Category Archives: Smart shopping

I Spend HOW Much on Food?!?!?

It’s been a while since I told you all about my New Year’s resolution to slowly create and live within a budget.  I’m thinking it’s time for an update on my process.

After trying to track my expenses without third-party help, I quickly came to the realization that I am never going to succeed without some help.  Writing down and tracking my own expenses is not so bad, but staying on top of what my husband spends as well just adds a layer of complexity that I’m not up to.   There are seemingly endless budgeting tools available online, and I feel like I’ve tried most of them at one point or another.  But when it comes right down to it, what I really wanted is a good old-fashioned spreadsheet.  I’m pretty good with spreadsheets (because they are very handy for my job), so if I could just get my account data transported into a spreadsheet I know I’m capable of manipulating it in ways that are useful to me.  Thankfully I found Tiller.  This tool connects my accounts to a customizable Google Sheet, so I can sort my transactions by date and category.  I’m on a one-month free trial right now, but I’m already thinking this will be worth the $59 a year it will cost me to continue.  I was able to get it all set up in about an hour, and quickly saw that the biggest consumption of my money (beyond housing and medical bills) is food.

I looked at my food expenses and saw that there is definitely room to cut back on dining out as well as on groceries.  Dining out is the easy piece.  We just won’t do that as often.  This will end up being better not only for the wallet, but also for the waistline.  Groceries are more complicated.  As I’ve done my tour through a few different stores lately, I’ve been paying better attention to how much things I consume regularly cost.  There are some things (predominantly pet supplies) that I sometimes buy online.  This week I compared that cost to in-store prices, and discovered that online is indeed cheaper for these things.  But it would have been easy to just never check because I enjoy the convenience of having kitty litter delivered to my front porch.  Now that I know the online price is less, I’ll make sure I have enough coming that I never have to buy it in store.

Another grocery cost-saver is whole foods versus prepared foods.  A bag of steam-in-bag brown rice is significantly more expensive than a bag of raw brown rice.  A little planning and some quality time with my Instant Pot can make that transition very easy.  A jumbo tub of old-fashioned oats is much cheaper than pre-packaged instant oatmeal or any boxed cereal.  For produce it’s important to consider the time of year.  Fresh produce is not cheap in Pennsylvania in February.  But frozen berries and vegetables can get the job done for a lot less money.  I’ll wait to enjoy fresh when things are in season.  And then there is meat.  There is definitely savings to be found from buying in bulk.  That jumbo pack of chicken breasts can easily be broken down into individual packages and frozen.  That 9-pound pork shoulder roast can be slow cooked and then frozen as several individual pounds of cooked pulled pork for future burritos and casseroles and sandwiches.  Today’s rotisserie chicken is tomorrow’s chicken casserole.  And don’t forget about the poor-man’s staples:  eggs, pasta, beans, rice, and meat that comes in a can (I prefer tuna, but I know there are still Spam lovers in the world!).

There are a lot of ways to shave the food bill.  I’ll keep exploring them and sharing what I learn.

 

The Levels of Need

It’s so hard to stop money from flowing out of my checking account when there are so many things that I need!  But when I stop and think about it, there are a lot of different levels of “need.”

I need to pay my bills.  Housing, my car loan, my utility and credit card bills.  These absolutely NEED to be paid.  Everything after that has some variation to it.

I NEED to have clothes to wear.  I don’t necessarily need to buy new clothes.  I may be fine with the clothes already in my closet.  If I absolutely need something I don’t already have, I may be able to find what I need secondhand.  The State College Goodwill Store and the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store are two of my favorite shopping spots.  And if I don’t find what I’m looking for there, I check ThredUp or Poshmark for online secondhand clothing.  Most of the clothing I own came from one of these four sources.  It’s pretty rare that I buy clothing brand new.  I need to have clothes.  I don’t need to have new clothes.

