One item that saved us a bundle is cutting back on cell phone bills. I have a home phone already due to work, and we hardly ever use our cell phones. Went to a pay as you go setup, they now cost $6-8/mo. I do feel a bit behind the times, but we can persevere.
I always add this into threads about saving money\how to eat better: don’t buy the cheapest frozen veggies. Don’t buy the generic lines of stuff except for corn. Premium broccoli and spinach in particular will have more florets\leaves and fewer stalks.
I think you should really plan out your meals: it all starts from there. I’m having a hell of a time adjusting to cooking and buying for 1 versus for 2. I made all of our meals to serve 4 or 5 and we ate the leftovers for lunch like clockwork. So meal plan for 4 and eat the leftovers the next day.
Nut butters are your friend. Pack hubby a variety of vegetable sticks (fresh in this case) and a little ziploc container of a nut butter. Greek yogurts are your friend as well - NOT Fage but Trader Joe’s house brand.
And chicken thighs are your friend. Best cut of the chicken, tastier and cheaper than breasts.
It won’t necessarily save you money, but if you somehow find out that you can get 35 years worth of deoderant for $1.80 total, consider donating some of the extra to a food shelf or shelter. In addition to it just being a good thing to do, you can probably get a tax write off for it. The warm fuzzies you get can be a mood lifter.
And some fresh vegetables freeze just fine - I always have little baggies of chopped up frozen green peppers in my freezer, because they are very expensive here, and I found I was buying one to use for a dinner, then not using it so it went bad. Now I just chop it up and freeze it as soon as I buy it. You can experiment with which veggies freeze best - just freeze them and find out.
Yes - be wary of false economies and things that are just plain yucky. I try to buy my frozen peas & green beans at Trader Joes, as they are BY FAR the best, but spinach I will personally buy any ol’ brand because I am usually adding it to sauce, lasagna, etc. so the difference in taste/texture is fairly immaterial (to me). Point being, if something is gross to you, or of such low quality you can’t enjoy it, it’s a waste of money no matter how cheap it is.
In general the best advice you’ve recieved so far is meal planning. When you know what you need you waste less and that’s the best savings of all.
The freezer is really a huge help to saving money on your grocery bill. You can shop sales and freeze the extras and cook larger portions and freeze the leftovers too. Freezing also helps with the waste element of shopping. I love bananas but I eat them fresh only at a specific point in ripeness and I don’t always feel like making banana bread with the rest. Now I peel them, freeze them and then toss the pieces into a ziploc bag. A couple pieces with some yogurt makes a great smoothie. Onions I rarely use a whole one since I’m the only one who likes them so when I’m dicing what I need for a meal I chop the whole onion and add what I don’t need to another ziploc I keep in the freezer. It also holds extra peppers and mushrooms. When there’s a bunch in there I make an omlette.
People who pay full price for paper products make my head hurt. Around here toilet paper, tissues and paper towel are on sale for 50-60% off at least once every couple of months. Every time I see the sale I evaluate my current supplies and usually stock up. I started this to justify my preference for Royale over Kirkland toilet paper but it’s so easy and I don’t use a ton of storage space either - just one shelf in each bathroom for toilet paper, the little space behind the dogfood container for tissues and a shelf in the basement for paper towel.
Food expenses are a bunch chunk of our expenses. Some nights it’s just “easier” to pick up McDonald’s for everyone instead of making something. It adds up really quick though. Just go through your bank statement and look at all those misc foods expenses that could be avoided, you might be surprised.
As many people mentioned above, look for the sales and also coupons. My wife just started to get into couponing and it really pays off. I’m not sure of her exact system, but it’s saving us at least 30% or more when normally we’d be glad saving 10%-15% on a trip. She is really getting into it and said her last trip to the local grocery store, she bought $110 worth of items and it came down to $35 with all the coupons. She even cleared some shelf room in the basement for the non perishables. She watches that Extreme Couponing show where they spend like $1,000 and get it all for like $20. We can’t do that good as our town is small and we don’t have many big stores (~10,000 people), but you could probably do better depending on your options.
I notice that lots of people who say they spend too much on groceries go to the store with no plan. They wander up and down the aisles dropping stuff into their carts.
