Cost cutting measures

[firefly_ris]

walmart also now has a program online called 'walmart cash' where you can click on offers/deals for products you are already shopping for and after you've done the physical purchase/pickup you have a credit sitting you can use for future purchases.

Thank you, I need to look into this, not something I was aware of.

 

[tvguy]

Definitely! I have been recommending menstrual cups for 20 years. No waste, no remembering to restock, amazingly convenient for travel. I don't know why more people don't use them.


To clarify, I didn't say that vegetarian food has remained the same price since the pandemic. The prices of everything have definitely increased. However, our total grocery spending has remained the same ($600/mo) because we stopped buying meat and have replaced that portion of our diet with other protein sources that are cheaper. Ex. Even if 1lb of tofu increased in price to $2.13 at Walmart, that's still cheaper than 1lb of sausage. So, swapping out the sausage in a meal with tofu would save money.

LOL. Skinless boneless chicken breasts are on sale at my store this week for $1.99 a pound. We do all our meal planning in the store based on what is on sale. And not just the weekly flyer, but the "in store" specials. The meat case usually has several items the manager has put "$1, $2, $3 OFF" stickers on because they are getting close to their pull date which make no difference if you are freezing it, or if they have too much in inventory . It does lead to some non-traditional meals on holidays. Our Cinco De Mayo meal was not Mexican food, it was Corned Beef my wife bought on sale after St. Patricks day and froze. Our store normally does not stock corned beef. They have cut way back on their selection of meat. They don't normally carry beef short ribs anymore, and butcher says they sell out as soon as they put them out.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

LOL. Skinless boneless chicken breasts are on sale at my store this week for $1.99 a pound. We do all our meal planning in the store based on what is on sale. And not just the weekly flyer, but the "in store" specials. The meat case usually has several items the manager has put "$1, $2, $3 OFF" stickers on because they are getting close to their pull date which make no difference if you are freezing it, or if they have too much in inventory . It does lead to some non-traditional meals on holidays. Our Cinco De Mayo meal was not Mexican food, it was Corned Beef my wife bought on sale after St. Patricks day and froze. Our store normally does not stock corned beef. They have cut way back on their selection of meat. They don't normally carry beef short ribs anymore, and butcher says they sell out as soon as they put them out.

Haven't you said multiple times that your wife just enjoys being contrarian at this stage of life and will not serve traditional meals on any holiday? So not sure how that is linked to grocery prices.

 

[tvguy]

Haven't you said multiple times that your wife just enjoys being contrarian at this stage of life and will not serve traditional meals on any holiday? So not sure how that is linked to grocery prices.

Those two are joined at the hip.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

Over a year ago, I dropped my USCELLULAR service and went to MINT.
I LOVED US Cellular and was a long time customer. It was a hard decision, but I have now gotten over all that and have saved over $100 dollars every single month.

 

[MICKIMINI]

I do careful shopping combined with a large pantry and freezer to save money. Hannaford has the "to go" pick up feature which is helpful and free over $125. I just placed an order and used about $25 in online coupons on items I needed. I got $7 off $10 steak tips LOL!

Our garage chest freezer (Home Depot about $100 3 years ago) uses little electricity. Being able to stock meat, cheeses, vegetables and bread has brought our grocery bill down significantly as I only buy when the sale is aggressive. It takes time to portion, label, freeze and cycle everything but saving in some cases half is well worth it. I agree with OP's that a freezer is one of the best ways to save. I don't obsess over food prices since all I can do is shop smart.

 

[tinkerbellandpeterpan]

Those two are joined at the hip.

LOL. Okay.

