May 28, 2008
A colleague of mine has been jonesing for a home since her parents started pushing her to become a homeowner. I guess she got used to the idea, and decided to get serious about it. Her new declaration is that eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday will save her $250 a month on lunch.
Call me skeptical, or an insufferably curious pf blogger, but I do wonder if that’s the extent of her plan. It’s simple enough to save money by bringing lunch, but I feel like a few more contingencies should be considered to make sure that she’s really saving money. If I were to consult with her on the overall plan, some major points I’d make would be …..
Tracking expenses: I’d suggest that she check her spending habits as a whole. Is there going to be an area in which she increases spending because she feels deprived or restricted by eating PB&J all year? Is there really going to be an increase in savings from changing her lunch diet? She used to buy lunch half the week, and brought dinner leftovers the other half. Perhaps that was equally cost effective.
Health: Is she compensating for the rather limited nutrition in her lunches by adding fruits and veggies to her other meals? Is she doing this in a cost effective way so as not to negate her savings from lunch?
Appearances: Is she doing the PB&J lunch because it looks and feels like she’s doing something proactive about saving for a house? Are there alternatives that might save more for less effort or for the same amount of effort but be more worthwhile? I love my food, so I’d have to be sure that changing my diet solely to save money was really the best way to go.
Actionable: How is she ensuring that the money she “saves” really goes toward the house and doesn’t melt away into her general spending? Does she have a plan to pay an allowance to her house fund out of her grocery allowance?
Are there other issues you might bring up? Of course, I’m not going to have this talk with her because I don’t want to pry into her finances, we’re not that close, and I don’t want to reveal my preoccupation with PF, and accidentally out myself. 🙂
April 29, 2008
Continuing the spending trend, I ordered a universal car charger for my phone from Meritline yesterday using the coupon code: NSUCT4OFF.
Originally priced at $6.99 with the $4 off, it came to $3.24, and I’ll get 1% Fatcash and 2% Citi TY points on the transaction. I went with the cheaper universal charger even though it requires me to supply the data cable connection to the phone because the more convenient charger was $11.
I wish I had waited, though, because that one went on sale today for $10.99 with a 60% off. All of 40 cents more, but I would only have to carry the single charger, and not the charger plus the data cable. Hrm. Should I exchange it?
Oh well. I’m not willing to pay more [postage plus restocking fee (15%) plus difference in price] for convenience.
On a happier note, I bought myself a lovely treat at Trader Joe’s last night. In addition to the usual half gallon of milk and a dozen eggs ($1.99, $1.49), I picked up a package of sweet pork italian sausage and a package of fresh pesto tortellini ($2.99, $1.99) to make sausage and onion pasta for my lunch tomorrow. The fresh, refrigerated pastas are a bit pricey, but it’s still cheaper than the sausage and pepper pasta I was craving from Macaroni Grill ($11?). I’ll let you know how it turns out!
April 11, 2008
Despite neglecting to pack a real lunch this entire week, I’ve been really good about not caving and buying lunch. This is totally thanks to a post I read last week, sadly I can’t find the post or the blog to which it belongs, about a blogger who avoids going out by scouring the cupboards for any random combination of foods to satisfy hunger before deciding to go out or get take-out.
It was a little kick in the pants to stop letting my laziness and unrest at home cost me lunch money, so I tried all manner of creativity this week to keep myself fed without resorting to the expensive, bland cafes here.
Monday: I brought a container of rice and a fillet of fried fish that I hadn’t finished from the previous night’s dinner. I didn’t have much appetite, so I didn’t even finish that. I did eat my orange, though, so no scurvy for me.
Tuesday: My leftover biscuits and gravy, and part of a vegetable and ham scramble, from the weekend were combined with a couple of fresh eggs. Brunch!
Wednesday: We had fresh Roma tomatoes, so I sliced that up. I’d brought some wheat bread for breakfast toast earlier in the week, and had a slice left, so I made a half sandwich of fish and tomatoes. It was surprisingly yummy. My banana from produce bargain day was dessert.
Thursday: This may or may not be considered cheating: we planned a potluck for this day. The goods (and boy, they were good!): Honey Baked Ham, garlic mashed potatoes, green beans roasted with almonds, roasted asparagus, steamed broccoli, white rice, and homemade macaroni and cheese with bacon.
Note to readers: the Honey Baked Ham store is a complete ripoff! C3 paid $25 for enough to serve 6 people. There was apparently an unbelievable amount of fat and bone, so they probably only got about 2 good pounds of ham from it. We won’t be making that mistake again.
It almost makes me feel guilty for contributing the cheapest and easiest items on the list. I roasted the asparagus in our toaster oven, having gotten a great deal on it, and steamed the broccoli in the microwave. Cheap and easy! I guess the asparagus could easily have cost me more than $3/bunch, and I could have wasted $5 on a bag of broccoli crowns, but it would have tasted the same.
Friday: Leftovers from Thursday. Mmm-mm delicious!
April 7, 2008
The local chain supermarket has a great (compared to all the other stores right now) sale on fresh asparagus and broccoli. They’re each a dollar a pound, so I went nuts buying three bundles of asparagus, a bunch of broccoli and 4 bananas for just under $6.
One bundle of asparagus, about a pound, will go with me to work this week where they will be roasted in the toaster oven with a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. We’re creating our own little office potluck, and I’m super excited about how well these veggies will go with the rest of our lunch: honey baked ham, garlic mashed potatoes, fresh corn, homemade macaroni and cheese (the macaroni pasta will be homemade too!), and steamed broccoli. Yummmmm…. And the total cost for my share? About $2! I might pick up another bundle of asparagus because I don’t know how far one pound will go divided amongst 4-5 people, but that’ll only bring it up to about $3-$4.
I wonder if there’s any use in buying extra asparagus and freezing it? Does anyone know if it keeps well and revives well from freezing? I know that it’ll go on sale again periodically, but once I’m in the mood for asparagus, like when the season starts, I get a bit obsessive about the crunchily delicious veggie.
