Updates Galore!

Well, it is now December, and I am finally feeling some relief from finals time at my university.

Today is the first day in a long time I have managed to not drink any soda - I drank just water all day. My strategy has been to think about how I will feel later, usually disgusting, and that helps me. I was excited to tell my husband, and he then suggested we possibly try quitting together. I was shocked by this, but I have come to realize after quitting McDonald's that when you live with someone else you tend to embrace a similar lifestyle - voluntarily or involuntarily. I noticed John commented on my earlier post on quitting soda that he is having trouble quitting coffee or caffeine. I have managed to quit caffeine myself, to the dismay of my fellow colleagues, and really it should be a process that should be weaned down gradually. Caffeine is a drug (more specifically, a stimulant), and like any drug, you shouldn't just be quitting cold turkey, otherwise you will experience withdrawal symptoms. I've had friends who have experienced some bad headaches for withdrawing from caffeine, so my advice is to be sure to do it gradually, until a point where you can go without it.

I also think though drinks like coffee can be a "morning routine" type of thing. Sometimes its also helpful to find a substitution like non-caffeinated coffee or tea. I know a strategy suggested to me, but I haven't tried it yet for quitting soda, is to drink carbonated water. Speaking as someone in the field of psychology, it will probably benefit your mind to have that substitution as well. Good luck John!

Onwards and upwards, I have been finding myself spending less and less on groceries every week! I used to spend $120 a week on groceries for two people, prior to having a meal schedule and shopping list, and this past week I spent less that $60. I'm finding it to be a fun competition with myself, since I have been spending less and less it seems each week for the past couple of months. The shopping list is the KEY to saving money. Stick to your list, avoid all the temptations in your supermarket, and you cannot go wrong.

In addition, finding good staples in a weekly menu can save a lot of money. For example, every other week, I cook a roast chicken. It may sound complex, but really all I do is take it out of the packaging, rinse it off, put it my baking pan, and sprinkle some pepper and salt over it. It goes in the oven for an hour and half, and its ready to eat. Afterwords, since my husband and I usually can't eat a whole chicken, I then take the remaining meat off to use in a soup to prepare the following day. I also make a large batch of soup, and put them in Gladware or Rubbermaid serving containers, and then I have my lunches prepared for the week. Talk about getting your money's worth!

Economically Efficient Ways of Buying Soda

While I cannot claim that soda is at all a green or healthy lifestyle choice, I'll be the first to admit my addiction to it and I won't quitting anytime soon. Now that we're being realistic, I've been thinking about the most efficient way to purchase soda. As you know, soda can be bought in many forms, from 12 ounce cans to 2 liter bottles, to a 24 pack of cans. But which way gives you the most bang for your buck?

Obviously, going generic would be an easy way to make buying soda more efficient, which usually is half the price of name-brand soda. In this case, I will examine what happens when we look at name-brand soda since it will be the most expensive and generally carry the same price across the board. Generic sodas can range in price, so be sure to check out what your grocery store offers.

If we look at the name-brand, 24 pack of soda, with no sale price, this usually goes for about $7.99, not including tax. When we break that down, that comes down to about 33 cents per 12 ounces of soda (which is the general form of measurement I will be using here as a standard). A 12 pack of can soda will typically come about the same price or even more, since it usually is priced at $4.50. At $4.50 its about 37 cents a can. If we look at the 2 liter bottle of soda, at the name-brand price, its usually $1.29, again with no sale price. Translated into ounces, 2 liters is equal to approximately 67.6 ounces. This is equal to about 5 and a half cans of soda, which then levels out to about 23 cents per 12 ounces of soda! We save approximately 10 cents per 12 ounces of soda when we buy 2 liter bottles of soda.

(I am not aware of the price of the 6 pack bottles of soda, just because I usually can't drink that much at a time, but I have left my equation for calculating these numbers at the bottom for you. Next time I go I will check out the price and add it here as well.) After checking at my local grocery store, for a 6 pack of 20 ounce bottles goes for about $4.29. At this rate, you are paying 42 cents per 12 ounces of soda. Again, this assuming there is not a sale, and this is a price of a name-brand soda.

Our other ways of buying soda, like 20 ounce bottles up by the check out counter, are clearly over-priced and used as a type of impulse buy for you. These are also priced at about $1.29 a bottle. At that rate, you are spending 77 cents per 12 ounces of soda! Thats a huge difference, so next time you are waiting in line at the store, look away from those displays, because their purpose is to rip you off and satisfy your need for whatever you like to drink.

Pepsi and Coke have also been selling these "half-cans" of soda, which I hope you can already predict these are a rip off as well. Aluminum is an expensive material right now, so you will be paying for it. If you cannot drink a whole can of soda at once, again, consider the wallet-friendly 2 liter bottles of soda. You only have to pour as much as you can drink.

In addition to saving on buying 2 liter bottles, watch for sales! This week my grocery store had a sale for 88 cents on name brand soda. That brings me down to 16 cents per can of soda, or basically half the price of canned soda! Again, with generic soda, you're likely to see similar savings, so if you can bear with it, give generic soda a chance, and consider just buying name-brand soda when its on sale.

