Money Matters
anipp14
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Help with budget
Hi all,
I'm new to the board, and have a question that starts financial...but ends with the grocery store (my least favorite money pit).
Husband is going to be switching jobs soon, so we are about to be on a very tight budget. Do y'all have any tips for grocery shopping on a budget or super cheap recipes to share? I need to cut spending wherever possible, and already use SnipSnap and Ibotta.
Thanks!
Re: Help with budget
Yes...
1. Don't buy name brands...buy the store's generic brands. Many people don't know that the generic brands are usually the name brands repackaged.
2. Avoid pop/soda, snack foods, and prepackaged and premade meals...these are often the priciest things in the store. Also, precut veggies and fruits are also more expensive than whole.
3. Try to cook recipes that use only grains, veggies, fruits, and dairy. Meat is pricey, even chicken is. If you can cut or eliminate meat, you will save money.
4. If you can, swap from using paper towels to wash cloths/rags. Yes, they have to be changed out more frequently, but washing them is easy if you just toss them in with the other laundry.
5. Buy in bulk when possible for non-perishables and TP.
6. Many stores give you $0.05 back at the register for each of your own bags that you bring. So, if you bring 5 bags to haul your groceries, you save $.25. You would have to ask about it.
7. Overall, eat less. Drink water.
Reducing meat is something that has saved us a lot of money. I don't eat it anyway, but H has gotten really flexible with meatless meals. Meatless meals that fill him up include pesto, bean burritos, pizza, ravioli, and tofu stir fries (I know that one could be a hard sell but we like it!) He probably only has meat 2-3x a week.
For produce it helps to think about the seasons. I try to only buy fresh veggies when its in season where I live. The rest of the year I'll go canned or frozen. This doesn't work as well with fruit but it's easy with veggies.
I look at what's on sale and pick meals around that.
Winn Dixie (if you have one near you) has tons of BOGO items in their store every week. I stock up on items I regularly use when I see them BOGO. I also plan some of my meals for the week on what's BOGO.
This may or may not be a good option for you all but, if you are big soda drinkers, invest in a SodaStream. It basically carbonates water for you and then you pour syrup in of whatever flavor you want. You can make soda for pennies; however, the initial outlay is a bit spendy. They are $79 at Walmart, though the red ones are on clearance for $54 if your local WM has them in. The initial purchase comes with a carbonation canister, but that needs to be refilled roughly every 6 months, depending on how much you use it. The refills are about $15.
The syrups themselves are about $6 for what will make 50 1 liter amounts.
In fact, MM win, I love my SodaStream so much I bought one online at WM ($54) to bring to work for my office. I picked it up yesterday and there was a clearance sticker for $40 on it, so I asked for the difference. But when they actually rang it up...$20. I was so excited!
And, actually, half the time I use it just to make sparkling water. They also have flavor enhancers to add just a dash of lime or lemon to sparking water.
It is off brand, no denying that. But they have some name brand flavors (Kool Aid, Country Time Lemonade) and their own flavors. I was originally hoping my H would stop making me buy him Coke, but he doesn't like their version of it, so I still do (sigh). I drink their Coke Zero version and it doesn't taste exactly the same, but its pretty close. Another thought we had, though we haven't done it yet, is to buy one of those "fountain" boxes of Coke like stores use, put a gallon of syrup at a time in an old water jug and use that.
If you want to try their version of Diet Mt. Dew before buying the SodaStream, buy their version of the syrup (Diet Fountain Mist) and then mix it just a little with a can of club soda. They actually have a lot of diet options. My favorite is Diet Pink Grapefruit. I know that sounds weird and it does have an unusual flavor, but it is so yummy.