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Last edited by Sugarphreak; 08-18-2019 at 12:19 PM.
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Make sure you evaluate what kind of tools you need and whether it's worth the investment to buy a specific tool for something. It helps if you have handy friends you can borrow tools from to keep costs down and not have to store this specific tool.Originally Posted by eblend
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Agree on the tools. Some pay off with one use (like a toilet snake) and others may never pay off.
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Our grocery budget for 2 people is ~$600/month. Sometimes less, sometimes more when we do a meat/seafood run at Costco. When we did the FODmap it was really expensive, gluten-free whatever was fucking expensive. We eat a lot of fresh veg and fruit -- we'll just eat out even less than we do now before we give up buying fresh produce whenever we feel like it. Our one vice is going to the Italian Centre for cheese (in Edmonton we're across the street from them). Gonna be a sad day when we have to give up that place lol.
Last edited by msommers; 03-24-2018 at 10:07 AM.
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We spend nearly 1000 on food per month for 2 people. I'd say 700 of that is groceries. One Costco bulk run for protein every 2 months is about 600. The rest is for fruits, vegetables, beverages, misc items.
Not sure how anyone can go cheaper than 700 for 2. Cant even fathom it. We eat next to no red meat due to costs. Chicken and pork. We do more frozen vegetables in bulk from Costco now because it's cheaper as well, and there's no spoiling. Nothing exotic on the monthly groceries list.
Like do people just eat one meal a day now?
I can eat more hot wings than you.
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Regarding the cost of those chicken thighs pictured in a previous post:
Chicken is MUCH cheaper if you don't buy boneless/skinless. In my opinion the bone-in chicken tastes better anyway.
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Taxes suck in BC but food is sooo much cheaper there.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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Probably a few repeats but I think a few of the keys items that have worked really well for me that long term pay off.
1. YNAB. This tool blows mint out of the water. I used mint for years but found this actually addresses a lot of the issues mint has. More involved of a product but budgeting should be an active thing not passive. This one is huge! Once you get into ynab you will find lots of room to save but it will also show you the true cost of living. I find mint doesn't plan well for annual expenses etc. ynab handles this easily and helps you find this "annual" expenses that you never plan for but add up. As an example we have found when you average it out we spend about $400 a month on "one time" expenses. CRAZY!
2. Do your research when it comes to financial products. A few examples that work for me.
A. MBNA World Elite Credit Card. 2% back and works at costco. This works out to about $800 a year in savings.
B. EQ Bank - 2.3%. Use this for emergency fund short term savings. Before you know it that is a decent amount of interest per month.
C. Make sure to keep enough money in your regular bank account to not pay fees. Or switch to a fee free account.
3. Find people you can talk about budgets with in person. Maybe they are someone you meet up with from here or a friend you trust. It is hard to know what "normal" is for a budget without research or talking with others. While often a hush hush topic it is worth the conversations with the right people.
The above alone has saved us probably close to $1300 a year!
Next I would highly highly encourage regularly browsing https://www.reddit.com/r/PersonalFinanceCanada/ They have excellent fundamentals on the topic and also links to some pretty extreme folks that can get you thinking. Guys like mr. money mustache. I don't subscribe to as extreme of an approach but reading it makes you validate where you are it.
This has turned into a personal finance into a hobby for me. I enjoy researching and conversations on the topic.
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Homemade everything...
No seriously, dollar store get the little cutter thing for fries for 2$ - and 5lb sack of potatoes goes on for 3$ here and there... that 1lb sack of fries is 2-3$
Perogies is my exception. Those are cheaper to buy.
Learn to love pho - back in 14 for about 6 months I had 80$ for food at the end of the month. The big tin of chicken soup stock and a bunch of bean noodle vermicelli, an occasional on sale meat at extra foods, toss in some veggies for dinner add sriracha to taste... Big 2lb bag of oatmeal covered most breakfasts, add the dollar store syrup / blueberry / raspberry syrup. Basic sammich that even baygirl could make for lunch. Spartan but fed... When you get sick of noodles - switch to rice - buy the big bag it's the same as the 2kg of uncle Ben's. Spaghetti is up there too on cheap eats (especially the 2 for 1 gallons of ragu at Costco). Big bags of noname chips from grocery store broken down into ziplocks / Tupperware and homemade cookies round out the lunch.
