Are they worth it?
Yes and no. Let me explain.
4 months ago, I started working on a pricebook. I would take it with me, write in about 10 prices every time I went shopping somewhere, & eventually it started to fill up.
4 months ago. That’s all. It’s already wrong. Giant Tiger just silently increased their prices, now half of the prices I have from their store are no longer correct. All the work I put into this pricebook I have to re-do. I don’t think it’s worth the effort.
so it’s worth it if you don’t mind having to constantly recheck prices you just put in the book, but I’m not going to waste any more time tracking prices that are just going to change in a few months.
Before this happened, I would have sworn by it. But instead, I just shop sales & know what I want to pay for each thing I’m buying (for example, canned veggies should never be more than $1, meat is $2/lb or I’m not buying it, & eggs should be around 20 cents each. Anything less is a stock-up price)
I recently got into a debate with someone who’s best point was that they don’t drive, therefore they can’t do groceries easily.
It seemed to me that instead of trying to find ways around their issue, they chose to just make excuses as to why they couldn’t save more money.
This week, chicken breasts went on sale for $1.49/lb at Food Basics. I don’t drive, & Food Basics is almost 4km away from my home. Instead of lamenting the fact that everyone I know who drives would be at work until later (& they’d be sold out by then), I phoned the store & explained that I had to walk there, & asked if they would hold onto 2 boxes for me. They would, & I set out, taking my shopping cart with me.
I didn’t care that it was cold & snowing, it was an incredible buy & I was going to take advantage of it.
When I got to the store, there were 4 boxes left, so I bought all 4. I felt I had earned it after walking 1 hour through a snow squall. I could have taken the bus home, but I was excited about my buy & had energy to spare, so I walked home (again through the snow)
Although at that price, if I had done all my weekly groceries & taken a cab home, I still would have been ahead money (a cab ride wouldn’t have been more than $20, & I saved $30 on the chicken breasts alone, as I usually buy them for $1.99/lb & I bought a lot).
I hear a lot of people justify eating fast food or convenience food because they ‘don’t live near grocery stores’. Well, neither do I. The closest grocery store is about 2km away from me (& it’s the most expensive one, so I won’t shop there). The closest one I’ll shop at is almost 4km away, & I walk there or take the bus. It’s STILL cheaper than eating out at a restaurant.
Of course, the hardest part came when I got home & realized that my freezer was full & fitting 16kg of chicken breasts into it would take some major tetrising. I managed it, but just barely.
I’ll start off by explaining that I live in Canada, & we have $1 & $2 coins.
I don’t use interact when I shop (I have a ‘free’ account at my bank - everytime I make a transaction I pay $1.25). Instead I pull out a bunch of money all at once (usually about $300, my budget for the month), & when it’s gone, I have to stop spending.
It goes pretty fast though, because in a normal month I put close to $70 in the change jar.
Since I pay cash everywhere I go, I get a lot of change back. I also won’t spend the change - it goes into a pocket & my next purchase breaks yet another bill. I do this on purpose, so I can put a lot of change into the jar.
Although I do need to roll it & deposit it into the savings account, I find that I don’t notice the money missing from my monthly budget when I do it this way. If the budget was tighter, I’m sure I’d be more aware of it though, so this works better if you have a looser budget or extra money to stash away
I love your idea with the junk food. I have started doing what you do with not buying junk food and having to make it to eat it. I have found that a lot of time I guess I just don’t want it bad enough to bake it. I’m also trying to feed my family less carbs as my husband is a diabetic and my daughter is borderline and not spend more money.
If all you’re going to do when given ideas on how to save money is to make excuses as to why you can’t do it, then you’re never going to get yourself out of debt.
It’s come to my attention that someone thinks they know more than my medical professional
My previous post, about my diet, has been reblogged with the added comment “Oh purleeeeeeaaaaze!
