Lazy Man and Money

Save Money by Eating Down Your Food

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Halloween is over and my 3-year old is sad. He doesn’t understand where the spooky door went and still wants to wear his orange spider socks. While orange spider socks can be year-round fun, it is time to turn the page. I’ve found the easiest way to do that is to get him excited about the next holiday, Thanksgiving.

With Thanksgiving, thoughts naturally turn to turkey. And those thoughts turn to leftovers. There’s going to be a lot food coming in at the end of the month. So this month, I’m going to focus on eating down all the food in my pantry. That is, as soon as I get back from vacation.

I probably have over $200 worth of food in a chest freezer. The food storage in my basement is probably worth the same.

With that in mind, I’m going turn this over to my wife who has the following advice:

Go to AllRecipes and do an ingredient search for all the random stuff that you have sitting around.

I didn’t realize how much random stuff we had until she mentioned some spices that I had never heard of before. (I already forgot what they are.)

Because I’m on vacation and this is mostly common sense, I’m not going to waste any more of your time today. Will you join me in making November “Eat Down Your Food” month?

Saving Money on Food While Traveling?

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I don’t like to do back-to-back “Ask the Readers”, but today I’m going to break the (unwritten) rules.

Our family is going on road-trip vacation soon. We are hopping from hotel to hotel bringing the kids to Sesame Place, Hershey Park, Crayola World, and the Philadephia children’s museum.

We are looking to be frugal on this vacation. The idea is to avoid spending a hundred dollars a day on food at restaurants. I’m sure we are going to spend some money on them, but we don’t need to eat all three meals at them.

So the question is, “What can we buy in advance and bring with us to make meals?”

I’m going with the assumption that either a refrigerator or microwave would be a nice surprise at the hotels. We tried to research it, but got conflicting information from the pictures on the web and the TripAdvisor reviews. So we’ll bring some canned food (it can’t hurt), but we can’t rely on being able to heat it up. Also, I’m years removed from my college days of microwaving canned green beans as a snack.

Let’s also assume that for a week we aren’t too concerned about eating healthy. Bringing fruit is a no-brainer, but beyond that everything is in play… even Chef Boyardee. The only thing I’m taking off the table is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I’m just not a fan.

So far I’ve been focusing on drinks. It’s low-lying fruit. We don’t need to pay $2 for a soda when we can bring them. I hit our local warehouse store (BJ’s) and found Horizon Milk and Honest Kids juice boxes. It’s perfect for the kids as neither require refrigeration.

I also set aside some nutrition bars and peanuts. They are good snacks, but it is hard to build a meal around them.

So what do you think? Any suggestions?

P.S. Road Trip was a greatly underrated movie. I miss those kind of American Pie genre movies.

Reader Email: What is a Good Food Budget?

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[Editor’s Note: Sorry for the lack of posts of late. I’m moving this week and traveling the next. In the mean time Cox Communications seems to be completely inept at setting up an Internet connection. Hopefully with the travel, I’ll have better access to Internet than I do now.]

A regular reader, Mike sent me the following email:

Subject: Question for your readers

Body: My wife and I live by ourselves. Our largest monthly expenses are her student loans, the mortgage, and then food. Are we spending too much on food? We average about $200/mo on sit down restaurants, $200/mo on fast food, and about $150/mo on groceries. This comes to about $9-10 per person/day. Too much? Tips to save?

I like how Mike is focusing on the biggest expenses and looking to bring them down. It’s much better than attacking the small things (though the small things can add up to be equal or more than the top big expense).

People typically spend a good amount on food, especially eating out. The USDA has some guidelines on how much people spend on groceries. Using the most recent data, a typical couple in the 19-50 range (a typical Lazy Man reader) would spend between $87.30 and $111.50 a week on thrifty or low-cost plans. I’m going to presume that the typical Lazy Man reader is going to be skewed to the more frugal options since we tend to be more mindful with our spending. The average of the thrifty and low-cost plans comes to about $100 a week for a couple or a little more than $14 a day. Per person this works out to be $7. Mike’s $9-10 per person estimate for all food (groceries & restaurants) comes in at around $136 per week which puts him almost exactly at the USDA’s moderate cost number of $138.70. Since the USDA’s number is about groceries only Mike appears to be doing great overall.