Food is another need that has a lot of degrees to it.  I NEED to consume food to sustain my life.  I need that food to be healthy enough to meet my nutritional needs.  I don’t, however, need that food to be processed or pre-packaged, or ready to eat at the time of purchase.  I’ve been focusing a lot this year on buying real food and cooking it into healthy meals rather than focusing on ready to eat freezer foods.  It takes more time to cook from scratch.  I spend a lot of time on the weekends making ahead some meals for the coming week.  But for that effort, I’m getting a lot healthier food for a lot less money.  And because those meals are prepared ahead of time, I don’t spend extra money on restaurant food.  I NEED to eat.  I don’t NEED to eat out or eat prepared foods.  Sometimes a meal at a restaurant is a nice treat…but it’s not a necessity.

I NEED to get myself to work every day.  I typically accomplish that by driving my 2012 Subaru.  But the reality is that my car is not a necessity.  I could take the bus to work and back.  I could ride my bike to work.  I could carpool.  There are a lot of options other than owning a car.  I CHOOSE to own a car and I accept the expenses of fuel and maintenance and insurance and parking that come with that.  But my car is not something I need.  It’s something I WANT and I have it because the ease it provides me is a priority to me.

There are a lot of levels in between what you NEED and what you WANT.  Wherever your priorities lie will determine where you spend your money.  The next time you are making a purchase ask yourself, “Do I need this?”

A Money-Saving Change of Pace

Sometimes a change of pace is really good for perspective.  For months I have been visiting the same two grocery stores every week.  I load up on most things at a discount store on Saturday, then Sunday I visit a more “upscale” store for things that are either cheaper or better there.  And I’ve been completely ignoring the fact that there are two more middle of the road grocery stores a little further down the street.

Yesterday I couldn’t stand the thought of the crowded aisles of the more upscale store on Sunday afternoon.  So I headed down the road to one of the other stores.  And it was amazingly refreshing!  I hadn’t been there in months, so it was kind of novel and exciting to be someplace different.  And I was pleasantly surprised to find lower prices than the discount store on some things I buy every week.  And there were sales on some things I was already planning to purchase there.  When I got home with my two bags of food, I had to spend a little time pondering why I never go there.  It’s only an extra five minutes in the car.  And I found some really great deals (as well as buying my weekly supplies of some things the discount store had been completely sold out of—was there some sort of a run on fat-free cottage cheese and frozen berries?!?!?).

The change of perspective was good for me.  I’ll likely build this store into my more regular plans.  Maybe I’ll go there every other week instead of the more upscale grocery store.  I’ll likely start studying their sale flyers for bargains on things I use.  And I’ll likely save money as a result.  And why?  Because I changed my perspective and tried something out of my norm.

You’ll never know how something will work out until you try it.  A random change of pace may turn into a new favorite plan!

The Scarcest Commodity

The scarcer a resource is, the more valuable it becomes.  It works this way with oil and diamonds and the minerals that help to make up your smartphone.  And it works this way with your time.  The further we get into the spring semester the scarcer time seems to be.  Exams (and commencement!) are only a few weeks away.  Your schedule is likely full of papers and events and planning and bar exam applications and outlines and study groups and…..well, you get the idea.  I’ve been finding the same thing in my world as both my personal and professional responsibilities seem to be more than I am able to squeeze into my waking hours.  But we trudge on, we compromise, and eventually we get through it.

The compromising is the tough part.  Every decision to spend your time on one thing means not spending it on something else.  Your priorities become clear.  When faced with the decision of spending my Saturday night seeing some favorite musicians perform or meal prepping with my Instant Pot, I chose the concert.  But that left me without lunches for the week.  Yet another decision.  Do I buy lunch out, or buy something pre-packaged?  I’m busy, but I’m not rich, so I hit the frozen food aisle at my local grocery store and bought an assortment of reduced-calorie frozen meals to eat for lunch this week.  And while I was at it, I grabbed a frozen veggie lasagna for Sunday dinner.  Not the most delicious food ever.  But also not bad, and not outside my budget.  And I didn’t have to give up the Saturday night concert.  I chose to spend my time on fun rather than food, but also didn’t give up too much of my money in the process.  Quality of food is less important to me than quality of life (which for me generally means live music).

