Living Frugally

[Barbatos]

Starting next week (but not this week since I am going to Dallas again for vacation), I'm going to try limit myself to $20 a week on food.

I've previously been spending anywhere from $20-$40 a day on food, and that includes morning coffee, lunch, snacks, and dinner. I've come to the realization that I can save significant money by fixing my food budget and also maybe even lose some weight in the process.

I have no real reason to do this other than to just feel better about myself and my lifestyle.

Anyone have tips for living frugally? I bet Luna does!

[Raven The Dark Angel]

I do. Making your own coffee home is a good way to cut down on that bill. You can also switch the place you go to get coffee. Going to Dunkin Donuts instead of Starbucks makes a HUGE difference. Around here McDonald's serves any size coffee for a dollar. So just doing that alone can shave off a few bucks. For dietary reasons I try to stomach black coffee and treat myself to milk and sugar on the weekends. It saves money on buying the stuff at home as well as calories (because I am guilty of like 10 sugars in mine >>)

Going out to eat will destroy your savings. Make your lunch for work. Buying some lunch meats and make a sandwich or take leftovers with you. Whatever it is that you like, if you buy it from the grocery store in bulk it will save you load of cash than going to Wendy's or something. If you think about it the average fast food meal costs $5 a day. But for $6-7 you could buy a loaf a bread and a pound of whichever lunch meat is on sale and have lunch for a whole week.

I would sometimes do some pretty punishing things to save a few bucks. It's not the healthiest but going on a ramen noodle diet for an entire week once a month can save you mad cash.

Making supper is also a good way to save money. Have things like pasta sauce and noodles. It'll cost little and last a while and is a good easy supper when in a jam.

[Barbatos]

Yeah I have some Via coffee packets that I bought a while ago so I'm using that for my morning coffee until I run out - then I'm going to buy a coffee maker and will start brewing the stuff at home. I always drink my coffee black hehe.

I've been paying the $1.61 for starbucks coffee daily for like several years now, and some days I would have more than one. That's some crazy wasted money!

[Lunarea]

Raven had good suggestions, so I won't repeat them. But here are some of mine:

- Limit your shopping to once a week/once every couple of weeks and don't go shopping while hungry. Most people buy at least one extra thing that looks real good, and things look especially enticing when you're shopping hungry. You don't have to go as far as having a list and not buying anything that isn't on it (though that helps). Just limit yourself to shopping occasionally.

- Fill up your pantry. 20$/week is reasonable for a single person. But if you've got nothing (or nothing much) in your pantry right now, you'll easily spend at least twice that getting the bare necessities. With a filled pantry, you can do things like wait until something is on sale or even hunker down and go without groceries for a week. I can get you a list of pantry items if you'd like, depending on how much cooking you want to do.

- Plan your menus. That's seriously the biggest way to work with a budget. It doesn't have to be a rigid plan. But say "I'll have chicken twice this week, beef twice and fish 3 times". That way, you always know not only what quantities to get, but how much cooking you'll have to do. But it leaves enough wiggle room so you can switch your menu around if you don't feel like cooking something or eating a specific food.

- Get a Crockpot. I always suggest this one to working people. You fill it up with stuff, turn it on before you go to work, and you have a dinner waiting for you by the time you get home. The best part is that you can make enough food to have leftovers to take to work the next day.

- Don't buy everything in bulk. Most of the time, buying in bulk gives you more food for your money. But it's not worth it when you throw away half of it because it expired or because you got sick of eating it. Buying in bulk is great for the foods/beverages you have every day. So, coffee is good in bulk, or soda. But not worth it to buy 12lbs of avocado because they're cheap and throwing away the 11lbs that spoiled. I usually encourage people to watch their purchases for a month to catch patterns, then going to the bulk store to stock up on the stuff they use the most.

- Treat yourself to dinner/lunch/dessert/whatever once a month. Even out that grocery bill to 100$/month and save 20 for eating at a restaurant/takeaway. It's not easy or fun to keep a budget and most people slip up and give up quickly. Sometimes when you've had a day from hell, you don't want to think about cooking or budgeting and that extra allowance is nice. It's the spender's equivalent of guilt-free food in dieting.

[Kojo]

Here's how I save money:

Don't drink. That means any and all alcohol, if it comes free with the party, cut loose, but don't buy it.

