Savings is being eaten away :( Need to take back control

[Fifth]

Eat vegetarian meals most nights.

What about not eating at all most nights

I think Alex started this thread due to her consciousness on investing & savings, having a goal, and a having a keen eye to notice slight changes.

I don’t think she started cause she is in the poo that bad etc that she needs to drastically change turn her life around before she spirals down and down further & further into the pit of no return..

Whilst it might be not a bad thing to do for someone personally, I doubt that it is necessary to be so extreme as to change yourself to being a vegetarian etc just to manage to pay your bills

No need to get huffy. No-one seriously suggested Alex be a vegetarian. Someone else jokingly suggested becoming vegetarian as a diet strategy. I did not suggest going vegetarian, I merely suggested forgoing meat most nights (ie. limit meat to 2 to 3 times a week). I gave a list of suggestions that have worked for me. Of course they won't all be suitable for Alex. I know Alex isn't in severe financial strife. Neither am I. I like saving money. If I can save money, I will. I don't know why you went through my entire post and picked out that one measly line to get excited about. Then again, you also got excited when someone suggested carrying around a bottle of water.

Sometimes meat is cheaper !!!

This is true. Some people are very good at sourcing quality lean meat cheaply. However, most casual budgeters are inclined to opt for the cheaper meat (the fatty, artery-clogging kind). As the OP is trying to be health conscious, I thought limiting meat might be the easier option.

I should disclose that I am a vegetarian so my suggestion obviously isn't for everyone.

 

[jaycee]

Fair enough, I'm obviously easily excited !

 

[Alex P Keaton]

Hi

Does anyone know any good websites that list the cost of fruit and veges per kilo from different stores and/or the cheaper veges that you can buy. 70% of my diet consists of fruit and veg and I can make huge savings here

I'm gonna have to go easy on the bananas. Maybe just treat myself to a couple once a week.

Edited to say: I guess I never had to worry about looking at the cost of fruit and veg before but now the cost of living has gone up esp fruit and veg! and healthy eating is expensive

Also... Where are the cheap greengrocers or markets north of the river?

 

[RumpledElf]

Fruit and veg are horrendously expensive. We stick with the boring ones ... carrots, cabbage, apples, potato, pumpkin, whatever is in season and frozen stuff. Most veggies are well over $7 a kilo

I didn't plant a veggie garden this year as we were supposed to be in our new house 6 months ago. We have a few fruit trees though, and I have silverbeet going feral in the vacant block.

Also, anyone noticed that if you actually ate that '2 & 5' you'd have to either quadruple your food intake or completely cut out anything that isn't fruit and veg, thus massively inflating your food budget? Those serving sizes are mammoth!

 

[Alex P Keaton]

Fruit and veg are horrendously expensive. We stick with the boring ones ... carrots, cabbage, apples, potato, pumpkin, whatever is in season and frozen stuff. Most veggies are well over $7 a kilo

Yeah I think I'll have to stick to these types of veg hey. lol I got a heap of snow peas the other day... I weighed them, it came to something like $20. I ended up putting half of it back. haha

Lettuce is nice and cheap too $1-2.

I did a google search. Apparantly Subi markets sell cheap fruit and veg!! So I should go there, its not that far away.

 

[RumpledElf]

Lettuce are about $3-4 here, and we never eat a whole one so they wilt.

I've been getting the mixed shredded lettuce salad bags instead, they keep for ages after you buy them (they are packed with an inert gas, not air) and are just the right amount so no waste. When they get within 2 days of expiry - but still are fine - they discount them to 99c

All the other fruit and veg they discount tends to be going black or squishy around the edges so you can only really use it for stews, but not the bagged stuff.

Love the near-end-of-life specials at our supermarket, can often get a big meal for $3ish, which cancels out those times we get marinated butterflied lamb or something lol

 

[kathryn d]

At Woolies last week we were in the store and over the PA they announced $2 a bag in veg/fruit area. (this must be a regular thing, because it was on TT/ACA that night)
For $2 we got 3 bananas,1/2 cantaloupe,granny smith apple,roma tomato,handful of cherry tomatoes,bunch of spring onions,lime,green capsicum,6 small hot peppers and a big brocolli.

Today at IGA we got a prepackaged "sale" of 5 suedes,cob corn for 49 cents.
There were lots more but we leave here in a few days, and we will struggle to use up what we have now.

We shop often, never for "groceries" but for specials.