Don't cheap out on insurance - I still keep my beater fully covered... Sorry - if it's stolen or written off by others, at least I'm covered.
The thrift stores, Facebook and salvage centers are awesome for clothes. Garbage bag of son's next size of clothes cost me 20$ - sold his 3-4 that he's grown out of for 30$. Needed suits this year - I ended up with 3 for a grand total of 19$ - salvage center in Okotoks. Spent another 25$ having them slightly altered for a better fit. We just grabbed the apprentice a new bike and helmet today there - 10$. Seriously cheaper to buy a bike than a tube at Canadian tire.
I'm slowly learning - Netflix beats cable... Just need that interwebs connection.
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Eating out / take out is such a killer. We can do so good all week, being mindful of what we buy at the grocery store or at starbucks, but one lazy night and Boom, $80 sushi on skip the dishes. Back to square one.
With that said, we never had to count our pennies when we buy groceries. We try to shop smart like stock up when things are onsale, use credit card for points, look for coupons, go with the grocery store brands for some stuff, etc.. but it was never like "oh we are out of steak but it's $40 so we better hold off on it".. If we are out of steak, we buy steak. Now that I'm thinking about it though, we have made some changes to our routine recently that really help us reduce our monthly spending, even thought we didn't intentionally do them to save money:
1) Food saver. Our new house has a deep freeze so I've been buying everything in bulk at Costco and just vacuum sealing them. I really enjoy the process and the main reason for doing this is that it gives us the option to cook whatever we feel like without going to the grocery store just to buy that one thing. We would buy slabs of sirloin, or racks of ribs, or a huge pieces of salmon from Costco and just cut them up and seal them. Especially when they are onsale! Last week Costco had $5 off pork tenderloin, which was only ~$15/slab in the first place.. so that's 33% off Costco price! Smoking deal. Now my deep freeze has like 15+ different kinds of meats and cuts for whatever we feel like cooking that night. From a cost perspective, I'm pay $16kg for the slab of sirloin, vs $22/kg for the pre-sliced one, so I'm saving 27% in my steak budget alone just by doing this. Same goes for all the other meats.
2) Instapot. We've been using this so much due to novelty and it's indirectly saving us alot of money by preventing us from eating out and making us cook in bulk. For example, last week we made ribs twice in the instapot as my fiancee and I were just like 'omg we can make ribs in 20 mins! let's try this, lets try that'. As we played around with different recipes/formulas, we made ribs, pulled pork, chicken, soup, pasta, pho, etc, and all those meals would spill over as lunches for the next couple of days. From a cost perspective, we are definitly saving money. Last time we made 1.5 rack of ribs with a side salad. The ribs costed ~$15 (Costco). After adding in the seasoning, the veggies, etc.. that whole meal costed us ~$20? $20 to feed the 2 of us for dinner + lunch. Definitly saved money there. We just made pho and the whole pot probably costed us <$10. The pasta was <$10 / pot as well.. Again not intentional, but we have been saving alot since using the Instapot.
3) Slow press juicer - we bought a slow press juicer out of novelty and have been using it WAY more than we ever thought we would. We would buy all of our fruits and veggies at the East Indian produce place by Sunridge, where everything is literately dirt cheap ($10 for a case of apples? $1.5 for a box of strawberries? $1 for 3 bunches of kale? Like come on!!), and just make juices every day. They are healthy, delicious, and fun to make. Indirectly it's saving us a ton of money because we are not buying cold-press juices from Jus or smoothies from Jugo Juice anymore ($7-$11 saved per drink avoided), and we would drink a juice instead of buying starbucks sometimes during work ($6+ per drink avoidance saving). We probably haven't saved enough to cover the cost of the juicer yet ($500) but we will get there soon I think.
