Need ideas on cutting expenses

Avatar for nodinero
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-01-2005
Need ideas on cutting expenses
7
Thu, 06-02-2005 - 10:17am
I had a very long talk with dh last night and told him that if his real estate dream doesn't take off by Sept. and he doesn't go at it part time and focus on a full time job, I would take the kids back to my home state and we would have to seperate. I really don't want this outcome, and it was apparent that he doesn't as well. He promised to get a job and said he would do whatever it takes to keep our house. That means I need to contribute as well and look for creative ways to cut back on expenses...I know one area is groceries. We tend to buy a lot of junk. But how do I cut back without the kids going nuts? We don't go on vacations so no worries there. Any other areas you found helpful? Thanks so much!

 

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Thu, 06-02-2005 - 10:44am

Hi nodinero,

Groceries are a GREAT place to cut back! You're on the right track. I'm happy to hear that your dh is willing to work with you. I know it can be sad to feel like you're losing something you really want, so I feel for him too, and I know it can be hard to see your dh sad and "feeling like a loser." BTDT. But the truth is, once you're back on your feet financially, you'll be so much better off, and he'll feel much better too. The dream *will* come, and it will feel even better when it's earned while staying true to his responsibilities. He can be proud that he's willing to do what it takes to support his family.

You asked for tips on groceries, so I've copied the text of a post I put up months ago on groceries. I'm a huge fan of saving money on groceries, and I've made something of an art out of it. Anyway, here they are:

I cannot take credit for the entire system, as it is based largely on the tips and ideas in Amy Dascycyn's "Complete Tightwad Gazette," highly recommended reading. But I can testify that it WORKS, and we DO NOT feel deprived on our low grocery budget.

The kingpin in the system is your price book. Mine started on scraps of paper and evolved into a little hard-back notepad (salvaged, of course, from dh's office where it was being thrown away--you don't have to buy anything for this). You can arrange this any number of ways, but the point is to start tracking the cost of items you buy regularly. You may want to start with just big-ticket items (meat, for instance, which forms the core of our grocery savings) and work your way down as you get the hang of it and it becomes routine.

One way to set up the price book is to have a page for each type of item--meat, dairy, baking, non-food, produce, etc. At the top of the page, write the category. Divide into columns. Head each column: Item, unit, then one for each of the grocery outlets you have regular access to (this will include warehouse stores, regular supermarkets, WalMart, farmer's market, discount grocery store, etc.).

You'll also have to carry a calculator. I still have the one I used in grammar school. When you buy an item, or when you see one on sale for what you suspect to be a low price, write it down. For each item, choose a unit scale that seems appropriate--per ounce, per pound, per serving, etc. Write the unit you are measuring in the unit column. Each time you record a price, you'll record it in the column for the location you found it, along with a date. Having the dates will help you to track trends, which is a later step.

You will only write down prices when they beat a current low price you have recorded. The goal of this exercise is to determine the lowest price available for each item you regularly purchase. If the lowest price is a sale price, you also want to know roughly how often that sale price occurs (the reason you record dates). Some items are regularly lowest at a particular location (some examples in my price book include canola oil, which is regularly cheapest in the WalMart brand; and butter, which is regularly cheapest at the Aldi). Others are usually the lowest on sale (items in this category almost always include meats, which are a popular "loss leader" item at supermarkets, and baking items, which often go on excellent sales around the holidays). For items that are regularly available at their lowest price, the price book simply tells you where to buy them. For items that are regularly lowest on sale, you can use your price book to determine how much you should buy when it's on sale in order not to have to buy it again until the next sale.

Using this method, you will never pay more than the lowest sale price for any item. It may require a freezer, if you have space for it, but not necessarily. If you do need a freezer, start searching the classifieds. We bought our 14.7 cubic foot chest freezer, two years old, for $135 (it is a commercial quality freezer). I've seen them for less, even given away at times. Even at $135, if it allows you to use this method, it may pay for itself in as little as a month (depending on how much you already spend vs. how much you save).

