Frugality

Does Eating Healthy Have to be Expensive?

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Many people assume that eating healthy has to be expensive.  It is true that many cheap foods are unhealthy.  However, that doesn’t mean all cheap foods are unhealthy and it certainly doesn’t mean that a food is healthy just because it is expensive.   I’ve posted in the past about healthy, frugal foods.  It is certainly possible to eat healthy on a relatively low grocery budget.

One common mistake people make is assuming a food that is generally considered the “healthy option” has more nutritional value than it actually does. For example in a post at The Simple Dollar “Thoughts on a low grocery bill” Trent asked his readers to “compare the cheap pasta sauce and the organic pasta sauce on the nutrition label.” The implication being that the cheap pasta sauce would be less nutritious. I was skeptical that the cheap pasta sauce would be less nutritious since studies have shown that organic food is not more nutritious. I decided to actually compare the nutrition labels of the cheap pasta sauce and the organic pasta sauce.

For the comparison I chose the most expensive jarred pasta sauce at my local grocery store which was Bertolli Organic Traditional. I compared it to the cheapest canned sauce which was the Best Choice brand. Most of the nutrition information was about the same between the two brands. There were small differences in the vitamins and minerals. The organic brand had the following percentages of the USRDA: Vitamin A 10%, Vitamin C 15%, Calcium 0%, Iron 10%. The cheap brands percentages are: Vitamin A 15%, Vitamin C 15%, Calcium 2%, Iron 6%. The cheap brand is at least as nutritious as the organic variety if not slightly more nutritious.

If I were to compare the Best Choice Garden Vegetable variety of pasta sauce to the Bertolli Organic traditional the results are even more in favor of the cheap sauce. The cheap brand has 45% of the USRDA of Vitamin A and 17% of Vitamin C. Considering the cheap brand is $1.09 for 26 oz. and the organic is $4.39 for 24 oz. the cheap brand is a much better value for nutrition.

Also the cheaper Best Choice Organic traditional brand was more nutritious than the Bertolli Organic although still not as nutritious as the non-organic Best Choice Garden Vegetable variety of pasta sauce. After looking at the nutrition labels of some other foods in both organic and non-organic varieties it was clear to me that organic food is not more nutritious. There are other reasons for buying organic but if you are buying organic just for added nutrition you are not getting value for your money and are wasting your money. You don’t have to take my word for it, next time you are at the grocery store compare the labels for yourself.

To help you eat healthy while keeping a low grocery budget here are a couple of links to help you save money while buying natural or organic foods.

How to Save Money Buying Natural Foods from Mint.com blog.

Deciding Which Produce to Buy Organic from WiseBread.

***Although it is possible to eat healthy on a low budget I don’t eat very healthy myself. I’m making it a goal to eat healthy for one month and post everything I eat and how much it cost. It may not be feasible to do that while I’m in Guatemala but I’ll do this as soon as possible.

Gleaning for Food

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The Kansas City Star recently had an article about gleaning. Gleaning as referred to in the article is the process of collecting crops from farmers’ fields that have already been mechanically harvested. It isn’t economically profitable to pick the remaining crops from these fields but using volunteer labor the crops can be harvested for use by charities. The Society of St. Andrew, mentioned in the article, is a leading food recovery organization and has a website at EndHunger.org. I might volunteer for this charity in the future.

Gleaning also has a more general meaning of recovering any food that would otherwise go to waste. Some examples of this on a personal level are sharing food from a bumper garden crop that would otherwise go to waste or allowing someone to pick fruit from your fruit tree that you don’t have the inclination to pick. I have benefited from this type of food gleaning in the past although I didn’t know that was the name for it. If you have the opportunity to glean food for yourself it could be a good way to save some money and prevent food from going to waste.

6 Frugal Living Tips From the Great Depression

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The following is a guest post from Jonathan of Master Your Card.

The Great Depression of 1929 is widely considered to be the worst period in US financial history, and the collapse of the Wall Street stock exchange left millions of ordinary people feeling that they couldn’t trust the banks. To a lesser extent, many of us are experiencing the same type of suspicion and mistrust as far as the banking system goes, not least because some financial experts have predicted that the current recession could be the worst since the Depression.  With this in mind, what can we learn from looking back at the Great Depression?

