Could have been worse. He could have been feeding the scraps to his dog to fatten it up for the holidays.
One simple thing to do is keep records. Write down everything you spend money on for two months. Then you can see where your money is actually going. That will help you realize where you can make cuts and where you need to make cuts.
The best way to cut down on your grocery budget is to take only cash to the grocery store. Decide that you are only going to spend $50 (or whatever) on your food this week and take only that much cash and nothing else (no cards, checks etc) to the store.
This will force you to really pay attention to what you are spending and how much things cost. You can’t go over budget because you can’t!
I know this thread is about being thrifty rather than being a Scrooge, but I have mentioned here before that i had relatives who would go to funerals of people they didn’t know so they could get a free feed at the wake.
Anyway, the $5 rule- you can make it any denomination. When I first started it was a $2 rule but seeing Australia doesn’t have 2 dollar notes anymore (see separate thread about the US and pennies :D). If you really want to get around it you simply ask for no $5 notes in your change, but I have never been desperate enough to do that.
As for shopping fortnightly (biweekly) I was surprised how much I did save. I haven’t quite worled out all the dynamics but I think it coincided with a period when we cut out pre prepared snacks such as frozen pies and started making our own. Obviously you do need to do in between shopping for things like milk, but I think our grocery bill went down by about 1/3, which is a nice saving.
Things that are working for me:
Kill cable, make use of hulu and Netflix and the library to watch many of the shows you want to watch.
Use a coffee pot instead of a Keurig, make more than I’m going to drink in the morning, and bring the extra to work in a travel mug to heat up at lunch, so I’m not tempted to buy coffee later. I also bring my lunch to work, usually leftovers.
Buy in bulk when you’re able to, but only if you know you can use or safely store the whole amount. If you can’t, consider splitting stuff with a friend. My Costco membership has paid for itself several times over. Always check the unit prices, though, because not everything is actually a deal - toilet paper, for example, can be cheaper at Target, but only if they’re having a good sale.
Using less dishwasher soap, or less laundry soap, will almost always get the job done just as well as the “recommended” amount, so start using half and see how it goes. The manufacturers are trying to prevent this by marketing convenient “power packs” of detergent, so don’t buy those!
The biggest savings, for me, is using up what I already have. I love the idea of switching to vinegar and baking soda for cleaning, but I still have several bottles of other cleaners, so I’m going to use them up before I switch. I try to use the same mentality with groceries, and use up everything in my pantry and freezer before going shopping again, but it’s a little harder for me.
I want to hang my clothes outside to dry, but with the stinkbug invasion underway, it’s just too much damn hassle to have to search every item and flick off the bugs before bringing them back into the house. I hang some up in the laundry room, where I’ve got a shower curtain rod installed for the purpose, so normally two loads of laundry only adds up to one load of drying.
[QUOTE=Sarabellum1976]
You can water down dish soap 10 parts water 1 part dish soap and put it in one of those foam pump bottles. Buy 1 bottle of dish soap at the dollar store and it will last over a year using this method.
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This works great with liquid hand soap, too. I have foam pump bottles left over from the Bath and Body Works hand soaps someone gave me for Christmas, and I’ve been filling them up with the huge bottles of generic liquid hand soap I picked up at Target forever ago. I find that a 1:6ish ratio works best for those bottles - any more water and they don’t foam quite right. At the rate they’re going, I have enough soap in my house to last for 5 years.
I’ve bought no-name laundry detergent in The Dollar Tree, initially to save for an emergency when the ‘good stuff’ ran out before I went shopping. But I found it works just fine for washing an office worker’s dress shirts and chinos. People get attached to certain brands, fabric softeners, fabric sheets, but I find a half a cap of no-name works as well as anything. It’s not like we wallow in the mud and wet grass all the time. I skip the fabric softeners and sheets, I think they’re unnecessary in many ways, but understand if some folks can’t live without them (and they are often in the Dollar Tree, too). I’ve read that now the dollar stores are doing better business than Walmart selling some items. But would like to point out that just because the name of the store has the word ‘dollar’ in it, (like Family Dollar), that doesn’t mean stuff is cheaper! It certainly looks like its full of cheap items, but the prices are no lower than anywhere else for most items.
It seems to me that my local dollar store just has better prices all around on cleaning supplies. I already mentioned how you can save $35/year just on dish soap. Now add in savings on laundry detergent, fabric softener, glass cleaner, toilet cleaner, bleach, air freshener, the list goes on and on. You can probably save a couple hundred dollars per year, and if you use less product, you save even more and help the environment to boot.
Other things that are most definitely cheaper at dollar stores: greeting cards - 2 for a dollar, usually - compare to $1/each for the cheapest ones at most stores, and $4 or even $5 for a Hallmark one. Is someone REALLY going to turn the greeting card over, see that it’s not Hallmark, and think, WHAT A JERK, buying me a cheap card! No, they are interested in the gift; and most greeting cards wind up in the trash or in a drawer anyway, never looked at again. Why not go cheap?
