So if you’ve been conscious for the last year, you must have noticed that grocery prices are going up…and up….and up. I noticed too. In 2007, we spent about $500 a month on food and consumables (hygiene, cleaners, paper towels, etc.) and in the first part of 2008, it was almost $600 a month. We had even tried to anticipate the inflation by budgeting $50 extra dollars a month starting in January, but it turned out not to be enough. We had two choices: Find more money or figure out how to cut costs.
Then a few months ago, Austin stumbled across an article in Money Magazine about the benefits of using cash rather than debit or credit cards, even if you plan to pay the credit card off at the end of each month. The article discussed a study, in which people either bought everything with cash or bought everything with a debit card. Those who used cash, spent less money, even though those using debit cards were not running up debt.
I was skeptical. I mean, I don’t feel like I buy unnecessary things, I look for deals, and I always pay off my credit card at the end of every month. Plus, I get 1% cash back on a credit card, so that has to count for something, right?
Maybe, but in July we decided to do a cash experiment. We took our monthly grocery and entertainment allowances out of the bank in cash. Since we had overspent during the first 6 months of the year, I took out $520 a month instead of the budgeted $550, in hopes that we would even things out by the end of the year.
Here’s the thing about deciding to take $520 a month out of the bank and not allow yourself any more money to spend on groceries — that’s all you get. You can’t spend $550 because you don’t have $550, let alone close to $600!
So have we saved money? Yes! Almost $80 a month.
What are we eating? For the most part, what we were eating before. Here’s the snag. Towards the end of the month, when all that’s left in the grocery envelope are a few coins rattling around, we have to get a little creative. It’s amazing what we’ve found sitting in our own pantry, gathering dust, and in our own freezer, about to get bitten. I long onto www.allrecipes.com, type the ingredients I have on hand, and get recipe ideas. Or, if nothing seems to be coming up, I get creative. Last night, for example, I had (leftover from previous recipes), half a pound of ground beef, a couple slices of bacon, half a head of cabbage, half a pepper, and half an onion. I couldn’t find a recipe that included all of that, but it didn’t sound half bad all thrown together in a skillet with a bit of rice and some spices. And it wasn’t half bad.
The last week in September, I had $10 left. Basically, I could buy milk. So I dug through the freezer for bags of frozen veggies, into the pantry for rice, pasta, and sauces, and hit the internet to figure out how to put it all together. It doesn’t hurt to be willing to bake your own bread products either. It even tastes better.
They say necessity is the mother of all invention, so why not get creative and get inventing? Force yourself to spend a little less money next month by taking it out in cash and see what you can figure out in order to continue putting dinner on the table.
I’m even considering cutting the budget down to $500. If I can figure out Coupon Mom’s secret, I’ll make it even less!