Though it is much cheaper to cook at home than to eat out, sometimes going out is inevitable. But where would one go on a tight budget?
Here is a little known secret – the best place to look for cheap healthy eateries of all kinds is near the local college or university campus.
Cause students don’t have money, mostly don’t cook, are prone to many food movements (vegetarian, vegan, green, ethnic, etc…), and are always hungry. And the local business owners know that.
I used to live near the University of Waterloo. There is a whole area of restaurants right next to it where you can get all imaginable food for a fraction of the price elsewhere charged. Next to each other, and undercutting each other on price where Egyptian, Greek, Falafel, Italian, Indian restaurants and more. I blame the location for me taking a whopping ten years (after I moved out of my parents’ place) to actually start cooking. But if you are more intelligent than I was and only go out on occasions, than these places are a great source for cheap food.
And thought it’s true that many of the customers will be students, they won’t be the only ones. So you don’t have to worry about looking odd. Besides – you could always pass for a student. Or a professor ;)
Healthy Food on a Thrifty Budget
Whenever the subject of thrifty frugal living comes up there is always someone voicing a concern that they are not prepared to eat junk just to save money. It is universally acknowledged that coupons and discounts are much easier to find for things like sugary cereals, chips and ice cream.
But if you are on a tight budget yet want to eat and feed your family healthy foods, don’t despair. There are many ways to stretch the dollar while enjoying the savory pleasures of life. It just takes a bit more planning and organizing.
Here is a list (in no particular order) of money saving strategies you may find useful. If you have more suggestion, don’t be shy to add them in the comment section!
First of all you have to cook at home. Restaurants and takeout places wouldn’t be in business if they didn’t charge more than it costs them to make, plus maintain the place.
Buy local and in season. These would generally be healthier and cheaper because they don’t incur additional transportation costs.
If you live close to the edge of the city, drive around to check out local farms. ‘Pick your own’ deals offers cheap fresh produce plus fun family time. My kids still think that picking strawberries was the highlight of last summer.
Know your cheap produce and easy recipes to adapt them. Browse through your fliers. And then select the cheapest veggies to be the main feature of the week and others as garnish. Produce that is almost always on special somewhere includes: onions, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, zucchini, carrots, apples, cabbage. Stores use them as “loss leaders” to lure people inside, so the discounts can be really significant. Just avoid the temptation to proceed into the junk aisle.
Here is a list of cheap healthy bargain foods other than produce.
* Legumes of all kinds.
* Whole grains.
* Spices. Tip – check spices (and legumes, actually) in ethnic stores. They are usually much cheaper there, sold in bigger bags and have a great variety. Which really beats paying $3 bucks for tiny bottle.
* Tofu (especially if bought at Asian markets).
* Dry fruits for snacks.
* Herbal teas. Indispensable in winter.
* Dairy
If you want to include organic, choose cheapest organic produce. Usually carrots and potatoes are low priced.
Grow your own organic garden. If you are intimidated by the size of your project, consider a square foot garden . That’s an easy way to get into gardening. Heck, you can start it in a box! There is plenty of free information on how to do that on the web, or you could check out books like McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container
.
Grow your own herbs on the window. Fresh right into the pot or salad! What could be better?
Make smoothies instead of buying ice cream. Use bananas as a base – they are always cheap.
Know your health food stores. They often have specials going too and you can get great deals on things like hummus and yogurt. As a rule of thumb, there are more specials on products that have many competitors in the genre.
Many mainstream stores now carry organic brands. There frequently have discount. But make sure to check due dates. I find that organic products in big stores can be too close to their d-day for comfort.
Frozen Veggies – in winter these may actually have more vitamins than the overly transported fresh ones. And they have coupons, price matching and other special deals.
Drink more water – save on juices. Juices are full of sugar and unnecessary calories. Put a filter on your tap and enjoy.
Bag leftovers for lunch.
Get coupons from http://www.mambosprouts.com (USA), http://www.thehealthyshopper.ca/ (Canada). They have coupons for a great variety of health products.
Many manufacturers have coupons that can be printed from their sites. You can also contact the manufacturers directly and ask them to send you some coupons by mail. Many will do so. For example I buy Kiju organic apple juice for my kids. I wrote to the company, and they sent me coupons. Some of the other coupon friendly brands are listed here.
Collect easy cheap recipes. For great ideas, check out this blog . This girl lives in New York of all places, and cooks and eats healthy meals at home. She also breaks down the cost of all her recipes. (Now, I wish I could do that.) And here is a list of cheap one meal dishes with leftover potential.
