Ya, and we ALL know that time in planning and preparation is seldom wasted. If you have the overall picture in your head, like Ms Mandalinn, you can pack and set aside things for later use. Thus avoiding the $8 pineappple in January...This is what I do with cherries, cause I can't afford them at other times. And frozen blueberries last forever.
This brings to mind another issue. Of course we shop in bulk when we can and buy things that are on sale in greater amounts.
However not everyone has the room to store 20 boxes of pasta just because it was on sale, or a deep freezer to put 20lbs of chicken breasts in because it was an amazing bargain.
Not everyone has the ability to to make canned foods, or the knowledge.
There are just so many many things that play into budgets, of everything, not just food.
One person can tell me that gas is cheap, but that's in their situation. They may live in a different area, have more money, a smaller tank in their car, better gas mileage.
There are so many factors that go into how expensive things are for each individual situation.
This brings to mind another issue. Of course we shop in bulk when we can and buy things that are on sale in greater amounts.
However not everyone has the room to store 20 boxes of pasta just because it was on sale, or a deep freezer to put 20lbs of chicken breasts in because it was an amazing bargain.
Not everyone has the ability to to make canned foods, or the knowledge.
There are just so many many things that play into budgets, of everything, not just food.
One person can tell me that gas is cheap, but that's in their situation. They may live in a different area, have more money, a smaller tank in their car, better gas mileage.
There are so many factors that go into how expensive things are for each individual situation.
Yep - there are a TON of factors that go into it! But luckily, with all of the ideas on this thread of how people are managing their finances AND their eating habits, whether through bulk cooking/buying, in-season shopping, shopping at alternative sources, or switching to lower-priced staples for most meals, there are also a ton of ways to mitigate the different circumstances that might make it more challenging.
When my husband and I were both employed with very good jobs, I loved shopping, and even then considered myself a bargain shopper. I couldn't find great sales on clothes that fit, but I still bought most of my clothing "on sale," but justified an insane clothing budget, because I "had to look good," for my corporate job - and of course I also needed a "nice" casual wardrobe for socializing especially those off-work, but work-related events like company parties, picnics, and all the work-friend invites to tupperware, Tastefully Simple, Home Decor, Jewelry and other parties (and feeling the need to buy at least something from such parties).
I never realized how much I spent because I felt I was supposed to, rather than because I wanted or needed the stuff I was buying (and I always thought that I wasn't responding to the peer pressure to spend, spend, spend. I may have been a little less caught up in the consumer lifestyle than some of my peers, but I was far from immune).
I've always liked finding a bargain, but what I consider a bargain now, is a lot different than it once was. I love reading about what other people are doing to spend less and recycle, conserve, repurpose.... not only for the monetary savings, but on principle. It's become so much more than a hobby. If I didn't enjoy the bargain hunting, I'm sure I'd feel differently about many of the ways we've found to save money.
We're moving to a larger apartment soon, but space is still going to be an issue. I've found some great suggestions in thrifting books and also from online discussions in other forums. One of the ladies on a knitting forum was discussing how she deals with storage problems, as she has a huge yarn stash, but lives in a very tiny house. She buys large round plastic garbage cans (like Rubbermaid) and cuts a whole in the side near the top so she can reach in without removing the lid. She covers the can with a round table cloth and uses them as bedside tables and end tables. She had been using fiberboard circles her husband had cut for her, slightly larger than the lid, so that the table would support a lamp and other items. Then she found glass tabletops of a similar size at a garage sale and put those on top of the tablecloth for an easy-clean surface.
I've bought in bulk and had to find creative storage solutions. My cedar chest has held some unusual item. Yarn, canned food goods, shoes, toilet paper... I've used shelves in our second bedroom (my crafting and sewing room) for excess paper products and unopened food in cans, jars, and boxes.
We have a friend who wants to get into making furniture to sell. He's made the offer to friends to make custom-pieces for little more than the cost of supplies so that he can build a portfolio. We're considering having him make a table top a bit larger than the top of the chest freezer we're buying so that it can double as a kitchen/dining table. Under a tablecloth, no one would be the wiser, but even without a tablecloth, because the cabinets are white and blonde wood, we think a blonde tabletop on top of a very large white base might look a little unusual, but wouldn't necessarily stand out as freakish.
