This is a guest post from Alex, BargainBabe.com’s intern.
There’s a great post over at frugaldad.com about how to quit your job.
If you’ve ever had dreams about telling your boss off and walking out on a dead-end job, you should definitely read this article.
http://frugaldad.com/2009/07/22/how-to-quit-a-job/
It’s all about preparation. Nobody wants to trade the stress of a lame job with the stress of unemployment, so go check out your options.
SpendLessTV.com has a video on how to complain to get your money’s worth. Good tips, though I disagree with one tidbit. The expert they interview, Vera Gibbons, says at :42 “you don’t have to be polite necessarily, but you have to be reasonable.”
I think you always have to be polite, with very rare exceptions. In fact, being friendly often pays off! (Like when I used my coupons at Target.)
Watch the video here.
My spending moratorium has elicited some strange behavior from my family and friends. For the first time in my life, my mother encouraged me to drink. Egads!
I was getting ready for happy hour Friday and telling her about my no-spend plan for the bar: eat before I go, order water, hope no one notices.
“Go ahead,” she said. “Order a beer.”
“But Mom, that’s the whole point. I’m not supposed to spend,” I said. “It’s a sacrifice that will make me realize how much of a privilege it is to spend.”
She wasn’t convinced.
I headed over to the bar on my beater bicycle, the one I bought off Craigslist for $50. It is so old and heavy I never worry about someone cutting the lock. At the bar I kept my eyes off the fried calamari my friends had ordered and asked for a water. No one said anything or seemed to care I was “starting with a water.” Struck up a conversation about food blogging, making videos on YouTube and my new site, BargainBabeLA.com.
The waitress came back with the next round of drinks but had forgotten my water. I didn’t say anything. After she came back a second time without my water, a friend reminded her. She brought it promptly.
When it was time to go I said goodbye and grabbed my bag. I was halfway out of the bar when I remembered I had forgotten to tip the waitress, as reader Terry had berated me to do in a comment.
Do you think bars are in business so you can sit there and visit? At least purchase an ice tea, sometime. That table is costing them money and the poor waitress tips. You are not the only one who has it hard but don’t make it harder on others.
Terry was harsh but his/her last sentence rang true. And it goes back to the frugal v. cheap debate. I may chose to live frugally by going on a spending moratorium, but when I force my choices on others I become cheap.
I turned around, pulled out the dollar I had brought just for this purpose, and found the waitress.
“Thank you for bringing the water,” I said.
When she saw the dollar her face turned sad.
“Oh, thank you so much,” she said in a way that I knew meant my single dollar made a difference.
It was the second time I broke the moratorium and I’m glad I did.
I don’t recommend making a regular practice of going to bars and only ordering water, but if you are on a spending moratorium, recently laid-off, or in serious money trouble, it is possible to go to a bar, enjoy your friends and spend next to nothing. If you have a guilty conscience about taking up space, go with hard drinking friends who rack up a booming tab and tip your waitress.
It feels a little bit like I’m about to start seventh grade and my Mom has stashed my new clothes and pristine new shoes into the hall closet where I can pull them out one by one and day dream about the first day of school when I can wear them. Actually, she always gave me permission to wear them ahead of time but she laced her approval with a caveat, “If you wear them now you won’t have something new to wear on the first day of school.”
Any other day of the year I was happy with hand-me-downs, but the first day of school? Even my underwear was new. I still remember in the tenth grade a friend wore dirty, black hi-top converse on the first day. That, I thought, took guts. It also made me realize that not everybody could afford to have new clothes.
But I digress. The stash that I am currently excited about is not clothes but a huge bag of toiletries. I used my coupons from TheCouponMaster.com at Target!
I redeemed 15 coupons totaling $17.25, bringing my bill to $32.74. (Incidentally, I still had to pay 9.75 percent California sales tax on the full, pre-coupon amount.) I paid $1.79 for the coupons, bringing my savings to $15.46 ($17.25 – $1.79).
