Vacation allowed

[momofthree]

Can you please share your menus? Are your children really young? I have teenagers and they eat a lot and my spouse is a diabetic and I am a vegetarian and I spend wayy too much on food.

I coupon hard-core and average an overall savings of 50-60% at the grocery store each month, and we do our fair share of Costco & health food shopping as well. If we didn't eat healthy, my savings would probably be closer to 80%, but I insist on our healthy foods--plus we're on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet which can also be quite pricey. But, yes, my kids are young (7,5,1)

I also home-make all of our meals each night and I plan meals around whatever fresh veggies are on sale. For example, last night we had italian sausage cooked in beer with sauteed onions and bell peppers over brown rice.

price breakdown (all were bought on sale)
4 large italian sausages: $1.20
1 large bell pepper: 33c
1 large sweet onion: 49c
1/2 can cheap beer: 25c
1 cup cooked brown rice: 25c (estimate as it's sold in a large bag)
olive oil for cooking: 25c (estimate again)

=$2.77 to feed 5 people
even if you had to double the recipe, that's still just over $5.

tonight (again everything on fab sales)
5 lbs of pork ribs -- approx 3 racks: $4.85
seasonings: 25c (estimate)
BBQ sauce: 69c
corn on the cob--4 @ 18c each: 72c
butter/salt/pepper for corn (estimate): 10c
gluten-free garlic toast: $1 incl. seasonings

=$7.61 (this is a spluge, I try to keep meals below $5, but this will also leave lots of leftovers for lunches)

tomorrow--stuffed peppers

6 large bell peppers: $1.98
1 lb ground beef: $1.49 (I tend to buy 30-40 lbs at a time when it goes on sale)
1 cup brown rice: 25c
can of tomato sauce: 48c
1 large onion: 49c
garlic, seasonings, cooking oil, etc: 50c

=$5.27 (with leftovers)

Sun--meatloaf, potato soup, salad

meatloaf (won't bore you with list of ingredients): approx $4
homemade potato soup: approx $2
salad w/romaine, onions, tomatoes, & pepperonicinis + dressing: $2

=$8.00 -- this is a large meal though and there will be leftovers for Monday night as well, so really $4 for each meal....

If you want to learn more about couponing, visit: http://www.hotcouponworld.com/forums/index.php and click on getting started.

You will quickly learn that there are some things you should never pay for, you can get them free by combining coupons with sales. Things like dental products, cleaning supplies, hair products, deodorant, razors, feminine hygiene, etc.

You'll also discover that you can usually buy brand name products for cheaper than generic when combining sales with coupons. I'm not going to lie, it's a lot of work, but we consider it my 2nd part-time job.

[frustrated51]

I coupon hard-core and average an overall savings of 50-60% at the grocery store each month, and we do our fair share of Costco & health food shopping as well.

I've been trying the coupon thing and never saved more than $10-13. It seems most coupons are for processed foods.

I feel like I am hijacking this discussion to food instead of vacation. Should we move it?

[Flamingo]

To get back to the vacation issue, another thing that may come in handy or work for you if at all possible is if you have friends/family that maybe go on vacation and you can go and split room costs or other expenses with them. In our case, our good friends each year went to the shore and rented a house. They invited us each year during our Chapter 13 and what we did was purchase the food for meals that were done at the house and they took care of renting the home. It worked out extremely well. In a Chapter 13, if there is a way to barter as to vacations, house repairs, car repairs, etc., it benefits all in one way or another and allows those in Chapter 13 to maybe do a little more with any saved or extra money. After a year or so in a Chapter 13, one will be surprised what they can come up with to save money and do things like going away for a weekend. You will actually wonder why on earth did you spend so much money in the past to go to the places you did go...

[woeisme]

We have taken vacations every year since filing, but the way we've managed it is to combine trips for my work with vacation. I'm a college professor and one of the "faculty development" benefits we get is two trips to conferences subsidized per academic year. I say subsidized because the reimbursement rate is $65-$80/night for a hotel room depending on whether or not I'm presenting a paper at the conference or just attending the symposium, and the per diem is $35 for everything including meals, parking, cabs, what-not, but as long as I stay in cheaper hotels (usually not the official meeting hotels) and book through hotel sites that give you a free night for every X nights booked, we manage to get to travel some. As long as they are road trips, it doesn't cost much extra to take my husband and son, and they can play tourist while I'm in my meetings and then I can see sites with them at night or squeeze in a few hours here and there during the day depending on the conference schedule. This year we managed 3 trips this way because in addition to the two the school helped pay for, I was asked by the National Science Foundation to be a grant reviewer and got a free trip to Washington DC that way. We're also doing a road trip where we'll stay with family in Indiana and friends in Iowa, with day trips to Chicago and Minneapolis but no hotel stays. Not everyone has a job that allows for adding in travel, but I bet almost all of you know some people who live in different places you could visit that could make lodging a non-expense.