Money Mondays
I'm really liking the idea of have a series a few times a week, so here goes Monday's series - Money Mondays. In addition to my regular posting, I'll be posting on Mondays about budgeting ideas, ways to save, ideas for frugality, ways to make money, etc. Especially during these interesting economic times, money seems to be on the forefront of all of our minds. Regardless of how much or how little you make, we can all benefit from money tips and budgeting advice. I am by no means an expert, but in the past few years we have really learned how to stretch a few dollars, so I'll be sharing my own experiences and plans of action.
In addition, I will be updating you with my own monthly budget as it applies to my grocery savings and expenditures.
I feel like in interest of full disclosure, since I talk so often about food and organics and all, it will benefit me to share my monthly grocery bill with you all. I'm also hoping this will continue to inspire and challenge me to improve my own budgeting and ways to save. I'm not going to pretend like I am one of those people who is going to blow you away with our grocery budget. I'll lay it out there right here at the beginning - we spend about $400 per month on groceries. However, I will tell you that I feel like we are eating far better quality than we have in the past, and it is a choice that we make to spend that much and eat the way we feel like is best for us.
I love to read about budgeting and ways to stretch your paycheck further. As a non-working spouse in my marriage, I feel like it is my duty to be the best manager of my husband's paycheck that I possibly can be. Since he is in the military, his paycheck is the same every month (except during a deployment) and there is no opportunity for overtime or extra income. I say that only to make the point that the paycheck that we get every month is just that - there is never any more, never any less (this is certainly not a complaint. I feel very lucky to have the stability of the military). Thus, I feel like it is my job to manage this paycheck in the best way that I can, and I hope that I can share some of those tips for my readers!
As always, I would love for you to join me and share you own ideas. What do you do to save money? What is your favorite way to save? Do you focus on frugality in all walks of life, or narrow it down to just a few?
One way that I save money on my groceries is to have a very set idea of what we will be eating of the next two weeks (I typically try to grocery shop biweekly). The way I do this is to menu plan. I usually plan for around 10-12 meals, since I figure that in two weeks time we will probably eat those and then have leftovers/figure out what we are going to eat kind of days 1-2 times. We might also go out to eat during that time, so with 10-12 meals it fits right in with my two week schedule.
Here is an example of what we will be eating for the next two weeks in our meal plan.
I do like to leave some room for "fun nights," but planning out the meals in advance helps me to be focused when I go to the grocery store and not just buy what looks good at the moment (it also helps me to have the ingredients available to actually make real meals when dinner time rolls around).
1) Sausage and Pepper Pasta
Salad
2) Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken
Rice
Frozen Veggies - green beans or snap peas
3) Asparagus Risotto
Salad
4) Chicken & Cashew Stir Fry (I had leftover cashews from last week's menu)
Green Beans
5) Ancho Chili Flank Steak
We'll probably eat these as fajitas, so we won't eat any sides
6) Burgers
Baked Potatoes (or maybe french fries, depending on my mood)
7) Sweet and Sour Pork
Rice
Salad
8) Cavatappi Pasta with Bacon
9) Spice Rubbed Beef
Mashed Potatoes
Veggies
10) Pizza - we buy Kashi frozen ones, or sometimes make our own
11) Pizza - we're big pizza fans, so I usually plan on having it twice
Like I said, these are not in order. We won't be having pizza back to back on two nights, and I usually try to space out the dishes so that we eat different meats and sides on consecutive nights. My husband brings his lunch to work every day, so I also usually try to have on hand some hummus as a snack, and he eats my make ahead breakfast burritos every day for breakfast (he obviously doesn't mind repetition in his meals). He usually brings some of the left overs for lunch the next day, so we don't have too many meals that are exactly like the night before. Our "leftover nights" are usually just throwing whatever we have in the fridge together as a meal. I usually eat steel cut oats for breakfast, and have a salad or sandwich for lunch. Dinner is definitely the main focus at our house - other meals come secondary to our dinner planning.
I've found that menu planning saves us more money that just what would initially strike you. Yes, I am more focused at the grocery store. I am less likely to throw things in the cart just because they look good or I figure that I could probably use them somewhere. I rarely buy convenience foods (pasta sides, hamburger helper, Stouffer's lasagna, etc) because I have a plan in place for the things I am going to serve. However, even more than that, we rarely go out to eat. When we do decide to go out to eat, it is a conscious decision, and not the result of just being unprepared when dinner time comes. This is definitely a change for us, as we used to go out probably 2-3 times a week because neither of us had a plan for what to cook or felt like thinking about something to make. When we figure that probably a meal out somewhere mid-level casual (like Chili's or the like) for two people probably cost around $35, and we usually spend around $200 every two weeks (or about $14 per day, $4.50 per meal total), we are really saving right around $90 a week from not eating out ($35 x 3 (for eating out) - $4.50 x 3 (for eating in)). I'm not saying that eating out never happens - just that when it does it is a decision that we make because we want the treat or are craving something specific, instead of eating out purely for the convenience. On those nights that we just want the convenience and to not have to wash dishes, we usually eat one of the pizzas that I have already budgeted in and planned for in my meal plan.