When we are able to replace our living room furniture, we'll consider buying pieces with hidden storage, or storage incorporated into the design.
We have a friend who buys toilet paper by the case, and his wife made a brightly colored slipcover to fit the box and put the covered box in the children's playroom. It even doubles as a table or extra seating (as long as the sitter isn't too heavy and the box is mostly full). By the time they're running low on toilet paper, the box is pretty beat up and resembles a bean bag chair more than a square ottoman, so they trade out the beat up box for the new box. They laugh that it's the kid's favorite piece in the room and they're getting old enough to fight over the possession of it, so they're trying to think of what else they can buy in bulk to give each child their own box.
Fabric-covered cardboard and plastic furniture isn't for everyone, but it looks a lot nicer than you'd think.
I refuse to get caught up in the trap of home parties. I will never invite a friend into my home for a high-pressure sales event, and I don't feel obligated to attend or spend money on those kinds of things.
For groceries, I tend to stick to the basics: fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables, meat, whole grains. I grow a few of my own vegetables (or get them from other gardening relatives), and I let the sales or what's in season determine my weekly menu. I eat a fair amount of beans, peas, and lentils for protein.
However not everyone has the room to store 20 boxes of pasta just because it was on sale, or a deep freezer to put 20lbs of chicken breasts in because it was an amazing bargain.
SO. TRUE.
I'd imagine that people in the direst straights are the least likely to have a home and big freezer instead of a tiny apartment and apartment-grade refrigerator with a little freezer on top. And more likely to share that tiny space and refrigerator and cupboards with roommates, or a family living in a too small space.
I'd imagine that people in the direst straights are the least likely to have a home and big freezer instead of a tiny apartment and apartment-grade refrigerator with a little freezer on top. And more likely to share that tiny space and refrigerator and cupboards with roommates, or a family living in a too small space.
Absolutely. A whole new world of stocking up has been revealed to me since I have moved from a tiny apt in the city w/ no pantry and a tiny fridge to a house in the burbs with a big pantry and room for a decent fridge.
There were SO many shopping trips where I looked longingly at stuff, wishing I had a place for it to go.
I used to live in Europe, where the fridges were bar sized and no one froze anything. Apartments are tiny, too...groceries are outrageously expensive, especially protein (as in chicken, beef). But I think that the expectations there are different -- smaller portion sizes, meals are normally made at home and not prepackaged, people don't rely on their cars as much. You shop daily on your way home from work. You buy what you need, and cut back on the luxuries. I remember going for dinner at a friend's house -- we went to the grocery store for ribs. The ribs were packaged INDIVIDUALLY. And I mean, not a rack. The rack was cut into individual ribs. She bought 1 rib for me, one for her, two for her son, and one for her grand daughter...that was a special meal. But she certainly wasn't starving! She chose to eat other things -- her expectations were certainly different from our North American expectations...
Perhaps one major problem for us here is the fact that most of us live in suburban areas and are married to our automobiles. Making weekly shopping and storing lots of sale items appropriate IF you have the coin to spend outright. And the big grocery stores are often in commercial areas, instead of in the neighborhood that you live in.
There is a woman in our town who actually retired at the age of 43 after working for 25 years at minimum wage (secretary at a car dealership). She didn't inherit anything, but was very very careful with her funds. She manages on an income of $1200 per month -- no disability, no social security. Just her own personal pension fund. A major saving grace, though, is our Medicare system.
She moved to the center of town, specifically within walking distance of a grocery store. She sold her car. She converted her entire front yard to a vegetable garden. She shops daily because she doesn't have the at-hand funds to purchase large amounts of food. She lives in a tiny, tiny home, so storage is at a premium. She makes sure that she has no wastage with respect to food, which IMHO is a HUGE source of lost $$$ for people. She buys items with as little processing/packaging as possible.