Don't drink. That means no soda, coffee. Lose the addiction to caffeine.

Drink water, keep hydrated.

Buy meat in the bargain bin, and cook it the same day you purchase.

Cruise the sales.

Pack lunch (Or work in an industry where they feed you).

Only cook what you need.

Eat leftovers the day after.

Never throw out food! BE EFFICIENT!

[Barbatos]

I have some eggs that I was going to throw out because they're 5 days past the expiration date but in honor of KOJO TIME I shall now consume them~

[Kojo]

That's downright KOJOTASTIC!!!

But no seriously, every time you waste food, you waste money.

[Malignanttoe]

Dumpster Buffet's are a great way to save money AND cut down on waste going into our landfills. If you're efficient enough at it, it will also server to give a vagrant a cleaner place to sleep.
YOU COULD BE A TRIPLE THREAT!

[Barbatos]

Hahaha just the thought of doing that makes me sick. I'm not about to rescue a fresh banana from within a pile of soiled diapers and used kitty litter.

also, every time I see a freegan, I just want to punch them in the face.

[NekoThePyro]

Go to Perkins or a similar resturaunt, and buy the 'day old' (or however old they may be) bakery items, if you want muffins/bread/whatever. They're a lot cheaper, and if you throw them in the microwave for a few seconds, they taste fresh!

[Malignanttoe]

Hahaha just the thought of doing that makes me sick. I'm not about to rescue a fresh banana from within a pile of soiled diapers and used kitty litter.

also, every time I see a freegan, I just want to punch them in the face.
You just made it into a weight-loss plan as well. WE NEED TO MARKET THIS NOW!

[Raven The Dark Angel]

XP but if you know what you're going to make that night you could shop discount produce. Usually you have to make it that day. I like to shop that area when I make a huge batch of sauce. If you make homemade stuff you can shove all your veggies in and it's great to freeze and then you don't have to worry about making it for a really long time. The same goes for soup that you can also freeze. Make your own freezer dinners :>

You'll be an millionaire at the end of the month!!!!!!

[Barbatos]

Okay so now I plan on getting a crockpot and ingredients for beef stew on my next payday (this friday). However that means I'll have to last this week on $20 and whatever the heck's still in my pantry.

Today I used my last Starbucks via packet to get free coffee. Damn, I should add a coffeemaker to my list, but I'm afraid that a $20 machine would be crap. I might try to go without a morning brew until I figure out what to do there, or bring tea packets to work and drink hot tea until I run out of those.

For lunch, I decided not to go home and make something, so I bought two cups of yogurt for about $2.50. Woot this is working out so far~

[Lunarea]

Try this one, Died:
GE-5 Cup (http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-5-Cup-Digital-Coffee-Maker/12311466)

It comes with a 2yr warranty. I have a bigger model we got as a wedding gift. 4 years and no issues :)

[Barbatos]

Well I am happy to report success this week so far. I am out of my $20 but have enough food to last until sunday~ yay for bok choy and canned food in my pantry.

Now the next couple weeks will be challenging since i'll have run out of canned tuna/fish/beans by then. >_>

[supershigi]

Make sure you don't go bok-choy-crazy, hahaha:

http://www.aolhealth.com/2010/05/20/too-much-bok-choy-puts-88-year-old-in-coma/

(this post was only half serious, I know you wouldn't eat that much bok coy, haha).

[Kojo]

I grew bok-choy when I was a kid and it gets old fast like spinach or something.

[Barbatos]

Make sure you don't go bok-choy-crazy, hahaha:

http://www.aolhealth.com/2010/05/20/too-much-bok-choy-puts-88-year-old-in-coma/

(this post was only half serious, I know you wouldn't eat that much bok coy, haha).

Haha I read about that. That would be one awesome fate. Gonna eat as much bok choy as I can now.

[Barbatos]

Man, living on $20 a week for food is the best thing ever. I've lost 8 lbs since the start of it and I'm feeling healthier as well (since I'm cooking my own meals and not going out to eat or eating fast food). And I saved a ton of money, woot.

[Malignanttoe]

WOOT!

[Barbatos]

I might be losing weight a little too fast though. Went from 214 to 210 in 2 days. I ate a normal amount of food, so uh, don't know what's going on, lol.