Yes, I broke my moratorium. But I decided letting a wallet full of coupons go to waste – the ones I used all expire in July – was very un-Bargain Babe-like. However, as reader Tammy suggested, I am going to hide these items away until August in observance of the moratorium. This is the most sensible solution, I decided.
I would not have gotten this big of a deal without befriending the Target cashier. Most of the coupons say only one can be used per purchase. I was prepared to make separate purchases if need be. Turns out my placement in line set the stage for a score.
The person in front of me was a Target employee buying clothing with her employee discount. She started talking to the cashier about a local celebrity that had walked into the store wearing a *very* short skirt and a *very* low-cut top revealing her fake “pillow bags.” Naturally, I joined in the conversation. As soon as the celebrity left, everyone surrounded the cashier, who had rung her up, to gossip.
The cashier swiped the employee’s purchases and asked for her employee number.
“How big is the employee discount?” I asked. “Should I get a second job?”
“It’s not too bad,” the employee said.
“But they are getting more strict,” the cashier chimed in. “Now you have to show your ID card, not just the number.”
“Oh yeah?”
“My son tried to use my number – he is my designated shopper – but he didn’t have his ID card on him. I asked him how much it was. Just $30. I told him I would give him the $3.”
So the Target employee discount is 10 percent, I thought.
“Every little bit counts,” I said.
The cashier, who has a second job, agreed. She works 7 days a week but has Friday evening off, she told me.
Then she started to ring me up.
“Speaking of every little bit counts,” I said, “I have some coupons I’d like to use.”
I had set out my 15 coupons with my odd collection of deodorant, shampoo and facial cleanser.
She looked at the coupons, then she looked at me. I smiled.
“I guess I’m in one of those moods,” she said, scanning all the coupons. “But you know you’re only supposed to use one coupon per purchase (per item).”
“Thank you,” I said, swiping my credit card. “Enjoy your day off.”
The coupons I purchased from TheCouponMaster.com arrived yesterday in the mail, sorted neatly with a receipt for $3.95 ($3.01 worth of coupons plus a $.94 shipping fee). But now that I’m on a spending moratorium I’m not sure if I can use them. In fact, I’m pretty sure I cannot use them.
The problem is 22 of 31 coupons I purchased expire in July. $*%&#!
My spending moratorium puts the kabash on spending money on anything but groceries, basics like rent and utilities, and business expenses.
Three of the coupons are for a legitimate grocery item (ice cream), but the others are all for toiletries, which I often buy at the grocery store on sale but they are not truly grocery items.
My plan – before the moratorium – was to use the coupons at Target, which has really good prices on toiletries. Now I’m stuck between a rock and this friggin’ moratorium, which, until now, I have had no trouble observing!
[poll id="30"]
A friend of mine got laid off just as a new report found 467,000 people got pink slips last month. That puts our national unemployment rate at 9.5 percent, a 26-year high. I talked to my friend Leah, an engineer in Los Angeles, about filing for unemployment, coping with unexpected emotions, and visiting Yosemite. Disclosure: I changed her name to protect her privacy.
What was your initial reaction when your boss told you you were getting laid off?
I sat there for a full minute, quiet, with all these things going through my head…I felt shocked and angry and betrayed and then just confused. I think I finally said “I don’t understand.”
What didn’t you understand?
I didn’t understand why because to everyone’s knowledge in the office we were safe. We had plenty of work. But I found out (in my bosses office) that a big project or two had just recently gone on hold indefinitely. Which totally messed up everything. So they had to make some changes.
Have you ever been laid off before?
No.
How are you coping, two weeks after?
Now I feel fine, comfortable. The first three days were tough. I felt sad but I felt relieved.
Why were you relieved?
In a way I had been somewhat frustrated with the way things were going at the office, personnel-wise, project-wise, and I had had some thoughts about doing something different. But no specific thoughts. I wasn’t searching for anything. The relief was now I can think about these other things in more detail.
Did you see it coming?
I remember about two or three weeks before I got laid off that 25 people in a company in San Francisco that was one of our clients got laid off. I remember being surprised, thinking “Wow I really can’t take this all for granted anymore. I don’t think it really sank in because one of those emotions that went through my head, that still does, is that I felt really foolish thinking that my history with the company and the fact that my project was strong was keeping me safe. My project still is going. It has a source of funding. I felt foolish for linking those things. I took it for granted even after telling myself that I shouldn’t.
