Frugality

Leftovers are funny things; my family sometimes goes to restaurants for holiday dinners, in which case there are no leftovers. Which I miss. Other times, someone cooks and there may or may not be leftovers, depending on the type of meal.

One of my friends throws everything out the next day because she's afraid of food poisoning. Very afraid. Me? I'm not so worried about it, while thinking that leftovers do create curious rituals. One that I remember from childhood is turkey bits on bread with gravy. You know, the small bits of turkey that have been rescued from the carcass. With leftover gravy over bread. Not toast. Bread. Mashed potatoes and stuffing are optional if they're still available.

I do try to use leftovers so I don't waste money and frequently cook more than necessary to generate leftovers; I package them in lunch-sized portions for later use.

Groceries, Coupons and Fanaticism

I'm not a coupon-clipping fanatic, though I know people save a lot by using coupons; I do but don't obsess over it. Most of the coupon savings are direct from my grocery store. I buy things I know I'll use and will stockpile a bit but at some point you need to use it all. I try not to buy extra, unnecessary things, which can vary with the day. I waffle about some things that I like but don't truly need. Sometimes I'll buy, other times I won't.

I don't think complete deprivation is the answer; if I did, I'd be buying Ramen noodles, hummus and peanut butter. And nothing else. Instead, I buy fruit that I like, but hold out for sales for pineapple. I need fruit but it doesn't have to be pineapple. A couple weeks ago I bought pineapple 2 for $5 for the first time since Christmas. I just don't need it for $5 apiece.

I'm also trying to use what I have; you'd be amazed at all the duplication in my pantry. I have multiples of the same herbs and spices, and tons of condiments to use up. I don't need to buy salad dressing for a long time since I have a stockpile of it. While it isn't that expensive, I just need to use what I have and not keep so many varieties around. I'm trying to pay more attention to whether I already have one and wait until I'm out or nearly so to buy another. It doesn't sound like a big savings because eventually I spend the money, but I defer that expenditure until I really need it, so instead of having money tied up in canned goods and condiments, I wait until I'm actually going to use the item. Unless it's on sale and I buy ahead because I know I'll need it soon or know I'll use the item frequently by the time it goes on sale again.

Saving Money on Groceries

While I'm all for a bargain, I mostly look for sales or coupons for things I know I want. Sometimes I'll take a chance on a new product but as I primarily use fresh food, rather than canned or packages of pre-made food, I rarely do so. For me, it's a false savings to buy a brand I don't like as well because it's on sale or to buy something I don't like because there's a good deal. If I don't like it, what kind of deal is that?

I have a friend who swears by Aldi and Wal-Mart groceries, two places I don't shop at very frequently; I don't like Wal-Mart so rarely give them the business and while I go to Aldi once in awhile, it hasn't gotten into my regular rotation. Partly because I never know what they have.

I had an acquaintance who was super-cheap, shopped thrift stores and garage sales for everything and bought food at a store that sold food past its expiration date. I'm neither that cheap nor that adventurous.

The new thing I read about recently? Grocery auctions. To me, that's mind-boggling; keeping in mind that I don't want to stockpile food and their goods may be scratch and dent or oversupplied goods. Then again, it's a social outlet as well as a way to buy food. You'd have to be up on the prices in your area for it to be helpful.

4-6 Months of Savings

I've never sat down and determined what the dollar amount for 4-6 months of savings was; I've mostly been in a position in which savings was not a serious possibility, due to expenses and debt compared to income. Now that I'm working and finally have a paycheck that's stable for awhile, and have all the deductions applied, I know what my takehome pay will be; up until now it has fluctuated due to additions and changes to my deductions.

It took awhile because the pension fund is automatic so was a deduction on my first paycheck, as was parking, the amount for which changed immediately; these were followed by my benefits payments once I was eligible. Because there was a problem with a fax machine, my deferred compensation was added later, as was my healthcare savings plan as I didn't go into that for last year. Now that I know how much money is left for me to spend, it seems like it should be plenty to pay my basic bills; the trick is going to be maintaining my austerity program and getting the other stuff taken care of.

Housing, utilities, loans, cellphone, insurance, gas, groceries and haircuts are the typical expenses. I spend about $100 on gas monthly at the current rates; however, my grocery bills fluctuate and I don't pay close attention. My first objective will be to keep track of how much I spend at the grocery store and how I spend it.

I haven't been paying as much attention to coupons lately and need to be more diligent about that. Grocery prices seem to have gone up lately, but my store still has two for one meat coupons, which is good. Last week they had a lot of produce coupons, but for items I don't use or wouldn't use two of quickly enough that they wouldn't be wasted.

Reducing grocery bills

One way people have reduced their grocery bill for the last several decades is to eat SPAM. My mom would occasionally cook SPAM and eggs when I was a kid. I haven't had it in years, but apparently it's boomtimes for the manufacturer thereof.

