http://www.livingonadime.com/stop-cutting-coupons-start-saving/


When it comes to saving money in your household budget, the little things really add up. Look how much you would save in a year if you cut out just ONE thing:

 

ITEM PRICE HOW OFTEN COST PER YEAR
1 bag potato chips $3.00/bag 1 week $156.00
1-6 pack soda $3.00 1/week $156.00
1 liter soda
purchased at convenience store $1.50 1/day $547.50
Reduce meat
1.5 lbs. $3.00/lb. 2 nights/week $468.00/year
1 gourmet coffee $5.00 1/day $1825.00
Eating out
for a family of 4: Dinner $60.00 1/week $3120.00
Lunch $7.00/person 20 days/month $1680.00
Pizza delivered plus tip $20.00 1/ week $1040.00
1 cup juice/person (daily)
family of 4 $10.00/week 1/week $520.00
Fruit leather (Fruit Roll ups) $2.50 1/week $130.00
1 box granola cereal $4.00 1/week $208.00
Total if you cut all these out     $9850.50

As you look at these numbers, consider that they are very conservative cost estimates for the typical American family. If your family is typical, your costs are probably a lot higher. Most people spend more than $7.00 for lunch and $1.50 for a liter soda is a sale price these days. We didn’t even consider things like energy drinks, which often range from $3.50 to $5.00 each and other miscellaneous snacks that most people buy every day.

And as you look at the costs for items like lunch and soda, how many people in your family eat lunch out or grab a soda or coffee every day? Again, our number above are only savings you could have if just one person cut out one soda or coffee. Imagine the savings if everyone in the family scaled back impulsive spending…

1 pack of cigarettes per day in New York State or the UK at $14 per pack.   $5110.00

Two parents who smoke 20 cigarettes per day each, spend more than the total luxuries budget above on smoking alone.

It is not uncommon to see Traditionalists who smoke cigarettes.

As some of you have pointed out, it is very important for a family to eat meals together.  Mealtimes are critical family time, where ideas get shared and personalities get shaped and communication happens.  One way of ensuring that family members show up at the table, and enjoy being there even during those rebellious teen years is to have something attractive on their plate and in their cup.

Growing up my family were by no means rich.  We ate out as a family only once per decade; I can remember both occasions and the state of the tablecloth afterwards.  But we did spend money on nice food at home.  That was a smart choice, because those delicious meals, those Sunday roasts made a huge difference and are the thing I remember with the most joy about my childhood and upbringing, which compared to my peers was happy in all sorts of other ways.

It's great to not waste money but a wise life is a balanced life.  For what it is, and for the effort you would have to go to produce it yourself, nice food on the family dinner table represents incredibly good value for money and alongside modern medicine and antibiotics, flushing toilets and electricity make modern life so comfortable and pleasant.  Our ancestors would marvel at our lives today.  Instead of saving a few hundred dollars per year on cheap cuts of meat (or way less meat and fish) most families would be better off purchasing their non food items online and shopping smart, buying in bulk and clipping coupons.  Hunting for meat makes sense, if you live close to game, inasmuch as deer or elk has a great deal of meat on it and on the few occasions I have eaten it can testify that it does taste very nice and rivals all but the best cuts of farmed meat.

When I go to the supermarket or cash & carry I max out on the heavily discounted items and multibuy deals then keep a stock of them. I know the cost price of everything so know how much profit they are making from me.

In California last week I wondered around Walmart, Safeway and Costco comparing prices to the UK and each other.  A family could reduce its grocery bill by thousands of dollars per year by shopping smarter.  On many products the US supermarket customer is being financially raped.

It also might make more sense to put your energy and thought into how to earn more money and/or give less to the tax man and the banker, rather than trying to save your way to prosperity.

How much income are people missing out on by convincing themselves that they are not capable or that the modern workplace is so ungodly that their soul would be lost if they got a job or sort a promotion?  Moving from 50,000 per year to 65,000 is within the reach of many people if they think and act smart.  Not everyone, for sure, but many.
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Americans spend about $34 billion annually on alternative medicine, according to the first national estimate of such out-of-pocket spending in more than a decade.

That is over $100 per year per man woman and child on stuff that shows no objective evidence of working in double blind clinical tests.

And more is spent every year on cosmetics than on education. Great teeth, glowing skin, but thick as two short planks.

Finally, if you think married life is expensive, try getting divorced.

Anything processed even slightly, appeared very expensive.  Dips, potato salads, cheese slices, etc.  Cheddar cheese was outrageous.  Only in Costco, and only when you bought 2.5 kgs at a time did Cheddar approach the UK price of around £5 per kilo.  The cheapest Apples (red) worked out at 66 cents each in Safeway.  Here better apples like Braeburn and Pink Lady cost 40 cents each.  I bought avocados instead for the same price per item.  In the Uk avocados are between 75 cents and 1 dollar 20 each.  But avocados cannot be grown in the EU on a commercial basis as far as I am aware.  In CA they grow locally.

Fresh salmon (farmed) in Costco was 23 dollars for a fillet weighing just over 1 kg.  In the UK I can buy smoked salmon for 16 dollars for 1kg.  One would expect to pay more for smoked salmon than fresh, since more work goes into producing it.

Steak was only the same price in Costco.  Everywhere else 20 percent to 40 percent more expensive.  Not directly comparable either because our beef is grass fed.  I bought 24 lamb chops recent at Smithfield market in London for $3.25 per lb, nothing in the US came remotely near that price.

Supermarket milk here either 1, 2 or 4 % fat, costs 1.60 for 2.3 litres which works out at 2.50 USD per US gallon.  The average US price for a gallon of milk is 3.50.

Also, for the longest time, I have noticed that everything is x dollars 99 cents even for items costing under 5 dollars.  Very rarely is something 77cents or 1 dollar 14 cents.  This implies that supermarkets understand that Americans are very shallow in their thinking and can only think in round dollar figures.  It is a great way of ripping people off because on sub five dollar items, which most people's baskets contain most of the time, 30 cents of extra profit is made per item.

It's even more crazy when you buy an item and hand them the right number of paper dollars then get a hand full of annoying metal coins back because they add taxes on.

Same thing when hiring a car.  By the time I had finished with taxes, fees, prepaid tolls, take full return empty and all the other necessary add ons and BS the prices to hire the car had nearly doubled from the booking I made on line.  And I did not add anything extra like additional insurances or breakdown cover or any of that other crap.

Dollar even tried to rent me a Sat Nav system for the week for 121 dollars.  I bought one in Best Buy for 99 bucks and can use it on future trips.

When a Dime was 90 percent silver and bought a whole lot more.
That all ended in 1965.
This Dime past through many hands until it was captured sometime
after 1964.

When a Dime was 90 percent silver and bought a whole lot more.
That all ended in 1965.
This Dime past through many hands until it was captured sometime
after 1964.

Alot of things changed after 1965....

 :ready-to-eat:
So is beaver and possum!  I wouldn't eat track-rabbit unless starving!  The MTA has poured tons of poison in the subway over the decades, and they've developed an amazing tolerance to it. (A track-rabbit is also known as a "crat,"  a subway rat as large as a cat!)

Monster rats and occasionally alligators in subway...

Quote from: RomanCatholic1953

When a Dime was 90 percent silver and bought a whole lot more.
That all ended in 1965.
This Dime past through many hands until it was captured sometime
after 1964.

Alot of things changed after 1965....

Boy I remember. Everything went upside down, and still is upside
down.