Saving money on household expenses

[ExtraSlow]

Cost of different meats at co-op today. Pork is awesome.

[Xtrema]

Those are good meat.

If you are on the cheap, keep buy stuff that's under $10/kg. Maple Leaf Prime boneless chicken breast is always around $10-$11/kg. Dark meat like thigh and drumstick should be under $7-$8/kg.

[ExtraSlow]

Yeah, should be able to do a lot cheaper than that, but if you are the type of person who has never thought about it, this is a good start.

[Neil4Speed]

In terms of cheap meat, Pork Tenderloin and Skin-On Chicken Thighs (easy to remove) are the way to go, both can easily be found under $10/kg.

[speedog]

@bigbadboss101 said they were spending about $1,000 per month on groceries for two adults and a toddler - to me that's seems high or is that a normal number for that scenario? 3 adults in our household and we're usually under $650 a month.

[bjstare]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

@bigbadboss101 said they were spending about $1,000 per month on groceries for two adults and a toddler - to me that's seems high or is that a normal number for that scenario? 3 adults in our household and we're usually under $650 a month.

I thought this as well. $1000/mo is a shitload of groceries. Maybe the two adults are bodybuilders and have to eat 10K calories per day?

[HiTempguy1]

I'm a cheapass, and its tough for me (single, no dependents) to stay under $400/month. So either you guys don't eat, aren't including eating out, or are the cheapest eaters ever.

[bigbadboss101]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

@bigbadboss101 said they were spending about $1,000 per month on groceries for two adults and a toddler - to me that's seems high or is that a normal number for that scenario? 3 adults in our household and we're usually under $650 a month.

By groceries it also include stuff like toilet paper, detergent, food, cleaning products, etc. Generally things you get at Costco, Superstore, Coop, and sometimes Planet Organic.
We also buy some product at the farmer's market. My wife likes to buy certain things organic. I tell her I don't need to eat organic meat, I am ok with decent meat that other people in this world have been eating for ages and still are living :-) My wife is vegan but eats eggs. I am the opposite but have became a lot more plant based. Also she likes to buy stuff that are environmentally friendly.
So instead of Dawn it would be some eco dish soap. I told her Dawn costs 70% of the price, cleans better and I use less of it.

I don't want to cheap out on groceries for my family. If it's only me in the house then I would be less picky about environmentally friendly, organic but still buy quality stuff sensibly. Today for example I was asked to pick up some Eden Soy at community. I don't remember the price but I think it was close to $4 for a 946ml container. Bought 5 of them to make yogurt in the Instant Pot.

[speedog]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I'm a cheapass, and its tough for me (single, no dependents) to stay under $400/month. So either you guys don't eat, aren't including eating out, or are the cheapest eaters ever.

Trust me, it gets more expensive on a per person basis the less people there are in a household.

Also, @bigbadboss101 detailed things a bit more and I can now see how their grocery bills might be higher. Where you shop and what you buy can make a huge difference - I'll buy the close dated 30% off meat at Superstore because I'll either use it right away or throw it in the freezer.

[dirtsniffer]

Or just peel the discount sticker off and put it on another package.

[stealth]

Funny you bring this up. I just started looking at our bills for the last year, and credit car statements. We never budgeted and want to get our spending down.

We are a family of 4 and on average we spend $2000 on groceries and eating out a month. What I noticed is the constant trips for fast food after a workout or staying up late and wanting a snack. Tim Hortons was a major one as well. Each trip was roughly ~$10.

[ExtraSlow]

Unplanned trips to fast food, coffee or grocery store are a killer. Figure out what need you are trying to fill and make a plan ahead for how to fix it.

[killramos]

Never sign up for skip the dishes

[Feruk]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

4) IMO the most important one - if possible, don't cut back as much on the things that make you happy and help you live a stress free life
9) If you drink or smoke or have any similar expensive vices, STOP

Huh? Doing one = doing the other.

[HiTempguy1]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Trust me, it gets more expensive on a per person basis the less people there are in a household.
.

Fair enough. I also think I am probably including things like toilettries and other household goods. It's hard to seperate out exactly what you pay for groceries if 75% of your shopping is done at Walmart where you can buy everything.

[Tik-Tok]

Back to topic. Anything made in a crockpot is not only easy, but a pretty cheap meal that lasts several days. Soups, chilli, etc. My wife just made an awesome cheese and broccoli soup that lasted 3 nights worth of dinner, and probably cost less than $10 of food.

I think the biggest key to saving money on groceries, is being ok with eating left overs for several nights.

[suntan]

Good grief what a ripoff on the chicken thighs. You can buy about quadruple that at Costco for the same price.

[jwslam]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Good grief what a ripoff on the chicken thighs. You can buy about quadruple that at Costco for the same price.