 

[barkley]

The meat case usually has several items the manager has put "$1, $2, $3 OFF" stickers on because they are getting close to their pull date which make no difference if you are freezing it,

at our local stores it's timing shopping at the right time of day to get the best dollar off deals on meats. the cold boxes are fully stocked first thing in the morning and they refill to an extent during the day but totally refill around 4 p.m. for the late afternoon and evening shoppers after the butcher department has closed so if you time it right they take the packages from earlier in the day, move them to the top of the display and mark them anywhere from $1-$3 off. then you make your way over to the deli counter b/c they are making the fresh fried chicken to entice coming home from work shoppers and have packaged up all the chicken that was just made a couple of hours earlier and have moved it into a cold box and marked it down to $6.99 for a box of whole fried, all drumsticks or all wings (they can fit allot of wings into one of those plastic boxes ).

i don't see as much marked down meat (seasonal/holiday) these days. seems the stores realize they are not selling as much due to cost and have cut back accordingly (i used to take advantage and stock up on corned beef and leg of lamb). before stuff gets too close to the sell-by date they tend to repurpose it and sell it as kabobs, stir-fry, pre seasoned/marinated and other uncooked prepared (and making a tidy profit b/c they are selling it at above the per pound price for the meat alone and WAY above the per pound price of the veggies added in).

 

[tvguy]

at our local stores it's timing shopping at the right time of day to get the best dollar off deals on meats. the cold boxes are fully stocked first thing in the morning and they refill to an extent during the day but totally refill around 4 p.m. for the late afternoon and evening shoppers after the butcher department has closed so if you time it right they take the packages from earlier in the day, move them to the top of the display and mark them anywhere from $1-$3 off. then you make your way over to the deli counter b/c they are making the fresh fried chicken to entice coming home from work shoppers and have packaged up all the chicken that was just made a couple of hours earlier and have moved it into a cold box and marked it down to $6.99 for a box of whole fried, all drumsticks or all wings (they can fit allot of wings into one of those plastic boxes ).

i don't see as much marked down meat (seasonal/holiday) these days. seems the stores realize they are not selling as much due to cost and have cut back accordingly (i used to take advantage and stock up on corned beef and leg of lamb). before stuff gets too close to the sell-by date they tend to repurpose it and sell it as kabobs, stir-fry, pre seasoned/marinated and other uncooked prepared (and making a tidy profit b/c they are selling it at above the per pound price for the meat alone and WAY above the per pound price of the veggies added in).

Yeah, my mom lived about half a mile from a grocery store. Up to a few weeks before her 89th birthday if she had a hankering for a rotisserie chicken she knew what time they would mark down the price. I think it was three hours after they were cooked. She would eat for a week off one of those chickens, that includes making homemade chicken noodle soup with the carcass. She's been gone 11 years now, and she would be disappointed that they no longer mark down the hot foods. When they hit the time limit, they go in the trash, so something must have happened to prompt that.

 

[Starport Seven-Five]

When making online purchases check www.cashbackmonitor.com to see which websites have the best cash back deals.

Focus as much as you can on reoccurring expenses. Saving $8/month on a streaming service you no longer use turns into $96 after a year. Much bigger impact than a coupon for cheese or something.

Look around your house for anything you can sell. Ebay gives you 250 no insertion fee listings per month so you're not out anything except the time. You only pay ebay fees if the item sells.

Also be sure to keep in mind the value of your time. Often our focus narrows and we go down a rabbit hole with diminishing returns. At some point it just isn't worth the mental bandwidth and you shouldn't spend your time on it.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Thank you, I need to look into this, not something I was aware of.

Me either. We strictly shop at Walmart, probably 2 trips a week. So seeing that is something I'll look into.

 

[barkley]

Yeah, my mom lived about half a mile from a grocery store. Up to a few weeks before her 89th birthday if she had a hankering for a rotisserie chicken she knew what time they would mark down the price. I think it was three hours after they were cooked. She would eat for a week off one of those chickens, that includes making homemade chicken noodle soup with the carcass. She's been gone 11 years now, and she would be disappointed that they no longer mark down the hot foods. When they hit the time limit, they go in the trash, so something must have happened to prompt that.

a friend would get a costco rotissery chicken and a couple of bags of 'steamer' veggies each week which translated into 5 dinner meals he would take to work. he would season or sauce differently to create variety. quite the budget bargain to this day.

around here NO STORE or so much as a reputable restaurant or fast food would toss entirely edible food-the food banks and shelters have a system in place where they round robin on a regular schedule to pick up food. between this and what places like trader joes and other grocery stores contribute far more are helped and far less food waste occurs.

