Because I am anxiously awaiting a post from Jay on "eating cheap", I have been thinking a lot about food lately and how much we spend on it. It's a lot...too much I think.
On average I spend about $150 per week. In theory, this would be more, if I wasn't constantly buying what is on sale, or buying store brand if available. I also find the weeks in which I actually scan the circulars, noting what is on sale and comparing it with what I need, I save even more. Without doing all of that, the bill would more than likely run about $200-250 per week. (For those who may not know, and just for practical purposes to use as a baseline here, we are a family of five, two adults, and three girls, ages 11 (almost anyway), 8 and 3).
There are a couple of obvious things I know I could do to save money off the bat. One would be to actually spend some quality time cooking. Right now, I do only what I have to to get a hot meal on the table. Convenience and speed are key for me. This is not to say that we eat macaroni and cheese and tv dinners every night. I cook, I just don't spend a heck of a lot of time doing it. Things that take more than a half hour to prepare and eat, aren't my preference, unless, it involves a crock pot. Throwing something together in the morning and stirring it occasionally throughout the day? Now that is my kind of cooking. It would help of course, if I enjoyed the process a bit more. If I actually enjoyed cooking, I might spend a little more time with it, and with the general planning of it (like meal planning in advance, scanning for sales, experimenting with recipes etc.).
As mentioned before, I am not a person who has to buy name brand anything really. It basically all tastes the same to me and, whatever minor difference there may be, does not justify, in my opinion, the extra money to get the name brand. I don't see my self saving any money there. I think I am already doing what I can.
I do occasionally use coupons. Mostly, I use the ones that come and say "Spend $50 and get $10 off your entire order" as opposed to, "Buy 2 of these really overpriced, already expensive things and we'll give you one free." I think coupons have a way of suckering you in to buying the more expensive item to begin with, trying to make it look like you are saving money when actually, you probably aren't. At least not enough to make it worth the aggravation of cutting coupons and, you know, actually remembering to use them.
Thoughts? Do you have any money saving tips, outside of what has already been mentioned?
It's always a balance and always relative. Cheaper while still healthy-ish is reasonably tied to expending additional time, and the trade might not be worth it. For many people, the crockpot would be a trick. For instance, canned beans are dramatically more even than dry, but how to get from dry to usable w/o time? Soak overnight, drain and put in crock in 2 minutes before work, leave on for the day, voila, beans for the recipe that calls for canned ones.
ReplyDeleteIt's going to have to be way more than a post, in any event.
Coupons you're right about. I can remember them being good when I was a kid, then turning into a more total promo tool for new convenience items where it was like take a dime off this $3 thing you can't afford and that we'd really like to encourage you to try. No way. The ones that are so much off a bulk purchase to encourage you into that store, those are awesome.
FWIW I think we probably spent $100 a week on food and sundries before we had to go on austerity. To me that seemed insanely much, and I had to keep telling myself it was for this number of us and not just me anymore.
ReplyDeleteDried beans, rice, pasta are cheap and versatile. You don't even need to throw in meat in some dishes. Mix up some beans, rice and whatever veggies you have on hand. Dried beans are awesome for crockpot meals.
ReplyDeleteHave you looked into big batch cooking?