Well, that’s aught to get you started for now, don't you think? :)
But if you are on a tight budget yet want to eat and feed your family healthy foods, don’t despair. There are many ways to stretch the dollar while enjoying the savory pleasures of life. It just takes a bit more planning and organizing.
Here is a list (in no particular order) of money saving strategies you may find useful. If you have more suggestion, don’t be shy to add them in the comment section!
* Legumes of all kinds.
* Whole grains.
* Spices. Tip – check spices (and legumes, actually) in ethnic stores. They are usually much cheaper there, sold in bigger bags and have a great variety. Which really beats paying $3 bucks for tiny bottle.
* Tofu (especially if bought at Asian markets).
* Dry fruits for snacks.
* Herbal teas. Indispensable in winter.
* Dairy
.Well, that’s aught to get you started for now, don't you think? :)
Thrifty Girl on a Grocery Shopping Spree
Today the newly-minted thrifty version of me went shopping armed with a set of fliers. In the past I would’ve just grabbed whatever was on my shopping list and went on with it. But this time around for all the things I wanted to grab I consulted the competitor’s flier to see if they fair any better.
What a grand idea.
Turns out that another store had half the items on my list on special. And I’ve always thought of them as the expensive store in the neighborhood. Like I said in my previous thrifty shopping post – a store may be expensive overall, but it may be cheaper for you.
All in all I probably cut between 20 to 30 dollars from what my regular bill would have been.
I feel so thrifty I could burst. I spent an hour bragging to my husband about the joy of finding organic broccoli cheaper than all the regular priced broccoli we normally get. Or that toilet paper mega pack that is over 60 percent cheaper than usual.
Why didn’t we do this before? Why have we been wasting our money all this time?
And now I strongly feel that a more organized approach is required. I am thinking up a method to organize the fliers. I can’t just cut out what I like, because the one or two stores around there that price match need to see the whole flier. I need a flier-organizer.
My flier organizing method so far:
I got the fliers on Thursday. I quickly went through them circling items that I usually buy that appear to be on a meaningful sale. And I copied them into a notebook.
In the notebook on top of the page I marked the week (Feb 5 onwards…)
Then as I went through each flier, I wrote out items I usually get.
Store 1:
Grapes $1.29
Cucumbers $1.79
Etc
Store 2:
Strawberries 2 for $5.00
Etc…
I did this for all the fliers when I saw something I normally buy.
The beauty of writing items down into a notebook is that you can see at a glace who has the best deals and who has the most of them.
Then I picked two stores that had the most sales and that’s where I will be getting groceries this week. The odd ends in all the other fliers I’ll get from WalMart (they price match) if I really need them. Result? Seven fliers of deals – only three the stores to visit. I could even limit it to just WalMart – but frankly, their produce section is bad.
Now, if anybody knows a good binder/pocket idea that would fit nicely a whole set of fliers, please give me a shout.
On that note… Cheers and thrifty shopping!
What a grand idea.
Turns out that another store had half the items on my list on special. And I’ve always thought of them as the expensive store in the neighborhood. Like I said in my previous thrifty shopping post – a store may be expensive overall, but it may be cheaper for you.
All in all I probably cut between 20 to 30 dollars from what my regular bill would have been.
I feel so thrifty I could burst. I spent an hour bragging to my husband about the joy of finding organic broccoli cheaper than all the regular priced broccoli we normally get. Or that toilet paper mega pack that is over 60 percent cheaper than usual.
Why didn’t we do this before? Why have we been wasting our money all this time?
And now I strongly feel that a more organized approach is required. I am thinking up a method to organize the fliers. I can’t just cut out what I like, because the one or two stores around there that price match need to see the whole flier. I need a flier-organizer.
My flier organizing method so far:
I got the fliers on Thursday. I quickly went through them circling items that I usually buy that appear to be on a meaningful sale. And I copied them into a notebook.
In the notebook on top of the page I marked the week (Feb 5 onwards…)
Then as I went through each flier, I wrote out items I usually get.
Store 1:
Grapes $1.29
Cucumbers $1.79
Etc
Store 2:
Strawberries 2 for $5.00
Etc…
I did this for all the fliers when I saw something I normally buy.
The beauty of writing items down into a notebook is that you can see at a glace who has the best deals and who has the most of them.
Then I picked two stores that had the most sales and that’s where I will be getting groceries this week. The odd ends in all the other fliers I’ll get from WalMart (they price match) if I really need them. Result? Seven fliers of deals – only three the stores to visit. I could even limit it to just WalMart – but frankly, their produce section is bad.
