Frugal Foodie

If you’re new to the Frugal Living thing, it may seem to you that a lot of us old-time Frugals are obsessed with food. Frugal bloggers do indeed like to talk about food a lot - recipes, grocery bargains, great deals in general. The truth is, though, that we really aren’t any more focused on eating than your average American. It’s just that cooking from scratch and careful shopping are two of the easiest ways to trim your budget and see immediate results-it is a good idea for frugal living.

Many, many things that Frugals do to save their pennies just don’t have this same potential for immediate savings’ results. Maybe this is why it is hard for some to stick with their best Frugal intentions, especially when just starting out. For instance, say you make a solemn vow that you will now hang every bit of laundry. Well, you might be very disappointed with your next electric or gas bill because you probably won’t see much, if any, difference. This disappointment may make you feel discouraged and make you want to give up, and I don’t blame you. Hanging all your laundry is hard work - don’t let anybody tell you any different. Until you get your own system down and get a nice little rhythm going this is a real CHORE!

The return on your “time and effort” investment may not at first seem worth it to you. You may feel like chucking the whole thing. But in this case I can offer you some reassuring advice. First of all, maybe you don’t have to hang every bit of laundry. I don’t: I use my dryer for all my whites. Whites tend to be a huge load of lots of little items - socks, underwear, wash cloths and cleaning rags. It is NOT fun to hang-dry a load of this stuff; by the time you’re done you may feel that you have clothes-pinned five million things. So, I’m not going to kill myself - into the dryer they go. For me, this means that I actually use my dryer about once a week, because I do line-dry pretty much everything else.

Second of all, if you can manage to stick with it for at least two months, you will begin to see a difference on your utility bill. You won’t see that difference on your next bill, because of the time lag. All your efforts won’t begin to bear savings fruit until that second electric (or gas) bill, so don’t give up. These things add up a lot over time, and contribute to your overall (healthy) financial bottom line.

But if you decide that you are going to commit to cooking from scratch more often, then this is an area of your budget where you can see immediate savings results. This can be very dramatic, especially if you have previously relied mostly on restaurants to keep yourself fed.

Here again, it is best to ease into it. Cooking from scratch takes some getting used to. You need to work up to it, or you probably won’t stick with it. I cook from scratch, but not every day. My husband and I still like to eat out once a week. And because of schedules, summer barbecuing, and frozen left-overs, I only really cook four times a week at the most. I can do that, and probably so can you (because most likely you are not as lazy as I am). Thanks to left-overs and sandwiches, taking lunch to work is easy, too. This alone is a HUGE money saver.

If you don’t feel like cooking, this little thought process may convince you that it is a good Frugal idea: “I hate cooking! Hubby and I can go to our favorite Mexican restaurant tonight. I know it will be at least $30.00 for the two of us, what with drinks and tip. Hmmm, come to think of it, I also hated cooking for the last seven nights, and it did indeed cost at least $30.00 or more for each of those meals. So, in one week we spent over $200.00 on eating dinner out. Wow! $200.00! Plus the cost of my husband’s fast food lunches at work, because I was too sleepy to get up and make his lunch. When I look at it that way, maybe I don’t hate cooking so much after all. How hard is to whip up some spaghetti or slap together a bologna sandwich, anyway?”

For the two of us I would estimate that our weekly grocery bill is about $50.00-$60.00 (that is food and drinks only). This is not so great even. I bet most of you could do much better. But as you know, I am lazy, so I am satisfied with this. (On another Frugal blog, the hostess spent $80.00 for a month worth of groceries for her family of four. Wow! I bow to her superior Frugalness!)

But even though I’m indulgent when it comes to my grocery budget, consider that this amount covers (made from scratch): 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 5 1/2 (poker night) dinners, for two, in a week’s time, and beverages for all that (milk, tea, and coffee). If we went out to eat everyday instead and paid $10.00 for each of those breakfasts, $12.00 for each of those lunches, and $30.00 for seven dinners, that would come out to $364.00 per week spent on food, and that’s just for two people (and these are conservative numbers). I know otherwise rational people who spend this much eating out weekly, and they buy groceries besides. So even if my $60.00 grocery budget per week isn’t rock-bottom frugal, I still come out WAY ahead. Every Friday night we do go out to dinner, and this is always at least $30.00, but I look forward to it a lot and so it is worth it to me.

So find out where your limit is. Maybe you feel more comfortable spending $150.00 per week on groceries, if you don’t just love things like oatmeal for breakfast and PBJ’s for lunch and don’t have a preference for store brands and leftovers. Even so, you’ll come out ahead. Dust off those old cookbooks. They’re not doing you any good sitting on the shelf! Also, if you don’t do much cooking now, tell yourself that you will at least do it once or twice a week. That’s manageable, and when you get used to that maybe add a couple of more days. Gradually it will become part of your routine, and then just watch the savings add up!