But he's paying for maple leaf brand!
But yes, that is a rip off. Not as extreme as suntan says though. You won't get 4x that anywhere since it's boneless skinless...

[ExtraSlow]

I totally know you can get cheaper meat than that, I'm not trying to show people a "good" deal, this is an everyday price at a regular neighborhood grocery store. Some people have never looked at the price of meat, and for those people, most post was probbaly helpful.

Superstore bulk packs and Costco are two way to get better deals.

[eblend]

Read through the whole thread, so I will be repeating some things, but whatever, it works for me.

1. Buy everything on a credit card. Throw your recurring bills, everything you can on the CC. This will automatically record all your transactions and you will be able to see exactly where you are spending all that money and how it adds up. Make it a free cash back credit card, and you are getting some cash back as well, it's a no brainer. The trick is to have the $$ to pay it all off at the end of the month, and NEVER pay any interest on the credit card. If you are paying interest on the credit card, then you like to see your money burn.

2. Don't use a credit card if you can't pay it off in full every month. Perhaps a debit card is what you need, and when you know your $$ is going down, you may be less hesitant to spend it. I am personally not a fan of the debit cards, but for some people it's probably the only way.

3. Sell shit you don't need. List stuff on Kijiji. I sell pretty much everything I don't need on there, takes a long time sometimes, and you do have to put up with people not showing up etc, but small price to pay for extra $$$. Just don't cancel your planned outings around Kijiji people and make them come when you are home regardless, otherwise you are just asking for a disappointment as many people simply don't show up.

4. Free bank account. I use PC Financial (now Simplii) and have been since I was like 14, that's 20 years I haven't paid any bank fees.

5. Free credit card, if not cash back, then something like PC Financial World Elite (if you make enough money) is free, offers World Elite benefits such as all kinds of insurance etc etc, and gets you 3% cash back in a form of PC Optimum points. I shop at Superstore 99% of the time, it's mostly cheaper than Co-op/Sobeys/Safeway, and you get 3% back as points to use for future purchases. Combine that with PC Optimum points/app which offer you points for things you normally buy anyways, and it's easy free groceries. My best point to spend ratio so far is like $85 dollars in points on $250 spend. Offers like 20% worth of points for each dollar spend on pork for example, and you are saving huge real quick. If you don't need something that week, you can always save your offers for the following week right in the app.

6. Shop less often. Wife and I only go shopping like once every 4-6 weeks. We pretty much only go shopping when superstore runs their $25 worth of points for $250 spend. At this point we buy up everything we need, and if we are lucky, some things are on sale also match the personal offers from PC Optimum program, so more savings there. I will drop by superstore once a week or so to buy anything that we run out of in between the $250 trips, perishable things like milk or spinach or whatever we need right then and there. We use the $250 shopping sprees to stock up on everything.

7. Buy a used cars cash and don't bother with monthly car payments. I have never had a car payment all my life. At 34 I bought my first new car, cash. Up until this new car, I drove used cars I paid for in cash. I only bought myself a new car because I paid off my house and was debt free.

8 . Stock up on shit when it's on sale. This applied to all household stuff. Do I need 4 x 48 rolls of toilet paper, I don't, but at 50% off, why not, just throw it into storage and it's there. Same goes for detergents etc.

9. Learn to fix stuff yourself. With YouTube, there is no excuse not to attempt pretty much anything. Search for the video and decide if you want to try it yourself. Most stuff is so easy to fix, yet people pay $$$$$$$$$$$ to have a "pro" with junior high education at best come out and do it for them.

10. Don't go out, unless you really have to or celebrating. My wife is an awesome cook, I eat her meals 25 days out of each month, but when she is lazy or we have a reason to celebrate, we go out. Most of the time it's cheap things like Wendy's or Viet for the casual get outs, or Sushi or Red Lobster or something for celebration. Nothing too fancy, but fancy enough. We only do these fancy things like 6 times a year or so.

11. Buy bulk refills and refill your own soaps/detergents etc. Small item but something we do. Why pay $4 for a single dish soap thing of 500ml, when you can buy 4L of the stuff for like $7. Again, refill, put it in storage, and keep doing this until you run out.

12. Bring lunch to work. I do this almost every single day. It's more delicious then most stuff out there, healthier, and saves a ton of money.

13. Change you cell plan. I don't know how anyone can pay so much money for a cell. I pay $76 for a couples plan...shared 4gb of data and a bunch of other shit through Zoomer Wireless (off Rogers network). With the phone being on Wifi at home and at work, there really isn't a need for these massing 6gb\10gb packages and individual phone lines.

14. Don't buy small things every day, and save up for big things. Don't buy everything you want at the same time, spread it out over time.


Anyways, think that's all I got for now. Works for me. Doing all these things allows me to spend money on things I truly love to do, like travelling.