Grocery shopping 101: August is off to a good start!

Despite not having a car for a whole month, I think we can call July a success in the grocery department. I ended up spending $174.27 for the month, and that included 6 bottles of wine. I shopped at the regular grocery store more than I would have if I could have driven to Aldi, so that also contributed to higher spending. Meh...still not bad. 

August is off to a good start. Loaded up for the next week and splurged a little on dinners for me and my main squeeze to have this weekend. Total bill was $79.39. Here's the breakdown.

I I went a bit over board, but I wanted to have a few extra nice meals. I spent $14 on steaks alone. Not something I would usually do for myself, that's for sure! I also got frozen salmon fillets which will last for quite some time. Looks like I spent a lot for one week if my goal is only $160 a month. Having my main squeeze here for the weekend, and it being the first shopping trip of the month both make for the higher total. It will all even out.

 Here's a little insight into my general strategy for grocery shopping.

• You are what you eat! I am by no means a perfect eater. I keep in mind what is necessary for health when I shop for food. With the occasional exception, try to steer clear of foods that don't contribute nourishment for health. The cuts down on about 80% of the grocery store.
• What can I do with what I already have?  I really try to assess my fridge, freezer and pantry before I head to the store. That way I can use up what I have instead of buying more than I need. Waste not, want not! I make a note of what meals would be possible if I just had 1 or 2 other things. Planing around what I already have helps keep the list to a minimum. I don't worry so much about planning the gaps. I tend to keep a mental tally of some favorite recipes so that I can fill in the menu gaps depending on what’s available when I get to the store.
• The mental list:  My shopping list is pretty stable from week to week. The way my store is arranged, I skip right through the first isle of chips and cookies and snacks to the back for eggs, milk, butter (when I need it), yogurt, and shredded cheese. Then I hit up the produce section. I go a bit crazy in this section! Whatever looks good goes in the cart until I have what I think is enough to get at least 5 generous servings of fruits and vegetables each day.  Then I go look at the meat. If something is on a crazy sale, I might buy it to put in the freezer. Then I grab anything else I might need to complete my mental meal plan. Example: If Italian sausage is on sale, I might go back for an onion and a bell pepper to make this pasta dish I like. Then I grab any staples I might be out of like rice, might grab a couple bags of frozen veggies if I’m out. That’s it. Easy when you skip most of the middle.
• Meal planning: I know a lot of people are big on menu planning, and I am too. If you can check out the flier before going to the store, then plan a few meals around what’s going to be on sale. At Aldi, I feel like not everything ends up in the flier. Sometimes I check my Pinterest boards to get ideas of meals I might like to cook during the week. I also only really plan on cooking 2-3 meals a week. The left-overs are great for nights when I'm too busy or tired to cook and they make for great lunches too. 
• Lunch planning: I generally try to use up leftovers for lunches and then take salads or bento-style lunches made up of little bits of this and that. I don't really buy anything particularly special for lunches. I don't make sandwiches or buy Lean Cuisine type of stuff. Using up whatever is around keeps the waste and cost down!

·     I don’t ALWAYS or NEVER anything, but I do try to keep a good routine for the grocery store. My grocery tips and tricks are what I try to stick by. Of course there is the occasional splurge! Eh hem...steaks.

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Healthful eating in the midst of travel madness

Jet setting doesn't bode well for healthful eating and tends to result in food waste. July has been a whirlwind of travel. I was gone the first couple days of the month, home for about 2 weeks, gone for a long weekend, home for 4 days, and I'm about to head out again for a long weekend trip. During this time I did not have a car, so getting up to Aldi for my usual grocery routine wasn't an option. A combination of bike and public transportation have worked out well even to get me to the big chain grocery store around the corner.

I've only recently addressed some of the travel-related food challenges.

• Airport food: I've been using the airport as an excuse to eat Chipotle. My mom and I used to go to Chipotle almost every Tuesday. Chipotle brings back happy memories and it tastes so good! This last trip I had YoBerry. It's an excuse to get a treat, but usually it's a treat I don't really need.