I shop for the groceries for my family of three. Ahead of time I plan six dinners a week. (We eat out on Friday nights.) I make a grocery list including the ingredients I’ll need for the week’s meals, breakfast and lunch stuff and other items that we are about to run out of (peanut butter, ketchup, etc.) And I stick to that list. I also plan the meals around the grocery store’s special deals for the week. I do not buy paper products or cleaning supplies at the grocery store. I get those and most health and beauty stuff at Walmart–again with a list of what to buy for the week.
We end up spending only the money we need to get through the week and we have very little the waste that can come from buying things we don’t really need and/or throwing out stuff that never gets used.
You can save a good amount of money in grocery shopping. With produce I try to aim for three things: Raw, unbagged, and in season. This will usually be the least expensive, especially compared to frozen or canned items or stuff that is out of season.
You’ll probably have to learn how to cook some new things to use up the produce or may even get tired of eating some items, but I like to think of it as a game to see how many different ways I can prepare one food (such as carrots or squash.) Root vegetables are especially good right now because they are so cheap. Squashes can last quite a good while, even unrefrigerated, as long as they are not cut.
Protein is another area where you can save money. Many people go straight for the skinned boneless chicken breasts. Those are flavorless in my opinion and usually the most expensive cut of chicken. If you don’t mind the extra effort in skinning, you can try chicken thighs. You’ll easily save at least a dollar a pound and imo they have much more flavor.
My ex’s father used to prepare the thighs very simply. Wet each one under the faucet, coat with bread crumbs, arrange on a sprayed pan, and bake at 450 degrees for an hour. Came out perfect every time! You can store the leftovers and reheat them, or cut them up to use the meat for other dishes without having to waste any. By far, it is way better than buying other meats or any canned meat.
In terms of meatless protein, you can get some protein and fiber from beans, brown rice, and lentils. I have a simple go-to recipe for all three. You can do these all together or separately in a rice cooker. I’m sure you could probably do it in a crockpot but I haven’t tried it. Basically, you just measure out however much of the beans/rice/lentils you’ll want to cook (again, this is another good item you can make extras for leftovers) and cover with enough water to submerge the rice/lentils/beans. I toss in two or three chicken bouillon cubes, some crushed garlic, and add chopped onions, mushrooms, carrots, and celery for flavor. If your a fan of miso paste and have any on hand, that’s nice to put a tablespoon full in there too. It smells great while it cooks and tastes great, too! Not to mention that it’s full of fiber, protein, and vitamins from the vegetables.
Everyone is focusing on food, so I’ll go in a different direction…
You don’t mention in your OP if you have any debt, or use credit cards at all. So all of this is purely generic…
If you do use credit cards, naturally the recommendation is to never carry a balance - paying credit card interest is a big waste of money.
If you do have any debt, spend some time figuring out what you are paying in interest - you may well be able to lower your rate in a variety of ways. You may be able to get a “consolidation loan” through your bank or credit union. Or you may be able to take advantage of low balance transfer rates by opening a new card account. (Be careful of these - sometimes they advertise a low rate but have a transfer fee - so a 5.99% rate + 3% transfer fee actually cost you 8.99%.)
Again, these may not apply in your case…
I agree with tracking spending.
We do all of our spending on one credit card. Every couple of days I log into my account and take the recent charges and categorize them in an Excel spreadsheet- gas, groceries, house stuff, subscriptions, meals out, fun stuff, etc. Then I graph the cumulative total of all categories, to see what I’m spending in each category relative to the other categories. It’s amazing- for instance, our grocery spending is far and away our largest category, then gas is maybe 60% of groceries, then they go down from there. It really helps me visualize what I’m spending, which has helped me give extra thought to things I think I need- “I don’t want that category to get any higher, and I really don’t need this”, sort of thing.
I’m surprised that where you live, supermarket produce prices are quite signficantly affected by seasonality.
Where I live, the price of produce in large supermarkets are hardly affected by seasonailty. It will almost never be the case that fresh is cheaper than frozen. Just about never. Farmer’s markets are MUCH more expensive than the grocery store. Double to quadruple. I agree that canned veggies are rarely a good deal; since most people don’t like them they are automatically a bad deal.
I think I eat pretty darn well and, converting into UK£, for about half as much per week per person as the OP. I’m by no means hard up, however, so am trying to frame this post to cutting the OP’s food budget.
