Miserly, tight, cheap, stingy – well, those are words that I have been accused of more than once! I much prefer economical, pennywise and frugal. As empty nesters I would have thought we’d be throwing money in the air and not caring were it fell. Well, maybe not quite but I did assume grocery bills would be substantially less then they were when we had two teen age boys in the house in the early 2000’s.
I have always considered what I save at the grocery store as part of my income. What doesn’t go ‘out’ is considered ‘in’. I’ve written a few times about spending time clicking the coupons online for my local grocery store. This past week Safeway had a pretty extensive buy one/ get one ad. It’s easy to go in thinking filling up the grocery cart will be a big money saver, but I’ve learned it isn’t a savings if it’s something we don’t like. I’ve donated plenty of food over the years that was such a good deal but no one would eat, like garbanzo beans I was sure we would make into humus! This week I went in with purpose and bought things we use or needed soon. I have to admit it’s frustrating that the prices are still so high, even with bogo. Ground beef at $7.49 a pound cut in half is still $3.75 a pound! That is crazy, wasn’t it just yesterday that the sale price was .99 a pound? And the bacon that was in the discount bin marked down by 50% is only 12 ounces, not the 16 ounce package it used to come in. Don’t kid a kidder, these prices are depressing!
Here is where I blow it, take out. Now, these are vacation meal photos so they don’t count but I don’t have photos of ordering from Grubhub or Doordash. I do try, now, to order directly from the restaurant to save on the service charges and so I can tip the workers at my local restaurants directly. But my point is….. I work so hard at saving at the grocery store and I am a decent cook and can make good meals on the cheap but then I order dinner in! All the money I will save at the grocery store is GONE. This is something I need to either find peace with or change. I’m not feeling very peaceful about it right now so I’m setting a short term goal (baby steps), no take out for two weeks! Even to me it doesn’t sound like much but it’s something. To prepare for no take out I will grab a few of our favorite quick to fix meals from Trader Joe’s. I will quote George Bernard Shaw again, “Progress is impossible without change.”
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Our New Neighborhood 2023 
We try to have a couple easy meals for when we are tired or don’t feel like cooking. One thing we do is go to Subway. We each get a 6″ sub to go – for about $11. We add our own drink and chips at home. We also buy a chicken pot pie from our local bakery. So good. $15, used to be $12. But we get 2 meals out of one. We add peaches and our drink. I like to be frugal, so we can spend our money on things that matter more to us. I like to shop at Aldis, but we go to a local grocery store for meat. The prices are higher there, but we watch for sales, and then we stock up! Good luck!!
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