Goals For Cutting Corners

[anonymuse]

My favorite newsletter--Everyday Cheapskates

http://debtproofliving.com/

and Jean Chatzky's Money Tip

http://www.jeanchatzky.com/default.asp

I'm on free mailing lists for both of them and find them helpful.

[arkienurse]

Freezer cooking- anyone doing it??????

I try to "feed my freezer". You know, where you premake your dinners for the week/month/ and freeze them, either ready to be cooked, or already cooked and to the heat and eat stage. Last saturday, I bought a bunch of cheap ground beef and made meatloaf mix. I then formed it into meatballs and cooked them. Froze them on cookiesheets and transferred to ziplocks. Now I can either take out enough for spaghetti with portion controlled meat, or can serve it as mini meatloaves, again, with a controlled portion. Have also used them in soup.
And I love to cook up chicken quarters on sale and make cornbread dressing and chicken spaghetti for the freezer. Really cheap, especially if you save your leftover bits of cornbread and you don't have to have a lot of chicken in your dishes to make everyone happy. And you will find that the flavor on both of these is better after it has been frozen. Just don't overcook your pasta.

Lots of casseroles freeze well, if your family will eat 'em. DH calles them
"The Lazy Woman's Excuse for a Meal" But by george, he eats it or fixes his own.

Here are 2 websites I use:

http://organizedhome.com/content-84.html

After reading the tip page that comes up, if you are interested, look to the lefthand side of the page. Under the message board find the group Simplifiy-feed the freezer. You will find all kinds of recipes,tips,questions about freezer cooking.

http://30daygourmet.com/

They have a newsletter you can sign up for that comes out every few weeks with recipes and tips. I just this morning made instant oatmeal mix for the kids from a recipe from them. DH says it needs more sugar, but everyone else ate it. Best of all, I made up 20 (1/2c) servings ( would be equal to 2 packets of premade- so actually 40 servings): 1.99 for the oats, 1.00 for the brown sugar, cinnamon I had already, and I bought a big box of raisins for 2.50- used 1 cup of them, rest are for DD's snack time. So cheaper than the store, healthier, and the girls and I had fun making it together.


Here is the recipe for instant oatmeal(from 30 day gourmet)

For 4 servings:
2 cups Oatmeal, quick or regular
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Optional: 1/4 cup dried fruit/ chocolatechips/ chopped nuts

Put all ingredients together. Add optional ingredients if desired. Store in sealed containers( ziplocks for me) on pantry shelf or in freezer.
To make- mix 1/2 cup mixture with 1 cup water in a microwave safe bowl. Nuke for 2-3 minutes, until thickened. Stir and let stand 1 minute. I used quick oats and cooked it for 2 1/2 mins.

[mike9302]

Hey minnie I read above that you cant kick your pepsi addiction for water lol. I had the same problem but discovered that I love crystal light mixed in water better than cokes. It is sugar free with only 5 calories and I drink about half a gallon a day at work.

[tess_bk]

Since one person on another thread was saying how they wanted to get a store card because the store offers "discounts" to people who use their store card, and they wanted to save money on children's clothing ... I'd like to make a humble suggestion based on my own experience: consignment shops! They are heaven for buying children's clothes, and especially shoes. Things that cost $15-$20 on sale in a store are literally between $2.50 and $4.50 at the kids' consignment shop I go to. If you consign clothes and toys there too, when they sell them, you get credits that you can use to buy more clothes. It's been a great money saver for us.

tess

[HHM]

Let me briefly address saving...since generally, you will not have enough money to make a minimum deposit on bigger return savings vehicles, start with a regular savings account or money market account.

Of all the things that you can do to improve you situation is to budget (MS Money or Quicken is worth the investment, to save money, buy last years version online).

The FIRST LINE, highest priority line, should be "Savings". Most people go about savings backwards, they just say "I will put aside what ever is left over", but we all know what happens, nothing is really ever left over at the end of the month.

So even if all you can spare is $10 per week, set it aside FIRST, then pay your bills. You need to treat savings as "non-discretionary" spending, i.e. like rent/mortgage, utilities, etc.

