365 Ways to Live Cheap (16 page)
198. B
UY
S
TAPLES IN
B
ULK
Buying in bulk can save you a great deal of money, but not if you wind up wasting part of your purchase by letting it grow old before you use it. Focus on buying only nonperishables and key staple foods that you use all the time in bulk. If you use a bulk purchase in its entirety, you’ll almost always save money.
199. F
REEZE
E
XTRA
S
TAPLE
F
OODS
Another tactic for effectively using freezer space, especially if you have a deep freezer, is to freeze any extra staple foods you are able to purchase or make. For example, loaves of bread can be frozen and kept fresh for a short while, as can many fresh vegetables. This isn’t a long-term solution for food storage as freezer burn can be an issue, but if you hit upon a big bargain on fresh vegetables, don’t be afraid to take advantage of the sale and stock up, freezing the excess in portion-sized bags to thaw and use later on.
200. C
OOK IN
A
DVANCE AND
F
REEZE
C
OMPLETE
M
EALS
Many busy families resort to eating out regularly simply because of time constraints, even though this maneuver costs them considerable money over the long haul. A much more sensible tactic is to prepare complete meals in advance and freeze them so that when the time comes to use the meals, they can be pulled out of the freezer and tossed into the oven. Spending time preparing meals to be frozen in advance is a great way to spend one day every month or two, especially when the cost savings of eating such prepared meals adds up so quickly when home-cooked meals replace those eaten out.
201. P
REPARE
E
XTRA
B
ATCHES OF
O
THER
M
EALS
Preparing a casserole for supper? Why not simultaneously prepare two or three casseroles, then pop the extras in the freezer for future use? This not only saves you a great deal of time later, but it actually saves you money now because it allows you to buy the ingredients of meals in bulk and use them immediately. For example, preparing three identical tuna noodle casseroles instead of one takes a bit of extra time up-front, but it saves a huge amount of time later on as you can just pull one out of the freezer. Better yet, because you’re making so much at once, you can buy the large bags of noodles and the large cans of tuna, reducing the cost of each casserole by a noticeable amount.
202. M
ASTER THE
A
RT OF THE
S
LOW
C
OOKER
The slow cooker often creates visions in people’s heads of mushy, tired, and bland food, not interesting to eat at all. That’s a stereotype that’s quickly being relegated to the dustbin of history, as modern slow cookers with timers are able to turn on when you want them to, creating perfectly cooked meals that finish exactly when you’ve specified. A slow cooker is a perfect way to cook a stew, a soup, a casserole, or a large cut of meat while you’re at work, allowing you to walk in the door to a perfectly prepared meal. The slow cooker can be a massive time-saver, allowing you to eat at home on a highly pinched schedule and thus enjoy the cost savings of eating at home with the in-a-pinch convenience of eating out. Dig out your slow cooker and try some recipes—you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Don’t have a timer? Stop by your local hardware store and ask about an outlet timer, a device that plugs into an electrical outlet and only turns on power at a specified time. This can allow your slow cooker to turn on a few hours before you get home, creating a perfectly cooked meal just as you walk in the door.
203. C
UT
D
OWN ON
C
OFFEE
, S
OFT
D
RINKS
,
AND
B
OTTLED
W
ATER
Not only are drinks such as soda and coffee generally unhealthy for you (creating a caffeine addiction and often loading your body with sugars and high fructose corn syrup), they’re also far more expensive than water. Even if you spend as little as $1 on average per day brewing your own coffee, that adds up to $365 a year; a daily Starbucks habit can easily add up to $1,700 a year. Try replacing parts of your beverage diet with cool, clean tap water (or filtered water). Bottled water, on the other hand, is just a way to pay a significant premium for convenience. Get a refillable and reliable set of plastic water bottles and keep them filled in the refrigerator yourself from your own tap. If you prefer filtered water, you’re still saving big money—most filtered water units pay for themselves in just a few weeks as compared to the cost of bottled water. Eliminating just a few beverages a day can easily save you $100 a year and help you live healthier, too.
204. L
OOK
I
NTO
J
OINING A
C
OMMUNITY
-S
UPPORTED
A
GRICULTURE
G
ROUP
A community-supported agriculture group is a system in which a number of customers who use lots of fresh produce get together to financially support a farmer to grow vegetables and fruits for them. You can think of it as a large number of households getting together to mutually hire a fruit and vegetable gardener. The typical cost of a C
SA
is $300 to $500 a share for eighteen to twenty weeks, and the food produced for a share is enough to handle the vegetable and fruit needs for two people. In other words, you pay roughly $20 a week in advance to get fresh produce delivered to you each week for most of the summer and early fall. If your diet is already heavy in fresh produce, a C
SA
effectively functions as bulk buying of vegetables. They’re substantially cheaper than buying the same quantity of fruits and vegetables at the store, plus the produce is much, much fresher as it’s grown locally and is usually just a day or two from being in the ground when it arrives at your door. If you eat a lot of fresh produce, a C
SA
can be a tremendous bargain.
205. S
HOP
A
T A
F
ARMERS
’ M
ARKET
Many communities hold a weekly farmers’ market where individual producers of vegetables, fruits, and other goods go to ply their wares. Often the prices are reasonable and comparable to the prices you’d pay at the grocery store, plus the produce is fresher and you have an opportunity to talk with the producers to find out suggestions for preparing the food and so on. A good food preparation idea can be more valuable than the food itself.