As for tips to save, I’ve got some Amex Blue Cash will put 3-6% back in your pocket on groceries. Unfortunately, Mike emailed me back to say that his grocery store doesn’t take credit cards (imagine that!). All is not lost though, he can use a debit card that can earn up to 2% back from Perkstreet.

As for restaurants, Mint has some good ways to track spending. (Side Note: It’s been too long since I’ve checked out their tools myself. That’s going on my to-do list.) It looks like Mike has already done the math to compile the $400/mo. number (I’m combining fast food and sit down restaurants). I don’t have comparison numbers for restaurants, but sit-down restaurants would be the place to focus on saving money. The cost per meal at one can be ten times what you can make at home. I have my own set of tips for save money at restaurants. One can consider eating out at a sit-down restaurant as entertainment too as the ambiance typically plays a role in the value.

Fast food restaurants can be cheap if you make the most out of value menus, but they typically don’t win any awards for great nutrition. From a cost perspective, a dollar McDouble is a pretty frugal meal… four of them a day (around 1500 calories) would set you back $120 a month, which is a pretty low food budget. I’m not recommending that, we say how that worked out for Morgan Spurlock in Super-Size Me, but the numbers illustrate how an occasional fast food trip can fit a frugal budget.

It’s hard to put a strict “you should spend $X amount on food” guideline in place. Geographic region, diet requirements (some people choose to pay more for organic), and other factors (time to clip coupons) can move your food budget in either direction. This is why I would focus on making sure that my spending is in a fiscally responsible range. Some of the tools I mentioned above can help provide a sanity check to make sure they are fiscally responsible.

Getting back to the subject of Mike’s email. He wanted to put the question to the readers. So now it is your turn to give feedback. I’m particularly interested if someone can find some food spending to income ratio numbers. That strikes me as a valuable piece of the puzzle.

If you have a personal finance question contact me and perhaps you can be featured in a future Lazy Man and Money article. And don’t be shy, we’ll keep things anonymous.

Hedge Rising Food and Gas Prices with ETFs

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I’ve been following the financial news a little more lately than I have in past. I don’t like what I hear.

An interview with a Shell Oil representative is claiming we might be paying $5 a gallon in two years. I shudder to think about what that means for me for California because we are up there with the most expensive gas in the nation. It’s a good thing that I work at home and don’t drive too much.

Then earlier today, I came across this article that predicted food costs more than ever and the United Nations says prices can go much higher.

Great googly moogly, higher gas prices and higher food prices?!?! What can be done about this? I’ll tell you what I’m doing: hedging my investments. When gas was cheap, I bought some PowerShares DB Oil Fund (NYSE:DBO). I also bought some PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund. Investing in these two commodities takes some of the sting away from rising prices.

Looking for a great way to complement that strategy? How about implementing these tips to save money on groceries and save money on gas?

What do you think? Are you hedging your bets against higher prices or not? Is now the time buy or have prices of these ETFs already risen too much? Is this six straight question I’ve asked? Yes it is.

Don’t Lose Your Shirt in Las Vegas

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Las Vegas Survival Guide
Las Vegas Survival Guide
If you were wondering why I haven’t posted very much this week, it’s because I spent the weekend in Las Vegas. It was my first trip there in about ten years. It’s a little hard to say which changed more, Vegas or me. It’s probably pretty close.

We went for a friends’ military promotion ceremony, but it certainly didn’t hurt that it was Vegas. As usual, we didn’t want to break the bank, so we looked for ways to get by on the cheap. Here are just my early impressions on the short amount of time we were there.

Best Las Vegas Hotel Value

I’m going to give this a tie to two hotels, even though we only stayed at one. I did look at the Trip Advisor reviews of the second and it looks like the place we’d choose next time. I’m giving this award with great attention to “cheap” rather typical “value.” The reason for that is because in Las Vegas, most people are typically only looking for a place to crash for a few hours anyway.