A note on produce: we eat only what is in season. It is cheaper and healthier this way. Apples in Fall and Winter, peaches and nectarines and grapes in summer, greens in cold weather, tomatoes in hot. The exception for us is bananas, because they are cheap and, well, pretty much always in season somewhere in the world (other than that, we try to eat local produce). We eat "luxury" fruits only when on an exceptional sale. Peaches and nectarines we eat when they drop below $1 a pound in summer, grapes the same. Apples are 69 cents a pound at the farmer's market when in season, and bananas are always 39 cents a pound there. Occasionally, there will be a really amazing windfall (this will happen in any category occasionally, and because of your price book you will recognize it for what it is and take advantage), like the time our local supermarket had a bin full of mangos for 25 cents each. I filled two full produce bags with them, and we ate mangoes for days, with abandon. What a treat! Also, at Christmas it has become a tradition to eat expensive exotic fruits as a treat, so we still get our pineapple, mango, coconut, etc., fix, but we do not consider it a necessity.

At first, you will not notice a significant drop-off, and might even see a slight increase in your weekly spending, as you fill your freezer. But after a while, your weekly expenditure will drop dramatically as you start to eat out of your pantry and only restock when you find sales, and you can set aside the excess for stocking up when you hit a great sale.

I shop the weekly circulars from each of the area supermarkets, and will drop in to one if they have a low price on an item I can stock up on. It sounds like a lot of shopping, and at first it is, but once you have a stocked fridge/freezer/pantry, you will probably find yourself shopping less frequently, because you will only have to replenish your stores once in a while. In our family, it usually works out that I may go to the farmer's market and WalMart one week (they are close to each other and consistently the lowest price on many items), then the next week I may drop in to one or two supermarkets having sales. I may hit Aldi the next week and the farmer's market for apples and sweet potatoes. Some weeks I may not shop at all. And so on.

As I have said elsewhere, I now have access to a restaurant surplus store (also known as a salvage store) where the prices are so incredibly low that I no longer follow the method described above religiously. I don't need to, because the surplus store is a rarity in the world in that it is cheapest on nearly everything, and I stock up each time I go. I still shop the farmer's market, and I still glance through the flyers for good sales. Aldi still has the best prices on butter, eggs, and bread. I still buy cheese and hot dogs on sale, and because of my price book, I know when something at the surplus store really *isn't* as cheap as I can get somewhere else. It is worth your time to see if there is a surplus store in your area, and to check it out if there is. It is a very different shopping experience than what we are used to, but it has been more than worth it to us.

A few other tips on making the groceries you have go further: Substitute dry milk for whole milk in recipes--it is about a fourth the price per serving. Substitute 1 Tbsp soy flour and 1 TBsp water for each egg in a recipe--WAY cheaper and tastes the same once baked (obviously, don't try this in an omelet or quiche! lol)--also stores better so you never have eggs going bad in your fridge. Save the broth off canned and cooked veggies in ice cube trays--freeze then store in freezer bags and use instead of expensive store-bought broth. Eat your leftovers. Waste nothing. Bake bread (not necessarily cheaper than store-bought, but yummier, more filling, more nutritious, and because it's so good, may naturally take the place of more expensive snacks in your family's diet).

This is the basic outline of the method I use. I've been lax in my price book usage lately, and have noticed my grocery bill go up a bit. I need to get back on it!

It sounds like a lot of work, but it becomes second nature after a while, and you only have to add to your price book once in a while once it's set up.

We feed our family for $200 a month on this method, and we eat quite well--lots of fruit and vegetables, occasionally we even have steaks for dinner, but mostly we eat things like homemade pizzas, burritos, tacos, noodle salad, chicken and dumplings, grilled chicken, hamburgers, hamburger casseroles, etc. We actually don't even eat that many casseroles, but we do eat only a little bit of meat each day--not like the way I grew up, where meat was the main portion of the meal, with a few veggies scattered around the edges. Instead, it's lots of veggies and grains with a bit of meat for flavor.

