Andy Hough

It’s been a long day. You’re headed home, and you’re exhausted. A lighted sign casts a warm glow across the highway — the Golden Arches or Subway’s green/yellow sign. Yum – but you’re on a budget. Should you stop?

The happy truth is that healthy, affordable fast food can indeed be an enjoyable part of your life. Given, that is, you’re willing to keep it within limits.

How often can you afford to go? Figure it out. Set aside a specific amount that you know you can afford to use — it can be slotted as ‘entertainment’ or ‘food.’ Keep that amount in cash — or put it on a gift card for your favorite spot. When the money’s gone, it’s gone, until the next paycheck. Go home and have a peanut-butter sandwich.

Stretch your ‘go-to’ money. Coupons, especially BOGOs, will let you go twice as often. Choose the sale items: Subway’s monthly specials often let you choose a foot-long sub for $5 — or less! Many restaurants, including McDonalds, Wendy’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and even Kentucky Fried Chicken, offer a ‘dollar menu.’ Most of those items are now more than a buck — but not much more.

Investopedia’s collected the five best value meal deals;  Money Talks News has their take on the same subject. (Interestingly, most of the restaurants mentioned are the same.)

Choose carefully — and share.  Order large fries for the family, instead of a small packet per person. Or set half your meal aside for tomorrow’s lunch. (Put it in a box, out of sight.) Two kids’ meals can feed 3 or 4 children. A large sandwich can feed two adults. Drink water — and you save not only on calories, but price. (You’ll find eight fast food meals under 500 calories here.)

Healthy fast food is out there! Do what Helpguide.org calls “undressing” your food: skip the mayo or sour cream (substitute mustard, salsa or ketchup), or eat your sandwich open-face. Taco Bell offers a ‘fresco’ menu that automatically gives you healthier choices, as part of their “drive-thru diet.”

Choose whole-grain bread, lower-calorie cheeses like Swiss or mozzarella, and load your pizza or sub with veggies, to ramp up the food value even more. Look for the words “grilled” instead of “fried;” skip “breaded” and “super–.” And don’t assume a salad means low-calorie, unless you’re willing to minimize ingredients like bacon or fatty salad dressing. Kids’ meals have gotten healthier, too. Burger King now offers apple juice, fat-free milk and apple slices on its children’s menu…and other chains have followed suit.

Go less, dine more elegantly. Prices for fast food restaurants have gone up — meal deals at many places, including drink, fries and sandwich, cost from $5.95 – 7.95. That’s close to a budget entree at a sit-down restaurant! Would you rather wait, and make it more of an occasion next time?

Don’t waste a thing. Extra napkins come in handy tucked in the glove compartment, along with that ‘spork’ you didn’t use. Add some zip to chicken noodle soup with a couple of salsa packets, or use your dipping sauce as a marinade for chicken or pork. (They’re great in stir-fries, too.) In their book The Phony Gourmet, Pam Young and Peggy Jones wrap leftover burgers in pastry, and serve these ‘pot pies,’ crunchy and bubbling, with special sauce!

Add to your profits by checking your receipt on the way out — many restaurants have a short survey. A few minutes of your time earns free food for the next visit, or a chance to win prizes or cash.

We all have our favorites. Our oldest daughter loves Subway’s chicken and bacon ranch melt; her sister would rather have KFC’s bowls any day. (KFC’s Aussie-style chicken potpie is only $3, at the time of this writing.) Husband is partial to Little Caesar’s pizza or a hot stick of Crazy bread, and I could go for Wendy’s chili or a Chargrilled Chicken Club from Chick-Fil-A. Maybe we’ll just wait for Colorado’s Rockies or Nuggets sports teams to win — then Taco Bell offers 4 tacos for a buck, as long as we get a drink, too. Make your choices wisely, and fast food can be a guilt-free item on your menu, too.

This post is by staff writer Cindy Brick.  You can visit her blog at CindyBrick.com or visit her personal blog.

The following is a guest post by The Frugal Goddess. The Frugal Goddess is written by Annabel Ascher, a resident of Sonoma County California. She has lived a life of economic extremes, from great fortune to sudden poverty. She relearned the secrets of frugal abundance all over again when her circumstances changed in 2007. Faced with the death of her husband and loss of livelihood, she had no choice but to change her lifestyle.

