Beating Broke

The Benefits of Weekly Menu Planning

May 27, 2011 By MelissaB 3 Comments

Does this sound familiar? It is 5 p.m., and you stop by the grocery store after work. You don’t have much time to make dinner before you have to go to a parent/teacher conference at 7 p.m., so you buy some carrot sticks, a pound of meat, whole wheat buns and sloppy joe mix from a package. Oh, don’t forget a bag of chips. That covers dinner for tonight.

The next night, it is the same story, but this time you have had a really stressful day at work and all you want to do is go home and relax, so you go through the drive through and spend $25 to feed your family of four.

If this sounds familiar and you want to save yourself some time and money, try menu planning.

Life is busy whether you are a stay at home parent or employed full time, whether you have kids or not. A menu plan is the best way to help control the chaos that surrounds dinner time.

The Time Investment

True, it does take some time to create a menu plan, but you will reap the rewards all week long. In the beginning, you can expect to spend about 30 to 60 minutes once a week picking your recipes and making a grocery list. (The time you spend doing this will lessen as you become more comfortable with the routine and create a repertoire of recipes that you and your family like.)

The Time Payoff

If you go to the grocery store with a list of all the necessary ingredients needed to make your meals for the week, you will be focused. You should be out of the grocery store in 60 minutes or less.

If you operate without a menu plan, it is not unusual to stop by the grocery store (or to go through the drive thru) four to five times a week. If your average stop is about 20 to 30 minutes, you are spending 80 to 150 minutes a week. Having a grocery list and shopping only once a week will save you 20 to 90 minutes a week!

The Financial Payoff

Unless you are extremely disciplined, you make impulse buys when grocery shopping. Let’s say you make three impulse buys each time you shop. If you only enter the grocery store once a week, you are only making 3 impulse buys. If you grocery shop 5 times a week, you will likely make 15 impulse buys. Depending on the price of the unplanned items, you could be spending as much as $15 to $30 and upwards a month by shopping so frequently.

If you make a menu plan and a grocery list, you give yourself time to look through the ads and choose recipes that take advantage of sale items, lowering your grocery bill overall. By contrast, if you stop by the store every night and buy what you “feel” like eating that night or what is convenient to make, you will be spending much more weekly.

Even though it may not be something you do now, hopefully realizing the time and financial payoffs will have you thinking about menu planning. Next time we will explore the mechanics of menu planning.

(B.B. Note: ~~Make sure you come back on Tuesday to~~ read about how to implement a Menu Plan!)

photo credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

Car Trouble Part 4: Almost Done

May 16, 2011 By Shane Ede 2 Comments

If you need to catch up (It’s been since early March since the last update) here are parts 1, 2, and 3. And this, this is part 4. And yes, there is likely to be at least a part 5.

When we last left off, we had bought the suburban, and the other car had yet to even have the motor torn down to see what was wrong with it.

We finally got an estimate and gave the go-ahead to work on the engine of the Alero. It came back at about what we thought it was going to be. And the grand total of about $3400 was pretty close too. It’s a pretty large number, but we breathed a small sigh of relief for no more surprises there. In order to pay for the repairs, we had to take a new loan out on the Alero. We owned the Alero in full, so it kinda sucks having to take the title in and sign paperwork for a loan on a car that you used to own. On the other hand, it’s nice to have that asset to use when needed. Imagine what the result could have been if we had still owed on the car!

We’ve also taken a couple of longish trips with the suburban. And with the price of gas, we’ve felt every mile of them. But, for those trips, the necessity is there. We’ve now taken two trips that have included the whole family, even the dog. It’s pretty nice to not have to try and find someone to watch the dog while we’re gone, or to find a kennel for him while we’re away. In the case of the kennel, the extra cost in gas easily pays for itself. We’ll be taking a long trip next month to see my parents. It’s well over 900 miles from here, and it generally takes us a full day (with a motel room in the middle) to get there. We’ll take the dog with us. I’m sure the savings on kennel won’t overcome the extra cost of gas on this trip, but it will still be nice to have him with us. Aside from a few pangs of regret when I fill it up, I’m glad we ended up getting the Suburban. And, even the gas isn’t that bad, it’s just that the tank is twice as large as either of our cars’ tanks. It adds up so much quicker.

