Day 138: Interesting Reading

This is going to sound horrible to say, especially in today’s economy.

My job is so boring. I should be glad; it gives me plenty of time to search the internet for interesting articles. I can do a lot of research on how to save money, how to spend money, and how to live more frugally. My actual work load encompasses about five days a month, and then for the rest of the month, I’m left wondering what I’m supposed to do. Maybe I just work faster than others? Other people doing the same job make it sound like they have no time and have to put in extra house. I’m more inclined to believe that they spend just as much time surfing the internet as I do; they just don’t feel bad about it. But, I’m glad I have a job in this economic climate, so I’ll keep doing my thing with the illusion of being busy.

Today I found two different articles that I found interesting (and it’s only 11:00!). The first is What You Should Expect from Social Security. I don’t have much to say on it, just found it interesting. I’ve become particularly interested in how I’m going to fund my retirement as of late, although I’m only 29 years old, because I hear so much dire information regarding the future. Last week I read an article about how the government is going to confiscate private pensions and 401(k)’s and redistribute the wealth. All of the comments on it were paranoia inducing. People were talking about withdrawing their entire 401(k) and hiding it under a mattress, stocking up on guns and non-perishable items because “the revolution is coming.” I don’t really believe that is going to happen, but I do think it is going to get worse before it gets better. I would still like to contribute to my 401(k) because my company matches 50 cents on the dollar up to 6% of my pay. It’s a 50% return on my investment just by investing. I will never contribute more than 6% of my pay though, because I see no benefit to it. I would rather put additional funds in an IRA, a savings account, CD’s, money market…. Somewhere that I have a little more access to if I need it. I contribute to a Roth, so I’m not getting the tax savings that are touted by professionals. I would like to know how to do things myself, like sewing, knitting, growing a garden, etc, because if there ever is some sort of total economic breakdown, I would like to have some skill that would be beneficial to my family and would provide a product that could be traded/bartered. Doomsday scenario, but I like to be prepared.

Anyway, enough on that. The second article I read was 6 Ways to Save $2997 a year on Food. I didn’t find the article itself very useful, but the comments were rather interesting. I do not follow an across the board “eating out is more expensive than eating in” mentality. We have started eating in more, with me cooking more dinners and we have been buying less fast food since we started buckling down. We still eat out on occasion, but we were eating out three to four nights a week, every weekday morning for breakfast, and every weekday afternoon for lunch.

I have not stuck so steadfastly to my “I’m not eating out anymore” because we haven’t been to the grocery store for a real shopping trip in probably a month. We’ve stopped here and there to buy little things but for the most part, no grocery shopping. We’ve tried to decrease our grocery bill, along with our fast food bill, and I think it has been largely successful.

Below are the common philosophies that I use when preparing meals. They change often, but these are pretty constant.

1. Plan meals ahead, but don’t assume that you have to put all of the ingredients in them. For example, a lot of the recipes that I use have a lot of very specific spices, some that I can’t find, some that are just way too expensive for a single meal, so I adjust the recipe to fit our budget and it still comes out delicious.

2. Sometimes, eating out is less expensive than eating in, even if it isn’t healthy. We stop at Little Caesars every couple of weeks when I don’t feel like cooking. One large one topping pizza costs us $5 and feeds the whole family. A $5 footlong sub is less expensive than buying 3 different kinds of lunch meat, bread, condiments, and veggies.

3. One of the most delicious meals that I make is a whole fryer chicken that I cook in the oven, and it’s pretty cost effective as well. I buy a whole fryer ($0.79/lbs- usually $4.50 for the bird), a garlic bulb ($3.69/lbs- usually about $0.39 for the bulb), celery, baby carrots, an onion, and some red potatoes. Last time, I soaked the chicken overnight in a brine mixture of kosher salt and water, and patted it dry, rubbed the outside of the chicken with a tbsp of butter, then combined spices; salt (I prefer kosher), pepper (fresh ground for me), garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, thyme, whatever I feel like throwing in. I rub it all over the inside and outside of the chicken, and put some between the skin and the meat. I crack a couple of cloves of garlic away from the skin and put those, along with some onion, in the bird. The bird then goes in my roasting pan, and I put a combination of the other veggies into the bottom of the pan. Last time I made it, I poured ¼ cup of white wine over the vegetables (we got the wine at cost, because my husband works for a wine distributor), and then roasted it in the oven at about 400 degrees for an hour, until the juices run clear.

For one thing, it’s really, really good. The meat is usually juicy and tender, and very flavorful. It also provides a lot of meat. The kids like it, I take leftovers for lunch the next day, and sometimes for two days, so for less than ten dollars, we’ve gotten three meals, one of which feeds four people.

I have a lot of favorite “go to” recipes. Maybe one of these days I’ll get around to posting them all, or I can post one a day or something.

5. I know some people baulk at the idea of packing a lunch, however I’ve found that it saves a lot of money; probably $400-$500 a month for me alone. Usually I take a $2 frozen meal, but I do enjoy the nights that I have leftovers for lunch. Dinners like spaghetti, where we usually have a lot of extra, can provide up to three days worth of meals.

6. If there is a local meet shop, mom and pop grocery store, ethnic food store, or whatever, check it out for specials. A few weeks ago, I went into Carfagna’s. They had 15-20 lbs New York Striploin for $2.99/lbs, which they would cut into steaks for you—free of charge. We got a 20 lbs striploin, which generated 20 steaks and 2.5 lbs of ground sirloin for about $60. Even if it were just the steaks, we would have been spending about $3 per steak, which is a phenomenal deal, but the ground sirloin was so much more flavorful than anything we pick up in the grocery store. They also have great prices on fresh produce and a wide variety of cheeses that I don’t find anywhere else.
Anyway, the stuff I do is pretty basic, but it amazed me to read on that article that people don’t think cooking in or taking lunches makes a huge difference to your bottom line or is more expensive. I used to think so too, until I really added up how much we were spending on fast food.