4) Nespresso - we use our Nepresso Vertueoline ALOT, and our cabinet looks like the Nespresso boutique store. Last I counted we have >200 pods in 8 different varieties. By switching to Nespresso, we've reduced our morning coffee shop expenses at Timmy's/Starbucks/Cafe Rosso by 90%+. Just to put things in perspective, at one point I had>1500 points on my starbucks account. Now it's 0. I don't go there anymore. I only go to coffee shops if I'm meeting clients / friends. Sure the vertuoline at $1.1 a pod is far from the cheapest at-home coffee option out there, but we don't do it to save money. We just love their coffee so much and it's indirectly saving us money.
5) Check for deals often. I LOVE bargain hunting, and when you look hard enough, you will always find them. We are going to Hawaii in April for 1.5 weeks, so I've been planning the hotel / car rental etc. I rented a full size SUV on Expedia for $600 for 10 days. Great deal I thought, but I kept checking every couple of days even after I reserved the car. One day it dropped down to $520 for the same rental!, so I cancelled my reservation and made a new one. A week later it dropped to $440. Perfect.. cancel and rebook.. then $400.. then $380. Now it's backed up to $650 but by checking everyday even after booking, I saved 36%.
Anyway, those are some of my recent personal experience. I think all the other stuff that have been mentioned in this thread are good and are generally just good common sense (e.g. use Credit card for points but make sure you pay it off. The Amex 4% cash back on groceries and gas is a huge one.) Good luck!
Last edited by RX_EVOLV; 03-26-2018 at 01:48 PM.
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Thank you again everyone!
You guys have made some really good points.
i've been keeping track of my expenditures, and yeah I think one of the major killers for us was going out to eat. It wasn't liek we went to fancy places, but just going out often to even shit places, it all added up.
I'm definitely trying to be more cognizant of any unnecessary expenditures. I used to do a lot of impulse buying, which I've stopped. I like Extraslow's idea of sleeping on it, and seeing if i really need it.
Hopefully I stay on track with these practices. Thanks again!
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Last edited by Amysicle; 12-06-2019 at 08:48 PM.
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You appear to save money while not compromising on spices and expensive drinks. Both are luxuries if someone is low on $ and still needs to get a hit.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Have you noticed that it's the folks who work in retail or entry level jobs that have all the gadgets, the pumps, the caked on expensive Sephora makeup and still walk to the C-Train with their oversized hand bags. I digress.
To op. A spreadsheet outlining your income and your every bit of expense is what's going to open your eyes to your current situation. It'll take some effort and adjustments which many here have pointed out and I would echo. I will add a few more of mine:
- Costco is still king for family sized purchases. Takes planning, and sticking to a shopping list to make it work. Cleaning supplies, toilet paper, paper towel (ahem, use kitchen cloth instead) and bulk grains like pasta and rice are good here. So are meats. Pork, like someone above mentioned, are affordable and can be bought from Costco, portioned and frozen. Buy large ground meat here and make large batches of pasta sauce that you can freeze and consume over a couple of weeks (sauce math can be as follows: $20 for meat, $3 for canned diced tomatos, $1 for tomato paste, $1 for onion, $1 for garlic, $1 worth of spices = $27. This will make two large pots of fresh sauce that'll last at least three meals.)
- Fresh vegetables can be had a Chongo's in Crossroads farmers market at a discount on Sunday afternoon. The later in the day the less the price as they try and sell off. Otherwise, Hong Kong market on 17 Ave SE just east of Deerfoot is a good place for lower priced veggies. Superstore is also the chain of choice. Wholesale Club, which is also part of the Superstore group is good for almost out of shelf life goods that can be cooked same day. Oh and Walmart, where condiments and veggies are actually cheaper than most chains.
- Costco gas for car
- Cook/make food with what you have left in your fridge. Have a pack of mozzarella that's days away from going bad? Lookup recipe online to make something that will use it. I have recently started doing this out of personal challenge to not waste food, we live in a great era where we find everything online, including recipes that start with just a single item that you have on hand.
- Cook at home, don't eat out. You can't afford to eat out. Also money is tight for entertainment. So make cooking part of your family activity and entertainment. If kids are involved, teach them good habits and make them a big part of the food preparation. Baking can be quite the cheap activity.