Much of what I eat is fresh(ish) and pretty much none is pre-processed (other than dried, tinned with water or brine, or a commodity good such as pasta).
I don’t plan all of my meals, but I’ve got a system of things that I buy so that I can rustle up things that I like.
Over the years I’ve come up with a theory of satiation that keeps food costs down without having to “suffer”:
[ul]
[li]Home grown food is infinitely better than anything else. If you can grow something and use it as an ingredient, your pride in it will outstrip it not being as big or as pretty as the stuff in the store. Also, it just tastes better. I’ve yet to properly do this one, but it even works when your parents have grown it :)[/li]
[li]There are very few things that aren’t better when home-made. And it’s not just because you’ve put the time and effort in or that the raw materials are cheaper than the processed product. The less processed, the cheaper is just about a universal law of grocery shopping.[/li]
[li]You can get free food out of thrift. Those fish heads or chicken carcasses or ham bones will convert magnificently into stock. Going up-market, cooking a $30 duck’s carcass for 8 hrs on really low will yield about $15 worth of rillettes. And some stock![/li]
[li]Patience is a virtue. Marinades and slow cooking are probably the two cheapest ways of upgrading your food without paying more or of reducing the price of your food without feeling that you’re stinting. I pickle fish and do my own meat curing, which can take weeks - my first attempt at pancetta is maturing as I type (it is starting to smell right, which I hope is a good sign).[/li]
[li]Use restaurants as idea factories. Because I’m now pretty good at cooking, I won’t get anything I know I can make pretty well unless I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not worth the faff - I’ve made gnocchi before but it took me absolutely ages, so that’s allowed. I think I make better risotto (to my taste, YMMV) than most restaurants, so that’s not. I would never have thought of replacing rice with barley in a risotto if it hadn’t been for a meal I had on graduation day. It’s a staple recipe now…[/li]
[li]Redefine treats, or have them sparingly. One of my favourite things during college was a tub of single cream with several teaspoons of sugar in. It was just about the cheapest really nice thing I could afford at the time. The other one was a big bag of ham ends from the deli counter. My mam would buy a cream cake for herself and her mother on pay day.[/li]
[li]Learn substitutions. Leeks and onions are freely interchangeable. Judge value from garlic clove/head size rather than it’s class (I don’t know how they pack it up in the US, but Class I garlic here generally ends up meaning pretty but small cloves while Class II are cheaper, not as pretty but bigger and just as tasty). When cooking, tinned tomatoes are usually as good as fresh, etc , etc.[/li]
[li]Learn to use bulking ingredients. A gluten allergy rules out many grains, but beans, eggplant, zucchini, potato and pulses can be used to stretch a recipe out while maintaining flavour. Herbs and spices will intensify the flavour, and there’s not a noticeable difference between brand name and commodity versions.[/li]
[li]Redefine treats (pt 2) Fine, asparagus is special (not to my taste though). Can you manage without the imported out of season version from the southern hemisphere? I think you can. That makes the local seasonal version even more of a treat - the fact that you can only get it in a tiny timeframe.[/li]
[li]Learn to deal with a glut. Anyone who’s ever grown zucchini will tell you it all comes at once and you’ve got to use it or waste it. The same principle works with stuff that’s on an insanely good offer at the store. There’s a thread elsewhere on cafe soc I noticed today about how to work one’s way though 80lb of chicken thighs. Mostly this will come down to recipe variations, freezing and preserves. My dad makes his own marmalade when there’s a glut of oranges at the market. I get a regular supply of pickles and chutneys from my mam, mostly from their own garden.[/li]
[li]Find out what you really like. I’ll admit right now that I have a weakness for Fray Bentos pies. I don’t have them often, and could not find an own brand version that I liked as much. The same applies to Heinz ketchup and Lea & Perrins’ Worcestershire sauce. They are the only brand name items in my pantry that I get regularly - the few others are only purchased when there’s an offer on.[/li]
[li]My biggest saving, though, is this:** DO NOT EVER BUY SANDWICHES!!** Admittedly, I work where the local sandwich shop is about a mile from the next nearest one so the prices a a touch inflated but even allowing for the prices in town I still save at least 50% by virtue of buying (or making) bread and filling separately.[/li][/ul]
This last tip really applies to anything where you’re paying for the convenience ie Coffee, Salad dressing, those lovely stuffed olives you like.
