Yup. Inflation sucks. The best way to combat it is to avoid patronizing business that inflate their prices unnecessarily. This accomplishes four things: it reduces your costs considerably, it increases the quality you receive, it improves your ability to do things like cook and repair, and it punishes the companies that jack up their prices when they don't really need to. For this reason, I'm creating this thread for all of us to share ideas and solutions for reducing costs.
I buy a Costco rotisserie chicken for $5, take it home, and remove all the meat from it. It provides around 4 cups of delicious, cooked white and dark meat. I freeze the meat in 2-cup sections in zip-top bags. One of the meals I make is homemade chicken pot pie using this recipe, but with some revisions: instead of cooking the raw chicken, I use two cups of the defrosted rotisserie chicken meat, and I use about 1/4 cup of frozen peas & carrots. I make the dough with this recipe, using butter. The result is super delicious and low cost. Nowadays, when we eat at a restaurant, we think, "This food is okay, but the food at home is better... and the prices here are way jacked up". That's how it should be. This is the way.
I buy shrimp at Sam's Club at $18 for a three pound back. When I get home, I separate it into three bags of 1 lb each and keep 'em in the freezer. For lunch, I defrost a back, prep the shrimp with this recipe, and then grill 'em. Delicious, healthy, low-cost shrimp lunch that's loaded with a ton of protein.
I buy ground beef 88% lean at Costco, separate it into 1 lb. batches, and freeze them. I defrost them to cook homemade tacos or burgers.
Don't spend so much money. Spend what you can afford. Spend what you want to. Then spend a bit less. Then quit b****ing about it.
Get a slower internet the next time your contract expires. I bet you won't notice a difference. If you do, your cable company will be happy to bump you back up to the same tier you were before; they'll never penalize you for upgrading. Cut cable. Only get D+ or lesser-used streamers when you have a few shows in there you want to watch. Do your own yard work. Plan out meals a week in advance (I'm bad at this). Don't buy random ass snacks for yourself or your kids. Drive conservatively. Don't get alcohol when at restaurants.
Chicken quarters at my local walmart are 10lbs for $5. After accounting for bones and cooking, that's under a dollar a lb. That and beans are most of my protein.... Very little beef. When I get sick of chicken I'll splurge on shrimp and make a big gumbo or etouffee as a little shrimp makes many meals. Stay home or visit friends/family. It's almost impossible to be out and about without spending money. Don't carry a balance if you don't have to, don't hang on to cash you don't have to.... find a money market or high interest savings account. Plenty of online tools to sort that out. Oh and check your tv/internet/phone bill if you haven't looked in a while.... It's probably gone up, and you prob don't need everything you're paying for. Oh, and my solar stuff is inching towards $300 a month in savings with heavy ac usage. It's almost disappointing that I'm paying such a low rate, it'd make my solar look better if I was paying more than eleven cents a kwh.
Cheddars and Texas Roadhouse seem to be the only ones that kept the same prices. Mexican restaurants have gotten too expensive.
I've been doing some meal prep the last couple of weeks instead of eating out for lunch. Turning the thermostat up just a notch once the sun finally goes down. City has introduced "stage 2" drought plan, so will be watering less. I've switched to pretty much only watering garden plants and trees. Biggest spend of all - I showed the wifey how much she spends and told her to stop!
I listen to audiobooks a lot. Using the Libby app with a library membership has trimmed that cost. I only have Fubo during the baseball season. Restaurants are expensive (especially alcohol). Cutting that down has helped us and when we do, we've done pick up more frequently to save on drink costs. Though the heat has hurt our ability to eat take out on the patio.
1) Vote republican 2) Sale based grocery lists - I purchase the select meats and produce that are on special on the weekly circular and plan meals around that. I rarely go outside of what is on sale 3) Restaurant rule - we only go out for food that we cannot make at home. If we can make it home, we won't go out to eat it. Basically, we mostly now only go out for the Asian cuisine (Thai, Sichuan) that I do not know how to make. 4) See #1 Gas and electricity we're all just effed. Biden's America.
You know this isn't the BBS D&D, so not sure why you have to bring your politics to the discussion. You are welcomed to start your own thread at the D&D to discuss this topic.
-Shop at places like Aldi/Lidl -Buy generic brands (I swear more than half the time they're better than the original) -Whenever you need something try to source it from friends, neighbors, thrift stores, or "buy nothing" facebook groups -Use financial tools/software to track your expenses and identify the problematic ones -Before calling an expert see if there's a Youtube tutorial that might fix your problem -Do all your own labor (lawn, cleaning, etc) People who view the entire world through the lens of partisan politics die angry and die early. It has to be exhausting. Woof.
Do this and you'll thank me later.................when at a restaurant, just order the mixer, have the wife tote a bottle in her purse, when the waiter isn't looking take said bottle out and fill up the mixer with your fav spirit..............just saved ya 10 bucks, your welcome For real, some good points in this thread, I am the worst at meal prep and I have to do better, eating out at lunch used to be $5-8 bucks and now you have Panera charging $12 bucks for a friggin tuna sandwich. Heck, even Wendys is $10 bucks for a simple #1............my fav lunch place "brown bag" on 290 is now a special treat with a normal sandwich, chips and a coke for $18.00
