Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

  • Home
  • Get Updates
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Genesis

The Financial Toll of Special Diets

September 29, 2010 By Shane Ede 6 Comments

wheatSpecial diets (unlike regular old diets like Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, or even simpler ones like the Slow Carb Diet) are almost always a result of some sort of food intolerance or disease.  Lactose intolerance requires that the afflicted person refrain from milk and dairy product that contain lactose.  Of course, there are milk and dairy replacements.  You can buy soy milk or almond milk, for instance, to replace the commonly used cows milk.  The difference is cost.

Another special diet is the gluten free diet.  Gluten is one of the building block proteins in grass grains like wheat, rye, and barley (and others).  Stop for a second and think about that.  Do a mental assessment of your pantry.  How much of that stuff has one of those grains in it?  Now, add about 20% or so, because much of it that you wouldn’t think has those grains (or their by-products) in it, does.  Soy sauce?  Wheat.  Soup?  Wheat flour for thickening.  Seasoning mixes?  Wheat flour.  There are replacements for almost all of those things.  And, again, the main difference is cost.  (well, some flavor too, but that’s another topic for another day.)

It’s how much?!?

How much of a price difference are we talking?  Around here, a gallon of 1% fat cows milk costs about $3.50.  On Amazon, right now, you can buy an 18 pack of 8.25 ounce Silk Soy Milks for $20.  Let’s compare ounce for ounce.  The cows milk costs about $0.028 per ounce.  ($3.50/128 ounces)  The soy milk?  $0.135 per ounce.  ($20/148.5 ounces)  That’s a difference of over $0.10 an ounce.  There’s 128 ounces in a gallon.  How many gallons of milk do you and your family use in a given week or month?  If you want to talk about gluten replacements, the average price for a loaf of gluten free bread is about $6.  I bought wheat bread at the store the other day for $1.29! Pasta is just as bad.  A package of gluten free spaghetti is usually about $3-5.  The wheat stuff can be found, on sale, for about $0.25-$1.00 for an equivalent size package.

Budget Breaker

It doesn’t take an accountant to add that up and figure out how much of a difference in your finances a special diet can make.  Or, how much of a skewing factor it plays in a budget.  Suddenly, your budget for food has to be quite a bit higher than it used to be.  And, of course, the financial toll is that it sucks up funds that could easily be used for something else should the diet not be necessary.

Planning for the Extra Cost

If you have to eat a special diet, you probably know the added cost that it adds to your budget.  But, what about someone just venturing into a special diet?  How do you budget for the extra cost?  You can either do your research and get a really good idea of what it will cost, or you can just leave yourself a very nice cushion until you know for sure.  Researching is probably the more likely choice, I would think.  Take a look on Amazon and see what some of the replacement items will cost.  Compare to what you normally buy.  That should give you a rough guess as to how much your costs will increase for certain items.  Using your normal expenditure as a starting point, you can then make an educated guess as to how much you should budget for in the coming months as you begin your special diet.

Eat Fresh

Another way to offset some of the cost is to eat more fresh food.  Adding more fruit and vegetables into your diet won’t increase your cost any more than the new special diet food and will likely make you healthier for it.

Photo Credit: wheat by sky_mitch

Filed Under: General Finance, Home, Saving, ShareMe Tagged With: celiac, gluten, gluten free, lactose, special diets

Coupons: Are They Worth The Hassle?

May 24, 2010 By Heather Sokol 5 Comments

If I told you, I would give you $5000 for groceries every year, if you’ll spend an extra 30 minutes planning your shopping list, would you do it?

That’s exactly what the stores & manufacturers do every week with sale ads and coupons. Yet, nearly 90% of coupons go unredeemed each year and countless shoppers buy products without ever glancing at the sales ad or price tag. A little extra effort, a bit of advanced planning and mastering the art of couponing can go a long way towards reducing your monthly expenses.

Coupons are a multi-billion dollar industry – last year, over 500 billion dollars worth of coupons were distributed. Most of them landed in the garbage (or, hopefully, the recycle bin!). So, why are consumers throwing all that money away? The answers I hear when I ask readers, friends & family this question typically include “it takes too much time,” “it isn’t worth the effort” and “I can’t find coupons for the things I buy.”