Look into the “cash envelope system” - not just for groceries, but for most expenses that can be paid for with cash. You’ll find it’s a lot easier to “not spend” the money when you have to pay for it with cash rather than swipe a card. It really helped us reign in our spending.
I eat on the cheap. For me, it was a matter of establishing a set of recipes that use really inexpensive ingredients, and having them flavorful enough that it feels filling and satisfying.
I tend to eat quinoa with brown sugar and cardamom for breakfast, and vegetable bean or lentil soup for either lunch or dinner every day. I tend to use a lot of spices, so that it never feels boring or that I’m eating the same thing over and over again. I really like all of the bean and lentil recipes from Manjula’s Kitchen, which you can find online. I also like Misr Wot, the Ethiopian lentil stew, and African sweet potato and peanut stew. Curry is somewhat more expensive, since you have to buy the coconut milk, but it’s not bad if you use tofu for the protein and make the curry paste yourself from scratch.
If you do buy meat, fish, or shellfish, buy them whole, and use the bones, heads, and shrimp shells to make broth. You can also use vegetable peelings and vegetables that are somewhat past their prime to make broth. For example, if I get whole shrimp, I’ll eat the shrimp at one meal, then boil the shells and heads with an onion and a carrot to make shrimp broth, then add tofu and some vegetables to get another meal. You can use the broth to make egg drop soup, or, if you have shrimp broth, Tom Yum soup.
I stock up on staples like dry beans and rice, canned tomatoes, vegetable oil, cheese, and nuts (the last two go in the freezer) at Costco once a year, and buy fresh vegetables, eggs, and occasionally meat to supplement it. I find that the cheapest place to buy spices, herbs, and vegetables is typically at ethnic markets, especially an Asian or Hispanic superstore if you can find one.
Yes, I eat natural foods, but not expensive organic items. I shop the discount stores and garage sales. Mostly for the last 30 years I have survived by exchanging services for products. I acquired a nearly new GMC Sierra for $700, which I have been driving for the last five years. I recently purchased HUD foreclosure distressed property that last sold for $98,000. I bid $22,050 and was accepted. Almost nothing is wrong with the property. The point is that I concentrate on the bigger things for the real gains.
Nobody’s brought up the Simple Dollar website - a very nice mix of financial philosophy, practical advice and money-saving tips. I subscribe to the feed.
In 2008, business tanked and I had a couple of very tough years, then I bought another very fixer-upper house and while work has picked up again, a lot of what I make is going into the houses now. Which means my “frivolous” Targasm-type/J Crew/recreational shopping spending has taken a major hit. That was an adjustment. Both houses I bought (one for cash) were in very rough shape…but I don’t have a giant mortgage.
No tricks to making the adjustment - it’s mostly out of necessity: It just seems frivolous and wasteful to spend a lot of money on shoes and CDs and decor now. Which isn’t to say I don’t, but it’s a very occasional thing.
I get a great deal of satisfaction getting great deals on used or deeply discounted stuff - Habitat for Humanity Restore, or craigslist, for building and home supplies. EBay for last year’s model LL Bean or Ed Hardy snow boots. Estate and garage sales for just about anything. When my income dwindled, I learned to rejoice in my inner hunter-gatherer and really enjoy hunting for good deals.
Also, bartering. I’m a painting contractor and over the years have bartered for about $10.000 worth of dental work, massages, hair cut and color, carpentry and plumbing, a Dodge van, a Rottweiler puppy, furniture and clothing, all sorts of things.
Car maintenance - I know a couple of good shade tree mechanics who will do basics like oil changes and tune ups and brakes basically for beer money, and I buy the parts.
Also the last new vehicle I bought was in 1995 (and I still drive it) - all others I’ve paid cash for. This means I don’t drive shiny newer vehicles - but I don’t have car payments or full-coverage insurance either. If you do some research and buy wisely, you don’t have to drive rusty clunkers…my 10-year-old minivan cost me $2200, has under 150,000 miles, leather, premium stereo, remote this and power that, almost everything works, no dents or noticeable rust.
Everyone else has chimed in on the grocery bills - even eating gluten-free $175 a week for groceries seems outrageously high to me. I eat a ton of vegetables and healthful foods and nice food is one of my downfalls - but when I tracked my spending, I found that I spent about $50 a week on groceries for myself on average. And that’s eating fairly lavishly, I think. That includes the olive bar, some deli items, Starbucks ground coffee, plenty of fresh fruit and veg, on a regular basis.