How prepared financially were you for something like this?
I have some savings that could probably get me through a couple months so I’m not panicking yet.
Financially, have you done anything different since getting laid off?
I’ve been eating out less, drinking less, making choices that I don’t have to spend as much money. Looking back on my expenses, at least 50 percent were eating out.
Are you cutting out a few things entirely or making reductions across the board?
I will probably cut down across the board and not on anyone thing. I’ll put off big purchases that I otherwise would have gone ahead and done. For example I want a new pair of running shoes. But that’s like $100 give or take so when I got laid off, I said I can live without a new pair of running shoes.
Has your attitude about the recession changed since getting laid off?
I’m definitely more interested in unemployment benefits news and economic stimulus package news because now it actually does affect me or could affect me. I never really paid attention to that before, not for lack of interest but for lack of time.
What are you most concerned about?
To be honest I haven’t started to think very far in the future yet because I am really relived to just be able to live in the moment and relax. It’s summer and I know that I have a little bit of a cushion to take a month to just breathe.
What are you least concerned about?
I’m actually not real concerned about not ever being able to get another job because I feel the market will improve, it may just be a matter of time. I have certain knowledge and strengths and excellent referrals. My bosses have said they would be more than happy to help me out with any references. We left on very good friendly terms.
Do you still have health care?
Yes I got a severance package through the end of July and then I have to figure out COBRA.
What is your plan for the next 6 months?
I haven’t thought more than a month and a half out. I’ve got two weeks until a triathlon race and then I’m going to take about 2 weeks to travel through California, visit friends, go through Yosemite, go through Mammoth. I’ll fly back to New York, go see my parents.
Anything else you want to add?
I did file for unemployment. Haven’t heard anything back. It was easy to file online but I haven’t heard anything. It takes a while.
Read past Q&A’s:
Coupon train: clipping with strangers
Do you have an interesting recession experience you want to talk about? Email me to be considered for an upcoming Q&A.
In the final hours before my spending moratorium kicked in today, Day 1 of 31, I made three purchases.
1. I paid $.68 for a Twix bar at CVS on my way home from the library. (To me, candy should still be $.50. I won’t miss paying retail.)
2. I charged $31.65 for a Thai dinner after my dancing lesson with Hubby. Had some very tasty fresh spring rolls and curry at Chili Thai in LA.
3. I spent $12.61 filling up my gas tank at the 76 station. I’ve got a full tank to last me the month – roughly 400 miles.
Now it’s no more spending for a month!
Two brave souls stepped forward to join me on this frugal experiment.
Emily said:
I will be joining you on the Moratorium although I will have slightly fewer restrictions as I have recently moved and am not ruling out the possibility of unexpected expenses.
Tamara said:
I am going to join you on your spending moratorium for the month of July! I do have one question though, and I will post it in the comments, what do you think about buying wedding gifts? I have two weddings to attend in July and am not sure how to proceed with “counting” the spending on gifts. Am I allowed to, or not?
I wanted to make it easy on Tamara so I put her question into a poll.
[poll id="29"]
Related:
BB considers going on a spending moratorium
Votes are in! BB goes on a spending moratorium
Spending moratorium starts Wednesday
The spending moratorium that I argued against but was persuaded by readers to embrace starts Wednesday. Thanks, guys! But seriously, I think this will be an interesting experiment in saying no to discretionary purchases.
To prepare myself I am:
- buying toiletries like deodorant (I ran out and used an extra of Hubby’s. It’s no fun smelling like a man.)
- filling up my tank (getting through the month on one tank in LA will be a stretch)
- treating myself to a salon treatment with the extra cash I have this month
For those of you who think my spending moratorium is hurting the economy (there were 6 of you at last count), I encourage you to spend more in July to make up for my cutbacks. And please, let me know what you buy! I’ll include it in my regular updates about the moratorium.