Every decision has a trade-off.  But it’s important not to let money be the thing you sacrifice.  You can do or have anything you want.  But you likely can’t do or have everything you want.  What’s most important to you? What are you willing to give up in order to have it?  Can you do that without blowing your budget?

Repair or Replace?

This past summer I had to make a very difficult decision:  repair or replace.  It’s a decision we face all the time.  Sometimes it’s an easy decision to repair, such as when you lose a button off a shirt, or a screw falls out from your glasses.  These repairs are very easy and inexpensive.  Most people can do these repairs themselves.  Sometimes it’s an easy decision to replace, such as when your cell phone charging cord stops working or your toaster won’t toast any more.  These things would be difficult to repair but replacing them is very inexpensive.

Things get more challenging when a repair is very expensive and a replacement would be even more expensive.  Like when your refrigerator stops working, or your laptop gives you the black screen of death.  In my case it was my trusty Subaru.  It was a 2004 Forester with nearly 170,000 miles on it.  Repairs to get it through inspection would have cost about $1,000.  That’s just shy of the value of the car. And within the next two years, two more scheduled maintenance issues would be at least another $1,500.  If I just drove it around town, I may have made the decision to repair.  But that was my camping car—the one I use to tow my teardrop camper to music festivals near and far.  At the time I had a trip to Wisconsin only a few weeks away.  The thought of being stranded in some random part of the flatlands of the Midwest with no way to tow my camper because something else went wrong on my ailing Subaru was just too much for me.  I started shopping.

I was not financially prepared to buy a car.  All I had for a down payment was my ailing trade-in and a few hundred from my savings.  And I had very specific needs as the replacement needed to be towing my camper within a short time.  I knew immediately that I wanted a Subaru Outback, and my price range limited me to a used car between 4 and 8 years old.  I scoured both the local dealerships and the Internet.  I test drove a few Outbacks that would stretch my budget too far.  I made a list ranking the cars that were in play as possibilities.  I made a spreadsheet listing the pros and cons of each car in the running.  And I found perfection at a Honda dealership near Pittsburgh.  A 2012 Subaru Outback, with a trailer hitch already installed, in the color my husband preferred, with a moonroof as a bonus.  And it had less than 60,000 miles on it.  Smack dab in the middle of my price range.

I didn’t get the best deal on financing because I was pressed for time.  I had to rely on the dealership to help me get a loan on the spot.  I’m currently in the process of refinancing that loan with my credit union, which will lower my interest rate by more than 2%.  Yes…you can refinance car loans.  Keep that in mind if you ever feel like your car loan isn’t your best deal.

Am I happy about the fact that I now have a car payment?  No way.  Am I happy that I now have a reliable car in great condition that will likely carry me through the next 8 years?  Absolutely!  It’s sometimes a very difficult decision, whether to repair or replace.  But I’m feeling confident that I made the right choice.

My Old Friend Cooks Slowly

I’ve recently rediscovered the joy of my slow cooker.  There’s something magical about spending a few minutes in the morning throwing some food together in the pot, and then having dinner just be ready and delicious at the end of the day.  I don’t enjoy cooking.  But I do enjoy eating.  My slow cooker makes that easier for me.

I have a few slow cooker cookbooks that I’ve been hauling around with me since I had my first apartment in the 1990’s.  And I still use them.  All the time.  I know there are tons of recipes online now, but there’s something nostalgic about reading the ingredients and directions from an old-school book.  Sometimes I’ll crave something that isn’t in my books and I’ll turn to the internet for help.  But I usually print out the recipe and jam it between the pages of one of my books.  I’m just a print on paper girl when it comes to the kitchen, I guess.

One of the best parts of the slow cooker is that you can use the cheapest cuts of meat and they come out fork tender.   On any given weekend morning you might find me scouring the meat case at Walmart looking for the bright yellow labels.  Those are the labels of the meat that is getting ready to go out of code, so it’s reduced in price for quick sale.  I love to snatch up those bargains and freeze them for later slow cooker use.