This is what works for us, but I would love to hear what works for you. Do you menu plan? Have you found certain things work for you in making our your plan? What tips or tricks do you have to share? I want to hear them all!
This week for Money Monday, I'm going to talk a little bit about myself. ☺ I want to talk about my personal grocery budget, and ways that I am going about cutting it down (which, as you will see, needs to happen!) I'm not 100% sure what exactly I can cut it down to or what my goal ultimately will be, but I wanted to get some suggestions from you, my readers, and also to bounce ideas around. Remember that if you are commenting on posts, leave a comment on the Kitchen Tools Bamboo Set giveaway and tell me which ones you left because you get extra entries in the giveaway! Ok, here it goes...don't judge me too harshly!
This month, all in all, I spent $530.46 for groceries. I am including in this definition household items like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, toiletries, all grocery items, and pet food. So basically anything you would buy at the grocery store. This is for me, my husband, and our 17 pound dog Charlie. I also want to throw out there that we eat almost every meal from items that we make. My husband brings breakfast and lunch to work every day, and I eat at home. We make dinner most nights, but actually did go out to eat this month 3 times, for a total cost of roughly $109. Additionally we went camping for Memorial Day Weekend, and we ended up spending almost $60 just for food items for the camping trip, which probably skewed the results somewhat. Regardless, those are the numbers.
May is the first month that I have ever religiously tracked every time we went to the grocery store, and frankly I must say that I am rather appalled. I expected to spend around $400, and I was even okay when we got up to $450, but $530! That averages $132.62 per week, which I guess makes it sound somewhat more reasonable, but still seems like a pretty high number for just the two of us (our dog only ate one, $8.50 bag of dog food this month, so he's not really very expensive). I think the thing that bothers me the most about it is that we spent the additional $109 on eating out. That brings our total "food" budget for the month to $639.46. Yikes! That just seems crazy to me.
I'm not opposed to spending money to get good, high quality foods. I knew that our grocery bill would go up once we started buying more organic items, and unfortunately I wasn't reliably tracking the expenditures beforehand, so I don't have a number to compare to. I'm going to look at $530.46 as my starting point, and work from there to get it down. I am not trying to get down to $30 per week or anything like that (see post here), but I would like to spend around $450 per month on the two of us. I think that is reasonable and doable.
I also want to point out that while I am disappointed to know that we spent so much on our groceries, I am pleased to know that we save a total of $142.11 through the use of coupons and grocery store saver programs. In total we saved about 22% off the cost of our groceries through combining this two ways of savings, and I feel pretty happy with that. I'd always like to be able to increase that number without compromising the quality of our foods, but again I feel like it is an okay starting point.
Here are my goals for the next month:
- Reduce grocery bill to around $450 this month
- Reduce eating out bill to $30, which would be 1-2 eating out meals depending on what kind of restaurant we go to (something like Red Robin versus something like Chipotle)
- Continue to explore new ways to get quality food items (specialty stores, ethnic markets, ordering online)
- Not compromise the items that I am buying to save cost. Even my husband agrees that foods that we are eating make us feel better and they taste better, and I do not want to save money by cutting down on quality.
I'm planning on saving a little bit of money by doing the following things:
- Continuing to use coupons when I can find them. Right now on Coupons.com there are coupons for Cascadian Farms products, Muir Glen products, and Boulder Canyon Chips. You can usually print these up to two times each per computer.
- Meal Plan. Part of Keeper of the Home's Cook More Real Food series involves some meal planning, and I've written my own thoughts on Money Mondays - Meal Planning. I'm planning on only meal planning for one week at a time though, as I find that two weeks at a time just gives me too much time between trips to the store, and we run out of healthy items like fruits and fresh veggies. Key to making meal planning work is sticking to my grocery list when I go to the store, which brings me to the next bullet.
- Make a grocery list and stick with it! I get so hungry/gluttonous when I go to the store, and I just want to try everything. We do usually end up eating it, so food rarely goes bad in my household, but that doesn't mean that we would have missed it if I hadn't bought it.
- Make less cookies - I know this sounds like a weird one, but I always have homemade cookies sitting around, and my husband loves them. He really loves to eat them with a big, tall glass of ice cold milk...organic milk, that is! This can get rather expensive, as we go through about 2 gallons of milk per week. Not only is it not great to be eating cookies all the time, I'm planning on cutting down our milk purchases through having less cookie options (shhh, don't tell the hubby!)
- Go to the store 2x per week to check out the reduced price items. We can often get organic milk, cheese, and eggs for 50% off when we hit the reduced item section.
