Lazy Man and Money

How to Eat Healthy on a Budget

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I’ve been meaning to write about eating on a budget for some time, but one of my favorite blogs, LifeHacker has an article that repurposes an article at Get Rich Slowly. Even that repurposes yet another article. So of course, I’m going to break the rule of blogging and repurpose it yet again. Hey, at least I’m going to add my thoughts in so it’s not all repurposing.

It’s hard to boil down all the suggestions, but here goes…

  • Rice – it’s very cheap and though it’s a litle carby for me, cheap wins out for me.
  • Ramen noodles – Along the same lines as rice. It’s carby and not all that healthy (too much sodium), but it can be a good filler when it’s mixed with…
  • Boneless chicken breast – I can usually find this for $2 a pound. Recently, I’ve been able to get it for as low as $1.77.
  • Tuna – Even better for you than chicken, I’ve been known to eat it out of the can as is.
  • Diet Soda – This woudn’t fly for a lot of people, but I need flavor and water doesn’t work for me. Generic soda like Sam’s Choice can be had relatively cheaply and since it has no calories, I’m going to give it a pass. Some people will say that juice is the way to go, but most of the time it’s lots of sugar and calories. I say it’s better to have diet soda and a multi-vitamin
  • Eggs – Another great mention in the threads. You can get a dozen very cheaply at the Wal-Mart near me. Boil a dozen, eat the whites, throw out the yolks.
  • Whey protein – Most of the generic versions at any health food store are pretty good. It’s extremely health and goes great in a milk shake.
  • Frozen Dinners – These fall into the Lazy Man’s cheap meals. There are some dinners from Banquet and frozen single serve pizzas that can be had for $1 or even less. They aren’t healthy, but it’s wallet friendly
  • McDonald’s Value Menu – Again, this isn’t healthy, but if you are Lazy like me, McDonald’s does bring true value to the table. A double cheeseburger can be a complete meal for $1 in a pinch.

Make Your Own Beer

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Over a year, I received a beer making kit as a gift. I had made one batch, but since then I had gotten too busy to make it. Or else I had just forgotten. In any event, my fiancee and I decided that with the long weekend last weekend it was time to make some beer.

Looking into it financially, it seems to be a good deal. It’s $30 for all the ingredients, and there’s really nothing else to the cost once you own the kit. I think I’ll get somewhere around 10 six packs, which, at $3 a six pack is pretty decent. The bonus is that it seems that people tend to like it. I hope they are not lying, but with the first batch, I told them they could spit it out if they didn’t like it and I wouldn’t be offended. After all, I was using them largely as guinea pigs for my first attempt.

Cheap Shoes!

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I have been on a quest to find a pair of white soled shoes for my condo’s tennis courts. It’s one of the rules of the court. I’m not an ace tennis player or anything. I’ve played twice and I’m actually quite bad. I just want to get the exercise.

There are no shortage of white shoes, but they typically run $50+ at anything like a Foot Locker. I figured I might have better luck at Wal-Mart. Nope, not a men’s shoe to be found. Next up, TJ Maxx. The Maxx has never let me down on anything like this. Surely they’d have some close-outs. I was denied again, they don’t carry men’s shoes. The sales lady suggested I tried Bob’s. The fiancee had a $10 gift certificate, so that seemed promising. The best I could do was about $25 after the gift certificate. Now we are getting somewhere. I still couldn’t make the move for the 2-3 times that I’m going to be out there.

Then I found it. I was in a Target for something else and decided to check out the shoes. I found a pair at $22 and was thinking that was the best. The fiancee came back with a pair of $9 women’s shoes. I was angry for about two minutes, until I realized that they looked no different than the men’s shoes. I picked up a pair that fit, and except for wearing the same shoes as my fiancee, I couldn’t be happier with the purchase.

When is frugal too frugal?

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Money and Values asks the question Are you naturally frugal or not? Penny, the author, seems to be frugal to the point where it costs her more money to “re-buy” a product after the first has failed. I have to say that I’ve probably been guilty of this more than a few times.

My biggest problem is that I can’t stop my mind from adding up wasted dollars. My fiancee and I just moved in together, so naturally we had two of everything, two dining room tables, two beds, two microwaves, etc. The overlap is incredible. So what do we do with two of everything? There’s the Ebay option for some of the smaller stuff. There’s Craigslist, but it seems like I have to relist everyday for any interest. And when there is interest, everyone is looking to give you less than 10 cents on the dollar. There’s also Freecycle to just give it away. It just kills me to not get good value for something that’s still good quality.

Groceries Savings in Boston

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[Grocery stores seem to be fairly regional, so if you are from New England you’ll probably get more from this post than others.]

I made an interesting discovery a few months ago. It seems that Wal-Mart has excellent prices on some food staples. It’s generic brand of cheese, milk, canned vegetables, and beef jerky just can’t be beat. Even if I were to buy them in bulk at a warehouse store, I think Wal-Mart beats them. This is a little surprising to me. I always thought of Wal-Mart as a replacement to Bradlees, Ames, Caldor, and Zayre – 4 businesses that have gone under selling typical household items. So you can see why I wouldn’t think of going there for groceries.

Wal-Mart is still relatively new to Boston area – I wonder if people have really figured it out.