I know that the slow cooker is old fashioned (and a sore point for fans of This Is Us), and that the Instant Pot is the way of the future.  And I sincerely hope that Santa Claus brings me an Instant Pot this year.  But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say goodbye to my old friend and its companion cookbooks.  Slow cooking (especially in the fall and winter) will always have a special place in my heart.  And my tummy.

Is Bigger Better?

With all due respect to the state of Texas, bigger isn’t always better.  I was at a music festival this past weekend and couldn’t help but think about it.  I go to a LOT of music festivals of assorted sizes.  The biggest one I attended this year cost me the most money and was absolutely the least fun.  This weekend’s fest was one of the smallest and one of my best experiences of the summer.  Sure….big has its advantages.  In the case of a music festival it brings you a killer lineup of nationally known artists.  But it also brings you a giant venue to hike around, high ticket prices, high vending prices, and difficult security.  A big fest is a lot of work (and money) to have a good time.  The small fest I just attended, however, was very peaceful.  The bands were mostly from Pennsylvania, but very talented.  My camp was only about 150 yards from the stage, so it was quick and easy to go back for food and beverage supplies.  And many of the performers spent the weekend hanging out in the crowd, listening to the music with the rest of us.  It was just really fun.  Bigger isn’t always better.

The bigger isn’t always better theory applies to so many things in life.  A warehouse club container of fresh veggies doesn’t do you any good if they spoil before you can eat them.  The 36-pack of toilet paper may cost less per roll, but what good is that if you have no place to store it?  A gallon of milk isn’t a bargain if you only consume a quart a week.  A giant pickup truck may seem like a good choice…until you have to fill the gas tank.  A huge house with vaulted ceilings seems lovely…until you have to pay the bill to heat it in January (or cool it in July).  A forty pound bag of dog food might come with a great price, but doesn’t help you if you are not able to lift it without help.

Many times we are conditioned to think that bigger is better.  But it is important to think about your own reality to decide whether that is actually the case.

Electronic Payments with your Smart Phone

I’m usually the kind of person that wants to see how something works for other people before trying it myself.  So I’ve been dragging my feet on the whole Apple Pay/Google Pay thing.  But if there’s one thing that can drag me into a new technology, it’s the opportunity to save money.  So when one of my credit cards started offering 5% cash back for using their card with these services this quarter, I jumped on board.

Most major retailers are equipped to accept electronic payments now.  So I set up my Google Pay account and attached the credit card with the 5% cash back.  And off to the grocery store I went.  Instead of pulling out my credit card at the register, I just tapped my smartphone to the signature pad.  And boom….I was done.  No signature. No waiting.  No exchange of cash.  Just tap and done.

This is a whole new world.  Very quick payment.  No need to have credit cards on my person.  I can see this as being very useful when I go out for a longer run or bike ride and might want to stop to buy myself a beverage or snack.  And if the vendors at music festivals start accepting Google Pay, I’ll certainly be in my glory.

But on the flip side, I can see this new technology as a bit dangerous to the budget.  As we’ve moved from a cash society into the world of plastic, it has become a bit harder to keep track of how much money you actually have available to you.  You no longer have to consciously make a trip to the ATM to spend more than you have planned.  And the ability to pay by tapping your phone without even digging out a card makes it seem even less like real money.

Additionally, you’ll want to make sure you keep your phone screen locked if you are using this.  If your screen is unlocked and you lose your phone, the finder would be able to run around charging up a storm on your account.  You should be keeping your screen locked anyway, but this is just another reason to do so.

Electronic payment technology is definitely easy and fast.  But it has a down side as well.  For now I’m going to give it a thumbs up, but with the caveat to proceed with caution.