If you are joining me on the moratorium, please email me!
Ground rules for my spending moratorium:
Allowed purchases include rent, one tank of gas, groceries, utilities, my Internet and cell phone bill. My automatic monthly savings withdrawal remains unchanged.
Business expenses, such as flyers or postage, are allowed.
During the moratorium I’m allowed to use any gift cards I have currently have in my possession (either previously purchased or received as gifts).
I’m allowed to receive gifts as long as they are a true gift and not a way around the moratorium. In other words, I’m not going to ask my friends to pay for me during the moratorium in exchange for paying them back come August.
I was in San Francisco last week visiting a friend and I showed up a little early so I popped into a thrift store called Painted Bird.
Inside I found a high concentration of stylish and beautiful used clothes. The white-washed store consisted of two circular racks, a clothing display along the side and back wall, and a jewelry case by the register. Each item had a neat blue price tag attached by a thread, which I knew meant the prices were going to be noticeably higher than Goodwill. But the figures for a few items I checked were not unreasonable considering their excellent condition.
Plus there was the hipness factor. Just walking into the store increased my hip quotient so I knew if I actually bought something it must mean I was a trendsetter, right?
Then I spotted a pink scarf. It was clearly used but no where ripped or torn. The delicate wool was very ladylike and the pink material was sprinkled with green patches. The price? $6.95.
I recoiled. If it had been $5 I would have purchased it immediately. But $7? Hmmm…I re-tied the pink scarf on a hangar and shuffled onto the next hangar. Soon I came to a creme-colored 3/4-length wool coat that had golden brown buttons. Very stylish, but not a wise purchase for me. I live in Los Angeles and it’s summer! If I was living in San Fran, however, it would be a suitable summer coat. The city is cold!!!
The coat would look perfect with the pink scarf. I considered asking them if they would take $5 for it. I left the scarf on the shelf to give myself an out if they turned me down. But as I approached the register the sales girl left the counter to attend to a mussed display. I paused, checked my watch, and walked out.
Two blocks later I realized my mistake. Once in motion, however, I find it terribly difficult to stop and turn around. I met my friend and told her about the Painted Bird. When I left four hours later I crossed my fingers that it was still open.
It was not. Now I really regretted not having purchased the scarf. It was pink! How can you go wrong with pink? My $7 would probably not even get me a new scarf made of polyester at H&M. And this was a beautiful, delicate wool scarf. Sigh.
On the walk back to the BART train I snapped pictures of the frugal window displays. There were plenty of options, and none of them pink.
Have you ever regretted NOT buying something?
Here’s one way to lower your wedding costs: go on a road trip instead. Jaime Case and Chris Hodges, a 30-something couple from San Francisco, dreamed of a destination wedding in Mexico but they couldn’t stomach asking their guests to spend $3,ooo apiece to celebrate with them. Instead, they are bringing the wedding to their guests. I spoke to Jaime on week three of the six-week pre-marital road trip adventure.
Why are you having a road trip wedding?
It started off as a trip to go visit everyone so they can save money by not coming to the wedding. And it’s become more of an odyssey of learning about marriage. It’s like premarital counseling but more intensive and all encompassing. The idea is to save more money for other people. On the whole we are still spending less than the average wedding, which is about $30,000. That doesn’t include the rehearsal dinner, the dress, and the honeymoon.
How much did the recession play a role in your decision to have a road trip wedding?
If we got married in 2008, we would have done what our friends did: a week-long destination wedding. We absolutely would have done that. But in my heart I could not stomach asking people to pay to go to Mexico.
How much is your road trip wedding costing?
Everything we’re doing…will be less than the average cost of a wedding, about $27,000 dollars. The road trip is only costing us about $2,000. The gas itself is $1,100-1,200, plus a few nights at hotels. We’re not adding food because we would eat anyway and a lot of people are buying us dinner! We are staying with family and friends and eating cheaply. Ford donated a Fusion and is covering car insurance. We pay for the gas.
How much are you saving?