Maybe that sort of weight loss is normal for overweight people who've reduced their calorie intake from 3000 to 2000~

[Alpha-Mad]

Losing a lot of weight at first is quite normal. It (roughly) equates to 3500 calories per pound but water weight can also add to that. Just make sure you're staying hydrated too. You won't lose pounds faster but the physical results will show.

[Malignanttoe]

Meh. Personally, I wouldn't worry unless I lost more than 15 pounds in a week.
But then again, I just think I'm awesome.

[Barbatos]

Meh. Personally, I wouldn't worry unless I lost more than 15 pounds in a week.
But then again, I just think I'm awesome.

I once lost 20 lbs in 4 weeks by doing the christian bale diet (1 apple and 1 can of tuna a day. that's it). I totally recommend that diet to everyone, but I personally won't do it again. This eating slightly less and eating healthier thing is more fun.

And yeah Alpha, I'd been checking my weight in the morning without drinking or anything (so i'm dehydrated). Water sure adds a lot of weight, haha. Well, hopefully my significant weight loss is going to continue until I hit 200, which is my primary goal at the moment (anything more than that is icing on the cake).

[Malignanttoe]

1 apple and 1 can of tuna a day? O_o

[Barbatos]

1 apple and 1 can of tuna a day? O_o

Yes, it was the best diet ever: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/53457/christian_bales_weight_loss_for_the.html?cat=40

[Malignanttoe]

Gah!


*Space filler*

[Raven The Dark Angel]

I wouldn't weigh yourself everyday. It's too much of a fluctuation. Week to week weight is better. Because sometimes it's water, you didn't go to bathroom :x, or some other random thing shifting weight. Its normal to be 1-2lbs in variance of weight day to day so just do it by the week and you know if you've lost weight. A normal diet is 1-2lbs a week after the initial drop.

[Barbatos]

Man I hope I don't hit the wall yet. I want to drop down to 200 as soon as I can~

[Autumn]

Abuse.

Free samples, free refills; abuse it all. Cook together with others. People always have stuff lying around they'd throw away otherwise anyway. You'll always have leftovers too, maybe a spice, maybe a vegetable, whatever. It might sound really silly, but when people cook alone they always spend more. Also learn to mix things up a bit so you know what can go with what. That way in case something goes wrong in the planning, there's prolly still a way out.

You could also cook for neighbours once when there's a variety of things to make something reasonably fancy on sale and then wait for yourself be invited at their place. You'll eat well and free.

You know by giving you these tips I just realised I actually sound like a horrible person when I'm trying to help =/

[Malignanttoe]

Man I hope I don't hit the wall yet. I want to drop down to 200 as soon as I can~
I want to lose 30-40 :\
My wife would get on my case if I did any drastic dieting, not that I have the willpower for it any way.

[Barbatos]

I want to lose 30-40 :\
My wife would get on my case if I did any drastic dieting, not that I have the willpower for it any way.

Yeah I bet she thinks you want to slim down to become attractive enough to get some girlfriends on the side~

[Raven The Dark Angel]

Ah man that reminds me of what Autumn was talking about with free samples. I would sometimes go and order something small at a fast food joint and like go over with my bag and just PILE in ketchup, salt, napkins, pepper, and whichever stuff. At Dunkin Donuts get all the sugar! Just hit 'em up and you won't have to buy those things again. Sometimes though they're cheap bastards and have the squirt in a cup ketchup then just take all the napkins XD

[Alpha-Mad]

I always steal the packets from taco bell to put on a bunch of things. They're good.

Also, for those looking to loose weight, cutting calories and spreading out and increasing your meals helps too. Eat 5-6 small meals and it keeps your metabolism high and running. Anytime your stomach is groaning, you're probably not burning any calories.

[Kojo]

Eat smaller meals, don't stuff yourself. Keep leftover and pick at it to riff on what Alpha said.

Healthy=Frugal always. Portion control as well as control of sugars.

[Lunarea]

Have a blender, Died?

Supermarkets and grocery stores have a crazy amount of fruit on sale. Some stores even throw out the fruit that's started to get a little too ripe. If you can get your hands on it, it'll be pennies for dollars worth of food. With a blender or a juicer, you can make the fruit into smoothies. Drink'em in the morning or freeze them as sorbet.

