Tips to live cheaper – Part One
Live cheaper Follow some of these sacred truths
You will never earn enough money. Nobody does it. The real test is finding the balance between paying the bills and living, not to mention having fun.
If I need to shop at a grocery store, remember that the products are the same.
I can’t spend all my money in a bulk store that sells in bulk. After two days, there is nothing to eat for breakfast, lunch, or possibly dinner that you can eat another day.
I can’t get by shopping for more than seven days.
I can’t save on buying olives from Italy and caviar from Russia. It is impossible.
Note to self: As a kid, I was raised by two of the cheapest people you’ve ever met. If you ever read this column, I will totally deny that I wrote this. So basically, I call them cheap, while saying that when the going gets tough, they taught me to live cheap survival skills. People buying large cans of tuna like the head or a woman who could make a dinner out of nothing while focusing on the budget for softball, Scouts, haircuts, school-related expenses, and practically, they can get information very useful. anything a person can think of.
Beyond the bills that are generally quite static, set a budget for the other items, such as food, entertainment, miscellaneous. These categories would be the things you need both to eat and to have a good time. Basically, it has to be affordable because the rent does not change from month to month or a mortgage. Neither does energy and basic services.
In this article, I’ll tell you how some families seem to have it all together and why.
Don’t budget small. Great budget. Let’s say you decide that it will cost you $ 1,000 to feed all of your children, you and the neighborhood. Great. Now the fun begins. Yes, I said funny.
Now $ 1,000 is a lot of money. Remember to think cheap now. You have that in your budget now think about it. Do you really have the stomach to spend that whole wad of cash on something that essentially passes through you? Wouldn’t you somehow rather sweat a nickel to go find a submarine? Wouldn’t you like to have a spontaneous night of Wendy’s or any other type of food you want? Wouldn’t you like to go to your local dance school and take an entire semester of dancing? OMG, anything would be better than spending the $ 1,000 on food and probably diapers and toilet paper.
So, the game begins. There are literally hundreds of dollars between all the competing supermarkets. There is one where the rich shop. There is one where the middle buy and there is one where the poor buy. The former looks great with high ceilings and an abundance of food. Some are even shipped from other countries. Who wouldn’t want to shop there? A great option if you are looking to go into debt only on groceries. The second will have corridors closer to each other naturally, less lighting, ceilings closer to the corridors but still a pleasant floor and a pleasant atmosphere. In this store you will find a balance. You will be able to pick up sales here, but maybe you won’t get everything like you did in the first store, and since it’s not fancy, you can survive shopping here. Then there is the poor store. It looks a lot like a barn. The ceilings are low. They never finished the floor. You feel like a depressed person when you shop there. When it comes to aisles that are very close together, this type of store is an expert. Worse still, the product is lousy as it is imported from other supermarkets that no longer want it. Since they are promoting people without SUVs, you will naturally think that all there is is too much and probably overbought. Instead of spending a hundred and fifty, you’ll buy 200 and wonder where all the food went at the end of the week.
Part of the problem with grocery shopping exclusively is that by mixing all of those things in your cart, you really have no idea what you’re spending. The sad thing is, we really think these are all of our options besides going to bulk stores like Costco (where you can sadly buy 20 things for $ 200 and nothing to put in your kid’s lunch). So what are the other options?
Divide your money weekly into categories of need. If there is a shop that specializes in meat (even a local butcher shop), then go and spend your meat money there. As for products, there should be a market nearby, but also, somewhere in a normal-sized city, there is usually a warehouse that supplies restaurants. Find it, the product will be fabulous. And usually there are other small, off-the-radar stores that have almost no options and go to great lengths to get their business to have all those sale signs every week, not to mention the usual low prices. Think outside the box here.
We are so conditioned in North America to think that supermarkets are our way to go, but that is not the case. When you are in Europe, you will notice that they hardly buy in supermarkets and that they are really marked. Meat and produce stores do a much better job, and you can see exactly where your money is going. Supermarkets are a one-stop shop for carbohydrates and milk. That’s. Much less money is spent when you separate it.
So in the first case, dividing your money on staples, meat, and farm products will work and will certainly save money from this food budget.
Now, can I also recommend saving some of your money for really good deals? I’m talking about the kind of specials where you get a free turkey with the purchase or one or you buy two and you get a third free or, oh my gosh, chicken nuggets for 4.99. Are you kidding me? The problem with overselling a special is that it reduces the amount of money you can spend on the heart and now, as you go, on the bunker mentality. Instead, set aside money each week to clean up on a special.
As for supermarkets, remember that if you go to the one that looks great, you’re paying for that extra space and probably the ventilation to smell the bread and shrimp anywhere in the store.
As for the middle one, it can be a more pleasant shopping experience and offer great deals.
As for the one that I mentioned as the bad option, probably a lot of people shop there and there is no shame, but generally the product is terrible and not very nutritious. Be aware of the shortcomings and keep in mind that you will think that everything is cheap and often things will not be.
When you go to the supermarket, make sure the money is in cash. Keep your bank cards at home. There is no reason to exceed what you have given yourself to spend.
Another way to exceed your budget is to buy meals.
First, shop for dinners, making sure you have enough meals for seven days (I mean weekly shopping, since planning for fourteen days is a bit difficult).
Second, buy breakfast foods, again making sure you have variety for seven breakfast days.
Then lunch. Remember that you don’t have to spend so much on lunch if you don’t want to. You can plan ahead and buy packets of things and divide them or buy applesauce bottles and smaller containers. As for meals, lunch is the easiest to lighten up.
Also, try to save money for unmistakable necessities like shaving cream or toilet paper.