 

[tvguy]

around here NO STORE or so much as a reputable restaurant or fast food would toss entirely edible food-the food banks and shelters have a system in place where they round robin on a regular schedule to pick up food. between this and what places like trader joes and other grocery stores contribute far more are helped and far less food waste occurs.

Yes, there were some objections but having volunteered at both the Food Bank and Homeless kitchen here, they don't accept donations of cooked food ready to eat food. Food safety issue. My son's friend worked at this store and they had to destroy such food so it could not be taken out of the dumpster.
Like a lot of charities these days, they prefer to get cash to buy exactly what they need. I worked the sandwich prep line with my daughter at the Food Bank and we were forced to make hot dog sandwiches on raisin bread because that was the only bread that had been donated.

 

[gmi3804]

Use Persil liquid laundry detergent, and nothing else. It’s expensive, but you only need 1oz (that’s a cough syrup cup size, or 2 tablespoons) for a whole load. If you use more, your clothes will not get cleaner. Buy it on sale and with frequent coupons. Your clothes will never be cleaner.

Fabric softeners ruin textiles; you don’t need it. And you don’t need bleach either if you use Persil. You can soften your laundry and dishwasher water, if necessary, with a bit of Borax.

 

[barkley]

Yes, there were some objections but having volunteered at both the Food Bank and Homeless kitchen here, they don't accept donations of cooked food ready to eat food. Food safety issue. My son's friend worked at this store and they had to destroy such food so it could not be taken out of the dumpster.
Like a lot of charities these days, they prefer to get cash to buy exactly what they need. I worked the sandwich prep line with my daughter at the Food Bank and we were forced to make hot dog sandwiches on raisin bread because that was the only bread that had been donated.

different places different practices. we happened to be at a kfc a couple of days before thanksgiving last fall and the food bank trucks pulled up to gather that single location's donations-4 full grocery store carts full of individualy bagged 8 peices of chicken (we asked what the bags contained). we chatted with the food bank employees and were told that while this was an exceptional amount to pick up they averaged one shopping cart per day at that location in addition to carts upon carts from other restaurants/fast foods and grocery stores with prepared hot-table foods.

 

[Brian Noble]

Here are some things I did when I was living alone on a graduate student stipend. Several of these things have already been mentioned. Most of them are less about specific buying strategies, and are instead general approaches that helped me spend less.

I used cash as often as I could. The act of parting with cash is more intentional than swiping a card, and this made it easier to catch myself making impulse purchases.

I kept a running total of my bank balance, and tracked every single penny I spent. If I grabbed a 79-cent cup of coffee at the gas station, I wrote it down and I tracked it. I used Quicken to track expenses, but a simple spreadsheet can do the job just fine. I was surprised at how often I caught myself about to buy something but put it back when I realized I had to write it down. Current me was embarrassed that future me would see what I bought!

I didn't have any credit cards with balances, but if I did I would have stopped using them. Not one more dime. If I could not pay cash for something, I was willing to use a credit card that I paid off at the end of every month. But, I pretended it was a debit card and subtracted the expense from the running bank balance I was tracking. That had two advantages. First, when the bill came due, I had already "set aside" the money to pay it. Second, having the smaller balance in my head also helped me re-think potential purchases.

At the end of each month, I reconciled my running total with what the bank had as my balance. This helped me catch anything I forgot to track. I would then total up all the categories and see how I felt about it.

I did not own a TV. No TV means no cable, streaming, etc. etc. etc. I read a lot of books. Instead of watching sports, I listed to the play-by-play on the radio. I was not be aware of whatever the Hot New Show was, and when people talked about it at work, I wasn't able to join in. There are worse things.