•  TSA: As it turns out, a lot of food can get through TSA screening. I'm trying to be better about packing a meal with me to eat in the airport. Sandwiches, fruit, salads with dressing in jars less than 3 oz all get through TSA. Ice packs get through so long as they are frozen solid. Gel packs, and melted ice do not. I suppose ice in  a zip lock bag could just be thrown away and your food will stay cool enough to get through security and eat it on the other side. 

 

•  Nothing to eat for lunch on "travel Mondays." I go strait from the airport to work and might have a bit of fruit with me.It only just occurred to me after a year of this travel routine that I could leave something in the freezer on Thursday and it would be waiting for me on Monday. So far I'm just leaving frozen burritos that I made a while back.

 

• Food waste: Part of my food waste problem was solved when I started packing meals to eat in the airport. I'm usually only gone for 4 days at a time, so a lot of foods won't go bad.  The hardest part might be the grocery shopping for 3-4 days rather than a whole week in between trips. Here's my loot from the other night. Just enough for 3 days. Cost was $19.57. Way cheaper than eating out for 3 days! 

Stocking up: 1 grocery run for 2 weeks of eats

Getting in an auto accident is no fun. No fun at all. Thankfully I'm mostly ok. I have a lot of sympathy for anyone who has experienced whip-lash! The whole situation is a major inconvenience. It's a pain in the neck...literally and figuratively. I won't get my car back for another couple of weeks. Jetta Jr is in critical care for the time being, and I have decided to rely on my bike as my primary mode of transportation. Everything I really need is within about a 3 mile radius, so it's not that big of a deal and I should have been riding my bike a lot more anyway. Aldi is not in that 3 mile radius and happens to be my best friend when it comes to grocery shopping. Sticking to an average of $160 a month for groceries isn't going to happen if I start shopping at the regular grocery store. At least I don't think it would be easy. I've grown accustomed to a weekly cart full of fruits and vegetables from Aldi. I stocked up on groceries while I had the rental car in hopes of making it two weeks on one grocery trip. I got gorgeous peaches and blackberries at the farmers' market over the weekend. Oh summer, how I love summer!

Already had to cross blackberries of the list! Oops!

My goal is to share what I have on hand for groceries each Monday. Usually I will include prices since a lot of people have been asking how I keep the grocery bill low, but I threw away the receipt so no prices this week. My bank statement indicates I spent $68 this trip. I will include what I intend to make for the week. Hoping this evolves in a way that's useful to me for developing some kind of pantry/fridge inventory system, and useful to anyone trying to get ideas for healthy eating for just one or two people. For now it might be a bit rugged. Taking a pictures of my hand-written scribbles is rugged for sure. Time will tell how this will pan out.

I love these $1 menu notebooks from Michael's

Looks like this week I have everything to have a variety of nice summery salads, lemongrass pork stir-fry, some kind of bean salad with lots of chopped veggies, a frittata filled with veggies, and a whole lot of fruit. I'll be heading to Beantown for a long weekend, so I'll be focusing on keeping fresh produce from getting wasted. 

Follow me on Twitter @tusarebecca or on Instagram (TusaRebecca) to see how my meals work out this week!

Putting the National Debt in Perspective

Before getting to the guts of this post, let me say just a few little things...
1. This blog is not meant to be a political platform. No matter what your political view, my guess is you would agree that our nation has a bit of a debt problem.
2. I don't know who made this up. It was an email that was forwarded to me. I've taken a little poetic license, but props to whoever had the idea first!
3. You should have a budget, and I hope it doesn't look like this!

If you want to understand the magnitude of the recent debt and budget
reduction actions agreed to by Congress and the President, this
non-partisan example really puts it in perspective.