Also, EVERYONE needs to open up a ROTH IRA (and for those with lower income, a regular IRA). Once your savings account reaches $500, take half of that and open an IRA, and then keep contributing to it, accordingly.

[lady therese]

I like the first tip above all!
It is the lifestyle that counts most. If one has a reasonable lifestyle for his/her financial status, budgeting won't be a problem.
_______________
Features and General Policies about.

[mixxalot]

I cook most meals and buy food on sale at market. Eating out is expensive and the extra benefit of home cooked meals are better taste and healthier as well. That and I only see a few movies each year and do not buy a lot of junk anymore. I use credit for travel work and thats it. Drive a paid off car and pay cash.

[keepmine]

While budgeting and living below your means are important components of personal finance, one thing is far more imperative. You simply have to raise your income. Get a better job or, take on a pt job. The status quo just won't get it done. No matter how much you scrimp and save, inflation wil eventually do you in. Look at energy prices. For us homeowners-every year homeowners insurance goes up. Every 3 or 4 years. property taxes increase. The list goes on and on. Raise your income and then protect as much of your income as possible with long and shortterm disability policies.

This is a good thread. Hopefully our other members will stop by and add their thoughts.

[manglicmot]

I have been going over all the things I've done over the last few years that were stupid and here's one not-so-obvious thing that I hadn't really thought of. Of course, I always knew that I was spending more than I should when I would eat a fast food meal rather than cook for myself. But then I looked back over my diaries and added up how much I spent. Oh boy.

One job I had between May of 1999 and December of 2000 I would stop of at Carls Jr and eat a doulbe western combo for lunch almost every day. The job I have now, since May of 2003, I would stop off and eat a dbl whopper combo almost every day on my way in. Just a conservative estimate of 740 meals during those two time frames, (it was actually much more I'm sure), at $6 a pop, again it was actually more than that, it comes out to $4,400. Un-freakin-believable.

[jal1129]

Here's what keeps getting us in trouble that I have'nt seen anyone mention yet...Houses!!

20 years ago when NENQ mortgages were easy to pick up we bought 2 houses in addition to the one we already owned, putting the down payments on cc, thanks to the advice of the infomercial real estate millionaires! One house we resold with a wrap-around mortgage and the other we rented. Both houses we had trouble with the people paying, the rental was a nightmare. Ended up filing 13 with over 100,000 on cc.

Next biggest mistake was as soon as we finshed the 13 we sold everything and used the cash to put a major downpayment on a house we could'nt afford. Closed on it at exactly one year discharged with an fha loan. I knew the payments were going to be steep but reasoned the bank would'nt approve us for a loan we could'nt afford (yeah, right). Started living on cc and a little over a year later sold that house (at a loss in order to get rid of it) and my husband talked me into buying a fixer upper with what little money we had left. Has anyone ever seen "The Money Pit"? LOL, really! Dont' ever buy a fixer upper when you don't have any money!! About a year later we were able to sell it (again at a loss) and ended up with no cash left and over 50,000 in cc.

Now we are renting and we are not going to rush into buying anything and we are going to make sure we can afford whatever it is we get!!!

[whatamess]

Eating out...

I have noticed in our local Chinese and Japanese takeouts, that the lunch specials are CHEAPER than McDonalds & Burger King! You can get an entree, fried rice, and soup or eggroll for about $4-6 that feeds two people. They pack it in.
The dollar menu is the way to go at BK and McD's. You can get a chicken sandwich or double cheeseburger, small fried and coke for $3!!!! If you have to have a cuppa Joe out once in a while Duncan Donuts has good coffee much cheaper than coffee houses. Small coffee and donut is about $2.25 I think?
At night, our chinese places have "combination plates" that easily feed two for $6-$7. We buy two and it feeds four. If you are a big big eater this wont work, but Chinese food tends to fill you up fast.
We eat out about once a month now, but I have it down to an artform at every place.
Kids eat free nights at Lonestar, Applebees and I-hop are good too!!! You can save about $12.00-$15.00!!!

WAM

[DeadManCrawling]

Here's one:

USE COUPONS.

