budget — 2/38 — Beating Broke

The Importance of Fixing Things Sooner Rather than Later

January 10, 2019 By MelissaB 2 Comments

A few years ago, my brakes started making noise whenever I pushed the brake pedal. I procrastinated quite a while before I took the car into the shop because I didn’t have the money for the repair. However, because I waited so long, the brakes had worn down to the rotors, so my repair was much more expensive than it would have been had I come in right away.

But Wait! I Hadn’t Learned the Lesson Yet!

You would think I’d have learned my lesson, but no, I haven’t.

We own a minivan that is 11.5 years old and has 167,000 miles on it. A while ago, one of the back sliding door handles broke, so we could no longer use it from the outside. No worries. We simply herded all the kids in through the other side door. Was it a pain? Just a little bit, but we didn’t want to spend $200 to $300 on a door handle repair when we had so many other pressing expenses.

But, then the other sliding door broke. The wire coil started to fray, so we couldn’t open the door. The repair for the outer wire coil? A cool $900 to $1,000. Ouch.

So, we started opening the driver’s side door and reaching around to open the side door with the outside broken handle by using the inside handle. By now, we were starting to feel a bit, um, special, I’ll say, because of our unusual way to open the door. Still, we put off the repair because we had other expenses like a $210 garage door repair and a $90 air conditioning tune up along with a $900 deposit for braces for our son.

All was okay until the inside door handle broke. Now, the only way the kids can get in and out of the car is through the front doors. The special meter has gone up enormously, and even the kids are talking about how embarrassed the are to get in and out of the car. Now that the repair is inevitable, I called the shop to find out the repair will likely be $400 to $500 because they’ll have to remove the door and replace both the inside and outside door handle.

Lesson learned. When a repair is needed, make the repair. If you don’t, you’ll likely end up paying more in the future.

How to Get the Money Together

If your budget is tight like ours is, there are ways to get the money together to make a smaller repair immediately so you don’t have to pay more for a larger repair later:

Raid your emergency fund. This is the easiest. If you have an emergency fund, use the money and then rebuild the emergency fund as quickly as possible.

Have a pantry challenge for a week. We spend approximately $150 to $200 a week for groceries. By taking just one week to eat only what we have in the house and not going to the grocery store, we could have had the money for the handle repair before it got worse. Lesson learned.

Sell stuff. Everyone has stuff around the house that they don’t need or don’t use. Sell things at second hand stores, sports resale stores, or eBay or Facebook. You’ll be surprised how quickly the money will add up.

Do you procrastinate on repairs because your budget is tight? If so, like us, has that rationale ended up costing you more money?

Living on a Tight Budget: Should Groceries Be the First Place You Cut?

January 8, 2019 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, the last few years, you may have felt that you’re simply treading water when it comes to income and expenses. It seems every time our income goes up, our expenses go up, and I’m not talking about lifestyle inflation but rather insurance premiums and deductibles, etc.

Like many people, I try to cut corners to make our money stretch as far as I can. I’ve certainly had times a few years ago when I bought the cheapest groceries that I could find by using coupons and sales, even though the food was processed and not that good for my body.

I rationalized that I was being frugal, and, I’ll admit it, I was proud of myself. Never mind that we were eating casseroles that we didn’t really like made with processed foods or that the leftovers often went to waste because we didn’t want to eat the meal again. Never mind that both my husband and I had cholesterol well over 200 even though we were in our thirties.

Change in Eating Habits

However, over the last few years, my opinions on grocery shopping, the foods we eat, and how to save money have changed. I still like to save money (and I still need to in order to make our budget stretch), but now I do it differently, and I feed my family differently. A few years ago, I went Paleo. I dropped a lot of weight, and my cholesterol level settled around 155, even though I was a few years older. True, our grocery budget went up, but not by as much as I expected. I learned ways to buy healthy food at a reasonable price.

Where Else Can You Cut Besides Groceries?

Should you Cut groceries first? — Where would you cut first?

Sometimes, especially when money is tight, groceries seem like an easy place to cut. Convenience foods bought with coupons can be had for a steal. Take a look around Pinterest, and you’ll find many posts of bloggers touting how little they spend for groceries.

But is this a good thing? I know groceries are typically one of the largest monthly expenses for a family, but should this automatically be the place we look first to reduce our budget? After all, there is great truth in the adage, “Pay your farmer now, or pay the doctor later. In fact, “Americans spend nearly 20% of their income on healthcare costs, while on average spending 10% of their income on food. . .Considering the age-old adage, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ may be the first step to attempt to reduce healthcare spending—and the key place to start is food consumption. If you start to consider your diet a form of preventative health care, you might start rethinking your daily meals” (University of New Hampshire).

