Let me preface this post by saying my wife and I were foolish and I don’t presume a lot of people on this forum are spendthrifts to the degree we were. We have a family of four and with all avenues of spending were totaling about $1200 a month in food expenses. Currently we average about $500 a month now. We drew up some rules, have been diligent in their enforcement and it has resulted in a maxed-out IRA that we didn’t think we could afford at all. These are the rules that we follow now. Don’t buy drinks…that’s it…that is literally the entire rule. We make an exception for coffee that we make at home. Water is available always to us or we carry it. I stopped drinking alcohol as well which didn’t contribute a lot to spending but I figured if the kids were going to give up juice and soda it was the least I could do. Don’t eat out. Eating out is a ridiculous waste of money for us. We reserve eating out for only the most special of occasions which tends to occur once every few months. I include fast food, pizza delivery etc to be eating out.
Shop at Aldi. This amazed me but the cost savings from shopping there is very apparent. For example, I just paused writing this to go eat dinner. We all ate for about $5 tonight. Nothing special but we are all full and it was good. Pasta with burger and some fries. We don’t go to convenience stores any more. These places were nickel and diming us to death. If I must stop for gas I pay with a card and refuse to go in. I know that every families’ circumstances are different but we have had such success that I feel compelled to share my story. Hope this helps someone else. Good luck.
January 23, 2017 at 05:54PM