- Exercise self control. My biggest problem is that I love to shop, and I really love to grocery shop. I have a lot of trouble not picking up new items every few days, because it always looks so good. This month, however, will be an exercise in self control for me.
- Hit up the farmer's markets. According to the information I found online, one of the ones in my town is opening this week, and most of them should be open by the end of the month. As we've talked about before, shopping at the farmer's markets can help to reduce the cost of items like organic fruits and vegetables, as you are cutting out the middle man.
- Last, but certainly not least, we are going vegetarian for at least two to three meals out of the week. I find that I spend quite a bit on meat, and that is without even buying organic or grass fed meat (I didn't think we could really fit it in the budget). I am hoping that by cutting down on the meat, we can buy better quality and healthier meat. This may be a wash in terms of money spent, as we'll be eating less meat but it is pricier. I'm okay with that though, since I am not a huge meat eater, but I want the quality of our meat to be better.
That is my plan of action for the upcoming month. I'm really optimistic about my progress, and I know that we can cut down on our expenses simply by being more aware of the times we are going to the store, and how often we are throwing things into the cart just because it looks good at the time.
Have you cut down on your grocery bill without sacrificing quality items? What are some tips that you want to share with the rest of the readers? Any secrets of the trade? I would love to hear from you about all that you've learned! And remember that each comment up to 4 earns you an extra entry in the giveaway!
Summertime is the season of vacations. The kids are out of school, the weather is nice, and it just makes you feel ready to hit the road and explore the Wild West (or the beach, or another country!)
Summer vacations are great, memorable, family bonding times, but that doesn't mean that you have to throw your budget out the window in order to gain the experience. The following are some ways that I have found that help to keep a budget friendly vacation. If you have any more suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments section!
1) Ask around - from your family and friends, that is! Maybe someone's family has a beach house that they aren't able to use the whole summer, and they will rent it to you for a fraction of the cost that the resort would charge. Maybe you could house swap with someone that wants to come to your town - particularly nice if you live in a vacation destination. You never know who has a vacation house, or whose parents or family members have a vacation house until you start asking. Don't be shy!
2) Find discount hotel rates - If you aren't going to stay in someone's house that you know, try and find the best deal possible on hotel rates. You can usually find good ones through Expedia or Travelocity, and I've also heard good things about Priceline, although I have never used them myself. Hotels are having trouble keeping full with the economy the way that it is, so it might even behoove you to call the hotel and ask them for the best rate. Also - negotiate! I have a relative who swears he has never paid full price to stay anywhere just because he negotiates! I'm not sure exactly how he does it, but my best guess would be just to ask!
3) Stay in a hotel with a kitchen or kitchenette - I know that vacationing and spending all day cooking don't really mesh, but by staying in a suite or a hotel that has small kitchenettes in each room, you can save a fortune on meals that you would normally eat out. Even if you still eat dinner at a restaurant every night of your trip, you can cut costs by eating breakfast in your room, and something simple like sandwiches for lunch. Don't forget to treat yourself, but every meal doesn't have to be a treat.
4) Be flexible with travel dates - This can be a little harder if you have older children or a very strict work schedule, but try and be flexible at least with your leaving and returning dates. Sometimes airline prices can fluctuate wildly within just a few days, simply because of the day of the week you are wanting to fly on. Same thing with hotel dates - often times in large cities hotels are actually cheaper on the weekends because they typically cater to business travelers, so by being flexible you can make sure you are getting the best deal possible.
5) Don't rent a car unless it is absolutely necessary - Rental cars are outrageously expensive, so buyer beware! It might even be cheaper to stay at a more centrally located but more expensive hotel, if you don't have to have a rental car on top of the hotel costs. Be sure you are looking at the big picture - staying in that cheap hotel that is 10 miles outside the city because less cheap when you have to drive everywhere, rent a car, and pay for gas (not to mention the inconvenience).
6) Consider "off season" vacations - Most warm weather vacations (think the Caribbean or Central America) are in season in the US winter time. US travelers want to escape the cold weather and head to paradise. However, when it is super hot in the summertime in the Caribbean, the rates dip drastically. Consider traveling in the locations "off season" for huge savings.
7) Consider "off the beaten path" vacations - Camping in St John USVI, touring US national parks, camping, etc. These less-luxurious-but-still-wonderful-experiences vacations can save you a bundle (especially if you are traveling with children) and can still offer what is truly important with vacation - a source of family time, a relief from the hustle and bustle of daily life, and a chance to spend quality time together doing something new.
Those are my best tips on saving money on vacations. I love to vacation just as much as the next guy (or girl!) but I definitely don't want to blow a budget when it isn't necessary. By following some of these vacation trips, we are actually able to save money and apply it towards our next vacation! Twice the fun in the sun = a happy Lauren!
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