Take a look at your budget. If you don’t automatically slash your grocery budget, where else can you cut expenses?

If you don’t short change your body healthy foods, you’ll save thousands on health care later on. Meanwhile, why not consider dropping your smartphone and getting a “dumb” phone? (Yes, I still have a flip phone for emergencies that we bought 10 years ago.) Can you drive your current vehicle a little longer so you don’t need to have a new car loan? Can you drop cable? Do you have subscriptions you’re paying for but you don’t use? Likely, there are several lifestyle choices you can make to cut your expenses without compromising the quality of food you can buy and eat.

Do you cut other expenses so you can continue to buy quality foods, or do you prefer to slash your grocery budget?

5 Bad Habits to Break at the Grocery Store

July 14, 2018 By Douglas Keller Leave a Comment

For individuals, families, and lovers of food alike, the grocery store is a wondrous place full of delicious treats and everyday essentials. As we become accustomed to our shopping routine, many people will form habits for once they are inside of the super market, like walking the same path or picking up the same goods with little variation. And while these habits seem innocent enough they may have deeper implications, namely upon our spending. As we become set in our ways, bad grocery habits can form that can feel difficult or even impossible to break. What’s worse is when we fail to realize that what we are doing is costing us. As a result, the key to undoing these habits is to first identify what they are and then figure out strategies to avoid falling into them. To that end, below are five common grocery store habits and a few suggestions to break them.

Shopping without a list

One of the most common mistakes people make when heading off to the grocery store is failing to prepare a shopping list to help them navigate the store. A shopping list serves a number of purposes as not only does it provide you direction during your visit to the supermarket, reducing your likelihood of veering off track and buying something unnecessary, it also helps to give you a better sense of the things you need. Many times it is not until people return home that they realize they have made a mistake in their shopping, after they’ve grabbed the wrong item or accidentally purchased something they already had back in their home. A list helps to remove the uncertainty of what you may have need for and is an easy way to begin saving money.

Buying pre-prepared meals

Often in supermarkets there are prepared meal sections where assortments of sushi, rotisserie chickens, and large selections of dessert choices lie in wait for shoppers to purchase them. For the people within the grocery store, the appeal of bypassing food that requires effort and instead settling on something already prepared can be a no-brainer, but that is just what supermarkets are counting on. Stores anticipate people prioritizing convenience over price and will markup their prepared meals. At the end of the day, you will typically get more bang for your buck from buying the ingredients and making a homecooked meal on your own, as cooking it for yourself can also provide a larger quantity of food.

Buying The Same Brands

Brand loyalty has a surprisingly strong effect on shoppers, as many people will seek the same products from the same companies they have come to know and love. While it is true that quality varies across brands, loyalty to one variety may be costing you more than its worth. Almost every product has a competitor and with great deals being offered every day, it is important to be open to trying something new. Not only is there a chance it will taste better, but you will be saving money. And something else that is important to note is that not all generic store brands are cheaper than their name brand competitors. Be sure to check prices when at the store instead of just grabbing goods with the assumption they are less costly.

Not Checking Expiration Dates

Although grocery stores are responsible for identifying and removing expired or close to expired goods, it is not always an easy job and there are times when things manage to slip through the cracks. In the event of that, it is possible for consumers to unsuspectingly buy the goods and fall victim to foods going bad on them. At that point in time, you may find yourself out a few dollars that could have been easily saved by simply checking the expiration date of the product before adding it to your cart. Checking the expiration date also allows you to pick the freshest product, giving it a longer life and increasing your likelihood of finishing it without having to throw some away. This is particularly useful for dairy products like milk and cream.

Hungry Shopping

Sometimes it is hunger that reminds us to do our shopping and though our first instinct may be to head off to the store, you may want to hold off as shopping on an empty stomach can cost you more money than you’d think. Frequently when we are hungry we change our basic decision-making processes to take into account our condition. It is the thing that causes us to speed just a little as we head home from the drive-thru or causes us to push off a mountain of time-sensitive work for just a little while to put something in our stomachs. In the grocery store, hunger is known to fuel consumers to not only buy more food than they have need for, but it also increases the likelihood that they buy unhealthy food as they may pick up some snacks they are craving. By filling up a little before heading out, you are likely to curb this bad habit.