I never even glanced at the dang things until BK became inevitable.

After a little work and some time clipping:

Went to the local grocery store armed and ready to do battle against the cash register.

We filled TWO grocery carts top to bottom with nonperishables like canned goods and frozen items, household supplies, detergent, and so forth.

We got to the cashier and she rang up $229.00.

Wife looked at me a little stunned. I had told her how much we were going to SAVE.

Whipped out the coupons and handed them over the counter.

Beep. Beep. Beep, for the next sixty seconds or so as the amount on the screen got smaller and smaller.

Final toll: $89.00

It only took me half an hour to organize those coupons and save that much money on items we needed or could use in the future. There are coupon sites online, though most of mine come out of the Sunday paper. The paper costs $1.25 but saves us hundreds per month.

One cautionary note, though. Some coupon deals aren't quite as good as they seem. If the paper towels are a dollar off but STILL cost more than another brand, trash the coupon and get the cheaper one.

And don't fall into the trap of buying ANYTHING and EVERYTHING just BECAUSE it's on sale. If you don't even OWN a duck, why would you purchase a duck-grooming kit, even if the damn thing IS buy one get one free?



Also, we abandoned almost all brand loyalty. I don't care what company manufactured it, or anything like that anymore. One exception is Mt. Dew. Like others I am an insatiable caffeine addict.

best wishes,

-dmc

[BKOnce]

Cholesterol, diabete....

[manglicmot]

Here's one:

USE COUPONS.

I never even glanced at the dang things until BK became inevitable.

After a little work and some time clipping:

Went to the local grocery store armed and ready to do battle against the cash register.

We filled TWO grocery carts top to bottom with nonperishables like canned goods and frozen items, household supplies, detergent, and so forth.

We got to the cashier and she rang up $229.00.

Wife looked at me a little stunned. I had told her how much we were going to SAVE.

Whipped out the coupons and handed them over the counter.

Beep. Beep. Beep, for the next sixty seconds or so as the amount on the screen got smaller and smaller.

Final toll: $89.00

It only took me half an hour to organize those coupons and save that much money on items we needed or could use in the future. There are coupon sites online, though most of mine come out of the Sunday paper. The paper costs $1.25 but saves us hundreds per month.

One cautionary note, though. Some coupon deals aren't quite as good as they seem. If the paper towels are a dollar off but STILL cost more than another brand, trash the coupon and get the cheaper one.

And don't fall into the trap of buying ANYTHING and EVERYTHING just BECAUSE it's on sale. If you don't even OWN a duck, why would you purchase a duck-grooming kit, even if the damn thing IS buy one get one free?



Also, we abandoned almost all brand loyalty. I don't care what company manufactured it, or anything like that anymore. One exception is Mt. Dew. Like others I am an insatiable caffeine addict.

best wishes,

-dmc

Wow, 229 down to 89. I'm going to start clipping coupons!

Here in California you can purchase club cards from the grocery store and it makes you eligible for lower prices when things are on sale. When my money started getting tight I gave up brand loyalty and just bought whatever had the club card price. I think, but I'm not sure, that if the item is on sale I can save even more if I have a coupon for that same item.

So now I have to find the $1.25 for a Sunday paper each week.....

[CurtInKS]

We have come up with so many cost cutting measures. I'll post there here, as I think of them. One I use, weekly, is about eating lunch out. We have a local Chinese buffet, who lets you get the Buffet to go, for $5.45, all you can find in one of those square styro containers. I can fit 2 meals and a late night snack in that box. I just make my own rice at home, and I am set.


We used to hit the coupons pretty hard, but we realized 2 things. First, that my DD and DW are so picky, we were buying stuff that wasn't being eaten, just because we had the coupons. Second, we realized that buying the stores's value brand, was usually just as cheap, as the namebrand with the coupons.

I know this is probably not right, but since we've given up on going to the theater, I discovered a handful of sites, where you can watch films online for free. How legit is it? I'm not sure. I assume it's pretty shady, considering some of the films are in the theater now, but it's a good way to pass the time, when you can't spend any money on entertainment, once in awhile.