Food

[bertine]

I read these financial blogs, mostly for the reader questions. I have this love of reading about people's lives. These blogs always talk about saving money in your household budget and the one I want to talk about is food. They talk about using coupons, about eating out less, about buying in bulk and about preparing your own food.

The only coupons* I use are the grocery store loss leaders on staples because we don't really eat pre-packaged food.** We do go out to eat but we don't go out to fast food for dinner. We go out for special occasions. We don't buy in bulk but we have a tiny kitchen. I wish we could because when meat is on sale I would by much more of it.

Anyways, these posts always sort of weird me out that they need to post something that I have known how to do since I was a kid. I remember going to the grocery store with my parents they would by a bunch of meat and my mom would let me help her repackage the hamburger, pork or whatever meat was on sale into freezer paper. After a while they got a patty maker and we would make hamburger patties, put them on a cookie to freeze and then stack them up so it would be faster for us kids to make dinner when both my parents were working.

Seriously, as I get older the happier I am with the parents I have.


*I wish there were coupons for good cheese.

**Well... I eat canned soup for lunch when I don't go to lunch with my coworkers. I am the one with the bad habits in this relationship

Comments

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I could see myself playing those sort of games but a bottle of shampoo lasts me about 6 months! toothpaste lasts me 3 months! Maybe when we have kids.

[lonely-doll.livejournal.com]

I learned how to cook mostly by watching my mom - it always amazes me how few people have even basic cooking skills, too. I mean - that's how you feed yourself.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Basic cooking skills are good. I think a crockpot is one thing everyone should have!

[messyjessy.livejournal.com]

You're lucky that you absorbed your parents' good habits. My mom has always shopped sales and used coupons, etc. I'm just too lazy to do it, I think. Or maybe its that I'm single. Who knows.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Being single is hard for a lot of tips. Living in a condo is also hard for them.

[scentedwoods.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading a bunch of the financial blogs because I got discouraged by the advice. I have already been doing all of these "frugal" things for years -- there was literally nothing new I was learning.

Until I start whittling my own silverware out of fallen branches that is... :P

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I feel the same way, I don't learn anything from them and they mostly make me feel bad about some of the choices I do make (like buying a brand new car instead of paying cash for a used car).

It is funny when they make posts like "Dried beans are cheap and easy dinner!" or "Cooking at home will save you money!" or "Hanging your clothes will save you money".

I hang dry my clothes year around while living in a condo in Minnesota. Mostly because my dryer doesn't work very well but I like to think it is because I am HARDCORE.

[scentedwoods.livejournal.com]

You are so HARDCORE!

[phaedie.livejournal.com]

My Mum passed on the patty maker thingy to me when my daughter was just turning school age.
It was perfect and I miss it and think I shall look for one in the future.
Thanks for the reminder.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Thrift stores have them all the time. I daydream about having a house and getting one.

[phaedie.livejournal.com]

Can you believe there is no walmart in Richmond? I think Zellers is our equivalent, should get off the bus after work one day and check them out.
Oh the adventures lj inspires. ;P

[i12bmore.livejournal.com]

Coupons are a big budget trap, actually. They are almost always for expensive prepared foods which are bad for you, and which you can pull off much more cheaply yourself.

Meat is about as expensive of a source of protein as I can think of, I see that I save lots of money buying other proteins, like beans and TVP. Meat substitutes like soy sausage are expensive, but I rarely buy them. In many cultures, meats are used for flavouring and are thus used sparingly. It's a good rule of thumb to use in cooking.

I basically shop in bulk for rice, oats, flour, TVP, and nuts. They are all a huge bargain, and I don't have to shop for them all that often, which is good since I have to go a little out of my way to get to the co-ops for them.

I'd say a great many poor people in our country do not live where there's ready access to buying bulk foods, and for those who do have it, they are turned off by the perception that co-ops sell very expensive food (for prepared foods and produce, yes, but much cheaper for bulk items).

[scentedwoods.livejournal.com]

I think that coupons CAN be a budget trap, but I've used them pretty effectively in the past when I can double up a store coupon/sale item with an manufacturers coupon. Surprisingly, most of my best deals have been on meat -- buy one get one chicken breasts plus 2 mfg. coupons for them makes for some darned cheap meat.

Not as cheap as beans of course, but...

[scorpi084.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are a lot of things I :( at my parents for, but they raised me into a fairly self-sufficient adult, so it's not all bad.

[isitthegenes.livejournal.com]

One of the first Groupons I ever bought was for $20 worth of cheese from Surdyks. Best $10 I ever invested, I kid you not - I'm hoping they come out with something like that one again...