Now, if anybody knows a good binder/pocket idea that would fit nicely a whole set of fliers, please give me a shout.
On that note… Cheers and thrifty shopping!
A Tip for Planning Thrifty Shopping Trips
Usually there are quite a few stores around where we live that sell the same items we buy over and over. And most of us (the not so thrifty types) tend to make a shopping list (the slightly more organized types) and buy whatever is available in the store we are currently in from that shopping list. We know we need paper towels. So when we are in the store that sells paper towels – we get paper towels. At best we’ll choose the cheapest from the set available there.
What’s wrong with that approach?
A “special” in one store may still be higher than a regular price in another store. And when there are no “specials” the difference can be really sizable. And just because you are in the store that is supposed to be overall cheap, doesn’t mean a particular product is. Stores often lure you in with display of cheap prices, but when you start picking up your staples – the prices may be anything but.
The solution to this dilemma? Know your staples. That is the products you buy over and over and over again. Every household has those, though the actual items vary: My parents consider hot-dogs a staple food. They panic when they ran out. Yet they have very vague idea of what tofu is – something I buy at least once a week. Just a case in point…
Anyways, the first thing you need to do is figure out your regular products. Look at your fridge and pantry. Check your bills. And then make a list of all the things you buy at least once every two weeks. Later on you may want to add other items to the list. But don’t overdo it at first. No point to make the task overwhelming.
For example you list might look like this:
Diapers (pampers)
Paper Towel (favorite Brand)
Some Juice
Carrots
Potatoes (8 lb bag)
Etc…
Now write out column headings of stores within the neighborhood where you shop.
Your table will looks something like this:
Product----------Store Name 1-------Store Name 2-------Store Name 3
Diapers-----------$19.99 ----------------$18.00--------------- $23.00
Next Product-----price-------------------price------------------price
Did you see the prices? That’s the part that will require some leg work. You want to fill in the REGULAR prices for your products. And to do that you’ll have to actually go to the stores and check prices.
How is this chart useful?
First of all, this might give you a eureka moment when you realize that you spend gazillion dollars on a paper towel… But let’s say you are extremely frugal and responsible and the list contains only absolutely necessary items you can’t live without. The beauty of it is that by knowing regular prices, next time you are in the store you’ll automatically know if the “deal of the week” is really worth anything. (Of course I’m assuming you’ll be caring a copy of this list with you everywhere.) No longer will you buy something just because it’s in front of you. You will be able to plan your trips in advance. For example: Monday you go to store 1 and buy items a, b, d, f cause store 1 has them cheapest. Thursday you go to store 2 and buy c, e, etc…
It is the things you buy over and over that will help you realize real savings. Think about it – if you overspend 50 cents on a chocolate bar you buy once a year, at the end of the year you are just 50 cents behind. No big deal. But if you where to save just 50 cents each on 20 products you buy every week that translates to $520 bucks a year. And when you actually check the prices, the difference is generally way more than 50 cents.
For example, I buy water bottles – at least 6 a week. One store here sells them for $1.19. Another $1.99. When looking at it one bottle at a time, doesn’t seem like much. But at 6 bottles a week over a year that’s a $250 dollar difference. I could save $250 just by adding the water to my shopping list at one store over another.
The most profound thing that happens from creating a list like this is that you become incredibly aware of prices of things you buy. Since the list contains the same set of products, you’ll quickly memorize most of it. Browsing through fliers will only take a few seconds, cause you’ll see right away which things are really worth switching stores for, and which are only gimmicks.
This systematic approach will also help you find what store is overall cheaper FOR YOU. That is a big consideration. Many stores specialize. Some have cheaper produce. Others have cheaper canned goods. Others have better bakeries. But your purchasing habits may lean in some direction where all things compared one or two stores seem to have cheaper products overall. You should know which store it is. This way when you are stuck in a situation where you can only go on one shopping trip – you’ll know where to go.
And that’s it for this post.
Cheers and happy saving!
What’s wrong with that approach?
A “special” in one store may still be higher than a regular price in another store. And when there are no “specials” the difference can be really sizable. And just because you are in the store that is supposed to be overall cheap, doesn’t mean a particular product is. Stores often lure you in with display of cheap prices, but when you start picking up your staples – the prices may be anything but.