When times got tough Annabel used everything in her frugal tool kit to develop a system that will work for anyone to save money, live well with limited funds, and eventually restore prosperity. Many people are now realizing that more  stuff does not equal more happiness. Let the Frugal Goddess show you how to live frugal, green, and happy!

When I tell people what I do there are several common reactions. Or perhaps they should be called misconceptions. One of the most common is the idea that frugal people live a life of deprivation. In fact the opposite is true. It is the spendthrift that ends up living a life a deprivation, especially in old age when it is too late to do anything about it.

If you look at the very rich, the families that were self-made in this generation were all extremely frugal when they were first amassing their fortunes. And the ones who came by their fortune in a previous generation always have a frugal ancestor. What you give up when you become frugal is not prosperity but immediate gratification. Just think about it—it is almost impossible to amass wealth and amass a pile of unsecured credit at the same time.

But doesn’t that mean that you must suffer a deprived life while you are in the building phase? Not necessarily. You may have to adjust your concept of fun and luxury a bit, but there are lots of ways to make yourself feel good without spending a bundle. All the best things in life may not be free but some of them are. Next time you get the urge to pull out your wallet for some passing fancy, go fly a kite. Hug a kid, or watch the moon rise instead. And think about how spending on something small but unnecessary today will keep you from buying that house or taking that big trip later. No, frugality is not about deprivation at all. It’s about having the patience and discipline to go after what you really want. For more info on The Frugal Goddess, check out www.thefrugalgoddess.com

You may think you are a tight fisted miser because you aren’t playing the lottery or gambling away a lot of money in Vegas. You may not fall for those late night infomercials touting the latest get rich quick scheme in real estate or forex.

As a result, you may not view yourself as all that greedy. But there may be some instances of what seem like reasonable business decisions that in a quest for greater profits may actually be costing you money. Allow me to share with you two examples.

Pricing Rent at Below Market

I own a few rental houses which I plan on being able to provide a retirement income someday. When I was a new landlord, I read several books on the subject of investing in real estate and managing property. One of the best pieces of advice I read was to price the rent at the lower end of the market.

For example, if most houses are renting for $1000 per month in your area, price yours at $950. “But that means less profit to me!” Not really. There are several reasons why it will actually mean more profit.

1. Greater tenant selection: There will be many prospective tenants who see your ad and want to fill out an application. It is much easier to find a decent tenant if you have 20 from which to choose instead of just 2.
2. Quicker turn around: Assume it takes one week to find a tenant for your empty place at $950 versus one month at $1000. That 3 week difference equates to $750 in revenue. At an extra $50 per month, it takes 15 months to make that back. If the tenant moves after one year and you repeat the process, you just lost money, which leads to number 3….
3. Tenant Stability: Tenants are always looking for cheaper rent. If they can’t find it elsewhere, they have no reason to move and you will have little turnover with the costs associated with advertising a vacancy, making repairs, cleaning for the next tenant, etc. I have had several tenants in place for almost 5 years now so I can collect rent consistently month after month.

Making Money with a Blog

Here is another example from my personal experience. I run two blogs, Cash Flow Mantra and Grand Per Month and will be starting a third in April. I do all the writing for Cash Flow Mantra myself but would have no way of doing it for both. So, I have hired some writers to help with about half the content for Grand Per Month.

Even though it cost me money in January, I was able to make a profit with Grand Per Month in only the second month of its existence despite paying for some of the content. That is because of the help that I get managing my private advertising.

I had been using this service and paying a commission for Cash Flow Mantra realizing that I didn’t have the skills or the contacts to bring in any real ad revenue on my own. So rather than be greedy and balk at paying the commission, I figured that 75% of something was more than 100% of nothing. You see, greed could have cost me in the guise of making a business decision. But it didn’t and I have much more profit than I might otherwise.

Do you have examples from your own life that looking back were influenced by your desire for money which may have actually cost you in the end? Any instances where you should have sold that stock but didn’t because you wanted more? Feel free to share in the comments below.