About 10$ a week menu (temptative)

Assuming there is a good buy 10 for 10$ sale going on...

-2 pounds of banana 1$
-1 loaf of whole wheat bread 1$
-1 small jar of peanut butter 1$
-1 pound of rice 1$
-2 cans of mixed vegetable 1$
-1 liter of milk 1$
-2 pound of pasta 1$
-2 cans of bean 1$
-1 can of Hunts tomato sauce 1$
-Large container of oatmeal 1$

Breakfast: oatmeal + milk + 1 banana
Lunch Peanut butter sandwich
Diner: either pasta or rice and bean. Canned vegetable as side veggies.
Not sure if I have the courage to pull this off though...

10$ a week for grocery?

A fellow blogger had me wondering with his claim of spending 10$ a week on grocery. Ok this is only for 1 person but even 40$ for a family of 4 seems very little even considering the saving for buying and cooking in "bulk". The Hillbilly housewife has written a now famous 45$ "emergency menu" and 70$ "low cost menu" that feed 4-6 persons for a week. There is also the infamous Hungry for a month experiment where the guy didn't really feed himself for 1$ a day, he basically starved himself for the same amount.

However could a reasonable person eat enough healthy food (Ramen excluded) for about 1$ a day? I wonder....

Save on gaz

Save on gaz: combine trips and make as many right turns as possible. Left turns are a waist of time and gaz as seen
here.

Grocery coupons?

After reading success stories such as this, I tried couponing for over a year; without much success . As most coupons are for brand names item that I would not have bought otherwise I ended up spending more with coupons than without. The following experiment seems to prove my point. Beside I do not read the newspaper, the amount of paper wasted for savings amounting to pennies wasn't worth it... Instead...

• Know your prices. Generic grocery store are not always the cheapest. Some amazing deals can be found in specialty/ health food stores (eg Organic Pasta at 1$ a pound at Trader Joes)
• If there is a sale, stock up
  
• Do not shop hungry, If you can't do otherwise than make the cashier register your first stop, grab a 33 cents candy bar, eat it and start shopping. Cashier routinely scan empty wrapper and I have never been frown at for doing so.
• Cook from scratch, convenience is expensive
• Learn to like cheaper, healthier alternative eg: cabbage, oatmeal, beans. These staples are cheap and good for you.

Money saving tips

-Pay your bills online

• Save on stamps, envelope, check and avoid late fee

-Do not buy new books.

• Borrow them from the library
• For the books you got to have buy them used (such as on half.com)

First post!

This blog will be kept short. I like the bullet point format :). I will share my wisdom on environmental, financial and time management issues. Welcome on board!