Another tip:
Try shopping late in the session, when farmers often cut their prices to get rid of unwanted produce. Although you may have to pick through some of the lesser produce you can get a substantial bargain at the end of a farmers’ market.
206. B
UY
G
ENERIC
B
RAND
P
RODUCTS
Generic and store-brand products are often shunned by shoppers simply because of the unfamiliar label. It’s often “safer” to buy a name brand than the generic. This line of thinking is nonsense. Often, the generic version is identical to the name brand except for the label and the sticker price. Not sure? If you discover that it’s not up to your standards, switch back to the name brand. You’ll likely be surprised, though, not just by the level of quality, but by the money you save in buying generics.
207. T
RY A
M
ORE
V
ALUE
-O
RIENTED
G
ROCERY
S
TORE
Most areas have a number of grocery stores that serve different levels of buyers. Some, like Whole Foods, cater to high-end buyers who are willing to spend more for organics and other such items. At the other end of the spectrum are grocery stores focused on economical foods. These stores usually use minimal advertising and find other ways to reduce costs for the customer. Give one of these value-oriented grocery stores a try. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that you can buy the exact same items at the value-oriented store as at the other stores, except significantly cheaper.
208. M
ASTER THE
C
ONCEPT OF
C
OST
P
ER
U
SE
Cost per use is a tremendously useful way to compare all sorts of different items that you might buy, from breakfast cereals to shoes. The cost per use of an item is the cost of the item divided by the number of times you’ll use it before it wears out, and the lower the cost per use of the item, the better value it is and the more money you’ll save by buying it. Take, for example, two pairs of shoes. One costs $50 but is guaranteed to stand up to three years of wear. Another pair is $10 and will likely last only six months or so as it is cheaply made. The $10 pair might seem like the better deal, but the cost per use of the $50 shoes is significantly lower. For each month of use, you’ll save twenty-eight cents automatically with the $50 shoes. In other words, it’s often more cost-effective, and thus cheaper over the long haul, to buy the more expensive version that’s guaranteed to last longer. You can apply this principle to virtually anything you might buy, from washing machines to toothpaste, and the principle holds up. The cheaper you can get the cost per use to be, the cheaper the item is overall, regardless of the sticker price. Give it some practice and you’ll be surprised how quite often expensive things are actually cheap and cheap things are actually expensive.
209. G
ET
M
AXIMUM
U
SE
O
UT OF
S
UPPLIES
L
IKE
B
AKING
S
ODA AND
V
INEGAR
Baking soda, vinegar, and water are pretty much all you need for most cleaning situations in your home, and considering you can buy these items cheaply at the grocery store, consider switching to them for your cleaning needs. Need to scrub something down? Make a paste out of a spoonful of baking soda and a spoonful of water and use that paste to scrub the dirty dish or spot on the floor. Want to mop? Dilute a few capfuls of vinegar in a bucket of water and use that to mop things down. Got some foul odors? Sprinkle some baking soda on the source of the stench, or dilute some vinegar in water and use a spray bottle to spray a mist around the room. Got greasy dishes? Use some vinegar with the hot water to cut right through the grease. Baking soda and vinegar alone can take care of the chores you might have originally used a large array of unnecessarily expensive items for. Want more ideas? Search online for “baking soda uses” or “vinegar uses” for many more tips.
C
HEAP
T
ACTIC
$
FOR
H
EALTH
211 Find an Exercise Buddy or Two
212 Slowly Substitute Healthier Food Options
214 Use your Flexible Spending Account
219 Eliminate Smoking and Minimize Drinking
221 Schedule Regular Medical and Dental Checkups
222 Talk to Your Doctor about Independent Steps
223 Consider Traveling for Surgeries or Other Medical Care
224 Ask Your Doctor for Prescription Samples
225 Ask Your Doctor about Generics
210. E
XERCISE
R
EGULARLY
Over the long term, regular exercise is one of the most cost-effective ways around to live cheap. Exercise can be very inexpensive, lifts your energy level (improving your earning potential), and improves your long-term health (reducing health care costs). Consult your doctor and begin a simple exercise plan. No matter what shape you’re in, a bit of exercise can do a great deal of good for you now and for your long-term health as well.
211. F
IND AN
E
XERCISE
B
UDDY OR
T
WO
With a packed schedule and many distractions, it’s very easy to simply not exercise. Turn both of those around by finding an exercise buddy or two, people with whom you feel comfortable exercising multiple times a week. Use exercising as a social occasion and motivate each other to get into better shape. A morning walk or jog with a friend or a half hour after work playing basketball with some buddies can make it much easier and more enjoyable to actually get in better shape.
212. S
LOWLY
S
UBSTITUTE
H
EALTHIER
F
OOD
O
PTIONS
Another cheap way to better health is to improve your diet, but as with anything, it’s often hard to make a radical change to your diet and stick with it. Instead, improve your diet by slowly substituting inexpensive but healthy food options for unhealthy items. For example, choose to order a salad instead of an entrée at a restaurant. Not only will it be less expensive, but it’ll be healthier, too. Try slowly substituting water for coffee and soda. It’s less expensive and substantially healthier. Swap out your ice cream for some frozen yogurt or try making it yourself.
213. E
AT A
B
ALANCED
D
IET
Another effective way to manipulate your food consumption to save money over the long haul is to keep it balanced. Make vegetables and fruit the largest portion of your diet, but keep it varied. Focus your food spending on whatever produce is on sale that week, then get something completely different that’s on sale the next week. This keeps your diet varied, balanced, and inexpensive, resulting in better health over the long run.