 

Unintended Consequences

Sometimes when you make a decision, you end up with unintended consequences.  Sometimes those consequences are bad (for example…you find a parking spot in the Katz lot but you end up with a ticket because your meter ran out before you left the building).  But sometimes those consequences can be good (like when I gave up cable TV and my electric bill went down because the cable boxes are power vampires).

My New Year’s resolutions this year included a “healthier living” component.  This includes not only exercise (and yes…I’m still winning my StepBet!), but also eating less processed food.  Some things (i.e. potato chips and pretzels) that used to be staples in my life are just not a part of it any more.  Now when I think of snack food, I’m usually thinking fresh fruit, hard-boiled eggs, or applesauce.  And my one true snacky weakness—popcorn.  Popcorn is a true whole-grain snack food that doesn’t have to be bad for you.  I recently acquired a microwave popcorn popper.  This provides me with oil-free popcorn in minutes that can’t cause popcorn lung. Add a little salt while it’s still hot, and I’ve got a delicious, easy, healthy snack.

But the thing that caught me off-guard about this dietary change is the unintended consequences.  I’ve read a million times that the best way to shop in a grocery store is “around the edges” where the fresh foods are kept.  And this change to my diet has led to more around the edges shopping and a lot less of picking up boxes, bags, and jars from the aisles.  And this is where the unintended consequences come in.  I’ve been spending a lot less money on groceries since the start of the year.  A dozen eggs, a bag of clementine oranges and a bag of apples costs about the same as one bag of chips and one bag of pretzels (and will make you feel full a lot faster).  And a jar of un-popped popcorn kernels costs only a few dollars but will last for weeks on end.  While this may not seem like a budget busting discovery, I’m easily saving $10 to $20 per week on groceries by sticking with healthy food.  And over the course of a month that’s $40 to $80.  Over a year it can be as much as $1,000.  And that’s a significant chunk of money.

You never know what unintended consequences may come from decisions you make.  But sometimes they’re really good ones.

A Trio of Thanksgiving Tips

The week of Thanksgiving is an abundance of riches when it comes to topics for financial bloggers.  Travel…food…shopping.  These three things are all at the front of my mind and I’m having a hard time deciding.  So this week, you get a three-for-one.

Holiday travel is the worst…especially if you are flying.  Every time I fly, it seems like it’s less fun than the time before (and I assure you—it hasn’t actually been fun in many, many years).  But one thing remains constant when I travel.  I always throw an empty water bottle and travel coffee mug into my carry-on bag.  Most airports (including the tiny University Park airport) have bottle filling stations by the water fountains, so I can fill my water bottle once I’m through security and be set for the trip without buying expensive throwaway bottles.  And most places (including airport Starbucks stores) offer reduced pricing on coffee if you bring your own travel mug.  Carrying my own drinking vessels saves me a bundle when I fly!

Thanksgiving is a holiday that revolves around the family table.  But when the meal is complete and the dishes are done, my favorite part of the holiday is still to come:  the leftovers.  It’s so rare in today’s busy world that we prepare a large meal with lots of sides and a huge entrée.  But Thanksgiving usually means a full turkey.  Which almost always means leftovers.  So now is the time to make those turkey salad sandwiches and Google recipes for casseroles made with leftover turkey.  Freeze some for later.  And enjoy the fruits of the Thanksgiving meal for weeks to come.

And if you’ve been anywhere near a TV in recent days, you are more than aware that the busiest shopping day of the year is coming up on Friday.  I’m a sucker for a good sale and love early morning shopping on Black Friday.  But I never go at it blind.  I like to make a plan.  There are certain items I’m looking for as Christmas gifts, and there are some things I want for my home that I’ve been waiting for sale pricing on.  I’ll sit down Thursday night with the sale flyers from the newspaper and plan my attack.  Once I know what I’m buying where, I’ll compare store opening times and locations and make my list.  Usually I’m done shopping and back home by 8 am (and I usually don’t start until at least 6 am).  Shopping with a list is pretty efficient.  The key to not spending too much is to not stray from the list.  No impulse shopping means no overspending.

Happy Thanksgiving!!