Some more ideas in response to the OP:
Utilities: insulate the crap out of your house (don’t know where you live, mind you.) Some utility companies will send someone out to do an audit if you ask them to, for free. They’ll point out all the ways you can save energy. Everything from new windows to using curly light bulbs. Also ask about averaging out your payments, if you’re in an area where, say, summers your payments are low but winter is very high because of heating. Plastic over the windows if you have leaky ones and live where it’s cold. Learn to enjoy cooler temperatures indoors.
Gas: maintain vehicles and keep tires properly inflated. Use a grocery store or gas station that gives you a gas discount if you spend x amount per month.
Pets: annual vaccinations may not be necessary; many shelters and rescues hold low-cost vaccination clinics. If you qualify for a CARE credit card for unexpected vet bills, get one.
Toiletries and cleaning supplies: Dollar stores are your friend.
Extra income: sell whatever skills you have - petsitting, house cleaning, web design, freelance writing, blogging, eBay/reselling items, garage sales, making lampshades (I know someone who did very well making custom lampshades) shovelling snow, baby- or elder-sitting, whatever.
I’m going to start big and then go down small.
I’ve heard that if you have the money, paying down you debts is good WHILE adding to your rainy day fund. (So as not to find yourself penniless when you really need it.)
With credit cards, you can call and tell them you have an offer from so-and-so for less interest and often they’ll reduce yours.
Use a credit union (with compound interest!) that doesn’t charge a checking fee.
Also, they’re usually better places to go if you need to refinance something.
Believe it or not, you can negociate your utility bills. Your power company probably has a plan or two that better fits your budget. (And if you have any of those little ceramic heaters & can place them in a room or two—safely set away from anything that could burn, they help a lot and don’t add that much to your bill.) Your cable company has packages they don’t tell you about unless you ask. Right now I’v got ours to (I think) as low as I can get it for a while. Phone/cable/Internet bundle, $113 a month.
We only get the paper delivered when it’s “on special” (half price to new customers.) When the deal runs out we do w/o for a few weeks till the next special and guess what, you’re New again.lol
About groceries…I keep a folder with an inventory list of everything in the freezer. We get our food store flyers on Wednesday, so sometime Tuesday I’m looking at the list & thinking of “maybe” meals. On Wed. I see what’s on sale. Our store has Buy One Get One Free every week, sometimes on several different meats. And I always buy two—because I’m only paying for one. But before we go grocery shopping, I write down the sale foods we’re going to get and also look at my inventory list. From those I make out a 7-day list of menues, including side items (til next Wed.) and THEN on my grocery list I put whatever ingredients I’m going to need. (And I later keep that list of menues in the folder—each week I can glance thru them if I want and immediately come up with a weeks’ worth of meals. Now I add the “extras.” Ice cream, chips, cokes, whatever—but limit those for the budget & our health. Oh, and clip coupons for sure.
Go to the Dollar Store for shampoo, deoderant, toilet paper etc. Ours has basics like mustard, Worchestershire sauce, spaghetti noodles…Greeting Cards! You’d be surprised if you’ve never gone before.
If you just feel like shopping, go to the thrift store. They have everything. A lot of it’s good. Or consignment stores if you’re looking for “a little nicer.” And yard sales. “Shop” your closets. Whoa-ho! Stuff you forgot all about. And around here, people set great stuff out on the curb. And then drive around to see what else is out there in case they want THAT.lol I call it hillbilly bait.
Check out DVDs etc at the library. Or use Redbox.
There’s some. If I think of anything else that I think really could be useful, I’ll post again. Good luck (and it can actually be fun.)
Yes a garden can make a big difference in both quality and cost. Just don’t get into a bunch of hobbist expenses. We divide our garden in 3 parts and rotate west every year. 1/3 squash, 1/3 tomatoes, and the last third row crops like corn and beans. We don’t mess with carrots and peas, nice ones from the store are too cheap. I hand spade the row crop section every year. Right now I am raking and dumping leaves where the tomatoes and squash will go next year. I don’t buy bags to have them hauled away. We also have rhubarb, parsnips, and asparagus.