If you buy, say… 10 greeting cards a year (birthdays, mother’s day, father’s day, anniversary, get well soon, baby/wedding showers) and you spend an average of $4 each, that’s $40. Cut that down to $5, buying at a dollar store. $35.00 per year savings.
Gift wrap, gift bags, party invitations, thank-you notes, party favors, disposable tablecloths, lots of other party stuff. Why pay more than a buck for paper stuff that just gets thrown away when you’re done with it anyway?
If you wrap gifts around 10 times a year, and spend $5 on gift wrap and a bow, or $3 for a gift bag and tissue paper, then you spent between $30 and $50. You can trim that down to $10 or less per year by buying those same items at the dollar store. Save $20-40 per year.
[ul]
[li]Cancel your cable TV and get an antenna. I got a USB adapter and use my computer as a DVR.[/li]
[li]Cancel your home phone. [/li]
[li]Shop for a cheaper phone plan. I’m on boostmobile with unlimited calls and text for $35 a month. If you only make limited calls there are even cheaper options. Check where your local towers are. A phone that doesn’t work isn’t a bargain. [/li]
[li]Learn how to make phone calls on the internet. I’ve got incoming and outgoing for free from Google. That won’t continue forever, but it still can still save some money.[/li]
[li]Don’t leave your AC on all the time. I find leaving the Windows open at night and closing them in the daytime can work find. It it get over 80 inside then turn on turn on the AC. [/li]
[li]Plan ahead and try to combine trips in your car. [/li]
[li]If your car is over 10 years old, drop the collision coverage. It will be cheaper for the insurance company to total your car than repair it.[/li][/ul]
Look for church and temple yard sales on spring and fall weekends, especially in upscale neighborhoods. I picked up a lot of lovely stuff this weekend. My favorites were the $5 Kate Spade handbag, $2 Ralph Lauren mules and the huge box of gorgeous mostly hardcover books for $15. Eldest child has about two dozen name brand good condition clothing items that I was about to get for $15 including an adorable lightweight spring coat and a pair of lined winter boots. The baby has eight new toys I grabbed for $4.
My other piece of advice is to take any money saved and think about investing it in dividend paying stocks. Nothing else is paying any real interest right now including bank savings accounts and t-bills. But our AT&T shares are paying a 6% quarterly dividend that’s taxed at a lower rate than my salary.
Oh, greeting cards and gift wrap have LONG been a thorn in my paw. Nothing against Hallmark, but the price of greeting cards is absolutely ridiculous, as is their gift bags and wrapping paper. You CAN find reasonably nice 2/$1 cards, some of them blank inside, at the dollar store, and a vast selection of gift bags and party supplies.
Another source of free cards is from charities - if you know someone who sends in a few bucks to save-the-oceans or disabled veterans organizations, they get ‘free gifts’ by the armload and not just during Christmas.
Shop at the Mexican market. Really.
Buy SCADS of raw veggies and clean them up and chop them for your snacks. Save the trims and boil them in a huge pot, make your own veggie broth. Strain it through a scrap of old sheeting. Don’t bother with cheesecloth, that crap is useless.
Gear your diet towards vegetarian. Eat beans and lentils for protein, and cook them yourself. Invest in a crockpot.
Soup is your best friend. If you make lots of soup, then baking your own bread will turn the meal into a luxury instead of a budget.
Hang your clothes up when you take them off. If you didn’t sweat or spill anything, you might be able to get another day’s wear from them. I’d stay with clean undies, though.
~VOW
My contrarian view:
I found that scrimping on groceries doesn’t actually result in money saved. Sure, I’d spend a few dollars less at the supermarket by buying only the cheapest of everything. But by the end of the week, I’d be so sick of eating brands I didn’t like, that I’d go out and buy a pizza or something. Usually I’d wind up spending more than if I’d just bought the groceries I prefer in the first place.
Instead, stop buying stuff you don’t need. Cut down on soft drink, frozen meals, snack food and take away. Don’t upgrade your gadgets, keep using them. Use your local library. Listen to radio and podcasts. Instead of buying new stuff, rediscover things you already have. No impulse purchases.
Don’t buy things expecting them to change your behaviour. Buying a gym membership won’t make you exercise. Buying a Kindle won’t make you read. Find a way to change your behaviour first. If you decide to keep it up, you’ll be in a better position to know what gear you need.
When you do buy things, get them to last. I found I was wasting money buying cheap things that would break, or be too annoying to use, so I’d either abandon them or replace them soon after. Now I do my research, spend extra on good quality things, but buy fewer of them.
I found grocery shopping more often helped me save money: when I would plan to not come back for a week or more, I’d overbuy just in case. Now, I go 2-4 times a week, but I just buy what I need: I don’t hoard.
For a different approach: for one month, go on total austerity footing. Just don’t spend ANYTHING you don’t have to. Eat what is in your pantry, however weird and mismatched, turn down all social invitations that cost money, don’t drive anywhere but work, basically just tough it out. Be creative whenever it seems like you “have to” spend something. Don’t worry about sustainability: it’s a one-month trial. At the end of the month, you discover two things: one, the absolutely amazing amount you can save and two, which things you really do care about after all. You can then make an intelligent, sustainable budget.