Since we have the Alero back, and it works, it’s time to thin the herd. We’ve decided to sell the Cavalier. Based on what it books out for, we think we should be able to get enough out of it to pay off the loan we took on the Alero. If that happens, we’ll be back to owning the Alero outright again, which will be nice. We’ll still have a payment on the Suburban, but it’s worth the upgrade. We haven’t listed the Cav just yet, but put a big sign in it’s window and then parked it at the parking lot at work. The parking lot has wonderful frontage to the main intersection in town and can’t be beat, since I don’t have to pay to park there.

Surprise. We parked the Cavalier there Friday night. Today, (Sunday) I went and showed it to a couple who liked it. They’ll be going to the bank tomorrow, and as long as they can get the financing to buy the car, they think they’ll take it. If all of that goes through, it could be nearly the shortest sale time of a car ever! I guess we priced it right!

Hopefully, we’ll find out whether they are going to take the car tomorrow, and if they do, be able to pay off the loan on the Alero on Tuesday. With that puzzle piece out of the way, and barring any unforeseen other car issues, that could set us up for the final installment of the car trouble series later this week! I can only hope!

photo credit: dawnmichele

The Scales of Finance

May 11, 2011 By Shane Ede 1 Comment

Not to be confused with the scales that our friend Lady Justice carries around with her everywhere, the scales of finance are a bit different in function. To truly weigh something, using a scale, you load up one side of the scale with that which you want to weigh and then put weights of a known mass on the other side. When the scale is balanced, you count up the known mass weights and you’ve got the weight of the item(s) on the other side. Lady Justice, as the story goes, does this by weighing a persons crimes and adding the appropriate amount of punishment to the other side so that the Scales of Justice balance.

When we think about personal finance, there are those that are die-hard frugalers. There is no other way to save money, retire comfortably, or live, than by being frugal. The more frugal you are, the more you save, and the less you spend. Coupons are their best friends, as are black friday deals and places like farmers markets and flea markets.

There are also those that are the die-hard incomers. Skipping a latte isn’t for them. The only way to get ahead is to make more money while not spending any more. They’ll work three jobs to achieve levels of income that were previously unheard of and use that added income to pay off debt and save for retirement.

But, much like justice, the scale can pretty easily be tipped into unbalance. Frugaling, while a good idea, can only take you so far. Income increasing can only take you so far. Eventually, you’ll need to make a bit more money, or work less. The right way to do it is to strike a balance between the two. Cut your costs as much as you can, without going to extremes. Increase your income as much as you can, without going to extremes. Find a place where you can balance your financial life while still getting to live life and not be classified as a cheapskate work-a-holic.

Balancing the Scales of Finance

Create a budget. Know where your money is going (even if it’s going down the drain), and plan where you want it to go.
Cut costs. A little bit of frugal living isn’t going to hurt you. Drop cable T.V. You can replace it with Netflix, or books. Find other things that you can do without completely or cut usage of.
Analyze your finances. Use your budget to determine the inflow/outflow of your finances. How long to payoff your debts? Could it be accelerated greatly by taking on a second job? Maybe you only need a second job for 6 months to pay off a credit card.
Increase your income. There are other ways, besides taking on extra jobs, to increase your income. Prepare for, and then ask for a raise. Sell off stuff you no longer use. Find a way to get paid for hobbies you already do.
Don’t over-do it. Maintain focus on your end goal, but keep your sacrifices to a bearable level. All that extra income won’t do you any good if you burn out in 3 months because you’ve been working 80 hour weeks. And all the frugal in the world won’t do you any good if you burn out in 3 months because you’ve been manually separating the plys on your TP.

Don’t think that just because you do all of this once, that you’ll remain in balance forever either. At first, you will probably benefit from regular weekly or bi-weekly check-ups. As you get more comfortable with it all, you might be able to do it once a month. Much more infrequent than that and you’ll lose your focus and begin letting things slip. If that happens, pick up where you left off and continue on.

As you continue on, the Scales of Finance will become easier to balance. You’ll become better at it, and the scales will gain a little extra margin for error. It may seem hard now, but it does get easier. And, believe it or not, it can be fun.

Photo credit: Thatedeguy on Flickr