It takes a lot of mental training! Look at all your rituals, habits, ect and see if they are really worth doing. I used to spend $20 a day to go to work. By the time you have morning starbucks, snacks, and lunch out. Depending on your pay... is it really worth it? After doing the math, I had to work 2 hours just to pay for going. I got it down to a half hour, $5. Using my after taxes amount.
Rationalizing spending based on price is silly. But the shirt is only $19! It's normally $54! Do you even need the shirt in the first place? If you have 7 shirts for each season in your closet, you do not. Just do your laundry once a week with home made detergent.
Now when Kroger's does their 10 for $10 sale, get there. But only buy what you normally would or what you would like to try. Price does matter on food. You need food.
Here's the thing about food though. Most of the cost you're paying is for the packaging it comes in. The pallet is shrink wrapped in plastic, plus the cost of the pallet it sits on. The case it's in, the plastic around that case. The box it's in, plus any packets/plastic that goes with it. Plus the charges to get it to you. You know the stuff that's located right smack in the middle of a display? That costs money for that spot on the shelf which is why the name brands are there. Compare ingredients, go with the healthiest, cheapest option.
Many health food stores have bulk areas for things like grain, flour, beans, ect. Not only is it natural or organic, but you're not paying for packaging either. Actually put the time in to cook. Avoiding cooking or just not learning how to, really reflects in food costs.
Utilize local markets, we have a produce store around the corner. I can get all the veggies and spices and what not I need for 2 weeks for $26. Some of that is mark down tomatoes for the chickens. $0.99 for 5 of them, that's $0.20 a day to give the chickens a treat for 5 days.
If I bothered to learn how to can/preserve, I could go down to the river docks and get a whole case of fruit for pennies each. Where do you think the produce stores get their stuff? Look around for the markets that service the stores and restaurants, forget Sam's club and Costco for food items, actually do the per ounce cost and you can load up at other stores cheaper when they have sales. Some may not allow private consumers in. But many do, since fruit/veggies have a deadline, they need sold ASAP.
Pay attention to where stuff is made, and what you want to support. Some things are worth paying slightly more for depending on what you care about. Big corporations out source, we all know this. Where things are made varies. Take for example, Clorox Clean-Up. Made in USA. But not if you buy it at Family Dollar, sometimes it comes from Mexico. I buy it when it says Made in USA even if it's $0.20 more. Same brand name! Read the label every time on every bottle, support the USA and it's economy. If enough people do it, marketing/sales/production/packaging... the whole system will need to make changes. "Packaged in USA" means they made it somewhere else and brought it to the US to make it pretty. So you're then paying how much to make it pretty?
Garlic cloves, California or China? The pack of 5 prepackaged is usually China. The loose in a bin is usually California. I'd rather support California and migrant workers than China. Usually it's cheaper to support California.
To train myself, I looked at every purchase and payment as life or death. You have to think of it that seriously to be able to treat it seriously. If you don't take it seriously, you'll change for a week or two and relapse. Can't tell you how many times I have relapsed. I was bad about fast food, junk food, not cooking, buying cause it was cheap, putting off bills, using credit cards on things I didn't need.
Do I really need this candy bar? It's only $0.59. You'd think that doesn't matter. Really... that one candy bar doesn't. But let's call it... gateway spending to bigger no-nos. If you start rationalizing, making allowances or excuses, you'll relapse. You can't do this during your training, you have to wait until you have good solid spending habits. Then by all means, get the candy bar. All play and no work sucks. But, so does basic training. Everything is taken away, so that later on, rewards are even better than they were before.
You can go out to eat 3 times a week for 2 for $20. Applebees 2 for $20... marketing schemes like that make it possible. Well, that's $60 a week, which is $240 a month. Stop it! Save $140, and have a once a month date night for $100, dinner AND a movie with the big popcorn! Top off the gas tank with any change left over so that you don't put it into a soda machine or worse.
Always pay in cash, I do it this way. All bills come out electronically. Then we get our cash allowance. By spending in cash, you get change. Take your $1 bills and smaller (or if you've gotten really well trained, $5 and $10 bills, and put them into a change jar. Whatever money is left at the next payday in the bank account, that goes to savings. Most people like to do savings right off the top. I prefer to see what I have left after spending and get all excited about it and then hide it to watch that number grow. Leave that change jar alone, you'd be surprised at what it can add up to.
I knew a guy that took one of those 5 gallon water jugs and buried it in his yard. When he couldn't fit any more bills in, he dug it up. Took 5 years. He went and paid cash for a brand spanking new Dodge ram Pick-up truck. Didn't gain a monthly payment, didn't take away from his usual savings. By hiding a little bit of money he didn't need, $5-$10 a time, he bought a brand new truck without hurting himself financially at all.
Food is easy to cut costs on. Stop buying packaging, and learn to cook with a lot of veggies and grains. Price every store within a short driving distance, make a plan for who has what and when they run sales. One stop shopping costs a lot! I get veggies at the produce store. Grains and what not at Whole Foods. Dog food at
Petsmart. (surprising, right? I looked at quality versus cost per pound), bread from the discount bread store $10 for 8 bags of the good stuff! (Usually $2.49 at the store!)
I could go to
Walmart and spend $180 and be done with it. Not too bad. But it's Pedigree for the dogs and packaged garbage food and Chinese garlic cloves for us.
Or I could spend $25, $30, $48, $10, and $20 plus $15 in gas and be at $148 AND have quality dog food, and healthy, natural food for the people. Gas isn't actual consumption, that's what it takes to top off the tank after other errands are done. In and out, with a list, whole process takes 2 hours. So spending and eating habits changed for the better.
I make my own green tea drinks for $0.80 a gallon. 3 parts tea, one part Welch's White Grape and Peach juice. No preservatives, nothing artificial. Brew the tea in a coffee pot by putting an empty coffee filter in, and 4 tea bags in the pitcher (for a mild version) and letting it stand for 3 minutes. You know green tea loses all it's health benefits after 7 days? Even safe and secure in a bottle? Breaks down, no air needed. By the time you get a store bought packaged bottle of green tea, after all those chemicals were added... it's been way longer than 7 days.
Always look for alternatives, different sources, and things you can do yourself. Make a plan, stick to it, don't make excuses, allowances, or rationalizations. Train yourself!