*      U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000
*      Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
*      New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
*      National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
*      Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)

It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to.
Therefore, let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this
is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family:

*      Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700
*      Amount of money the Jones family allocates in their budget: $38,200
*      Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500
*      Outstanding credit card debt: $142,710
*      Recent budget cut: $385

I really hope your personal budget doesn't look like this! Debt can be completely overwhelming. Trust me, I know! It can be dealt with though. I'll end with this picture I found even though I've posted it before.

Grad students stick together for a budget win!

This is our 2010-2011 Purdue Graduate Student Government

I was actually lacking inspiration for any kind of post today until I opened my email and got my billing statement from the Bursar. My student fees went down by $28 per month. This is a big deal for a lot of reasons. It all started about 3 years ago or so when the Purdue Graduate Student Government decided enough was enough on the fee situation. For whatever reason, when we get funding, that funding can cover our tuition and stipend, but not our student fees. Student fees help pay for things like computer labs (which most of us never use), the gym (which you can tell by looking most of us never use), and I don't know what else. The one thing a lot of us use is the City Bus. Our City Bus system is free to all Purdue Students. Pretty awesome right?!?! Well, back to complaining about fees. As it turns out, Purdue was one of the only universities that had this grad student fee business. What made it worse was that these fees were something like $800 and due at the beginning of September. Most grad students who start at the end of August get their first pay check at the end of September. And, that pay check is often only about $1400. Knowing that the fees were over half of most students paychecks and that they didn't even get a pay check until after the payment was due, Purdue worked out a payment plan. To participate in this payment plan, you had to go to the Bursar Office, wait in line forever, talked to a grumpy lady, and fill out a paper form. All of that AND you had to pay interest! It was such a scam.

Move forward to the PGSG. The student government stuck together and got the fees on a reduction plan PLUS an automated payment plan! Starting in 2009, all grad students were automatically enrolled in a monthly payment plan and the fees were reduced by a decent chunk. Everyone was happy about this. I have a feeling that even the grumpy lady in the Bursar Office is not so grumpy anymore! What I didn't expect was for our fees to be reduced again! Maybe I was told that they would be reduced again and I forgot. Seriously good chance. But I'm still very excited to update my budget with $90 a month going to Purdue instead of $118! So not only did I get a raise this year, but I also have reduced fees! Do you think Congress is reading this? Income and less spending equals money in the bank! Wink Wink!

How will I use that $28 a month. I'm not sure where it will go. I was talking with friends yesterday and the hardest area of our budgets is the eating out category. The other category that's tough to stick with for me is gas. I already pumped up the gas budget since I got the raise. I think I'll bump up the dining out budget by $8 which is about one lunch out a month. The other $20 will go towards the emergency/moving fund. More on that another day.

Sustainability

I'm not talking about wind-farms, organic farms, or natural gas. I'm talking about sustainabile finances.

Credit

Finally! I got to watch the show, Till Debt Do Us Part! I’ve heard of the show and I’ve even read Gail VazOxalade’s blog now and again. She’s a sassy lady who basically intervenes in bad debt situations. She makes couples who are in ridiculous situations get their crap together. It’s a bit like The Nanny. Anyone who has seen the Nanny knows that all she really does is go in, tell the parents to act like adults and take control, and then the kids start shaping up. Till Debt Do Us Part is a bit the same. Gail goes in and tells people they can only spend as much as they make, they have to ace their debt, and they often have to come up with extra sources of income. What do you know…life starts to seem better when these people start taking control and making their personal finances sustainable. Currently on the show, there’s a couple who are $60K in debt. Now they have to live on a cash budget, address relationship issues, and then at the end they’ll get $5000 to help with their debt. Some people use envelopes, Gail uses jars. These people are cutting their variable spending by 77%. You might be thinking, “Holy cow! That’s insane!” The thing is these folks aren’t really abnormal. At least I suspect that they aren’t. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a bazillion people buried in debt. There are a lot of people out there who need to get their financial crap together.