A traditional wedding would have cost us about $27,000. The trip is saving us $25,000, some of which we are using to throw a dinner at a restaurant for family and close friends when we return. That’ll cost about $12,000. But our guests are also saving a lot of money, which is more of our point.
How much are you saving your guests?
It would cost our 200 friends in other states about $20,000 to come visit us. Plus, we get to spend a lot more time with them than we normally would at a standard wedding.
Are you having a ceremony?
We are having a ceremony and small dinner in Ventura, Calif. It’s going to be about as non-traditional as you can get. No flowers, no wedding party, no wedding cake. Just dinner at a restaurant. You can call it a wedding or whatever you want, but that’s more for my parents. We didn’t mind spending money on serving people dinner. But we wanted to spend money on spending time with people.
Did you get a dress?
I got a sample dress at Saks bridal, which was closing. I’m probably going to sell it afterward. My Mom bought it. If you have any debt at all, there’s no need to spend $2,000 on a dress. But I wouldn’t position us as the cheapest wedding around.
Where have you gone so far?
We have been to 19 states, including CA, OR, WA, ID, CO, WY, UT, NM, LA, MI, AL, FL, GA, SC, NC, TN, KY, W.VA, IN, OH, PA, MD and D.C.
Has anything unexpected happened?
Some of the people we spent time with we’re going to become even better friends with, like a guy who I was on the swim team with in junior high school. We would not have invited him to the wedding, but he heard about our road trip on Facebook and invited us to stay in their guest house in Salt Lake City. We stayed with them and had an amazing time. I feel we’ll actually go back and go skiing sometime. If they had come to the wedding I would have shook their hands and that would be it.
They say planning a wedding is the first test of a marriage. How is going being on the road together?
We’ve only been doing this for 20 days, and we have thought about breaking up. Imagine talking about your marriage and what it’s going to be for 45 days straight. Fundamentally I know Chris is a good person. He is a gem amongst men in that he can talk about anything. I don’t have to deal with, what are you thinking? I don’t have to wonder. I know because I can ask. That makes him very attractive.
I’m more driven. Chris likes to enjoy life a little more. It’s my personality to wake up and have a to do list. During an interview, there was a question about Chris not being as passionate as me. It hit me at the wrong time and I shared more info than I should have. Later, Chris brought it up. He said, This seems like an issue. This keeps coming up. We need to solve this, he said. When we talked it through we just have different way of looking at it. We both want the same things but we have a different approach.
For more check out the Wedding Road Trip blog. Thanks, Monica!
Once again, my readers are keeping me honest. Earlier this week I came up with three very good reasons why I should not go on a spending moratorium, but you all rejected my pleas and voted overwhelmingly to put myself through this wacky experiment.
As of Friday morning there were 112 votes. About 45 percent want me to go on a spending moratorium, 27 percent say it’s silly, and 13 percent (15 readers) agreed to go on the spending moratorium with me!
It’s nice to know I’ll have company. 
Three readers in particular encouraged me to take the plunge.
Katie said:
I challenge you to go on a complete spending moratorium! Don’t buy ANYTHING (except phone, utilities, rent) for 30 days. See how long you can live off of the groceries you already have on hand. You will be surprised. Be extra careful about how much electricity & gas you use–unplug appliances, play a game instead of watching TV or read a book, don’t leave the light on when not in the room, etc.
Kristin at makingcentsoutoflife.blogspot.com said:
I think that if your hubby is willing, you should do it jointly if you are going to do it at all. Kind of like a diet, it’s easier with support. I think it’s a very worthwhile experiment that anyone who does it will benefit from because it will save you a ton of money as well as force you to be content with things you already have. By not spending, you focus your efforts on other parts of your life and can make those things better. Heck, if I could stay out of Walgreens I might get more done.
Sarah said:
I’m doing this in June. It’s a really interesting experience. I’m still buying food, gas, and other things I consider necessities (like a new filter for my PUR–though I stretched the old one farther than I thought possible). I’m also have a budget plan but this really is making me consider and evaluate every single purchase. What’s fun is how other people respond: I’ve had more offers to buy me lunch than ever before!
So here are the ground rules for my spending moratorium.