Hope that helps some. :)

Heather

Avatar for cl_phocid
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 06-02-2005 - 1:04pm

In addition to Heather's excellent suggestions about saving serious money while providing groceries (I *love* the idea of freezing water used to cook veggies to make broth - especially this time of year when veggies are so incredibly awsome), here is a link to a thread that we have maintained on this board for some time.

All my best,
Danni

Avatar for nodinero
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-01-2005
Thu, 06-02-2005 - 1:34pm
Thanks everyone for the great suggestions. It's amazing all the areas where you can cut without feeling like your doing without. I live close to a farmers market here and have discovered the awesome savings in produce alone. I didn't have that option in my home state. Thanks again, I'm starting to feel that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

 

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-12-2003
Thu, 06-02-2005 - 9:31pm
Do you have subscriptions to newspapers or magazines that you don't read or could read elsewhere (online or library)? You don't have to wait for them to run out. You can call and cancel and get a refund for the remaining portion of the subscription. Just a small money saver, but one I did when I wasn't working for a while last year.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2004
Thu, 06-02-2005 - 10:24pm

In addition to the other great ideas already posted, you could consider finding cheaper internet connections, combining all your errand running in one day to save gas, and maybe find ways to save on phone service. Dh and I realized that we were 'on the go' moreso than we were home, and it didn't make sense for us to have a home phone with an answering machine, caller ID and other features, and also have two cellphones. We talked to Dh's work about having his company pay for his cellphone and usage charges since it's mostly for business, and they said they would! Then they surprised us with an offer to give ME a phone on the same plan, with the same company discounts for my own use, and we'd just pay the difference between the total bill and the discounts given. Knowing this, we cancelled our home phone line completely and unplugged all our house phones. We are completely cellular now, and instead of paying $50 for local home service, $50 for home long distance, and $150 a month for cellular on our own.....we now pay just $40 a month for my cellphone usage, and that's it.

Good Luck!

Pat

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-14-2004
Sat, 06-04-2005 - 12:10pm
How old are your kids? Its summer and a cheap place to send them for good activities is the Boys and Girls Clubs. Most have a lunch program that is free, and several serve breakfast and lunch as well. That could cut your food expenses considerably. We paid $5 to register our 6 year old for the summer at B & G club, and he's having a great time. Next week is basketball camp! Good luck!
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-21-2003
Sat, 06-04-2005 - 2:09pm

Aside from those ideas already posted, I'd like to point out another area where often money can be saved: Your utilities bill. Electricity and water might not be that expensive, but it adds up, too...

Save electricity by turning of the TV, computer, cd-player etc., not just going on stand-by. Next time you need to change a light-bulb, buy those long-life, energy-saving ones. Switch off the light in rooms you don't use. And check your fridge, freezer etc.: What eneryg efficiency class are they? If it is not listed (no idea about how that is in the US) you maybe can find that information on the net. We had to buy a new fridge anyway after moving and found our electricity bill reduced by almost 50% afterwards because our old fridge was just that: An old, power hungry thing. Most clothes get as clean in 40 C as in 60 C when using a washing machine (no, it is not less hygienic, unless someone has a bad case of flu...)

Be moderate with heating and air-condition (if you have that). Due to bad insulation money oftentimes is literally thrown out of the window (and doors and all other 'heat-bridges') in many appartments and houses. Winter is a long summer away, but it pays to think early about how to reduce heating costs in winter.

Save water by turning off the tap while brushing your teeth, lathering underthe shower, or doing the dishes. Save by re-using the water you used for washing veggies to water your plants or garden, and use the 'more water' button on your washing machine only when absolutely necessary. I think you get my drift... :-)

One thing not mentioned before is: Stop buying soft-drinks and fast-food if you still do. My mother told me that she figured out she saves at least 150$/month since she simply switched from coke and soft drinks to water and tea (fruit or herbal), and scraped french fries and other 'eat-as-you-go' stuff completely. The kids (that included me, too, back then...) took about two weeks to adjust... since it is healthier anyway, Mum considered it to be okay to have to put up with that for a fortnight ;-)

Hope this helps,
Jordis

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