Saving Money on your Food Bill (Part 2)
October 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
With a bit of effort, time and pre-planning it is possible to shave up to 30% off your weekly food bill and still eat healthily and well. Here are some more tips for frugal shopping that will save money on food bills:
The cheapest time to shop
Supermarkets will receive deliveries each day. However, a major delivery is often on a Monday. As a result, shopping about an hour before closing time on any day of the week (but particularly on a Sunday) will mean that the reduced shelf will be well stocked.
Check packets of meat for any discolouration suggesting they may not be as fresh. Don’t buy meats that have a grey / greenish tinge to them as they may upset your stomach. With ready meals, check the seal on the packet is in tact. If it is, then make sure the selaphane lid is not blown at all (as this will indicate that bacteria is already breeding in the packet). If lids are level or slightly indented, these will be cheaper food items that will freeze well. It is recommended that you fast freeze them on the day of purchase and use them within a month if bought close to the sell by date and checked as described above.
Bulk purchasing of staple items saves money
This trick can be a bit more challenging if you have limited cupboard or storage capacity. However, if challenged for space a friend may be interested in sharing the cost of a bulk purchase. Ideal items are:
- potatoes (by the sack from a farm shop)
- rice in catering sized bags
- pasta in catering sized bags
- washing powder
- olive oil
- herbs and spices (those little jars in the supermarket only last 5 minutes)
Catering sized packs can usually be bought with at least 30% discount from your nearest cash and carry. If you do not have a business and do not know anyone who can take you on their business card to the cash and carry, it is worth setting up a cooperative of friends who buy bulk items and then sell them within the group. If you produce a letter head and a cooperative bank account’s details, then the group can invest money into the central kitty, buy bulk stock from the cash and carry and share it out fairly.
Cooking from scratch rather than buying ready cooked saves money
Ready meals are exorbitant and probably only make sense if you are cooking for one or two and using these for convenience occasionally. Cooking can be a creative joy if you give time to learning how. Cooking from scratch is essential to save money on food bills for a family.
Home cooking is also healthier and fresher as well as saving up to 50% on the cost of the same meal. Easy adjustments to make:
- use a breadmaker to cut costs of loaves of bread…it’s fresh, tastier and cheaper than a lot of packaged bread too.
- If you can’t bear the thought of cooking everything from scratch, ready sauces then adding fresh meat and vegetables will save money on your food bill.
- Making your own pizza dough then using passata, herbs and lots of fresh topping makes a delicious healthy meal at a fraction of the cost of bought pizza’s and the whole family can enjoy designing their own pizza….quite a fun family event is our household!
Buying exact quantities saves money on food bills
Pre-packed meat, fish, vegetagbles and fruit are rarely in the exact amount needed to feed your household. There are inevitably too many or too few pork chops in one pack, or a tray of minced beef makes just too much bolognaise (so everyone eats too much so as not to waste it or it gets wasted left on the plate).
This is where getting to know your butcher and fishmonger means you can buy the exact amount needed for the family or a specific recipie saving money. Likewise, buying loose fruit and vegetables means counting how much will be needed between shops then not being left with limp broccolli or appleas that have gone soft.
Saving money on food bills in this way is also kinder to the environment as food thrown away creates methane as it degrades and this affects global warming. Likewise, less packaging reduces our carbon footprint as well.
Saving Money on Subscriptions
October 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Ramit Sethi in his post explaining the “A la Carte method of saving money” claims that we often overspend on services that we subscribe to as, after an initial blaze of enthusiasm, usage often tapers off. At this stage it is possible to save money by paying for these services a la carte (or as we use them).
Why are subscriptions so popular?
Subscribing to a service such as cell phone, the gym, cable television, book clubs etc is often a lazy way of ensuring that, as the subscription fee whizzes out of the bank account each month, these services we enjoy using are available throughout the month so there are no worries about using them when money becomes in short supply at the end of the month. Why else would the favourite day for standing orders and direct debits be the first day of the month?
Have you thought about how subscriptions will be saving businesses money too? Think about it. They set the price of your monthly fee knowing what average use is made of the service they provide.They have reliable regular income coming in and save money on posting an invoice to you, paying clerical staff to open mail, process the payment received and chase up money owed. There is usually a 28 day cancelletion period as a minimum. It is so easy to miss that deadline …. so the business ends up entitled to extra payments from you and you are out of pocket for a service that you no longer want. Trust me…subscription systems are set up entirely to benefit the service provider whilst, on the surface, being offered as a special deal and favour to you, the customer.
How can I check the value for money that I am getting from subscriptions?
Ramit Sethi recommends cancelling all subscriptions then keeping a careful log of exactly what you have spent on each service on a pay as you go/a la carte basis.
This may be a bit extreme for some of us. You will already intuitively know which subscriptions you are not using as much as you thought you would. These are the ones to start saving money on.
A good way to start is, if your memory is good, to look back on the last month and list:
1) How many films you watched on your dvd rental scheme (by the time you posted them back and forth).
2) How many visits to the gym you made after you felt under the weather on a couple of days and the boss had you working all the hours available on some major project.
3) How many minutes of call time did you use out of that cell phone contract? If you get free calls to family would you do better on a lower contract?
If you cannot remember, make a list over the coming month. Once you have this information, find out the unit cost of each service you use if you were paying per item. Compare this with your subscription rate and, if your usage for the month being looked at was typical, you have your answer as to whether you should go a la carte or subscribe to that service.
Other ways to save money on subscriptions
1) Do you need your subscription to be at its current level or could you save money on a cheaper level? Do you, infact only watch 2 dvds per week instead of the expected 3 - 5? Could you get away with pay as you go and free family numbers instead of a contract on your cell phone?
2) A few months ago I was looking to save money on all household bills and rang around suppliers to get cheaper deals. When I contacted my suppliers and said I was considering changing, I got 20% off cable television and 33% off my cell phone contract if I stayed with my current suppliers. All businesses are eager to avoid losing custom as a result of the credit crunch and recession. Now is the time when, as a customer, you have more negotiating power. If you do your homework you can often negotiate significant savings on subscriptions and household bills….which can only help household finances.