  • Super 8 – We stayed at the Super 8 a little off the strip. While that may sound like a bad location, when we get to best value casino it earns a lot of points. It was around $42 a night including taxes. This isn’t a place to impress the ladies. While there may have been a drug deal going down and some ladies likely “practicing the oldest profession”, my theory is that it just adds to the flavor. Little known fact: At over 300 rooms, it’s the largest Super 8 in the world.
  • Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon – We stopped here briefly because we had a little time to kill before dinner one night and this was the only place we found with a craps table open. I was also curious of the food specials posted outside (more on that later). It’s got a better location than the Super 8 as it’s on the strip across from the Bally’s. I’m told you can view the famous Bellagio water show from time to time there. It seems like the pricing is competitive with the Super 8, so it’s worth considering.

Best Las Vegas Housing Value

It’s not a hotel, so I couldn’t include it above, but some friends of friends decided to rent a house. We stopped by a couple of times and it was an amazing place. It had to be about 4000 square feet. It had a two pools… one for swimming (with a hot tub) and one better known as billiards. The place was in great condition with exceptional appliances, flooring, counters, etc. It’s five bedrooms easily could sleep ten (and you could stretch that if you put people on couches. All this for $269 a night. If you have 4 or 5 couples, you could live in the lap of luxury for around $30 a night per person. You’d even save more on groceries as you have a full kitchen. The downside is that the strip and airport was about a 10 minute car ride away, so some of that savings is going to go to a rental car or cab.

Best Las Vegas Casino Value

The Ellis Island Casino & Brewery wins hands down in this category. While there are other casinos with all the bling, this is my kind of place. This was right next to us at the Super 8 (one of the reasons we stayed at the Super 8.) It has a $5 craps table… I can play twice as long to lose on the increasingly standard $10 minimum craps tables in most casinos. (Yes, I think of it in terms of how much I can play before losing. I think that’s fair to set the expectations low when the house has an advantage on you.) That’s enough for a good casino, but it’s the extra’s that make Ellis Island my favorite. Cocktail waitresses come by quite often and when you ask for a beer, they bring 20 ounces from their own brewery. In life you usually get to choose two out of three of the following: free, quality, and quantity. While I’m stretching the “free” here (as I was gambling), you can fork over $1.50 in cash for the same beer if you aren’t gambling. Beyond that Ellis Island has Metro Pizza, voted 4 years in a row the best pizza in Vegas (I concur with the decision) and the best food special you’ll find (more on that later).

While on the topic of craps, I should mention two things. 1) I’m extremely conservative so the house typically has less than a 3% advantage on me. I left Las Vegas with about $75 in total winnings. Know when to talk walk away, right?

Best Las Vegas Food & Drink Specials

  • Ellis Island Casino & Brewery – The $6.99 steak special is one of the best deals you’ll find anywhere. It is a 10 ounce filet cut that would easily sell out at $20 any other restaurant. I’ve paid more than $30 for a steak that wasn’t as good. With potatoes and green beans it is a full meal. It’s available 24 hours a day, and it’s worth going out of your way for. I’ve already mentioned the beer special above, so for less than $9 you could really be celebrating in style (if you forget that it is a hole-in-the-wall casino.)
  • Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon – Yep, I’m going back here. They get an honorable mention for a steak (rib-eye) and eggs special for $5.99 available from midnight to 6AM. Sadly due to the timing of that special, we didn’t partake. I also noticed that they had $5 pitchers of Miller Lite, which is up there with the Ellis Island beer special.

I think that covers most of the deals that we found in Vegas. As for the rest, it wasn’t a deal going to ESPN Zone for the USA-Canada hockey game, but it was fun. It wasn’t a deal (and not particularly fun) going to the new hotel Aria for drinks. We were slightly positive at RumJungle in Mandalay Bay (I remember it being a lot better 10 years ago).

I would like to try to spend a week in Vegas spending as little as possible. You could stay at Super 8 for about $300 (weekend is more expensive) and eat for around $150 ($20 a day). Our flight from Northern California was around $100 round trip (Virgin America, which I highly recommend). So two people (sharing a room) could plan a whole week for about $800. If you join all the casino’s players clubs and used the free money they give out, you might even break even for the week.

Then again, a week of the Vegas lifestyle may just kill you. The weekend alone was quite a bit for me.