Live Cheap, Save Big

Via belazier.com:

Eggs - The nice thing about eggs is there are countless ways to cook them and make them more than a Spartan meal if you’ve got accessories. Hard boiling, sunny side up, and scrambled are the most convenient. Add some salt, pepper, and tomatoes to fancy them up, if you can be bothered.

Like the article states, eggs are great because they’re delicious, super quick to make and easy to dress up with cheese, vegetable and a little spice. Plus, eggs are one of the cheapest foods around at just over a $1 for a dozen or $3 if you prefer to buy organic eggs. Either way, they’re super friendly on the wallet. Also making the top 5 list is pasta, which is also extremely easy to make and very cheap.

Cook pasta at home and you can feed 4 people for less than $15 and still have leftovers. You can also grill your own burgers and make sandwiches at home and still have a cheap delicious meal. Just because you’re saving money, doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice on taste.

Cooking at home saves you a ton of money in the long run but it’s just not realistic to cook every single day. Whether you’re in the mood for something you can’t make, you’re short on time, or you just don’t feel like exerting the effort it takes to cook a meal, sometimes you just feel like eating out. There are still ways you can save on the bill when you do decide to go to a restaurant. The first thing you should do is order water with your meal. The markup on sodas, tea, beer and liquor is astronomical. You’re there to enjoy the food, water gives you something to wash it down and will not effect the flavor of your food. If you go somewhere known for their generous portions, skip the appetizer or share one. A lot of restaurants also include a soup or salad with the meal, do you really need an appetizer on top of that?  If you’re full after the meal, skip dessert and pick up some ice cream for later on the way home and save yourself some more money.  You can also see what specials they’re offering that day, as those dishes usually come with a better price tag.  Skipping the booze and sodas, appetizer and dessert can save you a hefty chunk off your restaurant bill and you can still enjoy a nice meal out.

Drinks such as soda, liquor and iced tea have ridiculous markups at restaurants. A soda will run about $2 at a moderate restaurant, maybe a dollar or two more at a fancy restaurant. Soda costs pennies on the dollar, especially at restaurants where they use fountain systems. The same goes for iced tea, and more often than not it is pretty watery. Liquor, beer and wine have the highest markups. I am a big fan of red wine and when I go out to eat I notice that bottles of wine usually cost about 3 times as much as you can buy them for at the store. That’s a 300% markup! Beer costs about $5, which is what you pay for a whole 6-pack at the grocery store. Liquor costs anywhere from $5 and up depending on what you order. For the price of 4 drinks you can buy a bottle and make yourself probably about a dozen or so drinks at home. Besides, you’re there to enjoy your food. The best drink to go with your meal is water because it does not effect your taste buds or the flavor of the food. It just provides you with something to wash down your delicious food.

Don’t pay someone to shred your cheese for you! Are you really so lazy that you can’t grate your own cheese? Shredded cheese costs a significant amount more than block cheese. It will also never taste as fresh since every piece is exposed to that much more air.

A 8-oz bag of pre-shredded cheese can cost up to $4. In most grocery stores you can buy a 1-pound of block cheese for around $5. That’s only a $1 for double the cheese and it’ll taste so much fresher.

Drinking bottled water for the sake of convenience is a waste of money. The (US) federal and state water health standards make tap water clean and safe to drink.

Ounce for ounce, bottled water can cost 1,000 times more than tap water. And bottled water contains varying levels of harmful contaminants. Buy a Brita filter to improve the taste and stick to the tap.

As the weather gets warmer, many people begin to crave the rip mangoes, watermelon, and pineapple. When you enter the grocery store, you’ll see small containers of fruit, already peeled and cut up, sitting in the produce isle.

These can be a tempting buy since they don’t require any effort to consume. It’s not the best idea financially though because the grocer will charge 500% than the whole fruit itself. The prepackaged stuff has less food, for more money. You end up paying a few bucks for literally a minute of work. ($90 an hour for fruit cutting)

Buy whole fruit, and cut it yourself. Besides, most of the prepackaged stuff is chilled, and research shows that watermelon is better for you at room temperature. You can even eat organic for $7 a day, cuts costs with sandwiches, and add some spice to eat well for less.

It sounds almost impossible but apparently it’s not if you switch to a mostly non-meat diet. If you’re not a huge fan of meat to begin with then this might be the right path for you as you’ll be saving money and eating healthy. Nutritionist Lynn Smith suggests vegetables and rice as an option for breakfast:

“They are balancing, they make your brain work better, they alkalize your system, they help with stress. And they have a natural sweetness.” Smith starts with vitamin- and mineral-packed organic broccoli at $2.99 per pound, or approximately 60 cents a serving.

Organic beans and grains are also suggested as healthy part of this diet. So if you want to become healthy and save money by changing your eating habits, you might want to give this diet a try. At the very least you can purge your body of the toxins and chemicals found in processed groceries.

A great tip for your freezer is to fill up the extra space with water-filled containers. You’ll save money because your freezer won’t have to work as hard to keep the food cold.

Also, if your power ever cuts out all the extra ice in the freezer will keep the food in there colder longer. Your vodka will stay ice cold longer and the ice won’t melt since its already in containers.