Fuck you, magazine articles on money-saving tips and suggestions on budgeting that start with the premise the reader has money to begin with!



If you read between the lines on a lot of those, they're clearly written for people who are just kind of cheap rather than people who actually need to skimp.

I just read through a list of ways to save on money on your food budget that had suggestions beginning with,

"This is a good use for that leftover chocolate..."
"Creative uses for leftover steak..."
"Try to eat out less often..."

and so forth.

What a joke. I am so angry after reading this I am literally choking back tears at the moment. I don't know what set me off.. It could be that I'm busy boiling rice for dinner. Again.

Guarenteed to work:

Spend less than you earn.



Tips I've heard work:
*Don't spend change, save it. (For example, if something costs $1.95, pay with $2, save the 5 cents in a jar or something.) I saw this on Oprah. Some guy saved enough change over the course of 18 years to put his son through college.

*Don't eat out for lunch/bring your own. Same goes with coffee. (I buy diet Coke when on sale and bring one with me to work every day. I just got 4 12-packs for $14, that works out to about 30 cents a can compared to $1 if I bought one every day.)

*Cancel cable, magazine subscriptions (did you buy the magazine where you read this article?), unnecessary extras on phone service. Borrow books, dvds, cds from the library.

*Pay for things with cash. Take the amount of money you budget to spend each week out in cash and use that. When it's gone, then that's it. No more spending for that week.

*One benefit of being a vegetarian is that you don't have to buy expensive meat.

I guess it depends on how thrifty you want to be. You could go all out and make your own laundry soap, wash clothes by hand, grow herbs/veggies in your apt., etc. but at some point you have to also consider what your time is worth.


Good luck.


.
[Edited 5/9/10 19:32pm]

Most advice columns assume and cater to an upper middle class audience, not to mention a heterosexual mainstream one...

Meow, since you know how to live in poverty, when you do earn more money, you'll have skills to climb out.

I am grateful for my frugal impoverished days. Now that I have established a moderate income, it goes a long way...and I often notice I feel richer than my wealthier friends. Money management is empowering. And yes, spending less than you earn is the best policy.

Date the wealthy??

hope that helps...












yeah, yeah I know, I'm an ass...

Orgnote

heartbeatocean said:

I'm actually strongly considering, once I have the means, publishing or starting a blog about how to really skimp on your food budget.

Someone who's genuinely that broke, like students, welfare and disability recipients and the like, aren't going to find suggestions on how to prepare leftover steak useful. Hell, leftover steak itself is kind of a nebulous concept at that point.

I want to work on a list of ways to save money and get sufficient calorie and nutrient intake. Mr. Noodles is the classic student diet but it doesn't take a doctor to tell you that's not at all healthy.

RenHoek said:

I used to think I would never marry for money but I can't say I'm all that opposed to the idea any more.

Blowing some old guy once in a while can't be worse than plain spaghetti for dinner.

meow85 said:

Girl you're young, move south to the Bay and git you some of that tech money!!

meow85 said:

make beans from dried beans, rice, a few veggies, tortilla -- burrito!

or fry refried beans in a corn tortilla with a tiny bit of yogurt or chesse - yummy!

I basically live on burritos, fried tacos, and pasta with a crumbled tofu, tomato veggie sauce

heartbeatocean said:

Buying from the bulk bins for things like lentils, beans and rice is sooooo cheap and is good, nutritious stuff.

Cook lentils and brown rice together, caramelize some onion in a bit of olive oil, mix it all together and season with just salt and pepper and you've got a meal fit for a queen. Sooooo yummy and is a complete protein.

Also - farmers markets for fresh produce when available. Buying fruits and veggies in season and checking prices really helps too. Last week I bought 4 baby red potatoes, 1 huge yam and a pound of green beans for 2 dollars and 5 cents.

I watched a program a few months ago about 'freegans' -

"These urban foragers are neither homeless nor destitute. They are committed freegans, radical environmentalists (typically vegan) who reject our wasteful consumer culture by living almost entirely on what others throw away. Freegans rarely go hungry thanks to the colossal amount of food Americans dump every day 38 million tons annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Here's another way to look at it: The United Nations says our leftovers could satisfy every single empty stomach in Africa. Those castoffs are composed, in part, of the less-than-perfect products consumers instinctively reject: bruised apples, wilted lettuce, dented cans. Who hasn't passed on an entire carton of eggs after discovering a single slight fracture among the dozen? Supermarkets can't unload the quarts of milk tagged with yesterday's use-by date which many of us interpret as a product's expiration but in fact refers to its period of peak flavor. Meaning, there's still plenty of life left in those quarts."

http://www.delish.com/rec...trash-0309

At the beginning of the program, my kneejerk reaction was to be disgusted and think these people were kinda nuts....but by the end of the show, I saw just how incredibly wasteful our society is in regards to (still good, edible) food that gets tossed into the trash. Seriously, the people profiled on this program ate better - and a wider variety of foods - than I do!

Freeganism is a radical idea but perhaps it's something to at least research and explore? I don't know where you reside, meow85, but the folks on the show I watched lived in New York City, and a core group of freegans there regularly schedule outings with new people interested in this lifestyle...teach them the ropes, so to speak, how to safely forage for food and the best times/places to go. Maybe there is such a group local to you?

I still don't know that I could actually live this way, scavenging for my food, but I was definitely amazed by how much good food goes to waste each and every day. It was really incredible.

RubyButterfly said:

how do you get the supermarket to give you that stuff?
I once got a bag of chips free at Toys R Us because it was past it's best by date.

A good real book to look into is the Tightwad Gazette. Tips aimed at low income savings.

I save money by only having one Mansion at a time

I don't have money issues, but I still live as if I do eating lentils and quinoa and stuff instead of bread. I don't really have any expensive hobbies or habits and I never go anywhere. I'm like a hermit