So here’s my take on it. People get pretty hyped up about sustainability in businesses and especially agriculture, but I’m not sure people apply these opinions to their personal financial lives. In my mind, sustainable means living now in a way that will make living later possible. At the very least, people should figure out how to live on what they have and not on what they don’t have. People need to be content. It took me longer than it should have to get my own crap together. So I’m not saying it’s easy and I’m not trying to make people feel bad. And obviously it's hard to be content. There's always something out there you want to have that you don't have.

Not going to lie…I had to make some changes in my spending in the last few years to make life sustainable. I had a chunk of credit card debt that needed to be paid off. To make it happen as fast as possible, I had to become so much more aware of how much I was spending on all the little day to day stuff. The biggest thing was making a reasonable budget and sticking to it. We’re not talking a general “oh it would be nice if my money flow looked something like this” kind of budget. We’re talking “I can spend $10 on coffee and soda this month and that’s it. Not a penny more!” kind of budget. Granted, that budget had some fun stuff worked in. Like I said, it was reasonable and I had to stick to it. In making that budget, I had to keep my priorities in mind. Those priorities were:

1. No more credit card debt
2. Emergency fund
3. Travel

It’s been a whole 2 months with zero credit card debt, and it feels so good! It feels so good and the budget discipline is so ingrained that I have ended up with extra money the last 2 months. That extra money has turned into a curve-ball fund. Unlike an emergency fund, the curve-ball fund is just for when life throws a curve-ball. For example, last month I was at a conference and I was texting like crazy. I texted $30 worth beyond my limit. Oops! This hasn’t ever happened, so it’s not worth it to me to spend an extra $10 per month to get unlimited texting. The other day, I really had the urge to hit up TJ Maxx. I didn’t need anything, but I ended up with some sweet sunglasses and a padded iPad sleeve. Boom. $30 impulse spending. Neither is a big deal though since I have a curve-ball account. Even on my measly salary I’m happy to say I’ve gotten to a place where I can cover surprises and I can splurge without freaking out. See? That is what I call sustainability!

My budget was my lifeline this morning.

This morning, I was faced with a tough decision. A friend of mine was 1st in line at the Apple store and had a ticket for the iPad she wanted and a ticket for close to the iPad I want. The only thing was that it was the 32GB version, not the 16GB versions. It would have cost $100 (plus tax) more than what I have budgeted. Bottom line...I said no. I would like to think I could have made it work, but extracting $100 from my budget would be hard. As a certain someone said, "you can make $100 go a long way." Does $100 make a big difference to anyone else out there? Turns out $100 is a substantial potion of my budget. If I had to scrounge up $100 in one month, it would basically mean the following:

Zero dollars for impulse buys instead of $25. Nearly impossible for me, by the way.

I could try to cut the eating out budget from $35 to $25. I've done it before, but it's NOT easy. Turns out, spending time with friends tends to cost money, so I don't think I could go below $25.

I could practice some serious discipline and go without any coffee or soda money. That would be about $15-20.  I'll say $20 even though I try to keep it towards $15.That would also be nearly impossible for me. My will power isn't as great as I'd like it to be!

I could go without any CVS shopping for a month. I'll post about that sometime soon! That's another $10.

That's only $75. The above listed budget cuts would be hard, but do-able. I could make other cuts, but basically I'm not willing to. Those cuts would be what I consider extreme measure to cover a "want." If this $100 was a "need," it would be a different story. Taking extreme measure is what got me out of the hole. I just don't want to make those extreme measures anymore!

Moral of the story? Having a budget helped me a lot in this situation. It was a life line of sorts. The decision was essentially black and white. Even though I was tempted (and trust me...I was seriously tempted!), I know I only have a certain amount budgeted for the iPad. Also, I was forced to see what would have happened if I had made a bad decision to go over budget. I would be in the hole! Bad! I don't want to be there ever again!

So here I am. Practicing being patient. Reviewing my budget for April. Happy to see I didn't go over in March! Oh, and I'm super happy for my friend, Christine, who is probably playing with her shiny new iPad right now! She's the one who has been so thoughtful to send me texts at horrible early hours while she's waiting outside the Apple store. Go Christine! Download a fun app for me!