# 1 – Consider cash instead of credit

We live in a credit-rich society in which many of us think nothing of whipping out the credit card to pay for purchases. Back in the days of the Great Depression, cash was generally the most common means of paying for things. The lack of trust in the banks led many people to hide their cash under the mattress for fear of losing it altogether and credit became a luxury that the majority of people couldn’t afford to use.

While we don’t need to go to these extremes thanks to FDIC protection, turning your back on credit isn’t a bad idea. If you’re struggling to keep your head above water, stick to cash only and forgo the credit cards altogether. This will much reduce your spending as it forces you to think about whether you really need to buy the item(s) in question. If you don’t have the cash available, don’t go through with the purchase. This may mean postponing purchases until the price falls to one that you can actually afford and going out of your way to hunt for bargains (see tip # 2 for more on the latter).

# 2 – Live as frugally as possible

In the Great Depression, frugal living was the norm and people tended to live as cheaply as possible. This was often out of necessity, but it was arguably what enabled them to survive the financial hardship. This is a tip that is useful in any type of economy, but especially so during a recession or depression.

Living frugally doesn’t necessarily mean living like a cheapskate. Frugal shoppers look for the best bargains so that they’re getting the best value for money, just as previous generations did during the Great Depression. Their motto was: if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. The Internet makes it easier to search out bargains as comparison websites can show you the best prices in seconds.

Another aspect of living frugally involves using up what it is already in your house before you buy replacements. This includes fixing broken items whenever possible rather than shelling out to replace them straight away, re-using items if they no longer serve their original purpose but can have other uses, and growing your own fruit and vegetables. If you’re currently struggling to keep your outgoings below your income, living frugally is a necessity to keep your budget down.

# 3 – Work on your emergency funds

If you suddenly lose your job or are hit with unexpected outgoings, you need an emergency fund to fall back on to cover you. If you don’t have one, the chances are high that you’ll fall into debt. It’s recommended that you put at least 10 per cent of your income into savings to act as a cushion if you need to access money quickly. Even in the Great Depression, saving for the future was a regular occurrence as people looked to get themselves out of their often dire situations. The ones who did survive the Great Depression from a financial standpoint tended to be the ones who saved for the rainy days that they knew would come.

# 4 – Get yourself debt-free

In the Depression era, debt was seen as a big no-no and people did all that they could to avoid it. Admittedly, it was easier to do back then as credit wasn’t so popular or as widely available but it’s still a valuable tip. These days, staying out of debt is easier said than done when living costs continue to rise and unemployment is rife.

As many of us are already in debt of one kind or another, looking to consolidate debts together in a debt consolidation loan may be a good option to help you to manage your repayments by lumping them together in one repayment. This is useful if you have multiple debts and are struggling to keep on top of them all.

# 5 – Fix bad credit

While credit wasn’t as widely used during the Great Depression, it still existed as a means of paying for items at a later date and was frequently used to buy luxury goods such as cars. When the markets collapsed and the already fragile US economy began to follow suit, many people found that they simply couldn’t afford to meet the repayments for their credit purchases. If credit scores had existed back then, a lot of people would have been experiencing bad credit.

A poor credit score is bad news at the best of times, but this is even more so in a recession. During times of financial trouble, lenders will make it more difficult to obtain credit and this will hit you hard if you have a low credit score. With the advances in credit since the Great Depression, we have the opportunity to fix bad credit, but how do you go about trying to fix bad credit during a recession if you’re likely to be turned down for credit due to your credit score?

  • Use credit sensibly. Don’t charge more to your credit card(s) than you can afford to pay off each month. You may want to use your card(s) for everyday purchases unless you’ve chosen to follow the advice in tip # 1 and prefer to pay in cash to reduce credit use.
  • Pay bills on time. Late payments will impact on your credit score. On the other hand, making payments on time will show lenders that you’re a responsible credit user.
  • Secured credit cards. If you have bad credit, lenders are unlikely to approve you for unsecured credit but this doesn’t mean that you can’t get credit at all. Secured credit cards require you to open a bank account, and the deposits made into this determine your credit limit. The lower credit limit gives you less opportunity to rack up big debts, but you still need to keep to 30 per cent or less of your available credit limit to avoid lowering your credit score.

