next: Personal Finance and Retirement!
5 Responses to “50 Ways to Leave you Richer — Part IV”
By Sharon Harvey Rosenberg: AKA The Frugal Duchess on Nov 20, 2005 | Reply
Hi:
I love that list. I also save money by packing lunch. Every now and then, I will splurge, but I really try to avoid spending money on daily tuna sandwiches.
The math is scary. $6 a day, $30 a week,
$120 a month or $1,440 a year…for a simple sandwich. I don’t think so.
I enjoy your site so much and about the shoes? How do you manage with two different sizes…Details please.
Take care and thanks so much for stopping by the blog.
By mbhunter on Nov 20, 2005 | Reply
Sharon,
It’s interesting that you mention the yearly cost of a daily sandwich. The little things add up, and, a la David Bach, can cost hundreds of thousands od dollars in one’s retirement account.
As for the shoes, I make do … I just buy two pair and donate the off sizes to the National Odd Shoe Exchange. It’s not quite so difficult now to find matching styles, but when I was growing up I had a boy’s size right foot and a man’s size left foot for a couple of years. That was tough to match styles.
By Steve McGarrett on Nov 21, 2005 | Reply
I have a BAD habit of eating fast food, but over the course of the last year I’ve been able to do so cheaply.
Burger King prints a survey on the back of each receipt, that when filled out w/ a validation code, is good for a free Whopper or chicken sandwich.
The survey takes maybe five minutes over the phone (automated) and is well worth the price of a free sandwich.
When using the receipt I order medium fries and a medium drink. With tax it comes to $2.57. It might not be gourmet, but you can’t beat the price for the quantity of food you get!
By mbhunter on Nov 21, 2005 | Reply
Eating out is the biggest soft spot in our budget, though we try to not pull out all the stops when we go to a restaurant. It would be much better if we fixed our meals more often.
As far as fast food goes, the Dollar Value Meals at McDonald’s are fair value. I like my McChickens.
By James Hendrickson on May 2, 2006 | Reply
Thanks Mbhunter…
Eating out is a big expenditure. If you do decide to go out, a good way to save is by not ordering drinks or a soda. Instead get some tap water.