Borderline diabetic? Is that even a thing? This all sounds like pure bullshit to me. Same goes for the doctor’s advice to cut down on bread, pasta, potatoes and rice. There’s nothing wrong with these staple foods (unless you’re actually allergic to them). I don’t know why you went on about transfats and “junkfood” because those are completely unrelated to the complex carbohydrates your doctor dismisses as unhealthy.
I suggest asking the doctor some critical questions, researching the topic and maintaining a healthy dose of skepticism.”
I’ll address my issues with this in order.
A) Borderline diabetic - I am ALMOST a diabetic, I have a blood sugar that’s only a few points off of what is considered diabetic. If I control my diet, I can prevent being classified as a diabetic.
B) This blog isn’t about my health as much as it’s about saving money. I try to explain why I do certain things, & last time I checked, junk food has no nutritional value for the money you put into it. I explained why I cut down junk food, but if I had known someone was going to take offense to it, I would have just skipped it & said ‘junk food is bad for you’.
C) Ever hear of a little thing called CARBS? Diabetics can’t handle a lot of unrefined sugar & carbs, the exact things you find in pasta, potatoes, bread, & rice.
With that said, if I was to switch to brown or whole grain foods (where the ‘complex carbs’ you speak of are found) then there’d be more fibre & they’d be healthier ingredients than their processed counterparts, but they’re also more expensive, & I find it better (both on my wallet & my health) to find non-carb-heavy counterparts, like vegetables.
D) I’ve done LOTS of research - diabetes runs in my family, my mother was actually diagnosed in her mid-20s, & I assumed I’d be diagnosed a lot earlier with it than I’ve managed. My research is how I know that trans fats are in pretty much anything you buy (especially fried foods & baked goods, which is the ‘junk food’ I was referring to in my previous post)
& in conclusion - Google would probably stop you from looking like an idiot more than some snarky comments about a person who is just trying to help others save money.
If this is the bullshit I can expect to see in the future, I’ll just stop posting. I have better things to do than spend time writing posts for people who think they know more than my nutritionist AND my doctor combined.
Post with 1 note
Last year, I was told by my doctor that I’m borderline diabetic. He told me to cut down on bread, pasta, potatoes, & rice. All the cheap foods that I love :P
So I did. I started making bread from scratch. I substitute half rutabaga or turnip for potato in recipes, I make less pasta dishes, & I’ve cut WAY back on rice (sometimes I’ll use riced cauliflower instead)
But, I love my junk food & my sweets. I’ve found a way to cut down on my intake though.
My diet is this - if I make it, I can eat it. If I want brownies, I have to want them bad enough to make them from scratch. Usually I don’t bother
The amount of trans fats in baked goods helps me to not just buy them from the store, & my laziness usually helps me to not make them at home.
It’s been working pretty well for me. There’s no junk food on hand, so when I get a craving, it’s not as easy as opening a bag of chips & pigging out. If there’s something specific I want, something I can’t make, I have to walk 20 minutes to the store to buy it.
If junk food isn’t convenient, you’re a lot less likely to eat it (& it’ll save on your grocery bill!!! I try to focus on foods that have nutritional value, & junk food doesn’t fall into that catagory)
The uncooked wontons freeze beautifully, so I always spend a few hours making a LOT of them. I love having them on hand for an easy meal when I’m feeling lazy
Wonton Soup
40 wonton wrappers
8 cups chicken broth
Filling
2 Tbs minced celery
1 green onion, chopped fine
1 tsp cornstarch
2 Tbs water
1 Tbs soy sauce
1/4 tsp grated ginger
1 Tbs sesame oil
1/2 lb ground pork (or chicken)
2 Tbs minced water chestnut
1 cup cabbage (chopped fine)
Topping
1 cup chow mein noodles
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 Add all meat filling except for cabbage and let set for 30 minutes.
