Christmas and some other unexpected expenses (coughcoughspeedingticketcoughcough) along with just a desire to get a better grip on my finances has me trying to get serious about reducing expenses .
But it's hard!!!
Also, here are my hang-ups:
* I'm freaking busy. And when I come home from work I'm hungry. I don't want to spend a ton of time cooking a big dinner after a long day at work. Also, although I get that it can be cheaper to make things from scratch I also have to factor in the time that it will take. My time is worth a lot to me. I won't sacrifice three hours to save three bucks.
* It's really just me eating. Isaac is horrendously picky (that's a whole 'nother blog post). There is no point in making a big casserole. Even if I eat it for lunch and dinner the next three days I will never finish it. I need small portions. And sometimes I am just too lazy to make a whole elaborate meal with sidedishes etc. just for me to eat. Also, buying in bulk seems so silly when it's just me.
* I'm not that great of a cook. I'm improving, but I don't have a solid foundation of homemaking skills to build on.
So I stumbled across this article:
35 Ways to Reduce that Grocery Budget . Click on the link to see all of the author's links within the article.
Here is the article and my reactions:
- Buy the least expensive ground beef and rinse the meat to reduce the fat content. I never would have thought of this but I'll give it a try. I usually buy ground turkey instead of ground beef.
- Stop buying baby carrots and cut the carrots yourself. I should totally do this. I'm so lazy though.
- Milk your milk budget by using powdered milk when milk prices are too high. Not really applicable. I only buy soy milk for Isaac to drink and milk occasionally for cooking. This one doesn't really appeal to me.
- Try making your own coffee creamers and syrups to save on your coffee expenses. Not applicable. Don't drink coffee.
- Dispose of disposable items and switch to cloth napkins, washclothes and microfiber cloths to replace your disposable wipes and paper napkins. I should do this. I am better with using cloths for wiping the counters now(it used to totally gross me out). I need to buy cloth napkins too. I don't have them.
- Try to make your own bread using a bread machine or making bread the old fashioned way. Haven't done this. I would give it a shot though. However, I don't eat a lot of bread. If I don't remember to toss the bag in the freezer it usually grows mold before I finish it. Also, I am worried that baking my own bread might take more time than it would be worth in dollar savings. Does that make sense? I'd try though.
- Start keeping a price book to cash in on the best deals. I've been meaning to do this forever. I don't have that many grocery stores around here but there is Target, and Weis. I generally shop at the Giant. I would like to at least get a baseline price for the stuff I normally buy.
- Take advantage of grocery delivery options or free in-store shopping services to help avoid impluse shopping. I will freely admit that I am an impulse shopper. It is worse when I take along another impulse shopper (Isaac). And having groceries delivered is terribly appealing.
- Give wholesale shopping a try for items that you use frequently, just be sure to use your price book to compare the prices. Joining Costco has been on my to-do list forever too, if for nothing else than the tires and the discount movie tickets.
- Start making homemade cleaners. I would give this a try. Goes hand in hand with the "going green" thing too.
- Learn the art of stockpiling and create a system for storing your stockpile that works for your family. I need to get better at this too. My idea of foodstorage is helping myself to my parents pantry.
- Try using coupons and utilizing free coupon services to help you score the best deals for your money. I try to make coupons work-- I really do. They are all over my house. They are stuck inside my purses. They are expired in envelopes in my car. But I don't think they really help me save money. I don't want to buy two of something to save 35 cents. And the store brand is usually cheaper than the discount that I get with coupon, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I don't get it. I can't make it work.
- Start gardening with simple foods that are easy to grow like tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers and squash. I really, really wanted to do this this year but it never happened. I am definitely doing it this coming year. My gardener friend Andrew said he would help me get things going, so that is exciting. I'm so on board with this one.
- Make your own baby food. Not applicable, but I am totally interested in doing it if I ever have the chance to have another go round with a second baby.
- Give cloth diapering a shot! They have come a long way and can save you hundreds and hundreds of dollars! Same comments as above.
- Sign up free samples of food and toiletry items. You will waste less money trying out new products and these samples can get you through when times are more lean. Not so sure about this one. I don't usually remember to use the samples. Also, getting samples usually puts you on annoying e-mail and mailing lists.
- Make your own mixes instead of buying. I love this one. I would love to do this. My mom went to a class on how to do this and I need to get her to give me a tutorial.
- Try shopping at a less expensive supermarket. I have done this to a certain extent. When I lived at my parents I shopped much more at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Now I pretty much only shop at Giant because it is big, clean, close by and new. The Weis and the Aldi's that are near me just seem icky. However, in the name of cutting costs I may need to stop being so snobby. Hopefully the pricebook will help me decide if I should change up my grocery shopping or not.
- Bring your own grocery bags for a grocery bag credit at most supermarkets. Eh. I have a million of those cloth grocery bags and although I have the best intentions I rarely remember to take them to the supermarket with me. Last time I checked they were giving you 5 cents a bag which doesn't seem to add up to that much of a savings. I bring 10 bags and I save a whopping 50 cents.
- Shop at a store that will double your coupons. I guess this assumes you are using coupons. I know the Giant will double ones under a dollar.
- Bring cash and a calculator instead of using your debit card. This will help you stay on a budget better. Oh I should totally do this. The debit card gets me in trouble a lot because I don't often bother to balance my checkbook.
- Utilize a slow cooker so you can buy cheaper cuts of meat and use the slow cooker to tenderize them. I don't have a slow cooker. But it is something I am interested in looking into.
- Make your own condiments like pancake syrup, croutons, and salad dressings. I'm willing to give this a shot assuming I don't have to buy a lot of crazy ingredients and again assuming the time it takes to do this is worth the savings in money.
- Take inventory in your fridge, pantry and freezer to avoid buying repeat and unnecessary items. I could do better at this. I often buy doubles. I also have something halfway made and then realize I am missing an important ingredient.
- Try replacing one evening meal with breakfast foods instead. Most brunch dishes are less expensive and you can omit or stretch meat in these dishes a lot further. I think I've mastered this one! I thought I was just being lazy though. "Hmm, I don't feel like making meat tonight for dinner... How about we have waffles instead?"
- Instead of buying prepackaged bagged ingredients, try prepackaging your own ingredients once a week instead. It will help get dinner on the table faster and save you money on your grocery budget. Doing this helps the portion issue and the time issue I mentioned at the beginning. I would be very interested in this. Anyone have ideas?
- Schedule a day in your kitchen every week to make cooking easier and to save money buying convience foods. So this would be the time to make your dishes and your dinners in a bag. I have done this before but I would like to get it scheduled in more regularly. I'm thinking either Sundays, or the Saturdays that Isaac goes to his dad's. I don't think a week night would realistically happen.
- Make a homemade pizza instead of buying a frozen one. I do this one about half the time. I have bags of frozen pizza dough, cheese and sauce. It doesn't take long to slap them together.
- Give once a month cooking a try to save time/money. Same as above.
- Eliminate meat or make one night a meat free night. I have been trying to reduce the amount of meat we eat (especially red meat). I need to do better at increasing the veggies though. I find my meat free meals are just variations of pasta.
- Make snack items more convenient so you don't have to buy prepackaged goodies. I don't buy tons of snack items. I would like to make my snack items more healthy. This will come into play more when I have to start packing Isaac a lunch again I'm sure.
- Buy your meat in bulk. I do this already. Ideally in the future I would love another freezer to store things in. My freezer is on the small side.
So do any of you have reactions or comments? Other tips? Lay 'em on me.