The Verdict

The financial habits of previous generations who lived through the hardships of the Great Depression can prove valuable during the current economic crisis. Although times have changed somewhat as far as our spending patterns go, we can still adopt several of the basic ideas that saw them avoid financial ruin.

Eating on $10 a Week

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The following is a guest post from Cindy Brick. Her blog is located at CindyBrick.blogspot.com.

Ever need your money to stretch twice as far on short notice? There are few things you can suddenly cut down to near-nothing – except food. With care, you can live on $10 for a week….or $40 a month, using different sources of protein. You’ll do even better planning for two weeks than one, because your money will go further when you can buy in larger quantities.

Here goes, for two sample weeks. Prices are based on the Denver, CO area.

GROCERIES:

2 pounds carrots 1.00

2 bunches green onions 1.00

2 gallons milk 3.20

2 dozen eggs 2.50

2 loaves bread 3.00

1 jar peanut butter 1.50

1 whole chicken (4 lb) 3.20

1 pound hamburger 1.60

1 pound tofu 1.50

1 pound rice .70

1 pound margarine .60

—————

19.80

I’m assuming you have salt and pepper and at least a few spices. (Garlic, oregano, marjoram, hot sauce, curry powder.) If not, salt and pepper will work just fine. A little sugar helps out, as do ketchup or barbecue sauce, as well as soy sauce and bouillon cubes.

Prep work: Cook the chicken for broth, after cutting off the legs and breast portions; use a BIG pot of water. (Add bouillon cubes, if you’ve got them.) Chop the carrots and green onions; add a triple handful while simmering the broth. (Pick the meat off the chicken bones, and put back into the soup. Split the hamburger into four portions, and the tofu into three.

Breakfasts – toast, eggs, French toast (toast dipped in egg and fried, then sprinkled with sugar), leftovers.

Lunches – any of the supper choices, plus fried egg and peanut butter sandwiches

Suppers – Chicken soup (at least 10 portions)
Chicken breast (2 portions)
Chicken legs (2 portions)
Hamburger (4 portions – cook one with rice for ‘porcupine rice,’ one formed in small meatballs and baked or simmered in chicken soup, one mixed with a torn slice of bread and baked for meatloaf, and one baked or grilled, then served as a sandwich with bread.

Tofu (3 portions) – fry two with veggies and serve with rice, grill or bake one (marinate first in soy sauce, if you’ve got it), add some to chicken broth.

Use the veggies either as a side dish or cooked along with your protein. Any leftover eggs are good simmered in the chicken broth (egg drop soup), or stirred into the rice (fried rice). Use the milk for drinking, or add to the soup for extra protein. (If you’re not big on milk, buy just one gallon, plus a box of tea bags.)

For the next two weeks, try substituting or adding 10 pounds of potatoes ($3.00), beans (.70 a pound – substitute for meat), a jar of spaghetti sauce ($1.60), lettuce or greens ($1), or macaroni (.80 a pound). My daughters swear by ramen noodles (.35), tuna (.80) and noodles (.80 a pound). The key is limiting your portions, adding some ingredients for flavor (like onions, celery and so on), and using every single scrap of food. (I even rinse out jars to get every drop, then add the liquid to broths and sauces.)

A few extra bucks can get you a pack of small candy bars ($1), fresh fruit (keep it to $1.50 a pound or less), and luxuries like coffee!

Most of us have more than ten bucks a week to spend on food. It’s helpful, though, to know you can do it if you have to. For more, try these interesting, if sometimes unimaginative blogs:

http://budgeteating.blogspot.com
http://www.hungryforamonth.blogspot.com

Save Money with Back to School Sales

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One common frugal tip is that you should stock up on an item when it is on sale. Stores are starting to have their back to school sales. This is an excellent time to stock up on school or home office supplies. The large department stores and office supply stores have a variety of merchandise for extremely low prices.

For example, Staples currently has many items free after rebate, Wal-Mart is selling 70 sheet notebooks for .15 cents, and K-Mart is selling Elmer’s glue for .20 cents. That is just a few of the deals available and there will be new ones every week for the next few weeks.

About a decade ago I took advantage of a cheap notebook offer and I haven’t paid for paper yet. During my four years in law school I never purchased any school supplies. I either already had the items needed or was able to get them for free. With a little planning you can stock up on supplies as well and not have to buy them again for years.