Now, if you are drinking SO much soda, it might be possible to profit back from such, by turning your aluminum cans in for some pocket change. In our area, a large 20 gallon garbage bag of non-crushed cans gave us about $1.50 back, so its up to you whether this is something to pursue. However, I would encourage you to recycle these containers, plastic or aluminum, to keep our Earth clean. You can also make a lot of cool things out of 2 liter bottles, and there is a list of awesome ideas here. I remember when I was in 3rd grade we made miniature green houses out of them, and watched a plant grow a little bit everyday in our bottle. I use one now to work with my dog's water dish (like a water cooler works) so I dont have to fill his dish as often. In addition, since using 2 liter bottles requires you to use your own glasses, this can also be a more eco-friendly way to serving (assuming you are not using disposable cups). Since you wash and reuse these glasses, you are not filling our landfills further.

To use this equation in figuring out what you are paying per can of soda at your grocery store, I used to following:
(With 12 or 24 packs of soda:) Price divided by number of cans.
(With 2 liters of soda:) Number of total ounces divided by 12, then the price divided by the number you got from the first part of the equation.

Damn those math teachers in school, I really am using math in real life!

What does this cost?

Many of the tips I have been reading regarding saving money suggest keeping the infamous "price journal". I know when I started trying to save money, trips to the grocery store were different, mostly because I had no idea what was a "normal" price for a typical item. I had no idea what was expensive and what was a good deal. Especially when you come into trying to start saving money out of the blue and/or do not have a lot of experience cooking, this is good habit to keep up with. The premise of the idea is to basically keep a journal where you record what things cost that you buy on a consistent basis. Be sure to be very specific when recording these items, like the brand and size of the product. That way, when things go on sale at the grocery store, you will know a) how much you are saving, b) if the sale is worth taking up on, and c) how much to stock up on.

Keeping a journal like this will also likely make you more aware of what things cost in general. The experience of writing down what prices of things actually cost bring a bigger realization of where your money is going, and if it is really worth it. A journal is incredibly cheap to pick up, especially with school supply sales going on right now, it can be anything that fits your lifestyle, which is important to note since it should be traveling with you for grocery trips. Borders and other book stores typically sell cheap $2 journals as well, if you would like something more fancy, go for it.

My Favorite Store...ALDIs!

Yes you know that weird looking store with the orange and blue logo that has very limited store hours in comparison to most grocery stores? Why is that you ask? Killer deals!

I have to admit, the first time I entered an ALDIs, it was with my parents, and I thought we must be poor or something. There are no shelves for groceries, they are merely stacked upon pallets like a warehouse, only much much smaller. ALDIs does not have "luxury items" in their grocery store, this is basically the essentials in terms of food. Whatever you find here is what most human beings eat, and at a very good generic price. If you are into cooking, this could be your dream to save money. 79 cents for a loaf of bread? 99 cents for a box of generic nutri-grain bars? 39 cents for hot dogs? The deals keep coming, for many reasons. If you have ever seen the Duggar family on Discovery Health channel, or maybe TLC, they feed a family of 19 for less than $2,000 a month on food from here.

First, you will notice this is a smaller than average store...less to run, less to cool, less to heat, and less employees you will need. Second, they hold their shopping carts hostage. Thats right, if you want one, you'll need a quarter. The reason they do this however is to keep the store needing less employees. When people put their carts back, you do not need another employee to run out and get carts like at your local Wal-mart, whose sole job it is. Third, there are also no employees to bag your groceries, or bags to use to put your groceries in for that matter. ALDIs does not provide customers with bags, although you might be able to steal some boxes from pallets of food in the store. You can also purchase bags at the store, but hopefully you have your own by now! Fourth, since the store has such limited hours they do not need to have extra employees around to work the check-outs. In addition, cashiers at ALDIs make good money, I believe, in the $10 an hour range.

Perks with this store chain are consistent. The produce you will find here is typically incredibly fresh. While I would still recommend your local farmer's market first, this would be my second choice. Every so often there is some interesting deal in the "non-food section", some thing that you have either been looking for but haven't found the right price (enter ALDIs) or an item that looks like something you could use. Most also have a small Health and Beauty section so if there is a need for a random item you wont need to run across the street (or town) to get it.

If you are at a loss of what to cook from the items available at ALDIs, The Aldi Queen can help you find great recipes made entirely from foods from ALDIs.

So if you haven't given ALDIs a try, look for one. I grab everything in that store I even remotely want and can't leave spending more than $28. Me and my reusable grocery bags, finding deals!

Grocery Shopping and Coca-Cola

So today I followed a tip I read when grocery shopping: make a list of what you have, and go through the store searching only for those items. Grocery stores are obviously designed to make you go through tons of products before finding what you want. Fun Fact: Industry experts say you will spend an extra $2 per minute in the store after buying everything you need. Its a very "masculine" way of shopping in my experience, which is basically... not browsing. Maybe it would save a lot of money to just send the husband out to the store, who knows? Although it was effective in reducing my amount of items, I still bought a mat for the dog (not on the list), which in my opinion, he needed.

In other news, I have also gotten a year subscription to Ready Made, a magazine which shows you how to make things for around the home and finding multiple uses for things you already have. I am a sucker for my creative side, I am always making crafts and things, so this magazine fits right in line with what keeps me happy and productive. But, hey, I hear you say, that's spending money! Ah ah, if you are a frequent buyer of Coke products, use your mycokerewards.com points to get cool stuff like magazine subscriptions, and other things that might suit your fancy. We frequently buy 24 packs of soda, worth 20 points each, and magazine subscriptions (they do have many different flavors) typically cost around the 110-125 point range. So after 6 or 7 packs of soda, you have it already. There, you got the green, and the money saving aspects in one swoop. (Just be sure you recycle the magazines.) Awesome!