Coupons take too much time.

I spend an average of 20-30 minutes clipping coupons each week. I spend about half an hour in the store doing the actual shopping. I don’t count the time I spend putting together grocery lists for Inexpensively, since there are literally hundreds of blogs dedicated to creating coupon ad matchups. The average shopper can completely skip that step (but, for the record, I spend about 30 minutes per store). Grand total? One hour for coupon clipping & shopping.

How much time do you spend wandering the aisles at the grocery store?

Coupons aren’t worth the effort.

We’ve already discussed the time spent, which I think is the bulk of the “effort” people refer to with a statement like this. Clipping coupons isn’t too taxing – I promise. I typically cut coupons in front of the television. I’ve even let my children help out now & then. If a 7-year-old can handle it, I think most adults could manage as well.

The question becomes one of time again – does the money you save really justify the extra time? My grocery bill typically shows a “total saved” (including sales & coupons) of around 50% – sometimes way more, sometimes less. I once tracked every penny saved & spent in Quicken. My monthly grocery budget was $400 per month. That year, I saved over $3000 in store sales & $2000 in coupons. It breaks down to about $95 per hour.

How much do you make for an hour of your time?

There are no coupons for {insert your favorite product here}.

Maybe not, but I promise it will eventually go on sale. Everything does – even the pricey gluten free foods my own family requires. Even if you don’t use coupons, pay attention to the weekly sale ad, check clearance racks and know where to find manager specials. You can find discounts on meat, produce, bakery goods, deli products and organic foods.

Plus, you’ll be surprised at the wide variety of coupons you can find if you start to look. Contact your favorite companies, and they may add you to their mailing list, send you loyalty offers or tell you where to print their coupons online. The store coupon machine (called a Catalina machine) will frequently spit out coupons for $2 off your next $25 purchase – you can buy anything you want!

Why would you throw away a coupon that’s good on anything in the store?

Getting Started with Coupons

Once you start to see the impact coupons have on your budget, it’s easy to dedicate an extra 30 minutes to planning a shopping trip. Here are a few quick tips to help you make the most of your time:

  • Collect multiple coupons so you can really stock up on your favorite products.
  • Don’t stress over clipping every coupon or missing an expiration date – it will cycle back around again soon enough.
  • A sale is great and a coupon is awesome, but using a coupon on a sale item will cut your costs drastically!
  • Google “your favorite store + weekly deals” to find a grocery deal site that covers the stores in your area – they match the weekly sales with coupons so all the hard work is done for you.
  • Get into the habit of carrying your coupons everywhere you go – you’ll be prepared for spur of the moment trips and ready to take advantage of unadvertised specials & markdowns.
  • Sort the coupons for your weekly grocery trip in order of the store aisle – you’ll save time, using the stack of coupons as your grocery list as you shop.

I have been using coupons for almost 15 years now, and I know they’ll be a part of our life no matter how far from broke we become. Hey – if it’s good enough for Warren Buffet, it’s good enough for me!

Filed Under: Coupons and Discounts, Frugality, Saving Tagged With: coupon, couponing, coupons, frugal, frugaler, frugaling, gluten free, grocery, Saving

Join Our Newsletter
  Thank you for Signing Up
Please correct the marked field(s) below.

1,true,6,Contact Email,21,false,1,First Name,21,false,1,Last Name,2



  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Beating Broke Recommends

  • Acorns – Invest Spare Change
  • Capital One 360
  • Republic Wireless

Follow Beating Broke on…

Follow @BeatingBroke

Improve Your Credit Score

Money Blogs

  • Bible Money Matters
  • Celebrating Financial Freedom
  • Christian PF
  • Consumerism Commentary
  • Dual Income No Kids
  • Gajizmo.com
  • Lazy Man and Money
  • Make Money Your Way
  • Money Talks News
  • My Personal Finance Journey
  • Personal Profitability
  • Reach Financial Independence
  • So Over Debt
  • The Savvy Scot
  • Yakezie Group
  • Yes, I am Cheap

Disclaimer

Please note that Beating Broke has financial relationships with some of the merchants mentioned here. Beating Broke may be compensated if consumers choose to utilize the links located throughout the content on this site and generate sales for the said merchant.