 

[The Y-man]

Yeah I think I'll have to stick to these types of veg hey. lol I got a heap of snow peas the other day... I weighed them, it came to something like $20. I ended up putting half of it back. haha

Lettuce is nice and cheap too $1-2.

.

Snow peas are easy to grow - but maybe not in Perth (needs nice cold weather with frosty mornings)

You should be able to grow other peas though in any pot on the verandah type thing.

I should trade Rumpled some of our lettuce (baby cos, and soft leaf mix) which runs rampant in our garden with her silverbeet - our crop not germinating well this year

Similar to Kathryn, when we buy vegies, we keep an eye out on the best before and do the "mark down" raid the day before.

The Y-man

 

[RumpledElf]

Our silverbeet is getting lost in the thistles ... we're clearing the block for the house so the other half is getting overkeen with the roundup.

It was easy to avoid the silverbeet when it was 5 foot tall, but now its the same height as the weeds ...

Want some leaf amaranth? I grew some of that, decided it didn't taste all that good, gave it to the chooks when it went to seed and now I have amaranths popping up EVERYWHERE! Argh! They're pretty though and the purple makes a nice contrast to the green weeds ... http://photographicdictionary.com/a/amaranth

Lazy gardening. Let something edible go to seed and then play 'what is that plant' with the seedlings everywhere after the rains

 

[The Y-man]

Lazy gardening. Let something edible go to seed and then play 'what is that plant' with the seedlings everywhere after the rains

The lazy way is the best - except our little pathc keeps getting invaded by kikuyu....


We're growing amaranth too. You can eat the leaves and the seeds.

Thistles are meant ot be good for the liver - no idea how you use it though!

The Y-man

 

[RumpledElf]

Maybe Alex needs a balcony garden - you can even get miniature fruit trees you can keep in pots!

Don't think the body corporate would be happy with chooks though ...

 

[kathryn d]

Maybe Alex needs a balcony garden - you can even get miniature fruit trees you can keep in pots!

Don't think the body corporate would be happy with chooks though ...

While we housesat in Queanbeyan (close to canberra) for 5 months we planted a garden. We put an ad on gumtree for free large pots..and received 30 from a lady who was happy to see the go and be used.
We went to the dumpsters behind food markets and used the slightly broken/discarded styrofoam veg/fruit containers.Aldi also give them away in the stores to use if you pack your groceries.
We rented a trailor and bought compost at the tip.All up if cost $80, but we had so much left over...we sold the excess for $10..just to get rid of it.

We planted carrots,beans,peas, garlic chives,potatoes,cucumbers,spinach.
We planted mid december, which was really too late...but we had fun.
We didn't get much to eat, but our homeowners thought it was great. They emailed us a picture of the crop they harvested. (enough for one meal, but the 3 year old ate it!!)
Growing veg in Australia is a bit different than Canada..but it was great experience. We told them to just contiue planting seeds as they harvest.

Tomato and potato seeds/eyes came from the veggies we bought at the grocery store.

 

[The Y-man]

Maybe Alex needs a balcony garden - you can even get miniature fruit trees you can keep in pots!

Don't think the body corporate would be happy with chooks though ...

...or rent a plot at a community garden.

The Y-man

 

[SeafordSunshine]

Go to the beauticians!

Hello Alex,
I go to to the TAFE beauty school for a facial!
$20, but sometimes free..... (when they have exams usually)
You get a student beautician, and they do take a little longer to do it, I've been going for years,
Still make you feel a million dollars
Cheers
SeafordSunshine

 

[Alex P Keaton]

I cant believe how cheap markets are

I went to the malaga markets yesterday.

lettuce 99 cents, tomatoes 79 cents kilo, snow peas $7.99 a kilo (rather than $20 a kilo) grapes $4.99 a kilo (compared to $12.99 a kilo) I was also making sure to stick mostly to the cheaper types of fruit and veg. However I did treat myself to 2 bananas.

Everything pretty much half price of mt lawley growers market

From now on i'll go to the markets instead. haha i felt like a kid in a candy store at christmas

Not sure exactly how much I can save but I reckon I'll be saving at least $200 a fortnight easily. Because before I used to do fruit and veg shopping every 3 days, now I'll do it just once per week. I spent $38 and got 3 large bag fulls. This should easily last me 1-1.5 weeks.

I'm really excited about this. I've taken control back!! I've decided now to buy property # 3 in July 2013, this is just 6 months behind what my plans were originally. By then I'll have saved $10 K. I'll start posting my bank balance in my sig as a reminder and also for motivation just like I do with my weight loss efforts.