Allowed purchases include rent, one tank of gas, groceries, utilities, my Internet and cell phone bill. My automatic monthly savings withdrawal remains unchanged.
Business expenses, such as flyers or postage, are allowed.
During the moratorium I’m allowed to use any gift cards I have currently have in my possession (either previously purchased or received as gifts).
I’m allowed to receive gifts as long as they are a true gift and not a way around the moratorium. (This is a gray area I’ll try to define later.)
The 15 readers who voted to go on the moratorium with me should send me an update about how they are doing at least once a week. Don’t think you can get away with not participating just because, ahem, I have no idea who you are! Participating readers, let me know if you are using my ground rules or setting your own (and what they are). I’ll regularly write about what we are struggling with, our creative solutions, and lessons learned on BargainBabe.com.
The moratorium starts July 1 and ends July 31, 2009.
A reader named Fred wrote in with this important question:
Can I get a mortgage if I do not have a job? There are so many factors to consider. Would you be kind enough as to give me some pointers as what to look for or avoid? Please help me. Thank you.
Fred, my short answer is not likely. The long answer is maybe, because getting a loan depends on many factors. Lenders look at your whole financial picture when deciding if you are a good risk, i.e., someone who is likely to pay them back.
Maybe you are a trust fund baby and has never worked a day but still has plenty of moolah to make good on a loan. If you are a regular working Joe, however, your chances are not as good because job stability is a factor lenders consider, so not having a job hurts you. Do you have any evidence of how soon you will get a job and how stable that job will be? How do you plan to pay your mortgage with no income?
Ultimately, the best way to answer your question is to prepare a loan application and submit it.
Start by figuring out what you can afford to buy using this calculator from the American Bankers Association, which recently shared tips to get a loan in this tight market.
Next, gather and organize your information, including pay stubs, tax returns, financial statements, and paperwork showing your monthly payments on your car, credit card, and student loans. Lenders will want recent statements going back three to 24 months.
To strength your application, include any additional information that proves additional income or wealth. Depending on your credit score and other factors, lenders will want to see that you have many months of PITI (principal, interest, taxes and insurance) on hand. Here’s a PITI calculator.
ABA also recommends you use a trusted institution, pay down other loans, read the fine print, and take into account the myriad costs of home ownership like insurance, maintenance, closing costs and taxes.
Good luck!
I’m considering going on a spending moratorium for one month, which means not buying anything except groceries and gasoline. The experiment would push me to find creative ways to get around purchasing things. What can I reuse or repurpose? What can I do without? I think forcing myself to not spend anything would increase the perceived value of certain items and decrease the value of others.
But there are three major loopholes that make me wonder if this experiment is worth conducting.
First, by turning on the lights I am buying electricity. By cooking I am buying gas. I’m not willing to give up electricity and gas for a month. Same thing goes for my rent, cell phone, and a few other built-in expenses. So really what I am proposing is going on a discretionary spending moratorium. I’ve done a good job paring down my discretionary spending with my forward-looking budget system. Is it useful to cut back further?
Second, there are ways to get things without spending, like when Hubby and I go to our weekly dance class. Afterward he takes me out for dinner, which I enjoy immensely. I’m not paying for the meal per se because he is using his own discretionary dollars, but the money comes out of our joint checking account. If I go on a spending moratorium, am I obligated to say no to items purchased on my behalf?
Lastly, the duration of the moratorium – one month – is short enough that I can basically hold my breath on a lot of purchases. Is one month long enough to really feel the effect of a spending moratorium? Or am I just practicing delayed gratification?
Well folks, I’ve practically talked myself out of this experiment. But before I make my final decision I’d really love your input.
[poll id="27"]
Here’s another option altogether. YOU go on a one-month spending moratorium and submit a blog post about the experience. The fame! The glory! The saved money! Email me if you are interested.
Here’s a way to lower your grocery bill that I had not considered. Instead of buying meat from the butcher, buy part of a cow from a farmer.