I had a few regular "treat yourself" moments each week, but they were chosen to be inexpensive. For example, every Sunday I bought a copy of the Sunday paper and went to a local diner. I'd order eggs, hashbrowns, toast, and coffee. If I was feeling really flush, I'd add some ham. I would let someone else cook, serve, and clean up, and I would enjoy the paper over breakfast. That did not cost very much at all. I think it was important to have "treats" from time to time to help avoid the more impulsive "I don't feel like cooking" evenings.

Along the same lines, I found a lot of free or cheap entertainment. There was a bar in my neighborhood that had live bands on the weekends. There was no cover, and it wasn't too hard to nurse a beer or two while watching them play a set. That was a lot less expensive than going to a concert. It was even a little bit cheaper than a first-run movie. Libraries were another way to "go out" and were cheaper than going to a cafe to do the same thing. In a University town, there are often several free museums. If you don't have any that are free, explore whether any have cheap memberships--those usually offer reciprocity with museums in other cities, which can make entertainment cheap on vacation.

I made vegetarian meals whenever I could, using whole fresh foods. Fresh produce can be a little more expensive, but the quality is vastly better than frozen or canned. I learned to cook with a broad set of spices because I was no longer using meat to flavor things. I found the various Moosewood cookbooks very helpful here.

As an aside, teaching myself to cook turned out to be very valuable when I was dating! Not many other men knew their way around the kitchen as well as I did.

 

[firefly_ris]

Forgot to add to my first post:

- Groom your dogs yourself. I have two havanese that need regular grooming and clipping. I do it all myself. I got them both as puppies so I spent a lot of time getting them tolerant of all the grooming tools, nails clippers etc which makes everything easier now.

- "shop your pantry" - keep track of what's in there. Can you do a challenge and do a few weeks of meals without needing to buy any additional ingredients? Relevant video...

 

[Rogue1677x]

Over a year ago, I dropped my USCELLULAR service and went to MINT.
I LOVED US Cellular and was a long time customer. It was a hard decision, but I have now gotten over all that and have saved over $100 dollars every single month.

I hope you have better experiences with Mint than we did. There were no problems for nearly 2 years, they were great, then suddenly the calls started dropping, not coming in or going out. On one of the most important days when we needed the calls to come in (I was having brain surgery and the hospital couldn't get a call through to my husband for 4 hours), that was the last straw.

We now switched to Visible and hopefully it will stay reliable.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

You say you used cash, but then you say you track your bank balance. Just curious.

I like a lot of your ideas. I've thought about going to a cash/envelope system. But my wife works at a bank, so she's anti-cash. Can't track what we spend that way.

Here are some things I did when I was living alone on a graduate student stipend. Several of these things have already been mentioned. Most of them are less about specific buying strategies, and are instead general approaches that helped me spend less.

I used cash as often as I could. The act of parting with cash is more intentional than swiping a card, and this made it easier to catch myself making impulse purchases.

I kept a running total of my bank balance, and tracked every single penny I spent. If I grabbed a 79-cent cup of coffee at the gas station, I wrote it down and I tracked it. I used Quicken to track expenses, but a simple spreadsheet can do the job just fine. I was surprised at how often I caught myself about to buy something but put it back when I realized I had to write it down. Current me was embarrassed that future me would see what I bought!

I didn't have any credit cards with balances, but if I did I would have stopped using them. Not one more dime. If I could not pay cash for something, I was willing to use a credit card that I paid off at the end of every month. But, I pretended it was a debit card and subtracted the expense from the running bank balance I was tracking. That had two advantages. First, when the bill came due, I had already "set aside" the money to pay it. Second, having the smaller balance in my head also helped me re-think potential purchases.

At the end of each month, I reconciled my running total with what the bank had as my balance. This helped me catch anything I forgot to track. I would then total up all the categories and see how I felt about it.

I did not own a TV. No TV means no cable, streaming, etc. etc. etc. I read a lot of books. Instead of watching sports, I listed to the play-by-play on the radio. I was not be aware of whatever the Hot New Show was, and when people talked about it at work, I wasn't able to join in. There are worse things.