[Barbatos]

Yep I have a blender. Hmm, but fruit usually is expensive, so I don't usually get it unless it's like bananas or something. But i'll have to check it out and see what they have on sale tomorrow.

[Lunarea]

It's cheaper when it's in season. So, summer and spring is when you can get them cheap. Otherwise, buy frozen fruit :)

[NekoThePyro]

Mmm, frozen fruit is delicious. <3 I love it frozen!

[supershigi]

1.) This is specifically for Died because I know you like food combinations that people might consider offensive, haha... A can of tuna + kimchee is great for a quick low calorie/low excess starch kind of meal. I had tuna, kimchee, and some leftover leafy vegetables for lunch one day and it kept me satisfied until dinner. Plus, you can buy tuna for pretty cheap (especially from places like Target).

2.) Buy a couple tomato plants and soon you'll have so many tomatoes you don't know what to do with them. When you grow them yourself they taste like nothing you'll ever buy in the store... so fresh and flavorful and sweet. You can eat them daily, cook with them, put them in sandwiches, and turn the extras into sauces that you can use later. Plus it's a great way to save money.

[Barbatos]

just tuna + kimchee? that sounds awesome actually. i gotta try that now, haha.

i've never grown my own vegetables. i'd be too afraid of like, getting bugs and stuff on them or forgetting to water them one day and finding they wilted.

[Kojo]

They aren't that fragile. If you remind yourself that you are growing FOOD then it becomes much easier.

[supershigi]

Tomatoes are really easy for some reason... just go out and water them whenever you feed your cats. They don't really get bugs the way eggplant or basil do.

[Kojo]

Basil is ludicrously easy to grow in Arizona. You just let it go. Rosemary as well. Most spices are really easy to grow if you've got the soil and don't mind a few lil bugs (Extra proteins!)

[supershigi]

Haha that's true actually... the bugs that hung out on our basil were pretty benign (unlike the aphids that tried to demolish my poor eggplant plant). Cilantro is super easy as well... just remember that if you grow basil, you should pinch off the flowers when they start flowering so that the plant will keep growing throughout the summer as opposed to going to seed and dying early.

[Kojo]

I never did that, I like to let my plants have a natural more or less lifespan. I've heard the basil goes down in quality after it attempts to flower, but it's never been confirmed by me.

[NekoThePyro]

I grow strawberries, and they're possibly the easiest things to grow, at least around here. I water them and spray a little garlic-water-fish oil mix on them to keep the bugs away, and that's all. Same with cucumbers, I just let them go and I get food.

[GubiD]

I plant a couple Squash and Zucini Plants every year and they are so easy to tend. Infact I do nothing but water them. Never had a problem with bugs unless they got to ripe. 2 plants grows enough to have squash every single day for months. It is good when sauteed in butter and a little salt.

Its also the same for me with Cucumbers and Tomatoes. Just good climate I guess, or my neighbors bug killer works on mine?! I have grown lettuce as well, but you have a keep a close eye on it to not let it overgrow or it becomes pretty sour and gross. I pay $45/yr for a secondary water supply and that have no meter, so I can run it to water as often as I feel my garden needs it.

[Barbatos]

Just in case anyone's wondering, I've lost more weight! Down to 206 this morning. Hard to believe that 3 weeks ago I was 210 and 6 weeks ago I was 215-216. All because I've stopped drinking sodas and eating out/too much.

Oh and working out helps a bit too, though I don't even work out that much, just twice a week.

This week I only spent $10 on groceries. Yay for last week's three dollar 10 pound bag of potatoes that is still lasting into this week.

[NekoThePyro]

Woo! Congrats! This seems to be working out very well for you! <3

Best of luck for the future!

[Raven The Dark Angel]

gain it all back~

[Barbatos]

205 this morning~ It'd be awesome if I can drop to 190 by end of the year!

[rutix]

Nicely going Barbatos :D. I did the same as you and it really really helps :). And with that i mean money :P i cant manage to become overweight :\. I am even a bit underweighted with 132 pounds with 180 cm tall.

[Raven The Dark Angel]

pah you underweights! How can you people manage not to gain weight! Lemme tell you just eat fast food at least once a day and don't forget a bowl of candy everyday. Unhealthy? Yes but then what's more unhealthy being underweight and not enjoying delicious snacks or having your cake and being overweight too?

