4 Week Meal Plan for Busy People – Save Money and Time!

I mentioned in a previous post that we made a 4 week meal plan to try to save money and simplify our lives. Today I would like to share how we do it, in case you might be interested in trying this for yourself! Continue reading “4 Week Meal Plan for Busy People – Save Money and Time!”

Hello Fresh vs. Good Food Meal Kits Review 2020

Subscription meal kits are ALL THE RAGE these days. I’ve always been someone who enjoys cooking, but doesn’t have sufficient time to do it as well/often as I would like. A friend gave me a free box promo for 2 different services for me to try, and who can say no to free, yummy food?? Continue reading “Hello Fresh vs. Good Food Meal Kits Review 2020”

Cheapo Recipe of the Week review – Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

When I read various blogs/articles/rando Facebook comments on how to save money on your food budget, the same money saving tip just keeps rearing it’s oaty head – oatmeal. Continue reading “Cheapo Recipe of the Week review – Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal”

Writer’s block, and budget recipe of the week

Well friends, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I’m having writer’s block since the holidays. Was it the departure from the routine of regular blogging? Was it the booze that fried my remaining brain cells? Who knows. I just know that I have it now and it’s preventing me from writing anything riveting/purposeful/helpful/productive. To avoid slacking on my delivery of blog posts, here is my budget recipe for the week!  Continue reading “Writer’s block, and budget recipe of the week”

Challenge Your Expenses!

I was listening to an old episode of the Afford Anything podcast, and one of the FI strategies discussed by J Money (blogger of budgetsaresexy.com fame) was CHALLENGE ALL THE EXPENSES! Continue reading “Challenge Your Expenses!”

Inexpensive (and relatively easy) Recipes I’ve tested this week!

When it comes to food budgeting, I have been quite terrible. I don’t look at prices, compare prices, think about budgets AT ALL when roaming through the grocery store. In the last 4 weeks since starting to achieve FIRE (YES, I shall ACHIEVE IT!), all that has changed. I’m now on a mission to cut my grocery budget in half. I’ll try to get a report next month on how well we have done with this!

As an aside, I feel it’s relevant to mention that I’m an AVID lunch-maker and have been for several years. And for good reason! When it comes to eating out for lunch vs. making your lunch, the impact can be significant over time. For a very detailed and mind-blowing report about how eating oatmeal a couple of times a week can make you rich, please read this Money Engineering article all about it.

Here are a couple of very inexpensive recipes I’ve tried over the past week in my quest to reduce the grocery bill (Thus propelling myself ever-so-slightly closer to FIRE). My goal was to “shop”  the freezer and pantry as much as possible to avoid buying groceries before payday. Continue reading “Inexpensive (and relatively easy) Recipes I’ve tested this week!”

The Power of YNAB – A Newbie Review

If you’ve been following along in my FIRE journey, you know that I’ve started the ball rolling by reducing our family expenses. I’ve invested $84 USD to access the budgeting tool at youneedabudget.com (YNAB), since I’ve had a great experience so far with the 34 day trial (currently on day 33). This post is NOT sponsored by YNAB!

The tool itself doesn’t “save you money”. However what it does do is change your mindset. Continue reading “The Power of YNAB – A Newbie Review”

Let’s talk about Food

As I’m sure with the case of many of you, I love food. My family loves food. FOOOD! The result of this is we spend WAY too much on it. Our grocery food budget in past months have been topping out at over $1000 for 2 adults and one child. That doesn’t even count eating out. I joined a youneedabudget.com (YNAB) Facebook group recently to get tips on the tool, and someone posted they were spending $350 on groceries in a month for 4 people (2 children). Ugh. Continue reading “Let’s talk about Food”

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