A different kind of waste

I hear a lot of people saying that fast food is the only alternative for many poor people and how the $1 menu is the only way to afford the calories needed to keep yourself going when you are working with a limited budget.  I almost bought that. I will say that it's EASIER than dealing with buses and the like to get the food and cooking after a long day, but it's not CHEAPER.

image via http://ylakeland.com/food/eating-well-college-budget/

Right now my son, his girlfriend and their kid are staying with us.  Our food budgets are separate and I have noticed how much they eat out.  My youngest did a fairly conservative estimate and guessed that they spend at least $600 a month of food because they get fast food so often.  $10 a meal, twice a day x 30 days.  That does not include the amount they spend on soda and other junk food, but that's a rant for another day.


I found this chart online showing how much the various fast food companies sell each year.  41billion?  that is so so so much money.

Fast food can easily account for a huge percentage of your budget.  I know that when we had all 4 kids at home it was easily $30 for us to eat at a burger joint.  That was a few years ago, I image that it's even higher now.  But all of that money can buy real food. Food that won't leave you feeling hungry or icky.  The grease always gives me the icks.  I don't think anyone should give up anything 100%.  We still eat out sometimes, but not very often.  It's a treat, not a lifestyle.  That's my goal to maintain a healthier, budget and waste (not to mention waist) conscious lifesytle.

Some other interest graphics I found online.   Most are from www.Sparkpeople.com  They have some pretty wonderful resources.

French Toast

Starting my budget meals off with a bang.  The kiddo had a friend over so I got fancy for breakfast with French Toast and fruit.  Worked out to be $1/serving.

I realized it's going to be hard to calculate some things because  if I've had them in the house  won't likely remember how much they cost.  Also milk & coffee are luxury items for me so I don't count them against the budget.  

Milk as a luxury?  Yeah, I prefer the taste of raw milk.  It's WAY WAY WAY more expensive than regular supermarket milk.  It's also something that can be eliminated from the monthly budget if I feel tight that month.

With coffee, it's more complicated.  I'm not going to eliminate it and I'm not going to drink cheap coffee ever.  Maybe it's a necessity, not a luxury.  I do save money by roasting my own beans.  That makes it about 20 cents a serving most of the  time.    That's a big savings over 45cents a cup from the kind I buy when I purchase roasted.  Funny thing even that is cheaper than those darn K-cups which are not not not good coffee (and bad for the environment).  Some people think it's fancy and rave over them, but gag - no.

Coffee is an experience for me.  From roasting to hand grinding to pour over brewing.  I don't take cream or sugar in it very often now.  Good coffee will do that.  You learn to enjoy the taste and don't want to hide it with other stuff.  You can follow my coffee life on one of my other blogs www.krulewich.com  I'm posting my year in coffee there.  On my instagram I post a cup a day from my collection  I love thrift shops and have tons of cups.  Too many.  I'm displaying them this year and as part of my minimizing my life I will keep a select few and sell the rest.  They are almost all vintage cups and as much as I enjoy them - I just don't have the space.  I'll post a link when I get around to that.

Back to budget food:

Lunch is leftovers and dinner will be black beans cooked in stock made from the bones of those hams I bought yesterday.  I boiled them with some peppers and made 3 quarts of stock.  Two will be saved for later and one was used today.  Black beans with a bit of ham and some gf cornbread from a mix I have on hand.  Today's food will come in at around $3 per person.  That's a tiny bit lower than my goal.  Good, because some days will be over a bit.    It's a rough estimate of course.  I'm not sure how to count the ham stock.  Mostly those would be trash, but I was able to get some good eating out of them and turn the stock into several more servings.

Oh well, as long as I only bring in $300 worth of new groceries for the month.

The $300 - planning

$300 a month for groceries is $392 LESS than the USDA says we should spend on a budget meal plan for a family our size.  It's even less than welfare figures - which is $4 a day per person.  I won't do it every month.  I'm going to try to for 3 months and if it doesn't work I will up it to $400 a month.  Still enough for me to save.  My goal is to spend $1.19 per person per meal and BANK $1.19 per person per meal.  That savings will come in handy during my slow season.  Work can be scarce during the winter and this year was tighter than most.  I don't want that kind of stress anymore, so I'm going to try to save 4x as much during the busy season this year.

That money is going to be set aside and not talked about.  Talked about money is vulnerable.  There is ALWAYS some crisis that sucks it up.  It's like the car or appliances know when I have extra money so they take it.  It's going to be my secret.

I have goals for the money.

1.  To have 3 months of income ready for the winter

2.  To have an additional 2 months of income ready for whatever

3.  To pay for the kiddo to take some classes at the community college.

4.  Race entry fees.  We love races and the community at them, but when you pay $30-80 per race per person it adds up!

That's a LOT I know, but my summer income is nearly triple my winter income, and food isn't the only place I am cutting back.  I'm trying to get the whole family in on it.  I know the kid is on board, just have to get the husband motivated!  His weakness is vending machines.  I'm going to assign each of us an allowance, so he can visit the machines SOME, but will know his limits.  

I guess getting my stuff together financially was one of my New Year's Resolutions, even if I didn't realize it a month ago.  :-)

Bubblewrap on the windows

Like anyone who goes online I've seen a LOT of tips for this or that around the home.  One that I've been interested in trying is putting bubblewrap on the windows for extra insulation.  Our house does not have the best windows.  We rent so I have zero interest in replacing them.  I also don't have any interest in higher bills.  Every year I put plastic over the widows for some added insulation but it's a pain.  This year I decided to try the bubble wrap thing.

How Stuff works has breakdown of the R value of adding bublewrap

http://home.howstuffworks.com/green-living/insulate-windows-bubble-wrap.htm



Build It Solar also has a breakdown of the cost savings.  Plus many other wonderful tips that are worth trying.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/bubblewrap.htm

I bought a small amount of bubblewrap and used up what I had on hand from packages I have received.  This project cost me about $16 total.  I'm sure if you ask around you can do it for zero dollars just by finding stores willing to give you left over bubble wrap.

All you need are bubble wrap, some scissors, a ruler and a spray bottle of water.

*important note - water - NOT FREBREEZE.  I didn't have an empty spray bottle and I figured, why not, the Frebreeze is right here.  I had to redo that window because it didnt' stick as well.  Water is cheaper anyway, but I'm impatient and didn't want to wait.  The kid had an empty spray bottle so I was back in business in a couple of hours.  Didn't have to use extra wrap, that was still fine - it just came loose as the frebreeze dried.

Measure the window and then cut the bubble wrap to size.

Spray the window with water

press the bubble wrap to the glass, bubble side down.

easy peasy - you're done.

On my North facing windows I added a second layer.  Same method, just put it on top of the first layer.

Lots of great looking photos on line  - but I'll use the ones I took of my actual windows.  Got a nice blurred effect from the diffused light coming through the wrap.

In the second photo I played around with the expose just to show the bubbles in the bubblewrap.

This was about a million times easier than putting up plastic.

One drawback is that I can't look out and see the birds, but I'll trade that for lower bills this winter.

A HUGE plus is my dog.  One of my dogs is terrified of bubblewrap.  He's also the one most likely to jump up on the door.  Now the can't stay far enough away.  My door frame might stay clean this winter!

So there you have it - an easy, fast way to insulate the windows.  One of those things from Pinterest that actually does work the way people say it does.  (Sometimes I think people on Pinterest just make things up so I'll look stupid when I try them)