[rutix]

pah you underweights! How can you people manage not to gain weight! Lemme tell you just eat fast food at least once a day and don't forget a bowl of candy everyday. Unhealthy? Yes but then what's more unhealthy being underweight and not enjoying delicious snacks or having your cake and being overweight too?
Haha indeed but then i wont save much money xD. But its pretty handy to be a bit underweight :P you dont have to watch out for what you eat XD.

[Erk]

I'm a bit late to the game here, but my two cents:
Certain foods are disproportionately filling for how much they cost. Your 3lb bag of potatoes is a good example. Some more:
-rice
-dried lentils/beans!
-corn
-squash/gourds

Also, some foods are disproportionately healthy for how much they fill you up. Some examples:
-Spinach/chard/nearly any dark, leafy green
-anything from the Brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower), especially cabbage (super cheap) and broccoli (super healthy)
-carrots!
-onions and garlic

By combining these two factors you can live very cheaply and very healthily: all the foods I've listed are extremely filling, good for you, and inexpensive. Most of them also keep well: you can buy a jillion pounds of rice and lentils and eat them for a year if you swing that way. Trick 2 is to cut down on salt: don't add it to anything you eat, and limit your consumption of canned goods to a bare minimum. Salt makes you hungrier and thirstier, causes you to retain water, and may affect your metabolism to cause you to store energy more (a topic still under heavy debate). At first living with low salt is crappy, but once you get used to it, normal overprocessed food starts to taste like crap. This is also to your benefit because it makes going out to cheap restaurants less appealing.

You don't have to live by the rules of cheapness; you can always treat yourself to a bit of meat every once in a while (and you should), but when I lived in college on this ruleset I was very healthy and happy, learned to cook very creatively (spices, my friend!) and never gained any freshman 15.

A final note: Strange diets, like 1 apple and 1 can of tuna a day, can be dangerous. Watch out with those: you can start to exhibit malnutrition from lack of trace minerals and vitamins. As well, when your body returns to a semi-normal eating habit, it will greedily consume all the nutrients you give it and put them into what it perceives as its depleted stores: you gain the weight back faster than you could imagine. It's safer to eat healthy, full meals, but just make them a little smaller. It's safest not to diet at all, but instead to continue eating a normal amount of food and just get more exercise. Just make sure you don't increase how much you eat because exercising makes you hungrier.

Cheers.

[supershigi]

Wow, it's the infamous Erk! I've heard a lot about you from Tana :)

Certain foods are disproportionately filling for how much they cost. Your 3lb bag of potatoes is a good example. Some more:
-rice
-dried lentils/beans!
-corn
-squash/gourds

Also, some foods are disproportionately healthy for how much they fill you up. Some examples:
-Spinach/chard/nearly any dark, leafy green
-anything from the Brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower), especially cabbage (super cheap) and broccoli (super healthy)
-carrots!
-onions and garlic
I very much agree... if you aren't consuming as many calories each day, you want to make them count. Fill up on foods that are cheap and nutrient dense. A lot of people don't even realize that they don't get enough nutrients when they diet... and if you go for too long depleting your body of the vitamins and minerals that it needs it can age you faster and make you more prone to sickness. There's even a lot of studies linking consistent malnutrion to things like cancer, so it's always really good to eat as much nutrient dense food as you can whether or not you're dieting.

Also... I've been wanting to cook with lentils because of the cheapness and health benefits, but I don't know any good recipes... does anyone have any suggestions? I know you have to do something like soak them beforehand, but I don't know for how long.

[Lunarea]

@shigi:
I have a really simple recipe for lentil soup (you can find it here (http://www.spongen.org/showthread.php?t=1942&page=2)). Unlike beans, you can get away without soaking them overnight and just boil them for a few minutes & rinsing before cooking in a dish.

@Died:
Another cheap meal is tacos. 1 lbs of lean hamburger meat + 1 package of taco seasoning would probably last you several dinners. If you add lettuce, avocado, sour cream and a bit of cheese, you make it really healthy and super filling. And if you have leftover soft tortilla shells, you can fill them with scrambled eggs and sausage in the morning as a quick breakfast-on-the-go.

And way to go! It's awesome that you're both saving money and reaping the health benefits :3