I've never been a big meat eater so eating less meat isn't much of a consideration; I sometimes go without so business as usual. People seem to be focusing more on classics like Hotdish (for those of you who aren't from the Midwest, you may know this under the more pretentious name of Casserole). The beauty of Hotdish is that the basic recipe can be adapted to use what you have.

While Tatortot Hotdish and Green Bean Hotdish are both classics, the main ingredients are: starch, meat and cream of something soup. Preferably Campbell's cream of something; chicken, celery, mushroom, whatever. Most of the time you use ground beef which is first browned and drained, then added to the rice, noodles or potato product and topped with cream of whatever soup.

One summer when I was in college, my roommate and I made hotdish every week and kept eating it until it was gone. We used some pretty wild ingredients too; water chestnuts aren't part of the traditional hotdish options but we liked them as an ingredient.

Hotdish is good winter food as it's filling but is also economical as the ingredients aren't terribly costly in comparison to other things.

Missing Posts

I'm a bit embarrassed about missing a few days of posting. I just didn't think of it, which isn't like me. I occasionally worry about failure to post, but have been pretty consistent, up until the last few days!

I'm busily stocking up on groceries for fall, now that it's starting to cool off. I'm excited that my local grocery store has had buy one get one free products lately; potato chips, cereal, olives, hummus, all kinds of stuff. My favorite is when they have meat. Last week they had pork chops on a buy one get one free, which is a great deal.

They have also had buy two get one free items as well as a few buy one, get two free! I stocked up on iced tea and sunflower seeds during those specials. While I'll never be one of those people whose grocery bill dwindles to $10 because of coupons, I do make a point of watching for deals. I decided not to buy iced tea (since I don't really need to have it), unless it's on sale, and then I stock up. It makes grocery shopping easier, and as an added benefit, because I rarely stray from the perimeter of the store, I'm losing weight.

Aldi

I went to Aldi today, because I had time to kill. It was there and so was I. Wasn't sure what to think as I had ventured into one of the first Aldi stores in this area a few years ago and didn't see much that I needed. Gas was under $2 a gallon at the time, and nobody was hoarding food, at least not publicly so I'm sure my needs were different than they are now. There have been more articles about grocery shopping recently, simply because prices have been rising.

Aldi's a bit strange. It's owned by the same Germans who own Trader Joe's. Which is another story entirely. Aldi is approximately the same size as a general grocer in Europe, at least when I was there several years ago. By which I mean much smaller than a typical American store. Even a regular old grocery store in a small town, not a gigantic box store. But it's bigger than a convenience store. They don't take checks but take some debit cards. Not all. And they take cash.

The first thing I found when I walked in the door was various flavors of canned Arizona beverages. I like the Mango one and this product normally sells for $.99 but was $.79, which is a good deal so I bought a few, despite the size of the container. I don't remember their store bands, which is fine; someone in the grocery business once told me that store brand foods are made in the same factory as name brand foods and are of good quality. Their brand of cereal was $1.99 a box, which is about a dollar less than my usual store, but I haven't bought cereal in awhile and prices have been going up so the difference could be greater. I bought a box of corn squares, which are like corn chex, and I was unable to detect an appreciable difference.

Their cases of bottled water were the same price as at my local store, so no bargain there, though they had toothpaste for $2, which is much less than I pay. I think it was Colgate. I use Tom's of Maine and have for a few years, ever since someone recommended it as being better for your teeth. Since then the dental hygienist hasn't lectured me once, so it's very much worth the higher price. My cousin uses Tom's of Maine because it's made in the US. And they use natural ingredients rather than poly-syllabic chemicals.

I didn't buy much because I have plenty of groceries right now, though I did buy ranch dressing for $.99. They had tons of produce and $.69 mangoes would've been tempting but weren't ripe. And I have a ton of fruit right now. They also had hot dogs and brats, along with honey-baked hams. Those were out since I try to minimize sodium and part of that is by avoiding processed foods.

Once I deplete some of my grocery supplies, I'll go back to Aldi. But first I'll have to check prices on the things I need to make sure I don't overpay. That's a concern at warehouse stores such as Sam's Club, Costco and BJ's too. I used to go to Sam's with my mom and settle up with her afterwards. We invariably spent a lot more money than we realized because of the combination of giant shopping carts, the perception that the goods are always a deal and the likelihood that by our next visit they'll have moved on to other products.

Aldi is the same way, with a seemingly random array of products. But they aren't sold in gigantic multi-packs and don't require a membership, so it's better for me. I'm sure next time the products will have changed; they had a can of white icing with red and blue sprinkles to put on, presumably 4th of July overstock. I already have icing for my cupcakes and will use the sprinkles I already have.

The weirdest thing about Aldi is that you have to put a quarter in a little gizmo on the cart which will then unlock it from the chain of carts. I don't have great manual dexterity, so that's a reason right there for me to minimize my Aldi shopping. They also charge you for paper or plastic bags so this is a good place to bring your reusable bags. I'll have to put mine in the car so I can use them at Aldi.