The solution to this dilemma? Know your staples. That is the products you buy over and over and over again. Every household has those, though the actual items vary: My parents consider hot-dogs a staple food. They panic when they ran out. Yet they have very vague idea of what tofu is – something I buy at least once a week. Just a case in point…
Anyways, the first thing you need to do is figure out your regular products. Look at your fridge and pantry. Check your bills. And then make a list of all the things you buy at least once every two weeks. Later on you may want to add other items to the list. But don’t overdo it at first. No point to make the task overwhelming.
For example you list might look like this:
Diapers (pampers)
Paper Towel (favorite Brand)
Some Juice
Carrots
Potatoes (8 lb bag)
Etc…
Now write out column headings of stores within the neighborhood where you shop.
Your table will looks something like this:
Product----------Store Name 1-------Store Name 2-------Store Name 3
Diapers-----------$19.99 ----------------$18.00--------------- $23.00
Next Product-----price-------------------price------------------price
Did you see the prices? That’s the part that will require some leg work. You want to fill in the REGULAR prices for your products. And to do that you’ll have to actually go to the stores and check prices.
How is this chart useful?
First of all, this might give you a eureka moment when you realize that you spend gazillion dollars on a paper towel… But let’s say you are extremely frugal and responsible and the list contains only absolutely necessary items you can’t live without. The beauty of it is that by knowing regular prices, next time you are in the store you’ll automatically know if the “deal of the week” is really worth anything. (Of course I’m assuming you’ll be caring a copy of this list with you everywhere.) No longer will you buy something just because it’s in front of you. You will be able to plan your trips in advance. For example: Monday you go to store 1 and buy items a, b, d, f cause store 1 has them cheapest. Thursday you go to store 2 and buy c, e, etc…
It is the things you buy over and over that will help you realize real savings. Think about it – if you overspend 50 cents on a chocolate bar you buy once a year, at the end of the year you are just 50 cents behind. No big deal. But if you where to save just 50 cents each on 20 products you buy every week that translates to $520 bucks a year. And when you actually check the prices, the difference is generally way more than 50 cents.
For example, I buy water bottles – at least 6 a week. One store here sells them for $1.19. Another $1.99. When looking at it one bottle at a time, doesn’t seem like much. But at 6 bottles a week over a year that’s a $250 dollar difference. I could save $250 just by adding the water to my shopping list at one store over another.
The most profound thing that happens from creating a list like this is that you become incredibly aware of prices of things you buy. Since the list contains the same set of products, you’ll quickly memorize most of it. Browsing through fliers will only take a few seconds, cause you’ll see right away which things are really worth switching stores for, and which are only gimmicks.
This systematic approach will also help you find what store is overall cheaper FOR YOU. That is a big consideration. Many stores specialize. Some have cheaper produce. Others have cheaper canned goods. Others have better bakeries. But your purchasing habits may lean in some direction where all things compared one or two stores seem to have cheaper products overall. You should know which store it is. This way when you are stuck in a situation where you can only go on one shopping trip – you’ll know where to go.
And that’s it for this post.
Cheers and happy saving!
Welcome to Thrifty Frugality!
I watched an Oprah show yesterday. I don’t usually watch Oprah. In fact, I never do. But somehow the remote scrolled to that channel, and by the time I could do anything about it the show was on and it caught my interest.
It was about the Thriftiest family in America.
Now, I’m not in America. I’m a bit to the north. But the show inspired me. Cause I am not all too thrifty, but I want to be. Cause I am not as rich as I want to be. And therefore I got to watch my money more closely than I want to.
Thus I decided to start this blog. So that I can chronicle my research and organize information about all things thrifty.
You can’t be thrifty if you are not organized.
And a blog is a wonderful idea to organize your knowledge, research and experience on a topic.
Or so I think.
And on that note:
Welcome to Thrifty Frugality! An ever expanding knowledge bank on stretching the mighty dollar (or whatever currency you fancy.)
And yes, up here north of America we also have dollars. But ours come in way more colors ;)
It was about the Thriftiest family in America.
Now, I’m not in America. I’m a bit to the north. But the show inspired me. Cause I am not all too thrifty, but I want to be. Cause I am not as rich as I want to be. And therefore I got to watch my money more closely than I want to.
Thus I decided to start this blog. So that I can chronicle my research and organize information about all things thrifty.
You can’t be thrifty if you are not organized.
And a blog is a wonderful idea to organize your knowledge, research and experience on a topic.
Or so I think.
And on that note:
Welcome to Thrifty Frugality! An ever expanding knowledge bank on stretching the mighty dollar (or whatever currency you fancy.)
And yes, up here north of America we also have dollars. But ours come in way more colors ;)
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