The way it works is a few families get together to order enough beef to slaughter a cow, called cow-pooling. Each buyer pays a flat rate of about $3 to $5 per pound, which is much less than you would pay for grass-fed beef anywhere else, according to Time magazine, which has a story about cow-pooling in its June 15, 2009 issue.
“That price includes ground beef and stew meat as well as tenderloin and filet mignon, not to mention beef tongue and a cantaloupe-size heart,” the story says. (Note, heart is apparently a good substitute for bacon?!)
Jean Edwards, a woman interviewed for the story, has an extra freezer to preserve the side of beef she purchased (about 250 lb ) as part of her cow-pool. The meat lasts about a year.
Assuming you can eat that much beef – about 2/3 lb each day for a year – how much does it cost to freeze? If you don’t have an extra freezer, how much does one cost?
Let’s look into this because these costs are a real part of buying “cheaper” beef. Home Depot has a 7.2 cubic freezer for $219. Shipping is an extra $149, which brings the freezer cost to $368.
How much electricity does this freezer suck up in one year? Hubby suggested I check EnergyStar.gov, which has an easy-to-use calculator to determine how much you can save by either upgrading an appliance or by getting rid of an extra one. (Look for an upcoming blog post about this.) Energy Star says running the Home Depot freezer would cost $57 bucks a year.
That means the total cost of buying a side of grass-fed beef is:
250 lb x average of $4/lb: $1,000
Cost to buy freezer: $368
Cost to run freezer: $57
Total: $1,425, or about $5.70 per pound of meat in your first year. In your second year that drops to $4.20/lb, assuming your freezer is still working.
Is $4.20 – $5.70 more or less than you pay on average for beef? It’s much higher than I usually pay, though we never buy grass-fed beef. Apparently once you eat grass-fed beef, it’s hard to go back to the regular (corn-fed) stuff.
Related resources:
LocalHarvest.org helps you find farmers’ markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area if you want to buy produce and grass-fed meat.
EatWild.com has information about grass-fed meat and links to farmers who sell grass-fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy and other wild edibles.
Every month or so a fantastic catalog arrives in my mail for Yummy.com, a grocery delivery store. And every time the nearly edible pictures convince me to place an order – until I see the prices. But how much more expensive is Yummy? And does the time savings make up for higher prices?
To be fair, I thought I would compare Yummy’s prices to Albertsons, which sent me a (much less attractive) flyer yesterday. Below, Yummy prices are listed first followed by the Albertsons prices. The cheaper of the two is bolded.
Artichokes – $2.99 ea v. $2.50 ea
Cucumbers - $.99 ea v. $.50 ea
Red peppers - $.99 ea v. $.50 ea
Kiwis – $.50 ea v $.33 ea
Russet potatoes - $3.98/10lb v. $3.99/10lb
Sliced ham – $9.38/lb v. $4.99/lb
Ground beef – $4.49lb v. $3.50/lb
Ground turkey (20 oz) - $3.99 v. $3.99 (tie)
Halibut – $18.65/lb v $9.99/lb
Breyer’s ice cream – $5.99 v. 2/$6
Sliced bread loaf – $4.99 v $2.50
Orange juice – $3.99 v. $3
Yogurt (32 oz) – $4.29 v. $2.50
Cheerios (18 oz) – $5.29 v $4.99
Sugar (5lb) – $3.99 v. $2.79
Fiji water (24 5-liter bottles) – $25.99 v $23.96
Pacifico beer 12-pack – $12.99 v. $11.99
Yellowtail Chardonnay – $7.99 v $9.99
If I bought all these items from each store, my Yummy tab would come to $121.47. (Delivery is free because my Yummy tab exceeded $100.) My Albertsons tab would come to $95.01. That means shopping at Yummy is 28 percent more expensive.
Buying groceries through Yummy saves time, however. To get every thing I need at the grocery store takes me 60 minutes at Albertsons plus 45 minutes if I also run to Trader Joe’s. Calling an order into Yummy’s would probably take no longer than 15 minutes, though this is a guesstimate because I have not done this.
So I stand to save 90 minutes each week using Yummy. Is that worth the $26.46, or $17.64 per hour?
Not for me. What about you?
