Money Saving Ideas
Hoarding?
I’ve been slowly working on getting rid of a bunch of stuff that has randomly made it into my apartment over the past few years. A lot of the stuff, either gifts, or impulse purchases, have been hiding away in cupboards for long enough and finally have either been given away or tossed — it feels good to get rid of this crap.
Now, I’m not like the hoarders on HBO, but I want to live a fairly minimal lifestyle. I’m doing all right at it, but I can always stand to get rid of some more stuff.
In the process, I’ve realized how much extra stuff I’ve bought, not knowing I already had it… probably cause its been hidden out of sight. I took a look under my bathroom sink, and found 6 tubes of toothpaste, 4 sticks of deodorant, and a few bottles of shampoo. Why? Cause when I’m grocery shopping and see the ‘save’ sign on it, I pick it up, because I never realized I had some left to begin with.
I’m trying to break this habit, and actually use what I have now. Same goes with the food in my cupboards and freezer — theres lots in it, but most of it needs to be eaten at some point.
And to top it off — I already bought it, so I can save money as I work my way through it, since I don’t have to buy new things. This is my goal for the rest of the month, is to slowly use/eat the stuff I already have. I’ll save money, and clear shelf space.
Can anyone beat my 6 tubes of toothpaste?
Summer Cooking Challenge
One of my biggest budget busters has been my inability to eat at home… Mostly because I’m lazy, and can’t really cook. So this summer, I’m going to try to change it.
At least once each week, I’m going to go out of my way to make something brand new. This is not only good for the budget, but its probably a lot better and more healthy for me. I figure the internet offers more than enough step-by-step recipes & videos, that even someone like me could cook something edible. As I find something I’m able to make — and like — I’ll add it to the list, and hopefully by the end of the summer I’ll have enough different meal ideas to last me a while.
This is a big challenge for me, as ever since I moved out on my own, I’ve never been big on cooking. Opening the pre-packaged stuff, frozen food from Costco, or the simple meals have been staples in my life… now that I’m done school, and have all the free time in the world, I figure should work on improving that.
Of course, eating at home isn’t just about the budget, its also better food. I’ve been steering away from typical fast food — Burgers, fries, pizza — to “better” fast food, like Sushi and indian food, but even that isn’t the best. Cooking and eating at home will let me see, and control, exactly what I put in my body.
Sounds simple enough…?
Small Change = Big Bucks
Today I did something I don’t do very often… I got off my ass, and found the bucket I always throw my spare change in.
Personally, I hate carrying change around with me, so whenever I break a bill, everything else goes into the bucket when I get home. This means, when I make a $2 purchase, and pay with a $5 dollar bill, I have 3 bucks or so in change that starts piling up.
The good news is, when I finally counted it all, I have $351. Thats 1/3rd of a rent payment! I’m going to go cash this into the bank, and then throw the money onto my student loan. I figure its a nice way to use up the money that has just been sitting around – literally – collecting dust.
If you hate counting and rolling money like me, some of the Bank of Montreal locations now have change counting machines that are free. These machines save so much time, in that you just dump in your change, it counts it, then issues a receipt that you take to the teller to cash out.
For a very lazy weekend, it turned out to be quite profitable.
Money Saving Idea #2: 40% off Shoes
As a guy, shoes tend to be more of a utilitarian type of thing, rather than an obsession. So when I need to buy new running shoes, I’ve found a way to save about $60 off the actual price, for the exact same shoes I would buy in store… its called eBay!
I’ve found, shoes from the same brand (eg: Nike, New Balance, Adidas) have pretty consistent sizing — so if your a 12 in one type of Nike, you’ll be a size 12 in all Nikes. Knowing this, it makes shopping easy — pick your brand, and know your size, and you can order almost anything without trying them on.
That’s where eBay comes into play. By spending a few minutes searching their shoe section, you’re able to see a plethora of different shoes, with low minimum bids and buy it now prices. While the selection sometimes varies, you can typically find most of the popular styles online all the time, with prices up to 40%+ off the retail price — and most of the time, the seller is actually a shoe store somewhere in the country.
To break down the cost from buying off eBay:
- Nike Running Shoes: $69.99
- Plus Shipping: $23.00
- Taxes: none!
- Total Cost: $92.99
So for $93, you can get a brand new pair of shoes, that are the exact same as those sold in stores. Compare that to the same shoes, costing $139.99 in store, PLUS tax (12% here in Canada), thats $157 total.
This may not be for everyone — but if you buy the same brand, and same size, its an easy way to save money.
Money Saving Idea #1: Frozen Food
I’ve had the nasty habit of going out for lunch and dinner instead of making my own lunch — thus costing me a substantial chunk of money each and every month. One of my goals for 2011, is to turn this trend around by cooking more at home — this not only lets me save more, but eat better along the way.
While I’ll never be a chef, I can follow some simple recipes. One of the recipes I attempted today was for soup: Minestrone Soup with Sausage to be exact. While you can always buy it in a can from Campbells, home made tastes better, and has a lot less sodium and preservatives.
The great part about soup, is you can make it in one batch, and then freeze it — and it’ll taste the same on day 1, and day 100. Makes planning lunch as simple as grab and go.
Looking at the actual cost component of it, it breaks down as follows:
- Total Cost of Ingredients: ~$16.00
- Number of Meals Made: 6
- Cost Per Meal: ~$2.65
Seeing as lunch out cost me about $15/meal, I was able to make 6 lunches, for about the price of one. Doing the math, making my own food in bulk has just saved me about $90 from NOT eating out — plus it actually tastes great and is healthier.