- Cook cheap: eating in is known to be cheaper than eating out. But does not have to be expensive either. There are many sites out there with cheap recipes that are quite interesting. Here's two I just googled: https://www.thesimpledollar.com/20-f...t-cheap-meals/ and https://www.delish.com/cooking/recip...-easy-recipes/
- Shopping is something you mentioned. If it is food related, then as long as you are planned, it's fine. But if it's other, does not matter how often you go (you said 1x per week,) the issue is how much you spend. Budget your expenses. It's a must.
- Apps are only as good as what you feed them. There's no app out there that will cure your financial woes or at a whip of a gesture will make your situation manageable. It's the will to change that will do that.
Don't see this as restriction on your life. See it as a challenge and adapt to the new realities and in the mean time, learn new tricks.
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I liked your reply. I like that you are seeing cost savings as a challenge and/or lifestyle and you're enjoying it. Possibly cultural too (the pho gave it away) but keep it up! Here are my notes:This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
- A deep freezer is a must if one has a house. Even in a condo, one must make room for it. Any meat at under $10.00 per kg is a steal, and should be purchased, portioned and frozen. Buy the cheap Safeway freezer bags next to the ziplock and save money on those too.
- When cooking, think about portions. No you don't have to cook the whole slab because you got it for a lot less. The question should be, will you finish it this week? Otherwise only cook what you need.
- Meat can be cooked, consumed, and leftovers fancied up for subsequent meals. Think about baked chicken breasts that were eaten as a dinner, but you can slice them up and put them on a bed of veggies for lunch tomorrow
- Instapot, crockpot, the craze is out there folks, and the recipes are endless. I love the act of cooking and these are no good for me, but there are many options like single pot cooking for items like pasta you can make in a single saucepan
- Costco for car rentals. You will seldom beat their prices. They also allow for last minute cancelations (and encourage it in fact if price goes lower)
Here's a challenge folks:
Pho is supposed to be cheap at restaurants. But it is still about $15 per person once all is said and done (pop, GST, tip.) If you are a couple, it's $30. What can you make for $30 at home that is not only delectable but will go farther than a single sitting for pho for two?
From my earlier post, I mentioned pasta meat sauce that will cost $27 to make, with the pasta adding another [generous] $3.
$20 for meat, $3 for canned diced tomatos, $1 for tomato paste, $1 for onion, $1 for garlic, $1 worth of spices = $27. Plus $3 pasta =
30. Pot of sauce will last at least three meals.
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Any advice for making pho at home on the cheap? Every time I've done it the cost was higher than just going out. For 2 people.
I can eat more hot wings than you.
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To do pho cheap - you're doing it in bulk...
The noodles - Asian aisle, I like bean noodles (like 1.20 at superstore) the packs of rice vermicelli aren't much more. Each pack will get you 6-8 bowls of noodles.
Soup base - the 1kg size of soup base is 15$ and you use 2tsp per bowl. The little boxes are 5$ and have 6 cubes, 3 bowls of soup.
A friend got me the real Asian chicken stock - like a 500ml jar - I think she said it was 8$ at t&t I use 1tsp per bowl
Meat - leftovers for me, anything the kiddo didn't eat or leftover from a roast chicken, turkey, steak whatever. Spam sometimes (I'm learning to eat it) I'll fry up leftovers package them in individual snack bags and toss in freezer. But yeah - if you want cheap meat - the big box of frozen chicken breasts at Costco for 33$ or a 15$ pork tenderloin chopped up into individual chops - either one is 60+ bowls of pho easy. Beef my favorite is Tuesday morning at extra foods, you'll find a bunch of 50% off.
Carrots are cheap and last forever, I'll grate 5-6 and portion into snack ziplocks in the fridge. Cilantro or other fresh herbs - pack of seeds from eBay and a couple dollar store pots... Window sill. No big deal. Why spend 8$ on a bunch of cilantro that'll be bad in 4 days when it can grow as fast as you can use it? Green onions I just buy by the bunch - 2$ same as the carrots chopped up into 2 portions in a snack bag.
I don't do bean sproutsI hear they're easy to grow.
Then its just chilies and siracha... Home made satay peanut sauce is a staple around here - I'll do a bigger batch every 6 months, it's only a couple bucks too.
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