2 Add cabbage & mix well
3 Set out ten wonton wrappers on a counter surface.
4 Place 3/4 teaspoon of the filling in the center of each wonton wrapper.
5 Moisten your finger with water & run along the edges of the wonton wrapper
6 Bring the opposite corner up and fold together over the filling to make a triangle. Run your fingers along the edge to seal tightly
7 Repeat with all ten wontons.
8 Wet the two side corners of the triangle, gently pull them together and press firmly.The center corner should stick out slightly
9 In a large saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a boil over medium/high heat.
10 Using a spatula to remove wontons from counter, drop in the ten wontons, stirring gently.
11 Place lid on saucepan and reduce the heat to medium.
12 When the broth returns to a boil and the wontons start to float, remove pan from the heat.
13 With a strainer, transfer the wontons from the pan to 6 individual soup bowls.
14 Repeat until all forty wontons are cooked through.
15 Pour hot broth over wontons.
16 Add a bit of chow mein noodles and green onions to each bowl and serve.
this is more of a convenient thing that I do as opposed to a frugal thing, but it works well for me
I use a program called Living Cookbook. I’ve not been able to find free recipe software, so this is the next best thing. I like having my recipes organized by tags & categories, & I like being able to browse by ingredient, so I needed something more high-tech than a cookbook.
But I don’t always want to bring my laptop into the kitchen (or sometimes there’s not enough room, or I’m doing something else with the laptop so I can’t access the program, etc etc etc)
I bought a small spiral bound notebook from the dollar store (spiral bound notebooks are a bit of an addiction for me - during the back-to-school sales this year, they were 25 cents each, & I bought 18 of them. I’ve only used one because I don’t really have any use for them, but I don’t care because at least I’ve got them if I ever need them)
Umm, anyway, tangent over, I use this small notebook to write down recipes of things that I make often (pancakes, hollandaise sauce, brownies, etc). I keep it in the kitchen, & if I want to cook anything, I don’t have to grab my laptop. The only recipes that go in this book are recipes that I’ve made multiple times & I know I’ll make again (I currently have 20 pages full & that’s it, because I’m always making new things)
Obviously this system may not work for everyone, & other people will have something like this already in effect, but the main thing is to find what works for you & just go with it :)
Being frugal doesn’t have to equal your life being more complicated. Just the opposite - a lot of being frugal is making do with less… but people are used to having more, having specialized tools for each individual job, & getting their food pre-made. When you take away the conveniences, what’s left may look more complicated, but that’s mainly because it’s something we’re not used to dealing with.
Changing your life is actually very difficult. & that’s what being more frugal does - it changes your life. The first thing that has to change is your mentality towards the change. If you’re viewing it as something you have to do, then no matter what, it’s going to be seen in a negative light.
I embrace frugality. I love finding new ways to save money. I like knowing that every dollar I save on food is a dollar that can go into savings so my fiance & I can have a better life, or maybe it’s a dollar that can go towards something I want that’s not a necessity. The money I save on groceries can be used for so many other things.
A lot of what you can do to save money is find cheaper alternatives without making your life more complicated. If you’re going out to eat often, cooking in advance is a great thing to do but might be too difficult to start with. Buying frozen pizzas once a week instead of going to Pizza Hut is a great start though! Even buying frozen pizza for $5/pie is cheaper than ordering a pizza to be delivered. Don’t get discouraged because you’re not making every single thing from scratch - do what you can & try to learn something new once you’ve got a handle on the last thing you tried. Slowly you’ll notice the change, especially in your food budget!
I actually keep frozen pizza on hand. With cheese being the price it is, I have trouble making a full sized pizza for less than $3, & it’s often on sale for $2.50 - $3. I try to keep 2 on hand for those days where I just don’t want to cook (or when we’re actually craving pizza). We like pepperoni, ham, bacon, & pineapple, & those all freeze beautifully, so we can just put our own toppings on. It’s convenient & cheap, which is nice (& rare).
So just remember that if you’re feeling discouraged about slow progress - everyone has to start somewhere, & even people who have mastered the art of something still take shortcuts ;D
Page 1 of 8