I had a few regular "treat yourself" moments each week, but they were chosen to be inexpensive. For example, every Sunday I bought a copy of the Sunday paper and went to a local diner. I'd order eggs, hashbrowns, toast, and coffee. If I was feeling really flush, I'd add some ham. I would let someone else cook, serve, and clean up, and I would enjoy the paper over breakfast. That did not cost very much at all. I think it was important to have "treats" from time to time to help avoid the more impulsive "I don't feel like cooking" evenings.

Along the same lines, I found a lot of free or cheap entertainment. There was a bar in my neighborhood that had live bands on the weekends. There was no cover, and it wasn't too hard to nurse a beer or two while watching them play a set. That was a lot less expensive than going to a concert. It was even a little bit cheaper than a first-run movie. Libraries were another way to "go out" and were cheaper than going to a cafe to do the same thing. In a University town, there are often several free museums. If you don't have any that are free, explore whether any have cheap memberships--those usually offer reciprocity with museums in other cities, which can make entertainment cheap on vacation.

I made vegetarian meals whenever I could, using whole fresh foods. Fresh produce can be a little more expensive, but the quality is vastly better than frozen or canned. I learned to cook with a broad set of spices because I was no longer using meat to flavor things. I found the various Moosewood cookbooks very helpful here.

As an aside, teaching myself to cook turned out to be very valuable when I was dating! Not many other men knew their way around the kitchen as well as I did.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Here's some of the things we did (like most have already said).

We cut our cable and have gone to antenna and streaming. We get our local channels on antenna and roku channel (for our daily news), and we have the DIsney+/ESPN+/Hulu+ package for streaming. We also stream Discovery+. Those are about the only streaming we pay for. But we (well, I) watch a lot of YouTube for baseball cards and Disney World content.

We stopped travelling. We used to frequent Disney 2 times a year, sometimes 3 times in a 12-month timeframe. Right now, we don't have any trips planned to there or anywhere else. We have plans to go home, which is about 2-1/2 to 3 hours away, for Father's Day, Birthdays, Holidays, etc. But that's about the extent of our travel.

We cut back on our insurance since my wife's car is paid for. Now we only carry liability only. But be careful. She had a wreck 2 weeks ago, and the insurance isn't going to pay for it. We don't have an emergency fund, so we're going to have to come up with 4k-5k to pay for it. It's drivable, except the AC doesn't work. It blows hot, but not cold. And in Texas, that's not good. Since the car is drivable, we're not going to focus on fixing it right. We're just going ot focus on figuring out why the AC isn't blowing cold.

Speaking of AC, we've started leaving our house AC on 74 while we're not at home instead of 72. And we keep it on 68 at night instead of 66. Doesn't seem like much, but 2 degrees can make a big difference. So that helps a little, but our bill will still run $300-$400 during the hottest summer months.

I've gotten to where I'll get a loaf of bread and PBJ stuff at the store for lunches. I have to buy a new loaf about once every week since that one'll go bad. But it's cheaper than eating out every day. About the only time we'll eat out at lunch now is if the office is ppaying for it or on payday Friday. We have been trying to eat dinner out just 2 times per week as a couple, usually a Thursday, Friday or Saturday date night and then Sunday lunch after church.

One place we want to get better at going forward is not carrying maxed out credit cards. I had done good about paying them down (got both down to about 1/2 of max), but now they're back to being maxed out thanks to every day expenses. So I just make the minimum payment on them then charge a couple of things back onto them. That way I'm helping build my credit, although it appears to be doing it very, very slowly.

Also, we try and sell stuff from around the house. I sell my baseball cards on eBay, Facebook and a couple of online sites geared towards cards. I've tried clothes and books and Hallmark ornaments, that type stuff, on eBay without success. So just got a couple of boxes of that stuff just sitting in the upstairs bedroom since there's really nowhere else to sell it. But by selling baseball cards, I can have money to buy/trade for other cards I want instead of having to take it out of our normal everyday household expenses. I've been a collector since 1987, but I think this is the first year it's been self-supportive.

Hopefully this stuff helps.