I know that this isn't a solution for everyone, but all I am saying is that she made this way of life a priority, and followed through. For her, she had the will and found a way. It was through changing her expectations, though. Because if you don't change your expectations, you'll face a whole bunch of obstables.
I used to live in Europe, where the fridges were bar sized and no one froze anything. Apartments are tiny, too...groceries are outrageously expensive, especially protein (as in chicken, beef). But I think that the expectations there are different -- smaller portion sizes, meals are normally made at home and not prepackaged, people don't rely on their cars as much. You shop daily on your way home from work. You buy what you need, and cut back on the luxuries. I remember going for dinner at a friend's house -- we went to the grocery store for ribs. The ribs were packaged INDIVIDUALLY. And I mean, not a rack. The rack was cut into individual ribs. She bought 1 rib for me, one for her, two for her son, and one for her grand daughter...that was a special meal. But she certainly wasn't starving! She chose to eat other things -- her expectations were certainly different from our North American expectations...
I dream of living like that. It definitely depends on living in a certain place. But it's not much of a solution for most apartment dwellers in the U.S., as you noted, due to the way must suburbs are set up.
I live in a townhouse with a kitchen the size of a closet. To combat that, we added shelves to our coat closet that's just off of the kitchen, and use it as a pantry. I bought some air-tight food storage containers on a great sale and store grains and pasta in them, they're clear so I can see everything I've got.
We've gotten good at making the most of tiny spaces, but I still can't wait until we can have more land - I want a huge garden!
I am the queen of tiny spaces too, i was 18 and my husband was 21 when we got married, he was in the navy and made next to nothing. Our first apartment was 2 bedrooms but had TINY kitchen. Back then we had access to a great warehouse grocery store (12 ears of corn for 10 cents, boxes of pasta for 10 cents, soup 20 cans for a dollar (name brand, good stuff). Long story kinda of short we kept food almost everywhere in that apartment, we had a freezer in the office, and all kinds of other places to hide food. Our house now is thankfully much bigger than we need, but thats why we bought it, we plan on filling it up with babies some day.
I can tell you though that if my dh didn't have a good job we certainly couldnt afford to buy in bulk without access to the store like we had when we first got married. Its one of the reasons we survived without help because we were young, dumb, and terminally broke back then.
Three extremely easy ways of cutting down on the food bill:
Cut out sweets -- Your cravings go away after a while. I've gone from crazy sugar-holic to sugar free.
Frozen vegetables, canned beans, bulk whole grains - As we've all been discussing.
Plan so that you don't end up throwing out leftovers -- Sounds obvious but in my house my parents rarely bother to search the fridge for leftovers and there's a LOT of waste, despite them complaining about the price of food)
and finally
Learn to be satisfied with smaller portions.
This last point has been briefly brought up, but I don't think it can be emphasized enough. All the time I hear people complaining that "recommended portion sizes" just aren't enough to satisfy them. And for those who do manual labor, they probably aren't. But otherwise? Well, if you train your body you can certainly learn to feel full and satisfied and energetic with the number of calories your body needs to function each day (as opposed to far more, as so many people consume). Yes, it takes effort and adjustment, but it's definately doable, and it's one of the easiest measures one can take to cut back on grocery bills.
I have been lurking this site for a couple of years and I've never posted before. After reading this thread I must voice an opinion. First of all I agree with the poster who stated that whether or not eating healthy is more expensive depends on a lot of factors: how much were you eating before, how many people are you feeding, where you live and how much money you have available to spend on food. I don't think anyone should say that people are using the cost as an excuse for not eating healthy. I am detecting a tone of self-righteousness because some of you have finally gotten your act together as it pertains to food. At some point, you had to come to the realization that it is cheaper in every aspect to eat healthy than to suffer the health consequences of poor eating habits. If we had had that revelation all along we wouldn't be in weight ranges of 200+ and 300+ pounds. No matter what your station in life, until you make up your mind to lose the weight and do whatever it takes to make it happen, nobody can make up your mind for you. So, lighten up. At some point all of us had to decide to make the choice to eat healthy.
